Chapter 1 The Tang Manor

The main residence of the Tang family was forty meters away from the courtyard gate, separated by a southern-style miniature landscape garden filled with ancient charm. It featured artificial mountains, willow trees, flowing water, and a pond, with all the paths paved with bluestone bricks. Intricate sculptures and talismans were meticulously engraved on them, embodying both beauty and art, naturally accentuating the Tang family's millennium of heritage.

At the same time, this seemingly tranquil and beautiful garden was also the location of the Tang family's impregnable formation. Every inch of seemingly harmless land was actually fraught with hidden dangers!

However, even the most impregnable formation would have difficulty reacting to something utterly unreasonable—such as a stone lion arcing through the air, traversing over forty meters, and smashing half of the main residence to smithereens upon landing.

A deafening roar was followed by a spiritual alarm, signaling an enemy attack!

As the stone lion crashed down and the warning sounded, sensing the intrusion of a foreign cultivator, the previously dim garden, covered in snow, automatically activated, and layers of cyan phosphorescence abruptly emerged!

Amidst the eerie and terrifying light, faces appeared on the bluestone slabs, the semi-frozen pond stirred into a vortex, the willow branches began to curl against the wind, and faint, incantation-like sounds echoed from all directions!

Buzz! In an instant, layers upon layers of spiritual entities emerged from every corner of the garden. At least fifty semi-transparent phantoms, their bodies shimmering with spiritual light, appeared in the world with the support of the phosphorescence.

Among them, eleven were even surrounded by a gray-black spiritual aura, clearly Awakened-level evil spirits!

For a family of ghost wranglers, their true strength didn't lie in their people. As long as each generation had an Awakened-level shaman, they could control evil spirits, maintain their foundation, and ensure the family's continuation!

The evil spirits opened their eyes, filled with resentment, and looked towards the courtyard gate—but their appearance this time wasn't, as per instinct and the formation's stimulation, to ferociously besiege the intruder. Instead... they obeyed their instinctive desire to flee in disarray!

Crack, like a steel wheel striking flint, the sound of a lighter igniting echoed. Dazzling spiritual light illuminated the front of the entire mansion. Countless souls residing within sensed the terrifying killing intent emanating from the front and began to flee madly in all directions. A tall, sturdy giant, appearing to be at least two meters tall, was holding a stone lion weighing at least three tons, smashing through the courtyard wall and striding in!

He didn't even bother using the gate!

At this moment, fully armed, the giant Su Zhou arrived uninvited!

"I've grown 2 centimeters recently. My actual height is 178, with height-enhancing shoes it's 181, adding insoles it's 183, wearing two pairs of socks it's 184, oversized shoes naturally make you look taller, so that's 186. A thick hood makes me look 189, shoulder pads make my figure look strong and sturdy, plus Yala coiled up on my head adds 193, exaggerate by five centimeters, 198, rounding up, that's two meters tall."

"Plus, I weigh about 130 kilograms, and with my weapons, over 200 kilograms. I walk with the power of a tiger, full of imposing presence. No one could possibly know that behind this disguise is a handsome young man!"

Boom! Violent spiritual power directly and forcefully tore apart the formation's restraints, driving away the surrounding spiritual entities. Facing the three Tang family cultivators who had rushed out of the main residence with gloomy and solemn expressions, Su Zhou didn't bother to say a word. He grinned, raised his hand using the Qi Condensation and Object Manipulation technique to lift the stone lion, and hurled it over with a whistling sound!

Explain? Communicate? With a house full of lingering vengeful spirits, explain what? Was he supposed to say that these spirits were all grateful to the Tang family for helping them and willingly bound themselves to the formation? If that were the case, what was the black resentment entwined around these three people?

Even ordinary demonic soldiers probably didn't have this much resentment clinging to them! These guys had either killed a lot of people or tortured a lot of people!

In short, they must die!

