Rumble——!
A dull roar echoed from the sky, like the low growl of an ancient beast. Black clouds quickly gathered from all directions, swallowing the last skylight.
Rain the size of beans began to fall, sparse at first, then denser, finally turning into a torrential downpour. Pedestrians on the street screamed to avoid the rain, shops rushed to take in their signs, merchants hurried to cover their goods.
"This rain is odd..." An old vendor who had run a stall in Heaven Dou City for years looked up at the sky as rain streamed down his wrinkled cheeks. "Dark clouds gathered so suddenly, this might be a once-in-a-century storm."
Faint curses and children's cries rang out from afar; the whole city was shrouded in a heavy, chaotic atmosphere under the rain.
In this moment of torrential rain—
A streak of purple-gold light pierced the sky, approaching Heaven Dou City at astonishing speed like a meteor splitting the curtain of rain.
Wherever the streamer passed, raindrops were smashed into fine mist, tracing a clearly visible trajectory in the air.
"What is that?!"
"Something just flew past!"
The city guards on the wall noticed the anomaly first. Before an alarm could be raised, the streak had already soared over the wall and into the sky.
As the imperial capital, Heaven Dou City had its own no-fly order. Soul masters were not allowed to fly in the city without permission.
Almost simultaneously as the streamer entered, several powerful auras rose from within the city. Four soul sages in royal guard uniforms stood suspended in the air, blocking the streamer's path.
A middle-aged soul saint shouted sharply, "No flying in Heaven Dou City! Land immediately and submit to inspection!"
The fierce rain battered the soul power shields they maintained, sending rippling waves across them.
The purple-gold streamer suddenly slowed and stopped. A young, upright figure appeared. Raindrops automatically slid off three feet around him, as if blocked by an invisible barrier.
The young man held a long spear wrapped in lightning in his left hand, while in his right—
The pupils of the four soul saints shrank simultaneously as they saw what he held.
It was a head.
Not just a head, but a bony skull, including part of the cervical vertebrae and shoulder blades. The blood had long since been washed away by the rain, exposing pale bones, but the round eyes and twisted face were still distinctly recognizable.
What shocked the four soul saints even more was that they recognized the head's owner.
"That's… Tai Tan, Clan Master of the Strength Clan?!" one soul saint cried out.
The middle-aged soul saint leading them, surnamed Chang, changed his tone to one of respect and caution. "Young Sect Master Chen Yi..."
Chen Yi looked up, his dark eyes shining brightly in the rainy night. He brushed past the four soul saints, uttering just two words:
"Move aside."
His voice was not loud, but it was filled with coldness and barely suppressed violence.
The four soul sages looked at each other, hesitation in their eyes. The leader gritted his teeth and made way. Chen Yi's identity was not something ordinary people could provoke.
The purple-gold streamer accelerated again, flying west across the city.
Below, countless people hiding under eaves looked up and whispered:
"Who is that? Flying in Heaven Dou City?"
"What's he holding? Oh my god, is that a head?!"
"That's Tai Tan, the Clan Master of the Strength Clan!"
"Tai Tan is dead?! Killed by Chen Yi?!"
"Look, he's going toward the Strength Clan's compound!"
The news spread in an instant, more and more people braved the rain to look westward, some soul masters using their powers to leap onto rooftops and chase after the streamer from afar.
Chen Yi ignored all of this, heading straight for the Strength Clan's compound.
This was a vast mansion complex, with high walls, deep courtyards, and grand gatehouses, highlighting the Strength Clan's heritage as one of the four great single-attributed clans.
The heavy rain pounded on the tiles, making a dense clattering sound. The mansion was brightly lit but shrouded in an uneasy silence.
Floating in the air, Chen Yi overlooked the buildings below, rain sliding down his resolute face, his eyes cold and sharp with killing intent.
Suddenly he laughed, the sound ringing clear through the rainy night.
"Even the gods don't want you to live and return."
His voice was not loud, but it thundered in the ears of all soul masters watching.
