Realms In The Firmament

“There are people from the Demonic Soul Hall who take charge of another three bases. These three bases keep building altars for demons and made the entire Qing-Yun Realm a complete battle massacre. They kill people, and capture souls for the altars!”

“For now, nine great altars are almost completed after centuries of efforts. Nine altars on the basic stage. Do not underestimate the basic-stage altars. Each of the nine altars needed the heads, the soul, blood, and flesh from over thirty million cultivators beyond Dream Origin Stage. It is horrible.”

“To fully complete an altar, it needs a lot more souls and blood of higher level cultivators.”

“Only one altar is completed. The second one is nearly done—seventy percent completed…”

Ye Xiao’s mouth twisted pretty hard when he heard it.

It took the souls and blood of more than thirty million cultivators who were beyond Dream Origin Stage to build the basic form of an altar! And it took the souls and blood of thirty million more cultivators who were at even higher levels to finish building the completed altar!

That meant it took the lives of at least sixty million cultivators beyond Dream Origin Stage to fully build an altar like that.

There were actually nine altars like that!

The nine altars were all in the basic form.

The first altar had been fully finished, and the second had been seventy percent completed.

That meant at least three hundred and twenty million cultivators had been killed for those altars.

How many cultivators were there in total in the Qing-Yun Realm?

Not to mention those were all cultivators, even the death of three hundred and twenty million ordinary people could be unbelievably horrible!

However, to finish the nine altars, two hundred million more cultivators would lose their lives!

Two hundred million lives!

Heaven was benevolent and it treated everything equally. The demons were much worse. Human beings were like ants to them. They did massacre in the Qing-Yun Realm and created swarming of unfortunates.

[That is…]

Ye Xiao was giving a rough thought about it, yet the rough thought had already terrified him.

“The organization started everything when Zong Yuankai founded the West Hall… They have been working on it to the present day.” Yue Changtian said, “It has been ongoing for twenty thousand years.”

[Twenty thousand years?]

Ye Xiao knew that Yue Changtian didn’t exaggerate the number, but he still felt the cramp on both legs. Twenty thousand years was truly an incredibly long period.

“However, I couldn’t think it through. Zong Yuankai had stepped ahead to the height of the heavens back to his days. He became famous and invincible. He is known as the first most powerful cultivator in the history of the Qing-Yun Realm. That is such a great and honorable title. The West Hall that he founded was the world’s most powerful sect that nobody could even match it. Wasn’t it such a great achievement in his life? Why would he cultivate the demonic martial arts, learn those vile and dark technique? Even if the demonic power did enhance him a lot, he was still the most powerful man in the world. Nothing changed so much. And he ruined his reputation. I truly don’t understand why he would do it!” Yue Changtian sighed.

Ye Xiao didn’t know much about these things, but he did have an answer to Yue Changtian’s question. Zong Yuankai was probably a puppet, no better than a high-class puppet, and that was all!

Zong Yuankai’s achievement came from the Divine Yin Yang Fruit. However, the fruits he took were something from the demon’s realm. It certainly boosted him up to the top of the world, raised him up to the top of the Dao Origin Stage, but also brought the pure source of the demonic power. When he got the incredibly strong power, he started to become more and more of a demon himself.

It cost a lot to deal with the demons. Zong Yuankai had been improved greatly by the demonic Divine Yin Yang Fruits. His mindset was too weak for such strong power, so he was easy to become a demon. That wasn’t such a big surprise really!

However, Ye Xiao couldn’t tell Yue Changtian the answer. It was pointless to let Yue Changtian know… Besides, the truth would only fill in Yue Changtian’s heart with more regret and helplessness. Was the Qing-Yun Realm going to survive the calamity of threats from a higher realm?

It wouldn’t be so optimistic!

