Chapter 1091, You Disappoint Me

Translator: Silavin

 

In an instant, the entirety of the Tie Family base fell silent.

 

Ye Wuxian, who was in her Elemental Form, rose high into the air, before recongealing into her Physical Form and hovering in mid-air.

 

She held Tie Fusheng’s gaze and looked him over from head to foot before she recognised who she was looking at. “You are the Tie Family Patriarch, Tie Fusheng?”

 

Tie Fusheng managed a bitter smile, and gave a slight nod of acknowledgement. “Miss Ye knows who I am?”

 

Ye Wuxian nodded. “In theory, I ought not to have had the standing to meet you. But, your Tie Family has conducted its affairs rather conspicuously in the Western Border regions. And you, as the youngest Patriarch in the Tie Family’s recorded history, have accumulated no small list of achievements. The Tie Family has documented you extensively. Quite a number of the Second Tier and Third Tier Ancient Noble Families of the Western Border have taken note, and have come across footage of you.”

 

“Those of us who are Patriarchs or Matriarchs, candidates for that position even, have regarded you as a model worthy of study.” She paused, then smiled with an air of quiet amusement. “I am also included in that list.”

 

“My Grandfather, during his lifetime, spoke of you with unrestrained admiration. He told me on numerous occasions that if the day ever came when I took charge of the Ye Family, I ought to learn from your example. That I should lead the Ye Family in building it to be even more prosperous. It is a pity that you were not as clever as I had hoped you’d be. At the very least, the reason for the Tie Family’s destruction now rests in your hands.”

 

When Ye Wuxian finished speaking, Tie Fusheng’s frame gave an involuntary shudder.

 

In theory, a figure of his calibre should not have been capable of being moved so visibly by a few words from Ye Wuxian. Yet there were several specific points within what she had said that struck directly at the core of him and cut straight through his composure.

 

The first was her remark that she had had no standing, by rights, to ever meet him.

 

That was, in truth, entirely accurate.

 

Who was Tie Fusheng? He was the Patriarch of a Supreme Tier Ancient Noble Family. Ye Wuxian, as the Matriarch of a Third Tier Ancient Noble Family. Of course she had no standing to seek an audience with Tie Fusheng. If Ye Wuxian had wished to meet Tie Fusheng, unless the matter was of the utmost importance, she would likely not have been able to even cross the Tie Family’s gates.

 

There was simply no help for it. That was the nature of a Supreme Tier Ancient Noble Family. To the eye of ordinary people, a Third Tier or Second Tier Ancient Noble Family was already a behemoth with the power to hold sway over an entire small nation. But to a Supreme Tier Ancient Noble Family, they were no more than insects beneath the foot.

 

The gulf in standing between the two of them was immense.

 

And yet now, Ye Wuxian had driven him into an inescapable corner. What greater irony could there be?

 

The second point that struck him was the extraordinary regard in which Ye Wuxian had spoken of him. It was followed, in the very same breath, by her conclusion that he had not proved as clever as she had hoped he had been, that the entire Tie Family had been ruined by his own hand.

 

Those words had lodged themselves in Tie Fusheng’s heart like a blade, sending it trembling through several long, agonised beats.

 

In truth, he had never wanted to move against Ye Wuxian. He wanted to follow the path of the Situ Family, to build a cordial relationship with Lu Fan and Ye Wuxian, to attach himself to a powerful backer.

 

It was entirely the Tie Family Ancestor, who had acted on his own unilateral impulse. The old man’s eye had fallen upon Ye Wuxian’s collection of equipment, and he had been willing to take that desperate gamble in order to seize it from her. The fact that the Tie Family was on the verge of relocating to a new base had pushed the Tie Family Ancestor to gain even more emboldened confidence.

 

Tie Fusheng had, in fact, been staunchly opposed to it.

 

But the reality was that he was not the Tie Family’s true seat of power. When it came to matters of genuine consequence, the entire Tie Family deferred, above all else, to the Tie Family Ancestor’s command.

 

Tie Fusheng wanted desperately to explain: the situation the Tie Family now found itself in was truly not the product of his own failings.

 

But his mouth opened, and in the end, the words died in his throat.

 

“I apologise.” Tie Fusheng said only those two words, and even Ye Wuxian was taken aback by them.

 

She had not expected that this would be something he would say.

 

As Ye Wuxian turned the question of Tie Fusheng’s intentions over in her mind, Tie Fusheng continued. “For everything that our Tie Family has done to you, I offer my deepest and most sincere apologies. You came here, destroyed our base, and killed countless of our people. We brought this upon ourselves. It is nothing less than what we deserve. You are far more powerful than we are. We acknowledge it wholeheartedly, and accept our defeat without reservation. ‘The victor becomes king, the defeated an outlaw’.”

 

He paused, then said in a voice laden with grief. “I ask only one thing, that you spare those among our Tie Family who bear no guilt. Within the Tie Family, not all of us are of the direct bloodline. There are also those outsiders who joined us, those who have Lifestyle Specialised Profession, and members of other Families who are merely affiliated with us.”

 

“In the matter of the assault against you, they played no part in it whatsoever. They carry no fault of their own. I ask that you spare these people, and refrain from creating any more unnecessary killing.”

 

Ye Wuxian listened, then laughed. “So what you mean to say is, the Tie Family’s attack on me should simply be written off, and I should take my leave, letting the Tie Family off? So that once you’ve recovered your strength, you can come to seek revenge against me?”

 

“I do not believe that after everything we’ve done here today, killing this many of your people, your Tie Family would ever be willing to let the matter rest. And furthermore… Why should I let any of you go?”

 

Tie Fusheng smiled and shook his head. “I know, of course, that what you describe is impossible. But, you have not fully understood my meaning. For the assault against you, our Tie Family deserves whatever fate you choose upon us. You can kill as you see fit. Every single resource within this base belongs to you from this moment forward. I will have everyone evacuate, leaving everything here for your Ye Family. My only request is that the innocent be pardoned and permitted to leave. Naturally, you do not need to trouble yourself with any concern over future retaliation.”

 

With that, he spread his arms wide. From within his body, threads of green light erupted outward, cascading outward, bypassing Ye Wuxian and her companions entirely, and descending instead upon every member of the Tie Family present.

 

In an instant, a chorus of horrified outcries erupted from the Tie Family members.

 

“Patriarch, what is the meaning of this!? Why are you stripping us of our Professions!?”

 

“This is outrageous! Have you not just handed us over as defenceless offerings for the enemy to slaughter us as they please!?”

 

“Patriarch, have you lost your mind!?”

 

“…”

 

Through the entirety of the Tie Family base, a continuous torrent of cries and wails rose without end.

 

Ye Wuxian observed with astonishment that Tie Fusheng’s green light possessed the ability to dissolve Players of the Professions and Levels once it touched. Whoever was struck by his Skill would find their Level plummeting at a precipitous rate, their Profession completely erased.

 

Within moments, as Tie Fusheng’s own body began to grow translucent and fade, every Tie Family member present had been reduced to Level 10, Professionless now. And worse, every one of them bore the permanent stigma of a broken Profession, for they had already undergone their First Profession Change once. Even if they were to step onto a Profession Change Platform again, they would be unable to regain or gain a new Profession.

 

In other words, every single one of them had been rendered utterly powerless. They have been reduced to a state even beneath that of someone who had taken up a Lifestyle Specialised Profession.

 

Decades. Or in some cases, over a century of painstaking effort spent Levelling, all of it rendered meaningless in a single instant. More than a few Tie Family members had been pushed to the very edge of emotional collapse, their despair absolute and total.