Chapter 964: The Hypocrisy of Righteousness

Li Yu walked through the devastation with a heavy heart and exhausted limbs. He knelt beside a young Zhan Clan disciple whose leg had been severely burned by corrosive Qi. Li Yu gently channeled his own life Qi and healing techniques into the wound to stabilize the volatile lingering elements. He pulled a healing pill from his robes and handed it to the pale youth while he offered a reassuring nod as the disciple swallowed the medicine and slumped back against a shattered stone pillar.

Healers from every faction rushed frantically across the ruined landscape. They prioritized the critically injured and handed out emergency pills. Cultivators silently turned over charred bodies in the ash as they searched for missing friends. It was a grim and sobering task that stripped away the glory of their victory.

They had survived the night but the cost was undeniably steep. This was on top of the thousands that had already died before they had even arrived. The overall death toll of this night was simply staggering and brutal.

A heavy footstep crunched on the ash behind Li Yu.

He turned around and saw Zhan Tian approaching through the smoke. The Worldkeeper had put away his glaive and his apocalyptic aura had settled into a calm but oppressive pressure. Zhan Tian looked down at his grandson and his sharp eyes quickly scanned Li Yu from head to toe as he was searching for any hidden injuries or lingering curses.

"I am fine." Li Yu said softly as he stood up to meet his grandfather's gaze. "The outer armor you gave me absorbed the worst of what actually got to me. The Aegis inner armor handled the rest. I just exhausted myself but was able to escape any major injuries."

Zhan Tian let out a slow and heavy sigh of relief once he had made his confirmation. While he was sad that members of his clan had died today, the fact that his own grandson was okay was a big boost in his mood. He reached out and clamped a massive hand onto Li Yu's shoulder. The grip was firm and carried a tremendous amount of unspoken familial warmth.

"You did well to survive until I arrived." Zhan Tian stated with a proud nod. "You all held your ground and protected your kin. That is all I can ever ask of you or anyone else from the clan. Rest for a moment. I need to speak with the other leaders to understand exactly what happened here tonight."

Li Yu nodded and followed slightly behind his grandfather as they walked toward the center of the massive crater. The leaders of the surviving factions had convened near the collapsed archway of the ruined headquarters.

Elder Kuang of the Vajra Peaks stood with his wooden staff planted firmly in the ground. His saffron robes were stained with dark blood and he was tired as well. The elders of the Piercing Heavens Pavilion and the Titan Body Sect stood nearby with grim expressions. Zhan Chen was also present and he respectfully stepped aside to let Zhan Tian enter the circle.

The atmosphere was incredibly tense as the leaders tried to make sense of the orchestrated chaos.

"We need to figure out who possessed the sheer audacity and the manpower to brazenly attack here." Elder Kuang said solemnly. "Wiping out the Blood Forge Valley in a single night requires immense resources and forces. There was clearly more here as well, most likely the force we wiped out just now and another one. Setting a secondary trap for the responding forces requires even more."

"The trap was deeply flawed." An elder from the Piercing Heavens Pavilion noted while wiping soot from his face. "They clearly did not expect the size of the force that was attracted by the distress signal. They certainly did not expect us to arrive."

Zhan Tian crossed his arms over his broad chest and surveyed the broken landscape. "I do not believe this was not a trap designed for us specifically. It was a wide net. They let the distress beacon active from the returning elder to bring in anyone who happened to be nearby. They wanted to inflict maximum casualties on the surrounding area for some reason."

"They clearly didn't have the forces strong enough to want to willing bait in forces as strong as ours." Zhan Chen agreed as he looked at the wreckage of the dark warships. "If they knew, they never would have sprung this trap. It would have just been suicide. They simply cast a line and caught a leviathan by mistake."

The elders murmured in agreement as it made sense. The attackers had been numerous, well armed and powerful but they lacked the true high level experts required to threaten a combined coalition of supreme factions. It was a fatal miscalculation on the enemy's part. However, that miscalculation had still cost the allied forces roughly ten percent of the junior generation that were at that tournament.

Before the leaders could discuss their next steps, the void above the canyon rippled violently once again. Every elder in the circle instantly flared their auras and prepared for another wave of combat. Weapons were drawn and defensive arrays were hastily reactivated. However, the ships that descended from the spatial rifts were not the dark imposing warships of the ambushers.

A fleet of pristine white and gold ships broke through the clouds. They radiated a majestic and blinding light that banished the lingering shadows of the valley. Massive banners fluttered from their hulls depicting a golden sun rising over a silver mountain.

It was the Holy Virtue Alliance.

