As the words left Bai Xiaochun’s mouth, Li Tiansheng’s father sat in a private chamber in the highest level of the enormous pagoda. He was a majestic heavenly marquis, and yet, his expression was profoundly grim.

Despite being a half-deva, his mood was so foul that it had destabilized his cultivation base to a certain degree.

There could be no misunderstanding Bai Xiaochun’s words. Furthermore, Li Tiansheng’s father had been paying close attention to Bai Xiaochun’s arrival, and during the entire time, his expression had been slowly transforming, until it was now profoundly grim.

Even his breathing was in chaos. He was a heavenly marquis, and was therefore even more profoundly insightful than Li Tiansheng and the other cultivators in the clan. He could tell... that this Bai Hao would not have brought his troops here without the express permission of the Grand Heavenmaster.

It wasn’t a matter of strength in arms, but of position and standing. There were 108 heavenly marquises in the Arch-Emperor Dynasty, and for the inspections commissioner to visit one with such brazen audacity spoke volumes about the Grand Heavenmaster’s stance.

“Is it a threat...?” Heavenly Marquis Li thought. At the moment, he was feeling profoundly uneasy, which in turn had him more vigilant than ever. As he thought about everything he knew about the Grand Heavenmaster, beads of sweat began to pop out on his forehead, and terror rose up in his heart.

“The Grand Heavenmaster... wants to kill me!” As soon as Heavenly Marquis Li came to this conclusion, a vicious snarl appeared on his face, and he began to pant. He knew that if the Grand Heavenmaster really did want him dead, then he had no other choice than to try to escape before the calamity fell!

And yet, he couldn’t quite reconcile himself to doing that. He had practiced cultivation for many, many years to reach the position of heavenly marquis, and led one of the most powerful clans in the Wildlands. He refused to just sit around passively waiting to be killed. He had to fight! He had to figure out a way to resolve this deadly situation!

“I need to buy time!!” That was his decision. His only chance at resolving the issue was to buy time. If he could make a big enough scene in the meantime, then the other heavenly marquises and the heavenly dukes would have a chance to react. Maybe even the four heavenly kings.

After all, he was a heavenly marquis, and the other heavenly marquises would not be happy about one of their kind being casually disposed of. In fact, they would likely come to his aid. In some senses, they would actually be saving themselves!

If he could get all of the important people in the imperial court to rise to action, then even the Grand Heavenmaster would have to take the matter seriously.

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“And what about the Arch-Emperor... no. No, I can’t go to the Arch-Emperor!” All of a sudden, a tremor ran through Heavenly Marquis Li, and he suddenly had an inkling of where the true issue lay.

“If the Grand Heavenmaster wanted to kill me, he could just issue a decree ordering my execution. Why would he send Bai Hao to do the deed...? He’s using the pretext of killing me to see who else in the court would speak up for me. He’s trying to lure the snakes out of their holes!!” Such thoughts filled Heavenly Marquis Li’s mind, along with a bitter coldness. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed that this was the case, so he quickly decided that he had to do two things. First, buy time so that people would come to his aid. Second, figure out a way to escape!

“Buy time. Cause a big scene....” Eyes glittering, he sent a message to Li Tiansheng.

“Kill the corpse troopers! And do anything necessary to cut down this Bai Hao!!”

Even as everyone in the Li Clan was trembling, Li Tiansheng got the orders from his father. His immediate reaction was that things didn’t seem to have escalated to that level, and yet, now was not the time to ponder the situation. Glaring at Bai Xiaochun, he yelled, “Bai Hao’s orders are forged! This is a conspiracy! Cultivators of the Li Clan, kill him immediately!”

The other cultivators under his command hesitated for a moment, but knew that if the Li Clan fell, they would likely be killed along with it. Snarling, they shouted and charged into battle.

Within the briefest of moments, over 10,000 cultivators were howling and flying toward Bai Xiaochun.

In response, Bai Xiaochun glared and waved his hand, sending his 1,000 black-armored corpse troopers flying to meet the charge.

