THE DRAGON GOD AGAINST THE HEAVENS

4.

Those words were like a bolt of lightning out of a blue sky, completely shattering the remaining remnants of Wang Chen's mental defense. The world around him seemed to plunge into a sudden, dead silence, leaving only the frantic thumping of his own heartbeat—throbbing with a profound agony born not from his body, but from his very soul.

The churning heat from the Earth-grade Pill inside his stomach suddenly felt entirely tasteless compared to the freezing cold of his adoptive father's rejection.

"F-Father, you..."

Seeing Wang Tian keeping his back turned toward him, Wang Chen took a deep breath. His pride completely collapsed; not because he feared death, but because he knew there was one life he absolutely had to save today.

With trembling knees, Wang Chen dropped himself onto the floor of the platform. He prostrated himself, pressing his forehead against the cold wood of the stage directly behind Wang Tian's back.

"Father..." Wang Chen’s voice quivered, hoarse from the tears he could no longer hold back.

"If you wish to hate me, then hate me. If the clan wants to execute me or cut open my stomach to retrieve the remaining energy of this pill, then do it! I will not fight back!"

Wang Chen looked up, gazing at the broad back of the man who had raised him since he was a year old with a pleading, desperate look.

"But I beg of you... please spare Mei Lu! She is just a foolish servant who knows nothing! She only did this out of a misplaced loyalty to me! Let her leave the Wang Family, just let her live!"

"Young Master Chen, no! Do not beg for my sake!" Mei Lu shrieked hysterically from behind the post, her tears cascading down relentlessly as she witnessed the youth—who had always guarded his own pride fiercely—now prostrating for her life.

Hearing Wang Chen's desperate plea, Wang Tian's footsteps paused for a brief moment. The corner of his eye twitched, betraying a violent inner turmoil. After all, the memories of the small boy he had nurtured since infancy could not be erased overnight.

However, before Wang Tian could utter a word, Grand Elder Wang Ba immediately strode forward with a savage look on his face.

"Absolutely out of the question!" Wang Ba barked, his voice thundering and cutting through the atmosphere.

"Wang Chen, do you honestly think this place is a marketplace where you can bargain over a sentence?! That lowly servant stole a pill that not even every small clan like ours possesses... And you have swallowed it! Both of you are heavy criminals! Sparing either one of them will utterly destroy the laws and authority of the Wang Family!"

Hundreds of clan members below the stage joined in the uproar, shouting in agreement with the Grand Elder. The atmosphere turned scalding hot once more, demanding blood.

"Yes, that's right! Execute both of them!"

Yet on that very same stage...

Wang Tian remained silent, his back still turned against them all. His hands, concealed beneath his golden sleeves, were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned stark white. Deep within the recesses of his heart, the residual affection of a father who had raised Wang Chen for over a decade whispered to him, vehemently refusing to watch his adoptive son die a wretched death at the hands of the clan executioner.

After a suffocating, agonizing silence, Wang Tian finally turned around. His face had reverted to a flat, cold expression, masking the tempest of emotions raging inside him. He stared down at the prostrating Wang Chen, then shifted his gaze to Wang Ba.

"Grand Elder, the clan laws are indeed absolute," Wang Tian stated, his voice heavy and brimming with authority.

"However, our clan also recognizes the Law of Atonement. If a criminal can replace the clan's loss with something of equal or higher value, their execution can be deferred."

Wang Ba narrowed his eyes, deeply displeased by the direction of this conversation.

"What do you mean, Patriarch? The Earth-grade Pill he swallowed has already been destroyed! What else could possibly be rendered as a replacement?"

Wang Tian looked back down at Wang Chen, completely ignoring the Grand Elder's protest.

"Wang Chen, you want this servant to live, and you wish to atone for your crimes yourself, do you not?"

Wang Chen snapped his head up, his eyes flashing with a sudden glimmer of hope.

"Yes, Father! Anything! I will do absolutely anything!"

"Very well," Wang Tian delivered a single condition in a cold tone that brooked no argument.

"The Wang Family is currently in dire need of an Earth-grade Cultivation Soul-Restoring Pill to heal the damaged meridians of my younger brother's son before he returns to treat his injuries. I shall grant you two months."

Wang Tian held up two fingers.

"Within the span of two months, leave this clan. If you can return carrying that Cultivation Soul-Restoring Pill, I will not only pardon Mei Lu, but I will also free both of you entirely from the Wang Family without any further charges."

Hearing that condition, Wang Ba's eyes instantly widened, and he shouted in protest, "Patriarch! This is ridiculous! How could this cultivationless piece of trash possibly procure such a thing in two months?! This is practically letting him off scot-free!" Yet, beneath his outrage, a hidden, sinister smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

"I am not finished, Grand Elder," Wang Tian interjected with a razor-sharp glare that instantly silenced Wang Ba.

Wang Tian looked back at Wang Chen.

"During these two months, Mei Lu will be confined within the clan's underground dungeons. She will not be executed, but she will not be free either. If you fail to return within two months, or if you return empty-handed... then at that exact moment, Mei Lu will be executed right here in this square, and I will personally hunt you down to the very ends of the Sky Star Continent to claim your life."

Hearing this window of opportunity...

Wang Chen clenched his fists, filled with a burning ambition to save Mei Lu at all costs.

"Fine," Wang Chen stood up slowly, staring directly into his adoptive father's eyes with a gaze Wang Tian had never seen on him before—a gaze saturated with an unyielding resolve and a maturity forced upon him by his circumstances.

"Two months. I will return with that Cultivation Soul-Restoring Pill. Keep Mei Lu alive, because if there is so much as a single new scratch on her body when I return... I swear, even if I have obtained that pill, I will destroy it right before all of your eyes!"