Chapter 99

"Black Diamond, no need to chase them. The monk may run, but the temple cannot. We’ll deal with their hideout later." Su Yang stopped Black Diamond, who was about to give chase, and said calmly.

Black Diamond grunted, clearly not satisfied with the fight. He changed his form and returned to Su Yang’s clothing. After the intense battle with the three princes, he had indeed suffered some minor injuries, and his inner demon energy had been significantly depleted, requiring some rest.

Picking up the Seven Star Lamp from the ground, Su Yang had no mood to examine it and stored it in the Cangjian. He then turned and walked back toward the ancient castle.

The moment Su Yang’s figure appeared in the hall, a heartfelt cheer rose from the crowd.

Bander, who had lost his left arm, said with tears in his eyes, "Master, it is my incompetence that I could not help you."

Looking at the old butler, Su Yang patted his shoulder and said softly, "It is I who have involved you and your family in this disaster. The vampires will pay with their extinction. The ones I killed just now were just a down payment."

"I need to go into seclusion for a few days. During this time, I will arrange for someone to look after this place. Do not leave the castle."

"If any members of the British royal family come looking for me, lead them to the quiet room."

At this point, Su Yang had accumulated a large amount of unrefined vampire energy within his body. If he did not refine it quickly, it could backfire and harm him. After giving these instructions, Su Yang quietly divided over thirty strands of his divine consciousness and attached them to the people in the hall.

This way, as long as they did not leave a ten-mile radius, Su Yang could sense any life-threatening danger immediately.

In the quiet room, Su Yang took out the blue sapphire used to contact Diana. After infusing it with a strand of true essence, the sapphire glowed brightly. This was the communication tool Diana had given him.

Half an hour later, under Bander’s guidance, a middle-aged man with noble attire and a heroic appearance arrived at the door of the quiet room, his expression tinged with anticipation.

As the current Arthur, he appeared to be in his early thirties, but he was actually over seventy years old. As the inheritor of the strongest power of the British royal family, he had a lifespan far beyond that of ordinary people.

Under normal circumstances, each Arthur could live up to two hundred years.

However, it was unfortunate that no Arthur in history had ever lived past a hundred years. Some even died in battle in their thirties. The current Arthur, having lived for over seventy years, was already considered one of the longest-lived among the Arthurs.

As the strongest guardian of the British royal family, he had participated in over a hundred battles over the past few decades, some of which were near-death experiences. These battles had gradually made him more powerful. According to the Pope’s evaluation a few years ago, the current Arthur was likely the most powerful among all the Arthurs.

The British royal family’s external guardian, Arthur, and the internal guardian, the Holy Maiden, complemented each other. Arthur led the Templar Knights, who also possessed inherited powers, while the Holy Maiden controlled the royal holy artifacts. Together, they maintained the stability of the royal family for a thousand years, even during the darkest periods in Europe.

When the Holy Maiden Diana received Su Yang’s message, she immediately invited Arthur and asked him to come in person.

Arthur, who had inherited some of the memories of the previous Arthur, knew who Su Yang was. However, when he learned about Su Yang’s claim of a "one-man genocide," he found it hard to believe.

But when he arrived at the castle and sensed the death aura of nearly a hundred vampires with his holy power, he was stunned. He followed Bander to the door of the quiet room in silence, wanting to hear from Su Yang himself how this had happened.

At Bander’s signal, Arthur entered the quiet room and saw a scene that he would never forget.

In the center of the room, a young Eastern man sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. Around him, dozens of strands of powerful vampire energy swirled, being continuously absorbed and released by him. The color of the energy changed from dark to light, clearly indicating that he was rapidly absorbing and assimilating these energies.

In Arthur’s memory, the existence of vampire energy was a highly secret matter. Even the British royal family, which had been fighting vampires for a thousand years, only discovered this secret about three hundred years ago.

The true utilization of vampire energy began only in the past hundred years, but the process was extremely complex and difficult.

