The Xiao Family and the Upheaval Alliance were enemies. There was no doubt about that.
To obtain victory for their side, they mercilessly slaughtered the enemy troops. There was nothing for it; if they didn’t kill their enemies, their enemies’ blades would soon find their throats instead.
But that was assuming they only targeted soldiers and those capable of battle. The women and children….
They were innocent!
Before barging into the Xiao Family estate, Ye Zichen had repeatedly urged the Outsider rulers not to kill women and children. Even they, the attackers, knew better. So why would Xiao Ting do something like this?
Countless children died beneath the lightning, without even knowing how or why.
Before they died, countless mothers used their own bodies to shield the children in their arms from the blast. As the lightning came crashing down, their eyes filled with undisguised despair and deep hatred.
Countless loyal clansmen could only watch as their wives and children died horribly.
Eyes bloodshot, they disregarded the gap in cultivation between them and Xiao Ting. The veins in their eyes bulged and practically burst as they raised their weapons and charged at their emperor, but before they took more than a few steps, new bolts of lightning blasted them into bits.
Soon, blood seemed to rain down on the entire Xiao Family outer sect.
Countless corpses fell from the skies. The accumulated blood formed a river, and the stench of death filled the air. Soon, practically everyone in Heavenly God City could smell it.
The inner sect members clenched their fists. The elders standing beside Xiao Ting dared not directly face the carnage.
Ye Zichen watched in silence, but blazing flames ignited at his chest. He trembled with red-hot fury, and the flames intensified, their heat reddening his skin.
He couldn’t just pretend nothing had happened. Even though the dead were all Xiao clansmen, and even though they had no relationship with Ye Zichen whatsoever, he couldn’t bear to just keep silent much longer.
Little did he know, one of the Outsider rulers couldn’t stand it anymore either. Before the lightning hit, he waved his sleeves and created a divine power barrier in front of otherwise-doomed women and children. The other Outsider rulers followed suit.
Yang Jian and the Great Sage, meanwhile, fixed their gazes on Xiao Ting, their eyes filled with undisguised viciousness.
“Xiao Ting!” Ye Zichen had been just on the verge of leaving when he suddenly turned and stepped toward the Lightning Emperor. He was so furious, his expression was hideously contorted.
Xiao Ting silently stopped his assault, an indifferent grin on his face. “What is it this time? I killed my own subordinates. What, you won’t let me? Don’t tell me their deaths have softened your heart, and that you’re pitying them? Don’t you think that much compassion is a little excessive?”
“What exactly are you trying to do?” Ye Zichen practically forced the words through his tightly clenched teeth. Suddenly, the Yao-Sealing Pagoda appeared in the air over the Xiao Family Estate, gathering up all the women and children on the brink of despair and hiding them safely inside.
When they saw this, shockingly, no one tried to stop him, not even the fathers and husbands of those lucky enough to have survived. In fact, they showed no signs of unwillingness at all. Rather, they seemed grateful to Ye Zichen.
“What do you mean by this, Alliance Head Ye?” The Lightning Emperor’s Scepter crackled with electricity, and Xiao Ting knit his brows. He gazed up at the hovering tower and watched as it gathered up his clansmen before he could slaughter them. The sight filled him with displeasure. “Those are all my clansmen. You’re the one who started this assault on my estate and caused all this damage. I never so much as attacked your subordinates. I simply wanted to kill those wastes to vent my anger. Are you really going to get in the way of even that? Don’t you think you’ve extended your reach a bit too far? What are you going to do when I report this to the God Emperor?”
“What a joke.” After hearing Xiao Ting’s response, Ye Zichen couldn’t help but half. Even now, after all this, he still referred to Zhou Wu as “the God Emperor.” When he brought him up, Xiao Ting even cupped his fist in the direction of the God Emperor’s Estate as a show of respect.
This old man sure knew how to act. He was so used to playing the part of the loyal subordinate that the deception was embedded in his very bones.
“Does Zhou Wu still exist in your eyes?”
“Alliance Head Ye, what are you saying? The God Realm has nine Divine Mountains, and the God Emperor leads them. All of us living in these lands are his citizens. Moreover, you and I are in Heavenly God City, directly under his jurisdiction, and I am the Lightning Punishment Emperor. Of course I have Zhou Wu in my eyes!”
THe Lightning Emperor’s air of authority filled the skies. He seemed utterly grand and righteous.
“Well said.” Suddenly, the crisp sound of applause filled the air. The crowd looked up in the direction of the sound and saw a woman in long black robes emerge from the dark clouds.
Her movements seemed slow, but in but a single breath of time, she traversed tens of thousands of meters and appeared before Xiao Ting.
Without exception, everyone hovering in the skies, including the cultivators of other factions currently watching to see how this conflict played out, could tell this new arrival was a demon expert.
Her silhouette was actually quite familiar to Ye Zichen.
She was the Nine Li’s Holy Maiden!
Everyone, regardless of whether they belonged to the Upheaval Alliance, Xiao Family, or any of the other nearby factions, fixed their gazes on her.
But what really made their eyes practically pop out of their heads was Xiao Ting’s response. The instant he laid eyes on her, he set his scepter on the ground and knelt like a dog, lowering his head to kiss her feet.
Afterward, he looked up and clasped his hands together piously, like a devout believer before his god.
“Holy Maiden!”
Instantly, practically all of Heavenly God City fell silent.
The head of the Xiao Family, the Lightning Emperor, the Master of Lightning Tribulations, an expert whose position was second only to the God Emperor, was now kneeling before a demon. Worse, he was acting like a well-trained dog.
The Xiao Family’s inner sect members and elders lowered their heads in shame. To them, this was….
A disgrace!
“Good boy.” The demons’ Holy Maiden addressed Xiao Ting in the same tone as she might a puppy, then patted his head. At the same time, she pulled an object wrapped in foil from her pocket and passed it to him. “This is your reward.”
“Thank you, Holy Maiden.” Xiao Ting knelt. He carefully accepted the foil-wrapped object, as if it were some sort of precious treasure.
“That’s enough for now! You’re still the Lightning Emperor, aren’t you? I ought to leave you with at least a little dignity. No need to kneel any longer. Get up.”
As soon as she gave the word, Xiao Ting rose to his feet.
“Just now, you were saying…”
“Please, Holy Maiden, don’t misunderstand. I was just trying to be diplomatic. What is Zhou Wu, anyway? In my eyes, you’re the only one worthy of my loyalty,” said the Master of Tribulation Lightning. He was nothing but smiles.
“Is that so?” The Holy Maiden glanced pointedly at him. Between her gaze and their conversation, never mind the Xiao clansmen and clans subordinate to the Xiao Family; even the other factions felt their faces prickling with embarrassment.
The Lightning Emperor, Master of Divine Tribulations, had betrayed the god race. Worse, he’d become a mere dog!
But the Lightning Emperor had no shame whatsoever. He was ridiculously servile, even pious.
Ye Zichen tightly knit his brows. At that moment, Yang Jian’s transmission reverberated through his sea of consciousness. “The second thing I wanted to tell you earlier was…. Xiao Ting is already under the demons’ control.”