Booms immediately rang out in all directions. As for Bai Xiaochun, he didn’t actually join the fighting, but remained further back, guarded by a contingent of corpse troopers. His poor little life was the most important thing to consider, and he wouldn’t casually put it in harm’s way.

This was his first time seeing the corpse troopers in action, and it was a shocking sight. They didn’t seem to feel pain at all, and clearly relied on body refinement techniques. They fought fiercely wherever they went, slaughtering foes left and right.

Neither magical techniques nor the effects of magical items seemed to have any effect on them. They charged into the fighting without any hesitation. Within the space of a few breaths of time, agonized shrieks began to rise into the air. Clearly, the cultivators of the Li Clan were no match for the corpse troopers. In fact, many of them were literally ripped to pieces in the blink of an eye!

The reek of blood filled the air, and before long, the clan’s spell formation rumbled to life, sending a blood-colored screen of light shining up, accompanied by what sounded like the beating of a heart.

As the heartbeat echoed out, black, toxic gas began to erupt from the Li Clan cultivators. Furthermore, many of them pulled out actual human hearts, which they then crushed while simultaneously shouting out bizarre words.

As the hearts were crushed, the shadowy images of women appeared, mournful and venomous as they floated forward to fight the corpse troopers.

Those shadowy women were highly toxic! As for the hearts which had just been crushed, they were none other than the manifestation of Heart Of A Woman!

This was the poison technique cultivated by the Li Clan, which had been derived from the ancient saying,

the most vile poison cannot compare to the heart of a woman

!

However, based on what Bai Xiaochun could tell, what was vile here was not the hearts of the women. It was the poison technique the vicious Li Clan cultivated after extracting the hearts and using them for cultivation purposes.

The poisonous effect was shocking, and was the first thing that caused any problems for the corpse troopers. Their bodies even began to show signs of decay, and they were forced to slow down. Even their black suits of armor were affected. Bai Xiaochun immediately pulled them away from the fighting, and yet, that also exposed him.

Killing intent seethed in Li Tiansheng’s eyes as he shouted, “Kill Bai Hao!!”

Even as his words echoed in the air, he shot at top speed toward Bai Xiaochun, flanked by ten Li Clan elders, all of whom had Nascent Soul cultivation bases. Toxic gas swirled around all of them, which took the form of shadowy women, all of whom had holes in their chests where their hearts should have been. Almost as soon as they appeared, a sensation of imminent crisis filled Bai Xiaochun’s heart, and his face fell.

Just when he was about to back up, a mysterious light shone in the eyes of the nearby corpse troopers who had been affected by the toxic gas. Simultaneously, they all opened their mouths and breathed in deeply.

That caused a dramatic wind to spring up, which immediately sucked the toxic gas in the area into their bodies! If that were all there were to it, it might not be a big deal, but the shocking thing was that after inhaling the toxic gas, their cultivation bases skyrocketed!!

Clearly, that toxic gas was actually beneficial to them, and could temporarily increase their cultivation! The rise in cultivation base power immediately negated their previous injuries, leaving them completely whole!

Bai Xiaochun was quite pleased by this, and could see how incredible this army of corpse troopers was. Clearly, there were still more secrets about them that he had yet to discover.

And that was most definitely the truth. The black-armored corpse troopers could absorb harmful magical techniques, and use them to catalyze their own cultivation bases. Essentially, it turned them into an army... that could get stronger the longer they fought!

Bursting with excitement, Bai Xiaochun pointed at Li Tiansheng and the people next to him.

“Kill them all!”

Bursting with murderous auras, the corpse troopers immediately charged in Li Tiansheng’s direction.

“Not good!” Li Tiansheng thought, his face falling as he prepared to fall back. However, he wasn’t fast enough, and before he could even move, both he and the ten clan elders were set upon by the corpse troopers. Blood immediately began to spray out of their mouths, and they were quickly left with severe injuries.

As for Bai Xiaochun, he was laughing heartily.

“This is what happens when me and you fight, Li Tiansheng! When I make a move, even god in the heavens hides his face!” Bai Xiaochun immediately marveled at how good he was with words.

However, in the same moment he finished speaking, the bloodied and injured Li Tiansheng looked back at him and viciously shouted, “Organ Sacrifice!!”