Rejected By The Sect, Claimed By The Immortal Jade

Chapter 6: The Heavenly Punishment Hall

The Heavenly Punishment Hall was where disciples were judged.

No outer disciple had ever entered it and walked out alive.

Ye Fan walked in with two broken arms, holding Ye Ling's small hand. Behind him, Su Qingxue was carried in on a stretcher, her meridians injured from protecting them. The entire sect's elders and inner disciples lined the dark hall, whispering.

At the highest seat, shrouded in mist, sat a man.

He didn't look old. He looked like a 30-year-old scholar in white, handsome, calm, holding a tea cup. No aura leaked from him at all — which meant his cultivation was so high that Ye Fan's Foundation Establishment couldn't even sense it.

Profound Sword Sect Master .. Sword Sovereign Ling Tian. Nascent Soul Peak. One step away from becoming a legend.

And the man who ordered the massacre of the Ye Clan.

Elder Mo knelt immediately, his face switching back to the kind grandfather in a second.

"Sect Master! This disciple Ye Fan has cultivated demonic arts! He devoured the Tier 3 Tiger King, devoured heavenly tribulation, and crippled two Foundation enforcers! He is a demon! And this mute maid is his demonic accomplice... her blood is impure!"

Ye Fan said nothing. He just stared at the man in the mist. His Devouring Root, which had been raging for battle, suddenly went completely silent and hid itself — like a mouse seeing a cat. Lingxiao's voice inside his head was serious for the first time.

"...Nascent Soul Peak, half-step Soul Formation. Boy, you cannot devour him. If you try, you will die instantly. Do not show your root. Do not show the jade."

Ye Ling hid behind Ye Fan's leg, trembling. Her pure Ye bloodline was reacting violently to the Sect Master's presence , she wanted to run.

Sect Master Ling Tian took a sip of tea, then looked down at Ye Fan, smiling gently.

"Ye Fan. I remember you. Three years ago, Mo Qianji brought you back from the Ye Clan. You said your family was killed by beasts. You had broken roots. I allowed you to stay as an outer disciple out of pity. Is that right?"

His voice was kind. Like a true righteous Sect Master.

Ye Fan clenched his broken fists. The lie. The huge lie that had covered up murder for three years.

"Yes," Ye Fan said hoarsely.

"And now," Ling Tian continued, his eyes falling on the shattered jade pieces still tied around Ye Fan's neck with straw rope, "you suddenly break through to Foundation Establishment overnight, devour a Tier 3 beast, and injure my Grand Elder. Tell me, child, where did you get such... interesting power?"

His eyes were not looking at Ye Fan. They were looking at the shattered jade.

Greed. Naked, ancient greed. The same greed Ye Fan had seen in Elder Mo's eyes.

He knew. He had always known what the jade was.

Su Qingxue, lying on the stretcher, suddenly coughed up blood and shouted: "Sect Master! Elder Mo is lying! Three years ago he massacred the Ye Clan to steal Ye Fan's root and transplant it into Liu Hao! I have proof! I saved Ye Ling from the fire! Elder Mo tried to kill her tonight to use her blood to open the jade!"

The hall exploded.

"What?! Massacre?"

"Elder Mo massacred a clan?"

Elder Mo's face turned white. "Slander! You are slandering..."

"Silence."

Ling Tian said one word. The hall went dead silent. His tea cup cracked.

He looked at Su Qingxue, then at Ye Ling, then at Ye Fan. His smile disappeared.

"Su Qingxue, you are Elder Binglian's disciple. I will not punish you for being deceived by a demon. Take her away."

Two enforcers dragged Su Qingxue out, even as she screamed for Ye Fan.

Then Ling Tian looked at Ye Fan again, and his voice became cold and indifferent, like he was talking about ants.

"Ye Fan. The jade around your neck. The Ye Clan guarded it for 10,000 years. Your mother refused to give it to me. So I had to take it. It's not personal. It's just... the Heavenly Dao. The strong take from the weak."

He stood up. For the first time, his aura leaked. Nascent Soul Peak pressure crushed the entire hall. Every elder knelt, vomiting blood. Ye Fan's knees cracked, forced down, but he held Ye Ling up with his broken arms, refusing to let her kneel.

"Give me the jade, and give me the girl's blood, and I will let you die quickly. I will even let you keep your new root and reincarnate. Refuse, and I will extract your soul and burn it for 49 days to find the jade's secret myself."

This was the true face. Not a righteous Sect Master. A robber who had worn a righteous mask for 100 years.

Ye Fan was on his knees, blood pouring from his nose and ears from the pressure. Nine years of life gone, two broken arms, Foundation Early vs Nascent Soul Peak — there was no chance.

But inside his head, Lingxiao was laughing crazily.

"Good! Good! This is exactly the same! My disciple betrayed me for this jade 10,000 years ago too! Boy, do you want to live? Then do as I say! Offer me 10 years of your life .. right now  and I will burn my last remnant soul to give you one strike! One strike at Soul Formation level! Enough to wound him and escape!"

Ten years. Plus the nine he had already lost. He was 18. He would have only a few years left to live.

Ye Fan looked at Ye Ling, who was crying silently, shaking her head, writing on his back again: Don't. Don't.

He looked at the shattered jade. His mother's jade.

He smiled, blood on his teeth.

"Lingxiao... take it."

Inside his spiritual sea, the golden-robed Immortal Emperor burned. His remnant soul, which had survived 10,000 years, turned into a blazing sun.

"HEAVEN-SWALLOWING ART — FINAL FORM — MY LIFE FOR YOUR SWORD!"

Ye Fan's hair turned completely white in an instant. From black with white streaks, to snow white. His young face gained faint wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Nineteen years of life gone in a second.

But in exchange ...

A phantom golden sword, as big as the hall, appeared above Ye Fan's head, holding the power of a Soul Formation strike.

The entire Heavenly Punishment Hall's formation shattered.

Sect Master Ling Tian's calm face finally changed. Shock, then terror.

"Impossible! A Soul Formation strike! How does a Foundation have..."

Ye Fan didn't let him finish.

He raised his broken hand and pointed at the man who killed his family.

"Old dog. This is for my mother. For my father. For my clan."

The golden sword fell.

The Heavenly Punishment Hall — which had stood for 800 years  was cut in half.

And in the smoke and dust, a white-haired boy grabbed his little sister and ran, not towards the sect gate, but towards the forbidden back mountain where the sect's ancient, sealed Demon-Sealing Cave was.

Behind him, the Sect Master's furious roar shook the entire mountain:

"SEAL THE MOUNTAIN! NO ONE LEAVES! BRING ME THE JADE AND THE GIRL, DEAD OR ALIVE!"

On the stretcher outside, Su Qingxue, who was being dragged away, heard the roar, broke free from the enforcers, and ran towards the back mountain too, her broken sword dragging on the ground.

Three fugitives now.