“Those things about Zong Yuankai were a long time ago, so I don’t think we should stick on it. We should focus on the present time. According to the information I have obtained, within the twenty thousand years, especially in the first period—Zong Yuankai and his West Hall only worked on building the foundation in the Qing-Yun Realm. There weren’t much of actual moves to be seen… During the years, in the organization, there were some people, who came from nowhere, who weren’t even famous in the Qing-Yun Realm, who turned out to be so mysterious. These people were unbelievably powerful. People like us would be astounded by their incredible strength! Listen, if you fight against the Honor Demon one day, you must be cautious about those people I just said. They are all tough figures. Some of them are as powerful as Wu Fa, even stronger than him!”

Ye Xiao nodded. He figured that those people must be those from the House of Chaotic Storms.

They were horribly tough. The Red in the Sky was a vivid example of it. Ye Xiao would worry not overestimating these people. How could he underestimate them!

However, one thing didn’t seem to be right. If things were exactly like Yue Changtian said, something had gone wrong.

If everything began twenty thousand years before, Master Bai shouldn’t have started his great plan yet…

In fact, Master Bai’s people didn’t start all this. Well, that led to a new question for Ye Xiao… Who on earth could command the people of the House of Chaotic Storms, which was under Master Bai’s lead?

Perhaps… There was something Ye Xiao didn’t know and couldn’t think of yet.

“The last three bases are used to train some special and secret assassins… What these assassins do is to do assassination like what happened on Xiao Mufei earlier. They raised and trained the assassins who looked like somebody close to the target and kill the target quietly and secretly. These assassins didn’t have to be powerful. However, they had a shockingly high success rate!”

“Normally, the cost of raising and training that type of assassins always outweighs the gains, no matter how big the chance is to succeed. After all, no matter how much they pay on the assassins, the assassins were all one-time killers. However, the Demon Soul Dao is keen on it.”

“It took me a lot to get to know why they would do it this way. They want the cultivators who were to be killed, experience heavens to hell in the assassination. They needed the cultivators to have desperate emotion when they die. The bursting energy of the negative emotion seems to be quite important for the organization. Perhaps, the demonic energy is simply the pile-up of countless negative things. As long as they could get the energy from the negative emotion, they would do anything! Those monsters do have completely different minds with us!”

Yue Changtian’s eyes were full of worry and cautions. “However, the secret organization is huge and strong… It is horrible. Oh, there is another story. The completed altar, the first one of the nine, has the demon fire that will keep burning for ten thousand years. To maintain the demon flame, they need many high-level cultivators to sit around without moving a bit. It seemed like they were guarding the altar, but they were pouring their spiritual energy into the altar. They wouldn’t stop until their lives reached the end. If the story is true, the demon fire must be some sort of a very special thing…”

“We were grieved and angry in the beginning. We kept thinking about killing ourselves if we got a good chance. However, as we stayed inside it for long enough, we have learned more than ever before. If we were going to die, we should at least do something to help you destroy this powerful but evil organization. We should at least do something for the bright sky in this realm before we die.”

Yue Changtian smiled with self-mockery and said, “If we let the world down before we die, if we bring shame to this sky, this land, we must have wasted our entire lives. Haha.”

Ye Xiao poured tea into the teacups, held up one teacup and drank up the tea in it.

The world created everything to raise people, yet people always turned against the world. Yue Changtian and the twelve men who were dead, with the men who died for the greatness like Tian Laojiu, had returned the favor to the world with their own lives!

“The organization has millions of people who are good at fights…” Yue Changtian looked at Ye Xiao in concerns, and said, “The Qing-Yun Realm may go to its end this time. They have trained so many powerful cultivators within the twenty thousand years that none of the great sects in the Qing-Yun Realm could defeat…”

“In fact, the two most powerful sects turn out to be on their side. They are actually their backup, or maybe the front force…”

Yue Changtian made a long sigh. “I hate it! I hate it so much!”

“One of the nine altars are completed. When I knew it, I was shocked and confused too. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier and safer if they finished all the nine altars before starting the war? Wouldn’t they be even more powerful?”

“However, I got to know more afterward. The information I got concluded for me… They could spend as much time as they want to finish all the nine altars. However, when one altar is completed, the other eight have to be completed in a limited time!”

