.

At first, Zhu Rong had decided to deal with the Zhu family much later.

As annoying as they were, they weren't a threat, nor anything close to it, especially now that he had reached the Spirit Realm.

But then, his other self pointed out that there was a problem in his body, and, coincidentally, the problem was related to his old deformity in the meridians.

His other self told him that the deformity, which he had now already fixed, hadn't been something he was born with, but something that appeared later on.

According to what he said, there should have been his rare spiritual root there, yet it was clear that it wasn't anymore.

Zhu Rong immediately understood what he meant, since his normal spiritual root was still intact, but his other self told him that the current one had formed later, and that the rare one, which should have been there, had clearly been taken away.

With the little he knew about the situation of his parents and the cause of his long standing problem, he could already draw many conclusions.

Even more so when his other self reawakened his sealed memories from when he was three years old, memories that had been locked away by his own mind due to the trauma and pain caused by the forced extraction of his spiritual root, followed by the loss of his parents.

It was like the missing piece of a puzzle finally falling into place, and the small revenge he had once intended to take against them later on suddenly rose to the top of his priorities, especially since that spiritual root had led to something far more problematic.

And when his other self told him what that was, he could only shake his head, muttering things like,

Karma really does come back to bite.

He stood there with the father and son suspended before him, one unconscious and convulsing, the other staring blankly, as if his soul had already left his body.

He was the very cause of it all, yet he didn't spare them a single glance.

Instead, his gaze fell on the damaged dantian resting in his palm. Its color was a deep, dark red, and upon seeing it, he could only shake his head.

Normally, a dantian's color reflected one's elemental affinity.

Usually, it was white, but it gradually changed hue the more one cultivated.

Zhu Yong's should have been a bright orange, given that his main and strongest elemental affinity since childhood had been fire.

Yet here it was, something completely different, dark, corrupted, emitting a faint but unmistakable demonic aura, still perceptible to someone like him.

This was precisely what his other self had warned him about.

Being his spiritual root, it carried certain properties, and since he was part of a higher existence, possibly even a god, his spiritual root was naturally not something ordinary.

it was a powerfull one, just like the elders of his family had confirmed in the past when they examined it.

What they didn't know, however, was that this spiritual root was something far more special than what they thought.

Just like him, it possessed a natural affinity toward that same corruptive, or rather, demonic, energy.

His spiritual root was inclined toward it as well.

As a result, if it were placed inside a body incapable of absorbing or controlling such energy, it would initially remain stable.

However, once that energy began to awaken, the root would turn into something like a parasite, feeding on the host's cultivation base until it completely took over, corrupting them entirely and turning them into a half demon.

Unlike the lesser demons from the secret realm, though, this one would be far more terrifying, for its bloodline would be superior, as it originated from him.

When Zhu Rong heard this for the first time, he thought they deserved it, and he wouldn't have minded seeing Zhu Yong turn against the Zhu family and wipe them out with his own hands.

But when he heard that the being would be even more troublesome than the demon in the secret realm, he knew he had to act personally.

And indeed, coming here directly after checking on Ye Ning had been the right choice.

Zhu Yong's dantian was already mostly corrupted, and he could see the demonic energy spreading outward, slowly infecting his entire being.

He could tell that the demonic energy within his spiritual root had been triggered during the expedition, since they had come into contact with those creatures.

But seeing how much of the dantian had already been devoured made it clear how disastrous the situation could have become.

Now that he was here, though, that danger no longer existed.

He wrapped the dantian in his Qi, cleansing it thoroughly, before raising his hand, and under Zhu Shen's horrified but still conscious gaze,

he placed it in his mouth and swallowed it whole.

The moment it entered his stomach, the dantian shattered violently, releasing a dark crimson energy that swirled and pulsed like molten blood inside him. Every thread of its essence tried to expand, to push and corrupt, but his body absorbed it like a sponge, constraining it within invisible barriers.

The energy writhed, twisted, and threatened to escape, yet it was immediately subdued and digested, divided into countless strands that fused with his own Qi, leaving no trace of its former chaos.

All of this unfolded within him, every sensation sharp and tangible, while outside, Zhu Rong remained calm.

Then with another flick of his hand, he tore something from Zhu Yong's back, the half dead young man jolted awake with a scream of unbearable pain.

His cry terrified his already shattered father, but Zhu Rong ignored it completely.

He looked at what seemed to be a pulsating root with several branching tendrils.

It was barely ten centimeters tall, but despite its small size, it wasn't the entire spiritual root, only its core.

Zhu Rong examined it briefly, then cleansed it once more with his Qi before consuming it as well.

Once in his body, it underwent the same process as the dantian.

However, unlike the dantian that was simply absorbed, the root split into smaller fragments, which were then purified by a mix of pure and demonic Qi before merging with Zhu Rong's original spiritual root.

He had, in essence, reclaimed what was rightfully his.

But to see the full effects, he would have to wait some time, though it didn't matter.

With his current power, he was more than strong enough for now.

After that, his gaze fell on the father and son, one on the edge of death, the other only slightly more intact.

He didn't waste any more time on them.

With a light wave of his hand, he released a small spiritual pulse, and in the next instant, both bodies exploded into a cloud of blood mist, which was swiftly dispersed, erasing them from existence entirely.

Then he turned toward the remaining elders lying on the ground, pale and bleeding, still struggling to recover.

Without another glance, he turned and began to leave, but as he did, his voice echoed faintly through the place, calm yet clear enough for even those too stunned to move to hear:

"Consider the karma between us settled. From now on, try to live a little more humanly.

And remember, I don't give second chances."

He was already gone by the time his words faded.

Those words struck the hearts of everyone present like another blow, hearts already filled with a mix of anger and regret.

Not only had they sacrificed one of the two geniuses of their family to nourish the other,

but now that genius had returned only to make sure the family would no longer have any genius left at all.

And worse, with their cultivation base destroyed, they were now nothing more than powerful figures in name only.

Had it been a simple case of damaged dantian, perhaps it could have been fixed.

But this wasn't the case.

All of them had already reached the Fifth Stage, some at its peak, and the patriarch himself was close to ascending further.

If they had been at the early stages, they could have repaired their dantian.

But at this level, it was impossible, the inner layers of their dantian had been completely shattered, and even the nascent souls they had formed with so much effort had been erased, leaving their dantian nothing but empty shells.

They could, at best, recycle what remained and attempt to rebuild from scratch, the luckier ones perhaps starting again from the Third Stage.

But whether it was from the third or the first, it made no difference, they were doomed.

Those who had once been the backbone of the Zhu family were now crippled.

The mere thought of it made them want to kill themselves, for they knew how terrifying the consequences of this would be,

not only would they have to endure the agony of rebuilding their cultivation to regain their former levels, but, more importantly, they would have to face the other families,

who, once they caught wind of this, would swoop down like starving vultures and strip them of every last ounce of their wealth and power.

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