"Xu Ran, why must you harm me? Aren't you just bullying me?" Xiao Yan's body was trembling with rage. He never expected Xu Ran to resort to such a shameful stratagem.
He could accept being cruelly killed by Xu Ran, but such injustice was intolerable to him.
Initially, if Xu Ran had snatched away Xun Er and Nalan Yanran from him and then simply killed him, he wouldn't have hated Xu Ran so much.
Xu Ran took everything from him and then blamed all those despicable deeds on him, turning him into a shameless scoundrel.
Being misunderstood by his own dearest people was truly the most tragic.
Now his infamy had even spread beyond the Jia Ma Empire.
"There is no why, I simply find you annoying. You trash, will forever only be a toy for others. The Tuo She Ancient Emperor must have taken an interest in you because of your 'Cultivation Level' with the Burning Decision. Even if he protects you, he will kill you in the end." Not even Xiao Yan's imperious aura could escape the control of a Dou Di. Not even the heavens could help him now.
"So what? If I can defeat you before that, then I will die with no regrets. It's just a pity that you claimed to love Xun Er, Xiao Yu, and Xiao Mei, but your actions were so vile, you even slaughtered their relatives. What about the members of my Xiao Family? Where have you taken them?" Xiao Yan's fists were clenched tightly.
He felt helpless.
This wasn't his first failure, but...
He had already lost too much.
Childhood sweethearts, a fiancée, two brothers. Dignity, reputation...
Each time he got back up, he hated Xu Ran even more. He thought of taking Xun Er and the others back, but they had changed completely, merged with Xu Ran, beyond return. Was he about to lose the last thing he had?
"My Storage Ring can store living things. Naturally, I've kept them in there."
Xu Ran pulled Xiao Zhan out of the Storage Ring, holding him as if he were a small chicken.
"Xu Ran... I never imagined it would all come so quickly. You are truly heartless. Xun Er and the others are truly blind to have followed you," Xiao Zhan said, gritting his teeth and staring at Xu Ran with eyes that wished they could bite him to death.
"Father." Xiao Yan couldn't stop his tears from flowing when he saw his father in such a state of despair.
He had been without a mother since childhood, raised by Xiao Zhan. When everyone in the family despised him, his father didn't look down on him like the others did but still believed that one day he would rise.
"Little Flame, these days have been hard on you," Xiao Zhan said, filled with guilt. He knew how exhausting and tormenting these days had been for Xiao Yan, especially the agony of not being trusted by his loved ones. He could imagine how desperate Little Flame must have felt during those times.
"Father, you don't blame me?"
Xiao Yan stared at Xiao Zhan's kind face, and his heart trembled.
Wasn't it said that his father hated him after being deceived? Why would he...
"Blame you? How could I blame you? I only blame myself, Xiao Zhan, for not having the ability to protect you and also Ding'er and Li'er." Thinking of Xiao Ding and Xiao Li, Xiao Zhan's face grew even paler.
Who killed them, and how could he possibly not know?
"Father, have you never doubted me?" Xiao Yan was overjoyed to madness, yet tears flowed faster. He had always been despised and disliked, and it was the same even when he joined the Hun Clan. Those people from the Hun Clan held such high regard for themselves; he had a worse time there than a dog. The Void-swallowing Flame could save his life but couldn't change the way those strong members of the Hun Clan looked at him. Their contemptuous eyes pained him deeply.
It was bad enough that Xu Ran and the others bullied him, but even the people of the Hun Clan he turned to for support bullied him.
It seemed that there was no place for him, Xiao Yan, in the whole world; everyone despised him.
And now that he had Xiao Zhan's recognition, he couldn't be happier. Finally, someone acknowledged him. But he was also heartbroken, as if everyone who had recognized him was bound to die.
Was his father now also going to die at Xu Ran's hands?
"All men must die. What is there to be afraid of? What I'm worried about is the survival of the Xiao Family. If the Xiao Family falls in my hands, I would have let down the ancestors of the Xiao Family. If the Xiao Family ends, then I would indeed be the greatest sinner. That's why I hope you can survive, at least to continue the bloodline of the Xiao Family."
"Little Flame, you are my child, am I not familiar with your character? From the beginning, I chose to trust you. It's just that I know how strong Xu Ran is, and if I offended him, the Xiao Family would be done for. That's why I chose to pretend to believe in Xu Ran. I expelled you from the Xiao Family in hopes that you could escape far away and survive. As for your two brothers, I always knew it was Xu Ran's doing." Xiao Zhan said with deep emotions, choosing to conceal everything in hopes that Xiao Yan and the Xiao Family could continue to live well.
Xu Ran was too powerful, and the Xiao Family had no capacity to resist him. He could not possibly choose to offend Xu Ran. Especially after knowing of the deaths of Xiao Ding and Xiao Li, he was even more aware he could not oppose Xu Ran. Although he loathed Xu Ran, he could only bury those words in his heart. His clanspeople were always his top priority, and as the Clan Leader, he needed to ensure the safety of the other members of the clan.
"Father, so you... you knew everything... you have never doubted me." At this moment, Xiao Yan didn't know whether to feel happy or pained. It turned out there was still one person in the world who had always trusted him unconditionally—the bond between blood relatives triumphed over everything. His father had never doubted him.
But he understood, his father laying everything out was his way of making final arrangements. What a profoundly sad story was this?
Could it be that he, Xiao Yan, was the Life-Destroyer Lone Star? Why did everyone close to him who was kind to him end up with a tragic fate?
Perhaps Xu Ran was right; maybe he was just a waste. Even if he had grown strong now, what of it? He wasn't even as good as ordinary people.
The strong and the weak are not determined by one's own power. If an ordinary person can protect the people they care about, then they too can be considered strong. If one cannot protect their lover, their family, no matter how high their "Cultivation Level" is, how can they be considered powerful? And he was someone who couldn't protect anything.
It's always been him, Xiao Yan, who should have died—why is it that the people around him are leaving one by one?
If his father had always misunderstood him, he might have felt a little better, but unfortunately, his father had always been so kind to him. Those who were kind to him never had a good ending; he would rather have his father always hate him, and maybe then, Xu Ran wouldn't have killed him.