Book 7, Chapter 41: Slaughter
In Redstone Basin.
This basin was an ancient landmark.
Red sandstone covered the landscape, giving the basin an extremely ancient and dusty appearance.
Today, however, a fresh coat of paint had been applied.
Scarlet blood washed over the entire basin, which was filled with the corpses of countless Demonic Beast. Up in the sky, sounds of constant mournful wailing and moaning could be heard.
The majority of these mourners were Demonic Beasts.
They were gathered around the edge of the basin. In front of them stood a Sovereign, who cried out, “Majestic Ancestor, please open your eyes! The vile humans have come to attack us once again! We are already at our limit!”
There was no response.
The Sovereign didn’t even turn around as he emotionlessly commanded, “Sacrifice another ten thousand.”
The Sovereign’s guards forced another ten thousand Demonic Beasts into the basin and then executed them, spilling even more fresh blood onto the red ground.
This new river of blood flowed to the center basin, draining into a seemingly bottomless hole. Finally, after an unknown period of time, the ground of the basin trembled slightly.
Then, an ancient voice sighed out, “Why are you awakening me again? Do you feel that I have been alive for too long?”
The Sovereign was delighted by the response. “Ancestor, we really are at our wits’ end! Otherwise, we would not dare to disturb Ancestor.”
“Which one are you?”
The Sovereign hurriedly replied, “Ancestor, my name is Kucha.”
“Kucha...... Ah, the one who ate the Tree Ancestor’s enlightenment in order to become a Sovereign. In some sense, you are his descendant — you should have gone to him.”
Kucha bitterly replied, “Blood Ancestor, I...... I don’t dare to awaken Tree Ancestor.”
“Oh.” The Blood Ancestor seemed to understand Kucha’s predicament. “You must have produced some Shadow Calcite. Are you afraid that he will take your Shadow Calcite and consume it for himself?”
Kucha fell to the ground, trembling violently. He didn’t dare utter a single word in response.
The Blood Ancestor then languidly asked, “How is the situation looking?”
Kucha hurriedly replied, “The humans have ma.s.sacred their way to Skywild Plains. Golden Feather Ancestor was awakened by a secret Astral technique, but it was defeated by the humans in battle.”
“Golden Feather is dead?” The Blood Ancestor raised its voice ever so slightly. Even so, this slight increase in volume caused the very earth to tremble.
All of the Demonic Beasts immediately prostrated themselves in fear, not daring to move even a single muscle.
Kucha was no exception.
After some time, the Blood Ancestor’s voice rumbled out, “I cannot sense Golden Feather’s aura. It seems that he really is dead.”
Kucha took advantage of the opportunity to once again plead, “Ancestor, please support us.”
“Absolutely not!” The Blood Ancestor immediately rejected him. “I can sense that the Barrier is beginning to come down. And soon, it will completely disappear. I cannot awaken everyone when our fight against the G.o.ds is so close at hand. We have been waiting for the moment when we can exact our revenge. The Divine Beasts will definitely return to the Origin Energy Sea!”
Kucha agitatedly replied, “But if the humans take over the wilderness, then the Ancestors will not have any Demonic Beasts left to protect their territory!”
When it heard this, the Blood Ancestor fell silent.
Without the Demonic Beasts controlling their territory on the surface, the humans would recklessly invade the Beasts’ borders, and they might even take the initiative to attack the Desolate and Origin Beasts.
If the humans were the ones who were waking up the Desolate Beasts and Origin Beasts, they would have plenty of time to set up all kinds of traps for them in advance. Then, when these Ancestors awoke, the traps would be activated all at once. Many of the Ancestors would probably die before fully awakening. The Ancestors that could be poisoned would be poisoned, and those that could be trapped would be trapped. They had witnessed these tactics quite often when they had fought against the G.o.ds.
This was especially true for Ancestors like them. If they were all awakened......
As soon as it realized this, the Blood Ancestor a.s.sented to Kucha’s request. “Fine. Take two units of my blood and awaken two Elders.”
