Chapter 22: Vengeance

Staring in shock at his own fist, Shen Duo finally realized that the scenes before his eyes were nothing more than illusions, not reality at all. Suppressing his anger, he turned to watch how events unfolded.

The two men had not expected Wei Xin to be so fierce. The look of contempt in her eyes made their scalps prickle with unease and stoked their fury. One of them shoved her hard to the ground and kicked her viciously. Wei Xin gritted her teeth and let out a muffled groan.

Seeing his beloved wife so humiliated, Shen Yun’s face turned ashen. He bit back the searing pain wracking his body, lifted his hand, and tried to gather what little blue spirit energy he had left, intending to hurl it at the cruel men. But he was gravely wounded—no match for the two. Before he could complete his move, the two men struck him with their own spirit energy orbs, rendering him unable to move.

As Wei Xin saw Shen Yun lying there, unable to get up, the tears she had held back for so long finally fell. She watched the one she loved suffer such degradation, yet was powerless to save him. Her heart was wrung with pain. Faced with such utter hopelessness, she would rather end her own life than continue to be at the mercy of others.

Wei Xin gazed deeply into Shen Yun’s eyes, her lips curving in a gentle, final smile. Gathering all the spirit energy left in her body, she seized a moment when the two men were off guard and struck her own forehead with her palm. She collapsed softly to the ground, never to awaken again.

As Wei Xin fell, Shen Duo felt as though his heart was being seared on a bed of coals—painful beyond endurance, and filled with uncontrollable rage.

The two men clearly did not expect Wei Xin to take such a desperate step. People are always filled with hope for life; until the moment of utter despair, no one gives up easily. Now that Wei Xin was dead, the only way to find out the whereabouts of that object was to interrogate Shen Yun. Shen Yun and Wei Xin had always been of one mind—he understood the despair in her eyes better than anyone. That was why, when she chose suicide, he did not stop her; he had always trusted her decisions. Surprisingly, Shen Yun’s lips now carried a faint smile, sending a chill down the men’s spines. But the thought of that coveted object quickly swept away their fear.

“Shen Yun, you’d better tell us the truth. You know better than anyone what we’re capable of. You don’t have your wife’s luck,” one man threatened. Wei Xin’s suicide had made them wary; they would not allow Shen Yun to follow her in death.

Unexpectedly, Shen Yun wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and suddenly let out a wild, scornful laugh. “You underestimate me, Shen Yun. If you want that thing, you’ll have to wait for your next life!” The words had barely left his mouth when he released an earth-shattering roar. A tremendous explosion followed. The two men instinctively raised their sleeves to shield their faces and staggered back. Realizing something was wrong, they cried out, but when the dust settled, only a few scraps of cloth and spatters of blood remained on the dim floor.

Neither had expected Shen Yun to resort to such an extreme method—self-detonation. There were generally two ways for a spirit master to commit suicide. The first, like Wei Xin, was to gather all one’s spirit energy into the palm and strike a vital point—much like severing one’s meridians in Eastern martial arts. The second was like Shen Yun’s “self-detonation”: concentrating all spirit energy in the dantian and unleashing it in a single explosive surge, shattering the body under the force. Although spirit masters were revered on the continent of Saint Radiance, people cherished their bodies as a vessel for the soul’s survival after death. This belief was especially strong among the great families. Even in suicide, few among them would take such a reckless, irreversible course. Thus, the two men had not anticipated Shen Yun would choose to self-detonate.

Shen Duo had witnessed her parents’ humiliation and suicide with her own eyes. Rage surged within her, her eyes blazing red as she watched the men’s retreating figures. She swore to herself that if ever she learned their identities, she would stop at nothing to avenge her parents. Now, Shen Duo was fully fused with the girl she once was; their lives had become one, and her parents were her parents. Besides, the original Shen Duo’s love still lingered within her.

The two men stood dazed, the situation utterly beyond their expectations. One spat contemptuously at Wei Xin’s corpse and cursed, "If I’d known it’d end like this, I’d have just finished them off with a couple of spirit blasts and saved myself the trouble." With that, he turned away in frustration.

Shen Duo clenched her fists so hard her lips bled. At last, she had endured to this moment. Her sharp eyes fixed on the man as he turned. When she saw the badge on his chest, her face went deathly pale. Pinned to his chest was a blue five-pointed star—a mark of a Sky Spirit Master. Below it was a small embroidered “Shen” character: the exclusive badge of a direct descendant of the Shen family! This man was a direct heir of the Shen family!

Shen Duo forced herself to steady her stormy emotions and breathe calmly.

The man had barely walked a few steps before noticing his companion still standing motionless. Puzzled, he called back, “Aren’t you coming? Or do you want to stay the night here?”

The other man gave a sinister smile. “I think letting that woman off so easily is too good for her.”

The first was intrigued, taking a few steps back and asking with a sly grin, “So, what do you plan to do?”

Without replying, the second man gave a cold snort, drew a firestone from his storage ring, and touched it with a trace of spirit energy. The firestone burst into flame, and he tossed it onto Wei Xin’s corpse. In an instant, she was reduced to ashes. This was no ordinary flame, but pure Celestial Fire; any human body touched by it would be instantly annihilated, let alone a lifeless corpse.

Watching Wei Xin’s body vanish, the man let out a mad laugh, as if death itself could not stop him from destroying their souls as well.

His companion was taken aback by his ruthlessness. “Brother, you truly are heartless!”

Shen Duo’s face was ashen. She had thought her parents’ forced deaths were the limit of cruelty, but now even their bodies had been obliterated—truly merciless and inhumane.

After finishing their work, the two men exchanged a dark laugh and strode out of the house. Shen Duo stared after them and was shocked to discover the other man was also a direct heir of the Shen family—a Sky Spirit Master as well.

At that moment, she etched their faces deep into her memory. Clenching her fists and pursing her lips, she vowed that one day, she would become powerful enough to make them pay for what they had done. As for the Shen family itself, she now realized she had been utterly wrong about them from the very start.