Ling Province, Lu Family.
Lu Xiao, the General of Lingzhou, had fallen in battle. Although the Lu Family was granted the title of Uncle Yongzhuang, the rank of Count was not enough to guarantee a clan’s prosperity. At best, it was a minor blessing; their status was bound to fall far from what it once was.
To achieve the imnse wealth and honor of other great families, one needed sufficient strength. Without Lu Xiao, the Lu Family was clearly not up to the task.
The Xuan Yang Dynasty was extrely strict in its control over noble titles.
Over a thousand years, only a little over a hundred people held titles, and most of them were the founding ministers who had helped the Grand Ancestor Emperor establish the dynasty.
For Lu Xiao to be granted the title of Uncle Yongzhuang after his death was already an act of imnse imperial grace. If not for the loss of Grand General Xu Dingchun of the Northern Garrison Army, the subsequent turmoil, and the Emperor’s desperate need for soone to boost morale, Lu Xiao would have never been considered worthy of a Count’s title.
While the Lu Family couldn’t achieve great wealth and power with this title, they could at least maintain a respectable, noble status for several hundred years.
Even a family as noble as the Jiang Family had failed to earn the title of Count.
This was a balancing act by the Xuan Yang Court. After the dynasty’s founding, great families were rarely granted titles, a asure intended to prevent them from establishing stable, continuous lines of inheritance.
For those prominent families without hereditary titles, a few generations of unworthy descendants were all it would take for even a great clan to face turmoil and eventual collapse.
However, none of this was a concern for the Lu Family’s eldest legitimate son, the one who had just inherited the title of Uncle Yongzhuang.
In the main hall of the Lu Family estate, a middle-aged man with a cold, sinister face wore a cruel smile.
This was the Lu Family’s eldest legitimate son, Lu Yao.
Although he was the eldest legitimate son, Lu Yao had never been valued by Lu Xiao.
Given the Lu Family’s peculiar customs, he had spent his days living in constant fear.
Lu Xiao had died in his pri, so how could he have written a will? As a result, the title of Uncle Yongzhuang could only fall to him, the eldest legitimate son, in accordance with Xuan Yang custom.
Once Lu Yao gained power, the first thing he did was naturally to purge the Lu Family of anyone who defied him.
Although his martial skill was diocre—he had only reached the Strong Organ Pass after many years of training—the title of Uncle Yongzhuang he now possessed was extrely useful.
The core strength of the Lu Family had been the Jianghu Martial Masters recruited by Lu Xiao. These n were driven by profit, so of course they assisted Lu Yao in exchange for rewards from the new Uncle Yongzhuang.
However, that didn’t stop Lu Yao from using them to rally support and deal with those Lu family mbers who harbored disloyal thoughts.
Of course, he had no intention of sparing even those with pure intentions.
"Big Brother, I beg you, spare ."
A man, his body a mangled ruin of flesh and blood, knelt on the ground, begging pitifully.
The expression on Lu Yao’s face grew even more twisted. "My dear younger brother, how could Big Brother let you die so easily?"
The man kneeling on the ground was the fifth son of the Lu Family. His talent had far surpassed that of the eldest legitimate son, and he had been deeply favored by Lu Xiao. He had humiliated Lu Yao on more than one occasion. Now that Lu Yao was in power, he would not easily spare any of the Lu family mbers who had once looked down on him.
This was already the tenth Lu family mber he had tortured to death.
When they died, each one of them had barely a patch of intact flesh left on their bodies. It was an utterly miserable end.
But the more miserably they died, the more excited Lu Yao beca.
Just then, a sudden clamor of startled cries ca from outside the door, and Lu Yao’s brow furrowed.
He saw Lu Yu and Lu Shanshan walking slowly forward. With them was a masked figure whose face could not be seen.
The Lu Family experts who had been standing guard at the door had all been knocked to the ground.
Lu Yao blustered, "Lu Yu! Lu Shanshan! Are you trying to betray the clan?"
