章 237: The Wrath of an Immortal
The names 'Bloody Totem Tribe' and 'Bloody Totem Province' now struck fear into the hearts of almost all other tribes in the Kingdom of Lunar Song.
They were not just another ambitious tribe, they were crazy, homicidal butchers!
Even those serving beneath Yaan did not understand his actions, but they didn't dare to question him.
Frankly, these days, Yaan scared them. His entire person exuded a monstrous killing intent. Even when he hid his aura completely, the suppressed presence of slaughterous desire still lingered around him.
Yaan stared down at the Jade Forest Province. This entire province was filled with a rare resource called the jade tree, it was the livelihood of many tribes in the province.
But now, there were no real tribes in this province…
All had been destroyed, slaughtered by the Bloody Totem Province!
No, that wasn't quite right. Almost all of the killing was done by one person, one monster…the Red Demon!
This was the ninth province that Yaan had assaulted in this way since setting out on his journey to comprehend slaughter. Of course, he didn't want to be seen as a complete homicidal maniac, so he had tried to be 'somewhat' reasonable.
When he arrived at a tribe's protective formation, he would shout out:
"Submit, or die!"
The miserable target tribe then had exactly ten seconds to lower their formations. They were also forced to swear their absolute loyalty to him, to the Bloody Totem Tribe, and to the Bloody Totem Province.
If all of this did not happen within ten seconds, the tribe would be destroyed. All 5-Star Realm and 4-Star Realm warriors would be killed, only the weak were spared.
As Yaan moved along with a stone cold expression on his face, Rui finally brought up the question that she had been debating asking him for a while now.
"Yaan, what is your dao heart, exactly?"
"I have no dao heart. I have no need for such useless emotions." He replied, as if he had rehearsed this line a thousand times in his own mind.
"You have no heart?" Rui repeated back, appearing from the ring and floating ahead of him as he flew to the next province.
Yaan frowned.
"That's what I said. What of it?"
"If you have no heart…then why do you spare the weak? The innocent? The children? Those who have not been tainted by the cruelty of this world?"
For some time, Yaan fell silent. Eventually though, he replied to her sudden question.
"I…have killed such people before…" Yaan muttered.
"You don't seem too pleased about that fact." Rui noted.
"I killed them because our tribes were at war. They were attacking my subordinates, so I killed them as a deterrent, to keep others away from us." Yaan stated firmly.
"I see. But Yaan, if you really don't care, if you really don't have any heart, then why would you care about any of that? Why care for the justification?"
"I…I don't…" He said this, but a tinge of uncertainty lingered in his tone.
"Then why do you spare the innocent? Why do you spare the mortals and the children? Surely killing every type of person would be the best way to comprehend slaughter, would it not? So why then? Why spare them?"
Yaan remained silent. He had no answer.
"Yaan…" Rui spoke in a soft, almost gentle tone.
"Why do you still wear a red robe?"
Yaan's body trembled, and suddenly, he stopped. His expression became blank for a while, until finally, he recovered himself. He turned to Rui with a cold expression, and replied:
"I just prefer to dress this way."
As he flew away, Rui remained still for a moment. She muttered to herself as she watched his silk red robe fluttering behind him in the wind.
"Of course you do…"
The next province along was the Yin Soil Province. In this small province with no clear ruler, the tribes harvested yin soil and sold it to their neighbouring provinces in exchange for their local cultivation goods.
Yaan's mood was notably bad when he arrived at the first tribe. This tribe had just one 5-Star Realm warrior, so when Yaan and his entourage showed up at their front door, they were scared senseless, immediately lowering the formation defences as a sign of good will.
A skinny elder was sent out, lowering his head and speaking in a subservient tone.
"Good sirs, I hope that you-"
"Submit, or die."
"H-huh?" The skinny delegate looked up at Yaan. The slaughter in Yaan's gaze made him tremble with terror. He stumbled back, so frightened that he almost fell from the sky.
"I-I-I-I can't make that decision! You see, I'm not, I'm just, just-"
"Five seconds." Yaan stated plainly.
"No, please, just a bit more time, I don't have the ability to speak for this tribe! Please listen, I, I'm not actually-"
"Time's up."