As his words fell, Chen Yi's body pulsed with thunderous vibrations. Purple-gold electric snakes danced around him, occasionally crackling with thunder and lightning in the air.
As the ultimate controller of lightning, his power multiplied in this storm — in this moment, he was like a walking natural disaster!
"Who dares challenge my Strength Clan?!"
More than ten figures burst out of the mansion, led by two elders, both soul saints. When they clearly saw what Chen Yi was holding, all their roars abruptly ceased.
It was as if time had stopped.
The rain still fell, thunder still rumbled.
The two elders' eyes widened to the limit, their expressions shifting from anger to shock, then to unbelievable terror.
"Clan Master?!"
"Brother!"
"Uncle——!"
High-pitched wails split the rainy night as dozens of people rushed out from behind — men, women, young and old, all direct members of the Strength Clan.
Seeing the broken skull, the crowd wailed and cursed.
In their eyes, the Soul Douluo at level 85 had made a move against a five-ring Soul King. Even if the opponent was the young sect master of the Body Sect, victory should have been assured.
No one had considered the possibility of defeat, much less that Tai Tan would die and be returned to their doorstep in such a humiliating manner.
Chen Yi gazed coldly at the chaotic crowd below, his lips growing ever colder.
He lightly raised his left hand, purple-gold lightning and hair-thin threads of electricity sinking into Tai Tan's head.
In the next moment—
The supposedly dead head suddenly flashed with faint light. Chen Yi was using lightning to stimulate the lingering consciousness in the head, allowing Tai Tan, in his last moments, to "see" everything that was happening in this bizarre way.
Chen Yi turned, carrying the glowing head, and slowly landed on the roof of a three-story restaurant opposite the Strength Clan. He pressed the base of the skull, where it connected to the vertebrae and shoulder blade, against the tiles and pushed down—
"Hmph."
With a faint sound, Tai Tan's head was "planted" at the highest point of the roof, the vertebrae sticking up like a flagpole, the lightning-activated eyes staring down at the entire Strength Clan compound.
After finishing all this, Chen Yi turned to face the now-crazed Strength Clan below, his voice calm and cold:
"I, Chen Yi, am not a villain."
"Today, I came only to let the old man die... so he could see with his own eyes the final fate of his family."
As his words fell, the Strength Clan's guards howled angrily.
"You little beast! Kill him!"
"Avenge the Clan Master!"
"Children of the clan, kill him for me——!"
The two soul sage elders led the charge, powerful waves of soul power shaking the rain around them as more than twenty soul kings and emperors followed, their soul skills lighting up the night with all kinds of amplifications.
But—
"The Orangutan martial soul can't fly," Chen Yi said, floating in the air, watching the people roaring and throwing stones below, unable to reach him. A hint of ridicule flashed in his eyes.
Ignoring their futile attacks, he slowly raised his hand.
The first soul ring, a deep purple, shone with unprecedented brilliance at this moment.
"Thunder Prison—"
Chen Yi's voice seemed to merge with the thunder and lightning of heaven and earth.
"—Return to your hearts!"
Boom!
Centered on Chen Yi, a visible purple ripple suddenly spread out. This was not just soul power, but a domain — at this moment, the innate domain "Thunder Prison" was fully deployed!
Wherever the ripple passed, the air began to ionize, and raindrops vaporized into fine mist the instant they landed.
Over the entire Strength Clan station, a giant minefield more than two hundred meters in diameter was instantly formed.
But this was only the beginning.
Almost simultaneously, the scattered lightning and thunder in the sky began to gather frantically toward this area, as if summoned by some supreme existence!
Boom——!
The first purple thunderbolt crashed down, smashing the roof of the central clan hall, strong tiles and beams exploding like paper paste, instantly catching fire!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Second, third, tenth strikes...
Thunder and rain!
No, even denser than rain!
In just three breaths, the entire Strength Clan station turned into a land of thunder calamity!
Purple electric snakes danced between buildings, spread across the ground, guided by puddles. The air was thick with the acrid smell of ozone and burnt flesh.
"Aah——!"
