Volume 14, Chapter 924 – The Brutal Massacre (Part 1)

“What is that? A spatial rift?”

“Who opened the spatial rift? Could it be someone from the lower realm ascending?”

“Don’t tell me those heretical cultivators are returning? Hurry and notify the Immortal Alliance!”

“They’re still talking about the Immortal Alliance? Didn’t you just see even the Alliance Leader couldn’t handle them?”

“Exactly. Besides, the Immortal Alliance is just a bunch of hypocritical parasites pretending to be righteous. And you still expect anything from them?”

“If we can’t count on them, are we supposed to count on you? Is saving face more important than saving our lives?”

People in every street and alley pointed at the ever-expanding rift in the sky, whispering amongst themselves.

At the same time, Qi Huang and Cheng Hongling hadn’t left completely. They were standing on the other side of the rift, watching the scene unfold from a distance through a Shadow-Retaining Mirror.

Qi Huang’s own mirror couldn’t observe from so far away, but the one confiscated from Lu Hong was absurdly powerful; it could observe across several star systems, even farther than Divine Sense.

Meanwhile, inside the Immortal Alliance’s assembly hall, the upper echelons were still debating how to salvage their image. For the sake of secrecy, they had even set up Divine Sense barriers and sound-blocking talismans, which made them completely unaware of what was happening outside.

“Alliance Leader, what now? Not only did the Grand Elder fail to achieve anything, he even said the wrong thing and ended up becoming ammunition for the enemy to tarnish the Immortal Alliance’s reputation.”

“Sigh… that Grand Elder… Even if he lost, fine, he could’ve died for his cause. That kind of spirit is still admirable. But why did he have to utter such nonsense in the end? Now look—he died for nothing, and even dragged us down with him.”

“Alliance Leader, we must come up with something to save face. If we don’t, how will the Immortal Alliance have any standing in the Immortal Realm going forward?”

The senior members below all sighed and grumbled in discontent.

SMASH!

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Yin Wan slammed the armrest of his chair to pieces and stood up, pointing angrily at the crowd of elders below. “Shut your damn mouths! The Grand Elder made great contributions to the Immortal Alliance. Even if he said the wrong thing, who the hell are you lot to judge him?”

Everyone trembled under the rebuke, but some still mumbled in dissatisfaction.

“Of all times to worry about reputation, is this it? Shouldn’t we be figuring out how to deal with the Heavenly Court? You old coots care more about face than survival. Did you live all these years just to be this stupid?”

Yin Wan continued berating them.

Finally, the crowd of elders lowered their heads in shame, not daring to speak again.

“Our Immortal Alliance’s reputation may be damaged, but our strength remains. As long as we have time, we can rebuild our image. That’s not the issue. The question is, will the Heavenly Court give us that time? Don’t forget, they only gave me fifteen years. Who knows what could happen by then.”

Yin Wan forced down his anger and reminded them.

“They’ve clearly escaped to the cultivation realm. What do we do now?”

“There’s nothing we can do. If we want to go, we’d need to rely on Assimilation Qi. But the Immortal Alliance no longer has contact with Tianjizi to get approval from above. Who dares use it without permission?”

“Forget about using Assimilation Qi. The remnant bodies of the Assimilation Heavenly Dao we collected were all stolen by that witch. She’s completely blocked off our path.”

“Even if we had the Assimilation Qi, it’s pointless. We don’t have the power to wipe out those heretical cultivators.”

The more they discussed, the more dejected the upper ranks became.

Yin Wan didn’t respond, because he knew all too well that the Immortal Alliance had already been forced into a dead end. There was no other path but to sit and await their fate. The only hope now was that the Heavenly Emperor would be merciful and not take out his wrath on them.

At that moment, an elder received a mental transmission, saying something had happened outside.

“Something happened outside?”

Caught off guard, Yin Wan quickly led the elders out of the assembly hall.

When they stepped outside, they finally saw that an enormous spatial rift had appeared in the sky at some point. Dark and unfathomable, it resembled a monstrous maw hungry for flesh… or perhaps the heavens had opened a single, watching eye.

“What’s going on? Who opened the rift?”

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Yin Wan looked around, muttering to himself.

“Must be someone from the lower realm ascending.”

“Ascension? They think they can just ascend and sit on our heads?”

“Hmph! Anyone daring to tear a hole open above our Immortal Alliance’s headquarters, I’ll make them a beast crawling at my feet.”

The upper echelons of the Immortal Alliance forgot their own predicament and started posturing arrogantly again.

“Let’s go up and take a look first.”

Yin Wan didn’t say anything more, but his expression was grave as he led the flight toward the rift, with the others following behind.

But before they even got close, dozens of silhouettes poured out from the rift.

