Chapter 9: The Feixue Hall
Ying Xuechen acted swiftly. The people he sent to the Zhangsun residence returned in less than half a day.
Ying Tong looked at the items they brought back and, for a moment, didn’t know what to say. She had told them to clean the place out thoroughly, but she hadn’t expected them to take everything, even the kitchen sink.
In the sky, a dozen giant eagles with wingspans of tens of meters were flapping their wings.
From each of them, an iron chain as thick as a man’s arm extended downward.
At the end of the chains, the entire Zhangsun household had been uprooted and was being transported back.
At this moment, Ying Xuechen ran over to claim credit, “Venerable Yunhuang, we guarantee that the place has been thoroughly cleared.”
Ying Tong took a deep breath and raised her hand, giving Ying Xuechen a slap on the back of his head. “Idiot! Where do you plan to put something this big?”
Rubbing the back of his head, which stung from the hit, Ying Xuechen muttered softly, “Didn’t you tell us to clean everything out thoroughly? Isn’t this clean enough?”
Ying Tong shot him a glare. How dare he talk back?
Forget it. Since everything had already been brought back, there was no way to send it all back.
From that moment on, the Zhangsun family ceased to exist in the Cangqiong Realm. As for the Zhangsun family members who had been captured along with their home…
“I plan to strip them of their cultivation and send them to the mines to dig,” Ying Xuechen said.
Ying Tong looked at these people. Though their cultivation had been sealed and their mouths gagged, their eyes were filled with hatred. These people couldn’t be allowed to live.
“Kill them all.”
Ying Xuechen was stunned for a moment, then immediately responded, “As you command.”
He didn’t ask for any explanation.
The previous plan to send them to the mines was just a way to squeeze out the last bit of value from them.
But since Ying Tong had spoken, there was no need to argue. After all, they were insignificant people—whether they lived or died made no difference.
Once those people were dealt with, the next matter was the dragon-blood jade pendant Ying Tong had mentioned.
However, even after Ying Xuechen led his men to thoroughly search every inch of the Zhangsun household, they still couldn’t find the dragon-blood jade pendant.
“No?”
Ying Tong pondered for a moment. Since it wasn’t in the house, the pendant was likely being carried by Zhangsun Qi.
“Are Zhangsun Qi, Zhangsun Ya, and Qin Xuan being held separately?”
Hearing this, Ying Xuechen nodded.
“Lead the way.”
The Ying family’s secret prison wasn’t called a prison; it had a rather elegant name: the Feixue Hall.
They entered the Feixue Hall.
Just beyond the door, the outside world was bathed in bright sunlight, but within, it was pitch-black, so dark that one couldn’t see a hand in front of their face. They could barely make out that they were in a cave with winding passages, surrounded by an eerie silence.
An ordinary person would have been terrified just by reaching this point, trembling in fear.
However, neither Ying Tong nor Ying Xuechen showed the slightest hint of fear in the face of this darkness that would terrify most.
As if unaware of their surroundings, they calmly stepped forward without hesitation. In an instant, their figures disappeared into the darkness.
Behind them, the entrance slowly vanished, cutting off the sunlight from the outside world completely.
Ying Tong and Ying Xuechen walked through the darkness with no change in their expressions.
“Does Venerable Yunhuang wish to see Zhangsun Qi and Zhangsun Ya because you believe they still have the pendant?”
Ying Tong nodded.
Moments later, their surroundings suddenly opened up.
In front of them were rows of small, cramped cages.
This was also a form of punishment—being confined in such tight cages, unable to move, brought both physical and mental torment.
Each cage had a seal on it, and if anyone tried to escape or even touch it, they would trigger a restriction spell.
This place, used by the Ying family, was meant for imprisoning traitors or those guilty of heinous crimes.
Although that was its purpose, most of the cages here were empty.
However, if one looked closely, they would notice that many of the cages held things invisible to the naked eye.
Ordinary people couldn’t see them, but they could sense something within these spaces.
These were vengeful souls, full of resentment.
In the Feixue Hall, death was not the end but merely the beginning.
These souls were either bound and trapped by golden chains, invisible to the eye, or pierced through by numerous chains.
Besides these trapped souls, there were also a few living prisoners. However, their condition was worse than death.
When Ying Tong and Ying Xuechen reached the innermost part of the hall, they found Zhangsun Qi and Zhangsun Ya, while Qin Xuan was held in a different area.
It’s often said that true feelings are revealed in times of hardship, but Ying Xuechen certainly wasn’t about to give these two the chance to pour out their hearts to each other.
In a short period of time, Zhangsun Ya had become a completely different person.
Though Ying Xuechen hadn’t explicitly stated what would happen to Zhangsun Ya, it was clear that most who were sent to the Feixue Hall would never leave.
Even if nothing else were done to her, just being confined in such a cramped cage was enough to break her.
When Zhangsun Ya saw Ying Tong and Ying Xuechen, she became excited. “You’ve come to let me out, haven’t you? Brother Xuan… Brother Xuan still loves me, right? I was wrong, I was really wrong. I shouldn’t have listened to Qin Xuan’s sweet words. If you let me out, I promise I’ll marry Brother Xuan immediately. From now on, he will be my everything.”
Ying Xuechen looked at her with disdain. “Brother Xuan, Brother Xuan… you switch between them pretty easily, don’t you?”
Hearing this, a flash of shame crossed Zhangsun Ya’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by resentment.
If it weren’t for these two people in front of her, she would have long ago flown away with Brother Xuan to live happily ever after. How could things have turned out this way?
Her hatred for Ying Tong was especially intense. The more she had once admired her, the more she despised her now.
She used to think that Ying Tong was a celestial being, untouched by the mundane world. But now, she realized she had fallen, sinking into the dirt along with the rest of the Ying family, bullying the weak. A person like her no longer deserved her admiration.
In her heart, Zhangsun Ya silently vowed that once she escaped, she would expose Ying Tong’s true face to the world. She would make everyone see that she was nothing special and didn’t deserve the reverence she received.
Brother Xuan was being held separately by these people, and she had no idea what his condition was. Were they hurting him? She couldn’t let that happen. She had to find a way to escape and rescue Brother Xuan from this peril.
In her mind, Zhangsun Ya started to imagine herself as a noble figure, someone who would bravely sacrifice everything for love.
However, when she came back to reality, she realized that neither Ying Tong nor Ying Xuechen had spared her a second glance.
Zhangsun Qi, on the other hand, instantly recognized Ying Tong and became excited. He stood up and cried out, “Venerable Yunhuang, you must stand up for us! Today was supposed to be my daughter’s engagement ceremony with Ying Xuan, but the Ying family switched people without permission and then imprisoned us. Venerable Yunhuang, you can’t just ignore this!”
