Changing the Fate of Huo Chen
Like they were connected by a hive mind, the assassins all looked at each other and reached a conclusion without saying a word.
'Go for Xue Bai!'
Xue Bai was Li Rou's weak spot. Everyone in the Great Xuan Empire knew that. If, by some miracle, they managed to capture Xue Bai and use the boy as a hostage, they could negotiate with Li Rou, and their lives might have a chance of being saved.
However, they were never destined to reach their goal, as almost instantly, Li Rou waved her arm, and 16 fire chains were created, each grabbing a limb belonging to the four assassins.
Another wave of her fair hand then made the chains retract once more and pull the assassins onto the ground, where they remained bound and immobile.
The four assassins didn't even get within ten meters of Xue Bai before they were chained and bound to the ground below. Coupled with the scorching hot lava-like floor that they were now bound to and the searingly hot chains on their limbs, they were feeling torture beyond human comprehension.
This was the power of a cultivator in the Domain Lord realm. Inside their own domain, they were the lords. Whatever they wished to happen happened. As long as the comprehension of their law was deep enough, they could even bend reality to their wishes.
Xue Bai, seeing his mother's show of strength, wasn't too surprised and instead was rather calm. Choosing to stay silent for the moment, he waited for Li Rou to finish her business before speaking up.
After immobilizing the crooks, Li Rou walked over to the one she deemed strongest and ripped the hood that covered his face off, exposing the man's true appearance.
This didn't give her much information, though, as other than a rather average-looking face, Li Rou didn't recognize the person at all. Which, while normal-sounding, was rather odd.
Since it was the weakest continent in the Baishen Plane, a late-stage Law Manifestation realm cultivation base wasn't something common in the Southern Continent and was actually extremely rare.
Li Rou knew most peak powerhouses from the Great Xuan Empire, so it would go without saying that she knew this person who was at the 7th stage of the Law Manifestation realm.
Yet she didn't.
Confused but with a small hunch, Li Rou also removed the hoods from the other three assassins, and true enough, she didn't recognize any of them.
It was then that she realized her guess was most likely right.
Grabbing the leader, who was still at her feet, Li Rou removed the man's spatial ring and started to inspect its contents. And true to her guess, she found what she was looking for.
Inside the spatial ring, beside a few pills related to combat, there was only a token with a red skull branded on it.
"Tch! It's the damn Blood Skull Hall." Li Rou angrily spoke as she looked at the four men still chained to the ground.
Giving the nearest one a kick to the stomach, she continued, "If you're from there, why not say something? I was thinking of taking you hostage, but what's the point of keeping a hostage that nobody wants?" Li Rou spoke angrily.
The Blood Skull Hall was an assassination organization on the Southern Continent famed for having brainless assassins fearless of torture. Li Rou could go a fortnight torturing them all and wouldn't even get their names, let alone who hired them.
Moreover, the Blood Skull Hall assassins didn't even know who hired them in the first place. Everything was done through a middleman, courtesy of the hall itself. The assassins were just contractors, in a sense.
Li Rou obviously wasn't ignorant of these people or their insignia, as she had more than a few of these people come after her before, so after seeing the familiar red skull token, she made the decision to incarnate the men without any hesitation.
However, just before she could, Xue Bai, behind her, spoke up.
"Mother, wait! Don't kill them. They aren't from the Blood Skull Hall!" Xue Bai yelled out once he saw his mom forming complicated hand seals.
He had no idea what the hand seals meant, but how many she had already formed and the fact that nothing had appeared yet made Xue Bai know it was something powerful. And since Xue Bai knew who the culprits truly were, he wanted to stop his mother from doing anything rash.
Though Li Rou was confused by Xue Bai's sudden interruption, she still held her hand and stopped her technique. The assassins were already completely trapped and half crippled. Also, in her mind, whether they died now or a bit later didn't matter too much, so she didn't complete her finishing blow.
Going over to Li Rou's side, Xue Bai spoke, "They are from the Xia Clan. They are pretending to be a part of the Blood Skull Hall to shift the blame, just in case they get found out. As no one ever bothers to torture a Blood Skull Hall member."
Xue Bai wasn't 100% certain of this fact, but he was pretty confident in it. During Huo Long's comeback, his first enemy was the Xian Clan, and during his counterattack against them, he almost confirmed this fact.
Moreover, when the second Xue Bai said this, the four immobilized men turned their heads in shock toward him, proving his guess right.
Li Rou was a shrewd woman and instantly caught onto their facial expression, though they tried to hide it.
"You three are good! You almost tricked me!" Li Rou laughed merrily. However, with her smile that didn't quite reach her ears and the sarcasm laced within the sentence itself, no one thought that Li Rou was actually happy to hear this.
Giving the leader another, much stronger kick to the stomach, damn near crippling his dantian, Li Rou pulled out a communication token from her spatial ring and crushed it.
Xue Bai wasn't too sure what his mother was doing, but after seeing a snowflake branded onto the token, he eventually realized. She was calling Xue Feng.
In the meantime, while Li Rou was getting reinforcements, Xue Bai turned to the commander, who was trying to heal his ghastly injuries.
Of Huo Chen's injuries, the cut on his head was almost fully healed, while his nearly severed leg had started to heal a bit, but Xue Bai could see that it would take much longer to heal it fully.
Thankfully, he was in a safe spot, so he could fully focus his attention on healing and not the outside world. However, once he sensed Xue Bai walking toward him, he opened his previously closed eyes and looked at the Young Duke who was approaching him.
