The black robed enforcer nodded and left with a turn.
Apart from the Purpleclad Duke and Enforcer Alliance, numerous consciousnesses messaged Dusksnow Morningstar in private, making all manner of promises and inviting him to join their faction.
He ignored them all.
His current level of strength entitled him to be hailed as a titled duke in his own right. When a titled duke ascended to kinghood, their minimum starting point was second step kinghood, if not third step.
In sharp contrast to all of the attention on Morningstar, no one dared reach out to Hua Fengwen. He was a seventh step king! The strongest out of all the visiting factions to Cloudexit City was sixth step king. If they invited someone such as him to join their faction, they would be welcoming a forefather back to lord over them all.
……
“Why aren’t I this popular?” Li Zhen and Qing Ting remained by Lu Yun’s side when they returned to the city. Li Zhen was incredibly jealous and admired the attention directed at Dusksnow Morningstar. He was beginning to doubt his existence—his grandmother didn’t care for him and the rest of the family elders couldn’t be bothered with him. Even his third uncle had tried to kill him!
His father sending him to the Enforcer Alliance a hundred thousand years ago was the best proof of his clan’s apathy for him, but the final straw was that the alliance hadn’t wanted him!
“I’m sure there will be people eagerly approaching you if your entire clan spontaneously died,” Lu Yun said with a half smile.
Li Zhen sank into deep thought.
“He’s not seriously thinking about it, is he?!” Qing Ting’s jaw dropped. “He put on such a show to save his third uncle earlier…”
“No, I actually think that no one would want him even if all of his kinsmen died,” Lu Yun chortled.
Li Zhen: ……
……
Jinse and Hua Fengwen’s arrival at Cloudexit immediately changed the city’s landscape of power. They were the only seventh step kings in the city’s defensive line—make that the entire region.
Zhuo Bufan also elicited close interest. He was summoned in front of the city’s movers and shakers to give a detailed recounting of the matters of Starspace Region.
Up until this point, the outside world’s understanding of events in Starspace was based on scattered reports from the few cultivators that managed to escape. No one knew any specifics.
“I’m not too sure either.”
Jinse and Hua Fengwen weren’t present in the city lord’s manor. The Cloudruin King—a fifth step king—sat in the head seat. There were two other sixth step kings present apart from him—one from Coiling Dragon City in Azure Dragon Region, and one from Blazing Phoenix Region.
The Cloudruin King was the ruler of Cloudruin Region and the master of its core essence. This was why he sat in the head seat.
Zhuo Bufan wasn’t flustered to meet heavyweights that he’d normally only hear of. He shook his head. “The ghosts arrived very suddenly and we learned with equal abruptness that the Moon King is a ghost king. After she killed the Starspace King, the ghosts breached the city. If it wasn’t for my father and two brothers laying down their lives to save me, I would’ve died as well.”
“Did you see the Moon King?” Cloudruin frowned with displeasure. This account was similar to the ones from those who’d escaped the region. There was nothing noteworthy.
“No.” Zhuo Bufan shook his head again. “But I know that the Moon King killed a sixth step king with one move!”
The first to attempt a rescue wasn’t Jinse, but the Beast King. The Scorch King had still been alive then and he’d identified that the Beast King was a sixth step king. And then… the Moon King executed him with one move.
Though Zhuo Bufan hadn’t seen the Moon King with his own eyes, his father had clearly called out the name. Scorching Sun City fell after that; the Scorch King fled through the city with his three sons. Danger beset them on all sides and numerous ghost kings surrounded them in the end. The king and his two elder sons had defended Zhuo Bufan unto death, making it possible for him to hold on until Jinse arrived.
“Killed a sixth step king with one move!” Cloudruin and the others gasped sharply.
Cloudruin was a fifth step king and had a long ways to go before he reached sixth step. His strength paled in comparison to the late Starspace King’s.
“But the ghosts of Starspace Region don’t look to be as disorderly as it seems to us. They move with purpose and organization, working together on something.” Zhuo Bufan stood up and waved his hand, forming a water curtain to show a scene of numerous ghosts busying themselves with a kind of structure.
“A ghost nest! These ghosts want to build a ghost nest!” exclaimed the Mountain King, the sixth step king from Coiling Dragon City. He was a veteran sixth step king who was renowned through the Hongmeng and a pillar of Coiling Dragon City.
Despite his imposing stature, he began trembling like a frightened girl.
“What?! They’re building a ghost nest!!” The other sixth step king from Blazing Phoenix Region also rose with alarm. “When the nest is completed, several hundred regions around Starspace Region will turn into ghost regions!”
The ghost tomb in Lu Yun’s eyes was the ghost nest they spoke of.
“The Enforcer Alliance! We can only rely on them now!” Cloudruin spoke with despair. “The stories say that their Retribution Region is a destroyed ghost nest. Only their heavyweights can pacify Starspace Region!”
“But it’s also said that they’re already suppressing a ghost nest. That’s a true entrance to the ghost world and they can’t leave it…” The kings on the scene milled around with panic.
It would be an unmitigated disaster once the ghost nest took shape. They would have nowhere to run to and could only await death.
“If the ghosts want to build a nest, we’ll just prevent them from doing so. What are you lot afraid of?” rang out a slightly mocking voice.
Green radiance flashed through the air as Hua Fengwen appeared next to Zhuo Bufan. He surveyed the kings in front of him with unconcealed contempt.
A bunch of ants.
Though he’d recovered his dao heart, these people were all still only ants in his eyes—including himself.
“The Immortal King’s Purple Stellar Mountain is in the city. Jinse and I used it to safely bring Zhuo Bufan and Dusksnow Morningstar out of Starspace Region. If we have enough people with us, we can destroy the ghost nest being built!
“Who among you is willing to brave the region again with me?” Hua Fengwen smiled as he swept a glance at the sixth step kings of Coiling Dragon and Blazing Phoenix City.
“You and Jinse are seventh step kings, it’s an easy task for you to bring two people out of Starspace Region. The Moon King can kill a sixth step king with a single move, she’s plainly a terrifyingly high level ghost king…” The Torch King of Blazing Phoenix City answered unsteadily.
“Be frank if you’re a coward, don’t give me all those excuses,” Hua Fengwen snorted with laughter.
“Ah, Senior Hua Fengwen was still a sixth step king when he first arrived in the region. I witnessed with my own eyes his breakthrough to seven step kinghood when he fought the ghost kings,” Zhuo Bufan suddenly remarked.
“What??” That sent another flickering of expressions through the crowd.