With a howling wind, the stone statue was thrown rapidly. No one thought it was a good idea to take it head-on, so the three immediately scattered to avoid it, letting the statue smash into the main gate of the entire mansion with a loud crash, bringing with it the sound of a huge house collapsing.

No one shouted "It's all a misunderstanding" either. If they're already attacking your doorstep, is it still a misunderstanding? It was obvious that they were targeting the Tang family. Without a word, the three, who had long practiced cooperation, immediately launched a counterattack with grim faces.

"Ding!"

The eldest of the three, a white-haired old man, glared, chanted a spell, then raised the copper bell in his hand and shook it forcefully. A soul-shattering sonic wave, a hundred times more ear-piercing than a normal vengeful spirit's shriek, even one that was difficult to compare to the spiritual sound of an Awakened-level evil spirit, surged directly towards Su Zhou, bringing with it a wave of extremely cold spiritual power.

Not only that, but upon hearing the bell, the evil ghosts and resentful spirits that had been fleeing in all directions all turned their heads, their eyes glowing blood red, and rushed towards Su Zhou again!

At the same time, the middle-aged man on the left also fully activated his spiritual power, raised his hands emitting a gray and defeated spiritual light, and pointed a copper mirror at Su Zhou—and the moment Su Zhou's image appeared in the mirror, an invisible force of restraint came with the sound of resentful curses, not only to freeze him in place but also to ignite the frenzy in Su Zhou's heart, preventing him from thinking!

And the moment Su Zhou was hit by the bell and the copper mirror, the middle-aged female priest in the center also unhesitatingly loaded a bullet that looked like a finger into the bone pistol in her hand—this 'Soul-Splitting Nail' was a close-range spiritual skill passed down from their ancestors, able to break a person's hardened body and shatter their tempered soul, and could also damage their foundation and spirituality, but it required a long nail used in conjunction with a soul-fixing hammer, requiring not only spiritual cultivation but also a high level of physical fitness.

But in recent years, with technological advancements, nailing a nail into the human body wasn't as difficult as it used to be. A specially made pistol was enough to solve everything.

Bang! The bone bullet shot out, the colorful ribbons wrapped around the pistol fluttered in the wind, and the power of eight talismans converged on one bullet, causing the surrounding snow to vibrate, even stirring up a storm like a small cannon firing. If this shot hit, not to mention the physical damage, the curse alone would be enough to make a person dizzy, have a toothache, stomach acid, difficulty moving their hands and feet, and have their Qi and blood flow in reverse!

But they heard a rough voice filled with disappointment and poorly disguised.

"That's it? Where are your anti-material rifles, exoskeleton armor, and landmines?"

"If you don't have those, at least take out a few more spiritual artifacts."

—If we could get our hands on those things, we would have been one of the top-ranked great families in the country, okay?!

Before the three could even have such thoughts, Su Zhou directly stepped forward, shattering the stagnating power that was trying to freeze his body. His entire body activated the Gale Shield. The wind force, several times stronger than when he first created the Gale Seed, swept and vibrated, mixed with spiritual power, directly tearing the bone bullet shot towards him to pieces!

It seemed that the wails of resentful spirits overflowed from the shattered bone bullet, but Su Zhou had already stretched out a hand, grasped the fragments of bone powder, then clenched his left fist, condensing the spiritual power into a lump centered on the bone powder, and then with a flick of his arm, hurled this spiritual power lump towards the chest of the middle-aged man who was desperately activating the copper mirror, trying to freeze him in place!

"Crack!"

Su Zhou's throw was more ferocious and faster than a bullet. The sound of bones cracking was heard, and the spiritual force condensed in the bone powder fragments surged out, shattering and piercing through the man's chest, sending him flying backward, crashing to the ground unconscious!

Then, facing the many evil spirits controlled by the bell, rushing towards him, Su Zhou took a deep breath, and then shouted loudly!

"Rest in peace!"

