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, âMajestic Ancestor, please open your eyes! The vile humans have come to attack us once again! We are already at our limit!â
There was no response.
The Sovereign didnât even turn around as he emotionlessly commanded, âSacrifice another ten thousand.â
The Sovereignâs 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, âWhy are you awakening me again? Do you feel that I have been alive for too long?â
The Sovereign was delighted by the response. âAncestor, we really are at our witsâ end! Otherwise, we would not dare to disturb Ancestor.â
âWhich one are you?â
The Sovereign hurriedly replied, âAncestor, my name is Kucha.â
âKucha...... Ah, the one who ate the Tree Ancestorâs enlightenment in order to become a Sovereign. In some sense, you are his descendant â you should have gone to him.â
Kucha bitterly replied, âBlood Ancestor, I...... I donât dare to awaken Tree Ancestor.â
âOh.â The Blood Ancestor seemed to understand Kuchaâs predicament. âYou must have produced some Shadow Calcite. Are you afraid that he will take your Shadow Calcite and consume it for himself?â
Kucha fell to the ground, trembling violently. He didnât dare utter a single word in response.
The Blood Ancestor then languidly asked, âHow is the situation looking?â
Kucha hurriedly replied, âThe humans have massacred their way to Skywild Plains. Golden Feather Ancestor was awakened by a secret Astral technique, but it was defeated by the humans in battle.â
âGolden Feather is dead?â 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 Ancestorâs voice rumbled out, âI cannot sense Golden Featherâs aura. It seems that he really is dead.â
Kucha took advantage of the opportunity to once again plead, âAncestor, please support us.â
âAbsolutely not!â The Blood Ancestor immediately rejected him. âI 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 gods 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!â
Kucha agitatedly replied, âBut if the humans take over the wilderness, then the Ancestors will not have any Demonic Beasts left to protect their territory!â
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 Beastsâ 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 gods.
This was especially true for Ancestors like them. If they were all awakened......
As soon as it realized this, the Blood Ancestor assented to Kuchaâs request. âFine. Take two units of my blood and awaken two Elders.â
Two balls of blood flew out of the dark, fathomless hole, landed in Kuchaâs hand, and turned into two droplets of blood.
Kucha carefully stowed them away and then delicately asked, âBlood Ancestor, what if two Elders is not enough?â
âHm?â The Blood Ancestor grunted in disbelief.
Kucha said, âThe 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.â
âSky City...... The Arcanists......â 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 Kuchaâs explanation, the Blood Ancestor thought for a moment before sending over two more balls of blood.
One was scarlet, while the other was the color of bone marrow.
The Blood Ancestor said, âHereâs 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 Shining Ancestor. I pray that we will not lose another. Go, hurry. Donât waste my time any longer. If we keep talking, then my body will fully awaken.â
âUnderstood!â Kucha bowed respectfully before turning to leave.
Sky City.
At this point, Sky City was now well and truly flying the human raceâs and the Boundless Sectâs 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 subordinatesâ reports.
âThe Harpies in Sky City have been fully incorporated, though Sky Country has not been notified yet,â 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 Chongshanâs report, he fell into a moment of deep thought before carefully saying, âWe 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.â
âEternal Night?â Li Chongshan and the others were stunned.
âYes,â Su Chen said with a nod. âAfter all, he was the Harpiesâ 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.â
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.
âIâm just worried that Eternal Night might be dismembered alive by enraged Harpies when he goes back.â Although Li Chongshanâs words seemed to indicate some concern, his expression said otherwise.
Even though Eternal Nightâs 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 couldnât 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 didnât 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 Nightâs 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 Chongshanâs comment was, âThose who are willing to surrender will be assimilated, 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 Titan Army with him, and pick out a few of the Harpy generals that had surrendered.â
âUnderstood!â Li Chongshan nodded his head.
âRight - has there been any movement from the Ravagersâ side yet?â 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 Chenâs question, he hurriedly replied, âThe Ravagers donât 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.â
When Su Chen heard this, he squinted his eyes. âIf everything seems normal, that means something is definitely up.â
For some reason, Su Chen couldnât 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 Fortâs 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 couldnât seem to figure it out. At that moment, however, a clamor suddenly burst forth from outside the Perpetual Daylight Palace.
âWhatâs going on?â Some of the officers were unhappy at the sudden disturbance, but that dissatisfaction quickly gave way to shock when they heard the response.
âAn assassination attempt!â
What?
Everyone was stunned.
Who would dare try and pull off an assassination attempt at this moment in time?
The answer, however, surprised everyone present.
Because the assassination 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 assassination targetâs strength was mediocre, but his talent for command was exceptional, which was why he had been allowed to tag along. After the human raceâs victory, he had been given some administrative responsibility. As such, it was also wrong to say that he was a complete nobody.
Somehow, this steward had found himself on the wrong side of an assassination attempt.
Thankfully, he hadnât died yet.
Upon hearing this, Su Chenâs interest was piqued. âLetâs go and take a look.â
The palace steward was lying on the ground outside, surrounded by a large group of Boundless Sect disciples.
Su Chen asked, âWho was present when the assassination attempt took place?â
One of the disciples replied, âYour disciple Mo Cong was present.â
âExplain to me what happened.â
âYes, sir!â Mo Cong said. âThe assassin was an old beggar. His clothes were old and ragged, but he was definitely a human.â
âAn old beggar?â Su Chenâs gaze suddenly constricted.
One of the other disciples spoke up. âWhat did you just say? An old beggar? Weâre in the Perpetual Daylight Palace. Where would an old beggar come from?â
Mo Cong replied, âI donât 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 Liâs back, Steward Li immediately collapsed.â
Su Chen asked, âWhat did that beggar look like, exactly?â
Mo Cong thought for a moment, then replied, âHe wasnât very tall, his nose was red like he had been drinking, and his hair was unkempt and disheveled.â
Itâs 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, âLong 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......â
Then, Steward Liâs head drooped as he suddenly fell unconscious once more.
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