Chapter 614: To Beat Yu Yu Qianzi Beyond All Recognition

All magical treasures, all spells, vanished into thin air.

True Monarch Zhenjun Gui Fu and the others stared fixedly at the ants below, then after a moment, turned and left without any reluctance.

The ancestor from ten thousand years ago was their shared faith; toward his power, his wisdom, his arts, they held a bone-deep reverence far beyond that of others, and would never dare to test it with their own lives.

Amid the howling gale, the many True Monarchs fell silent, killing intent spilling out in all directions.

"It's him!"

"The Divine Crow — it was the Divine Crow who did it."

After a moment, True Monarch Zhenjun Gui Fu, who hailed from the Guishan Tie Family and was well-versed in all manner of secret arts of the Northern Plains, said coldly: "The Divine Crow poured General General Heishi's last trace of dragon qi into this altar!"

"Only thus did the ancestor's ritual respond ahead of time!"

"How dare he?!"

"Ah?!"

He raged uncontrollably, wishing he could find True Monarch Zhenjun Shen Ya's corpse, grind the bones and scatter the ashes, to vent the hatred in his heart.

This hatred even surpassed that toward Tushan Master Dinghai Zhenjun, an outsider.

"This should have been his prearranged plan, no? Why would he do such a thing."

"What good does it do him?"

Someone asked with a frown.

Nascent Soul cultivators had lived for many years; in everything they always liked to make two preparations, considering defeat before victory, and loved to lay out contingencies — this was nothing strange.

But why this kind of contingency?

The crowd exchanged glances, all unable to comprehend.

"I just took a look,"

After a long while, True Monarch Zhenjun He Huan spoke, saying in a low voice: "Among the Blood Cloud Eighteen Riders, there are two people, apparently named Hei Hei Louxi and Hei Hei Loucheng, his own grandsons and granddaughter. Their mother, Hei Chenghong, was a daughter born of a concubine of the Divine Crow. The two of them are the most gifted of General Heishi's generation — or perhaps several generations… only they are not of the main line."

"So that's how it is."

The surrounding True Monarchs showed sudden understanding.

In True Monarch Zhenjun Shen Ya's eyes, only the continuation of his own clan mattered most. First naturally came the main line — that would be best; if not feasible, collateral bloodlines would also do.

And the facts seemed to be just as he had anticipated.

Although with the help of the Guishan Tie Family, General Heishi's main line would be preserved, ascending to Nascent Soul… everyone knew there was no possibility at all — it was merely verbal comfort.

There wasn't even enough time to cultivate their own clans' people; struggles and killings never ceased, all manner of plots and schemes emerged endlessly — how could there be any remaining resources to cultivate General Heishi's people?

At this moment, the two most gifted collateral disciples of General Heishi became the hope of the clan in True Monarch Zhenjun Shen Ya's eyes.

These two might hate him, wishing they could dismember him and grind his bones to powder, but True Monarch Zhenjun Shen Ya did not care — as long as these two people themselves existed, that was enough; he asked for nothing more.

"Can't see the bigger picture! Won't consider the greater good!"

"You deserve such an end!"

True Monarch Zhenjun Gui Fu cursed angrily, not even bothering with respect for the dead; deep disgust and hatred showed plainly on his face, wishing he could resurrect True Monarch Zhenjun Shen Ya and beat him to death with his own hands.

"Sigh, all for the continuation of the clan…"

The surrounding True Monarchs sighed, feeling a shared sympathy.

Tian Hua Master Dinghai Zhenjun of Liu Dao Sect and the others had flickering gazes.

True Monarch Zhenjun He Huan of the Zhenjun He Huan Sect and Jin Jin Yuzhen of Bingxuedian exchanged a glance, both feeling it deeply, thinking of the recent internal reform struggles within the Zhengmo Alliance.

Apart from the Guishan Tie Family, everyone had carefully considered the possibility of reform.

Only the interests involved were too many, the people implicated too many — it even required explicitly demanding that a Nascent Soul True Monarch himself cut his own flesh to launch reform.

Moreover, even if a True Monarch were willing to sacrifice, the future outcome was not certain; it was very likely that a cultivated collateral-line Nascent Soul would immediately turn the tables and trigger an even more terrible internal strife.

Therefore, some people wanted to wait and see, waiting for others to blaze the trail first.

Representatives of this were the Yin clan of Liu Dao Sect and the like — they themselves had outstanding Jin Dan talents like the Six Paths Holy Son, so they had a need for reform, but it had not reached the point of life and death; a fluke mentality still lingered, and with insufficient external pressure, the internal drive for reform was also insufficient.

