The Wei family estate, with its carved beams and painted rafters, was magnificent in grandeur.
Renowned throughout for their hereditary technique "Flowing Cloud Steps," they were considered a regional power in the Central Continent.
Yet at this moment, the atmosphere in the Wei family's main council hall was unusually heavy, even carrying an eerie, oppressive tension.
Patriarch Wei Xiong sat upon the main seat, his expression grave, his eyes complex with conflicting emotions.
Beside him stood several richly dressed women—all his daughters, the young misses of the Wei family.
Their gazes toward the person in the center of the hall were filled with impatience, annoyance, and even a trace of barely concealed... fear.
In the center of the hall, a pale-faced young man with eyes sharp as a hawk's sat in a wooden wheelchair.
This was Wei Feng—the "true young master" that Wei Xiong had "painstakingly" sought out ten years ago, said to have been switched at birth by a wicked servant and left to wander outside for many years.
Wei Feng's gaze swept coldly across the "father" on the main seat and his several "sisters," a cold, mocking smile curving his lips.
"Ten years ago, shortly after I was found, I secretly pondered the introductory mental method of our family's Flowing Cloud Steps and gained some insight, trying the footwork in the courtyard," his voice was calm, but each word was like a blade.
"But I was 'coincidentally' discovered by the old butler. The next day, I 'accidentally' fell from the high stairs of the family library—both legs shattered, meridians severed. The medical cultivators declared I would never again practice any advanced footwork."
He paused, his gaze locking onto Wei Xiong: "I always thought it was the old butler acting alone, perhaps fearing I'd threaten the position of his 'like-a-son' young master Wei Can. Until yesterday, I accidentally learned... the old butler confessed on his deathbed that he was following your secret orders, Family Head!"
The hall fell into deathly silence.
Wei Xiong's expression shifted several times before finally settling into a heavy sigh, as if bearing an enormous burden:
"Feng'er... as your father, I had no choice. Your... your footwork talent was simply too astonishing, far beyond ordinary people. If your legs were intact and you practiced diligently, how could the inheritance rights to the Flowing Cloud Steps possibly fall to Can? His... his talent is far inferior to yours!"
This undisguised, twisted "justification" only deepened the coldness in Wei Feng's eyes.
"No choice? Hahaha..." Wei Feng let out a low laugh, filled with desolation and absurdity.
"Ten years ago, you mobilized everyone to find me from that precarious, wandering existence in the mud, repeatedly claiming I was the Wei family's true blood, that Wei Can was merely the lowly son of a butler! Fine! I believed it! I thought I finally had a family, had kin!"
His voice suddenly rose, carrying ten years of suppressed anger and pain: "But tell me! Since I am your own son! Why have you, this father, and my fine sisters, never for a moment truly treated me as family?! If you never considered me family, why bring me back at all?! Letting me die outside—wouldn't that have better suited your wishes?!"
A young woman in a purple dress with striking features but mean brows—the third miss—couldn't help but cry out shrilly:
"Wei Feng! Since you've already returned, can't you just let the past be? Why keep dwelling on it? Do you know that just because you came back, Can has suffered so much? He cries every day, worried he has no place in this family! He's already lost his identity as the Wei family's only young master—must you cruelly snatch away the inheritance rights to the Flowing Cloud Steps too?! How can you be so selfish?!"
"He suffered?!" Wei Feng laughed as if hearing the most ridiculous joke in the world, pointing at his own legs, his voice trembling with agitation.
"He stole my identity, lived in luxury in this great house, enjoyed endless doting for decades! While I! Your so-called true young master! Starved outside, bullied, nearly died in the wilderness several times! Now I've returned to reclaim what was always mine—this is only right! You call this suffering?! Then what about my legs?! What about these ten years of mine?!"
"Silence! Cease your nonsense!" Wei Xiong slammed the table, his face dark with rage.
The last trace of feigned guilt in his eyes vanished entirely, replaced by naked favoritism and loathing.
"As the older brother, what's wrong with yielding to your younger brother? It's just a family inheritance—being so petty, holding grudges over everything! Clearly raised in some country backwater with a narrow heart and no magnanimity—you're utterly beneath notice! How could my Wei family have a son like you!"
These words completely severed the last ridiculous shred of hope Wei Feng held for familial love.
His anger and agitation vanished instantly, replaced by an extreme cold and calm.
He suddenly smiled, a smile that sent chills down one's spine.
Then, under the shocked gazes of Wei Xiong, the young misses, and the guards in the hall, he pressed his hands against the wheelchair armrests and slowly, steadily... stood up!
"Your... your legs?!" Wei Xiong's pupils contracted sharply as he shot to his feet, his face filled with disbelief and shock. "Your legs aren't broken?! This is impossible! Back then clearly..."