Lu Yu sneered. "If you’re dead, then it won’t be a betrayal of the clan."
"You..."
Lu Yao’s eyes widened, a flash of panic in his gaze.
Though Lu Yu was an illegitimate son, he was also the most talented person in the Lu Family. At the re Strong Organ Pass, Lu Yao was no match for him.
"Get them!"
He shrieked, and several figures appeared in the hall.
These were the powerful Jianghu experts who had previously followed Lu Xiao, and they were the greatest source of Lu Yao’s audacity.
An old man with an aquiline nose slowly stepped forward. "Lu Yu, I thought you were a man who understood the tis, but I never expected you to be so foolish."
Lu Yu stared at the old man.
This man was the strongest expert in the Lu Family besides Lu Xiao himself. Even Lu Xiao had spent considerable effort to recruit him back in the day.
This eagle-nosed old man had once been a Ghostwriter from Qingzhou.
A Ghostwriter who had reached Entering the Realm was naturally powerful, with terrifying killing ability. It was precisely because of this old man’s support that Lu Yao dared to be so brazen.
The eagle-nosed old man suddenly let out a sinister cackle. "I’ll give you one chance. If you’re willing to sever an arm and a leg, I can let you leave."
Of course, he wasn’t sincerely assisting Lu Yao. He was rely using Lu Yao’s na to eliminate any obstacles within the Lu Family, so that the clan’s fortune would naturally beco his own private property.
Lu Yu said, "Alright."
He slowly raised his Soft Sword.
However, his target wasn’t his own arm, but the fifth son of the Lu Family kneeling on the ground.
"Urgh..."
A single sword strike to the throat.
The fifth son of the Lu Family clutched his gushing neck, collapsing to the ground with a pained whimper. A mont later, he was still.
The eagle-nosed old man showed a flicker of interest. "You whelp, I like your style. If you’re willing to beco my disciple, you can replace this piece of trash right now."
Lu Yao finally revealed a panicked expression.
"Elder Zhu, you can’t—"
"Shut up!"
The eagle-nosed old man barked sharply.
’Does he really think he’s Uncle Yongzhuang?’
In his eyes, Lu Yao was nothing more than a puppet who could be replaced at any ti.
Lu Yu let out a derisive laugh. "So, I should thank you then?"
"Are you refusing?"
"Of course. Why would I take a dead man as my master?"
The eagle-nosed old man glanced at the black-clothed person beside Lu Yu. "On his account?"
Although he couldn’t see the black-clothed person’s face, based on his many years of experience in the Jianghu, the eagle-nosed old man could tell that this person was no older than thirty.
Geniuses of the Martial Dao might break through realms as easily as drinking water, but they still needed ti to accumulate experience.
Not yet thirty?
’At most, he’s only just broken through to Entering the Realm.’
Even with Lu Yu, they were just two young upstarts who had barely reached Entering the Realm.
The eagle-nosed old man cackled sinisterly. "Young man, don’t tell you think breaking through the Entering the Realm pass qualifies you to challenge ?"
"Today, I’ll show you that there is a heavenly chasm between one who has Entered the Realm and another!"
Before his voice had even faded, he lunged toward the black-clothed person beside Lu Yu like an eagle pouncing on a rabbit.
Since this person was the source of Lu Yu’s confidence in barging into the Lu Family estate, he would first utterly crush that confidence.
A strangely shaped iron whip appeared in the old man’s hand out of thin air.
To pursue the ultimate in killing power, Ghostwriters rarely followed conventional paths, and their weapons were bizarre and varied. The iron whip, with its concealability and tricky attack patterns, was a favorite among them—perfect for a clean kill.
The eagle-nosed old man’s face was filled with a bloodthirsty expression.
All he wanted now was to use his iron whip to punch one hundred and eight bloody holes in the black-clothed person before him.
The thing he hated most in his life was pretentious young people.
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