After Zhang Ruochen and Lord Ailian returned, they detected a thick scent of blood outside the Yaksha Ancestral Divine Hall.
Inside the hall, the gods of the Yaksha clan stood in silent awe. All arrogance had vanished, and none dared release their divine might. They gazed with deep reverence at the Jade Spirit God seated above.
Two divine corpses lay in the hall, blood still flowing.
Three upper gods knelt on the ground, not daring to raise their heads.
Lord Ailian stood frozen in shock. She had never imagined her master could be so ruthlessly decisive.
Zhang Ruochen quietly admired her. Though a woman, the Jade Spirit God possessed extraordinary resolve and was capable of great deeds. In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures were required.
If the internal affairs of the Yaksha clan were not settled and their minds unified, any assault on the City of the Hundred Clans would leave their rear vulnerable to collapse, dooming the entire endeavour to failure.
The Jade Spirit God spoke one final time. “I will say this once more. Anyone who dares again to speak of compromise with the Darkness Divine Hall is a traitor to the clan and will be killed without mercy. Hold the boundary arrays firmly. Prepare for a war of annihilation. If the Darkness Divine Hall strikes, we will make certain they never return. We stand or fall with the Ancestral Realm.”
A piercing chill radiated from her, freezing the entire hall. She continued, “All of you, withdraw.”
The Yaksha gods filed out of the hall. As they passed Zhang Ruochen, none dared show the slightest hostility.
The Jade Spirit God rose, her figure graceful yet commanding. “You have returned so soon?”
Zhang Ruochen replied, “Subduing the Fire Ghost Clan was hardly difficult.”
The Jade Spirit God nodded lightly. “When do we march on the City of the Hundred Clans? Will the Dragon Lord act?”
The Master of the Darkness Divine Hall, Wubian, was a near-forbidden existence that filled even the Jade Spirit God with dread. With the Ice Emperor sealed on Ice King Star, only the Dragon Lord remained capable of intervening.
Fortunately, the Dragon Lord was in this very star domain.
“No hurry,” Zhang Ruochen said. “How could we go to the City of the Hundred Clans empty-handed? We must bring gifts.” Infinite coldness laced his voice.
…
The Three Lives Realm was one of the realms Zhang Ruochen had seized on the Ten Realms Battlefield. It was also the most developed of the ten. After the war between Hell and Heaven erupted, the realm had been relocated to the spatial veins once occupied by the Tianchu Civilisation, becoming a vital war base in the rear of the starry battlefield.
With this supreme geographical advantage, the Three Lives Realm transformed daily. Holy qi grew ever denser, giving birth to abundant heavenly treasures.
Countless powers coveted it.
Yet the realm had been managed by the Blood Jue Family. The Blood Jue War God himself had even presided over it for many years. Who could succeed against them?
Only recently had ownership changed.
The Blood Empress, who had been holding the realm in the Blood Jue War God’s stead, suffered a severe ambush and fled gravely wounded. The holy realm legions of the Blood Jue Family were purged by cultivators of the Darkness Divine Hall. Countless died, their blood staining city after city.
Those of higher cultivation were captured and imprisoned, to be devoured and refined into soul food or life pills by the gods and great saints of the Darkness Divine Hall.
The god who had wounded the Blood Empress that day was none other than Fang Lingzi, disciple of the Master of the Darkness Divine Hall.
Born of the Ming Clan, Fang Lingzi had reached the pinnacle of upper godhood. He appeared only in his twenties or thirties, his body covered in black serpentine patterns. He wore no armour, his upper body bare, radiating sinister menace.
He sat in a hall a hundred zhang wide, holding a spear-shaped war weapon that he tempered in nether flames.
The battle with the Blood Empress had damaged the weapon.
That Blood Empress had emerged only a few thousand years ago, yet she already possessed peak upper god cultivation. This filled Fang Lingzi with shock and fury. Failing to capture her was, in his eyes, an utter humiliation.
It would become a lasting stain on his record.
This could seriously affect his chances of becoming heir to the Master of the Darkness Divine Hall.
As Fang Lingzi pondered how to remedy the situation, two divine generals escorted two great saints of the Undying Blood Clan into the hall.
“Kneel!”
One general, reeking of corpse stench, kicked Xue Ningxiao’s leg, snapping her knee. She let out a pained cry and collapsed to the ground, blood pooling beneath her.
Xue Chen suffered the same.
“Reporting to the True God, the two great saints of the Undying Blood Clan have been brought,” said the other general, whose form resembled a white-boned skeleton.
The nether flames in Fang Lingzi’s hand did not extinguish. He fixed his gaze on the kneeling pair. That single glance carried a mental assault, filling Xue Chen and Xue Ningxiao with terror. They trembled uncontrollably, as if witnessing something unspeakably horrifying.
Fang Lingzi gave a contemptuous smile. “Ming Li, Ming Hai, how bold of you. How can you treat them this way? Do you not know they are the Blood Jue War God’s own grandson and granddaughter?”
The bone-clan general Ming Li sneered coldly. “What is the Blood Jue War God? We took the Three Lives Realm, and did he appear? His own son was beaten to a pulp in the City of the Hundred Clans, every bone shattered, blood drained dry, and still he did not show himself. Before the great Darkness Divine Hall, let alone one mere Blood Jue War God, what is the entire Undying Blood Clan worth?”