Yaan coldly reached out, killing the 5-Star Realm elder with his recently famous 'Slaughter Soul Spear'. This move, which had recently become infamous throughout the kingdom, was actually just an illusory sharp object filled with slaughterous Soul Force.
Yaan stepped into the tribe and once again began his slaughter. Heads flew, bodies were cut apart, the region was died in red. Within a single minute, every single 4-Star Realm elder was dead. Everywhere Yaan went, a trail of blood and corpses was left in his wake.
When he saw all of the weaker cultivators and mortals cowering below, he was reminded of Rui's previous words…
"Tch."
Yaan turned away, flying back before he did something that would completely ruin his reputation. Massacring an entire tribe for literally no reason would cause people to lose faith in him.
Little did Yaan know that later on, his actions in this tribe would lead to serious repercussions.
Yaan moved on.
Whenever he killed nowadays, he didn't bother collecting any loot, he left that to his subordinates. Anything below Rank 6 didn't really intrigue him these days, and anyone found guilty of hiding away a Rank 6 treasure would be executed without mercy.
Basically, Yaan got the good stuff without needing to concern himself with the tedious work. Sometimes, if the Rank 6 material was useless to him, he issued it as a reward to a very loyal subordinate. This certainly helped to boost morale.
Yaan's main goal in all of this 'conquering' was to absorb Slaughter Aura into his Sea of Consciousness. However, this was easier said than done. Slaughter Aura was not easily controlled, though thankfully, with the help of his Slaughter Soul, this task became many times easier.
In the end, Rui devised a soul spell for him. She made it so easy that even Yaan with his trash soul cultivation talent could learn it, but it was actually his Slaughter Soul that made it much easier to use this spell.
This spell used the soul to form a suction vortex within the palm of the hand. The vortex only had any effect on aura, specifically, Slaughter Aura.
So, when Yaan used the unnamed Soul Force suction spell using his slaughterous Soul Force, he drew in all of the Slaughter Aura in the vicinity!
This only helping him to accumulate all of the Slaughter Aura in one place. He then needed to forcefully push the gathered Slaughter Aura into his Sea of Consciousness.
He did this following each battle. There was no real technique to it, it was forceful, and tended to cause some damage to his walls of sentience.
Even so, despite the difficulties, it worked. Like this, Yaan was able to build up a supply of Slaughter Aura within his Sea of Consciousness.
Annoyingly, he found that Slaughter Aura and the slaughterous power from before were two very different things. That slaughterous power was a ferocious entity that rampaged through his Sea of Consciousness…but the Slaughter Aura just sat there passively, increasing his bloodthirsty thoughts.
After blazing through the Yin Soil Province, Yaan sighed.
This was too slow. After considering his options, Yaan turned back to his subordinates and made a shocking announcement.
"We're going to turn back…and destroy the Moon Note Tribe."
"What?!"
"Th-that's a vassal of the Lunar Song Tribe!"
"Immortals! We will be angering immortals!"
"Enough!" The Bloody Totem Tribe Leader actually stepped in for Yaan at this point, casting a stern gaze towards her men.
In truth, she had been getting worried recently.
Senior Red was acting strange, he seemed too focussed on killing, not really caring about conquering or expanding the empire at all.
So now, for him to make this declaration, finally made her blood boil!
Even if this was just another way for Senior Red to kill to his heart's content, she did not care…this was the sort of conquest that she had dreamt of for so long!
Yaan glanced at the ambitious woman and nodded faintly. He then turned to face his men. These people were chosen as some of the most loyal warriors amongst those in the Bloody Totem Province.
"The war flower law prevents immortals from directly attacking mortals. You all know that recently, I single handedly defeated six 6-Star Realm warriors…so then, what can a single Lunar Song Tribe do to us, hmm?"
Everyone stopped, realising that what he said made sense.
With Senior Red on their side, and with the immortals out of the picture…who in this world could possible stop them?!
The group returned to the Moon Note Province. This province bordered the Bloody Totem Province. It had always been an eye sore, but they left it alone due to the Moon Note Tribe, a branch tribe of the Lunar Song Tribe.
Today, Yaan, along with 1,000 warriors, flew into the Moon Note Province proudly and loudly. Their presence was soon noted, and before long, a delegate of the Moon Note Tribe was sent out to stop them.