Not just anyone could easily give up the interests right before their eyes, even a Nascent Soul True Monarch.

Others wanted reform urgently.

Their main line had produced no outstanding talents; the clan's future was bleak. Yet this was not an era in which one could relax and rest easy — without a Nascent Soul True Monarch presiding, it was a declaration of the clan's demise; they desperately wanted change.

Even more wonderfully, the collateral lines with uncommon talent were still their own sons and grandsons; no matter how they fought, they could not deny the fact that they were their grandfather or grandmother.

With this, the drive for reform was more than sufficient.

Typical examples were people like True Monarch Zhenjun Shen Ya, True Monarch Zhenjun He Huan, Jin Jin Yuzhen — they desperately wanted reform. In any case, in this generation, at least their own sons and grandsons would benefit; as for the main line's interests being damaged, their anger and despair, they could only ignore it.

Only unfortunately, True Monarch Zhenjun Shen Ya's reform was forcibly cut short under the crushing weight of powerful external force.

General Heishi's strength was relatively weak; the Tie family keenly detected an opening, struck with thunderous force, and suppressed them in one fell swoop, greatly震慑 the internal dissent and鼓舞 the main-line cultivators of every clan.

"Brother Zhenjun Gui Fu,"

"If, when that old thief Tushan attacked the formation, a large number of collateral-line Jin Dan were still present, collateral-line Foundation Establishment cultivators were still present, the formation absolutely could not have been broken so quickly, and should have been enough to hold out until we came to reinforce."

"How do you explain this?"

Jin Jin Yuzhen gazed at True Monarch Zhenjun Gui Fu and said slowly.

"No explanation needed."

"The main-line bloodline, its position cannot be shaken."

True Monarch Zhenjun Gui Fu showed no guilt whatsoever, and said calmly: "Don't forget — most of you people are of Three Spiritual Roots. To have reached today, was it because your talent was outstanding, your brilliance卓越?"

"Search your hearts — compared with Loose Cultivator Nascent Souls who fought their way up from the very bottom, how do you measure up?"

"Setting everything else aside, compared with that old thief Tushan, how do you measure up?"

"Do you dare to say?"

Jin Jin Yuzhen and True Monarch Zhenjun He Huan fell silent.

This was an ironclad fact.

Without the identity of direct lineage, the few of them would already be a pile of white bones by now, impossible to enjoy a twelve-hundred-year lifespan, be called Master Dinghai Zhenjun, and constantly influence and manipulate the shifts in the Northern Plains' situation.

Hum!

At this moment, one after another, transmission talismans flew out from the storage dharma treasures of the six Nascent Soul cultivators, some earlier, some later.

Their divine senses barely brushed against them, and everyone's expression instantly turned ice-cold.

"Dari Sect! Great Sun Sword Sect!"

Bingyu Master Dinghai Zhenjun said with killing intent: "Thirty-seven locations, all across the Northern Plains. Taking advantage of the heavy losses among Jin Dan and the chaos caused by the inability of clan forces to extend outward, sacrificial rites to heaven have appeared almost simultaneously on our territories — thirty-seven of them. Some succeeded, some failed."

"If we cannot wipe them all out within a month, this Wang Ting battle will be quite lively."

The other Nascent Soul Master Dinghai Zhenjun had ashen faces. No longer hesitating, each flew off in a different direction.

So many sacrificial rites to heaven—

If they were not dealt with swiftly, wiped out, a great number of rebel bandits would surely receive the recognition of dragon qi, and the difficulty of extermination would rise sharply.

Compared with these rebels whose influence would soon reach far and wide, the old thief of Master Tushan was certainly detestable, but for the moment there was no time to spare for him.

……

The outside world was in an uproar, and he paid it no heed at all.

An invisible figure, having flown and fled continuously through the Spiritless Desert for over a year, glanced at the surrounding desolate, uninhabited sands.

"Time to go back for class."

"Yu Yu Qianzi…"

Jiang Ding took out a small notebook, crossed out the names of Divine Crow Master Dinghai Zhenjun and Shang Shang Sanwu, and his gaze lingered on the third: "I want to beat her up — the kind where she won't even look human. Even if she refuses to come out, using the excuse of closed-door cultivation that still hasn't ended after six years, I will still find a way to drag her out."

"A reason — if you look for one, you'll always find one."

(End of chapter)