“Mind your words!”
Fang Lingzi rebuked him sharply. “Quickly help the two honoured grandchildren to their feet. They are noble guests. In the past, even I admired the Blood Jue War God as a heroic figure of his generation.”
Uncertain of Fang Lingzi’s intentions, generals Ming Li and Ming Hai used divine qi to support Xue Chen and Xue Ningxiao.
Amid their puzzled gazes, Fang Lingzi smiled. “We are all cultivators of Hell Realm. The deeds of the Blood Jue War God have nothing to do with you. If you cooperate with the Darkness Divine Hall and jointly list his six great crimes, after his death you shall become the heads of the Blood Jue Family.”
“Do not rush to refuse. This is not betrayal of your family, but salvation. Without the protection of the Darkness Divine Hall, when Xutian’s rage descends and a Tianzun issues the decree, not a single member of the Blood Jue Family will survive. The entire clan will be exterminated.”
“With you in place, at least one bloodline of the Blood Jue Family can be preserved.”
The so-called six great crimes of the Blood Jue War God had all been fabricated by rival powers of the family. The gravest accusation was betraying Hell Realm by secretly pledging allegiance to Heaven.
Among these charges was the claim that the Blood Jue War God’s massacre at Tiannan had been orchestrated by Heaven itself.
Xue Chen clenched his teeth and gave a cold laugh. “You want us to betray our family, to denounce the War God as his closest kin and create the illusion that he is utterly forsaken? You underestimate the backbone of the Blood Jue Family’s children.”
Xue Ningxiao’s face twisted in scorn. She spat.
Fang Lingzi’s expression hovered between smile and chill. “Have them kneel again.”
Generals Ming Li and Ming Hai withdrew their divine qi and unleashed domains of divine might, forcing Xue Chen and Xue Ningxiao back to their knees. Their legs became masses of bloody flesh.
Both trembled in agony, yet neither cried out.
“Just wait, Fang Lingzi. The War God will leave you without even a grave…” Xue Chen began.
He was struck by an invisible wall of qi from Fang Lingzi, hurled against the hall wall. His body nearly flattened into pulp before sliding limply to the floor.
Fang Lingzi said, “I had intended to grant you an opportunity, to one day rule the Blood Jue Family on behalf of the Darkness Divine Hall. Now it seems I must use mental control to force you to compose a denunciation of the Blood Jue War God.”
A war banner unfurled before Xue Ningxiao.
Under his mental domination, she screamed in agony while stretching out a finger, using her own blood to write upon the banner…
Xue Chen lay on the ground, roaring hoarsely. “Fang Lingzi, you will die a wretched death…”
The two generals laughed without restraint, mocking his weakness and overreach.
Boom!
A blinding divine light surged in from outside the hall.
The four great saints guarding the entrance were flung inside in disarray. Before they hit the ground, their bodies disintegrated into bloody dust.
“Insolence! Who dares disrupt Lord Fang Lingzi’s divine hall?”
The two generals summoned yin soldier weapons, their divine radiance blazing as they struck fiercely toward the light at the entrance.
Bang!
Bang!
Their bodies exploded into fragments of bone that scattered across the hall.
Some shards flew toward Fang Lingzi but fell harmlessly three zhang away.
Fang Lingzi fixed his gaze on the entrance. Through the searing light, he saw a tall figure standing there. Surprise flashed in his eyes, quickly replaced by a smile. “You actually emerged from the Dark Grand Triangle Star Domain?”
Zhang Ruochen stepped into the hall. Vitality qi surged from him, flowing into Xue Chen and Xue Ningxiao. “I came here to borrow something from you.”
“My head, perhaps?”
Far from fearful, Fang Lingzi was exhilarated.
He had heard that Zhang Ruochen’s martial cultivation had recovered and reached great god level.
But he did not believe it.
As a supreme genius himself, he knew the hardship of cultivation. Even with the Sundial, Zhang Ruochen could not possibly become a great god in so short a time.
Neither the Blood Jue War God nor Huang Tian had cultivated so swiftly.
Having practised for nearly a hundred thousand years, Fang Lingzi had heard countless exaggerated legends that later proved false. Thus, he trusted only what his own eyes saw.
He believed Zhang Ruochen had once unleashed great god power, but it must have been borrowed from external sources, granted by another powerhouse.
Those who are extremely self-centred simply cannot accept anything beyond their own comprehension.
Behind Zhang Ruochen, Xue Chen and Xue Ningxiao rose. Joy and worry mingled on their faces.
Fang Lingzi raised his spear weapon. His aura instantly peaked, towering like an eternal divine mountain. “If you had remained hidden in the Dark Grand Triangle Star Domain or Star Huan Heaven, the Darkness Divine Hall truly could do nothing to you. But since you could not suppress the hatred and rage in your heart and appeared in the Three Lives Realm, your fate is sealed. You will perish here.”
Zhang Ruochen replied, “With just you?”
“You, Zhang Ruochen, can contend with Great God Li Xiao, so you are no weakling. Still, I wish to test myself against you. This hall was forged with my life’s wealth. It contains two divine arrays and a corner of divine inscriptions carved by my master. Even if you truly are a Taiyi Great God, you may not escape.”
