Su Family's Su Wanqing: Demonstrating Strength Speaks Louder Than Words

At this moment, within the Meng family mansion.

Sitting in the seat of honor was the head of the Meng family, Meng Canglan. He appeared to be a middle-aged man in his fifties.

With a square face and a short beard, he wore a dark blue brocade robe. His aura was steady, impressively revealing a cultivation base at the early stage of the Body Integration Realm.

At this moment, he wore a perfectly measured smile, though a trace of imperceptible caution flickered in his eyes.

Seated in the primary guest position was a young maiden who appeared to be around sixteen years old.

She wore a goose-yellow fairy dress with exquisite cloud and crane patterns embroidered on the hem. She was beautiful, yet her brows carried the noble and arrogant air of someone born into a major clan.

She was none other than the Fourth Miss of the Su family, Su Wanqing.

Although she only possessed a peak Golden Core cultivation, everyone from the Meng family present, including Patriarch Meng Canglan, treated her with the utmost respect, even showing faint signs of flattery.

The reason was simple: the Su family was a true behemoth in the eastern part of the Southern Continent. With a Mahayana Realm patriarch overseeing the clan, their influence radiated across several commanderies, far beyond what the Meng family, confined to a corner of Hanhai, could compare to.

The Meng family's rapid rise in Hanhai City to become a premier family was inextricably linked to the Su family's support.

Consequently, every four years, the Meng family had to offer a substantial amount of resources as tribute to the Su family to maintain this vassal relationship.

Today, the Fourth Miss of the Su family had come under her clan's orders to collect the tribute, while also gaining experience and familiarizing herself with the interaction process between the two families.

Behind Su Wanqing stood four attendants with restrained auras.

All four were Void Refinement cultivators, guards meticulously trained by the Su family.

Hidden in the shadows of the Meng family mansion was a Body Integration Realm elder from the Su family, silently protecting Su Wanqing's safety.

"Fourth Miss, our Meng family began preparing this tribute early on. They are all spiritual materials prepared exactly according to the Su family's requirements. Here is a portion of it. The rest has already been prepared by my son, who is currently rushing back to the Meng family and will deliver it tomorrow.

In addition, there are three Essence Condensation Pills specifically sought out for you, to help you break through to the Nascent Soul Realm."

Meng Canglan held his wine cup and spoke respectfully to Su Wanqing.

Su Wanqing gave a slight nod, her tone flat.

"Patriarch Meng is very thoughtful."

She looked at the Essence Condensation Pills in front of her, but felt little emotion inside.

Such things were a dime a dozen in the Su family. There was another reason why she was stuck at the peak of the Golden Core Realm.

Going out to gain experience this time was also to see if she could encounter an opportunity to resolve this issue.

Just as the host and guests in the hall were seemingly conversing harmoniously—

"Om..."

A low, magnificent humming sound, seemingly originating from the depths of the void, faintly echoed from far to near.

It was not obvious at first, but soon, the sound surged like a tide, accompanied by an indescribable, heart-palpitating sense of oppression!

The expressions of everyone in the hall, including the hidden Body Integration Realm elder in the corner, simultaneously changed.

"What is happening?"

Meng Canglan stood up abruptly, his divine sense instantly sweeping outside the mansion.

Almost at the same time, the entire sky suddenly darkened.

It wasn't nightfall, but rather some colossal entity blocking out the sunlight.

"Enemy attack?!"

A Meng family elder shouted in alarm.

"Protect the Fourth Miss!"

Two of the Su family's Void Refinement guards instantly flashed in front of Su Wanqing, their spiritual energy surging to form a protective barrier.

Su Wanqing's pretty face paled slightly, but coming from a major family, she forced herself to stay calm and looked up at the sky outside the hall.

A terrifying immortal boat, a thousand zhang long, was silently hovering directly above the Meng family mansion, no more than a hundred zhang from the ground.

Its massive hull covered almost half of the Meng family's core area, casting a shadow as deep as an abyss.

