Revenge
Han Tianxing's qi surged instinctively, his decades of combat experience screaming at him to strike first—
"Who—"
"—When I last saw you," Han Chen interrupted and paused; Both men immediately activated their qi, preparing to fight. As a late-stage martial artist, Han Tianxing was confident he could at least defend himself - maybe even wound his attacker. He started moving forward aggressively.
Han Chen didn't make them wait. His footsteps echoed softly as he stepped into the light. Tap. Tap. Tap.
"You..." Han Tianxing's voice shook. "Why are you here?"
Han Chen's cold stare locked onto him. "When I last saw, I thought that smile of yours was just greed. But to slaughter your own brother's line down to the last blood?" He tilted his head. "What flavor of madness drives that?"
Han Tianxing's jaw tightened. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Han Chen sighed. "No?, sure you don't... Then let me remind you."
Han Feng's head exploded.
Not with a sound. Not with a warning. One second, he was standing there, eyes wide—the next, his skull ruptured outward in a spray of bone fragments, brain matter, and arterial blood. The force sent gore splattering across Han Tianxing's face, his silk robes, the wall behind him. Han Feng's body collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut, muscles twitching in useless spasms. His spirit power instantly locked onto the vanishing soul and captured.
Han Chen didn't blink. "Now. You a have a reason to speak." He tossed his soul into the prison tower soul flame within his small world.
Han Tianxing, a late-stage Martial Master, a man who had faced death a hundred times ~ felt something primal coil in his gut. He had seen battles. He had killed with his bare hands. But this? No movement. No technique. Just... annihilation.
He hurriedly held his face in fear. " Who are you....aren't you Han Chen?"
" I am but that wasn't the answer"
His knee cap exploded. As he almost lost balance he held his internal energy to stand ground.
"W-Wait—I'll tell you! Come closer!"
Han Chen stepped forward, amused. "Still playing games?"
The moment Han Chen was within arm's reach, Han Tianxing struck.
"ROSEWOOD HEART PALM!"
His palm shot forward, internal energy coalescing into a crimson afterimage—a technique honed for a lifetime that could injure a grandmaster's ribs. It hit Han Chen's chest—
—and dissipated like smoke against stone.
Han Chen flicked a finger.
The counterstrike sent Han Tianxing hurtling backward. He slammed into the wall—only for an invisible force to yank him forward again, hurling him through the solid mahogany table. Wood splintered. Blood dripped from his lips.
"How...?" Han Tianxing wheezed. "How are you this strong?!"
He spat—not just blood, but a wriggling, insectoid creature the size of a thumb. Sensing his host's state, it lunged at Han Chen with unnatural speed.
Han Chen's eyes narrowed. "A qivora, burrowing maggot raised on marrow-rich qi?"
The creature froze mid-air, suspended by an unseen grip. Han Chen fed it a thread of his qi—a trace amount, yet enough to make the parasite swell, then implode in a burst of black ichor.
Han Tianxing's face went slack. "Impossible... That thing can drain a grandmaster dry. How did you—?" Then, laughter. Broken, hysterical. "Ah... I see now. I was doomed from the start."
He had enough with playing games, " Your soul will tell the tale next" . A pulse of spirit will wrapped around Han Tianxing's skull. His eyes rolled back. Unconscious before he hit the floor.
Initially he wanted to torture his soul and kill, but he doesn't care. Let him suffer for some time. He put him to the prison chambers among the other two.
With a thought, the entire room, electronics, furniture, Han Feng's corpse ~ compressed into a sphere no larger than a fist. Spiritual fire ignited, reducing it all to sterile ash.
For the first time in years, Han Chen felt... some clarity returning to mind, a soothing effect.
"Was this the heart demon weakening?"
His regrets hadn't faded when he saved his parents. They had shattered slowly now, with blood on his hands.
"It's not over." His gaze turned toward the horizon. "Han Zixuan... you're next."
...
About ten miles away, Han Chen had already located the so-called prince of the Han Family. The man was holed up in a private room of a night hotel, stripped of the dignity he'd flaunted during their last encounter. On all fours, blindfolded and trembling, Han Zixuan was mid-session with a woman clad in questionable attire. Her lips curled in a mocking smile as she edged him toward frustration.
Han Chen didn't avert his eyes or show disgust instead observed as if he saw a rare specimen. With a mere flick of intent, he rendered the woman unconscious, her body slumping soundlessly to the floor. Han Zixuan, still restrained and blindfolded, shuddered at the sudden absence of touch. "Don't stop now—" he demanded, voice ragged.
A pity, Han Chen mused. What better form for the Han heir to greet his father one final time? The restraints further connected binding him completely with a thought. I will peel the secrets from the old man's soul myself, may be, he will like this gift very much. But now, I must return, I hadn't told Hye about the sudden visit.
