Chapter 126

A few days later, an imperial order with the imperial seal of Emperor Zong was sent to all the immortal sects, saying that it was an annual offering, but it listed all the top worldly treasures of each sect, as well as cultivators who were skillful in the art of the core.

The Daming Zong Clan has been in decline since the reign of Emperor Ning Hua, and when Emperor Kong Hua succeeded him, the young emperor, despite his immense talent, could not recover the situation on his own. Most of the "local officials" who were supposed to pay tribute to Emperor Zong every year would have made excuses at first, but now most of them have simply reneged on their debts because they saw that the Zong Clan was helpless in demanding payments. Who could have imagined that Zong Zi Xiao would appear halfway?

Most of the items that Zong Zi Xiao wants are the ancestral heirlooms, the sects’ treasures, and the top alchemists must also be patriarch-level cultivators, either elders or sect leaders, who have special skills that will never be spread to the outside world. This imperial order was meant to gut out their families’ property.

It was only when they received the imperial order that it dawned on every sect. They thought Zong Zi Xiao was a complete madman driven by hatred, but it turned out that he had planned every step before he took action, and his meticulous thoughtfulness was frightening.

The story has to begin from the Jiaolong Assembly where Zong Zi Xiao won the championship. It was not the root cause of everything, but it was the trigger for the centuries-old conflicts in the immortal cultivation world to erupt. The following decade was the darkest decade in the immortal cultivation world today, with no peace in sight.

At the Jiaolong Assembly, Xu Zhi Nan, who was still the senior brother of the Chunyang Sect's leader, led an investigation into the core theft from the Huaying Sect, which exposed the unknown side of Yan Shu, the newly appointed head of the Wuyun Sect, causing Yan Shu to be driven to desperate action. Several cultivators died under his Chasing Mountain Whip, including Huaying Sect's beloved daughter, Hua Yu Xin.

Because of the old hatred and new revenge, Huaying Sect wanted Yan Shu and the Wuyun Sect to pay their blood debt*. Yan Shu fled and went missing, and Huaying Sect went to war in Wuling several times. With Chunyang Sect assisting them in the dark, Wuyun Sect’s power has been devoured.

The Chunyang Sect and Wuyun Sect were like family five hundred years ago. After the separation between sword cultivation and martial arts cultivation, the north and south were divided, and they have been secretly competing due to ruling the same Chu land. But both of their powers are of similar level, and they didn't dare to make a big fuss. At that moment, Chunyang Sect finally waited for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and wanted to take advantage to annex Wuyun Sect.

The Wuliang Sect could not let the Chunyang Sect rise and threaten their own position, so they secretly helped the Wuyun Sect.

Emperor Ning Hua intended to sit on the mountain to watch the tiger fight*, and let each sect weaken each other. Not only did he not step in to calm the strife, instead he was ambiguous and unclear, making the immortal cultivation world fall completely into the endless strife.

The turn of events again came from Yan Shu.

A tragedy of snatching the First Wife in the Wuji Palace let the scandal of the royal family be known to the whole world. Yan Shu’s real identity was revealed, and the reality of Emperor Ning Hua snatching his beloved caused the son of the Lu family of Yanzhou to be brutally murdered. He changed his name, his appearance, and let Emperor Ning Hua raise his son, all just to take revenge.

In the end, Zong Zi Xiao, the most probable successor to be the Human Emperor, fled Daming. His life and death were unknown, and Lu Zhao Feng returned to Wuyun Sect.

Lu Zhao Feng's position as Sect Leader was not a good one. There are many people in the sect who refused to accept him, but without the Sect Leader and the Chasing Mountain Whip, the treasure of the sect, the sect has suffered a lot of humiliation and persecution, so they were forced to accept this demonic cultivator.

Lu Zhao Feng had excellent roots and had eaten several top quality human cores, so his cultivation was so deep and few people could beat him. He quickly forced the Huaying Sect back into Minnan and led the Wuyun Sect in a desperate comeback, quickly recapturing lost territory.

It just happened to coincide with the death of Chunyang Sect’s leader, and Xu Zhi Nan took up his post in a hurry. Zong Ming He took his eldest son, Zong Zi Heng, to Kunlun to forge a sword, but because of Empress Li Xiang Tong’s unbearable pain of losing her son, she died from depression and they had no choice but to halt. They followed Li Xiang Tong's final wishes to build a cenotaph for her and the Second Prince back at Mount Shu. Afterwards, something big happened that would shock the whole immortal cultivation world and also was recorded in the history books----On the Eight Trigrams Platform in Yunding, Zong Zi Heng killed his father and usurped the throne.

