12: Chapter 12 Forced Marriage to the Wang Family's Granddaughter, Wang Qingxuan

The Wang family.

The vermillion-lacquered gates were tightly shut, with two imposing stone lions standing guard before them.

Xu Changkun walked up to the gate and kicked it open.

"Boom!"

The heavy wooden gate shattered instantly, sending splinters flying everywhere!

The old gatekeeper was so terrified he fell to the ground, crying out, "M-Master! Someone has broken into the estate!"

Xu Changkun strode inside.

Over a dozen servants, wielding clubs, swarmed in from all directions and surrounded Xu Changkun.

"What kind of madman dares to break into our Wang family estate!" shouted the burly man in the lead. He was the head of the Wang family's security, a martial artist of the ninth rank.

Xu Changkun stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. "Tell Wang Dehai to get out here."

"Insolence! Is the name of our Master something you can just call out?" the head of security roared angrily. "Take him!"

The servants rushed forward in a mass.

Xu Changkun didn't even lift his eyelids; he simply stamped his foot lightly.

"Hum—"

An invisible wave of energy spread out from him as the center.

The seven or eight servants at the front were struck as if by a heavy blow, screaming as they were sent flying backward, knocking over their companions behind them. The security leader's face changed drastically; he had practiced martial arts for over twenty years and had never seen such a technique!

"A-A cultivator..." his voice trembled.

Just then, a commotion erupted in the inner hall, and Wang Dehai, an elderly man in brocade robes, stepped out quickly, surrounded by several stewards.

"This fellow Daoist..." Wang Dehai forced himself to remain calm and cupped his hands. "I do not know how I, Wang, have offended you to warrant such a visit?"

Xu Changkun's tone was cold. "Why pretend to be ignorant, Elder Wang? Framing Jishitang Pharmacy and inciting the Li family to deal with me—wasn't all of that orchestrated by your Wang family?"

Wang Dehai's expression shifted slightly. "What do you mean by that, fellow Daoist? I do not understand."

"Pretending to be ignorant?" Xu Changkun sneered.

Before the words had even faded, his figure flashed.

Everyone felt a blur before their eyes; he was already standing in front of Wang Dehai, his right hand gripping the man's neck like an iron pincer, slowly lifting him up.

"Ugh..." Wang Dehai's feet left the ground, his face turning the color of a pig's liver. He struggled desperately but could not move at all.

"Let go of my grandfather!"

A figure in goose-yellow robes darted out, sword light like a rainbow, stabbing straight at Xu Changkun's back!

It was Wang Qingxuan. She unleashed her full power at the first level of Qi Refining, spiritual energy flickering at the tip of her sword, with a faint sound of wind and thunder.

Xu Changkun didn't even turn his head, simply clamping two fingers together.

"Clang!"

The longsword was firmly caught between his fingers, unable to advance a single inch!

Wang Qingxuan's expression changed drastically. She frantically channeled her spiritual power, but although the sword vibrated, it remained completely still.

"All show and no substance." Xu Changkun scoffed.

He flicked his finger lightly.

"Crack—"

The longsword shattered into pieces!

Immediately following this, Xu Changkun flicked his sleeve, and an invisible blast of energy swept outwards!

"Ah!"

Wang Qingxuan cried out, the broken sword flying from her hand as she was knocked to the ground by the wave of energy.

She lifted her head in a sorry state, her hair disheveled, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of her mouth, her eyes filled with terror and unwillingness.

Xu Changkun casually tossed Wang Dehai to the ground and walked slowly over to Wang Qingxuan, looking down at her from above. "With only this much skill, you dare to draw your sword against me?"

Wang Qingxuan gritted her teeth and stubbornly raised her head. "If you want to kill me, then do it! My Wang family is inferior in skill; I have nothing to say!"

"You have backbone." Xu Changkun nodded, then looked at Wang Dehai, who was slumped to the side. "Then I shall exterminate your entire Wang family, how about that?"

As his words fell, an overwhelming murderous aura swept through the courtyard!

The temperature plummeted, and the plants in the courtyard were instantly coated in white frost. The members of the Wang family felt as if they had fallen into an ice cellar; the low-level servants fainted on the spot, and even the few stewards had trembling legs, collapsing to their knees.

Wang Dehai ignored his intense pain and crawled up to kowtow. "Immortal Master, spare us! Spare us! I, Wang, am willing to surrender all of my family's assets, I only ask that you spare the Wang family's elders and young!"

"All of your assets?" Xu Changkun raised an eyebrow.

"Yes! Yes! Three of the Wang family's medicine shops, two estates in the east of the city, five hundred spirit stones, ten thousand taels of gold... all will be offered to the Immortal Master!" Wang Dehai spoke incoherently, kowtowing like a pestle pounding garlic.

Xu Changkun, however, looked at Wang Qingxuan. "That is not what I want."

He crouched down, his gaze locking onto the young girl's pale face. "If you voluntarily marry me as a concubine, the Wang family can be spared from annihilation. If you refuse..."

He paused, a dark blue spiritual energy gathering at his fingertips. "I will cripple your cultivation and sever your meridians. And as for your Wang family, not even a chicken or dog will be left alive."

Wang Qingxuan trembled violently.

She looked at her grandfather—once a dignified family head, now groveling on the ground like an old dog; she looked at the surrounding clansmen—each one pale with terror, their eyes filled with nothing but pleading.

Three years of bitter cultivation, the survival of her family, all hung in the balance.

Tears slid down, mixed with humiliation and despair.

"...I agree." Her voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum, yet every word dripped with blood.

"Speak up." Xu Changkun said indifferently.

Wang Qingxuan closed her eyes and shouted hoarsely, "I am willing to marry you as a concubine! I beg the Immortal Master to spare the Wang family!"

"Very good."

"This is the price for becoming my enemy." He stood up, looking down at the grandfather and granddaughter. "In three days, I will come to claim my bride. At that time, the deeds to the Wang family's properties, spirit stones, and treasures must all be presented. If even a fraction is missing..."

"We dare not! We absolutely dare not!" Wang Dehai kowtowed repeatedly.

Xu Changkun let out a cold snort, turned with his hands behind his back, and left.

Not until that figure disappeared into the horizon did the members of the Wang family dare to breathe.

Wang Qingxuan slumped to the ground, gazing at the mess everywhere and her grandfather's ghastly pale face, weeping silently.

Wang Dehai crawled to her side, tears streaming down his old face. "Qingxuan, Grandfather has failed you... but the Wang family cannot perish..."

Wang Qingxuan closed her eyes, her fingernails digging deeply into her palms.