Two b.a.l.l.s of blood flew out of the dark, fathomless hole, landed in Kucha’s hand, and turned into two droplets of blood.
Kucha carefully stowed them away and then delicately asked, “Blood Ancestor, what if two Elders is not enough?”
“Hm?” The Blood Ancestor grunted in disbelief.
Kucha said, “The invaders this time are both the humans and the Harpies. Not long ago, the humans and Harpies fought each other. The humans won a decisive victory and have claimed Sky City for themselves.”
“Sky City...... The Arcanists......” the Blood Ancestor muttered to itself, deep in thought.
The Blood Ancestor knew quite a bit about the Arcanists.
They were a race that had required an Ancestor to personally take action in order to finish off.
As for Sky City, he had also heard about it the last time he was awakened.
Upon hearing Kucha’s explanation, the Blood Ancestor thought for a moment before sending over two more b.a.l.l.s of blood.
One was scarlet, while the other was the color of bone marrow.
The Blood Ancestor said, “Here’s one more unit of blood. If even three Elders are not enough, then take this marrow and awaken the Barbaric Ancestor. We have already lost the s.h.i.+ning Ancestor. I pray that we will not lose another. Go, hurry. Don’t waste my time any longer. If we keep talking, then my body will fully awaken.”
“Understood!” Kucha bowed respectfully before turning to leave.
Sky City.
At this point, Sky City was now well and truly flying the human race’s and the Boundless Sect’s flags.
The throne in Perpetual Daylight Palace that had once belonged to Eternal Night was now occupied by Su Chen.
Even though he had never referred to himself as a ruler, all of the other leaders unanimously considered him to be the true ruler of the human race.
This newly crowned emperor sat upon the throne, listening to his subordinates’ reports.
“The Harpies in Sky City have been fully incorporated, though Sky Country has not been notified yet,” Li Chongshan said.
Sky City had indeed been conquered, but the Harpies had not been fully subjugated. There were still many of them stationed back at Sky Country. In addition, there were still three Floating Points to deal with. If these Harpies could not be dealt with, then the Harpies had not truly been conquered.
When Su Chen heard Li Chongshan’s report, he fell into a moment of deep thought before carefully saying, “We will need to deal with them, but I think that it would be best to have Eternal Night take care of this matter for us.”
“Eternal Night?” Li Chongshan and the others were stunned.
“Yes,” Su Chen said with a nod. “After all, he was the Harpies’ ruler, and the sway he has over them cannot be overstated. Having him publicly proclaim their surrender to Sky Country would be the best move.”
Making Eternal Night issue the surrender order would be a great test to him, as well as an intense humiliation.
But Eternal Night had no choice but to comply.
“I’m just worried that Eternal Night might be dismembered alive by enraged Harpies when he goes back.” Although Li Chongshan’s words seemed to indicate some concern, his expression said otherwise.
Even though Eternal Night’s reputation was extremely high, everything was different after such a significant loss.
If he had died in battle, the Harpies would view him as a leader. Surrender, however, meant that he was a traitor.
If he were to continue proclaiming surrender, he would garner even more ire and hatred.
As such, perhaps only one-tenth of the Harpies back home would remain loyal to him, but more of them would hate him.
Even so, this was exactly what Su Chen was after.
Eternal Night was powerful. Su Chen couldn’t use him with full confidence without destroying some of the confidence that the other harpies had in him.
This was the reason why, throughout history, traitors were often the ones who were the most vicious when dealing with their former comrades.
That was the only way they could prove their trustworthiness.
Eternal Night didn’t want to do this, but Su Chen was not going to give him a choice in the matter.
In such an important matter, there was no room to take Eternal Night’s personal feelings into consideration.
If it were any other Harpy, Su Chen probably would not have needed to go to such lengths. Against Eternal Night, however, this was the best way to get some kind of leverage on him.
All Su Chen said in response to Li Chongshan’s comment was, “Those who are willing to surrender will be a.s.similated, and those who do not will be dealt with. Someone will need to do the dirty work, and Eternal Night is as good a choice as any. Right, send the Mother of All Bugs and the t.i.tan Army with him, and pick out a few of the Harpy generals that had surrendered.”