"Help!"
"My legs! My legs are numb!"
"The house is collapsing! Please!"
Screams, cries, collapsing bodies, thunder... all intertwined in a hellish symphony.
The two old soul saints were about to explode, raising their soul power shields and rushing to Chen Yi in desperation. But amid the unending thunder, their shields visibly thinned by the moment.
"You little beast! Dare to try me?!"
One elder roared as his seventh soul ring lit up, trying to open his martial soul's true body.
Chen Yi's eyes were cold. Raising his right hand, the purple-gold thunder sword condensed once more. His body glowed golden, the second layer of awakening again unleashed. The Frost Ember Heavenly Wings behind him spread wide, he turned into a purple-gold streamer, and instead of retreating, dashed boldly into the heart of the thunderstorm.
"You're first."
The thunder sword crashed into the elder's fist. With the blessing of the sky's thunder, the sword's power was unmatched — a clear sound of bones breaking came from the old man's arm as he was blown back, struck by three thunderbolts in succession before landing, his charred corpse crashing into the ruins.
"Second Grandpa!"
A middle-aged soul emperor's eyes nearly burst as he rushed over.
Chen Yi dodged sideways, opened his left hand, and pressed it to the man's back, over his heart.
Bang!
Thunder and lightning pierced through, and the man's heart stopped instantly. His body crumpled lifelessly.
The slaughter continued.
Under the total suppression of Thunder Prison and the indiscriminate thunderbolts from the heavens, the Strength Clan's resistance quickly collapsed. Their vaunted strength was laughable before the might of heaven and earth, their strong bodies as fragile as rotten wood before ultimate lightning.
A second soul saint tried to launch a surprise attack from the side, but Chen Yi backhanded his head into the ground. A soul emperor tried to burn his essence and self-destruct, but Chen Yi struck first with three thunderbolts, blowing him up into a rain of blood.
Massacre.
A one-sided massacre.
The rain washed away the blood, but new blood dyed it red again. The thunder illuminated faces of utter despair, leading them into eternal darkness.
The last member of the Strength Clan, a boy of twelve or thirteen, shivered in the ruins, accidentally burned by the thunder. The Strength Clan's station was now just a field of thunder-blasted ruins. No intact buildings or living souls remained. Only charred earth, debris, and the lingering scent of death in the air.
Chen Yi floated in the air, Thunder Prison slowly receding, the sky's thunder gradually abating. The purple-gold light on his body faded, his breathing shallow. Maintaining such a wide domain and channeling heavenly thunder, even with the blessing of the torrential rain, had drained him greatly.
Suddenly, a sly voice chuckled in his ear: "Well then, good luck!"
Chen Yi ignored the voice, flew back to the restaurant rooftop, where Tai Tan's head remained, the lightning-activated eyes still wide open, reflecting the destruction of his entire clan.
Chen Yi stared coldly at the head, raised his foot—
Crack.
The head was kicked away, arcing through the air to fall into the smoking ruins below. The remains of the once-proud clan, the head that witnessed their destruction, instantly turned to ashes and merged with the ruins.
After finishing all this, Chen Yi turned and looked around. The rain was easing but had not stopped.
Far away, on rooftops, towers, even in the sky, crowds had gathered to watch. There were members of the Heaven Dou royal family, spies from other major powers, soul masters of great factions, and ordinary people.
All eyes were on the youth floating above the ruins — envy, fear, shock, awe... a tangle of emotions.
Chen Yi took a deep breath of the burnt air, his voice, amplified by soul power, resounding across half of Heaven Dou City.
"I am Chen Yi, young sect master of the Body Sect."
"Today, Tai Tan, head of the Strength Clan, led his clan to ambush and kill me."
"Now, I have exterminated his entire clan."
"Let this be an example."
Without looking at anyone, his words fell. The purple-gold streamer flashed again, piercing the rain and vanishing southeast into the sky.
All that remained were the dead ruins and countless terrifying gazes that would not settle for a long time.
…
PS: Bonus chapter at 300 PS