Chapter 11: I'll Make Sure You Never Enter the Cycle of Reincarnation!

After devouring the heart of his own kin, Christian Thubron let out a feral cackle. "Heh, heh, heh! Since I can't hide it anymore, then I won't!" Kylian Thubron had planned to force him to swear on his Dao Heart if he refused to admit it. He never expected Christian Thubron to drop the act so cleanly, like he had never bothered wearing a mask at all. At the same time, Spiritual Power inside Christian Thubron surged wildly. In only a few breaths, his aura climbed to the peak of the Spirit Spring Realm. The highest level of the mortal tier, only a single step away from the spirit tier. Christian Thubron's gaze turned deep and cold. He stared at Kylian Thubron's entire right arm and asked slowly, "Heh. Kylian Thubron, do you know what I did with your father's corpse?" The moment those words landed, Kylian Thubron's mind spun through a single, brutal thought. Then rage flooded everything. Seeing his expression, Christian Thubron kept smiling, almost gentle. "You've figured it out, haven't you?" "That's right. You guessed it." "I ate your father." "That heart. That arm. Even his thigh…" Kylian Thubron snapped. "Christian Thubron! I'll kill you!" Harpoon in hand, he charged straight at him. Christian Thubron felt ecstatic. *Hahaha!* *Kylian Thubron, you're finally angry.* *If you don't come at me, how do I capture you?* *How do I eat your flesh and drink your blood?* *How do I seize the imperial throne?* His robes whipped in the wind as his presence swelled again, as if he were about to break through into the Mystic Core Realm on the spot. He thrust out a hand, clawing for Kylian Thubron. Denise Lyson saw the tide turning and moved before Nathaniel Urwin could. She understood it clearly. Nathaniel Urwin's combat strength was formidable, but he might not actually be Christian Thubron's match. His battle experience was too thin. Denise Lyson barely knew Kylian Thubron. They had only met once. Still, he was her junior brother in name. Standing by and watching her junior brother die was not how a Half Emperor lived. She pressed her index and middle fingers together and murmured an incantation. A woman's silhouette rose behind her. That woman carried herself like an emperor. With a gaze that looked down on all beneath heaven, she swept her eyes over the crowd, then fixed them on Christian Thubron. In the next instant, Christian Thubron looked as if he had been struck by something unseen. He flew backward. "Pfft!" Blood sprayed from his mouth midair. It was an internal injury, plain as day. Nathaniel Urwin forcibly dragged Kylian Thubron back to the entrance of the Skysoar Sect. As for Denise Lyson, the moment she released that attack, she collapsed and passed out. Peak Energy Condensation, and she had injured a peak Spirit Spring Realm cultivator. Between them lay the entire Veinflow Realm and the Spirit Spring Realm. What kind of genius skipped two major realms in a single fight? It was absurd. The people around them erupted, and even Byron Cutmore, watching from the Skysoar Sect Main Peak, froze. *Good lord.* *Wasn't this girl supposed to have poor talent? That combat power is outrageous.* *Did I misjudge her?* "Adelynn Cougle, Titus Seagroatt, what do you two think?" Byron Cutmore asked. The two Great Emperors pondered for a long while, then both shook their heads. "Sovereign Lord," Adelynn Cougle said, "Denise Lyson has neither a special constitution nor any bloodline power, yet she can unleash an attack like that. It truly is strange." Titus Seagroatt felt the same. "This subordinate also saw nothing special about her." "Still, the world is vast and full of wonders. Denise Lyson likely has secrets of her own." Byron Cutmore agreed. "Mm. Well said. Everyone has their own road to walk. We shouldn't force our hands into it." "Enough. It's your turn. Settle the Thubron family matter quickly. I should head out and recruit disciples for the sect." Adelynn Cougle gave a small signal. Titus Seagroatt smiled and nodded. Outside the sect, Christian Thubron steadied himself, his mouth twitching. He had not expected that his peak Spirit Spring Realm cultivation would be wounded by an ant from the Energy Condensation Realm. The internal injury was light, though. He stared at the unconscious Denise Lyson and muttered to himself, "Little girl. You've successfully caught my attention." His figure flickered. He lunged at a nearby member of the Thubron family. Before the man could even react, Christian Thubron tore out his heart. Chomp, chomp, chomp! He swallowed it in a few bites. Finally- Boom! Christian Thubron's aura exploded upward. "Hahaha! The Mystic Core is formed! I am un-" "Pfft!" Before he could finish, Titus Seagroatt pointed from afar. The finger strike pierced straight through the newly formed Mystic Core inside Christian Thubron. "N-no… impossible…" He felt the power inside him draining away at terrifying speed. Panic seized him. "What's happening? Why is this happening?" "Who did this?" In the next second, Christian Thubron forced what little strength he had left and rushed the nearest Thubron family member, ripping out another heart and shoving it into his mouth. This time, it gave him nothing. "Impossible…" "Impossible! How could the First Ancestor lie to me?" In the end, not the slightest ripple of Spiritual Power remained on him. He had become an ordinary human. Titus Seagroatt's voice carried out from within the Skysoar Sect. "By order of the Sovereign Lord! All members of the Thubron family are to be handed over to Kylian Thubron. No one else is to interfere!" Only then did everyone realize why Christian Thubron had been reduced to a cripple. A cultivator from within the Skysoar Sect had acted. The Thubron family had arrived with more than twenty people. By this point, some were dead, some were wounded, and those who remained unhurt had been scared out of their minds. "Kylian Thubron… we were blind. We worshiped that beast Christian Thubron as our family head. Because of him, we don't even know how many sins we committed." "Today, whether you kill us or spare us, we won't complain." Kylian Thubron looked at the corpses scattered across the ground, his expression dim. Kill them all? He could not bring himself to do it. Let them go, and with the kind of faces they wore, who could say there wouldn't be a second Christian Thubron someday? He lifted his head to the sky and spoke softly. "Dad… if it were you, what would you do?" Then he answered himself, voice rough. "Heh. Dad was gentle and sincere. He would let them go." "So be it." "Today, I'll let you leave. Consider it repayment for the Thubron family raising me. From this day on, anything that happens to the Thubron family has nothing to do with me." As he spoke, Kylian Thubron hurled the Harpoon. It shot forward and pierced straight through Christian Thubron's chest. "But you must die." "After you return, hang Christian Thubron's head on the walls of Greenspire City. I want him to never enter the cycle of reincarnation, for all eternity!" Kylian Thubron had once heard his father say that a person had three gates: body, will, and soul. After death, all three gates opened. The body returned to earth, the will dispersed into emptiness, and the soul ascended to heaven. Only then could one enter reincarnation. The body gate represented the physical form. The head controlled all movement of the body. As long as the head was not buried in the ground, that person would not enter reincarnation. The flesh would merge into the land, while the spirit would pass through the soul gate into the cracks between time and space, suffering eternal torment beneath the trampling of all living beings. The will gate represented one's intent. If, at the moment of death, someone possessed an incomparably fierce obsession, that will could linger in the world, while the spirit still passed through the soul gate into the cracks between time and space. The soul gate represented the soul itself. When a mighty expert cultivated to a certain realm, their spirit became unimaginably strong. They could close the soul gate by their own power, allowing their spirit to remain in the world.