Zong Zi Heng was unfilial, completely lost his humanity and his position on the throne is unworthy. He had conflict with the Wuliang Sect. It was only with the support of Xu Zhi Nan, Qi Meng Sheng and Li Bu Yu's mediation that the situation was resolved, and Zong Zi Heng’s birth mother, Consort Shen, died for unknown reasons. It was not enough to say how many behind-the-scenes stories are involved.

While the great sects were left to fend for themselves, the Wuyun Sect abandoned its centuries-old beliefs and honor as an orthodox immortal sect, and slaughtered cultivators without restraint, supplemented their cultivation by eating human cores, recruited students and grew rapidly. They even began to devour Chunyang Sect’s territory and wiped out Huaying Sect.

The immortal cultivation world came back to their senses and realized that Wuyun Sect had turned into a behemoth under their neglect, so the immortal cultivation world, which had been fighting openly and secretly for a century, was forced to unite against Wuyun Sect, which had been reduced to a demonic sect.

And it was at the peak of Wuyun Sect that Zong Zi Xiao appeared with the ancient divine treasure, the Xuanyuan Heavenly Secret Talisman.

The first thing he did was massacre Wuyun Sect and kill his biological father, Lu Zhao Feng.

Any survivors of the Wuyun Sect will never forget that bloody nightmare for the rest of their lives. When Zong Zi Xiao rode a skeletal warhorse with a deathly aura and appeared in front of the mountain gates alone, facing the thousands of cultivators of Wuyun Sect. He spoke wildly and received countless ridicules, but when he took out the treacherous soldier talisman, which was made of green glittering jade and written with red blood, and instantly summoned a mountain full of Yin soldiers, shaped like a black cloud pressing down on the city, no one could laugh anymore.

The Yin soldiers did not eat, drink, suffer or get tired, and only obeyed the orders of the Heavenly Secret Talisman, turning Wuyun Sect into purgatory on earth.

At that time, people thought that he hated Lu Zhao Feng for giving him a humiliating birth and for using him as a pawn for revenge, and hated Lu Zhao Feng for killing his third sister who had married into Wuyun Sect.

Now it seems that Zong Zi Xiao has another reason for doing so, which is to break up the alliance of the immortal cultivation world. The immortal cultivation world was unfamiliar to Zong Zi Xiao and bore no hatred for him, but all of them had lost fellow disciples and territories because of Wuyun Sect. So while Wuyun Sect could make them join in opposition to the same adversary, yet Zong Zi Xiao could not.

Indeed, when the Wuyun Sect fell, Zong Zi Xiao did not take a single thing and watched with cold eyes as the immortal families pounced like wolves on the fat carcasses of the Wuyun Sect and devoured their flesh. A vast fortune has been amassed by five hundred years of famous families and they bared their fangs at their not-so-long-ago allies just for one more bite.

The unequal distribution caused the alliance to crumble and even create a new feud between them before Zong Zi Xiao was able to break them down one by one, and the entire immortal cultivation world, after ten years of turmoil and strife, was exhausted, at odds with each other and was no longer able to resist.

They thought they were lucky that Zong Zi Xiao had come back to seek revenge. They had no grudge against him. As long as they tolerate the humiliation and submit to him, he will not kill the innocent indiscriminately.

Now this imperial order, which seems to be in name only, is actually digging up people's ancestral graves. They then realized that the immortal cultivation world just came out of a wolf's den and entered the tiger's den again. Even what was eaten from the Wuyun Sect in the first place will have to be spat out in a more aggressive manner.

The Supreme Demon, who had actually conquered Jiuzhou, had to raid the world through the imperial order of Emperor Zong was because he wanted to do something using the demand of annual offerings as the reason, giving face to the sects that wanted to survive by going bankrupt, so they can kneel less shamefully. The forces who wanted to resist could not unite against them to fight against the enemy.

While the secretary was preparing the imperial order, Zong Zi Heng was still half-lying on his bed, and Zong Zi Xiao was sitting by the bedside, playing with the jade seal while picking out the treasures of the various sects like a dish in a restaurant.

The secretary was breaking out into a cold sweat on the sidelines.

"I've heard that the Wuliang Sect has hidden a few extremely fine immortal pills, but I don't know what they're called. Does big brother know?" Zong Zi Xiao looked at Zong Zi Heng with a smile, in a rather good mood.

Zong Zi Heng said lightly, "I don't know."

"If you don't know, how should I ask for it? How about this, let the Wuliang Sect pay a tribute of 100 million taels of gold."

The secretary’s writing hand trembled.

100 million taels of gold, isn't that crazy?

