Chapter 700: It's Over! Utterly Finished!
"Damn it, this time Shen Anyu has stolen all the thunder. The Dragon King Society will surely flourish even more in the future. How can my Yunhu Association resist? Young Sect Leader, oh Young Sect Leader, where on earth have you gone?"
Zhou Yunhu's face was gloomy, and his heart was filled with worry. Earlier, outside the Hilton Hotel, he was also shocked by Shen Anyu's terrifying strength. He bowed his head and cupped his hands, fearing that Shen Anyu would attack him.
Now that he had come to his senses, Zhou Yunhu felt that he could only seek help from the Tianshi Sect, but the Tianshi Sect had told him to look for traces of Young Sect Leader Zhang Zhiyun, which left Zhou Yunhu helpless.
After all, in front of an extraordinary millennium-old power like the Tianshi Sect, the Yunhu Association was not worth mentioning. They placed more importance on Young Sect Leader Zhang Zhiyun, the future successor.
It was just that.
Where exactly did Young Sect Leader Zhang Zhiyun go?
"Are you looking for me?"
Just then, a cold voice, devoid of all warmth, suddenly rang out from behind him.
It was close. Far too close.
A jolt of pure adrenaline shot through Zhou Yunhu's body, his blood turning to ice. He was an Artificer True Person, a master of spiritual sense and perception, a powerhouse who could detect a mosquito's wingbeat from a hundred meters away. Yet someone had materialized behind him, their voice practically brushing against his ear, without triggering a single one of his honed senses. If they had come with a blade instead of a word, his head would already be rolling on the floor. The thought sent a violent tremor down his spine.
He whipped around, his Qi flaring defensively, his entire being coiled like a spring ready to unleash hell.
However, the moment his eyes locked onto the figure standing in the shadows, the tension in his shoulders instantly dissolved, replaced by a wave of profound relief. His grim expression melted away, blooming into a look of sheer, unadulterated surprise and joy.
"Young Sect Leader! You're finally back!" Zhou Yunhu's voice was thick with emotion as he rushed forward. "Old Zhou here has been so anxious lately that I couldn't even eat, searching everywhere for you. My hair's turning white from the stress! Now that you're finally back, I can give an explanation to the Sect Leader!"
While his words gushed out, a part of Zhou Yunhu's mind remained sharp, stealthily observing the man before him. What he saw made his heart hammer against his ribs. The Zhang Zhiyun standing before him was a complete stranger. The prideful, somewhat arrogant, but fundamentally righteous disciple of the Tianshi Sect was gone. In his place stood something… else.
His aura was a physical force, a suffocating pressure that seemed to suck the very air from the room. It was a terrifying, almost tangible presence, like standing at the precipice of an active volcano, feeling the world-ending power rumbling just beneath a thin crust of earth. It was the aura of a primordial demon god crammed into the fragile shell of a human, a being of pure, destructive potential.
But it was his eyes that truly terrified Zhou Yunhu. They were no longer human. They were twin pools of liquid scarlet, churning with a malevolent, bloodthirsty energy that was evident. A thick, almost visible miasma of malice swirled within them, promising pain and annihilation.
Zhou Yunhu was no saint. As a kingpin of the underground world, he had more blood on his hands than he could count. He had stared down murderers, psychopaths, and monsters. But the sheer, unadulterated evil radiating from Zhang Zhiyun's gaze made the veteran killer's soul tremble. This wasn't the killing intent of a man; it was the predatory hunger of an abyss that wanted to swallow the world.
A core tenet of the Tianshi Sect, a sacred pillar of Taoism for a thousand years, was the cultivation of pure Yang energy and the vanquishing of evil. So why… why did their designated successor, their Young Sect Leader, radiate a malevolent energy so dense it could curdle blood?
Suddenly, Zhou Yunhu's perception pierced through the veil of demonic Qi, and his expression shifted from shock to utter disbelief. His eyes widened, his jaw slack.
"Young Sect Leader," he stammered, his voice cracking with awe, "you… you've broken through to the Tianshi Stage?"
"Mm." Zhang Zhiyun's nod was barely perceptible, his expression a mask of detached indifference. The confirmation was delivered with the same chilling apathy as his greeting.
