Chapter 1146 - What Crime?
Yellow Springs City.
This city was located beneath the Northern Divine Mountain, in the Sky Great District. It was led by the Gao Family.
Whenever autumn came, the yellowish waters of the Sea of Innocence flowed down from above and lingered for months. That’s why people called it “Yellow Springs City.”
However, today, Yellow Springs City resembled a different Yellow Springs more: those of the underworld.
The city was drenched in blood with piles of corpses scattered throughout the city. Some were armored soldiers, but others were innocent bystanders.
The blood had dyed the waters of the Sea of Innocence yellow, and flowed throughout the city.
The gates were tightly sealed, but fresh blood still squeezed through the cracks.
Today, Yellow Springs City truly resembled its name.
There was a ma.s.sive, grand residence right in the center of the city. It belonged to the Gao Family, and was guarded by tens of thousands of sky immortals and immortal kings. Not even a drop of water could slip past their security.
These experts surrounded a bloodsoaked man in bright red battle armor. His eyes were bloodshot as he looked over his surroundings. His sword was dented from use, and his armor was covered in cuts.
His immortal energy had long since run out, and his bottles of recovery medicines were all empty.
He looked at the corpses lying around him, many of which wore identical armor, then at his companions, who’d already lowered their heads. Finally, he looked at his closest confidants, who were determined to fight with him to the bitter end.
Finally, he looked up at the immortal kings and sky immortals hovering overhead.
There was no way out.
His gaze landed on two men standing atop flying divine swords. If not for them, he would never have lost so thoroughly. Even so, at the very eend, he reserved his most hateful glare for a middle-aged man whose gaze was dark and grim.
This was the head of the Gao Family, Gao Xiong, and the father of the man currently on the brink of despair.
“Gao Yunting, do you admit to your crimes?” Even as he looked over the city’s rivers of blood, Gao Xiong’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. He had an escort of immortal kings protecting him, but his gaze was fixed on the battered man below, who looked much like a younger version of himself. He seemed somewhat pained.
Gao Yunting knew he was cornered, but he and his closest confidants still resisted. Even so, they were hopelessly outnumbered. They struggled frantically, but his allies fell into the lake of blood, on after the other. In just an hour, he was the only one who remained from his army, which was once a hundred thousand strong.
“Hah…..” Gao Yunting shoved his blade into the earth to keep himself from falling. He narrowed his eyes and jeered at Gao Xiong, as well as Gao Ruilong and Cai Renfei, who stood beside Gao Xiong and watched this play out in satisfaction.
They’d played him.
But he didn’t regret it. Cai Renfei might have tricked him, but all he really did was give Gao Yunting a pretext to act. He’d been considering rebellion for decades now, but lacked a suitable excuse.
It was just that the Gao Family’s suspicion and Cai Renfei’s words gave him the reason he needed is all.
He’d worked day and night to a.s.semble his forces seize Yellow Springs City at lightning speed. This Gao Xiong and the others into a pa.s.sive state, but against all expectations, the Xiao Family reinforcements.
Supremes were undefeatable in the lower lands. Gao Yunting’s defeat was not unjust.
Yet now Gao Xiong was asking if he admitted to his crimes…..
“What did I do wrong?” Gao Yunting wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth and shouted, his gaze bloodshot, “You say I committed a crime, so tell me! What crime have I committed?”
“You’re still trying to talk your way out of this?”
Gao Ruilong narrowed his eyes and said shrilly, “The facts are right in front of us. What’s the point of arguing?”
“Shut your mouth!” Gao Yunting exploded like thunder, startling Gao Ruilong so badly, he started trembling and his lips quivered to the point that he could no longer speak.
After rebuking Gao Ruilong, Gao Yunting grinned and laughed wantonly. “Gao Xiong, do you really dare say that me winding up in this state has nothing to do with you?”
“From a young age, you always told me that I was to become the future head of the Gao Family, that I’d inherit your seat and serve the Xiao Family in your stead. You know what? I don’t give a single c.r.a.p about the Xiao Family, but I always remembered that I was to become the next family head.”
“I entered the spiritual body stage at nine, reached immortality at thirteen, and am now already an immortal king, but where is my seat as clan head? You dote on your new wife to excess, and her son, too. Gradually, you lost interest me, and started doting on your new fling’s child instead. When my trusted confidants told me that I might lose my position as future clan head, I didn’t believe it….. I always thought the position was sure to fall to me.”
“But you’ve really disappointed me. You really have. You might have forgotten the promises you made to me as a youth back then, but your careless words became that youth’s dream for the next few dozen years. Now you’re asking me if I admit to my crimes? At the end of the day, you’re the one who let me down. What did I do wrong?”
The surrounding higher-ups of the Gao Family watched on in cold silence. As members of the older generation, they knew that every single word coming out of Gao Yunting’s mouth was the truth, and he hadn’t so much as exaggerated in the slightest.
Years ago, they’d truly believed that Gao Yunting would inherit his father’s position.
However, after the family head remarried and had a second son, everything changed.
Quite a few of them looked at Gao Yunting sympathetically, but Gao Xiong only glanced at his son coldly. He gestured for the immortal kings standing in front of him to step aside, then said indifferently, “So, this is the answer you’ve given me?”
“You forced my hand,” roared Gao Yunting.
To his surprise, when he saw his son’s bloodshot eyes, Gao Xiong smiled faintly. “Did you know? I never blamed you for gathering troops or starting an insurrection. On the contary, I supported it.”
His words threw the onlookers into turmoil. Gao Yunting furrowed his brows and looked at his father in confusion.
“I helped both you and Ruilong train subordinates so that you could duke it out on a level playing field. You say I favor him, but have I ever given him any more resources than I gave you?” Gao Yunting’s heart shook. If he really thought about it carefully….
He hadn’t.
“I never gave you the seat, but that’s because I was hesitant to choose between you and your brother. I wanted you both to build up your own power and, say… rebel against me. I support your decision to do so. Had you beaten me, that would mean you’d exceeded me. In that case, letting you take control of the clan would only bring us greater prosperity. I would have been delighted to see such a result.”
“But I’m very disappointed in you.” His expression instantly frosted over. He looked at Gao Yunting and snorted in contempt. “You started building up your forces a few decades ago, yet this is the best you could do? Everyone who followed you died a miserable death, and will now carry the black mark of treason into the future. Their descendants, too, will bear their shame. This is what you’ve wrought.”
“Of course, that doesn’t matter. Compared to me, you’re still too inexperienced. I don’t blame you for losing, but I’m disappointed in your stupidity. What crime have you committed? You insist that you don’t, but you seem to have a.s.sumed I was talking about the insurrection?”
“But no; I’m asking you about stealing the tribute for the Xiao Family. Do you admit to your crimes?”