"Can I not hold on any longer? This aura is too powerful."
His knees were barely a fist's distance from the ground, and that distance was continuously shortening, inching closer to the ground.
"I cannot kneel, I must not," his eyes reddened, emitting a faint grey light, and his body also radiated a pale grey glow, almost invisible without close observation.
With a low growl like a wild beast, his body trembled violently, completely soaked with sweat and blood.
"I must not," he roared, and under the pressure of the sixth-tier aura, he managed to straighten his body with sheer willpower, standing upright.
"It's impossible, how can a person without any energy in their body resist the aura of the sixth tier? Even a fifth-tier strength person could not withstand it." The people in the hall all showed incredulous expressions.
The person releasing the aura grew angrier. "This boy has made me lose face in front of so many."
Mid-sixth tier.
"Puuh," as the aura grew, it fiercely assaulted Ye Han's soul, and his body was suddenly flung backward, blood scattering in the air.
At the moment Ye Han was thrown back, the powerful aura also vanished instantly, and the more profound individuals in the hall also regained their composure at the same time. Some powerful members of the Helian family flashed a mix of relief and distress in their eyes.
The bloodthirsty, chilling emotions that had assailed his soul disappeared in the instant Ye Han's body was thrown, as if they had never been there.
"Just a little bit more, just a little bit more, if I could hold on a while longer, I could fully awaken," Ye Han thought, lying on the ground, his face covered with blood and sweat, looking up at the crescent moon with a strong sense of unwillingness.
Moments later, Ye Han composed himself and struggled to stand. He discovered that the Brahma Corpse Scripture was circulating more smoothly in his body, absorbing yin energy faster and more purely. Instead of dissipating after one cycle through his body, the yin energy now gathered entirely within the cloud-like formation where his heart was.
With the influx of a large amount of pure yin energy, the color of the cloud-like formation deepened significantly. Finally, with the bloodline half-awake, the Brahma Corpse Scripture reached the first layer. From that day forward, Ye Han was no longer a person without energy in his body. He could not only use his physical strength but also practice powerful techniques. His strength had increased significantly.
However, the only regret for Ye Han was that his bloodline had not fully awakened, which would slow down the cultivation speed of the Brahma Corpse Scripture. He didn't know how long it would take to reach the second layer.
Ye Han collected his thoughts and looked quietly at the hall, walking towards it with heavy steps, one firm step at a time.
Helian Jing Lei sat in the middle, his long robe and handsome face betraying his youthful charm that must have captivated many young women. What surprised Ye Han the most was that Helian Jing Lei was sitting there casually, but his aura was like an immovable mountain peak.
Beside him sat a few elders with slightly white hair, emitting no aura. If not for the eyes, they would be nearly undetectable. These were family elders, also at the ninth tier, completely merged with the surrounding space. This was the effect of reaching beyond the eighth tier in cultivation, merging a trace of the forces of heaven and earth. They were always blended with the surrounding space, hiding all their aura.
Behind them stood unimportant servants and family offspring. At the guest seat sat a person with a calm face, his robe fluttering without wind, wearing a red badge on his chest that Ye Han had seen before.
Each family had its own badge, and the color varied according to status within the family. The family members' badges were blue; Helian Jing Lei, as the family head, had a white badge, the only white one in the family. The elders wore purple badges. The red badge was worn by those who came to serve the family, and the servants wore grey.
Below that person sat three others. One, like the elders above, sat without any aura. The other two shocked Ye Han because he noticed the elements of fire and water around them were extremely active and dense. "Are those magicians? One of fire and one of water, their magic level doesn't seem low, judging by the aura they emit, it's not much different from my father's." Even though they were both at the ninth tier, there were differences in strength. These individuals were clearly far behind the elders.
"Family head, elders," perhaps because of Helian Jing Lei's indifference over the years or his attitude towards Ye Han
's mother, Ye Han referred to him as the family head during their meetings, never once calling him father.
Helian Jing Lei's eyebrows furrowed, and a flash of cold light crossed his eyes. "Helian Wuji, I ask you. When did you start cultivating, and what were you doing this morning?"
Although Ye Han had been a waste in everyone's eyes, as his son, Helian Jing Lei still called him "Wuji," but now he addressed him by name, indicating the extent of his anger over Ye Han's actions.
"This morning, I just went out to buy something," Ye Han said, seeing Helian Jing Lei's expression and knowing that the day's events must have angered him.
"Just to buy something?" Helian Jing Lei still spoke coldly. "Did you have a fight with Kay from the Patrickley family and cripple him?"
"That thing you mentioned. Indeed, I did cripple someone this morning, but I did not know he was Kay, the young master of the Patrickley family."
"Humph, you didn't recognize him? Didn't you see the Patrickley family badge he wore?" Helian Jing Lei said angrily.
"I did not see it," Ye Han denied outright.
"Just because of a little thing, you cripple someone. You're too malicious for your age." After saying that, a ninth-tier swordsman's powerful aura was released, pressing down hard on Ye Han.
"Jing Lei, why the rush when the matter isn't clear yet?" said an elder sitting beside Helian Jing Lei, waving his hand lightly.
With a soft "bang," several cracks appeared in the hall's floor. Helian Jing Lei instantly withdrew his aura, looking puzzled at the elder beside him.
"Tell me, what's going on?" The outside rumors only mentioned that Ye Han had crippled the second son of the Patrickley family, Kayren, without detailing the incident.
"He insulted me and my mother, so I crippled him," Ye Han said simply. Upon hearing this, the people in the hall were astonished; just for a few words, he had crippled someone.
"You..." Helian Jing Lei was furious but had no words to continue. Ye Han's words left him speechless.
"What's wrong with me? Hmph. For the sake of reputation, you made a woman wait for you for more than a decade. For the family, how often have you seen your son in the past decade? For the sake of face, where were you when my mother and I were humiliated?" Suddenly, Ye Han retorted, quieting the noisy hall.
"If you and the Helian family can't protect my mother and me, then is what I've done wrong?" His loud question left everyone speechless.
"You all leave first," said the elder beside Helian Jing Lei, breaking the silence in the hall. Everyone gradually left after the elder spoke.
"Father, you..." Helian Jing Lei looked puzzled at the elder, and only then did Ye Han realize the elder was his grandfather, the previous Helian family head, Helian Yun.
"When did you start cultivating?" Helian Yun asked Ye Han, ignoring Helian Jing Lei's question.
"Ten months ago," Ye Han said naturally. It wasn't shameful to have strength.
"What level have you reached?"
"I don't know."
"Impudent. Is that how you speak to your grandfather?" Helian Jing Lei asked loudly, angered by Ye Han's attitude.
"Grandfather, heh," Ye Han chuckled, echoing through the hall.
"Never mind. Now, tell me how we're going to appease the Patrickley family's anger," the elder's voice carried a hint of imperceptible confusion.
A genius had suddenly emerged in the family, but he had also provoked a powerful clan. Choosing between the Patrickley family's wrath and this genius was indeed a difficult decision for anyone. On one side was the family's destruction, and on the other was the family's rise.