“Tenth Brother,” Wang Yanpo stood to the side, his voice trembling slightly. “Yanpeng was unlucky. He… he was hit in the head by a fragment of a Magical Artifact.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt a gaze burning into him. He looked up to see Wang Hao staring him down with ferocious intensity. Wang Yanpo immediately clamped his mouth shut.

In that chaotic explosion, the only artifact shattered was Wang Yanzhi’s shield. There was no need to guess whose fragment had dealt the fatal blow.

“It was me…” Wang Yanzhi fell to his knees, pounding his chest in anguish. “I killed him! It’s all my fault!”

Wang Yanpo, realizing his blunder, lowered his head and scurried away to hide in the shadows.

Wang Hao let out a heavy sigh. He couldn’t let his uncle collapse under this guilt.

“Tenth Uncle, if we are assigning blame, then I am the one who proposed this operation. Should the deaths of all these clansmen be counted against my karma?”

Wang Yanzhi froze, looking up with tear-filled eyes. “You did it for the family. How could anyone blame you?”

“Then how can we blame you?” Wang Hao asked gently. “You raised your shield in time. You blocked the majority of the blast. You saved everyone else. You have done enough.”

Wang Hao looked at the silent bodies of his kinsmen. “Cultivation is an act of defying the heavens. Life and death are dictated by fate, not men. These clansmen died for the family’s future. Our duty is not to drown in grief, but to honor their sacrifice by making the Wang Clan stronger. We must ensure our legacy endures for ten thousand years, so that future generations will remember their names.”

Wang Yanzhi closed his eyes, pain etched deep in his features, but he said nothing more.

He wasn’t a fool; he understood the logic. But logic did little to salve the heart. Unlike Wang Hao, who had grown up mostly outside the clan, Wang Yanzhi had lived with these men and women his entire life. They were his brothers, his sisters, his blood.

Seeing that his uncle’s emotions had stabilized, albeit in grief, Wang Hao stepped away. He walked over to Wang Longling and the others to discuss the next move.

Seeing Wang Hao’s somber expression, Li Derong offered a soft word of advice. “Don’t take it too hard. Resources in this world are finite. Cultivation is nothing more than a struggle to seize them. If you want the prize, you must pay the price.”

The Li family had also suffered. Two dead, one maimed with both hands severed. Unless they found a rare limb-regeneration spirit medicine, that cultivator’s path was effectively over.

Wang Longyou, his voice heavy with the weight of years, added, “You haven’t experienced it much yet, but power struggles are always this vicious. Defeat doesn’t just mean loss; it means the extinction of the clan.”

“Fellow Daoist Wang speaks the truth,” Li Yaozu chimed in, his tone pragmatic. “Thunder Peninsula has been peaceful for two centuries, but our records tell of bloodier times. Clans wiped out overnight were a common occurrence. Even Golden Core sects have fallen into dust. The only way to survive is to be strong. Never become the soft persimmon that others can squeeze at will.”

He chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. “Thanks to Little Friend Wang, my Li family has secured several Foundation Establishment Pills. If our clans unite and develop quietly for a few decades, perhaps we can truly become a Golden Core power!”

He cast a meaningful glance at Li Derong, then looked back at Wang Hao. “Little Friend Wang seems to be without a Dao Companion. I see Derong is about your age. Perhaps…”

“Senior Li, this is hardly the time,” Wang Hao cut him off firmly.

It wasn’t that Li Derong wasn’t a catch—she was beautiful, possessed Dual Spirit Roots, and her cultivation base exceeded his own. In a different life, he might have considered adding her to his harem. But that was a thought for after he reached the Nascent Soul stage. For now, he had to tread carefully. besides, he already had Ji Xiaotang.

“Fourth Uncle!” Li Derong flushed, equal parts embarrassed and annoyed. “I am devoted to the Dao. Please do not make decisions for me without my consent.”

