Within Filial Piety Town, a town that was a day’s journey from Central Continent City, a nobleman’s servant and an ordinary elder were arguing.

This elder had a jujube tree in front of his residence, while the nobleman’s residence was precisely down the same street. When the palanquin moved about, this jujube tree got in the way. That was why this nobleman wanted this tree cut down. However, this tree was personally planted by this elder’s son, and this son had sacrificed his life in Yunqin’s army. This tree possessed significant sentimental value for this elder, so he firmly opposed this.

More and more neighbors gathered around, all of them feeling like the nobleman wasn’t being reasonable. The amount of space this jujube tree occupied wasn’t that much, and it didn’t really block the palanquin from moving through. Cutting down this tree would only make the street seem a bit wider.

The nobleman was precisely in the palanquin behind that servant.

He was a slender, fair-skinned middle-aged man dressed in expensive clothes. At his waist hung a bamboo scabbard longsword. The sword’s handle was like green jade, fine bamboo leaf-like runes engraved on its surface.

As the commotion grew bigger and bigger, this slender and fair-skinned middle-aged man moved aside the curtains and ordered his servant to back down. Then, he smiled in apology to this elder.

The elder didn’t expect the nobleman to be so humble and friendly, not expecting him to be entirely different from those fierce servants. This made him a bit flustered.

The well dressed slender middle-aged man smiled when he saw this elder return the greeting in a flustered manner. With a smile, he reached out a hand to touch the jujube tree beside him. “This is a good jujube tree. Only, it seems a bit sick. I fear that there might have been too much rain before, so the insides have become a bit rotten.”

After saying this, his hand left this jujube tree. Then, he returned to his palanquin.

Before his hand touched this tree, it was still full of life. But after he turned around to leave, this tree began to shed its leaves.

Leaves dropped like rain. Fine noises sounded from inside the branches and trunks. Drops of liquid poured out from between the trunk like sparkling tears.

The leaves landed on the elder’s body.

When the elder saw the bark produce countless cracks and the liquid that came out, hearing the endless fine and concentrated noises, he knew what happened. His face became more and more red, his entire body starting to shake uncontrollably.

The neighbors also knew what happened. Many people cursed quietly. But when they saw that nobleman calmly return inside his palanquin, they could only feel angry, they couldn’t do anything about it.

It was because that person was a cultivator.

These ordinary people didn’t really understand what was going on in this world, but they knew that after this spring, the originally sparse number of cultivators already became so low they were nearly extinct. They also knew that only cultivators who have joined a certain side would be conferred a reward and become nobility. Moreover, most of these nobility began to leave Central Continent City after some churches released some news, heading to the empire’s eastern extremity.

While looking at this noble who looked like he didn’t do anything, the grieved and furious elder couldn’t take it any longer. He charged straight at the noble.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Cries of alarm sounded. A tragedy was on the verge of breaking out. Right at this time, a white, chubby hand reached out to hold the elder back.

“Please let me.”

The owner of this hand said to this elder.

The elder felt his strength vanish. He turned around to see the owner of the hand. Meanwhile, the noble who was currently walking towards the palanquin also sensed something, turning around even faster than him.

An outwardly ordinary, chubby youngster stood beside this elder. His stance seemed to be cowering a bit.

The noble was stunned. An expression of mockery immediately appeared on his pure white face. “I was wondering who it was. So it was you, Meng Bai.”

“Fang Zhongyan, you used to be a dog who sold out your friends. Since you are a dog, then you should tuck your tail between your legs and act like one. You dare to come out and bite others?” Since his body naturally feared heat, Meng Bai’s forehead was sweating a bit. He looked at this fair-skinned noble and said this.

This noble cultivator who chose to serve Zhang Ping sneered. “Meng Bai, what are you trying to start?”

“You were already filthy enough before, but today, your filth has crossed the line. That is why I want to kill you.” Meng Bai straightened his body and said this slowly.

Fang Zhongyan narrowed his eyes slightly. He gave Meng Bai a look before saying indifferently, “Feel free to give it a try.”

The instant these words sounded, he already drew his sword.

His sword light moved extremely quickly, the sword itself releasing countless bamboo leaves shaped sword lights, making everyone feel as if there was a bamboo forest taking form.

But before this bamboo forest landed on Meng Bai’s body, a white chubby hand already reached in front of him. This hand clenched into a fist, and then smashed into his adam’s apple.

Only when this hand landed on his throat, did this cultivator feel disbelief and extreme fear.

In the eyes of this cultivator who had great confidence in himself, this cowardly Meng Bai should have been scared off the instant he drew his sword. However, he never would have thought that Meng Bai not only attacked back, his attack was actually fast to this degree.

A bang noise sounded.

