Gongsun Ang hung up the phone, the busy tone still echoing in his ears.
He gripped his phone, looking a bit dazed.
Wait, who the hell are you, buddy?
And what kind of deity is this Lin Mo?
And the Situ family? What is all this nonsense?
A series of question marks swirled in his mind, making his temples throb. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and his fingertip quickly swiped through his contacts, finally stopping on a name saved as Brother Dong.
He dialed the number.
"Hello, Young Master Ang, you're still awake this late?" The voice on the other end carried a hint of teasing, sounding like he was in a good mood.
Gongsun Ang was in no mood for jokes. He cut straight to the chase, "Brother Dong, I need to ask you something. Did something happen to the Situ family over in eastern Guangdong?"
The voice on the other end instantly deepened, followed by a few seconds of silence.
"Word travels fast with you."
That tone wasn't right. Gongsun Ang's heart skipped a beat, a bad premonition washing over him.
"What exactly happened?"
Brother Dong sighed on the other end of the line, lowering his voice to a whisper. "The Situ family is gone. The entire household, down to the last chicken and dog, wiped out."
"Exterminated?!"
Gongsun Ang's voice suddenly pitched up. That word felt like a heavy hammer slamming into his chest, making his scalp tingle with shock.
That was a hidden martial arts family!
This left Gongsun Ang completely dumbfounded.
What kind of sick joke was this?!
"I... I've been out of town these past two days, so I'm out of the loop. Brother Dong, what exactly happened? Who did it?" Gongsun Ang's breathing quickened.
"This matter is currently an internal secret. Technically, I shouldn't disclose it." Brother Dong paused before changing his tune, "However, your Gongsun family and our Yanhuang Awakening have always had a pleasant cooperation in the Bamin region, so giving you a heads-up won't hurt."
"According to the on-site investigation and intelligence analysis, the report from over there states that the old patriarch of the Situ family, Situ Aoshi, absorbed the lifeblood of his entire clan to break through to the Heavenly Realm, and was ultimately killed."
Broke through to the Heavenly Realm?!
And he was killed?!
"Who is that formidable? To think there's someone that powerful over in Yangcheng?!"
"As for the specific person who took action, the report names a consultant from Yanhuang Awakening called Lin Mo. By the time the local branch took over, the Situ family compound was already reduced to ruins."
The information Brother Dong knew actually came from Liu Zheng's report.
Many details had been erased, but at first glance, it seemed reasonable enough.
"Brother Dong, I want to ask... that report saying the old patriarch of the Situ family broke through to the Heavenly Realm... did he actually succeed?"
"According to the account of the person involved, Lin Mo, Situ Aoshi was able to hover in the sky, so it can be analyzed that he had indeed broken through to the Heavenly Realm."
He had already broken through to the Heavenly Realm!
These words made Gongsun Ang's heart suddenly contract, as if gripped by an invisible giant hand.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on his back.
Within the hidden sects, how many years had it been since a true Heavenly Realm expert appeared? A hundred years? Or two hundred?
Others might not know, but how could he, Gongsun Ang, not be clear about it?
Even the prodigy of their Gongsun family, hailed as a once-in-a-century genius and the most hopeful to touch that threshold, had consumed a massive amount of the family's resources and was still only the "most hopeful" to break through.
On what grounds did that old geezer Situ Aoshi achieve it?
Gongsun Ang's first thought was disbelief. It was absolutely impossible!
"Brother Dong, is this report... reliable? Did Situ Aoshi really have that kind of capability?"
"The report was sent directly from Yangcheng. The headquarters and other hidden martial arts families will also send people to verify it. Do you think the Yangcheng branch would dare to fake it?" Brother Dong retorted.
Gongsun Ang understood instantly.
That meant the Situ family was truly exterminated.
But whether he was a true Heavenly Realm expert or a quasi-Heavenly one, Situ Aoshi's strength was definitely not weak, especially after sacrificing his entire clan.
Most likely, that old man had touched the threshold of the Heavenly Realm, thought himself invincible in the world, and ended up provoking someone he shouldn't have.
A person capable of wiping out a quasi-Heavenly expert and the entire Situ family...
The inexplicable phone call and that unfamiliar name flashed violently through Gongsun Ang's mind.
Lin Mo.
A jolt of electricity shot up from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head.
That phone call wasn't a baseless threat; it was a very real warning.
A naked warning reeking of blood!
The other party knew his identity, knew he would seek verification from Yanhuang Awakening, and knew even better that all he would get was a report about the Situ family.
But why warn their Gongsun family?!
A chill rushed from the soles of his feet straight to his forehead, leaving Gongsun Ang's hands and feet ice-cold.
This matter had far exceeded the scope of what he could handle.
He had to return to his family immediately, right this instant!
System: Hurry up and go, otherwise your family will be exterminated too.
At this very moment, inside the school.
Jiang Yunlu was walking toward the school exit, followed by Xie Yuling, who was heading home for a meal.
The two were separated by a distance of about three steps.
Just as she reached the school gate, Jiang Yunlu saw the person standing next to a Bentley.
Situ Yunshu was wearing an elegant long dress, her aura outstanding. She spotted her daughter in the crowd at a glance. The coldness in her eyes instantly melted, and she waved at Jiang Yunlu.
"Nannan!"
That single call made Jiang Yunlu's footsteps come to an abrupt halt.
For so many years, she had wished her mother could pick her up from school. Even though they had met and hugged last night, she still couldn't help but tear up right now.
The next second, disregarding everything else, she broke into a run and threw herself forward like a baby swallow returning to its nest.
Trailing behind, Xie Yuling paused for a moment. She took a couple of extra glances at Situ Yunshu, and then headed straight home without looking back.
As a martial artist, Situ Yunshu noticed this immediately.
She embraced the daughter who threw herself into her arms, gently patting her back, but her gaze shifted toward the direction where the high ponytail had disappeared.
"Nannan, do you know that girl who was walking behind you just now?"
Jiang Yunlu lifted her head from her mother's warm embrace and followed her gaze, only managing to catch a glimpse of a ponytail faintly visible in the crowd.
She pursed her lips, her voice a bit muffled.
"She is Lin Mo's landlady, named Xie Yuling." She paused and added, "Probably another person being kept in the dark by Lin Mo."
Situ Yunshu frowned imperceptibly.
Kept in the dark?
It didn't seem like it.
The look in that girl's eyes just now was not one a stranger should have. It held scrutiny, inquiry, and even a trace of comprehension. It was as if she recognized her.
However, Situ Dingyi hadn't told Situ Yunshu and the others about the matters of being controlled by Lin Mo.
Otherwise, Jiang Yunlu might have also known about Ning Qingcheng, and subsequently realized that Xie Yuling actually knew everything as well.
Just then, a figure poked its head out from the school gate, looking around cautiously.
It was Chu Miaomiao.
Her lunch was delivered to the security booth every day, and she just had to come out to pick it up.
At a glance, Chu Miaomiao saw Jiang Yunlu still standing at the gate, along with the unfamiliar woman exuding a powerful aura beside her, and that car which looked incredibly expensive.
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
