Body nearing its limit, Su Yiyun’s expression was bleak as he stood atop the altar facing the crowd of sacrifices.
He didn’t raise his voice or fight for their approval. Even if he wanted to, he was already too weak to shout.
He simply smiled calmly as he spoke, but his words nevertheless reached everyone’s ears.
“Who do you think you are?” roared someone amongst the crowd. “What, you think we can’t go on without you? It’s just a spatial collapse. All we have to do is find another space.”
“Do you see it now?” said Su Yiyun. “This…. Is the ignorance of the masses, the folly of the common man.”
As he said this, his gaze fell on Baal. Then he looked back at the crowd with a calm smile and continued, “At this point, there’s no need for me to feign modesty. In the demon race, there’s likely no one else capable of creating a comparable sub-dimension.”
With that, he stopped responding to the crowd. Instead, he laughed and said, “After I’m dead, this dimension will collapse, and you all will be exposed to the Three Realms. How, may I ask, do you plan to survive when that happens? Surely you don’t think they’ll be merciful and give you a patch of wilderness where you can grow and prosper? Or is that you think Gu Li will return your former territory? Wake up! None of that’s going to happen. There is only one possible result: certain death.”
“We’re fully capable of attacking the Three Realms once more,” said another voice from amongst the masses. They were trying to start a riot. Su Yiyun had actually noticed them earlier; someone had clearly placed them there intentionally.
Subconsciously, he glanced at Baal…..
This sort of petty method turned out to be quite effective. However, to Su Yiyun, who’d participated in countless debate competitions in college, this was no threat at all.
He coughed lightly, then straightened his lapels.
His performance was about to begin!
“Good, it’s good to be hot-blooded. Then, I’d just like to ask you all, do you understand the current Three Realms? After we were defeated… Yes, defeated. Understand, we didn’t just retreat. We were defeated! After that, the leyline reappeared, and the strength of the entire Three Realms made a qualitative leap. As for you all, you’ve been living in ignorance, muddling along as best you can, struggling to eke out a humble existence, right?
“The enemy’s strength has increased many times over, yet ours has stagnated. I’d like to ask you this: if, in your current state, you attack the Three Realms, what chance do you have of success? Or, let me put it this way, if you attacked, could ten of you kill one of them? Ten for one! You might not even manage that. Furthermore, we have no advantage in terms of numbers! In that case… your sacrifice is utterly meaningless!”
The crowd was silent.
“You all know full well that, in the face of absolute strength, numbers are meaningless. For instance, a Sky Immortal facing a hundred thousand spiritual body cultivators could turn them all into ash simply by waving his hand. If we want to win in our current state, we need someone with absolute strength, and the person I’ve chosen for this role is the current leader of the demon race, Black Dragon.”
With that, Su Yiyun signaled to Black Dragon, who immediately understood his intentions. His entire half-step supreme cultivation flooded outward.
Bam.
Everyone near him, even Li Min’e and Baal, knelt involuntarily to the ground, expressions wracked with pain.
It had to be said that they were the mightiest warriors of the demon race, and their strength was on par with the peak elites of the Three Realms. That meant that, should the current leaders face Black Dragon, they would react the same way.
“That’s enough for now,” said Su Yiyun. “Black Dragon, please restrain your aura.”
Su Yiyun waved calmly at Black Dragon, then looked at Baal and the ignorant masses below.
“Did you feel it?” he asked. “This is absolute power.”
“You keep saying that demon warriors don’t fear death. Then why not die for a worthy cause? You know full well that if you charge in like some suicide squad, you’ll simply throw your lives away. Will dying like that benefit the demon race in any way? No, it won’t. Your deaths will be completely and utterly meaningless. In that case, why not choose a more meaningful way to die?”
Someone within the crowd called out, “how can die in a meaningful way?”
“Sacrifice.”
Su Yiyun pointed at the sacrificial altar and said, “I obtained this altar by chance. After each sacrifice, it has the power to transform the sacrifice’s blood essence into spiritual power and pour it into another’s body. Your sacrifice will raise Black Dragon’s strength. If his strength grows high enough, then we’ll have a much higher chance of success when we attack the Three Realms.”
“You say that I’m hard-hearted and merciless, but have I ever sacrificed children? You say I’m heartless, but I’m doing this for the sake of the demon race’s future, aren’t I? Everyone, please think it over. Do you want to give your children a safe, stable future? Or do you want them to become prisoners of the Three Realms, and live a life devoid of all hope?”
“Among you are many elders. You wish to live out your final years in peace, but that’s no longer possible. In that case, why not sacrifice your bodies for the sake of our future?”
“Among you are many adults of middling talent. You want to accompany your children as they grow up, but your strength is insufficient to protect them. In that case, why not go out in a blaze of glory and sacrifice yourself to give them hope of a brighter future?”
“The demon race is absolutely not throwing you away. To the contrary, you are our heroes! You’re heroes sacrificing yourselves so that the demon race can live on and have a brighter future!”
As he practically roared out this last sentence, and the crowd of demons below was in an uproar.
To tell the truth, his words set their hearts ablaze.
It wasn’t just them. After everything he’d just said, even Baal, who had always detested Su Yiyun, saw him in a completely new light.
“We…. we’re willing to be sacrificed!”
“Yes, we’re willing!”
One after another, the citizens of the Demon Realm called out. Passions ignited, they no longer felt any trace of fear.
“We would like to thank each and every one of you for your sacrifice. Your sacrifice has given us hope for the future. We have you to thank for all of our future glory and prosperity!”
Su Yiyun had deeply moved them and now the crowd was in complete uproar. The guards no longer had to suppress them; they surged forth and leaped one after the other into the sacrificial altar without any trace of fear.
Seeing this, Su Yiyun finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Grandmaster Su, I, Baal, was wrong to blame you.” Baal had been so moved that he immediately took initiative to come over and apologize.
“It’s alright. You didn’t know,” said Su Yiyun, nodding coolly to him.
Then he turned to Black Dragon and said, “We’ve received news from the Three Realms. There are some things I need to discuss with you.”