"If the Wuliang Sect can't pay, they'll have to compensate with decent treasures. If they dare to fool me with some True Essence Jade Training Pills, I'll make sure that kid Li Bu Yu will be taught a lesson." He still felt upset when he remembered how Li Bu Yu loved to pester Zong Zi Heng when he was a child.

"About Giant Spirit Villa, that village master is probably too old to get out of bed, send the little one here."

"Yes."

"The Cold Jade Snow Elixir of the Cangyu Sect is of little use to me, but the ice crystal at the bottom of Fengming Lake is good stuff. It's perfect for fueling the fire of Shen Nong Ding. Prepare a thousand pounds first."

"... Yes."

Zong Zi Heng couldn’t tolerate it anymore and said, "Are you forcing the immortal cultivation world to crusade against you?"

"The imperial order was given by the Daming Zong Clan, why should I be crusaded against? Besides, they owe so many years of annual offerings. Shouldn't the interest be raised?" Zong Zi Xiao chuckled.

"Persisting in evil brings self-destruction."

"Tsk tsk, this statement, is big brother talking about yourself?" Zong Zi Xiao waved his hand and let the secretary leave. Once he was gone, he scooped Zong Zi Heng into his arms and kissed him flirtatiously, "Are you scared?"

Zong Zi Heng pursed his lips and didn't say anything.

"Don't be scared, those fools can't get their way. Back then they almost fought again to share the spoils of Wuyun Sect, now they are like a sheet of loose sand*." Zong Zi Xiao held his big brother’s hand and played with his fingers one by one. When he was a child, he had found his big brother's hands to be large and strong. It was this pair of good-looking and powerful hands that hugged him, taught him sword techniques, cooked him good food and put him to sleep. But now that he had them in his own palm, they became even smaller. He stroked them carefully, even liking the hard calluses on his palm. Then he inserted his long, slender fingers between the other party's and interlocked their ten fingers.

Zong Zi Heng couldn't break free, so he let him hold it.

"I said before, if you serve me well, you can continue to be the Emperor Zong as you wish. As for the rest, there is no need for you to worry." He looked at Zong Zi Heng's soft lips, his heart moved, and he lowered his head, wanting to taste it.

Zong Zi Heng, however, jerked his face away.

"Turn around."

After a moment of silence, Zong Zi Xiao took on a threatening tone, "Don't make me say it twice."

Zong Zi Heng took a deep breath and slowly turned his stiff neck.

"Don't make this face of enduring humiliation. You caused the death of my mother, and I still left you alive so that you could be the Human Emperor above all others just by spreading your legs. You should really be grateful." Every time Zong Zi Xiao uttered his evil words, he gained twisted pleasure from looking at Zong Zi Heng's pale face full of humiliation.

What could he do? He had been framed, betrayed, robbed of everything he held dear, and in the end he couldn't bring himself to kill the man he hated the most, so he had to squeeze him in his palm and torture him carefully. How much pain he was in, he wanted his beloved big brother to bear it all!

He took Zong Zi Heng's lips. This kiss was not too fast or too slow. It’s just a leisurely taste. That's the kind of confidence that only people with power have.

When he had kissed enough, he released the person in his arms and gave Zong Zi Heng's waist a flirtatious squeeze: "Recover well. I can't endure for a few days." He could not stop thinking about the taste of ecstasy of that night at the Zhengji Hall, and now his mouth would go dry even at the sight of Zong Zi Heng.

Zong Zi Heng clenched his hands into fists so that he could barely hide his trembling.

Zong Zi Xiao said to himself again, "Of course, your fears are not unreasonable. Sooner or later, they will still unite against me. Although I may not lose, killing so many people is strangely tiring, so I want to break through to the ninth Chongtian of the Zongxuan Sword, and by that time, no one will be able to threaten me anymore." He gently rubbed his big brother's cheek, his tone gentle, but the words he spat out were chilling, "Even if I kill them all, it will be much easier."

Zong Zi Heng said somberly, "You are already unbeatable, what more do you really want?"

Zong Zi Xiao looked at his big brother. The thing he wanted most was now meekly held in his arms. What else did he want? He wanted absolute, unquestionable power. In these 10 years of drifting, he had tasted the hardships of the world, and he knew better than anyone that power determined everything. He had got it, and he had to protect it, because jackals and tigers were waiting in the shadows.

He does not believe in love. He does not believe in righteousness. He only believes in himself.

 

 ----

pay their blood debt*[血债血偿]--- means that they must pay a corresponding price to compensate. Since he killed Hua Yu Xin, he must die as well.

to sit on the mountain to watch the tiger fight*[坐山观虎斗]---- watch in safety whilst others fight then reap the rewards

a sheet of loose sand*[一盘散沙]--- unable to cooperate

 

Edited on 25 Apr. 21 (Emzie)

 

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