“Ahem, alright, alright. We can discuss it later,” Li Yaozu laughed awkwardly, quickly pivoting back to business. “Let’s talk about Clear Dew Peak. The noise from our battle was immense; the Gu family there must be alerted. We have to storm it. However, with their main forces dead, they have no Foundation Establishment defenders. Derong, Fellow Daoist Wang, and I can handle it. Little Friend Wang and Fellow Daoist Yanzhi should stay here and guard the wounded.”

Wang Hao nodded silently. His body was in no condition to fight anyway.

“I have no objections,” Wang Longyou said, stroking his beard. “Clear Dew Peak and Black Wind Mountain are three hours apart. We can take them in sequence. But how do we divide the spoils? One peak per family, or everything split down the middle?”

His implication was clear: the Li family shouldn’t expect a larger share just because they were sending two experts to the Wang family’s one.

Li Yaozu waved his hand dismissively. He knew well that without Wang Hao’s shield, his clan would have suffered catastrophic losses. “Split equally, of course. Fellow Daoist Wang, rest assured. If any Li cultivator dares to pocket a single spirit stone, I will cripple them myself.”

Wang Longyou nodded in satisfaction. The plan was set.

Moments later, the three Foundation Establishment experts led ten lightly injured clansmen toward Clear Dew Peak.

Wang Hao wasn’t worried. A formation, no matter how powerful, needed a competent pilot. Without a Foundation Establishment cultivator to anchor the array, even a Second-Order High-Grade formation was a paper tiger against three experts.

Wang Longyou and the Li duo arrived at Clear Dew Peak to find the defensive array fully activated, humming with energy. They wasted no words.

“Attack with full force!” Wang Longyou commanded, summoning his artifact.

Spells and artifacts bombarded the barrier. Unlike the tortoise-shell War Formation from earlier, this array felt brittle. It had power from the spirit vein, but its reactions were sluggish and clumsy—the hallmark of being controlled by low-level disciples.

The Gu family had stripped their defenses to the bone for the invasion of Green Bull Market. Only the old, the weak, and the sick remained.

In less than half an hour, the barrier shattered with a thunderous crash. Wails of despair rose from the Gu clansmen inside.

Li Yaozu and the others showed no mercy. They swept through the peak, cutting down resistance, though they didn’t waste time hunting every fleeing servant. Their eyes were on the treasury.

At a grove of Iron Paulownia Wood, Li Yaozu paused, his eyes gleaming with greed. These trees were Second-Order High-Grade materials, incredibly valuable for crafting artifacts. He smashed his weapon against a trunk.

THUD.

The tree barely vibrated, leaving only a shallow dent.

Li Yaozu cursed. Iron Paulownia was notorious for its hardness. Felling this grove would take days, time they didn’t have. Who knew when reinforcements might arrive?

“Fellow Daoist Li, leave it,” Wang Longyou advised. “Take the saplings and the mid-grade timber. We move on to the treasury.”

“Should we set a fire?” Li Yaozu asked, a ruthless glint in his eye. “Burn it down so they get nothing?”

Wang Longyou shook his head. “Don’t do things that harm others without benefiting yourself. If the Gu family survives, they will hate us to the bone. Even if they don’t, whoever takes over this mountain next will curse our names. Provoking universal resentment is unwise.”

Li Yaozu nodded, conceding the point. Plundering was survival; wanton destruction was a sin that invited bad karma.

They contented themselves with felling the younger trees and transplanting several First-Order saplings. Then, they swept through the warehouses, spirit fields, and medicine gardens like locusts. Nothing of value was left behind.

After stripping Clear Dew Peak bare, they moved on to Black Wind Mountain and repeated the process.

The haul was astronomical.

When the group returned, they brought back over fifty thousand Spirit Stones in hard currency, and resources worth at least another hundred thousand. The immense wealth did much to soothe the grief of losing their kin.

“Wenhao,” Wang Longyou asked as he landed, “any word from Lei Liheng?”

Wang Hao nodded. “They took Red Maple Lake yesterday. It was a walk in the park compared to our fight. Apparently, the Gu family head, Gu Lizhan, is currently at the Ye family in Double Dragon Mountain. Red Maple Lake only had one defender.”