This, too, showed the terror of an open scheme—you knew precisely what they intended, yet you found yourself powerless to stop it.

Their eldest brother, Fang Zhentian, was currently the leader of the Ya Alliance and held command over the Yuan Ling Sect, controlling the Dou Hun Continent. Over the years, the Fang family had plundered untold resources from the Dou Hun Continent, cultivating countless experts for their clan. Because of this, they bore the primary, and inalienable, responsibility for this rebellion (which, to the people of Gu Hua Continent, was merely the Dou Hun Continent daring to raise the butcher's knife against them...).

Faced with such accountability, the Fang family had only two choices: either immediately step down from the Alliance Leader position and contribute fifty percent of the Fang family's resources, or use their own clan's strength to suppress this rebellion, making sure to minimize the damage inflicted upon the Gu Hua Continent.

It was important to understand that on the Gu Hua Continent, besides the Nine Great Families, there were numerous smaller families. While these smaller families might not have experts at the Venerable level presiding over them, they still possessed countless experts at the Martial God realm; united, they formed a formidable force, and the entire Ya Alliance operated under its own strict set of rules.

Given this situation, what could the Fang family possibly do?

The only viable path was to suppress this rebellion completely with the minimum possible loss.

Staring at the grim, chilling face of Bai Xiaodi, Fang Zhenxue knew that the only thing left for him to do was to utterly obliterate the man.

"If that is the case, then do not blame me for showing no mercy. Though you have reached the Ninth Heaven of the Martial God realm, you are still no match for me!" Fang Zhenxue’s tone had turned frigid, and in his hand now appeared a blood-red halberd.

It was the Fang Tian Halberd, etched all over with talismans, its entire body radiating a bloody crimson light.

Sensing the intense aura of slaughter emanating from the Fang Tian Halberd, Bai Xiaodi's expression shifted. How many lives must have been taken to generate such a profound scent of blood?

Without wasting any more words, he raised his hand and unleashed another move, Heaven and Earth Collapse, immediately followed by Mountains and Rivers Shatter, striking blow after blow toward Fang Zhenxue.

Fang Zhenxue wielded the Fang Tian Halberd with one hand, sending circles of blood-colored ripples surging out from his body to intercept Bai Xiaodi's powerful assaults.

An identical scene was unfolding on an island in the South Sea, where Huangfu Yun, also a powerhouse at the Ninth Heaven of the Martial God realm, was locked in combat with Fang Zhennan of the Fang family.

Beyond that, Xue Luosha and others were all engaged by the experts of the Fang family. Outside Fang Tian City, on the western edge of the Gu Hua Continent, the gaunt Dugu Bachen and the dashingly elegant Xuanyuan Jue hovered silently in mid-air.

Suspended before them was Fang Zhentian, the current head of the Fang family, whose stage name was ‘Nan’ (Difficulty). Following behind him were the other seven Ninth Heaven experts of the Fang family.

"Xuanyuan Jue, I helped you ascend to the throne and even assisted you in unifying the Nine Provinces to establish the Tian Yuan Empire. Why are you repaying my kindness with enmity today?" Fang Zhentian coldly regarded Xuanyuan Jue as he spoke.

"You helped me ascend the throne? Heh, you merely sought a puppet. All the people of the Dou Hun Continent have been nothing more than experimental subjects you kept penned in. Fang Zhentian, save your breath; we have been preparing for this day for three hundred years—a full three hundred years!" Xuanyuan Jue retorted just as coldly, his eyes sharp as a drawn sword, impossible for ordinary men to look directly into.

"Hahahaha, it seems these three centuries have been tough on you. But so what if you prepared for three hundred years? Do you truly believe three centuries of effort can negate the accumulation of my Fang family over tens of thousands of years? Do you really think you can destroy the foundation of the Fang family just like that? You underestimate us far too much!" Fang Zhentian suddenly burst into loud laughter, as if he had heard the most ridiculous joke imaginable.

"Whether it measures up or not, we’ll have to fight to find out. Little brat Xuanyuan, leave him to me; you handle the others!" Dugu Bachen snorted, and immediately a massive blade radiance erupted from within him, slicing toward Fang Zhentian.

"Dugu Bachen, do you think that just because you broke through to Martial Venerable, you can defeat me? Let me tell you the truth: if this realm could withstand greater power, I would have already broken through to Martial Venerable ages ago. How could someone like you, who has only been a Martial Venerable for less than a century, possibly be my opponent!" Fang Zhentian sneered, but his right hand had already flicked out a finger, unleashing a beam of blue light that utterly shattered Dugu Bachen's blade radiance.

Yet, Dugu Bachen showed no signs of discouragement. Wave after wave of blade energy erupted from his body, ceaselessly hacking at Fang Zhentian.

He paid no heed to defense whatsoever, adopting a wholly suicidal offensive. An unending torrent of blade energy sprayed forth, causing even the powerful Fang Zhentian’s expression to subtly shift.

As for Xuanyuan Jue, who stood behind Dugu Bachen, he transformed into a giant longsword and plunged toward the seven Ninth Heaven experts following Fang Zhentian.

They didn't necessarily need to kill Fang Zhentian; successfully eliminating those seven Ninth Heaven experts would be enough to severely cripple the Fang family.

One had to remember that for the Fang family, Martial Gods from the First Heaven to the Sixth Heaven were not a significant loss. However, experts from the Seventh Heaven upwards constituted the core strength of the clan. Without exceptional talent, even consuming vast amounts of spiritual medicine and having power forcibly infused was unlikely to elevate them to the Seventh Heaven of the Martial God realm.

The Fang family publicly displayed sixty Heaven-level experts—Martial Gods from the Third to Sixth Heavens—but those above the Heaven level numbered only eighteen openly, and that count included the nine experts at the Ninth Heaven.

Of course, no one knew the true numbers of the Fang family’s Seventh or Eighth Heaven experts, but regardless, they certainly couldn't have too many Ninth Heaven masters; it was highly probable that besides these nine, there were no others at that level.

The true peak experts had long perished in a massive war against the Demon Race tens of thousands of years prior, and since then, no one had managed to break through to the path leading to the Immortal Realm. Bound by the rules of this plane, no matter how much they cultivated, the Martial Venerable realm was their ultimate limit.

At most, they could cultivate their physical bodies while simultaneously nurturing their souls, but their strength could only reach that apex. Once they exceeded the constraints of this plane, they would invite the merciless erasure by the power of the rules. Throughout the tens of thousands of years of the Gu Hua Continent’s history, countless formidable figures had been mercilessly extinguished this way.

Due to this inherent limitation, it was exceedingly difficult for Venerable-level experts to emerge on either the Gu Hua Continent or the Dou Hun Continent. The appearance of every Venerable expert caused fluctuations in heaven and earth. Over the countless years, the entire Gu Hua Continent had experienced only nine such world-shaking events, meaning that apart from the clan leaders of the Nine Great Families, no one else had ever attained the Venerable realm...

The other great families were clearly adopting a wait-and-see approach this time, which gave Xuanyuan Jue and Dugu Bachen the confidence that they could inflict a major blow upon the Fang family this time...