An autumn breeze rustled the withered leaves, which shook as if dancing.
It had been roughly half a month since Ye Zichen left the mausoleum, and during this time, Ye Zichen always had someone near the mausoleum to keep an eye on the situation. He’d learned that, just a few days ago, the mausoleum disappeared.
The Immortal Region, Underworld, and Heavenly Court gradually returned to normal. The people of the Immortal Region had taken refuge within the Immortal Region’s holy land, and by the time they emerged, Howling Valley and the surrounding region was nothing but rubble. Although they hadn’t witnessed the carnage with their own eyes, based on the broken mountains and cracked earth, they could guess what an apocalyptic battle had unfolded while they sought refuge elsewhere.
The Immortal Region and Endless Beast Region were all busy rebuilding. Little did they know, something had just taken the Upper Three Realms by storm.
The video Ye Zichen sent Zuo Mo was now public!
They released the video in the morning, and since it came from the official account everyone followed automatically, every single cultivator with a cell phone saw this explosive news.
Zuo Mo had really put a lot of work into it. The video was almost an hour long, but she and her team had compressed it down to three minutes.
She was fully aware that if the video was too long, viewers would lose interest. That was why she’d condensed it down to three minutes, including nothing but the video’s essence.
The King of the West, Tai Tan, and the King of the South, Jiao Hai, kneeling and begging for mercy.
(Former) Demon Emperor Kui Lin fleeing in panic.
She chose eye-catching headlines. Anyone who saw these famous names had their interest piqued. Then, they saw an hour of content condensed to its very essence….
All three Upper Realms practically exploded!
Xiao Yumei and Ye Zichen were sitting by a stone table, watching the clips with great relish.
They’d waited half a month for the cut and edited version, and it didn’t disappoint. In just three minutes, they’d done enormous damage to Kui Lin, Jiao Hai, and Tai Tan’s prestige.
“Are there any interesting comments backstage?”
“I didn’t see anything particularly interesting, but I can tell that the video is indeed having a huge impact.” Xiao Yumei scrolled down to the comments below the video. There were quite a few of them, and the ones on top had more than ten million likes.
“The Kings of the Yao Kingdoms and Emperor of the Demon Realm have this little courage? They knelt before a beast!”
“Brothers of the yao race, I know you can see my comment. To tell the truth, your god race brothers feel embarrassed on your behalf. If the great emperors of our Divine Mountains acted like that, we’d have long since found some hunk of tofu to beat ourselves to death with.”
“The Demon Emperor sure is the Demon Emperor. A mere beast scared him so badly, he ran off with his tail between his legs, but he’s still acting cool.”
The comments were all jeers directed at the yao and demon races; it seemed they were written by god race users. Furthermore, they kept getting more and more likes and climbing the rankings. As for the yao and demons’ attempts to smooth things over, the platform didn’t even display them.
Besides, these were all leader-level figures.
They’d done something so embarrassing that the people under their jurisdiction were likely too ashamed to show their faces in the comments.
“Ahem. Don’t try and hold me back. I’m going to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to find Pavilion Master Zuo Mo and confess to her. Miss Zuo Mo, I love you…”
Suddenly, several similar comments appeared beneath the video. Ye Zichen glanced at Xiao Yumei, who laughed. “Jealous?”
“There’s no need for that. I have confidence in my charms,” said Ye Zichen, puffing up his chest.
“Look at you!” Xiao Yumei couldn’t help but laugh and scold him. “As the master of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, it’s natural she’d be familiar to our user base. And this is the internet era! People discovered her appearance pretty quickly, and given her good looks…. Messages like this show up every day. At first, the platform wouldn’t publish them, but later, to liven up the atmosphere, they started choosing them from time to time. It’s strange, though; comments like that always get a ton of likes.”
“It’s like how editors in the Modern Realm used to get comments about people ‘wanting to bear their children’!”
“You could say that!” Xiao Yumei laughed and nodded. Ye Zichen then scrolled through the user platform and checked the video’s play count. Less than four hours had passed since they’d released it, but the video already had more than ten billion hits.
Despite himself, this massive number left Ye Zichen visibly stunned. XIao Yumei, however, was already used to this. “Not much time has passed, adn this incident has yet to fully ferment. If every user had seen it, we’d be looking at at least a hundred billion hits.”
“Heh, Zuo Mo’s done a pretty good job.” Ye Zichen didn’t hold back his praise for Zuo Mo’s competence. Just as the words left his lips, his phone buzzed, and he saw an urgent notification.
He clicked and opened the chat screen. On top was a message from none other than Zuo Mo herself.
“You only just praised her, and now she’s here to take credit!” Ye Zichen showed Xiao Yumei his screen, then clicked on the chat.
The top few messages were from Zuo Mo. “Hey, what do you think? You saw the video, right?”
“Over ten billion hits in just four hours. That’s a new record!”
“We’re receiving intelligence reports on our end. The people of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms are in uproar. There’s already a push for Jiao Hai to abdicate!”
Ye Zichen laughed when he read her message, then nodded in satisfaction.
This was exactly the effect he’d wanted. Even if Jiao Hai and Tai Tan returned to their territories, he wanted them to be uncomfortable.