Boom! A violent spiritual power wave, mixed with a fierce and bloody aura, crashed down like a mountain overturning the sea—Su Zhou wasn't some benevolent person in the Divine Wood World. He was a madman who had directly charged the demonic army several times, even charging against reinforcements, all the way up the Divine Tree to slay the Demon Emperor. Using his aura to deal with these Awakened-level evil spirits and resentful spirits who weren't even Awakened was completely overkill.

Overwhelmed by this aura, as if struck by a thunderbolt, all the resentful spirits shrieked and dissipated in the first instant, like encountering the midday sun—they were originally just fragments of resentment left in the world without true spirits. How could they resist the sweeping of thick spiritual power like a raging river?

Even the evil spirits trembled all over, emitting black smoke, and the eyes full of resentment and hatred turned into blankness under the spiritual power's washing, clearly about to be directly saved by Su Zhou's roar!

In just a brief moment of confrontation, the difference in strength was immediately apparent—Su Zhou didn't wait for the white-haired old man, whose eyes were wide with shock and suffered a heart attack from the soul backlash caused by the destruction of the vengeful spirits, to collapse. He stepped down, and the thick bluestone slab shattered into a dozen pieces. Then, Su Zhou exerted force and kicked, and several stones were immediately kicked to pieces. The near-sonic stone fragments carried a howling like a shotgun, bombarding the two Tang family members who were still standing!

Buzz! These stone fragments were blocked by the rapidly emerging spiritual shield on the priest's robe. This robe was actually a spiritual artifact that automatically defended against ranged attacks such as bullets and arrows.

But even so, the entire spiritual shield was undulating and distorted, on the verge of breaking.

"What's going on?! Which powerful figure wants to attack our Tang family?!"

At this moment, the panicked Tang family head hadn't figured out this question yet. Her face began to twist: "We never provoke any cultivators, and we have never openly targeted any opponents... To outsiders, our Tang family should be detached from worldly affairs and kind to others!"

"The Zheng Nation officials? No, if they wanted to destroy us, they would do it openly and justly. Wait, could it be, the rivals of the 'Descending Spirits Society'..."

There was no time left for her to think.

Because Su Zhou had already shrunk the earth into inches, one step forty meters, his right hand clenched into an iron hammer, and smashed towards her head!

Smash! The spiritual shield shattered, the storm dissipated, and the priest's forehead caved in on the spot, blood splattering in the air, and she fell to the ground with dazed eyes. Su Zhou had no pity, he stepped again, and with a crack, finished off the male Awakened next to her.

Then, Su Zhou came to the middle-aged man who was already scared out of his wits, struggling to cover the wound on his chest and trying to get up and run. He reached out, picked him up, and asked in a deep voice: "Although I don't think I need to ask, I'll still ask—do you often curse the families of business competitors, or torture ordinary people to refine evil spirits?"

"No, I didn't do it!" The man roared in despair, flailing his hands and feet, the instant death of his third uncle and eldest sister scared him to tears. The person in front of him was clearly only half a step away from the Extraordinary rank, and he couldn't resist him at all: "Most of the evil spirits were passed down from our ancestors. We do curse to vent our anger, but we have never attacked cultivators like you, just some offensive mortals... As for refining evil spirits, in the last hundred years or so, we've only gone to the beggar dens and homeless camps in other cities and villages to abduct a few people. Does, does that count?!"

"Nonsense, of course it counts." After confirming, Su Zhou shook his head with a disgusted expression, and snapped the man's neck with a crack: "Mortals, huh? Do you really think you're superior? At least cultivate into an immortal spirit before you say that."

At this point, all three Awakened of the Tang family were dead, and most of the eleven Awakened-level evil spirits had been saved by his roar.

Those that were left, trembling with fear, were all finished off by Su Zhou one by one: "Let the remaining resentment return to the world. Alas, you were probably all pitiful people in your lives. May your true spirits be reincarnated and have a happy life."

From the ambush to the end. A total of two minutes.

The Tang family's high command was annihilated.