The confined Emperor Zhang Tai had simulated this secret technique countless times in his heart. Swallowing the vital blood, activating the fate-snatching formation, and the series of procedures went very smoothly.
It was a seamless flow.
Before long, his body began to advance towards the Great Grandmaster Completion realm under the effect of the vital blood.
His internal blood began to exhibit the purplish-gold hue characteristic of Martial Saints before his realm did.
Furthermore, the damage to his foundation caused by his hasty pursuit of advancement and excessive consumption of elixirs to force his breakthrough into the Great Grandmaster realm was also being rapidly repaired by the small amount of snow lotus essence contained within the bottle of vital blood.
In a short while, he successfully broke through to the Great Grandmaster Completion realm, with all foundation damage healed. He became a perfect Great Grandmaster, with no lack of lifespan. Simultaneously, the fate-snatching formation that had been activated beside him smoothly gathered all the fortune of the Zhenbei Hou lineage into a single mass.
All that was left was for him to merge with that mass of fortune.
That mass of fortune would then naturally propel his cultivation to the Martial Saint realm and complete the corresponding transformation.
However, the smoothness of events ended there.
As the fortune took form, Emperor Zhang Tai excitedly reached out to touch it, intending to make it his own. But the mass of fortune suddenly seemed to gain sentience and struggled violently.
Even though Emperor Zhang Tai promptly activated the formation to suppress it, he ultimately failed.
He could only watch helplessly and furiously as the mass of fortune abruptly broke free from the formation, escaped the imperial palace, and flew north.
At this point, Emperor Zhang Tai understood everything. Clearly, there were still remnants of the Zhenbei Hou lineage in the north, and likely not from a collateral branch. If it were merely a collateral branch, his formation would have been sufficient to suppress the fortune. It would have been impossible for him to be unable to suppress it now, and thus have to let the fortune escape.
Therefore, the remnants of the Zhenbei Hou lineage in the north were very likely direct descendants, meaning they could be Zhenbei Hou's own son or grandson. Thinking of this, Emperor Zhang Tai couldn't help but curse loudly, cursing Zhenbei Hou for deception. Publicly, he only had one wife and never took concubines, siring only three sons and one daughter. Secretly, in the north, he had illegitimate children.
Yes, Emperor Zhang Tai did not believe that the escapees were remnants from the Zhenbei Hou mansion in the capital. The corpses of those remnants were all accounted for and verified by Great Grandmasters, with no error.
Therefore, there was only one possibility for this situation.
That was that Zhenbei Hou was not as virtuous as he appeared. He publicly treated his wife well, known as the most devoted husband in the capital, never taking concubines, and having no illegitimate sons. Unexpectedly, he had kept illegitimate children in the north.
He was simply scum, a degenerate.
Of course, this was just Emperor Zhang Tai's furious outburst in his desperation. Nevertheless, Emperor Zhang Tai had merely failed to break through to Martial Saint. His current Great Grandmaster Completion realm and fully restored foundation were perfectly fine, and the formation had not backfired.
Overall, he had still profited greatly.
He had benefited from feasting on Zhenbei Hou's "man blood buns," gaining many years of cultivation and over a hundred years of lifespan.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side, Su Yong, the legitimate heir of Zhenbei Hou.
Not long after he had escaped in exhaustion, he unexpectedly stumbled into the Tianzhu Mountain area. This triggered a partial avalanche above Tianzhu Mountain, resulting in him being buried under a massive amount of snow and frozen.
However, he was extremely lucky. If he had been buried by snow before breaking through to Great Grandmaster, he would have surely died. But after breaking through to Great Grandmaster and then being buried and frozen, he would not die for at least three to five years.
The scant icy power contained within the accumulated snow over the years had, to a certain extent, helped him suppress the malevolent energy and killing intent within his body.
This allowed him to regain some rationality even while frozen. He then took advantage of this rare moment of clarity, with his malevolent energy and killing intent suppressed, to begin sorting out his cultivation and guiding the surrounding icy power into his body, attempting to neutralize the killing intent and malevolent energy within him.
And it actually had some effect.
This was not surprising, as the Ten Thousand Year Snow Lotus bloomed at the peak of the snow mountains, absorbing not only the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and daily nutrients but also the most of the icy power.
However, the icy power, after being absorbed and transformed by the snow lotus, became much gentler and easier for the human body to absorb.
Since the Ten Thousand Year Snow Lotus could neutralize the malevolent energy and killing intent within Zhenbei Hou's body, the icy power could also achieve this, albeit with more pain and a slower effect.
Thus, Su Yong, the legitimate heir of Zhenbei Hou, had turned misfortune into a blessing. He resigned himself to his frozen state, using the icy power to slowly wear down the malevolent energy and killing intent within him. This was also why he had not appeared again since; he was too frozen in the snow to move, how could he appear?
Just as he settled down, intending to spend a year or two to grind away most of the malevolent energy and killing intent within him before breaking free from the snow, a surge of fortune suddenly descended upon him.
Simultaneously, this surge of fortune did not merely bring good luck as normal fortune did; instead, it rapidly elevated his cultivation. Before long, his initial Great Grandmaster Early stage cultivation rapidly ascended to Mid stage, then Late stage, and finally Completion. Most outrageously, it did not stop at Completion but continued to push his cultivation all the way to the Martial Saint Early stage before the surge of fortune completely depleted.
Transferring another person's fortune to oneself would inevitably incur some losses, but when transferred to a family member, the loss would naturally be significantly reduced.
Therefore, it was quite reasonable for this surge of fortune to help Su Yong break through a major realm, advancing him from Great Grandmaster Early stage to Martial Saint Early stage.
The only issue was that the malevolent energy and killing intent he had painstakingly begun to suppress had, due to the sudden surge in his cultivation, erupted again, growing several times stronger than before. In an instant, Su Yong felt as though he was losing control once more.
At the last moment, he frantically transferred all the icy power he had accumulated recently to his spiritual consciousness to maintain his lucidity.
While continuing to absorb the surrounding icy power.
He also immediately broke free from his frozen state and rapidly fled towards the upper reaches of Tianzhu Mountain, seeking colder places and more potent ice, preferably something like thousand-year ice. Fortunately, he found a significant amount of ten-thousand-year ice and thousand-year ice jade in a cave at the very peak of Tianzhu Mountain.
He then fashioned a large coffin for himself using thousand-year ice jade as a bed and ten-thousand-year ice as walls, lying inside. This allowed him to enter a state of hibernation while still maintaining partial clarity through the terrifying chill of the thousand-year ice jade, drawing upon the surrounding icy power to grind away the malevolent energy and killing intent that was still surging within him.
However, this time, the surging malevolent energy and killing intent within him would likely not be eradicated in a month or two, but rather take years, even decades.
Furthermore, until his malevolent energy and killing intent were completely purged, he would not dare to leave this place.
He feared losing control.
While revenge was important, how could a person who had gone mad and lost control achieve revenge? He might go to the wrong place and kill innocents. Moreover, as a Martial Saint Early stage cultivator, it was difficult for him to single-handedly enter the capital to slay Emperor Zhang Tai.
Therefore, he could only lie low for the time being.