My little sect, which disappeared a thousand years ago, has become a sacred site!

"Beast King Valley..." Yun Qinglan's hand holding the sword trembled slightly, and a bloody gash appeared at the base of her thumb, with blood flowing down the hilt of the sword.

She gritted her teeth and glared at the two groups of people in front of her, her voice hoarse from exhaustion, "How dare you attack my Yun family!"

The leading, red-armored burly man—"Red Wolf," the deputy hall master of the Beast Taming Hall of the Crimson Cloud Sect—sneered:

"Yun Qinglan, blame yourself for taking what you shouldn't have. Today, this 'Mist-Hidden Forest' will be your burial ground!"

"Miss Yun."

"The one-eyed old man said in a sinister tone."

"Hand over the Heavenly Star Jade Marrow, and I'll let you die a quicker death."

Upon hearing these four words, Yun Qinglan's face turned deathly pale, and the knuckles gripping the sword hilt turned white.

This Heavenly Star Jade Marrow was obtained by the Yun family through a mysterious intelligence dealer after spending countless resources and pulling strings at multiple levels.

The Yun family has been stuck at the Nascent Soul stage for many years, with no one able to break through to the Divine Transformation stage. They are all hoping that the Heavenly Star Jade Marrow can cultivate a Divine Transformation expert, allowing the Yun family to take another step forward.

The family kept this matter extremely secret, fearing that even the slightest leak would attract the covetous eyes of other forces.

Little did they know that the intelligence dealer had not only sold the information to the Yun family, but also to their Chixiao Sect.

"Scarlet Sky Sect!"

Yun Qinglan suddenly looked at the one-eyed old man, her eyes filled with shock and anger.

"Aren't you afraid of the retaliation from the entire Yun family in the future, given how you've acted?!"

The old man with the ghostly eyes laughed loudly, his laughter filled with sarcasm:

"Kill you all, destroy the evidence, and even if the Yun family wants to investigate, it will take them a short time. Once I obtain the Heavenly Star Jade Marrow and go into seclusion to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm... what can your Yun family do to me?!"

A greedy glint shone in his single eye.

He had reached the Nascent Soul stage and had been stuck at this level for forty-seven years. He had less than a hundred years left to live, and if he couldn't break through, he would only turn into dust.

So when the intelligence merchant sold the information about "Heavenly Star Jade Marrow" to both the Yun family and Beast King Valley, he decided almost without hesitation to snatch it!

The reason he dared to gamble was because, after observing for some time, he discovered that the Yun family was extremely secretive about the Heavenly Star Jade Marrow and had never dared to make a fuss about it from beginning to end.

He was certain that the Yun family, for the sake of secrecy, would not send a powerful escort, but would only send an inconspicuous person to retrieve it quietly.

The Yun family actually only sent Yun Qinglan, a young lady at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, along with a group of ordinary guards. There wasn't even a single Nascent Soul realm expert among them.

That's incredibly stupid!

What's even more ridiculous is that this group of people actually believed that summoning the tokens of powerful family members would work.

But he had already set up an isolation array, so not only would the summoning token have any effect, but even a mosquito wouldn't be able to fly out of this Misty Forest.

"Alright, I'm not going to waste any more words with you." A murderous glint flashed in the old man's eyes.

"Since we share the same goal, then—"

He slammed his cane against the ground.

"Thump!"

The dull thud felt like it was striking everyone's heart.

Thick black energy surged from the eye sockets of the skull at the end of the staff. The black energy writhed and expanded as if it were alive, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a black wave that swept towards the Yun family.

The burly man in red armor nodded and blew his beast flute.

"Awooo—!"

The three-headed red wolf pounced first, its speed as fast as lightning, its sharp claws tearing through the air as it charged straight at the Yun family guards.

"Form ranks!"

The middle-aged guard roared.

The remaining guards gritted their teeth and channeled their spiritual power, creating a pale golden light shield around themselves.

However, the light shield shook violently under the combined attack of the spirit beast and the chains, and could shatter at any moment.