'Of course, I broke through,' Zhang Zhiyun thought, a cold flicker of triumph in his mind. The Yin Corpse Devil Swordplay was a forbidden art for a reason. Its power was seductive, its progression blindingly fast. After absorbing its secrets, his strength hadn't just advanced by leaps and bounds; it had exploded. He had torn through the bottleneck to the Tianshi Stage as if it were wet paper. The demonic energy continued to surge within him, a ravenous tide that had already propelled him to the late Tianshi Stage. At this moment, he felt an unshakeable confidence that he could stand against a Land Immortal and not just survive, but fight.
He was keenly aware of the price. The Demonic Path's shortcuts came with monstrous flaws—a corrosive effect on his mind, a thirst for blood that was becoming harder to ignore. But the sheer, intoxicating speed of his ascension was a drug he couldn't refuse.
And this was only the beginning. The Yin Corpse Devil Sword Embryo pulsed within him, a seed of ultimate destruction. If he were to unsheathe it, to fully merge with its power and refine its demonic essence… Zhang Zhiyun was certain that slaying a Land Immortal would be as effortless as crushing an insect.
"As expected of the Young Sect Leader!" Zhou Yunhu's voice boomed, his previous fear forgotten and replaced by a surge of jubilant pride. This was the news he had been praying for! "A Tianshi in his early twenties! You are, without a doubt, the most outstanding successor the Tianshi Sect has produced in a thousand years! You're not at all inferior to that Young Master of Yanxia's Shen Clan, Shen Anyu—no, you must be even stronger!"
Zhou Yunhu was overjoyed, his heart soaring. The Tianshi Sect was his mountain, his ultimate backer. With the sect growing stronger, with a peerless genius like Zhang Zhiyun as the future Sect Leader supporting him, what was there to fear from the Dragon King Society? What was there to fear from Shen Anyu?
"Shen Anyu?"
The name, spoken with Zhang Zhiyun's chilling voice, acted like a key turning a lock on a cage of horrors. The scarlet light in his eyes instantly intensified, blazing with the heat of a blood-red sun. A terrifying aura, far more potent than before, erupted from his body. It was a wave of pure, concentrated hatred that washed over the room, and the ambient temperature plummeted. Frost began to spiderweb across the windowpanes, and Zhou Yunhu's own breath plumed in front of his face as if it were the dead of winter.
Zhou Yunhu's eyelids twitched wildly. His heart, which had just been soaring, constricted painfully in his chest. He felt as if a giant, icy hand had wrapped around it and squeezed.
He knew, of course, the source of this violent reaction. Shen Anyu had not only stolen Zhang Zhiyun's fiancée, Ji Xiaolin, but was also intimately involved with Zhang Yaqian. The enmity between them wasn't just deep; it was a bottomless abyss of humiliation and hatred.
Not daring to delay, Zhou Yunhu quickly explained, his words tumbling out in a rush, "Young Sect Leader, last night at the banquet held by Yanxia's Yu Clan, Shen Anyu and Ling Qingcheng caused an unimaginable commotion. He… he instantly killed Qin Haitian, the undisputed strongest expert in Hangzhou, a master at the late Heavenly Human stage, with a single, effortless move. He completely overshadowed Yanxia's Yu Clan. All the prominent figures and underground bigwigs present, myself included, bowed before his might."
Zhou Yunhu paused, his voice filled with renewed hope. "Fortunately, Young Sect Leader has returned."
"With the Young Sect Leader here, there is hope for the future."
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun is shocked, plundering +9997 destiny value!]
"Shen Anyu killed Qin Haitian with one move? Without anyone else's help?"
The mask of cold indifference on Zhang Zhiyun's face finally cracked. The revelation shattered his composure, and he stared at Zhou Yunhu, a storm of disbelief brewing in his blood-red eyes.
In his mind, Shen Anyu was nothing more than a degenerate playboy, a silk-panted young master who coasted on his family's immense background and the protection of two unfathomably powerful women, Bai Bing and Wu Shenyun. He was a parasite, a leech. The idea that such a man possessed the personal strength to obliterate a late-stage Heavenly Human expert with a single strike was absurd. It was impossible.
"Yes," Zhou Yunhu affirmed, his voice grave. "Old Zhou saw it with his own eyes. There was no one else helping him. It was his power and his alone."