The bamboo forest completely vanished. The throat of Fang Zhongyan, this Bamboo Sect swordmaster who was extremely famous in Central Continent, was completely crushed. His body shot out backwards, landing inside of that large palanquin he was previously seated in. The seat inside was then crushed, falling to the ground. He died.

The surrounding neighbors were all stupefied.

In their eyes, Meng Bai was always a weak and cowardly fatty. They even looked down on this Meng Bai. Even now, when they saw this fatty whose clothes were a bit sticky from sweat, they couldn’t associate him with the one who killed Fang Zhongyan so quickly.

The elder was also stunned.

“The tree’s trunk has shattered, but the roots might not necessarily be ruined. Perhaps it can continue growing,” said Meng Bai quietly to him.

The elder recovered. He didn’t immediately give his thanks, but was instead worried for Meng Bai’s safety. He spoke with a trembling voice, “You should hurry and leave.”

“Meng Bai, you actually dare do this type of thing?!”

Fang Zhongyan’s servants also recovered from their shock. They cried out in alarm.

Meng Bai gave these shouting servants a look. He nodded his head and bid this elder goodbye. Then, without saying anything, he slowly walked towards these servants

The servants who were shouting out suddenly stopped. Even their breathing froze from fear. Then, they began to scream, all of them running for their lives.

Meng Bai continued to walk forward. In everyone’s eyes, his figure wasn’t that tall, but there was no longer a trace of timidness in his eyes.

He knew that Zhang Ping already headed east. Regardless of how Zhang Ping’s battle against Lin Xi ended, he could no longer pretend to be cowardly and weak.

“You have to win!”

When he slowly walked out of this street, this chubby youngster waved his fist forcefully towards the east and said this to himself.

…

During this Yunqin summer, a massive army was currently advancing towards Yunqin’s east. As they continued their march, this troop became larger and larger.

More and more believers joined this army that was headed east. These devout devil king believers listened to the devil king’s guidance, about to head into Dragon Snake Mountain Range to eliminate the sinners who dare to challenge the devil king, and then receive the devil king’s grace there. Many believers who were opposed to the devil king also received orders to wipe out some bandits that committed atrocious crimes. Under the proclamation of some disciples, they firmly believed that it was the evil will in these bandits’ hearts that produced this type of devil king power.

These groups didn’t have any armies, most of them were people dressed in ordinary clothes. However, regardless of which side’s disciples they were, it was clearly that they were all cultivators.

When they saw so many cultivators moving with them, these believers felt even more confidence, turning even more pious.

Because there was no interference along the way, the army long exceeded the scale of a hundred thousand. Moreover, according to the speed at which they received new members, by the time they reached Dragon Snake Mountain Range, they might reach a size of several hundred thousand.

Several hundred thousand was naturally still small compared to Yunqin’s population, just the size of a larger city. But for Zhang Ping inside of this army, he already felt like it was enough.

When more and more believers of entirely different faiths joined this trop, they quarreled all day long, but still abided by his orders, acted under his control. He felt that this world was even more ignorant and laughable.

But regardless, these hundreds of thousands of men that were fighting against Lin Xi and Green Luan Academy were also a portion of the Yunqin Lin Xi’s group struggled so hard to protect. There were even many elders and children among them.

Zhang Ping really wanted to see if Lin Xi and Green Luan Academy’s people could even raise the soul weapons in their hands when facing this swarm of people. He really wanted to see what kind of scene it would be like when Lin Xi and Green Luan Academy’s people killed these Yunqin people.

But the movement of this type of army naturally couldn’t be fast.

That was why not long after Meng Bai killed Fang Zhongyan, several secret letters from Great Mang’s side entered Zhang Ping’s hands.

Lin Xi took over Purgatory Mountain. He released all of the slaves and drove out all of Purgatory Mountain’s disciples. Without those people inside, even if Purgatory Mountain was still intact, it would only be dead mountains. Zhang Ping had no reason to support it anymore.

When facing this information, Zhang Ping continued to remain emotionless. This was something he already predicted.

But when the secret reports dove into more details, when the scene of Lin Xi and Qin Xiyue entered Purgatory Mountain hand in hand emerged in his brain, how they watched the erupting volcanoes together, as well as the scene of that extremely important devil king face being destroyed, his indifferent face began to warp.

His face warped to an unimaginable degree, his breathing also became extremely heavy. Many red-purple sparks rushed out from his mouth and nose.

“Lin Xi, I will definitely return what you have given me several times over!”

Fine noises sounded from his body. In the end, his hand landed on his liver, a mouthful of black blood gushing out.

His blood splattered inside the carriage. Within every puddle of blood, there seemed to be countless worm-like ripples squirming about, as if they wanted to truly break free from this black blood.