Chapter 1281: The Deterrence of a Seventh Step King

The third step king held his head high, completely oblivious that he’d forced the Luminous King into awkward straits that the latter couldn’t back out of. If he hung in the air today for a beating, the flawless reputation that the Luminous King had spent so much time crafting would be a tattered sheet full of holes, flapping in the wind.

“Ai, forget it,” the Luminous King heaved a long sigh. “Who shall enter this hell if not I? Hang me up then.

“You can go back to where you were, I will shoulder the burden of the day. Martial Sacrifice King—I recall that is your title, you must remember that when you become a sixth step king and possess immense strength one day, you should do good unto others. Do not use your power in oppression and tyranny!

“If I can save the Blood King today through my humiliation, then it will all be worth it.” He walked up to Jinse with his head held high and nodded at her.

“…witch! Hang me if you want to hang anyone up! If you dare harm the Luminous King today, I swear that I will seek to end your Immortal Pagoda forevermore!!” the Martial Sacrifice King suddenly shrieked like a cuckoo crying blood.

“That’s right! If you dare hang up or beat the Luminous King, we swear to be irreconcilable with the Immortal Pagoda!”

"Doesn’t the Immortal Pagoda want to do business in Multitude City? We cultivators and kings of the city and region will boycott the Immortal Pagoda. You’ll stop operating when you have no business!”

“Your Eminence, let me stand in your stead! If you don’t agree, I’ll take my life right here!”

“She-devil, hang me if you’re going to hang anyone!” The main hall erupted with mayhem.

“Impressive.” Jinse raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t expected that the Luminous King would so easily dismantle her plot. His control over people’s hearts had reached great perfection; he’d easily labeled her as a witch and she-devil, and even pushed the Immortal Pagoda to a position opposing all Multitude cultivators and kings.

“They call you the Luminous King of Virtue and Integrity, and that honorific is indeed borne out in full today.” Far from panicking, Jinse nodded with cool composure. “If I follow through and make good on my words to beat you, then I will surely become the public enemy of the Hongmeng and my master would be implicated as well. We would find it difficult to take a single step in the realm.”

Her words struck a different chord with the kings on the scene; the Alchemist and Wild Formation Kings frowned as well.

Cultivators beware! Do not offend the Luminous King unless you want your life to become extremely difficult!

The Immortal King had risen with such domination that the Supplemental Alliance had to hold a convention to contend with him. But even he would find progress bothersome in the Hongmeng if he offended the Luminous King.

All of the other kings had previously treated this man of the people as a joke, but now they saw how incredibly frightening he was. He didn’t even need to get his hands dirty if he wished to kill someone.

“Since the Luminous King has spoken, I will release the Blood King and refrain from seeking someone in his place.” Jinse waved a hand and set the Blood King down.

He glared viciously at the Immortal Pagoda’s head manager and committed everything about her to memory. Once he attained more strength, the first on his kill list would be Jinse to wash away the humiliation of this day!

“However, a third step king of the Immortal Pagoda was murdered here without cause or reason. He was our envoy to this convention, so this matter must be addressed.” Jinse changed tack, but not her target. “Luminous King, you are deeply conscious of right and wrong to the point of willing to suffer on the Blood King’s behalf. Why were you unmoved when my envoy was undeservedly beaten to death on the premises?”

“The Tiger Butcher King sought to bewitch the people with unnatural flights of fancy and disrespected the supplemental grandmasters. The Blood King exterminated a plague for us all and the Tiger Butcher King more than deserved his death!” A supplemental grandmaster stepped forward with a shout. He was wholly unafraid, even though this woman could hang the Blood King in the air and beat him as she would. The Luminous King had already forced her to back down once, which meant he could do it again!

There were so many people here of the same mind and the Luminous King was with them as well. They didn’t need to be wary of a mere head manager from the Immortal Pagoda! Most importantly, they were on Colosseum territory. Apart from the Blood King, their reinforcement included an even more mysterious and stronger Human King.

The Human King was the true leader of the Colosseum.

“According to what you say, even death was too good for my envoy. But when I hung up the Blood King and beat him, that was an insult to him?” Jinse smiled an incredibly dangerous smile. The look in her eyes glittered with frost and she turned the entire convention venue into a world of ice and snow around her.