Yun Qinglan gritted her teeth, pressed her tongue against her teeth, and was about to bite her tongue to unleash the Yun family's secret blood-burning technique.

This method can instantly raise one's cultivation level by one minor realm, but the price is the loss of three years' worth of cultivation and damage to one's foundation.

Just as she was preparing to fight to the death—

"despair."

A soft sound.

It was very light, almost drowned out by the sounds of fighting.

But Yun Qinglan heard it clearly.

Because she saw that at the top of the pale golden light shield—where there should have been nothing—a foot had appeared out of nowhere.

The owner of the feet stood steadily on the light barrier, as if it were not a barrier formed by spiritual energy, but a solid stone floor.

The light shield didn't even ripple, as if the person's weight didn't exist at all.

Yun Qinglan was stunned.

All the guards were stunned.

Even the burly man in red armor and the old man with ghost eyes were stunned.

Because none of them noticed when this person appeared.

There were no fluctuations in spiritual energy, no spatial fluctuations, and not even a wisp of wind.

It was as if he had been standing there all along, but everyone had only just noticed him.

He was a young man dressed in a black robe, with his black hair casually tied back. He had a handsome face and calm eyes.

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at the scene below, as if he were watching a trivial farce.

The old man with the ghostly eyes was the first to react, and shouted sternly:

"Who are you?! This is an operation between the Crimson Cloud Sect and the Beast King Valley. All irrelevant personnel must leave immediately, or else—"

"Kneel down."

Gu Changyuan spoke.

He only said two words.

The voice wasn't loud, it could even be described as gentle. But the moment those two words were uttered, the world seemed to freeze.

"boom--!!!"

The moment he finished speaking, an extremely terrifying pressure suddenly erupted from Gu Changyuan, like a towering building collapsing, instantly enveloping the surroundings.

The people from the Crimson Cloud Sect and Beast King Valley didn't even have a chance to react before being slammed to the ground by this oppressive force.

As the word "kneel" was uttered, the skull cane in the old man's hand cracked with a "crack".

Incredible terror surged in that single eye. He tried to resist, to circulate his spiritual power, but his body simply wouldn't obey him.

A groan came from his knee, the bone unable to bear the weight.

"Bang!"

Ghost Eyes slammed his knees into the ground, creating two deep craters.

He was pinned to the ground, his face pressed against the dirt, unable to even lift his head.

Within a radius of a hundred feet, except for the light barrier where the Yun family members were located, all living things—whether human or beast—knelt on the ground!

silence.

A deathly silence.

The wind rustled through the trees.

But no one dared to make a sound, and they even breathed very carefully.

Yun Qinglan and her guards were stunned.

They stared blankly at the enemies kneeling on the ground outside the light barrier, and at the young man in black robes still standing on the barrier.

What happened?

What did this person say?

"Kneel down?"

And then... everyone knelt down?

There was no struggle, no room for resistance, just like... just like a king giving an order, and his subjects had no choice but to obey.

The next second, Gu Changyuan took a step forward.

Without using any spiritual energy fluctuations, his figure instantly traversed several meters from the top of the light barrier and landed steadily on the ground.

"No--!"

The one-eyed old man let out a desperate scream, but before he could finish speaking, he exploded with a "bang" and turned into a cloud of blood mist.

The rest of the people also exploded one after another under this oppressive force, their bodies filled with blood mist.

Only bloodstains remained on the open ground, and...

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—"

More than twenty streaks of light flew up from the blood mist; those were the storage bags and storage rings that these people carried with them.

They seemed to have gained sentience, tracing arcs in the air before flying neatly to Gu Changyuan and hovering in a row.

Gu Changyuan glanced at it casually.

With a sweep of divine sense, everything in the storage space was laid bare.

He frowned slightly, and with a casual wave of his hand, he threw those storage bags into his storage space like trash.

He had amassed countless treasures in the Ruins of Chaos over the millennia, and in his eyes, these things were no different from pebbles on the roadside.