After all, no one in the British royal family’s fighting force possessed the ability to "return all to the source," which allowed them to extract the source of power from vampires upon killing them. Although they knew that vampire energy was valuable, the cost of obtaining it was extremely high, and from a cost-benefit perspective, it was a losing proposition.

"How did he do it? Could the death aura of nearly a hundred vampires outside the castle be his doing?"

"Being able to absorb vampire energy so easily, if we could master this technique, it would multiply the combat power of the entire Templar Knights."

"He is the legendary Chinese Su Yang. This guy indeed has the strength to wage a 'one-man genocide.' Being friends with such a person rather than enemies is truly fortunate. Thank you, Holy Maiden Evelyn!"

Regardless of Arthur’s chaotic thoughts, Su Yang opened his eyes and smiled, nodding at him with a pure London accent, "You must be the current Arthur. Nice to meet you."

Noticing Su Yang’s gaze on the large sword behind him, Arthur bowed respectfully and smiled, "Respected Sir Su, this is one of the three holy artifacts of the royal family, the Sword of Stone."

As he spoke, Arthur slowly drew the sword from his back. Instantly, a powerful holy force radiated from the sword, exuding a sacred and inviolable royal dignity. The sword was covered in intricate and mysterious runes, with strange light patterns flowing over it, making it seem more like a living entity than a weapon.

"Sixty years ago, my predecessor fought alongside me. He was a good man, but in terms of strength, you are far superior. The power of the Sword of Stone in your hands is even greater than what I have seen in the past."

Su Yang’s casual words further deepened Arthur’s admiration. After all, being able to judge the strength of two Arthurs with just a glance was a remarkable feat.

"My predecessor was a great hero, but he died in a battle with the vampires over the body of Cain a decade ago. If he were still alive, he would have been able to wield this holy artifact better than I."

Arthur pondered for a moment, "Sir Su, I have a question. At the castle, I sensed the death aura of nearly a hundred vampires. Was that your doing?"

"That is one of the reasons I asked you to come."

Su Yang reined in his aura, and the unrefined vampire energy in his body swirled around him, enveloping him in a mist of blood. He stood up and said, "Before you arrived, the three vampire princes led over a hundred elite vampires to attack my castle."

"What? All three princes came!" Arthur’s body trembled, finding it hard to believe. "Since the vampires attacked the Tower of London to retrieve Cain’s body over a decade ago, the three families have never acted together again."

"Perhaps they wanted to die quickly."

Su Yang shrugged, "I killed over seventy vampires, but the three princes escaped. Now I need some time to cultivate. During this period, I would like to ask you to help guard this castle. In seven days, I will completely destroy this filthy and ugly race, making them pay with their extinction."

Arthur hesitated, still somewhat skeptical about the "genocide" Su Yang mentioned, but given what he had seen, he ultimately chose to believe. He nodded, "Sir Su, rest assured. I will gather the Templar Knights to guard this place. Unless the vampire progenitor comes in person, no one will harm this castle. I swear this by my knight’s honor."

"Thank you." Su Yang smiled and bowed slightly, watching Arthur leave the quiet room.

With the safety of the castle’s inhabitants secured, Su Yang sat down again and released the unrefined vampire energy within his body. He fully activated the "return all to the source" ability, absorbing the energy at an astonishing speed.

From the recent battle, Su Yang had gained a lot, not only unexpectedly forming the "Purple Flame Lotus," which should have required reaching the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment realm, but also acquiring dozens of strands of powerful vampire energy.

The three princes had brought true elite forces from the three families, with the weakest being veteran baron-level vampires, and a large number of viscount-level vampires, some earl-level vampires, and two marquis-level vampires.

At least half of those who died did not escape the fate of having their vampire energy taken by Su Yang. Such a large amount of energy required a long period of seclusion to assimilate.

He could even sense a hint of a breakthrough.