“Understood!” Li Chongshan nodded his head.
“Right - has there been any movement from the Ravagers’ side yet?” Su Chen asked.
The current ruler of Long Sang, Lin Chenyuan, was responsible for keeping an eye on the Ravagers.
Even though Lin Chenyuan was far weaker and lacked presence compared to the other emperors, his political abilities were up to par. Upon hearing Su Chen’s question, he hurriedly replied, “The Ravagers don’t particularly seem to be up to something. I asked the Flowing Gold Fort just a few days ago and confirmed that the tribes nearby were all just going about their daily business.”
When Su Chen heard this, he squinted his eyes. “If everything seems normal, that means something is definitely up.”
For some reason, Su Chen couldn’t help but feel that Danba was becoming more and more alien to him.
There should have been no way that the Ravagers would simply sit on the sidelines and watch while the humans brawled with the Harpies. And someone like Danba should have been actively trying to put himself in an advantageous situation. Either he would ally with the humans to demonstrate his allegiance and establish a position for himself in the future, or he would do the same with the harpies. Or, he could have attempted to ambush one or the other, obtaining some short-term but nevertheless very real benefits in the process.
Su Chen had specifically bolstered the Flowing Gold Fort’s manpower for this exact reason.
In the end, however, the Ravagers had done nothing.
This was simply too different from what Danba would normally do.
Su Chen turned the matter over in his mind repeatedly but couldn’t seem to figure it out. At that moment, however, a clamor suddenly burst forth from outside the Perpetual Daylight Palace.
“What’s going on?” Some of the officers were unhappy at the sudden disturbance, but that dissatisfaction quickly gave way to shock when they heard the response.
“An a.s.sa.s.sination attempt!”
What?
Everyone was stunned.
Who would dare try and pull off an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt at this moment in time?
The answer, however, surprised everyone present.
Because the a.s.sa.s.sination target was not a high-level officer. He was just a Blood Boiling Realm cultivator.
Actually, a cultivator at that level was extremely hard to find in this army, which was composed exclusively of powerful elites.
The a.s.sa.s.sination target’s strength was mediocre, but his talent for command was exceptional, which was why he had been allowed to tag along. After the human race’s victory, he had been given some administrative responsibility. As such, it was also wrong to say that he was a complete n.o.body.
Somehow, this steward had found himself on the wrong side of an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt.
Thankfully, he hadn’t died yet.
Upon hearing this, Su Chen’s interest was piqued. “Let’s go and take a look.”
The palace steward was lying on the ground outside, surrounded by a large group of Boundless Sect disciples.
Su Chen asked, “Who was present when the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt took place?”
One of the disciples replied, “Your disciple Mo Cong was present.”
“Explain to me what happened.”
“Yes, sir!” Mo Cong said. “The a.s.sa.s.sin was an old beggar. His clothes were old and ragged, but he was definitely a human.”
“An old beggar?” Su Chen’s gaze suddenly constricted.
One of the other disciples spoke up. “What did you just say? An old beggar? We’re in the Perpetual Daylight Palace. Where would an old beggar come from?”
Mo Cong replied, “I don’t know either. He appeared seemingly out of nowhere. In fact, he was smiling and talking to me when he approached, but suddenly he disappeared. I turned around and found him standing next to Steward Li. After he patted Steward Li’s back, Steward Li immediately collapsed.”
Su Chen asked, “What did that beggar look like, exactly?”
Mo Cong thought for a moment, then replied, “He wasn’t very tall, his nose was red like he had been drinking, and his hair was unkempt and disheveled.”
It’s him!
Su Chen began to yell madly in his heart.
At that moment, the unconscious Steward Li suddenly woke up.
He smiled at Su Chen and said, “Long time no see, Su Chen. I am very pleased with your growth. But you are running out of time. Be sure to use it wisely......”
Then, Steward Li’s head drooped as he suddenly fell unconscious once more.