Chapter 644: Blowing the Conch and Beating the Drums

When no one responded, Su Yi said, “Since no one objects, from this day forth, all cultivation factions within the Great Zhou, Wei, and Qin must follow this rule. What do you say, Sect Leader Meng?”

He looked at Meng Jinghai.

It was the Wrath of Heaven Sect that convened this meeting. If only out of consideration for etiquette, he ought to ask for Meng Jinghai’s input.

After a moment’s pondering, Meng Jinghai said, “Fellow Daoist Su’s proposal is exactly what I hope to see implemented. However, since we’re establishing a rule, we ought to take the time to hash out the details. That will make it more effective.”

Su Yi shook his head. “You can discuss the details on your own.”

He most certainly couldn’t be bothered.

When they saw this, the crowd inwardly sighed in relief.

Su Yi’s attitude was unquestionable proof that he had no interest in suppressing or controlling the three nations’ various factions.

Otherwise, with the terrifying strength and abilities he’d just displayed, he could have forced them to submit, one by one!

That was no exaggeration.

Those participating in this meeting were the top experts of their respective factions.

Even they had to admit they were no match for Su Yi, let alone everyone else!

Even Song Changhe of the Five-Lightning Spirit Sect had been forced to kneel after just one of Su Yi’s attacks!

“Fellow Daoist Su, what you’ve done today shall prove a blessing to all the world’s cultivators!”

Pavilion Master Fu Yunkong of the Great Wei’s Spirit Firmament Sword Pavilion sighed with admiration.

He meant it, too.

Su Yi wasn’t fighting for power or authority, and he had no intention of ruling over them. The rule he wanted to establish was intended to quell the flames of war and prevent in-fighting; he did this out of consideration for the world’s cultivators.

After such a display of valiance and magnanimity, of course Fu Yunkong was moved!

When the others saw this, they each nodded and expressed their approval.

However, only they knew whether or not they truly agreed with Fu Yunkong.

Just a blessing for the world’s cultivators, huh…?Su Yi muttered to himself. He promptly lost interest.

It was just as he’d predicted. The so-called Cloud Terrace Assembly was held purely out of consideration for the cultivation factions' benefit. They weren’t thinking about the mundane masses at all.

But Su Yi wasn’t exactly disappointed.

When gods and immortals fought, it was the mortals who suffered.

However, if the cultivation factions buried the hatchet, it would still benefit the masses enormously.

“Yuan Heng, Miss Lan Suo, we ought to be on our way.” Su Yi had no desire to stick around. He picked up his jug of wine, turned, and walked away.

However, when he passed Gu Shandu and Cao Ying, he suddenly paused and looked at them.

Both men stiffened, and their hearts clenched.

“Fellow Daoist, is there something we can do for you?” Gu Shandu inclined his head in greeting.

He was the leader of the Treasureflame Spirit Sect, a Spiritual Incarnation Realm existence.

However, when he faced Su Yi, he felt enormous pressure.

“Has anything strange occurred around Bloodthistle Yao Mountain lately?” asked Su Yi.

Two months ago, he sent Ying Que to Bloodthistle Yao Mountain to place the Allheaven Blood-Refining Formation, but he didn’t know how much Celestial Prison Demon Court “prey” it had caught.

Gu Shandu clearly hadn’t expected this, but he instantly relaxed. He thought for a moment and said, “Nothing strange, exactly, but I heard that someone placed an extremely terrifying killing formation at the bottom of the chasm, and that?it’s killed?quite a few Celestial Prison Demon Court cultivators as they tried to cross over.”

“I heard the same,” said Cao Ying.

Su Yi nodded.

It seemed the Allheaven Blood-Refining Formation had already gathered quite a bit of prey. When he next returned to the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House, he’d have to send Ying Que to gather up the spoils…

Su Yi then fixed his gaze on Cao Ying and asked with great interest, “Your aura suggests an aberrant bloodline. Which of the Twelve Aberrant Bloodlines do you belong to?

The descendants of the Aberrations were extremely mysterious. They called themselves the descendants of Xiantian spirits, and they were rare even in the Nine Provinces of the Wilds.

To the best of Su Yi’s knowledge, they were divided into twelve bloodlines. Each mastered a different innate divine ability, and their inheritance and the source of their power were incomparably ancient.

Cao Ying’s gaunt frame quivered slightly, and his expression shifted. “You’ve got good eyes, Fellow Daoist!” He looked utterly surprised; it seemed he wouldn’t have expected that Su Yi could see through his origins.

He took a deep breath, then said in a low voice, “But I’m not truly a descendant of the Twelve Aberrations. I’ve only inherited a portion of the Fire Aberration branch’s talent.”

“Then do you know anything about the Aberrations’ Divine Gate?” asked Su Yi.

The Aberrations’ Divine Gate?

Cao Ying looked confused, and he shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s my first time hearing the term.”

Su Yi didn’t ask any further questions.

In his past life, he’d once entered a place where experts of the aberrant lineages died in seated meditation. There, he saw eight aberrant glyphs carved on a beast bone. Unsurpassed power had gone into the markings. There was also the image of a celestial spatial doorway shaped like the wings of a vicious bird.

After pondering on it for a while, he concluded that the eight aberrant glyphs read, “The Primordial Pure Lands, the Aberrations’ Divine Gate.”

Furthermore, the celestial spatial gate shaped like the wings of a vicious bird was the so-called “Aberrations’ Divine Gate.”

𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

In his past life, Su Yi had perfused countless ancient tomes, and he’d even located a few descendants of the Aberrant Lineages in an attempt to find further leads on the Aberrations’ Divine Gate.

In the end, all he could confirm was that it was a doorway to a holy realm.

