"You piece of trash, do you still think you are the Holy Son of the Ye family?"

"Do you still think you are the youngest Saint realm expert?"

"Do you still think you are the heaven-chosen prodigy who shook the entire Desolate Ancient Continent?"

Meeting Chu Chen's perfectly calm gaze, the maidservant Die'er cackled wildly, doubling over in mockery:

"Isn't your mother's keepsake just a broken clay pot? Honestly, if you knelt in the dirt, begged me like a dog, and managed to amuse me, I might just consider tossing it back to you."

"But you disturbed my afternoon nap, so you deserve to die!!"

Snap!!

As she spoke, Die'er closed her hand, materializing a crimson whip in her palm.

With a flick of her wrist, Metal-attribute Spiritual Qi flooded the weapon. The whip lashed out like a venomous viper, cracking against the air with a deafening snap that sent chills straight to the marrow.

More terrifying still was the lethal sharpness granted by the Metal-attribute Spiritual Qi.

If this whip struck mortal flesh, it would not merely split skin-it would cleave straight through the bone.

"The Patriarch has already announced to the entire estate that he is severing his blood ties with you and expelling you from the Ye family, yet you still dare to act arrogantly before me!"

Devoid of a servant's humility, Die'er stood high and mighty, peering down at Ye Chu Chen as if he were a pathetic stray dog:

"To be honest, I am truly reluctant to see you leave. The monthly Spirit Stones the family issues you aren't much, but they are better than nothing. Now that you are being expelled, I won't have any more fat to trim from your allowance, and yet you still dare to disturb my peaceful rest!"

Die'er despised Ye Chu Chen's gaze. In the past, the moment she drew her whip, he would shrink his neck and avert his eyes in terror. But today...

His eyes were unnervingly calm, devoid of a single ripple of fear. The way he looked at her was exactly like looking at...

A corpse!

"You piece of trash! I haven't disciplined you for a few days, and you've already forgotten who is the master and who is the servant in this courtyard!!"

Boiling with rage, Die'er gripped the whip tightly, fully intending to flay Ye Chu Chen alive.

Though a mere servant, she dared to humiliate him so brazenly because she knew that a crippled Ye Chu Chen held less status in the Ye family than she did.

Not to mention that standing directly behind her was Young Master Ye Xuan!

Even if Ye Chu Chen ran weeping to the Patriarch or his sisters, they would only curse him for being a useless waste who couldn't even manage a lowly maid, especially with Young Master Ye Xuan there to fan the flames.

The more miserably Ye Chu Chen suffered, the more delighted Young Master Ye Xuan would be, and the heavier her rewards.

It had been this way for three long years.

So why wasn't Ye Chu Chen trembling in fear today?

He simply deserved to die!!

As Die'er raised her whip with a face twisted in fury, Ye Chu Chen remained perfectly composed. He simply bent at the waist and bowed toward the empty space behind him:

"Fu Bo, do you still regard me as the Holy Son of the Ye family?"

The instant those words fell, the void tore open with a sharp whistle. Fu Bo materialized before Ye Chu Chen and bowed deeply:

"Though the Patriarch has issued the decree, your name has not yet been stricken from the ancestral registry. Therefore, in this old servant's heart, you are still the Holy Son of the Ye family!!"

Hearing this, Die'er seemed to violently realize something, and the blood instantly drained from her face.

She hurriedly shoved the whip back into her Storage Ring. Trembling with dread, she hastily curtsied toward Fu Bo:

"Fu... Fu Bo, Die'er meant no disrespect, Die'er..."

Before she could stammer out another excuse, Ye Chu Chen ruthlessly cut her off:

"According to clan law, when a lowly servant strikes a superior and shows blatant disrespect to the Holy Son, what is the punishment?"

Fu Bo froze for a fraction of a second, then cupped his hands and replied:

"Death!!"

The decree hung in the air. While Die'er stared in wide-eyed horror, Fu Bo's figure vanished. When he reappeared, his finger tapped lightly against the center of her brow. Her body was instantly sealed by immense Spiritual Qi, completely paralyzed.

"Let me go! Let me go!"

"I belong to Young Master Ye Xuan! Fu Bo, you cannot touch me! You cannot-"

Die'er was merely at the Essence Condensation Realm, while Fu Bo had reached the Spirit Communication Realm. The chasm between their strength spanned several major realms; it was the difference between clouds and mud.

Bound by Fu Bo, Die'er was reduced to a helpless chick awaiting the slaughter, entirely defenseless, left with nothing but pitiful begging.

However, Fu Bo did not directly execute her. He was merely the Ye family steward, and Ye Xuan stood directly behind this maid. Though he pitied Ye Chu Chen, he did not dare to irreversibly offend Ye Xuan.

