Shen Qing's pupils dilated as she felt a stinging pain on her neck.
Han Ze used a clever force. With this knife strike, only a seemingly serious wound appeared on Shen Qing's neck, but her life was not in danger.
However, it felt as if Shen Qing's throat was blocked. She was in great pain and couldn't say a single word.
The blood flowing from her seemed to be guided by something and slowly trickled towards the ground. The moment the ground touched the blood, it absorbed it all in an instant.
Seeing this, Han Ze was overjoyed.
"You've indeed received the inheritance of the Dragon Clan. I don't know how you did it, but you've helped your elder brother once again. If I had a complete dragon skeleton, I wouldn't be willing to do this to you, my dear sister."
Han Ze arrogantly showed a hint of pity to Shen Qing. He raised his hand and tenderly stroked Shen Qing's cheek. There was a look of attachment in his eyes as his fingers lingered on Shen Qing's eyes.
"Do you know? Your eyes look exactly like Mother's. She once held me in her arms and said that I was the most talented child in the Dragon Clan, that I would lead the Dragon Clan to glory."
Shen Qing wanted to avoid Han Ze's touch, but she couldn't move because she was immobilized.
She could only endure the nausea and feel Han Ze's fingers sliding up and down her eyes and cheeks like a venomous snake.
Unable to speak, Shen Qing could only stare fixedly at Han Ze, expressing her hatred with her eyes.
Seeing Shen Qing looking at him with such a resentful look, Han Ze's mouth instantly drooped. His expression turned fierce as he tightly pinched Shen Qing's chin.
"Why are you looking at me with such a resentful look!"
"Shouldn't it be me who resents you? The moment you were born, everything that was originally mine was given to you! The expectations of our parents, the support of our clan, and the scarce resources all tilted towards you. You were just a dragon egg, yet you had everything!!"
"Why did they support you? They should have listened to me long ago and trampled the Hundred Beasts under our feet, making those lowly beasts submit. That's what our Dragon Clan should do!!"
As if realizing something, Shen Qing suddenly widened her eyes. She trembled and forced out a sentence from her throat, "The mermaid corpses in the temple... It was you... You put them there...??"
"But... How... Could you get in..."
The formation outside the temple could only be entered by the Dragon Clan members who had received the inheritance. At that time, Han Ze shouldn't have received the inheritance of the Dragon Clan. How could he do it?
Unless... He had an insider!!
Han Ze looked at Shen Qing's wide - open eyes. The color of her pupils was exactly the same as his. They had the same blood flowing in their veins and the same lineage, but in the end, they were destined to take two different paths.
Although he didn't want to admit it, he had indeed done these things.
"You want to know why, don't you?"
Han Ze reached out his hand, tilted his head and looked down at Shen Qing. He gently stroked Shen Qing's cheek. Although the action seemed gentle, there was a hint of cruelty in his eyes.
"I'm not the only one in the Dragon Clan with ambition. They don't want the Dragon Clan to be content with the status quo. We want to firmly grasp the scarce resources in the cultivation world. We're doing this for the future of the Dragon Clan!"
"It's a pity that there are always some unenterprising clan members who question our decisions. So the Dragon Clan must undergo a major purge, leaving only the useful clan members. As for those useless ones, it doesn't matter if they die."
Han Ze said it lightly, easily brushing aside the crimes he had committed.
Shen Qing thought of the tragic deaths of her clan members. Her heart was filled with sorrow.
For his own ambition, Han Ze didn't even care about his own mother. He watched coldly as the clan members were skinned and dismembered, yet he still stood on the moral high - ground, pretending to be a victim to gain others' sympathy.
Such a cold - hearted person... How could he not be feared?
Shen Qing bit her tongue hard. The stinging pain and the blood helped her regain a little strength.
She tried to move her hands that were frozen. Originally numb and without feeling, now she could gather a little spiritual energy.
To divert Han Ze's attention, Shen Qing continued to speak with difficulty, "M... Mother... She..."
Han Ze's eyes darkened. It seemed that he remembered something, but he quickly turned his head away, as if afraid that Shen Qing would notice.
He suppressed his emotions and shouted harshly, "Don't mention her in front of me. If it weren't for her prophecy, I wouldn't have lost everything!"
"Sister, don't blame me. Using you now is just to lead the Dragon Clan to the peak!"
Shen Qing kept gathering spiritual energy in her hands, but the rapid loss of blood in her body made her dizzy. Her body was getting colder and colder.
The blood had dyed her clothes red. The tremors underground were becoming more and more obvious. The hot air was scorching the ground. The cultivators who had been fighting before had also noticed something was wrong.
"What's going on? What's underground?"
"Ah! No, even the divine sense can't detect what's below. But it's extremely cold down there, which is completely out of place with this strange hot air..."
"Stop discussing. Let's disperse quickly. Judging from this commotion, the thing underground must be huge. Let's retreat quickly!"
Hearing this, the cultivators who had been fighting with the monsters quickly backed away, trying to stay away from the trembling area.
By now, the ground had cracked. Strange black gas seeped out from the large and small cracks. Wherever the black gas went, it corroded everything. The corpses and blood on the ground were corroded until only white smoke remained.
Someone shouted that this smoke could turn flesh into white bones, so the cultivators quickened their pace of leaving.
Han Ze excitedly watched the black dragon about to emerge from the ground. The ice blade in his hand was eager to move. He wanted to make another cut to let Shen Qing's blood flow faster.
The spiritual energy in Shen Qing's hands kept gathering and dispersing, but she just couldn't break the ice on her hands.
Just as Han Ze's ice blade was about to fall again, a water column shot straight at Han Ze. Unable to dodge in time, Han Ze was knocked away by the water column.
The ice on Shen Qing's body was shattered, and she fell into a warm embrace.
Li Xian had already passed his thunder tribulation. Now, like Shen Qing, he was also a cultivator in the middle stage of the Void Refinement Realm.
Seeing the wound on Shen Qing's neck, Li Xian quickly covered it with his hand and frantically tried to stop the bleeding.
God knows how panicked he was when he saw the wound on Shen Qing's neck. Li Xian took out the wound medicine from his storage bag. His hands were trembling.
In Li Xian's warm embrace, Shen Qing only then realized how cold her body was. She greedily absorbed the warmth from Li Xian's body and kept moving closer to him.
Han Ze impatiently dispelled the water column. A hint of cruelty flashed in his eyes.
But after a moment's hesitation, he gave up attacking Li Xian.
He had more important things to do now. He had already got enough blood. The black dragon underground was about to emerge from the ground. He didn't need to waste any more time on these two people.
Just as Shen Qing's consciousness was fading, she saw four giant dragons standing behind Han Ze. They were exactly the same as the stone statues in the temple.
And the black dragon underground emerged from the ground in an instant. The last thing she saw was Li Xian holding her and running away frantically...