They still remembered how a projectile of light had come from the strange artifact, blowing the guard's captain to pieces, shot by the woman leading all these people.
Suddenly, the barrier in front of them began to vibrate, and three people emerged from it with sharp gazes, surveying the scene before them.
MingYue recognized them; they were the Grand Elder and the First Elder of the family.
The Grand Elder often acted as the patriarch's advisor.
MingYue hated him to the bone since he was the one who had given the patriarch the idea to betroth her.
This event caused tons of problems for MingYue, disrupting her cultivation and resulting in her progress lagging behind, prompting her to go to that secret realm.
Otherwise, she would have skipped it since she had already obtained some cultivation resources from the last secret realm.
The Grand Elder, seeing every single family member they had left in the mansion chained down and forced to kneel under all the commoners, felt rage.
Killing intent and pressure spread out from his body, targeting every single person in the area.
MingYue smirked, 'FengXue.'
A stronger pressure emerged from MingYue, canceling the pressure emanating from the Grand Elder.
MingHao, standing at MingYue's side, looked at her with reverence.
He had always looked up to his sister, and now, feeling qi stronger than even their patriarch emanating from her made him feel proud.
But the image only lasted for a moment, and soon, his face turned pale at what MingYue did next.
Capitalizing on the moment when the elder was surprised by the presence of a Golden Core cultivator, MingYue took out the gun, set it at 40% power, and pointed it at the Grand Elder.
BANG!
A concentrated qi shot out from the barrel, blasting the target into pieces before it exploded, hitting the array barrier.
The Grand Elder's face turned pale, as did the elder who walked behind him.
The area that had once been filled with many sounds, from the cursing of the 'young masters' to the murmur of commoners, turned silent.
Every single man in the area could feel their hair standing on end.
Even those who had a grudge against the Grand Elder pitied him.
His crotch had turned into a hole.
Ehm...
not that kind of hole, but a hole through which you could see.
The bullet had blasted through his crotch, destroying everything in its path.
BANG!
BANG!
While everyone still remained silent, MingYue shot twice, this time reducing the bullet strength to 30%.
The Grand Elder was still in shock from what had happened, and the two elders at his side quickly jumped, focusing their qi to protect their crotches.
But luckily for them, they were not the targets.
The Grand Elder fell to the ground as one bullet pulverized his thigh and the other his right shoulder; both limbs fell to the ground.
Seeing what had happened, the elders quickly concluded the attacker had a grudge against the Grand Elder.
Seeing the woman target the Grand Elder's crotch, they wondered if the Grand Elder had violated the average-looking woman in the past.
But this idea lasted only for a moment.
MingYue dashed forward, taking a sword they quickly recognized.
How could they not?
It was one of the family treasures, a sword artifact that amplified the qi of the user.
It was wielded by one of their geniuses, MingYue, whom they thought was dead.
The Grand Elder wanted to move but couldn't; at this point, he wasn't shocked anymore, but the pressure from FengXue was concentrated on his body, and, adding the damage MingYue inflicted, he was paralyzed.
SLASH!
The sword pierced through his already faltering qi barrier and his head without giving him any chance to fight back.
Blood spurted out, and the Grand Elder's body then turned into green particles, leaving behind only his cultivation robe and storage ring.
From start to finish, MingYue hadn't given them any opportunity.
Without FengXue's pressure, she knew she couldn't have achieved this.
The best they could have done would be to bombard the elders when they came out, but this meant she couldn't ask them any questions.
The Elders quickly thought MingYue had come for the Hua family and that they got it from MingYue's corpse.
They quickly stepped back and looked at MingYue warily.
Both of them took out their swords and adopted defensive stances.
Their qi pushed to the max to protect their bodies.
"Is the Hua family cooperating with demonic cultivators?"
Looking at the Grand Elder's corpse and MingYue's eyes glinting red, they concluded this.
Only those demonic cultivators have methods to absorb other cultivators' qi; it can raise cultivation quickly, but it comes with a big downside.
Since the qi absorbed is not pure, it drives the cultivator into madness.
As time progressed, many tragedies and massacres happened, and they finally decided to ban demonic cultivation; anyone who practiced it would be pursued by everyone and killed without mercy.
Seeing the woman do this in front of them, they understood that it meant she wouldn't let them go.
'MingYue, I cannot hold this for long.
If you want to finish them, do it quickly.'
'No need, take off your pressure, FengXue.
I appreciate the help.' MingYue replied in her mind.
Then, she turned her sharp gaze toward the elders.
Her amber eyes still flickered with an intense red hue since she had just absorbed the life force from the Grand Elder.
[Queen, I will hold the excess life force for now.
This should be enough for you to break through to a minor realm, but if we do that here, the others will become suspicious.]
MingYue agreed.
If she broke through now, the elders would think she used some secret technique to release the pressure before and start attacking her aggressively.
She pointed her finger at the elders.
"You geezers, a and b, where is Zhang, that stupid old man?"
The elders gulped.
Zhang Xueqi was their patriarch.
His location now concerned the secret of their family, one related to their roots.
They looked into each other's eyes; many thoughts came to their minds, and both of them then nodded.
Their qi suddenly burst out, and both of them leaped forward as they screamed in unison, "For the glory of the Xueqi Family."