***
The Next Day
Hye Won sat comfortably in her chair, yet her mind still kept drifting back to the weight of what she'd done ~ the feeling of taking a life. As a law student raised within institutions, governed by rules and order, the act felt alien, and criminal.
Her gaze shifted to Han Chen, who lounged beside her, completely at ease. He was even joking with her mother over breakfast as if nothing had happened. How could he be so… normal?
When they settled into their lecture hall, she reached out through their mental link.
<< Han Chen… have you killed someone before? Why are you so okay with this?>>
His response came without hesitation. <
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A pause. Then, amusement flickered across their link. <
<<…What? >>
Before she could brace herself, Han Chen shared the memory—Han Zixuan's humiliating scene from the night before.
<<…KYAAAA! HAN CHEN!>>
Her face burned crimson, her entire body stiffening in her seat. It was a miracle her scream stayed trapped in their mental connection.
Han Chen glanced sideways, watching as she fidgeted, flustered beyond words. <
***
In fact, Han Chen had wanted to take leave and meet his parents, but the investigative agencies had other plans. His parents were taken in for profiling and questioning—after all, an entire day had passed. The evidence was there, yet attackers mysterious disappearance had left everyone baffled.
Han Chen found himself under the weight of countless gazes. Even professors approached him for details, after-all his family's recent legal victory had made him famous, and many suspected retaliation. He had already leaked evidence of the Han family's influence in the lawsuits onto the dark web, this time with true anonymity. Now, speculation ran wild on social media: Had the Han family tried to kill his parents?
Fake experts swarmed online, dissecting the footage frame by frame, declaring it fabricated ~ until the legal department recovered it themselves and verified it, crushing the conspiracy theories. The incident exploded in public attention, just like Qin Jianwei's mysterious accident. Unanswered questions everywhere.
Nightfall – The World Bead Prison
That night, Han Chen stepped into his world bead, entering the prison tower where his captives were restrained ~ all except one, who was already kneeling on all fours still blindfolded when he arrived.
"Hmm." His quiet sound shattered the silence.
Han Tianxing's head snapped up. "Han Chen!" he roared, voice ragged. "Just kill me! You don't have to disgrace me like this—" His words choked off as his gaze landed on his son, Han Zixuan, who writhed in muffled, humiliated grunts.
Ignoring him for now, Han Chen turned to the first prisoner ~ the truck driver who had tried to kill his parents. The man was barely alive, lips cracked with thirst.
"Water…" he croaked.
Han Chen crouched before him. "Was it your first time killing someone?" His voice was cold. "Answer, and you'll get what you seek."
"N-no…" the man wheezed.
With a snap of his fingers, Han Chen summoned a spring water infused with spiritual energy. He also healed his motor control nerves. The driver gulped it down greedily, the energy re stimulated him getting up, temporarily regaining posture, " Go over and kill that dog for me, if you can, you will live" Han Chen pointed to Han Zixuan, who is now restrained of his power and well bound.
He ran to Han Zixuan who was now terrified of the voices and punched back and forth, grabbed neck and chocked but just as he had a trace of hope ~ he convulsed, blood seeping from his pores as he collapsed dead due to raw spiritual energy killing him within. Han Chen ripped his soul free and tossed it into the soul-flame.
___The Han Family Master's Plea___
Next, Han Chen approached the Han family's master, who had watched the execution in silence.
"What made you come?" Han Chen asked.
The man swallowed. "...The Patriarch ordered me to make it look like an accident." His voice trembled. "Let me go. I have a daughter—Han You'er. Don't make her fatherless… please, I beg you, ... you met her last time, she is a sweet child."
Han Chen tilted his head. "In all your wisdom, did it ever occur to you that if you'd succeeded yesterday, I would have become an orphan too?"
The man had no answer except a broken "Please…"
"If you had known that apart from my grandfather, there were no other master-level cultivators in that vehicle… would you have still come?"
The man hesitated, then glanced at the figure beside him. "Maybe not. Han Tianxing was afraid of your mother and grandfather recovering, your father also had some high martial training last time we met, so he sent me… along with him."
Han Chen's gaze shifted. "And you are?"
The man stayed silent ~ until Han Chen increased the pressure on his soul, forcing a scream from his lips:
"Black Crane…!"
A second later, both men were crushed into meat paste, their souls ripped out and thrown into the soul-flame again.
"You Demon!!"
Han Tianxing and Han Zixuan, who had witnessed everything, were now hysterical, screaming uncontrollably, that's right. Previous beatings untied him of his eye cover. But Han Chen wasn't done.
He stepped in front of Han Tianxing, gripped his skull, " wait wait...can I ...ask you something" He howled in fear.
" Go on"
" How did you .... all this." Words lost coming out of mouth. Han Chen didn't care.
" I granted your wish" —before the man could utter another word—dug into his memories with brutal force.
Han Chen watched through the borrowed lens of memory. It was not what he expected.. and it was a lot to take in...