The Twelve Aberrant Lineages saw the Aberrations’ Divine Gate as the Xiantian Divine Aberration’s birthplace. It was their ancestral ground, and rumor had it that the ultimate secrets of the Aberrant Dao were hidden there.

This was why they called it the “primordial pure lands.”

Many suspected that the Aberrations’ Divine Gate didn’t exist within the Nine Provinces of the Wilds, but rather, in the depths of outer space!

“Fellow Daoist Su, do you perhaps have a deep connection to the Aberrations?” Cao Ying couldn’t help but ask.

“I wouldn’t call it a ‘deep connection.’ I just understand a little about the Twelve Aberrant Lineages, that’s all.”

Su Yi had no intention of conversing any further. He was already headed into the distance.

Yuan Heng and Lan Suo followed hot on his heels.

Meng Jinghai stepped up to convince them to stay longer, but when he saw that Su Yi had made up his mind, he quit while he was ahead for fear of provoking Su Yi’s displeasure.

“Your Excellency Su Yi, I was wrong!”

Su Yi had only just reached the edge of Pinewave Plateau when Qiu Tianchi, the leader of the ?Donghua Sword Sect who’d been acting as a greeter, suddenly knelt in shame and admitted his mistakes.”

“....” The crowd watched in silence.

Lan Suo was dumbstruck.

“You’re the leader of the Donghua Sword Sect. Your affairs have nothing to do with me, so why apologize to me?” Su Yi asked coolly.

“I shouldn’t have stripped Martial Uncle Fu Yunlang of his position as high elder, nor should I have banished him from the sect. I most certainly shouldn’t have stepped back when he was in danger and drawn a line between us!”

Regret was written all over Qiu Tianchi’s face, as if he were confessing to his sins.

Lan Suo couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

However, Su Yi only shook his head. “You don’t regret what you’ve done; you’re just afraid of the consequences.”

Qiu Tianchi tensed up and trembled from head to toe.

One sentence, and Su Yi had seen right through him!

Now that everyone knew how strong Su Yi was, Song Changhe wouldn’t dare seek revenge against Fu Yunlang. However, taking his fury out on Qiu Tianchi would be easy as could be.

Furthermore, Meng Jinghai and the Wrath of Heaven Sect wouldn’t necessarily protect him.

If he could obtain Su Yi’s forgiveness, that would serve as an alternative form of protection.

At the very least, Song Changhe wouldn’t dare act up!

Qiu Tianchi took a deep breath and said bitterly, “Your Excellency Su Yi, I was once an illustrious figure too. It’s only after hitting rock bottom that I understand on a visceral level just how difficult it is for trivial figures like me to survive in these turbulent, changing times.

“You perhaps think me a servile, fawning weakling, and you might find me unsightly, but there’s nothing for it. On the surface, I’m still the leader of the Donghua Sword Sect, but in truth, my status is inferior to even ordinary disciples of the Wrath of Heaven Sect.

“In the face of the Five-Lightning Spirit Sect’s forces, I had no choice but to draw a line between myself and Martial Uncle Fu?Yunlang. If I didn’t, everyone in the Donghua Sword Sect would have suffered!

“If there’d been any other choice, how could I possibly have sunk to harming my allies to benefit my enemies?” He spoke with tears in his eyes, looking humble and distressed.

Silence followed this speech.

No one would truly concern themselves with Qiu Tianchi’s predicament. What they really cared about was Su Yi’s attitude.

This was reality.

The feelings of the weak were unimportant. What mattered was what the strong?thought.

This was what they meant when they said winners were kings and losers were bandits.

Su Yi glanced at Qiu Tianchi and said coolly, “In this world, those afraid of death are too numerous to count, but don’t forget: the world has never lacked those who’d prefer to die with honor than live in disgrace. You made your choice. Now, you have to bear the consequences.”

Qiu Tianchi’s expression shifted. He grimaced but said nothing.

Had?Su Yi forgiven him?

Not really.

Because from beginning to end, Su Yi had never once paid him any heed!

Disregard was the cruelest of all!

When Lan Suo saw this, her heart swelled with emotion.

It was true. Some people?chose?to bow, bend at the knee, and live on in degradation, while others?were?fearless in the face of death, preferring to die rather than submit!

The pitiful often brought their sorrows upon themselves, and Qiu Tianchi was no exception.

But it was then that——

The sound of drums and horns emanated from afar.

The crowd instinctively looked over and saw a banner-bearing military procession headed right toward them, marching through the sky.

Two rows of cultivators walked in front, a mixture of men and women. All of them emanated completely undisguised yao qi, which stirred up the wind and clouds.

One of the leaders of these two processions was an elder with a curly beard. He was covered in silver scales, and he had a snow-white horn growing out of his forehead. He gripped an enormous conch, and he was playing a majestic melody.

The other was a tall, stalwart man. His coppery upper body was uncovered, revealing bulging muscles. It was as if he’d been forged out of bronze.

He was fully ten feet tall, and he carried an enormous drum in one hand. The other held a white bone drumstick, which he beat the drum with

The sound of the conch and drum intermingled, shaking and dispersing the cottony clouds and clearing a path through the heavens.

An ornate carriage was at the rear of this grand procession. It was over a hundred feet long, and it looked as if it had been carved out of divine gold. It glittered beneath the light of the sun.

The creature pulling it was a?golden vicious?beast the size of a small mountain.

When they saw this incomparably strange military procession with its soaring yao qi, the influential guests?atop?Pinewave Plateau couldn’t help but feel startled.

Who exactly were these people?

And where had they come from?

Su Yi was just about to leave, but now, he too turned around and looked over.

Blowing conches, beating drums, a grand procession of yao clearing a path as they traversed the heavens…

They were sure?making?a spectacle out of all this…