The allied leaders lowered their weapons but their expressions remained guarded. The Holy Virtue Alliance was a top tier faction in the Myriad Realms. They prided themselves on their righteousness and their strict adherence to law. They viewed themselves as the ultimate saviors of everyone and often acted with extreme arrogance in the name of righteousness. They operated under a beautiful facade of purity but many veteran cultivators knew they were utterly ruthless behind closed doors.

A group of elegantly dressed elders descended from the golden ships. They floated down into the crater and their pristine white robes remained completely untouched by the swirling ash. They looked at the carnage and the blood soaked defenders with open disdain and they did not offer aid to the wounded or express any sympathy for the dead.

An older man with a long silver beard stepped forward from the Holy Virtue ranks. He looked directly at Elder Kuang and Zhan Tian with a furious scowl.

"You fools have ruined everything!" The silver bearded elder shouted as he approached the circle of leaders. "Do you have any idea what you have done by interfering here tonight?"

The sheer audacity of the accusation stunned the allied leaders for a fraction of a second. Zhan Tian narrowed his eyes and a dangerous heat began to radiate from his armored body.

"We answered a distress signal and slaughtered a syndicate that destroyed the Blood Forge Valley." Elder Kuang replied with a remarkably even tone. "We defended our disciples from an ambush. Explain exactly how we ruined anything."

"We have been tracking this syndicate for half a year!" The Holy Virtue elder snapped back. "We knew they were going to attack the Blood Forge Valley. We intentionally allowed the attack to happen. We were using this entire situation as bait to catch the true mastermind behind their operations. Your clumsy interference and your overwhelming show of force has caused the mastermind to flee!"

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A heavy and suffocating silence fell over the crater.

Zhan Tian and the other allied leaders stared at the pristine delegation in disbelief. The Holy Virtue Alliance had known about the impending massacre. They possessed the intelligence and the power to stop the destruction of the Blood Forge Valley entirely. Instead, they chose to sit back and watch thousands of people die simply to serve their own strategic operation.

The Worldkeeper's aura flared with a terrifying and murderous heat. The ground beneath his boots instantly cracked and spiderwebbed outward.

"You allowed an entire sect to be butchered?" Zhan Tian growled as his voice echoed like rolling thunder. "You allowed my people to walk into a death trap just so you could play your arrogant games. And you have the nerve to stand here and blame us?"

The Holy Virtue elders did not seem to care at all about the loss of life here at all. They stood tall and maintained their holier than thou posture. They viewed the cultivators of the other sects as acceptable sacrifices for their grand vision of cosmic justice.

The two sides began to argue fiercely. The elders of the Piercing Heavens Pavilion cursed the Alliance for their cowardice. The Titan Body Sect leaders threatened to crush the pristine delegates into the ash. The tension escalated rapidly and threatened to spark a second battle right there in the ruined valley.

The shouting finally stopped when a female figure appeared from the lead golden ship.

She descended gracefully onto the ash. She possessed a cold and calculating beauty that commanded immediate attention. She wore a veil of spun light that obscured the lower half of her face and her white robes were lined with intricate silver formations. This was Wen Xin. She was one of the highest ranking commanders of the Holy Virtue Alliance and she possessed a cultivation base that rivaled the sect leaders or clan heads

It became quickly clear that she and Zhan Tian clearly knew each other from past conflicts. The Worldkeeper's eyes narrowed even further the moment her boots touched the ground.

"Call your dogs off, Wen Xin." Zhan Tian warned with deadly certainty. "Before I decide to snap their necks."

"There is no need for violence, Zhan Tian." Wen Xin replied smoothly while stepping past her furious subordinates. She remained completely unfazed by his overwhelming pressure. She wasn’t as strong as him but she had faith in the power her backing brought her. "My elder spoke out of turn and lacked tact but his core point remains correct. Your unexpected presence here disrupted a meticulously planned operation. We were incredibly close to severing the head of this syndicate once and for all."

"Your stupid arrogant plans got my grandson involved today." Zhan Tian stated as he took a step forward. He invaded her personal space and forced her to look up at him. "You placed my family directly in the line of fire. You had better be incredibly careful in the future. A massive amount of innocent people have died today because your Alliance refused to take action soon enough."

Wen Xin did not flinch but she did step back slightly. She looked directly into Zhan Tian's burning eyes with cold logic.

"It is always for the greater good." Wen Xin stated firmly. "The ends justify the means. If we had successfully caught the mastermind tonight, we would have saved millions of lives in the future. The sacrifice of one minor valley is a tragic but necessary cost to ensure the safety of the entire Myriad Realms. You should understand the heavy toll of survival better than anyone."