After all, any fool could see that the future of the Ye family would belong entirely to Ye Xuan!!

"Fu Bo... Young Master Ye! Die'er knows she was wrong! Die'er will never again-"

Schlick!!

Before Die'er could spit out the rest of her plea, the cold steel of a longsword pierced through her back and erupted from her chest.

It cleanly ruptured her heart, instantly severing the life force from her body.

The one gripping the hilt was Ye Chu Chen!

"Holy Son, you..."

Fu Bo stared in absolute shock. He suddenly realized that the Holy Son standing before him was entirely different from the broken boy of the past three years. It was as if... as if he had reverted to his former glory. The absolute Chosen One who had suppressed the peerless prodigies of the Holy Lands and crushed the holy sons of the ancient families, leaving no equal in his wake.

Ye Chu Chen's expression remained as placid as a stagnant pool. He briefly glanced at Die'er, who had already breathed her last yet still stared forward with wide, unresigned eyes. Then, he calmly reached out and stripped the Storage Ring from her cooling finger.

After forcefully refining the Storage Ring with his blood, he found his mother's keepsake-a broken clay pot resting quietly within the spatial void. Only then did a heavy breath escape his lungs.

At that exact moment, Ye Ding's oppressive, authoritative voice reverberated across the entire Ye family estate. He officially declared the utter severance of his blood ties with Ye Chu Chen, the boy's permanent banishment, and the coronation of Ye Xuan as the clan's new Holy Son.

Deep within the ancestral hall, Ye Chu Chen's name was personally incinerated from the registry by the Ancestor, who issued a Saint King's decree, proclaiming his banishment to the world.

In that split second, Ye Chu Chen's Providence was violently ripped away from the Ye family's destiny. The heavy, invisible karmic shackles that had bound his soul instantly shattered into dust.

He was stripped of the Ye surname.

He was now simply Chu Chen. He had absolutely no connection to the Ye family.

"Fu Bo, thank you."

Giving the old steward a final, shallow bow amidst the man's gasps of regret, Chu Chen turned and walked out of the courtyard.

Without a single backward glance of nostalgia or hesitation, he strode out of the Ye family gates. He vanished into the deep mountains and vast, toxic marshes, heading relentlessly north.

From this day forth, let mountains and rivers never meet; let them remain absolute strangers even in death!!

Chu Chen moved with burning urgency, for he alone knew his time was rapidly running out.

His ruined mortal vessel was already failing, agonizingly burdened by shattered meridians and hidden afflictions. If the currents of fate mirrored his past life, within a few short months, he would succumb to illness while suffocating under the relentless torment of Ye Xuan and his former sisters.

In this life, he had successfully escaped the Ye family. He had severed himself from those sisters who leeched off him like blood-sucking maggots. He would no longer suffer betrayal and humiliation at the hands of those he once loved. Yet... his divine body remained shattered. His cultivation was a void, and his internal injuries festered. His days were strictly numbered.

Before his final breath, Chu Chen still harbored one unfulfilled obsession.

To see the Demonic Empress, Lin Shuwang...

In his past life, when he was hovering on the brink of death, Empress Lin Shuwang had received the news. Armed with a single sword, she had brutally carved her way into the Ye family estate.

Upon witnessing the inhuman degradation and torment his sisters had inflicted upon him, the Empress had fully surrendered to her demonic madness. She ruthlessly crippled his sisters' cultivation, and with absolute finality, slaughtered that wretched white lotus, Ye Xuan.

The Ye family's Ancestor had flown into a cataclysmic rage. Burning his Quasi-Emperor cultivation, he fully awakened the clan's Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, the Heaven-Reaching Mirror, intent on erasing Empress Lin Shuwang to avenge Ye Xuan.

But Lin Shuwang had immolated her very soul. Overdrawing her life force, she forcibly executed the forbidden Nirvana Method. She unleashed her own Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, clashing against the Ye family Ancestor in an apocalyptic war of attrition.

The collision of two Extreme Dao Imperial Weapons had annihilated the void, reducing the entire Ye family and countless lives to ash and ruin...

Chu Chen remained profoundly baffled. He and Empress Lin Shuwang had crossed paths exactly once. In fact, he had forcibly suppressed her, a clash that had resulted in the shattering of his own divine body.

So why did the Empress care for him with such terrifying devotion? Why was she willing to burn her soul in the Nirvana Method and lay down a million corpses for his sake???

In his previous life, Chu Chen had perished before he could ever ask that question.

In this life, he refused to die in ignorance.

Some questions had to be asked face-to-face.

Empress Lin Shuwang, wait for me!!