Jin Xiang paid no attention to the looks from the surrounding crowd, which were like those one might give a madwoman.
At this moment, her only hope was to escape with her life.
Seeing Li Ce once again drowning in remorse, she shoved him away with all her might!
Perhaps in life-or-death moments a person's potential is boundless, for with that single push she actually broke free from Li Ce's grip and bolted.
At the sight of this, Xue Qitian let out a cold snort, channeled his spiritual energy into a giant palm, and fiercely slammed it toward Jin Xiang.
"Ah—no—!" Feeling the lethal danger descending upon her from behind, Jin Xiang felt her mind fracture and her courage shatter. With danger closing in and nowhere left to run, she hardened her heart, yanked the First Elder over to shield her, and shrieked, "Save me!"
"Boom—!"
The massive palm crashed down solidly. The First Elder never dreamed Jin Xiang would do such a thing; as his body flew backward, his eyes bulged in absolute disbelief.
How could a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator withstand eighty percent of a Nascent Soul cultivator's palm power? He died before even hitting the ground.
Silence!
Deadly silence! Across the entire Li Family square, everyone held their breath, awed by the sheer might of the giant palm and stunned by Jin Xiang's utter shamelessness.
"You killed the First Elder!" Jin Xiang suddenly cried out, drawing all eyes back to her.
At that moment, her expression was one of excitement, as if she had regained her footing.
"You killed the First Elder, and our Li Family will not let you off! So what if your cultivation is high? Are we really going to be afraid of you with so many of us here?" With the First Elder dead, there were still countless members of the Li Family standing in front; since they were not dead yet, she was safe.
If the members of the Li Family knew what Jin Xiang was thinking, they would probably have vomited blood from sheer rage.
How could someone be so shameless? Xue Qitian wore a half-smile, seeing right through Jin Xiang's petty trick of shifting the blame, but he said with a contemptuous sneer, "The Li Family? Not worth a damn!"
As soon as these words left his mouth, he drew a massive amount of hatred; the eyes of every Li Family disciple blazed with fury, though they dared to feel anger without daring to voice it.
Xue Qitian felt the spiritual energy within his body dissipating. In at most a quarter of an hour, he would no longer be able to hold on, so wasting no more time, he channeled his spiritual energy into his hand, preparing to strike Jin Xiang down with another blow. However, someone else moved even faster than he did.
"Go to hell!" Li Ce appeared behind Jin Xiang in a flash, drew his spiritual sword, and drove it fiercely into her chest.
Looking down at the familiar sword through her chest and the blood continuously welling out, Jin Xiang widened her eyes in disbelief as she turned her head to meet Li Ce's gaze, which was filled entirely with hatred. "You... you... why..." How could he? The man who wanted her life was this very man! How cruel and unjust heaven was to her!
"I—want—you—to—pay—with—your—life—for—Lihua!" His eyes bloodshot, he gritted out every single word through clenched teeth.
"So that's how it is!... Ha... ha... ha..." Jin Xiang laughed wildly three times and collapsed to the ground, her eyes wide open with her dying grievances unredressed!
This series of events happened in the blink of an eye, leaving everyone too stunned to react.
With the First Elder and Jin Xiang falling one after the other, the faces of all the Li Family members turned pale.
"No—!" Li Yue'er, who had returned along with the members of the Jin Family, arrived just in time to witness this bloody scene. Seeing her mother hacked to death by her own father, she completely broke down! She rushed to the side of the fallen woman, crying out in heartbreaking succession:
"Mom, wake up! How could you leave Yue'er behind? You're just joking with me, aren't you? I'll never make you angry again. You can beat me or scold me however you want, just don't leave Yue'er, Mom—!" She knelt on the ground, her hands stained with blood, and her piercing, agonizing pleas were enough to break the heart of anyone who saw or heard them.
"Enough!" Li Ce shouted coldly.
Li Yue'er raised her head, looking with hatred at the father she had once admired so deeply.
"How could you kill Mom? How could you kill Mom?"
Li Ce closed his eyes in agony, his voice cold and devoid of emotion: "She brought this upon herself. Her death is well deserved!"
"Is it because of that bitch, right? Is it because of that bastard seed, right?" she demanded through her tears, wiping the tearstains from her face. Seeing Li Ce press his lips together in silence, her heart confirmed the truth, and a hatred she could no longer suppress surged forth: "Just as I thought! Mom was right—that wretched pair of mother and daughter were born to bring us ruin! You actually killed my mother for the sake of a dead woman and for that bastard child who vanished without a trace! I hate you—I hate you—!" With that, she stumbled away blindly, running off in a frenzy.
Li Ce did not give chase, leaving behind only a heart full of utter exhaustion.
Looking at the lifeless Li Ce, Xue Qitian lost all urge to take his life. Living like this was probably no less painful than being dead—and that suited him just fine! He still needed to find his precious granddaughter. With that thought in mind, Xue Qitian vanished with a few teleportation steps.
Jin Rui had originally come to the Li Family under his father's orders, never expecting to witness his aunt pierced through the chest by his uncle's sword. Without fully understanding what had happened, he hurriedly sent a sound-transmission talisman to his father with a brief explanation of the situation, then chased after Li Yue'er.
The Third Elder looked upon the devastated ruins of the Li Family, offered the disciples some comforting words, and then glanced at Li Ce, who looked as though he was on the verge of death. He sighed in his heart: Such a sin, truly a sin.