บท 232: Kingdom of Reptil
As Yaan stared across the Kingdom of Reptil's border, it was as if everything around him became insignificant. The immortal by his side could not move his heart, nor could the thousands of warriors who stared at him from a distance with a variety of emotions held within their eyes.
This was the first public appearance that Yaan had made since his exile. Because he hid all news of his return, nobody had expected him to suddenly show up here!
Some people looked at him with hatred, others with admiration and anticipation. Of course, the most prominent emotion amongst the crowd was…fear.
But Yaan did not care about any of this. As he stared into the Kingdom of Reptil, awaiting the beginning of this insane competition, he only had one thought on his mind…
'I will get stronger, no matter what I must become…I will return home…I will…overcome my fate…'
There was nobody officially watching over this flower war, aside from the immortals from the competing kingdoms. Or at least, nobody who was watching publicly revealed themselves.
The rules were stated clearly, as declared by the War Flower Empire; the competing warriors could only enter the Kingdom of Reptil starting from a specified day onwards, then the competition would last for three years. As for the residents of the devastated kingdom, they were forbidden from approaching the central region of the kingdom until the competition had begun, just like everyone else from the surrounding nine kingdoms.
On the surface, there was nobody watching over the competitors to ensure that they abided by these rules, yet not a single person dared to break the ruleset. The War Flower Empire's prestige and grandeur was too immense, how could they dare to break the empire's rules?
The immortals made sure that none of the Foundation Step warriors overstepped themselves and entered the Kingdom of Reptil early, though of course, they were unable to monitor the entire border between the two kingdoms. Regardless, at the point of entry that the Lunar Song Tribe had established, everybody abided by the rules.
Yaan had no intention of breaking the rules either. He didn't even care about obtaining the major scroll, so why would he be in a rush anyway?
His plan was to kill. If he could obtain the major scroll, he would be given a reward from the Lunar Song Tribe, which would be a bonus.
But even so…Yaan had no plan of trusting the First Immortal King's promise. Even when the elderly immortal gave him another 200 of the pills which would stabilise his sanity, the Rank 5 mental clarification pills, he did not trust the man's words.
These pills were not really for Yaan's sake, they were for the sake of the other warriors fighting by his side. If Yaan lost his sanity and ended up slaughtering everyone on his own side, that would simply be too laughable.
"It is time." The First Immortal King spoke slowly, looking down towards Yaan with a gaze of expectation.
Yaan nodded lightly. He clasped his hands towards the elderly immortal, then departed alone into the Kingdom of Reptil with a few parting words.
"I will do my best, senior."
The First Immortal King watched on as Yaan flew into the distance. The Second and Fourth Immortal Kings were also present, wearing complicated expressions as they watched his solitary figure slowly fading into the horizon. Only the Third Immortal King did not show himself, since his enmity with Yaan was much greater compared to the others.
In the past, the immortals looked down on him. After he proved himself and caused them no end of trouble, slaughtering their tribesmen and destroying their branch tribes, they started to take him seriously. Eventually, they even considered him their mortal enemy!
And yet now, they had entered an alliance, and they were placing their hopes on this very same person…
When Yaan entered the Kingdom of Reptil, nobody followed behind him. To put it bluntly, nobody dared to follow behind him! Everyone was aware that the Red Demon was a maniac who was obsessed with slaughter. They had no confidence that he wouldn't turn around and begin killing his own allies!
Frankly, Yaan didn't blame them, nor did he desire to travel with others right now. Travelling with Ga Shu was fine, because Ga Shu was an immortal and could defend himself…but everyone entering this competition was below the Immortal Step. If Yaan lost his rational mind for even a brief moment, he could end up crazily slaughtering everyone around him.
For the time being, it was for the best that he remained alone…
Yaan flew onwards, his red robe fluttering in the wind and reflecting the midday sun. His figure struck a lonely picture in this desolate kingdom, which had become even more cut-off from the outside world than usual following the Rank 9 beast calamity.
