Chapter 263: Ye Jinghong

And this is the three officially top‑tier members of the Ye Clan's younger generation.

As a towering colossus that stands at the summit of Boundless Heaven, how deep is the Ye Clan's foundation?

Today's Heavenly Prides are as innumerable as fish crossing a river!

Besides the three renowned Imperial Sons, there are Holy Son‑level Heavenly Prides of slightly lesser rank, still formidable enough to dominate a region externally, and a far greater number of junior lineage members!

One can say that qualified and capable young Ye Clan prodigies participating in this Great Thousand Divine Universe trial are far from few!

It can be foreseen that in that supreme trial spanning the timeline, the Ye Clan's Heavenly Prides will raise their own tempest!

……

Just as the whole Ye Clan is stirred by the emergence of the Big Dipper Seven Stars, and countless Heavenly Prides are rubbing their fists in anticipation.

Within the Great Hall that houses the Clan Leader, the power core of the Ye Clan, a different scene unfolds.

The Great Hall is magnificent and lavish, each beam and pillar appearing as if cast from Star Core, bearing ancient Ye Clan totems, exuding an everlasting divine brilliance.

An intangible aura of authority and gravitas permeates every inch of space.

Two Dark Shadows stand at the center of the Great Hall.

One of them is clad in a noble robe embroidered with sun, moon, stars, and motifs of mountains, rivers, and the realm.

His figure is towering, his visage commands respect without anger, and within his eyes, as they open and close, appear visions of universal birth and death, and the Star River's rotation.

He merely stands there, yet appears as the nexus of the Ye Clan's fortune, causing people to instinctively feel awe and submission.

He is the current Clan Leader of the Ye Clan… Ye Jinghong!

Facing him is a man of equally towering height, but seeming even more unbridled.

He dons a blazing red robe, its hem seeming to pulse with an eternal divine flame, his visage is bold, and a massive vermilion gourd exuding a rich wine scent hangs from his waist.

He is the Ye Clan's Seventh Elder who has interacted with Ye Wuque and bears goodwill toward the Ye Zhengrong line… Ye Huanyu!

Now, Ye Huanyu is meticulously reporting to Clan Leader Ye Jinghong all that he witnessed in the Wild Heaven concerning Ye Wuque, leaving no detail untouched.

When he recounted how Ye Wuque, at the Grand Beast Assembly, faced the challenge of the Ancient Freak Huntian from the Golden-Winged Great Peng Clan, boldly manifested an Extreme Realm anomaly, and with outright overwhelming force, instantly killed on the spot the Extreme Realm Living Being Huntian that carried the Golden-Winged Great Peng Clan's hope—

The ever‑calm, quietly listening Clan Leader Ye Jinghong suddenly flushed with a drastic change of expression!

"What?! Is that… true?!"

He thrust forward a step, and the vast, star‑sea‑like aura around him momentarily destabilized from the violent emotional surge, making the divine brilliance throughout the Great Hall flicker erratically!

His eyes, imbued with the universe's birth and death, now stare intently at Ye Huanyu, brimming with disbelief and… a trace of urgency even he himself has not yet perceived!

Facing the Clan Leader's penetrating stare, Ye Huanyu's expression stays unchanged, he nods gravely, and declares with unwavering certainty:

"Absolutely true!"

"Clan Leader, I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Ye Wuque… not only carries the Extreme Realm, his combat strength is immense, his temperament unyielding, his methods decisive, his talent astonishing—truly a rarity in my lifetime!"

"Huntian was indeed directly crushed by him with absolute might! This incident shook Wild Heaven, and countless beings bore witness!"

Having received Ye Huanyu's confirming answer, Ye Jinghong froze where he stood, the astonishment on his face lingering for a long while.

He slowly returned to the throne that epitomizes the Ye Clan's supreme authority, his fingers unconsciously drumming the armrest, emitting a dull thud that resonated throughout the cavernous Great Hall.

After a long pause, he finally exhaled a long, deep gust of foul breath, which seemed to lift a long‑standing heavy burden from his heart.

On his face, an increasingly uncontrollable delight and excitement surfaced, his eyes even flushing slightly.

"Good! Good! Good!"

He uttered three consecutive "good"s, his voice carrying a faint tremor.

"Never expected… truly never expected… Ye Wuque… when he first endured that great calamity, we all thought he… never imagined that Zhengrong truly resurrected him, and… he even managed to come this far… what an inconceivably terrifying feat?"

His voice rose higher, brimming with satisfaction and pride: "This is the blood of the Ye Clan! This is the true Qilin Child of the Ye Clan! The heavens have eyes! May the ancestors protect us!"

Yet, as Ye Jinghong basked in immense delight, Seventh Elder Ye Huanyu let out a cold snicker:

"Heh, such a Qilin Child, even as he ascended to Nine Heavens, was repeatedly assassinated by insiders of the Ye Clan!"

Those words, like a thunderclap on a clear day, instantly yanked Ye Jinghong out of his elation!