"Commander Huo, speak of this to no one. No, never mind; come here and swear a Dao Oath here." Xue Bai ordered the commander once he saw the man's eyes open.
Though Xue Bai hadn't said anything super vital or relating to his secrets, he still didn't want this to leak out. It would alarm the Xia Clan, which would then alarm the Wang Clan. Xue Bai wanted to avoid this.
If it were some other person, Xue Bai would've just killed them already, but since the man with them was Huo Chen, Xue Bai couldn't kill him. After all, he and Li Rou spent all this time saving his life. So how could he just kill him after all of the work they just did?
Huo Chen wasn't too sure as to why Xue Bai wanted this, but since he was already bound to the Duke of Snow and his family, he felt like another Dao Oath really didn't matter, and he quickly swore another Dao Oath in front of Xue Bai and Li Rou.
Feeling like the man was no longer needed, Xue Bai let him leave to heal.
"Alright, you can continue on your way home. Just remember to watch out for assassins next time. Also, you can stay a while longer this time to take extra care of your injuries." Xue Bai said once the man flew off.
Huo Chen was grateful and gave the mother-son duo a deep bow before leaving. Too much had happened in too short a time, and he needed time to heal mentally and physically.
However, just as Huo Chen left, two people arrived.
Xue Feng had brought Li Huo along with him.
Landing gracefully on the ground, Xue Feng and Li Huo gave Xue Bai an odd look as if they were saying, "Why were you here?" but after seeing Li Ruo's near-manifested anger, they stopped and went over to her.
"What happened, Rou'er/Little Rou?" Xue Feng and Li Huo asked with concern once they saw the chained-up men.
Though they weren't really concerned about Li Rou, as she was just as strong as them, the glare she had on caused it. Li Rou obviously wasn't troubled with the small fries she had chained up, but rather, it was the fact that the small fries were here in the first place that made them concerned.
"Ask your son. He is still keeping me in the dark." Li Rou snorted.
This was true, but it was mainly because Xue Bai still had the perfect time to tell her, not because he was being secretive.
However, Xue Bai wasn't allowed to explain that part, as once Li Rou finished her sentence, the eyes of three Domain Lord realm cultivators locked onto him, sending a small shiver down his spine.
Feeling like he was being stared at by three predators, Xue Bai quickly folded and began to explain.
"I'm sure you know about the conflicts between the Huo, Xia, and Huang Clans, right? So I won't explain much there." Xue Bai started, to which all three domain lords nodded.
"Earlier, when Huo Long was a rising star, the two clans had retreated and began to seem like clawless tigers, but now that he is crippled, the two are finally revealing their claws. First, they want to cut off the connection between us and Huo Clan's biggest potential ally, Huo Chen. After that, they'll most likely continue to attack the Huo Clan in the dark. Killing off Huo Clan members whenever they leave home, humiliating their youths, etc. Everything to slowly whittle down the Huo Clan to make sure the Duan Imperial Family doesn't interfere."
It was a smart plan, and Xue Bai had much praise for it.
Though the Duan Imperial Family loved for their noble families to infight, they would never let them slaughter each other down to the last man, especially a Marquis Clan like the Huo Clan.
But since the Huo Clan has been becoming more and more obsolete over the past few decades, the Duan Imperial Family has been becoming more and more indifferent to their situation.
If the Xia and Huang Clans manage to kill off Huo Chen and Huo Ming, perhaps the Duan Imperial Family might even take away the Huo Clan's noble title. By then, the two clans wouldn't even need to conceal their desires and would annihilate the protagonist's family without hesitation.
Of course, this would never happen, as how could Huo Chen let his family be wiped out? He was a protagonist in a clan-building trope. It wouldn't make sense.
Done with his explanation, Xue Bai looked at his parents and uncle and waited for their reactions.
Thankfully, it was what he expected.
Full of smiles, the three laughed and gave him a pat on the back for once again being their little gem.
"If it's that, then nothing really matters here." Xue Feng laughed after he gave his son a rather rough slap on the back, sending the boy stumbling. But once he finished his words, he looked at the chained-up Xia Clan members.
"However, since the Xia Clan dared to target one of my commanders, why don't we give them a visit? I haven't seen old man Xia for almost a decade." Xue Feng said with a half smile.
The Xia Clan was a noble clan subordinated to the Wang Clan, and as a Marquis in his own right, it was normal that Xue Feng wouldn't see him much. However, now with such a prime chance to extort a Marquis sitting in front of him, the once-poor commoner Xue Feng didn't plan to let that chance slide.
Xue Feng was a Duke, and Li Rou was the continent's best alchemist, but who could say no to more money? Also, the Xia Clan had existed for more than a calendar year already. The money they had slowly accumulated was nothing to scoff at.
And once Xue Feng showed their patriarch the corpses of the assassins, he could practically have his pick of the litter with their wealth.
It was a win-win, and Xue Feng was almost salivating at his imagination. Thankfully, before his face put on an obscene smile, Li Rou acted quickly, smacking the man on the back of the head.
"You two idiots deal with this crap. I'm taking Bai'er back home." Li Rou angrily snorted before picking up her son and flying off. She had done all the hard labor; it was fair that they cleaned up the aftermath.
Xue Bai also didn't resist and simply let himself fly off with Li Rou. While there were things he could tell Xue Feng right now, it wasn't anything the man couldn't get himself with a few rounds of 'questioning,' so he stayed mum and flew home.
There was cultivation to be done.
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