"I wonder if refining the remaining vampire energy will allow me to break through to the mid-stage of the Foundation Establishment realm."

In the South China Sea, a seemingly calm sea was shrouded in a dense fog with visibility of less than a meter, covering an area of hundreds of miles.

This was a restricted area designated by the government. Even the most experienced local fishermen avoided this area, as over the past few hundred years, nearly a thousand ships had sunk here, including two foreign nuclear submarines that had attempted to spy on our territory.

Even the most advanced satellites could not penetrate the thick fog to gather any information about this area. The locals referred to it as a "heavenly paradise," while the government’s secret departments called it the "Oriental Bermuda Triangle."

At the core of the Oriental Bermuda Triangle was an island covering nearly 2,000 acres, with a mountain peak over a thousand meters high, resembling a divine sword pointing to the sky.

The island was permeated with a dense and invigorating spiritual energy, surpassing even the spiritual energy in the three major spiritual realms.

At the top of the Divine Sword Peak was a vast platform, on which several magnificent buildings stood. A spirit-gathering array enveloped the entire platform, continuously drawing in the abundant spiritual energy from the surroundings and channeling it into a hundred-meter-tall purple-golden hall at the center.

The vast amount of spiritual energy condensed and poured into the hall, making it an ideal place for cultivation, akin to constantly holding a spirit stone while cultivating without any interruption.

Such a grand setup had never been achieved even during the peak of the three major spiritual realms, as the spirit-gathering array covering the hall was not something Earth cultivators could set up.

From the faint golden glow emanating from the array, it could be inferred that the person who set it up was not only proficient in array formation but also a powerful cultivator at least at the early stage of the Core Formation realm.

Throughout history, Earth had never had a cultivator with such astonishing power, unless they had traveled to the major cultivation realms. The number of local cultivators reaching this realm was virtually zero.

Inside the hall, the dense spiritual energy made the air ripple visibly. A breath of this air could easily extend one’s lifespan by a decade.

A young man with waist-length white hair, blood-red lips, and arched eyebrows sat in the center of the hall, palms facing the sky.

A translucent, pale golden core about the size of a fingernail floated above his palms, greedily drawing in the surrounding spiritual energy like a black hole.

Suddenly, the young man opened his eyes, his gaze filled with disbelief and anger. He let out a loud roar that shook the hall and made the mountain tremble.

"Who, who is so bold to kill my grandson!"

After the roar, the young man took a deep breath, suppressing his rage. He was at a critical point in his breakthrough, and leaving now would render his hundred years of seclusion futile.

Especially since he was nearing the end of his life. If he did not break through to the true Core Formation realm within the year, even with the power to move mountains and fill seas, he would turn to dust.

This person was Ling Tian, a genius who had left the spiritual realm alone five hundred years ago, forsaking the opportunity to travel to the major cultivation realms. He was the patriarch of the Ling family and had been in seclusion for over a hundred years, striving to reach the Core Formation realm.

Before entering seclusion, Ling Tian had used his powers to寄托 a strand of his life essence on his beloved grandson, Ling Han. When Ling Han was reduced to ashes by Su Yang’s Purple Flame Lotus, the strand of life essence was also destroyed, allowing Ling Tian to immediately sense his grandson’s fate from thousands of miles away.

"I have a seventy percent chance of breaking through successfully in a hundred days, but I cannot wait that long. I need to take revenge now,疯狂地复仇，哪怕灭杀一国之人也绝不手软。”

凌天眼中闪烁着深紫色的光芒，手指掐了个决印，只见一道白色光幕凝现在他身前，仿佛水面般不断生出涟漪与波纹。

“定！”

决印一顿，凌天口中疾吐一字，一指点出，那白色光幕顿时凝住不动，里面显现出一幅动态画面，俨然是正在岭南某处家族秘域祭炼法器的凌震仙。

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(Note: The last part of the original text is incomplete and contains some placeholders for ads. I have translated the main content up to the point where it becomes unclear and incomplete.)