Yue Mingluan struggled to get up, but he managed to throw away the talisman from his chest that had been torn apart by the statue's continuous light beam attack.
The talisman was a valuable defense card that could even block a punch from a first-stage Core Formation Realm Cultivator. Yue Mingluan's grandfather had spent over 200000 spirit stones to purchase it, hoping that it would one day save his grandson's life. And today, it had proven to be a worthy investment.
If it wasn't for this defense talisman, then Yue Mingluan would have been the first to fall as his cultivation base is only at the 3rd stage Enlightenment Realm. Those who perished in this battle had a cultivation base starting from the fifth stage Enlightenment Realm and higher. Without the talisman's protection, Yue Mingluan would have been no match for the powerful energy unleashed by the statue.
Yue Mingluan glared at Wang Chen with intense hatred, knowing that he had not only destroyed their faction's plan to take over the Red Lotus sect completely, but he had also killed many of their members.
When they had entered the secret realm, there were over 300 disciples, including Yue Jang and other seniors who had entered with him. But now, how many were left? Not even a hundred, or perhaps even less than that. And to make matters worse, the defense talisman that was destroyed was worth a fortune, purchased by his grandfather. Yue Mingluan felt ashamed at the thought of facing his grandfather and brother, who would be disgusted with him for letting it get destroyed.
Yue Mingluan remembered clearly the time of the Talent testing for cultivation when he was a child. He was adored by his grandfather and his parents, and they loved him more than his older brother, Yue Jang. But when the results came, it was revealed that his brother had a higher level of cultivation talent than him. Yue Mingluan was not disappointed by the result itself, but by what happened afterward.
His parents and grandfather started caring more for Yue Jang and stopped thinking about him. In the cultivation world, families care more about talented children, and talented kids are nurtured well for family profit. As a result, he was left alone and started feeling jealous of his brother, always praying to the gods for help.
And suddenly, it seemed like the gods answered his prayer when the genius Yue Jang fell. No matter how hard Yue Jang tried, he couldn't increase his cultivation. It was like he was stuck at a bottleneck, and even his cultivation started to decrease. It fell from the 3rd stage of the Foundation Building Realm to the 9th stage of Body Refinement Realm.
Yue Jang, once a fallen genius, was no longer the center of attention in his family after his cultivation talent declined. Instead, the focus shifted back to his brother Yue Mingluan. Yue Mingluan even used his status to bully Yue Jang, which he enjoyed very much.
Yue Mingluan's happiness was short-lived, as tragedy soon struck his family.
A powerful cultivator destroyed their family, shattering the dream life that Yue Mingluan had been enjoying.
The elders of the Yue family tried to hold off the enemy to give the rest of the family time to escape. In the chaos, Yue Mingluan's parents distracted the enemy while his grandfather, brother, and loyal servant Yue Luang were able to flee. It is unknown whether or not Yue Mingluan's parents survived.
To avoid attracting the enemy's attention, they went into hiding and eventually made their way to Wukang Kingdom, seeking refuge in the Red Lotus sect.
Yue Mingluan's grandfather became a great elder in the Red Lotus sect, and as a result, they became disciples there too. However, Yue Mingluan was unhappy with his life and found pleasure in bullying his brother, Yue Jang. Despite his grandfather's knowledge of the bullying, he turned a blind eye to it.
One day, everything changed when Yue Jang's talent suddenly returned and he was able to beat Yue Mingluan in a fight. When Yue Mingluan complained to his grandfather for help, he was instead scolded and beaten, with his grandfather telling him that he was a talentless individual. From that moment on, his grandfather's favor shifted to Yue Jang, just like it had in the past when their talents were tested.
As time passed, Yue Mingluan found himself constantly overshadowed by his brother. A few months ago, his grandfather started forming a plan to gain control of the Red Lotus sect. He even went as far as poisoning the sect leader to achieve his goals. However, the second elder of the sect rebelled against him, and this sparked a factional fight within the sect.
Before entering the secret realm, Yue Mingluan's grandfather and brother gave him a mission to kill as many members of the opposing faction as possible. It was a dangerous mission, but one that Yue Mingluan was willing to undertake in order to prove his worth to his family and regain their favor.
His grandfather entrusted him with a precious weapon that had been passed down from his parents, along with a powerful defense talisman and tracking orbs that could locate all the disciples from their faction, allowing them to band together and hunt down members of the opposing faction.
In an instant, all their careful planning was destroyed and the culprit was none other than Wang Chen. Yue Mingluan couldn't believe that the same person who he met before and thought to be insignificant was now the reason for his downfall.
He remembered the first time he met Wang Chen, and from that moment, he felt like his luck had turned for the worse. Everything that had happened to him since then, felt like it was because of Wang Chen. Yue Mingluan's hatred for him grew to the point where he no longer cared about anything else but getting revenge and killing Wang Chen.
"I will kill you…" saying this Yue Mingluan took out a sword from his storage bag.