"That's right, they aren't broken." Wei Feng moved his legs fluidly, clearly having recovered long ago.
His tone was flat but carried a bone-chilling cold: "Sorry to disappoint. Not only aren't they broken, but for these ten years, I've secretly trained without cease. The Flowing Cloud Steps... have long since reached great completion."
Wei Xiong's face instantly went paper-white. He suddenly thought of something and cried out in alarm:
"Impossible! Tomorrow is the family assessment to decide the final inheritance of the Flowing Cloud Steps! You... you've been hiding and feigning all along! You want to shock everyone at the assessment and reclaim the inheritance!"
Rage and panic intertwined as a hint of mad ruthlessness flashed through Wei Xiong's eyes. He shouted harshly:
"Someone! Seize him! Break his legs! This time... saw them off directly! Let's see how he practices footwork then!"
Several guards who had been waiting outside immediately rushed in with malevolent expressions, heading straight for Wei Feng!
Wei Feng stood motionless in place, his face even bearing a hint of pitying mockery.
Just as those guards were about to touch him—
He spoke softly, his voice not loud but clearly reaching every corner of the hall:
"Fellow seniors of the Heavenly Alliance..."
"Assist me."
BOOM—!
The roof and several walls of the council hall exploded outward!
Wood and stone flew in all directions!
Amidst the swirling dust, several figures in unified black robes with sharp, imposing auras descended like ghosts!
Powerful pressure instantly enveloped the entire area, suppressing all the guards charging toward Wei Feng, as well as Wei Xiong and the young misses, rendering them unable to move!
"Heavenly Alliance Enforcement! Clearing out karmic evil! Those who resist will be killed without mercy!"
The icy declaration was like a death sentence from the underworld!
Blades and swords instantly flashed into action!
The guards who usually bullied others were like paper before these Heavenly Alliance elites, slaughtered in an instant!
Blood stained the luxurious carpets and pillars!
"No! Who are you people?!"
"Let me go! I am a miss of the Wei family!"
"Father! Save me!"
Wei Xiong and his daughters screamed in terror and despair, struggling with all their might, but like flies caught in a spider's web, they had no power to resist.
They watched the sudden bloody slaughter before them, their souls scattered with fear.
Wei Feng watched all this coldly, without the slightest ripple in his eyes.
Ten years of hiding, ten years of pain, ten years of hatred—at this moment, it all erupted completely!
He bent down and picked up a blood-stained long blade from a dead guard's hand.
Then, step by step, he walked toward the "father" and "sisters" who were pressed to the ground by the pressure, their faces filled with terror and despair.
"What... what are you going to do?! Wei Feng! I am your father!!"
"Brother! No! We were wrong! We'll treat you well from now on!"
"Wei Feng! You dare commit patricide?! Heaven will not tolerate this!"
Wei Feng paid no attention to their wails and curses.
He walked up to Wei Xiong, looked at his face twisted with extreme fear, and slowly raised the blade in his hand.
"My legs, you wanted them so badly, didn't you?"
"The inheritance rights to the Flowing Cloud Steps, you cared about so much, didn't you?"
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
The blade flashed down suddenly!
"AHHH—!!!" Wei Xiong let out a miserable scream to the heavens! His legs were severed cleanly at the knees! Blood sprayed wildly!
Wei Feng didn't even look as he turned toward his next target.
"No! Don't! Brother! Spare me!"
"Wei Feng! You madman! You demon!"
The blade flashed again!
A young miss's legs were severed! Her screams tore through the heart!
Wei Feng was like a cold executioner, expressionless, blade rising and falling, precisely and cruelly cutting off the legs of every Wei family direct descendant in the hall—his "father" and "sisters," one by one!
Screams, wails, and curses rose and fell in waves as the Wei family's main council hall instantly transformed into a blood-soaked slaughterhouse!
Severed legs piled up, blood flowed in rivers!
Wei Feng stood in the center of the pool of blood, his whole body bloodied, the long blade in his hand dripping crimson.
He looked at his "kin" writhing on the ground in agony, wailing ceaselessly, and his eyes held no satisfaction—only a deathly, empty coldness.
The Heavenly Alliance cultivators stood quietly around the perimeter, permitting his actions.
They were responsible for clearing the source of karmic evil, while revenge was the victim's own right.
...
Of course, not all Heavenly Alliance clearing operations went without hindrance.
One team encountered a situation where the informant had clearly suffered all manner of abuse, yet still refused to let the Alliance act.
He insisted they wait until the count reached one hundred—claiming he had counted each time he was abused, and only when it reached one hundred would he permit them to act.
The lead officer consulted his superiors, then had no choice but to cut him down as well...
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