“In that case, since all of you are gathered to oppose the Immortal Pagoda and my master, I will kill you all. All of you well deserve your deaths.” She released arctic blasts of killing intent as she spoke, ripping the air around her to shreds.

“Peak sixth step king? Or… seventh step king?” Color drained from the faces of the Luminous, Alchemist, and Blood Kings. The last was sagging weakly on the ground. They would stand a chance if she was a sixth step king, but the power she currently displayed was well beyond sixth step. It’d reached seventh step!

“Seventh step king! This is absolutely the aura of a seventh step!” murmured the Blood King.

The Immortal Pagoda possessed seventh step kings!

The supplemental kings suddenly felt like they were clowns trumpeting their stupidity to the world in hosting this Supplemental Convention. That the Immortal Pagoda had been willing to send an envoy to their gathering was showing them tremendous face!

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Even the Luminous King was going weak at the knees. A single word from him could make a sixth step king homeless throughout the Hongmeng, but a seventh step king? Who would pay attention to him then? No one would dare say another word if the king smashed him to death with a casual slap.

The supplemental grandmaster who’d rudely addressed Jinse earlier was already sitting in a puddle of his own pee. However, no one would jeer at his display of weakness—this was a seventh step king!

“Alright now, Jinse, enough of that,” a clear voice sounded in the air. “We’ve come to Multitude City to do business, not start trouble.”

“Understood.” Jinse quickly retracted her aura and stood respectfully with her hands by her side.

The crowd shuddered once more.

The Immortal King! That voice had belonged to the Immortal King!

A supplemental king who’d just entered the superior realm had easily tamed a seventh step king and caused her to stand docilely off to the side!

Though everyone waited expectantly for his arrival, Lu Yun didn’t appear.

“I didn’t have a feud with the Colosseum at first, I’d just wanted to watch some sparring. But not only did the Colosseum capture and enslave my brother, it also had designs on my dao partner,” Lu Yun’s voice traveled forth once more. “And now you’ve killed the envoy that I sent to the Supplemental Convention. If I let this pass, the entire Hongmeng will think I’m an easy target to bully. In that case, Jinse.”

“This servant is here,” she quickly responded.

“Strip the Blood King naked and hang him in front of the Immortal Pagoda doors. There’s no need to beat him, just hang him there for a hundred years.”

“It shall be done.” Jinse waved a hand and vanished with the Blood King, sending renewed shudders through those gathered in the hall.

Strip the Blood King naked and hang him in front of the Immortal Pagoda doors for a hundred years? A hundred years would pass by in the blink of an eye for Hongmeng beings, but it would be arduous torment for the Blood King. It was very possible that his cultivation would retreat during this time and he’d die of a cultivation deviation.

Despite that, no one dared speak up for him; even the Luminous King kept his mouth firmly closed, deathly afraid of offending the Immortal Pagoda. When a seventh step king hailed the Immortal King as her master, it was indicative enough of how terrifying the faction behind him must be.

The last sixth step king of the Colosseum—the Human King—was also quietly cowering in a corner of the venue. He didn’t dare show his face, for fear of being embroiled in the proceedings.

Lu Yun’s voice rose again, “As for the Supplemental Convention, I should indeed participate since I am a supplemental king, but I truly am unable to interrupt my refinement of a few treasures. Thus, I send over these minor tokens to add to the wealth that may be found at this convention. I hope the various supplemental grandmasters and kings do not mind.”

Hummm.

A hazy green light flashed through the void before an enormous mountain landed from the sky and towered at the center of the hall.

“It’s a mountain of Earth Light Magneticus!” countless grandmasters shrieked when they took a clear look.

“It’s the mountain the Immortal Pagoda took from the Windcall King, but the Immortal King’s returned it!”

“He’s managed to tame and refine the light within this mountain…” Many rushed up to take a clear look when the dust cleared from the landmass.

“Indeed, I have refined this mountain once more and subdued the Earth Light Magneticus within. Whoever can pick it up will become its new owner. The Immortal Pagoda will not charge a single purple crystal,” said Lu Yun.