He was a Late 5-Star Realm warrior, but due to his background, he was not scared in the least. Even when facing this huge army, he still showed an arrogant expression.
"What are you all planning? Is this a rebellion against the Lunar Song Tribe?! Do I need to report this to my tribe's immortals?!"
Yaan flew forwards, facing the arrogant man calmly.
"Yes. This is a declaration of war. Today, starting with your Moon Note Province, I plan to wipe out every branch tribe of the Lunar Song Tribe. And then…well, we'll see." Yaan smiled with a smile that sent shivers down everyone's spines, enemies and allies alike.
He allowed the delegate to flee back to his tribe, informing them of what was going on. Some people felt confused by this, but others saw it as a bold declaration!
He did not fear the Lunar Song Tribe's retaliation!
The only reason that Yaan did not threaten the main tribe, was because he was not yet certain of the contents of the major war flower law scrolls. It was possible that if a lower ranked tribe threatened to destroy an immortal main tribe, then the immortals in that tribe would be permitted to act.
After all, if their tribe was completely obliterated by a lower ranked tribe, were the immortals supposed to just watch, roll over and accept it? Yaan guessed that there must be some rule he did not know of which applied to situations like these.
But for now, that didn't matter. His target was the Moon Note Tribe.
They soon arrived at the Moon Note Tribe, having given the delegate enough time to inform the main tribe of what was happening. Many warriors on Yaan's side were afraid…
What if an immortal showed up?!
Well, Yaan hoped they did. He wanted to see if they would really sit back and watch as he destroyed their branch tribe. That said, he didn't plan to wait for their arrival.
And so, the 'war' began.
Given the Bloody Totem Province's overwhelming advantage in terms of strength, calling it a war was not quite right; it was a one-sided slaughter.
Yaan killed the eight 5-Star Realm warriors residing in the branch tribe, then quickly started to massacre the dozens of 4-Star Realm warriors below them.
The more he slaughtered, the stronger the slaughter in his soul grew. The stronger the slaughter grew, the more it infected him, twisted him, warped him!
But Yaan held back.
After killing the strong, he took the accumulated Slaughter Aura and placed it into his Sea of Consciousness.
The Slaughter Aura was beginning to grow, developing into something stronger.
WHOOSH!
Suddenly, the entire sky turned pitch black.
The exhilarated war-cries from before fell silent, as all eyes were drawn up towards the figure in the sky.
Yaan looked up, cracking a smile as he saw a familiar face.
Everyone around Yaan froze, then before long, they either retreated crazily, or simply fell to the ground, paralysed by fear and unable to move.
Not the least bit bothered by the overbearing immortal pressure, Yaan flew up, through the pressuring aura, ignoring it as if it did not exist. His body and eyes were still filled with slaughter as he flew upwards, until he reached the same altitude as the Lunar Song Tribe's Third Immortal King.
The bald immortal glared at Yaan with a gaze that could cut through mountain ranges, but Yaan met this gaze with an endless abyss of slaughterous intent. He felt no regret about the fact that he had incited the ire of an immortal!
He was not the same as before…he was not as weak as when he first arrived on the Blood Plane!
"You said that you would leave my branch tribes alone, demon!"
"Mm. But I changed my mind." Yaan nodded, showing not an ounce of shame when he spoke these words.
The bald immortal did not look surprised by Yaan's impertinence any longer, but he also didn't seem like he was here just to chat. This made Yaan wonder…what was the purpose of his visit?
"You believe yourself invincible because I cannot fight you by law, but you have made a grave mistake…"
"Oh?" Yaan asked, finally feeling a tinge of anticipation.
"I cannot attack you directly…but I can send my pets to annihilate you from this world!"
The immortal stepped back, then raised one wrist to the sky. He raised a blade towards this wrist, staring at Yaan with endless malicious desire.
"You overstepped your bounds, mortal, and now, you must die!"
"Yaan run!" Rui's voice urgently called out within his mind.
But Yaan did not run.
Somehow, he could already sense what was to come…
A difficult fight, a fight with high levels of slaughter, a battle where he would be able to truly immerse himself in powerful Slaughter Aura! This was exactly what he wanted, what he needed!
