The new arrival appeared so quickly and suddenly that before the patriarchs could react, the swords were already right in front of them.
“Bi’an.”
“Xue Yang.”
When the patriarchs saw the new arrivals, their eyes flashed with cold light. At the same time, Zhao Qianhe and Empress Su Qingyan appeared before Bai Haoyu. Zhao Qianling was still binding his hands, preventing him from swinging his sword.
“We’d wondered just who was behind Zhou Wu’s Bai Family. To think it was you two!” Bi’an’s Hidden Dragon Sword was pressed right to a patriarch’s throat. Xue Yang and the others had known that the Bai Family was working under Zhou Wu ever since they replaced Spirit City’s former leaders, but they didn’t know who the family’s true experts were.
Xuan Ji had performed a divination to determine that the two patriarchs were experts no inferior to them. At the time, Xue Yang and the others were stunned; they’d never heard of the Bai Family possessing such mighty experts. At that level of strength, it was difficult not to be famous.
Bi’an had wondered if the Bai Family was affiliated with Bai Mingli, and as it turned out, it was.
“So, the Five Elements Great Emperor’s former confidante has become Zhou Wu’s lackey. I wonder what Five Elements would think of this if he were still alive?” snorted Xue Yang.
Su Qingyan stared at Bai Mingli and Bai Jinsheng intently for a while, but she said nothing. Back when the pair of them had followed the Five Elements Great Emperor, they’d already been rulers. Five Elements had trusted them deeply, but after he fell, they’d both disappeared without a trace.
At the time, Bai Jinsheng had yet to settle down. As such, although they knew the Bai Family shared their surname, they didn’t know the clan consisted of Bai Jinsheng’s descendants.
“Winners take all! As the old saying goes, a fine fowl only perches on a fine tree!” Even with Su Qingyan present, Bai Mingli was full of excuses. He didn’t seem the least bit ashamed.
“Five Elements was truly blind. He put everything he had into training you two as his generals, yet now, you’ve become Zhou WU’s lackeys,” said Xuan Ji.
“What self-serving nonsense!” said Xuan Ji.
Bai Mingly merely laughed in disdain. The moment Xuan Ji appeared with this group in tow, he knew that the God Emperor’s “trusted subordinates” were no longer loyal to the God Emperor’s Estate.
If they were enemies, they had nothing to discuss.
The patriarchs pushed away the swords at their throats. Xue Yang and Bi’an went with the flow and lowered their blades. Just now, they’d used their swords to intimidate the patriarchs, but they knew better than to think that was really enough to threaten their lives. They’d have to be insane to think it could be that easy!
Bai Haoyu was even more direct; he simply relaxed his grip and let his rapier fall to the ground.
Zhao Qianhe and Su Qingyan glanced at each other, then put their swords away. Zhao Qianling relaxed her silk ribbon, too.
“Hmph.” Xuan Ji snorted coldly at the patriarchs, then swept her divine awareness in a circle around her.
Before long, she knit her brows, then instantly appeared before Ye Zichen. When she saw his billowing, vicious aura, ruined eye and missing left arm, she shouted, “Who did this?”
Boom!
The others looked over too. When they saw Ye Zichen, their expressions turned grave.
“Bai Mingli!” Of them, Xue Yang understood Ye Zichen the best. After all, they’d sparred together back in Emperor Hades’ palace. At the time, Ye Zichen was just a sky supreme, and yet, he’d relied on the Xuan-Yuan Sword and Heaven Plundering Strike to force Xue Yang to get serious.
Of the people here, odds were only the two patriarchs and Bai Haoyu were capable of doing this to him.
Despite numerous imperial-level presences locking onto him, Bai Mingli didn’t seem fl.u.s.tered in the slightest.
“What are you doing? That youth came to my family gates and slaughtered over one hundred thousand of my clansmen. I merely took a single arm and ruined a single eye, yet you’re acting like this? What do you take the lives of my clansmen for?” As he spoke, Bai Mingli’s aura expanded as well.
“Zichen!” Xuan Ji looked at him, her eyes filled with concern, but no matter how she called him, Ye Zichen didn’t respond.
“He’s only standing there due out of sheer strength of conviction, but his heart meridians are ruined, and the rest of his meridians are tattered. His divine core shattered, too,” said Pu Jingwan through the barrier.
Xiao Yumei added, her voice wracked with tears, “Lady Providence, please, save Zichen!”
“Qingyan.” Xuan Ji let out an urgent shout, and Su Qingyan descended. She pulled a single pill from her pocket.
“It’s me, your aunt!” Xuan Ji gnashed her teeth, then swiped the medicine out of the air. “Your aunt is here. With me here, no one else can hurt you.”
A hint of emotion appeared in Ye Zichen’s remaining eye. He stared intently at her.
Finally, the purple light in his pupil faded. The illusory figure behind him grew faded too, becoming increasingly transparent. “Aunt…ie…..” He spoke one syllable at a time. His wings disappeared, and his gaze regained clarity. “I’m unwilling to accept this!”
With that, he lost the last of his strength and fell over backwards.
Su Qingyan used her divine power to catch and support him, while Xuan Ji shoved the pill into his mouth.
Xiao Yumei wanted to rush to his side, but the barrier was still in her way. When Su Qingyan noticed this, she waved her arm, and the barrier shattered like a smashed copper mirror.
Without the barrier to keep her in, Xiao Yumei rushed up to Ye Zichen’s side. “He…. He’ll be okay, right?”
“Relax. Just now, I fed him our Nine-tailed Fox Clan’s holy medicine,” said Su Qingyan with a comforting smile.
“Good, good.” Xiao Yumei pulled Ye Zichen into her arms and held him tight. Pu Jingwan walked over and stood by their side, protecting them.
“Boss.” Thirteen walked up, her eyes red. When Xuan Ji looked at her, her gaze was apologetic.
Xuan Ji blamed herself!
She’d divined that the Bai Family patriarchs were strong, but she never would have guessed they were Bai Mingli and Bai Jinsheng. If she had, she never would have sent the God of Wine and the other Divine Generals here. Against anyone else, her subordinates would have been enough, but against them….
Xuan Ji had mastered countless strategies, yet this time, Zhou Wu had really taken her for a ride.
“Aren’t Ol’ Wine and the others still here?”
“They…” Thirteen instantly choked up. She tried to answer, but couldn’t speak.
Just now, Thirteen had taken advantage of Xuan Ji’s arrival to pull her companions' bodies out of the sea of corpses.
Xuan Ji knit her brows, then glanced at the bodies Thirteen was carrying.
Ol’ Three had lost his right arm and his head was covered in blood. Ol’ Five had a sword right through his c.h.e.s.t, and every inch of him was covered in wounds. Two flying swords had pierced right through Eighteen. The God of Wine had been burnt to a crisp.
Instantly, the sky transformed into an enormous golden compass.
Everything within its range felt as if the gears and needles of the compass were shifting their fate. Xue Yang and the other top experts looked up and saw Xuan Ji step onto the needle, her hair fluttering in the wind. Her bloodshot eyes emanated endless murderous intent. “Bai Mingli, I’m going to obliterate your entire clan!”