He was first stunned, then an indescribable murderous intent, like a volcano dormant for eons, erupted violently from his body!

"Who?!!!"

A roar reverberated, shaking the entire Great Hall violently, the star‑studded ceiling mural seeming to collapse!

That murderous intent, so intense and pure, nearly materialized into a crimson storm, raging madly within the Great Hall!

Yet the next instant, he required no reply from Ye Huanyu; he instantly grasped the truth.

Who else could it be?

Who else, besides the three deeply entangled factions that have long treated Ye Wuque as a thorn in their side, possesses the ability, motive, and audacity to lay such a lethal hand upon him?

The Ye Xuanji lineage! The Ye Langya lineage! The Ye Miaoxin lineage!

"It's them… indeed them!!"

Ye Jinghong's complexion instantly turned iron‑blue, veins bulging on his forehead, his imposing eyes now filled with seething rage and lingering dread.

"These three factions… utterly lawless! They treat clan regulations as nothing! For selfish profit, they dare to shatter the Ye Clan's millennial foundation!!"

A distinct flash of lingering dread crossed his face.

If Ye Wuque truly perished here, the loss to the Ye Clan would be immeasurable!

In fact, before Ye Wuque's ancestral divine blood was harvested, Ye Jinghong greatly admired this extraordinarily gifted, composed Imperial Son.

However, when that upheaval occurred years ago, he was representing the Ye Clan at a far‑away ancient ruin, engaged in vital negotiations with several hostile races, unable to break free.

By the time he received the news and hurried back to the clan at full speed, everything had already settled.

Ye Wuque had already been declared fallen, and those three factions, with the tacit consent and even covert backing of Ancestor‑level figures, had already buried the incident.

Even as Clan Leader, in that situation he was powerless, unable to openly clash with the three major factions backed by Ancestors over a dead Imperial Son.

This incident has become a persistent pain and regret in his heart, often haunting him alone in the deep night, causing him to berate himself, despising his failure to fulfill the Clan Leader's duty to protect his kin.

And now, when he once again heard news of Ye Wuque, learning that he not only was not dead but returned in an even more dazzling, even more defiant manner, that long‑buried guilt and the joy of regaining what was lost instantly turned into an unprecedented, chilling murderous intent toward those three factions!

After a long while, Ye Jinghong finally forced himself to suppress the fury that was about to scorch his reason; the terrifying aura around him slowly receded, yet the cold in his Dark Eye was colder than ten‑thousand‑year ancient ice.

He looked at Ye Huanyu, his voice returning to calm, yet carrying an unquestionable resolve:

"Elder."

"Present," Ye Huanyu bowed.

"Keep your eyes glued on them!" Ye Jinghong said in a detached tone, yet each word weighed a thousand pounds, "Especially those three factions! During the Great Thousand Divine Universe trials and thereafter… any move they make, any action of theirs or of those behind them, no matter how small, must be reported to me immediately!"

"Yes! Clan Leader, rest assured!" Ye Huanyu solemnly accepted the order, a flash of cold light in his eyes, "I will never again allow them any chance to harm Wuque! If they continue to act unchecked, the future of the Ye Clan will truly be ruined by these selfish fools!"

Ye Jinghong nodded deeply, fully convinced, his face heavy with solemnity.

"To repel the outside, we must first pacify the inside… the tumors within the clan must now be cleared," he muttered to himself, his voice light yet tinged with a steel‑blooded tone.

The Seventh Elder Ye Huanyu said no more, bowed once again to Ye Jinghong, and his form turned into a flash of fire, vanishing within the Great Hall.

Within the vast and imposing Great Hall, only Ye Jinghong sat alone.

He gently closed his eyes, his fingers lightly massaging his brow, as if digesting the massive amount of information and weighing future strategies.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes; in those deep Dark Eyes, anger and excitement were gone, leaving only a calm as vast as the starry sky and… a trace of unyielding resolve.

He gazed at the boundless starry sky beyond the hall, his sight seeming to pierce layer upon layer of Void, seeing the Dark Shadow of a black‑robed youth stirring winds in the wild heavens, and also the majestic silhouette seated on the border of blood and fire.

He whispered to himself, his voice filled with immense satisfaction and a weighty sense of responsibility:

"Zhengrong…"

"Your son… is an Extreme Realm Living Being that has transcended ten thousand ages, breaking the ordinary!"

"With the Extreme Realm upon him, he can instantly slay peers of the same realm… what astonishing depth and potential this is!"

"With you father and son present, my Ye Clan… what worry do we have about clearing the accumulated rot and achieving boundless brilliance? What worry that we cannot stand atop the Zhutian in this magnificent age?!"

His gaze grew brighter, and a long‑brewed resolve that had been held back by countless reservations became at this moment unmistakably clear and steadfast.

For the future of the Ye Clan, for this father‑son pair destined to shine through the ages, some rules… it's time to change them!

Some tumors… it's time to eradicate them completely!