Chapter 171: Thunderous Means to Purge the House

"What's there to fear!" Lin Sihai put down his teacup, a smug, vicious smile appearing on his face, "They're nothing but stray dogs now, being personally hunted by the Black Judge Sir! They won't last a few days! Once they're dead, maybe we can still get a share of the Medicine Sect's inheritance..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

"Is that so? How come I didn't know I'd become a stray dog?"

A cold voice suddenly sounded in the middle of the hall.

The smug smiles on Lin Sihai and the others' faces froze instantly!

In the center of the hall, two people stood there at some point.

One man and one woman—none other than Zhang Jun and Lin Xue, whom they had just been cursing!

The two just stood there silently, the man's lips curled with a hint of mockery, the woman's face as cold as ice.

"How... how did you get in?!" Lin Sihai was so frightened his teacup slipped from his hand with a clang, shattering on the floor; he pointed at them, his voice trembling.

"Guards! Guards! Come quickly! They've broken in!" the fat elder shouted at the top of his lungs, all color draining from his face.

"Calling souls?" Zhang Jun flicked his ear, then took a step forward.

"Swish—swish—swish!"

The hall's doors and windows were flung open, a dozen or so Lin family guards and three members of the Shadow Organization wearing night clothes, their auras distinctly different, rushed in with a whoosh, drawing their blades and surrounding Zhang Jun and Lin Xue.

"Take them down! Dead or alive!" Seeing people arrive, Lin Sihai's courage grew a little; he barked the order while quietly slipping backward himself.

The three Shadow members exchanged a glance, said nothing, flickered, and lunged at Zhang Jun from three directions, their strikes vicious and aimed at vital points.

The Lin family guards also followed, shouting as they charged forward.

"Courting death." Zhang Jun didn't even bother to look at the guards; his body shifted in place as he went to meet the three Shadow members.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three heavy impact sounds rang out almost simultaneously!

So fast you couldn't see clearly!

Those three Shadow Organization members, whose skills were not weak, didn't even touch Zhang Jun's lapel; their chests caved in, they spat blood and flew backward, overturning a table and chairs, landing and twitching twice before going still.

The remaining Lin family guards were stunned dumb; halfway through their charge they slammed on the brakes, their weapon‑holding hands shaking like sieves.

Lin Xue moved.

She simply raised her hand, her pale fingertips giving a light flick.

Hiss—hiss—hiss!

Several strands of invisible black‑yin qi shot out, instantly wrapping around the guards' ankles and wrists.

"Ah!"

"My hand!"

"So cold!"

Shrieks rose and fell. The guards felt a bone‑chilling icy breath surge into their meridians, their true qi instantly freezing, limbs going stiff and numb as their weapons clattered to the ground; each became like frozen wood, collapsing to the floor, a layer of white frost on their faces, painfully curled up yet unable to struggle.

The whole process took only a few breaths.

The reinforcements that had just been mighty now all lay down; only the frightened gasps of a few collateral elders remained in the hall.

"Colluding with foreign foes, plotting to kill the family head, betraying the clan—you old timers are quite capable." Zhang Jun clapped his hands and stepped toward the ashen‑faced Lin Sihai.

"You... you're talking nonsense!" Lin Sihai shouted, stern outside but weak within, "We're doing this for the Lin family! Lin Feng's stubbornness will sooner or later drag the Lin family into a ditch!"

"Oh? Then colluding with the Shadow and betraying our whereabouts is also for the Lin family?" Lin Xue's voice, like an icicle of midwinter, pierced the hearts of several elders.

"That... that was just self‑preservation!" the fat elder trembled, "The Black Judge Sir has vast powers; if we don't cooperate, the whole Lin family will suffer!"

"The Black Judge?" Zhang Jun snorted, "He can barely protect himself now, let alone you—what a bunch of idiots!"

"You... you dare move against us! The Black Judge Sir will certainly not let you off!" Lin Sihai still tried to bluff, using the Black Judge's name to intimidate.

"Noisy." Zhang Jun couldn't be bothered to listen to their nonsense any longer; he suddenly raised his hand and slammed a palm toward Lin Sihai's dantian.

"No!" Lin Sihai screamed in terror, trying to dodge but couldn't.

Pfft!

A muffled thud.

Lin Sihai went limp as if his bones had been pulled out, collapsing to the ground; his face instantly turned ashen, his eyes filled with despair. He could clearly feel that the internal energy he had painstakingly cultivated for decades, like a burst flood, poured out completely from his shattered dantian.

He was crippled! Completely turned into a waste!

"Ah——!" Lin Sihai let out a wretched howl.

The remaining elders were so scared they lost control of their bowels, lying limp on the ground, unable even to beg for mercy.

Lin Xue remained expressionless, her fingertip lightly tapping. Several strands of deeper black‑yin energy drilled into the elders' bodies, like countless tiny ice needles wandering and piercing their meridians.

"Ugh... spare... spare my life..."

Several emitted inhuman groans of agony, unable to live, unable to die—a torment a hundred times worse than being killed outright!

Just then, a tightly shut side door of the hall was flung open with force.

A figure stumbled out—none other than Lin Feng, who had been under house arrest for days! His hair was disheveled, his complexion wan, but his spirit remained.

Seeing the hall's scene—especially Lin Sihai crippled on the ground and the elders groaning in pain, plus Lin Xue and Zhang Jun standing there unharmed—Lin Feng's expression became extremely complex: shock, anger, sorrow, and a faint, hardly noticeable... relief?

"Xue'er... Junior Zhang Jun..." Lin Feng's lips moved, his voice hoarse.

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue no longer bothered with those wastes; their gazes swept over the surviving Lin family members, trembling with fear in the hall.

"Today, we cleanse the house." Zhang Jun's voice rang through the hall, carrying undeniable authority, "Colluding with outsiders, betraying the clan—death, no mercy! Considering our shared blood, I will abolish your cultivation, expel you from the Lin family, and never employ you again!"

He paused, looked at Lin Feng, then scanned the crowd: "The Lin family head is still here—Lin family!"

The Lin family manor tonight is destined to be a sleepless night.

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's silhouettes vanished into the night's depths, leaving behind a mess on the ground and the chaos that erupted after a deathly silence.

In the hall's center, Lin Sihai and the several elders whose cultivation had been abolished lay limp on the ground, their throats emitting hoarse gasps, occasionally interrupted by stifled groans of pain, no trace left of their former domineering bearing.

Lin Feng stood there, his frame still thin, the pallor from his prolonged house arrest not yet faded; gazing at all this, his expression was complex and hard to read.

Brothers from the same family turned against each other and became enemies, ending up in such a state.

"Family Head! Please sit down and rest!" The neutral faction Elders who had been sidelined before, now finally able to step forward, hurried over to lend a hand.

Lin Feng waved his hand, his voice hoarse: "No need."

His gaze swept over the injured guards on the ground, the few cold corpses of the Shadow organization members, and finally fell upon the faces of the clanspeople, silent as cicadas and filled with panic and unease.