The Immortal Alliance members squinted, and froze. These figures were all pure soul forms, each bearing a large character engraved on their brows. Some read “Heavenly Slave”, others “Heavenly Servant”, and some “Heavenly Soldier”. The leader, a burly man clad in armor, bore the characters “Heavenly General”.

“You are…”

Yin Wan’s breathing quickened. He already had a guess.

But the soul beings ignored him. One of them, a short and thin figure with “Heavenly Soldier” on his forehead, turned to the armored man and respectfully said, “General Qin, it seems the Universal Star Chart wasn’t wrong. The Immortal Realm truly has almost no more Yin Qi.”

“Hmph. Seems this Immortal Alliance wasn’t as useless as I thought. They actually cleansed most of the evil spirits more than ten years ahead of schedule.”

General Qin sneered, masking contempt behind faint praise.

Yin Wan, hearing that, could now confirm their identities beyond doubt. He immediately bowed respectfully. “You must be officials from the Heavenly Court. I am Yin Wan, Alliance Leader of the Immortal Alliance in the Immortal Realm.”

“What? People from the Heavenly Court? You mean Celestials?!”

The news didn’t just shock the Immortal Alliance’s upper ranks, the citizens in the streets were equally stunned. Never before had Celestials descended to the lower realm. Their shock was akin to that of mortals witnessing immortals descend from the heavens.

“Very good! You’ve done well. Looks like the Heavenly Court made the right choice in appointing you as the Chief Exorcist of the Immortal Realm.”

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General Qin gave a perfunctory compliment.

“I dare not accept such praise. It’s all thanks to the Heavenly Court’s support.”

Yin Wan replied humbly.

“Not bad. For the merits you’ve earned for the Heavenly Court, and your apparent self-awareness, I’ll break precedent just this once. During the Great Purge, I’ll allow you to keep your Life Soul. Whether you survive after that is up to fate.”

General Qin’s eyes glinted with malice.

“What? Great Purge? What Great Purge?”

Yin Wan blurted out, a sinking feeling growing in his gut. That term… he’d heard it not long ago from that “ghost-haired woman”.

“The Great Purge? That sounds familiar…”

“Didn’t that ghost-haired woman mention it this morning? She said the great calamity of the Immortal Realm was the ‘Great Purge’ conducted by the Celestials.”

“Not just her. Fengming Immortal Kingdom’s Tianjizi predicted this years ago.”

“Could it be… it’s all true?”

Whispers rippled through the crowd. Unease spread like wildfire across every face.

“Liu Jin, explain to him. You know what can be said and what can’t.”

General Qin, impatient, waved at the “Heavenly Soldier” beside him.

“Yes, sir!”

The scrawny man stepped forward and spoke loudly, “The so-called Great Purge is the Heavenly Court’s plan to cleanse the Immortal Realm completely. All cultivators and immortals must die. The Five Elements Spiritual Qi here will also be taken away.”

“What?!”

That declaration detonated like thunder. Panic swept across the world. Every cultivator and immortal turned ashen.

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“Why?! We’ve served the Heavenly Court loyally all these years… cleansing countless evil spirits. Even if we didn’t perform perfectly, surely we don’t deserve death!”

Yin Wan cried out emotionally.

“General, we’re not part of the Immortal Alliance. Their failure is their responsibility. Why punish the entire realm?”

“Indeed, we’ve always revered the Heavenly Court and never dared offend Heaven’s authority. Please judge with clarity, General.”

“General, my ancestors once served the Heavenly Court. Isn’t there room for negotiation?”

Below, countless civilians begged for their lives, groveling and weeping.

“General, are you worried that rebels remain in the Immortal Realm? I, Yin Wan, swear on my life; there are none. If you can find even one, I’ll willingly submit to the Heavenly Court’s judgment.”

Yin Wan pleaded earnestly.

“No. You are cultivators. That itself is your original sin. Now that the evil spirits are gone, you have no more use. There is no reason for you to exist.”

General Qin replied without emotion.

“So it was all true, what that ghost-haired woman said. And what was Lu Hong even good for? As the Tianjizi, he was completely useless.”

“Yeah. Not even as good as that Fang Yuan from Fengming Immortal Kingdom. Looks like everyone wrongly blamed him.”

“With trash like this, the Immortal Alliance dared to erect a statue in his honor. I even used to worship at it… What a disgrace to my ancestors.”

“If I survive this, I swear I’ll spit on that statue to vent my rage.”

People began cursing furiously.

“You’re just going to slaughter the donkey after it’s done grinding your grain?!”

Yin Wan’s face twisted with rage. “Hmph! So what if you’re Heavenly Soldiers and Generals? You think we’ll line up and die for you? Dream on! If you want to kill us, then prepare to pay the price!”