The beast had only destroyed the centre of the kingdom, but that was the region where the seven ruling tribes resided. Countless lives were lost in the span of a few minutes, but it was the War Flower Empire's orders that truly thrust the residents of this kingdom into despair. They were permitted to compete in this competition, but unlike the other nine kingdoms, the Kingdom of Reptil could only attain victory by defending the major scroll and preventing it from being taken away. If the scroll remained within their kingdom by the end of the three year period, they would be permitted to retain their internal autonomy…
However, the Kingdom of Reptil warriors were not allowed to take the scroll down from the flagpole in the centre of the kingdom! In fact, for the past three months, they were not even allowed to leave their own homes, they were forced to remain within their tribes, waiting for their invaders to come forth!
Yaan passed by multiple tribes as he flew, but he completely ignored them. He had already decided to go directly to the central region, as that way, he would quickly encounter a large number of powerful warriors.
He was also concerned that once he began killing, he might lose his sound mind for a period of time, making him unable to stop his slaughter. It would be for the best if he drew some distance away from the other Lunar Song warriors to ensure that he did not mistakenly kill them all in a fit of manic blood-thirst.
The majority of the Kingdom of Reptil was occupied by vast forests. The humans with the reptil bloodline preferred a warm and humid climate, which was why they had settled down in this region. Not only that, but they had actually transformed the lands which were less suitable for them to occupy, turning regions which were originally void of trees into thick luscious forests.
Naturally, it was impossible for the entire kingdom to be like this, but the environment was noticeably more consistent compared to the Kingdom of Lunar Song, which varied dramatically from province to province. Perhaps it was the unity between the reptil people that allowed this to happen.
Not only did Yaan pass by multiple tribes along his journey, he also encountered many groups of 'people' heading towards the centre of the kingdom. He was hesitant to even call the human reptils 'people', because they simply looked like bipedal lizards.
It was only recently that Yaan finally learned of why these various peoples were all classified as 'human'. As it turned out, the term 'human' was applied to all physical mortal beings with enough intelligence that they were able to cultivate at least one of the four paths.
There were other intelligent races in this world, such as the giant race, but these races were not considered human. The reason for this was that they were born with a certain level of power, they did not start this life as true mortals. Only those who were born without any sort of cultivation base were considered human.
Yaan ignored all the people he came across. These small groups were not worth his time, and besides, he had already decided to head to the centre of the kingdom before beginning his slaughter.
He avoided coming close to any immortal tribes along his way. He had been given a detailed map by the First Immortal King, so he was at least able to avoid going anywhere near the known branches of the immortal tribes in this kingdom.
The exact situation in the Kingdom of Reptil was unknown, but since the War Flower Empire had decreed that all Kingdom of Reptil immortals were to stay within the confines of their tribes during this three year period, it seemed obvious that there were still surviving immortals within the kingdom. The Kingdom of Reptil was far larger than the Kingdom of Lunar Song. The Kingdom of Lunar Song was ruled by a single tribe and their four immortals, but the Kingdom of Reptil was originally ruled by an alliance formed between seven different immortal tribes!
In total, there were previously 18 immortals across those seven tribes, 15 of which possessed 7-Star cultivation, whilst there were three tribes with 8-Star immortals!
Indeed, the Kingdom of Reptil was originally a Rank 8 kingdom! Its wealth and size were tremendous, it was obvious why the surrounding nine kingdoms wanted to gain control over it so badly.
But now, it was unknown how many of those immortals remained.
Whilst the central region of the kingdom had been utterly destroyed, that was only around a quarter of the kingdom's total area. Many branch tribes of those seven immortal tribes still existed, it was entirely possible that some of the immortals managed to avoid being killed in the beast calamity by a stroke of luck. In fact, it was also possible that there were more immortals in this kingdom than were known to the public…
Even though the immortals had been forbidden from participating in this competition, Yaan didn't want to take the risk of catching an immortal's attention. He wouldn't rely on the war flower law to protect him, not when their kingdom had been destroyed and was at risk of being taken by outsiders. It was entirely possible that in this situation, they might do something desperate, like targeting the strongest competitors in secret.
Yaan maintained his pace, easily overtaking any group he came across. He also did his best to disguise his aura using his illusion dao. Unfortunately, when his slaughterous emotions had a flare-up, it became extremely difficult to hide his killing intent. Even so, thanks to his illusion dao, nobody was able to find him, even when his killing intent enveloped an entire region.