They were Kui Lin’s allies. If Kui Lin hadn’t been dethroned upon his return to the Demon Realm, he might have disdained to work with such embarrassments. But in Kui Lin’s current position, Jiao Hai and Tai Tan were indispensable allies.
Yet now, they’d have trouble enough looking after themselves. This would interfere with Kui Lin’s plans.
“You’ve done well!”
“What? One little ‘you’ve done well’? Are you just trying to get me off your back?” Zuo Mo sent him a whole row of wronged-looking emojis.
Ye Zichen couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. “What kind of reward did you want?”
“I want you to come see me…”
“Girl, it’s not like we’re millions of miles apart. Aren’t you in Upheaval City too? Why not just come here directly?”
“You… Hmph! Nevermind!” She left, pouting, and didn’t respond any further.
Ye Zichen stared at his no-longer-active chat box, looking totally lost. “Why is she angry all of a sudden?”
Xiao Yumei couldn’t help but scold him, “How could you visiting her and her visiting you possibly be the same thing? You said it yourself: you’re both in Upheaval City. Would it kill you to find a spare moment and visit her? Would you drop dead of exhaustion?”
“I don’t see the difference. We’d get to see each other either way, right?”
“I have nothing to discuss with a blockhead straight guy like you!” Xiao Yumei then swung her arms and left. Ye Zichen stared, eyes wide as headlights, and scratched his head.
He still didn’t get it. What difference did it make?
……
……
……
In the Demon Realm’s Baina City…
This was a city near the border, and since it was rather remote, it had far fewer inhabitants than other cities.
After losing his throne, Kui Lin had hidden himself here. He hadn’t wanted this, but the former… or rather, current Demon Emperor and his people had tried to kill him and every last one of his allies. The few places from which he could leave the Demon Realm were thoroughly guarded. He had no choice but to live in degradation.
Besides, there were few inhabitants of Baina City. Taking control of a city this small was relatively easy.
The former city lord’s manor had already become Kui Lin’s residence. As for the former city lord, he’d been loyal to Kui Lin’s predecessor and unwilling to go with the flow, so Kui Lin’s subordinates eliminated him.
Kui Lin now sat upon the city lord’s seat, frowning. His plight was truly dire.
He had no idea when the current Demon Emperor and his hunting dogs would sniff him out, and after using Blood Explosion, his cultivation had yet to recover to its former peak.
His only hope was outside help. He’d have to use a mixture of threats and bribery to bring those clans and factions not yet fully loyal to the former/current Demon Emperor under his banner.
“Your Excellency.” A shadow flashed through the alley up ahead and landed before the hall, then knelt. Kui Lin saw this new arrival, then took a few steps forward and helped him up.
Kui Lin’s bloodshot eyes shone with hope as he patted the new arrival on the shoulder. “Did you get a response?”
“I’m afraid we won’t be able to rely on the kings of the South and West.” The man’s tone was somber.
When Kui Lin heard this, he clenched and swung his fist, collapsing a nearby stone pillar.
“What? They don’t want to work with us? They know I’m no longer in power, and they want to make it out on their own?” Kui Lin was beside himself with fury. It’s worth noting that Tai Tan and Jiao Hai had sought him out and begged for his support for the sake of their futures. They’d promised to be loyal to the death and never betray him.
The situation in the Demon Realm had only just changed, but they’d already cut contact with him!
“If I’d known this would happen, I never would have made contact with them in the first place!”
“Your Excellency, the kings of the two kingdoms didn’t refuse us!” said the messenger.
A moment ago, Kui Lin was beside himself with fury. His expression darkened, and he frowned at the man who’d just spoken. “Then why do you say we can’t rely on them? Is it that they have some precondition for their support, and that you think their requests are excessive? Xiao Ning, this is no time to worry about minor gains and losses. Even if they have conditions, we just have to grin and bear it.”
“I’m naturally aware, sir!” Xiao Ning gnashed his teeth. “But sir, you should look at this…”
As he spoke, he took out his phone. When he turned on the screen, it revealed the video the official corporate account had just published.
Kui Lin accepted the phone in confusion, and when he saw the title, his eyes filled with surprise. Then, he clicked the video to see its contents…..
Wham!
He flung the phone, shattering it, his face twitching nonstop.
“What is this!?”
“This is the video the official news feed sent out this morning. You saw the contents for yourself. At the moment, Jiao Hai of the South and Tai Tan of the West are both in a tight spot, and waves of unrest have risen in their respective kingdoms. The people are urging them to abdicate. If I contact them, they not only won’t be able to reinforce us; they might need us to reinforce them!”
“Ye Zichen, Ye Zichen!”
The only one who could possibly have taken this video was Ye Zichen; he’d been there in the snowy mountains too. Kui Lin tilted back his head and roared into the sky, his eyes bloodshot, as if he wanted to rip Ye Zichen apart and eat him alive.
“The clans we reached out to earlier….”
“None of them have made any further contact with us!”
Boom!
Kui Lin was so angry, the entire city lord’s manor exploded in a fit of rage. Kui Lin’s confidantes were out patrolling, and they all watched and trembled. Then, they heard Kui Lin’s furious roar, “Ye Zichen, sooner or later I’ll kill you and everyone you love!”
