Chapter 2588: One Man
When the reward was suitable, there was no lack of brave men willing to risk their lives, especially when the compensation was so generous that it was a major temptation.
All anyone had to do was kill a Renhuang in exchange for the opportunity to cultivate imperial-level relics. If it was too difficult to capture the entire Ziwei Segmentum, it should not be as difficult to regain the territories that the six Ancient G.o.d Clans had lost in the Original Realm.
As for the rewards laid out for slaying cultivators of the Tribulation Plane, it was even more enticing. The opportunity to experience the will of the Great Emperor, the gift of the Sub-divine arms, and top cultivation method from the Ancient G.o.d Clans. This kind of temptation would entice even those cultivators of the Tribulation Plane from the outside.
The a.s.sa.s.sination of Ye Futian… This was not something that ordinary people could even remotely think of. Even among those who had survived the Divine Tribulation of the Great Path, few dared to entertain that possibility. The West Sea Domain Chief’s Mansion had wanted to kill Ye Futian for a very long time. The same with many top forces in the Divine Prefecture, including the six Ancient G.o.d Clans; who among them didn’t want to see Ye Futian dead?
However, as of now, Ye Futian was still alive and well, and he was getting stronger as they spoke. He had destroyed the imperial arms, broke through the imprisonment, and annihilated the territories of the Ancient G.o.d Clans.
The people of the entire Haotian City couldn’t stop talking about this. Above the sky, the clan lord of Haotian Clan surveyed the crowd, and his phantom, like a G.o.d in heaven, was extremely mighty and authoritative. He continued, “This time, it’s a war between us Divine Prefecture and Ziwei Segmentum. Ye Futian wanted to expel the Divine Prefecture and slaughter the cultivators of the Divine Prefecture so that he could occupy all of the Original Realm by force. In that case, we will let the cultivators of the Ziwei Segmentum disappear from the world forever. The kill order is issued today, which will be permanently effective. After the new channel is opened, whoever is willing may band together to go to the Original Realm and annihilate Ziwei.”
The kill order was officially promulgated and implemented on the land of the Divine Prefecture.
As for the actual number of people who might partic.i.p.ate, no one knew.
And the key was, from this moment forward, no one would know if any cultivators that came to the Original Realm from the Divine Prefecture would be the ones to carry out the kill order and hunt the cultivators in the Ziwei Segmentum. From this moment on, they had to guard against all the cultivators that were from the Divine Prefecture.
Anyone could deal a fatal blow to them at any time.
According to the clan lord of the Haotian Clan, from this moment forward, the order would be permanently in effect.
If the Ziwei Segmentum ever wanted to befriend any other forces in the Divine Prefecture, it must always be on guard.
This was a bit of a ruthless trick, as it would compel the Ziwei Segmentum to be on the opposing side of the Divine Prefecture.
“Ye Futian had led the Ziwei Segmentum to slaughter at will. As a member of the Divine Prefecture, we must stand up against this abuse and destroy the Ziwei Segmentum for good, punis.h.i.+ng Ye Futian for what he has done.” At this moment, on top of a tavern, a cultivator announced loudly, his voice sent a shockwave through the void.
It was a cultivator from Celestial Worthy Mountain, one of the top princ.i.p.alities in the Divine Prefecture. They were part of the group that had partic.i.p.ated in the battle to destroy Ziwei Segmentum back then. They had long held a grudge against Ye Futian, and there was no better time than this for them to stand up and accept the kill order and use this opportunity to punish those who cultivated in Ziwei Segmentum.
“As the Domain Chief of the West Sea Domain Chief’s Mansion, I, too, have the responsibility to come forward and destroy Ziwei,” Domain Chief of the West Sea Domain also announced loudly.
After that, cultivators from all sides expressed their stances successively, accepting the kill order and clearly stating that they would destroy Ziwei and kill Ye Futian. Moreover, these were all peak forces whose position had always been aligned with that of the six Ancient G.o.d Clans.