“So far as I am concerned, the nine altars must be connected to each other. They have this energy flow going round and round, cycling around them. It must be a part of some great array formation. That array formation must be the real grand goal of the organization.”

“Once the cycling is stopped, all they did before will become nothing. That is why they would show up to attack even knowing it was not a good time for them to do so…”

“What you have to do next is to destroy the altars and stop them from being completed.”

“We have been searching for the locations of the nine bases, but only got four of them… Listen up, the four locations are…”

Yue Changtian’s voice sounded deep and heavy. “It is fine if you are not going to fight any battle. However, if there is a battle, you must destroy them as soon as you can! Do not give your enemies any chance to rest… Do not show sympathy to your enemies.”

His eyes were full of fear and hate. He said, “Do remember one thing. They are not human beings, but demons!”

“All the members in the Demon Soul Dao are completely demonic creatures, tools that are used to destroy the Qing-Yun Realm!”

Word after word, Yue Changtian told Ye Xiao the locations of the four bases, and Ye Xiao marked them down in his heart.

After telling Ye Xiao the most important information, Yue Changtian just sat at the stone table quietly and slowly drank his tea while thinking. Once again, he recollected all the information he had in the head thoroughly.

He had to make sure that he told Ye Xiao everything, every detail.

He had to do it!

Only after that, he could rest in peace!

The rising steam from the teapot smelled so good.

Yue Changtian was deep in thoughts.

Ye Xiao was waiting, quietly waiting.

“In the end, I want to say one more thing. All the honorable ones among the cultivators who were captured from the Heaven’s Terrace will be dead soon. In the future, when you meet some of us, do not hesitate. Just kill them as fast as you can. It will be a great thing to do to send them to death!”

Yue Changtian added.

“I understand!” Ye Xiao finally spoke, and said, “But there is one thing I don’t understand…”

Yue Changtian said, “What is it?”

“Wu Huitian and Yun Xiran, they were pretty good cultivators. However, I don’t think they were that good.” Ye Xiao said, “If they were that powerful, the Saint Sunlight Sect and the Saint Starlight Sect would be much higher ranked.”

Yue Changtian blandly said, “It takes only a blink to decide whether one should be a human or a demon. Once a man chose the path to demons, his cultivation will be improved forty percent. Dealing with the demons may make you a demon, but also gives you power.”

Ye Xiao stayed quiet for a while, and then said, “I see.”

Yue Changtian stopped talking.

He was lost in thoughts again.

After a while, Yue Changtian finally spoke again in a low voice and said, “I guess this is it. I have told you all.”

He paused and said, “I have told you whatever I know. What else do you want to know? Any questions for me?”

Ye Xiao stared at him and said, “I don’t have any more questions. I want to know what else you haven’t told me yet! Do you have anything more than you didn’t say yet?”

Yue Changtian closed his eyes. His face looked in pain and grief again. He said, “No, I don’t think I do. I think you know what you should do next!”

“Do not let the one hundred and twenty thousand disciples of the Cold Moon Palace be disgraced because of me!”

He stood up and said, “Ye Xiao, Ye Chongxiao, please remember. You never saw me today.”

Ye Xiao spoke in a low voice, “The demonic soul mark isn’t impossible to break.”

Yue Changtian laughed. He didn’t let Ye Xiao continue and just blandly said, “Twelve brothers of mine just sacrificed themselves here to build this Life Cage. Before this, a lot of people gave up their lives for today. People die to earn this conversation for me…”

“They must be lonely down there. They must be waiting. I should go with them.” Yue Changtian slowly turned around and coldly said, “Ye Xiao, what happened in the recent days are the biggest disgrace for all of us. However, what we have been chasing after, by doing what we had to is the greatest pride.”

“You know what I mean!”

“Don’t stop me. Don’t make me hate you.”

Ye Xiao was stunned. He stared at the lonely shadow of Yue Changtian’s back, watching him off. All that Ye Xiao could feel was the bitterness and pain in his heart.

…