Su Wanqing's pupils shrank sharply.

She had seen the Su family's immortal boat, the carriage of her clan's patriarch. It was three hundred zhang long and already felt incomparably majestic to her.

But compared to the one before her... it was simply a small skiff meeting a giant warship.

"This... whose carriage is this?!"

Meng Canglan's voice carried an uncontrollable tremble.

As a late-stage Soul Formation cultivator, he could better feel the level of power radiating from that immortal boat, which far exceeded his comprehension.

This was absolutely not something Hanhai City, or even any known faction in the eastern part of the Southern Continent, could possess.

"On guard! Highest clan alert!"

Meng Canglan roared sternly, his voice spreading throughout the entire Meng mansion.

In an instant, spiritual lights lit up all over the Meng mansion, formations were activated, and figures flew out from everywhere, nervously looking up at the behemoth above their heads.

But no one dared to act rashly. The oppression brought by the immortal boat was too strong, so strong that it snuffed out any thought of resistance.

Just as the Meng family faced a formidable foe and the Su family members were extremely tense—

A figure leisurely descended from the bottom of the immortal boat.

Without riding an escape light or showing any spiritual energy fluctuations, he drifted down gently like a feather.

The person landed in the empty courtyard in front of the hall, no more than ten zhang away from the main hall.

It was a very young man, looking no more than twenty-seven or twenty-eight. He wore a simple plain white inner shirt, his black hair untied and casually draped over his shoulders.

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the magnificent Hanhai Hall before him. His expression was calm, as if he were just visiting an ordinary friend.

The people in the hall, however, did not dare to relax in the slightest.

To be able to step down from such an immortal boat and land so effortlessly from mid-air, this person was absolutely not simple.

Meng Canglan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart. He stepped forward, walked out the hall door, cupped his hands toward Gu Changyuan, and said:

"I am Meng Canglan, Patriarch of the Meng family. May I ask why Your Excellency has graced our Meng family with your presence?"

His tone was as polite as possible, but it still carried a hint of wariness and questioning.

After all, with such a grand display, arriving uninvited and hovering directly above their mansion, the other party's intentions seemed far from friendly.

Gu Changyuan's gaze swept the surroundings, noticing that many Soul Formation, Void Refinement, and Body Integration Realm cultivators had their eyes fixed on him with vigilance.

It made sense; arriving in person with such a massive spectacle would inevitably warrant caution.

However, with his current abilities, displaying his strength was much more effective than talking.

He did not answer.

He merely took a gentle step forward.

Just a single step.

"Boom—!!!"

A terrifying pressure, as heavy as the sky itself, erupted like a tangible tsunami with Gu Changyuan at its center.

The Meng family cultivators inside and outside the main hall were all ruthlessly pressed to the ground by this pressure. Their knees cracked loudly, their faces flushed red, and they didn't even have the strength to lift their heads.

Meng Canglan felt as if he had been instantly thrown into the bottom of a ten-thousand-fathom sea, the pressure surging from all directions threatening to crush him alive.

His late-stage Body Integration spiritual energy circulated madly, yet it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot; he couldn't hold on for even a single breath.

Inside the hall, Su Wanqing's beautiful face drained of color. Had it not been for the two Void Refinement guards desperately holding up a protective barrier in front of her, she would likely have been instantly knocked unconscious by the pressure.

She also carried several protective magical artifacts given to her by her father, Su Yunhao, which could provide her with the power to protect herself even against a Mahayana Realm cultivator.

Even so, she felt her breathing grow difficult and a sharp pain in her divine soul.

But the most horrified of all was none other than the Su family's Body Integration Realm elder hidden in the shadows—Su Ming.

He had been hiding in the spatial folds all along, his aura completely concealed.

Yet the moment Gu Changyuan took that step and the pressure erupted, he felt as if an invisible giant hand had forcefully dragged him out of his hiding place!

The stable space around him fractured like glass, instantly rendering his prized concealment technique completely useless.