"If it involves my family," Zhan Tian interrupted with a voice so cold it froze the air around them. "The ends do not matter. Your stupid calculations do not matter. I will burn your precious greater good to the ground if it costs me a single drop of my grandson's blood."

The conviction in his voice made the surrounding Holy Virtue elders shift uncomfortably. They were not accustomed to dealing with someone who openly rejected them and actually had the power to back it up. No one here was as strong as he was and his reputation spoke for himself. While they had the backing of their entire force and Zhan Tian wouldn’t fall out with them easily, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t take action against them and apologize for it later, if he even apologized.

A younger and notably arrogant elder from the Holy Virtue side scoffed loudly and stepped forward. He wore a golden sash that denoted his high birth within the Alliance.

"You are being completely unreasonable, Tian." The younger elder chimed in with a dismissive wave of his hand and giving no respect. "People are dying all the time in the realms. It is the natural order of things. If you had simply stayed out of the way and helped us figure out who is behind these forces, we could stop it better. Whining about a few dead juniors is entirely beneath your station—"

The arrogant man's words were cut off by a sickening sound. Li Yu did not even see his grandfather move. Zhan Tian remained standing perfectly still with his arms crossed over his chest. Yet the arrogant elder suddenly shrieked in agony.

A flawless invisible spatial shear had bypassed the elder's premium defensive artifacts completely. His right arm was cleanly severed from his shoulder in an instant. The limb hit the ash with a heavy thud and bright red blood sprayed violently across the pristine white robes of the surrounding Holy Virtue delegation.

The Alliance elders gasped in shock and drew their weapons. The allied forces immediately raised their own weapons in response. The crater was poised on the edge of total annihilation.

"Fools and weaklings have no place talking here." Zhan Tian said coldly as he ignored the screaming man entirely. He did not even bother looking at the severed arm bleeding out onto the ash.

He turned his burning gaze back to Wen Xin. She stood perfectly still while her eyes remained locked on Zhan Tian. She raised a hand to stop her elders from attacking as she knew a fight here would result in the total eradication of her delegation.

"I am reminding you to be careful, Wen Xin." Zhan Tian warned with a low and dangerous tone. "Do not test my patience again or else I will cease to respect your forces entirely. I do not care if some of the auxiliary forces that came with me to that zone originally came from your Alliance. I have already given you more than enough face by not wiping out all these self righteous fools talking to me here today."

Wen Xin's eyes narrowed slightly above her veil of light but she remained silent. She understood the implicit threat. Zhan Tian was entirely capable of slaughtering them all and dealing with the political fallout later. She signaled her bleeding subordinate to be taken away.

"We will take our leave." Wen Xin said softly. "The syndicate has fled anyway. There is nothing left here but ash and useless emotions. We will find another way to catch them."

The Holy Virtue Alliance forces slowly retreated to their pristine white ships and they carried their maimed elder away as they ascended away without another word. They left the blood soaked defenders alone in the ruined valley once again.

Li Yu watched the ships disappear into the void and he felt a deep sense of disgust for that Alliance. They paraded around as saviors while orchestrating the deaths of thousands from the shadows. It was exactly the kind of hypocrisy he despised about the upper echelons of the cultivation world.

The surviving factions carefully wrapped the bodies in clean cloth and prepared to return to their own clans for proper funeral rituals. Li Yu walked back to the Zhan Clan encampment after having a few more works with his grandfather. Zhan Ling and Zhan Chen stood silently near a row of bodies laid out on the scorched earth as the elders moved among the dead and performed final rites for a death on the battlefield.

Out of the original eighty members that the Zhan Clan had brought to the tournament to learn and grow, eleven were dead. Eleven individuals that had potential to be something great were no more but that is how things are within the cultivation world. Life and death walked alongside each other at every turn.

For each person that survived, the experience was invaluable. The split second decision making, the chaotic fighting and the resources gained were all massive booms to those that still drew breath. They would grow from this and become even stronger and bigger monsters than they otherwise would have been. A battle such as this was worth hundreds if not thousands of days of training on your own.

Tempering through battle was one of the most basic forms of training but also the most effective form of it. Heroes and legends are made on the battlefield and the fighting only gets worse the further you travel.

Knowing all of this didn’t take the sting away though. It was a tragic loss that struck into the heart of the clan as losing family was never easy. The survivors stood together in the morning light and they shared a heavy silence as they loaded their fallen brothers and sisters onto the warships. They were returning home but the weight of the valley would stay with them forever and from it a renewed drive for strength.