Chapter 40: You Only Know That You Are About to Die

Amid cries of shock, the five great experts of the Wu family froze in place. Ye Tian did not flee, nor did he attempt to deflect their attacks; he simply stood there, expressionless, unmoved.

The plum blossom hammer crashed against his forehead, the treasured sword plunged into his spine, and hidden weapons struck all his vital points—none having any effect whatsoever.

"Is this all you’ve got?" The young man standing in the center let out a cold laugh, his tone dripping with scorn. With a casual shake of his body, a powerful counterforce erupted.

Wu Di’s sword shattered first, splintering into pieces on the ground. Wu Ba’s arms flew backward as he fell heavily onto his backside. The hidden weapons, rebounding like a sudden flurry of arrows, shot back into the crowd, instantly killing over a dozen hapless onlookers.

"So, after all your planning, all the tricks you used to lure me here, is this the grand performance your illustrious Wu family wished to stage?" Ye Tian strode toward Wu Ba. As Wu Ba scrambled to rise, Ye Tian seized him, thrusting two fingers into his mouth. With a surge of overwhelming energy, he tore Wu Ba’s jaw clean off.

Before the stunned eyes of the crowd, he dragged Wu Ba along as if hauling a dead fish, his fingers hooked through the man’s mouth—cruel and domineering.

Wu Ba, once the prideful and arrogant head of the Wu family, known throughout the capital, was now reduced to a lifeless carcass in Ye Tian’s grasp.

The reversal was instantaneous. In less than five seconds, from the moment five men attacked Ye Tian to the moment he struck back, the situation was utterly transformed—and so were the hearts of all present.

"Run! Run for your lives!"

Panic-stricken, some wet themselves and wailed as they tried to escape, only to find the doors—each weighing several tons—were locked tight. Without the code, no one could leave. Hundreds of people pounded desperately at the gates, but it was hopeless.

Ye Tian ignored the rabble. With a single gesture, he shattered Wu Ba’s meridians and tossed him onto the stage as carelessly as one might throw a slab of pork.

His gaze turned to the remaining four.

"Ye Tian, you—!"

In Wu Di’s eyes, Ye Tian’s figure loomed larger and larger, suffused with overwhelming terror. Their intelligence had been wrong.

Ye Tian was not a peak Taishan-level fighter at all—he was truly of the Great Bear constellation stage.

In the hierarchy of martial cultivation, each successive stage was a chasm apart. Without breaking through from the Taishan stage to the Great Bear stage, a martial artist could never project their inner energy outward—never wield the force known as astral energy.

A master of the Great Bear stage could summon this energy with ease, rendering bullets of 7.62 caliber or less utterly harmless. Even an anti-tank rifle, should it break through this barrier, would struggle to inflict a fatal wound due to their formidable bodies. Moreover, such experts possessed extraordinary reflexes and a sixth sense for killing intent—making it nearly impossible for ordinary firearms to even graze them.

This is what it meant to be a master of the Great Bear stage: a living weapon of war.

"Were you not afraid when you plotted my death?" Ye Tian advanced, coldly sneering. Wu Di, confronted with this god of slaughter, tried to flee—only to find he was paralyzed.

Ye Tian’s hand formed a claw, activating his Dragon Seizing Art. The sheer suppression of a higher realm shattered Wu Di’s internal flow of energy—he could no longer move his own legs.

"You’re next."

With a low murmur, Ye Tian drove two iron-hard fingers into Wu Di’s mouth. The surge of astral energy shattered his will in an instant. In Wu Di’s mind, only two words remained: "It’s over!"

In full view of everyone, Ye Tian picked up this second "dead fish" and carried him through the crowd, tossing him onto the stage as well.

Then came the three elders. Before everyone’s eyes, the Wu family’s five greatest warriors—once ranked among the top ten in the capital—stood motionless, powerless as Ye Tian cast them aside, one after another, like fish onto a pile.

Arranging them in a row, Ye Tian borrowed a long saber from one of the servants. Without a word, he lifted one of the elders. The blade flashed, severing the man’s head in a single stroke, which he tossed into the crowd.

Again and again—each kill decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

Three heads rolled across the floor, sending those nearby into hysterical sobs.

Ye Tian then seized Wu Di, his face twisted with rage. "The direct descendants of the Wu family must not be spared!"

He swung the blade once more. The bloodstained head landed at Qian Xiaoxia’s feet.

"Brother!"

Qian Xiaoxia broke down completely, at a loss for what to do. She did not know whether to embrace her fiancé’s severed head or to clutch her own and weep in the corner.

"The last one!"

Having slain four, Ye Tian did not pause but seized the final man.

"Wu Ba, one of the chief culprits behind the massacre of my family—no need for further introduction. He was the main force when the Ye family fell."

Ye Tian grabbed Wu Ba by the hair and pressed the blade to his throat. Though his meridians were destroyed, Wu Ba was completely lucid, struggling to move his jaw only to realize it was dislocated—he could not even beg for his life.

He was denied even the right to plead.

Two murky tears trickled from the corners of his eyes, drops of terror that landed in the hearts of everyone present.

"I have waited five long years for this day!"

Standing on the stage, Ye Tian’s eyes blazed red, anger surging from his hands to the tip of his blade.

A cold flash. Wu Ba’s terrified face was frozen in its final expression.

"I’m tired. I have nothing more to say." After beheading Wu Ba, Ye Tian seemed drained, tossing the head aside in disgust.

He walked over to a certain middle-aged man.

"Was it you just now, bragging that you once treated my father as a chamber pot?"

"No, it wasn’t me!" The man collapsed in terror, a foul liquid soaking his trousers. His face was streaked with tears.

"Young Master Ye, spare me! I was only bragging. On the night the Ye family was wiped out, I was merely standing guard outside!"

The man sobbed for mercy, kowtowing endlessly. "I was wrong, Young Master Ye, truly wrong. Please, spare my life…"

"No." Ye Tian grinned savagely. "You’re not sorry—you’re only afraid to die."

The sharp blade slid into the man’s mouth and out the back of his skull.

To insult his dead father was to court death.

Withdrawing the blade, Ye Tian turned to Qian Xiaoxia.

"Don’t kill me!"

Staring into the eyes of this demon from hell, Qian Xiaoxia trembled all over. Forgetting her status as a lady of nobility, she collapsed to her knees with a thud.