But as each of these cultivators made clear their intention, Haotian City became a little eerie, as all sides were responding to its call to arms.
“Destroy Ziwei, kill Ye Futian.”
A voice sounded inside Haotian City.
“Destroy Ziwei, kill Ye Futian.”
“…” Those voices were heard one after another, resounding through heavens and earth, echoing in the s.p.a.ce, as if the entire Haotian City was responding to the kill order, to destroy Ziwei and to kill Ye Futian!
This terrifying sound drowned out the whispers of the crowd and everything else. In this vast ancient city, it seemed that only this sound existed with its monstrous, murderous intent.
Obviously, this was not a spontaneous response from the cultivators within Haotian City. This was someone intentionally driving the crowd to a crescendo and creating a sense of frenzy.
At this moment, in another direction, many people seemed to be affected by this frenzy. They seemed quite excited, as they were shouting the slogans, destroy Ziwei, and kill Ye Futian.
The kill order was issued, and Ziwei Segmentum would face the onslaught of countless cultivators from the Divine Prefecture.
Ziwei ought to be obliterated.
At this time, a cultivator who was deeply affected by this frenzy, levitated slightly into the air as he continued shouting, “Destroy Ziwei, kill Ye…”
Before he could finish his words, a light flashed across his throat, almost to the point where it was unimaginable, and it was gone in a flash. He wanted to finish his sentence but found that he could no longer make an audible sound. As if he suddenly realized what had just happened, his eyes were filled with extreme terror. Trembling, he put his hands to his throat, and as he lowered his head to look, he saw that it was covered with his blood.
“No…” He managed to let out a fearful low growl, but it was so hoa.r.s.e that it was drowned out in this lively atmosphere.
At the same time, in other directions, traces of sword intent pa.s.sed by, like rays of light. Many were still shouting in excitement as the sword intent pa.s.sed through their throats directly.
“Look there!” At this moment, someone made a horrific sound somewhere as he looked at a cultivator not far away. He saw the other man was holding his throat with both of his hands, but bright red blood spurted out and was impossible to stop its wild flow. His head began to slant to one side as his throat was cut clean through by the sword intent.
“What’s going on!” The cultivators in that direction suddenly felt cold all over, and their souls shuddered. Soon, the same thing happened in other places in Haotian City, and not only in that one direction anymore.
“Be careful. Someone is attacking us,” warned a roar, effectively suppressed all the excitement inside Haotian City and those noises of jubilations. In an instant, Haotian City was silenced.
As these cultivators released their divine consciousness, they saw many people clutching their throats and falling in pools of blood.
Moreover, it did not just appear in one place but was happening in many places all at once, and some places were far apart in the distance. It seemed that many cultivators had launched the attacks at the same time.
“Who is it? Show yourselves!” Above the firmament, a cold admonishment was heard, and the figure that looked like Haotian had his eyes fixed on Haotian City. As his majestic gaze pa.s.sed over, his terrifying divine consciousness covered the entire city.
However, no culprit was found, as if no one was there.
But he did see that in those different directions, some were very far from each other; they were all being subjected to these deadly attacks as men were slaughtered. In this case, how could they not find even one culprit?
Could it be that all the attackers were experts at concealing their auras?
All the leaders from the six Ancient G.o.d Clans were here in the sky above Haotian City. Haotian Clan had summoned the cultivators of the Divine Prefecture here, but it was right at this moment that someone was hunting and killing them here; how humiliating was that?
Auras of horror shrouded the entire Haotian City, and the divine consciousness from those cultivators swept over everyone inside. They were checking one by one, and they were sure they would find out who it was.
“No need to look further.”
At this moment, in the void, there was a voice that came. It sounded as if it was close, but it also seemed to come from afar from nothingness. Even divine consciousnesses could not lock onto the source of the sound. As soon as their divine consciousness followed the voice, they found that there was no one at the other end at all.