The mental clarification pills were effective enough that Yaan didn't completely lose his senses a single time during his ten days of travel towards the central region in the kingdom. He avoided engaging anyone in combat, restraining his slaughterous emotions and controlling himself. It was difficult, but at least it was doable.
Finally, after travelling for ten days at a ridiculous speed, Yaan arrived in the central region. At first, he didn't realise that he had arrived at his destination, but within a few hours, it soon became obvious.
The first sign was the complete lack of life. There were no animals on the ground below, and even any plants were withered away and dead. After moving further in, the lack of life became even more obvious.
Yaan didn't know exactly how the Rank 9 beast had caused such devastation, but every plant had turned to dust, even rocks crumbled apart into dirt. There were no rivers, lakes or streams, everything had been vaporised. The previous luscious forests were nowhere to be seen, all that could be found was an endless barren land.
Silently, Yaan continued on.
He scoured the region as he flew, cautiously investigating everything around him. The vast emptiness of it all caused a strange stillness to linger in the air, making this entire region feel like a zone devoid of energy.
Every now and then, Yaan came across the remnants of a dead tribe. Some treasures and monuments remained, whilst there were even some dust-covered corpses belonging to the stronger warriors who were not immediately vaporised by the outer perimeter of the beast's attack.
Eventually, as he moved further in, heading towards the centre of this wasteland, even the remnants of those smaller tribes were nowhere to be seen. For some time, there was simply nothing aside from dust and grey air filled with ash.
But before long, Yaan reached the true centre of the kingdom; the graveyard of the previous seven immortal tribes!
Naturally, more remained of the powerful immortal tribes compared to the mortal tribes which had been completely wiped out. Even so, their previous grandeur and prosperity was nowhere to be seen, all that remained was a dusty expanse of ruins.
The weaker cultivators were all completely incinerated, and in fact, for a long time, Yaan could not even find a trace of a single corpse. All that seemed to remain were cracked monuments, broken formations and damaged treasures.
But eventually, Yaan found a corpse…it was…an immortal corpse!
After searching through this barren world for so long, he finally found what he was looking for!
Yaan's travel speed was too fast, beyond ten times faster than most Peak 5-Star warriors. The reptil warriors would be the first to arrive here, but even amongst the natives in this kingdom, not many were able to arrive within such a short period of time. As such, Yaan knew that it would be some time until others started flocking in. In the mean time, he decided to search the ruins for anything of value.
The corpses of immortals were the main targets of his search, and unexpectedly, he actually found one such corpse within a single day of exploration!
He flew down immediately, waving his hand casually and sending hundreds of tons of rubble flying. The immortal was buried under a collapsed palace, and from the looks of it, she died without even knowing why this fate had befallen her.
With a second flick of his wrist, Yaan created a breeze and blew away the dust from the corpse. Creating minor things like this from nothing was not a big deal to Yaan, whose illusion dao had been continuously growing stronger, day by day.
The dead woman lay down with an aggrieved expression plastered across her face. Even though her skin was covered in scales and her eyes were like those of a snake, Yaan could still see the unwillingness to die in her eyes. The reptils were not highly emotional, but all life held a desire to continue living.
It was obvious why the female immortal had felt this way in her final moments. She had been killed without even knowing why or how she died, without knowing who or what had killed her!
After the beast collided with the kingdom, a terrifying shockwave tore through the entire central region, causing the seven tribe to collapse within seconds. This dead immortal was just too unlucky to have been caught up in such a tragedy.
She died whilst staring up into the sky, after the palace collapsed on her and the shockwave ripped away the roof tiles, revealing the sky above. Yaan almost felt like he could see a reflection of the devastated outside world held within her gaze…this was likely the last thing she had seen in her life.
After using reveal truth, Yaan sighed, realising that the corpse itself had no value. It was already impressive that her body was in one piece, but she had exhausted all of her energy and even burned away her cultivation in order to survive for just one second longer, resulting in her dead body having little to no value now.
As for her spatial ring, it had been destroyed, the contents were either destroyed or lost.
Even though this corpse had no value, Yaan found himself staring for a long period of time. In the end, he shook his head and flew away whilst muttering to himself under his breath.
"Even immortals can die pitifully like this. This world…is simply too cruel…"
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