As they left, Ye Rong started pouring starlight into Ye Zichen again out of concern for his injuries.
The other star bearers were all inwardly jealous, but more than that, they were shocked that this young master could absorb so much starlight. He’d absorbed starlight for a full hour back at the Bai Family Estate. Not even Lords of Four Stars could withstand that much, and yet, Ye Zichen had displayed no signs of pain or difficulty.
Also, it seemed that the light descending from the Milky Way was actively willing to enter his body.
“The young master must be a king among stars!”
“Is that even a question? Of course he is! If he were an ordinary star bearer, how could he bear the infusion of so much energy?” The star bearers nodded and discussed amongst themselves.
Ye Rong turned around and glanced at them. “It’s enough for you to know that, but if anyone dares spread word of this…”
“Big Sister Rong, we wouldn’t dare!”
“That’s right! We were just talking among ourselves. If any of us dare leak word of the young master’s status as a king star, I, Li Lei, will be the first to make them regret it!”
“Me too!”
“And me!”
The speakers were all Ye Rong’s direct subordinates, people she’d trained herself. They could be considered the first star bearers she’d ever trained.
Given her status as the Lord of Seven Stars, none of the other star bearers in the Society of Saints dared behave impudently before her. However, these particular star bearers had always resided in the Star Altar, and after spending a long time together, they’d grown familiar. In private, they would even laugh and joke around with her.
These ordinary star bearers had an excellent relationship with Ye Rong. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have discussed her son so openly right in front of her.
She looked at them, shook her head, sighed, and took Ye Zichen’s pulse. “How are you? If you have any latent injuries, say so now.”
“Hey, I’m feeling absolutely great right about now. If you don’t believe me, I’ll give you a set of boxing gloves and you can test me out,” said Ye Zichen with a peal of vibrant laughter. In truth, he was only acting like this so Ye Rong wouldn’t worry about him.
“Enough, you’d best take it easy for a while.” Xuan Ji’s lips twitched. “If anyone goes wrong, your mom will go crazy.”
“That’s right, Aunty, why are you all here?” asked Ye Zichen. “Great Emperor Xue Yang, Senior Zhao Qianhe, and a few others I’ve never seen before. Even though I don’t recognize them, based on their auras, they’re clearly extraordinary too.”
“Heh….” Ye Zichen scratched his head. “Does that mean they all know too?”
Xuan Ji nodded lightly. At that moment, the other great emperors walked over.
Xue Yang sighed and gazed at Ye Zichen for a while.
Beneath the weight of his gaze, Ye Zichen felt rather out of sorts. “Don’t look at me like that. I admit I was a little reckless….”
“My daughter did well befriending you.” To Ye Zichen’s surprise, when Xue Yang spoke, it was to praise him. “Little Mo spoke highly of you many times. Now, I finally see what she meant.”
“Me too. Ye Zichen, I admit I was biased against you. I’d like to apologize,” said Zhao Qianhe before bowing deeply.
“Don’t, don’t! You’re all my seniors! What are you doing?” Ye Zichen was rather fl.u.s.tered. “I just thought that this was what I ought to do. Also, Xue Mo’s condition is in part because of me; she wanted to give the sword hidden in that pocket dimension to me. If not for that, she could have given up on the match too.”
When he recalled how Xue Mo had been tortured, Ye Zichen clenched his fists once more. “How is Xue Mo doing now? All I know is that Murong Xue and the others said her injuries were severe. I still don’t know just how bad they really are.”
“When you get to the Sea of Innocence, you’ll naturally find out,” said Zhao Qianhe.
“Bai Yulong!” Ye Zichen clenched his fists and rubbed the Yao-Sealing Pagoda. His eyes narrowed, and he said no more.
….
Meanwhile, in Spirit City, Bai Mingli’s self-destruction had destroyed over half the city. Some of the lucky survivors had all taken to the skies, while others stood on the streets surveying the wreckage.
Quite a few cultivators had already chosen to leave. The city might one day recover its former glory, but certainly not any time in the next hundred years.
Suddenly, a black-robed figure appeared in the skies. “What powerful lingering resentment!”
He held a black crystal, and from time to time, dark grey shadows would fly up and enter it. “Excellent, such dense lingering resentment…. Hm…? Is someone there?”
The people of the Four Directions Palace arrived, filing one by one into the air above the wreckage of Spirit City.
Actually, many of them had turned back halfway through. The God Emperor had suffered such a heavy loss that no one guaranteed he wouldn’t directly turn his sword on the Sea of Innocence, Four Directions Palace, Jade Pool, or other factions involved.
The Jade Pool and Sea of Innocence were relatively safe, as their top experts had remained behind.
“Just what kind of disaster was this?” When the people hovering overhead looked down, they couldn’t help but exclaim; even before arriving, they could smell the stench of fresh blood lingering in the air. Then, after arriving in the city, they saw earth stained red with blood, and veritable rivers of blood filling every street and gutter.
They suddenly regretted vying to stay behind.
As for why they’d fought for this job….
Cultivators typically carried their treasures with them, on their person or in spatial divine artifacts. The people of the Bai Family had died, but their treasures wouldn’t magically just disappear. Those who stayed behind could loot the corpses and find quite a few treasures.
But now it seemed they’d underestimated the scope of the carnage.
The once-lofty Bai Family was now nothing but an unidentifiable, bloody, gory mass.
Fortunately, those who’d chosen to remain behind had all experienced battle. If an inexperienced person saw this, they might have fainted right on the spot. And yet, even these elites couldn’t help but wretch.
Boom!
At that moment, a man in ornate robes knit his brows, stepped forth, and used his divine power to form a deep bit. “Toss them all in.”
“Just burn them all up. Once their bodies burn, their spatial rings and divine artifacts will naturally fall to the bottom of the pit for us to harvest.”
“How clever, Third Highness. But His Majesty said that the deceased contained too much lingering resentment and that we had to give them a proper burial. If we just burn them, their lingering resentment….”
“A proper burial? That sounds lovely! What do you have in mind?” snapped the Third Highness. “Besides, how will anyone know whether we gave them a proper burial or not? I’m the one who’ll report in when we get back!”
“But what if this intensifies the lingering resentment of the dead?”
“So what if it does? What does that have to do with me? Even if their resentment intensifies, they’ll take it out on the Central Divine Mountain. We live all the way in the east. What is there to be afraid of? Just do as I say! There are roughly ten million dead. It’s easy to imagine how much wealth that represents. If you do as I say, I’ll give you thirty percent of it!”
Thirty percent!
The surrounding members of the Four DIrections Palace gulped. Although that meant the Third Highness planned to greedily seize seventy percent for himself, there were so many dead, including no shortage of diviners and rulers…..
“Fine then, Third Highness. We’ll do as you say!”
Little did they know, up in the clouds, that dark-robed figure was listening to every word they said. “Good boy, you’re vicious indeed. This old yao likes people like you! Burn them! Burn them all, and I’ll be able to absorb even more lingering resentment. Better yet, it’ll be targeted at you. When the time comes, I’ll kill you, hee hee….. And those resentful spirits will be so grateful to me, they’ll cry tears of happiness. Encountering you is this old man’s good fortune!”
