Hong Qingyun's roar penetrated everyone's soul on the spot.
Down on the drill ground, Hong Fang and the others also heard the outrageous roar and raised their head.
They have noticed previously that Hong Shisan had soared to the sky.
But how could a cultivator of a cultivation on just Dan Realm level match Hong Qingyun, they thought. Even Gu Cangtian could not match him.
Hong Mingyue, however, looked at this watchfully. Only she had exchanged blows with Hong Shisan. She knew perfectly well that Hong Shisan was more than what he seemed.
Up in the sky, Hong Qingyun looked as if he could not support himself and from the midair, he stumbled and fell down to the ground.
"Father?!" Hong Fang and the others went up to support him.
Hong Qingyun pushed them away. Beans of sweat trickled from his face. His originally jet-black hair quickly turned silver white.
Lines of wrinkles crawled onto his face, making him looked fifty or sixty years older. Hong Qingyun was suddenly an old man at the end of his life.
"Luo Song! How dare you conspire with Hong Shisan! What did you do to the Nirvana Pill?!" Hong Qingyun s.n.a.t.c.hed Luo Song up like a mad dog.
He had carefully examined that pill before he took it, it looked fine!
And all was well after he had broken into the Divine Realm.
But why was the pill activated when Hong Shisan appeared?
It was Luo Song who had given him the pill. He must have partic.i.p.ated in this conspiracy of Hong Shisan's.
Luo Song, on the other hand, was petrified. He mumbled.
"Senior Master, I don't know what you are talking about. I got the Ninth Realm Reincarnation Dan pill from the Star Cave. Both Mingyue and Zhuge Yi were present! I'm innocent!"
Hong Mingyue also seemed perplexed. She looked at Hong Shisan, who was still standing in midair, watching Hong Qingyun with contempt.
Hong Qingyun felt an unknown force tearing his body.
"Hong Shisan! What is your grievance against our Hong family that makes you set us up time and again?"
Everyone could see that it was a tampered pill that had made Hong Qingyun this miserable and that had turned the tide away from the Hong family.
Feng Shen had already ordered his people to surround the Hong family with the Nieyuan Cannons and boom them to pieces should they make another move.
"Grievance? You should ask your Senior Master and Hong Fang. Ask them what they have done fourteen years ago."
Hong Shisan's eyes were icy cold and the Cauldron Breath in her hand started rolling again.
Fourteen years ago…Something flashed through Hong Qingyun's mind.
But just at this moment, the Cauldron Breath in his body jolted. Hong Qingyun yelled with pain and put his hand at his abdomen, panting.
"Hong Shisan, you make me suffer so much. I would chase you down even when I become a ghost!" Hong Qingyun suddenly released all the energy he had as a Divine Realm warrior, and formed a mountain, which started charging at Hong Shisan.
It was like a shooting star sliding across the sky.
Hong Shisan squinted her eyes.
Out of nowhere, something appeared in her hands: a long bow about half a person's height, shining with scarlet light.
It was the heaven level spirit artifact: Spatial Piercing Bow!
Her cherry-blossom lips curved coldly into a word:
"Go."
The bow spun three times and a wave of frightening force began growing around her body.
Then, the bow string tightened and a flash of redness pierced through the sky.
Blood drops fell like a shower rain.
The Yuan energy mountain exploded. Hong Qingyun stared with his eyes wide open. His body exploded the moment the Spatial Piercing Bow went through his chest.
The shoot stirred up consecutive folds of waves in the sky and the person who had done it sent out deafening waves of shock among the crowd.
Standing at the top of the world, Hong Shisan still had dots of Hong Qingyun's blood on her clothes. The scarlet scatters were like fallen red plum blossoms.
Both in the sky and on the ground, people forgot about their fighting.
Hong Mingyue's tender body trembled slightly.
"Spatial Piercing Bow! It's her. She's alive."
"Hong Shisan…Ye Lingyue!"
A shrill voice pierced the sky like a sharp arrow.
Hong Mingyue's body began to shake uncontrollably, as if she was stricken by a thunderbolt.
She should have guessed! She should have known!
Hearing the name "Ye Lingyue,"Hong Fang raised his head with a start.
Xia Houqi also raised his head in disbelief. 'Is it him, or her?!'
In the sky, Ye Lingyue slowly put away her bow. Her long black hair waved in the wind like an enchanting flag.
Against the dim light of the sky, her eyes were like a crescent moon in an exquisite face.
If not Ye Lingyue, who else?
It was the daughter who had been abandoned by the Hong family fourteen years ago.
"Impossible!! How could you have killed father?!!" Hong Fang was mad like a demon. "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! If I knew better, I should have killed you then!"
Hong Fang was regretful and angry. 'It is the one mistake of sparing the life of that b.a.s.t.a.r.d girl that had gotten his family into what it is now!' He could not accept this. He rejected this!
Now that Hong Qingyun had died, the aristocrats and marquises who had supported the Hong family dared not resist any longer and were seized by Nie Fengxing and Lan Yingwu in no time.
Amidst the chaos, Luo Song and the elderly from the Three Lives Valley escaped with Hong Mingyue.
"Hong Fang, you being where you are today is completely your own doing. I suggest you disarm and surrender." Lan Yingwu and several guards surrounded Hong Fang and his subordinates.
Ever since Hong Fang knew Ye Lingyue was Hong Shisan, he had been not himself.
Zhuge Rou and the rest also looked stunned. Most of the Hong families were killed in the previous explosion. Those that remained, the father, the son and Zhuge Rou, were imprisoned, waiting for their trial by Xia Houqi.
"Are you really Sister Lingyue?" Ye Lingyue was surrounded by the Ye families, especially Ye Liuyun, whose face was still red from seeing Ye Lingyue in her impersonation of a man.
"My sisters, sorry that I have startled you." Now that Hong Qingyue had died, Ye Lingyue had one more matter off her list.
Pity though that she let Hong Mingyue run away. She didn't think that Luo Song had a Jade Transfer Talisman hidden.
If Hong Mingyue returned to the Three Lives Valley, it would be hard for Ye Lingyue to get to her again.
With Hong Mingyue's quality, and with the motivation she got from this defeat, she would definitely become a formidable opponent if their lives cross on a later date.
During this Imperial Contest, the Xia Emperor was killed. Most of the residences and the residents around the Palace were destroyed and killed.
Therefore, though Xia Houqi had many words to say to Ye Lingyue, he had to first attend to the funeral affairs of the Emperor and execute the defected officials.
Several days later, the Hong family's house was searched and property confiscated. Before that, Ye Lingyue had not forgotten to retrieve her money from the the Casino of Splendidness.
It was a huge sum of money: thirty million liang (a unit of weight) of gold that she took back. Ye Lingyue took advantage of the family's mired situation and ripped them off big time.