But this voice could be heard by everyone in the entire Haotian City.
“Ye Futian!” w.a.n.g Xiao’s eyes suddenly sharpened; this was Ye Futian’s voice. His sworn enemy appeared again after more than 30 years, even though this was not how Ye Futian viewed him.
But for him, Ye Futian was his sworn enemy.
“Ye Futian!”
The people in Haotian City suddenly quieted down. Even just a few moments ago, they were still clamoring to obliterate Ziwei and hunting down Ye Futian. Still, when Ye Futian really appeared in person, they fell into a deep and embarra.s.sing silence.
On the day when the Haotian Clan issued the kill order, Ye Futian dared to appear in person; how preposterously arrogant and confident was this?
Did he kill that man just now?
How did he do that?
“Buddha’s Celerity!” Some cultivators remembered that Ye Futian was an expert at Buddhist superpowers. This meant that Ye Futian could change his position in an instant without any warnings. He could appear in different places to kill almost instantly but gone without a trace because he had already been teleported away with Buddha’s Celerity.
This was far too preposterous. Just as the six Ancient G.o.d Clans jointly issued the kill order, Ye Futian descended in Haotian City to slaughter them instead.
“Fifty years ago, I cultivated in the Original Realm and obtained the inheritance of Ziwei the Great as well as several other Great Emperors. The forces of the Divine Prefecture coveted the inheritance and joined forces to invade Heavenly Mandate Academy. Don’t you remember how high-handed was the City Lord of Tianyan? Just because I won’t surrender the divine body, he annihilated Heavenly Mandate Academy in one strike, treating human lives like garbage. Since when did the lives of those cultivators in the Original Realm been valued by the haughty Ancient G.o.d Clans?”
“Thirty years ago, in the Armorer Compet.i.tion at Tianyan City, the forces of the Divine Prefecture were called once again to bear imperial arms to destroy Ziwei. Under the attack of the imperial arms, the power of destruction penetrated Ziwei Segmentum, and countless people lost their lives again. At that time, who amongst the Divine Prefecture cared about these lost lives?”
That voice was icy as it resounded through Haotian City. Every time the voice came, it sounded as if it was from a different position, totally unpredictable.
“Now, just because I took my revenge, destroying the strongholds of the six Ancient G.o.d Clans in the Original Realm, you dared label me and what I did as the indiscriminate killing of innocents; what a joke. Now, you even issued a kill order.”
Ye Futian’s voice was dripping with extreme sarcasm.
When the voice fell, a group of people on top of the tavern noticed a strong sense of threat all of a sudden. Their expression changed drastically as the aura of the Great Path exploded from them.
However, in the next moment, their bodies froze right where they were, unable to move as if they were constrained by s.p.a.ce. In the next moment, the sword will burst forth, and the s.p.a.ce was ripped to pieces.
Blood spattered, and those cultivators were instantly crushed and killed. They were cultivators from a major princ.i.p.ality, and some of them were peak Renhuang. They, too, had threatened to kill Ye Futian and destroy Ziwei just moments ago, but in an instant, none of them were left alive.
“This…”
In front of everyone, Ye Futian had started a ma.s.sacre of his own.
Boom! The six powerful clan lords, including the clan lord of Haotian Clan, released a monstrous coercion at the same time, covering the boundless void that extended to the entire city.
“Since you are already here, why bother hiding?” The clan lord of Haotian said coldly.
As soon as his voice fell, a figure suddenly appeared in the sky above Haotian City, as if emerging out of thin air. The man was clad in white garments that were whiter than snow. He bore an incredible presence.
It was Ye Futian.
“Your kill order: destroy Ziwei, kill Ye Futian!” He said this indifferently as his eyes swept across all the cultivators below. He continued, “I am right here. Whoever wants to destroy Ziwei, and kill me, stand up and come forward!”