With a severe expression, the immortal slit his own wrist with the blade.
A drop fell, then after falling for a few feet, it transformed into a black ball. As the ball unwound itself, it was revealed to be a bat!
The beast grew larger, and larger, and larger, until finally, it became a Rank 5 beast!
Yaan didn't bother moving yet, there was obviously more to come. A mere Rank 5 beast couldn't even slow his movement.
Another blood drop fell, then another, and another…
Then finally, an absolute torrent of blood spurted outwards, coating the sky in a sea of red.
33,333 blood drops were released, quickly growing into 33,333 bats! The bats grew to different strengths, but they were all between Initial Rank 1 and Peak Rank 5.
There were a total of 240 Peak Rank 5 bats…
The immortal raised his other arm, slicing open his wrist, and causing a torrent of blood to splash over each and every bat!
The blood made the bats go frantic as they tried to devour as much blood as possible.
The frenzy became so insane that the stronger bats tore apart and consumed the weaker bats, absorbing their strength and growing stronger. Everyone stared upwards in terror at this scene, watching with dumbfounded expressions as the beasts started to tear one another apart.
Before long, there were only 33 bats remaining…
Each bat attracted a golden cloud from above. Every single one of these 33 bats was currently entering the Nirvana Life Realm, they were receiving their Heavenly Blessings!
Those who had the nerve to stay and had not yet fled, stared up at the sky in awe. 33 giant golden clouds overlapped, encompassing the entire sky, creating a splendour like never seen before.
Some people dropped to their knees and prayed.
One individual realised the danger of the situation. He quickly shouted:
"Quickly, attack them now! Once they receive the Heavenly Blessing, they will all become Rank 6 beasts!"
After saying this, the man didn't wait for anyone to reply. He rushed forth heroically, then slashed out at one of the bats which was shrouded in the golden light.
Before the man's sword could reach the bat's neck, three things happened so quickly that even Yaan barely caught a glimpse.
Firstly, a huge black cloud formed in the sky.
Secondly, a giant destructive lightning bolt fell from the cloud, landing on the man and destroying him thoroughly. His body, his soul and even his Dao Soul were all obliterated!
Finally, the black cloud vanished.
Everyone was stunned, but Rui spoke in Yaan's mind.
"Heavenly Retribution…do not interfere with heavenly events, it will attract inescapable retribution. This is a destruction even more thorough than death."
"Noted…" Yaan said with a dry mouth. The power of Heavenly Retribution had truly stunned him, it was simply too overbearing! It had only appeared for a brief moment, but he felt the wrathful aura of the heavens in that moment. That aura contained a power that nobody in this world could hope to resist!
Finally, the 33 bats finished absorbing the golden power. They all emanated with Rank 6 aura.
Yaan briefly glanced back at his few remaining subordinates and sighed. Everyone else had already retreated, only a dozen or so remained.
"Go." He said.
That was all they needed to hear, they rushed away at their fastest possible speeds. They were not chased and escaped without encountering any issues. Clearly, Yaan was the sole target here.
"33 Rank 6 beasts just to get rid of me. You sure think a lot of my abilities, lord immortal." Yaan spoke mockingly.
"I know you have defeated six 6-Star Realm warriors, so you are feeling confident…but this is not the same. You will soon understand." The immortal spoke plainly, flying up high into the sky, planning to watch the spectacle from down below.
"Yaan, he's right. These 33 bats are all trained to fight in sync. They will battle to the death until their target is no more, and right now, their only target is you!" Rui again tried to convince him to run once again.
Yaan ignored her, looking up at the immortal and asking:
"Doesn't this seem like breaking the war flower law? Summoning some ridiculous beasts from your own blood and having them kill me, isn't this a direct attack against me?"
"Not at all." The immortal shook his head. "Were you not aware? Tamed beasts below the Immortal Step are not so much as mentioned in the war flower law."
Yaan paused.
He really hadn't noticed that. But then again, it hadn't been relevant until now. Besides, he never expected that an immortal would be able to produce 33 Rank 6 beasts like it was nothing!
But regardless, Yaan didn't believe that he was outmatched here. This fight would be a challenge, but it would not be the one sided massacre that everyone seemed to be expecting.
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