Zhang Zhiyun's face became a thundercloud of gloom.
The implications of that statement struck him with the force of a physical blow. A horrifying memory replayed in his mind. Jinxiu Mountain Villa. Villa No. 1. The crushing pressure, the bone-deep humiliation of being forced to his knees…
He had told himself it was Wu Shenyun. He had rationalized it, convincing himself that Shen Anyu had borrowed her power to defeat him. It was the only way to salvage his shattered pride.
But if Shen Anyu could kill Qin Haitian on his own… then that meant… it wasn't Wu Shenyun's power that day. It was Shen Anyu's. Shen Anyu, with his own strength, had suppressed him, humiliated him, and forced him to kneel like a dog.
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun's humiliation doubles, plundering +9999 destiny value!]
[Ding! Child of Destiny Zhang Zhiyun's mind is shaken, plundering +9999 destiny value!]
…
"Hmph! I am no longer the person I used to be!"
Zhang Zhiyun snapped back to his senses, letting out a cold, sharp snort. The demonic Qi within him roiled, soothing the sting to his ego with its promise of power. Now that he had cultivated the Yin Corpse Devil Swordplay, his strength had skyrocketed. He was no longer the man who had knelt at that villa.
'Qin Haitian? I could also kill him with a single move now,' he thought, a grim certainty solidifying in his heart.
However, even as he regained his composure, a hint of solemnity flashed in his eyes. He wasn't a fool. Shen Anyu's strength was extraordinary, a fact he could no longer deny. And on top of that, he still had the backing of those two terrifyingly powerful women, Bai Bing and Wu Shenyun.
He had to be stronger. Not just strong. Unstoppable.
The hatred of having his fiancée stolen, of having the woman he loved snatched away—this debt had to be paid in blood!
A clear, dark path formed in his mind. He would find the descendants of Immortal Master Si. He would hunt them down, plunder their essence blood, and use it to suppress the demonic consciousness swirling within the Yin Corpse Devil Sword Embryo. Then, he would truly wield the power of that terrifying demonic weapon, making it an extension of his own will.
By then… what Shen Anyu? What Wu Shenyun and Bai Bing? Before the might of the Yin Corpse Devil Sword, they would be nothing more than chickens and dogs, ready for the slaughter!
With the Yin Corpse Devil Sword, everything would be set right. Everything would get better.
Shen Anyu would die a dog's death. Yanxia's Shen Clan would be annihilated, wiped from the face of the earth. And Ji Xiaolin and Zhang Yaqian… they would return to his side, where they belonged.
A vision of that future filled Zhang Zhiyun's mind, and he was consumed by ambition and soaring spirits.
"Young Sect Leader, if the good news of your breakthrough to the Tianshi Stage reaches the Tianshi Sect, the Sect Leader and the others will surely be overjoyed," Zhou Yunhu muttered, eager to move on from the suffocating topic of Shen Anyu.
Zhang Zhiyun interrupted him, his face a cold mask once more. "For now, I won't return to the Tianshi Sect. Prepare a private jet."
"Yes!" Zhou Yunhu looked at Zhang Zhiyun's cold, unyielding expression and didn't dare to delay or ask a single question. He simply obeyed.
Subsequently, Zhang Zhiyun and Zhou Yunhu boarded a private jet and headed southeast.
That was the direction indicated by the Blood Curse Talisman.
'The Yanxia Yu Family is finished, completely barbecued and trussed up.'
Shen Anyu watched this scene with a smile. At this moment, he had already returned to the penthouse where Ling Qingcheng resided.
He had placed a Super-Nanometer Monitoring Robot on Zhang Zhiyun, which was more sophisticated than ordinary nanometer monitoring robots. Even a Land Immortal couldn't detect it, and the spiritual sense of a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator would find it difficult to discover.
Afterward, Shen Anyu embraced President Ling Qingcheng's soft body and blissfully slept neck to neck.
Dirty and tiring work like killing and exterminating families was left to others.
And Young Master Shen was solely responsible for sleeping with beauties and enjoying his daily life.
While Young Master Shen was blissfully enjoying his deep sleep.
The news of the Yu Family banquet quickly spread, causing a huge stir.
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