Chapter 1596: The Perils of the Martial World (III)

Red Velarium immediately came to a decision and slowed down. The two of them were seventh ranks and Fog Mountain was a peak seventh rank. If they joined hands, the Human King might not be able to stand against them since he’d just depleted a lot of energy.

The moment he stopped was when Fog Mountain came to a panting halt behind him. The Human King followed them through the air. He didn’t travel that quickly as he dragged his blade through the void. It wasn’t as if he could go any faster, either!

“So what if you guys team up?” he growled. “I’ll cut down two pieces of trash working together all the same! Take a look at the other trash around you! Who’s coming to save you guys?”

“My world master is nearby!” Fog Mountain snarled back. “You’re dead without a doubt if you engage us instead of fleeing! He’ll be here soon!”

“So the trash jokes!” sneered the Human King. “Do you really think that was this king’s full strength? I couldn’t even be bothered to utilize Big Cat’s power! Just half of my own strength is enough to slaughter you lot like chickens. If your Skycloud master dares come, I’ll exterminate Skycloud first before I do Red Moon!”

These words... carried a certain degree of intimidation with them. Half of the Human King’s strength had come from the Ash Emperor when he annihilated Utmost Dark. His declaration now caused some of the hidden heavyweights to jump with fright.

That was true!

The Human King hadn’t even become one with the Ash Emperor before killing a seventh rank, and now he dared chase after two seventh ranks without the Ash Emperor. How terrifying would they be once they were one!

This person was nearly the equivalent of an eighth rank, if he wasn’t one already!

Fog Mountain likewise viewed the situation with a grave face. There was falsehood intermixed with truth here! Considering how terrifying the Human King could be, he swiftly transmitted to Red Velarium, “Why doesn’t the Red Moon master follow the disturbance in his dao and come here?”

It was a probing question; one that he truly wished to know the answer to.

Is your world master dead? He’s not even emitting a fart with the death of one of his seventh ranks!

This had weighed on Fog Mountain’s mind when he thought of killing the Red Moon seventh ranks. The death of a seventh rank would disturb the stars in a dao universe. If a master of great dao was willing to pay the price, they could follow that disturbance to travel to the spot of the exalted emperor’s demise.

Fog Mountain wanted to kill one of the seventh ranks, strip them of their strength, and supplement Skycloud with it. The Skycloud master would be willing to come for a seventh rank’s strength, so he wasn’t too concerned about this course of action.

Would the Red Moon master do the same?

Red Velarium finally had a chance to extend his senses toward home; his heart jolted with shock at what he found.

What??

Clarity had apparently died and New Martial... was at the Red Moon main world?? Was this a diversion, or were they really mounting an offensive? No wonder the world master hadn’t come to Skyward!

Naturally, he couldn’t voice these findings. “My world master has other matters to attend to...” Red Velarium answered in a hazy, indirect fashion.

That means he can’t come!

Fog Mountain understood with shock. Could it truly be as the Human King had said, that New Martial had conducted another pincer movement? Where had Void transported to earlier? Did it have something to do with Light major world? Had Light and New Martial allied together long ago?

Various possibilities rose in his mind; he felt that a rare opportunity was at hand. He would need to pay a price to break away from Skycloud. Fog Mountain raised a hand, commanding a sea of fog and mist to blot out the world.

“You want to kill me?!” he roared. “Dream on! This seat is also a peak seventh rank, why would I be afraid of you?!”

“Work with me!” Fog Mountain shouted at Red Velarium. The latter only wanted to warn off the Human King and not actually engage the enemy. But since Fog Mountain had made his move as the vanguard...

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Red Velarium was a seventh rank himself at the end of the day. He would be hard pressed to explain the death of a seventh rank brethren. With that, he decided to commit to battle as well.

The Red Moon dao domain manifested!

The Human King looked coldly at them and raised his blade—he was only looking at Fog Mountain. Was this old thing up to some other tricks?

Five mountains rose in the void as the Human King looked skeptically at the man. They suppressed the world, like the colossal hand that had appeared before. This time, they formed a domain of misty mountains and foggy seas, enshrouding the premises!

There seemed to be ethereal palaces on the mountain peaks. They had stood since time immemorial!

The haze obscured everyone’s vision. Behind it, Fog Mountain looked on remotely and abruptly turned around to bring his palm down on Red Velarium!

The man paled in the swift advent of extreme danger.

WHAT?!

Why was this happening?? He’d heard of ties between New Martial and Light,

but Skycloud, we’re allies with each other here!

You damned bastard, don’t tell me that you don’t know Skycloud secretly sent people to hunt New Martial powerhouses before this. And do you think New Martial is unaware?? Are you out of your mind?!

Boom!

A massive disturbance sounded as the five mountains came down over the Red Moon dao domain, shattering it. Red Velarium spat out a mouthful of golden blood.

Fog Mountain’s hand had formed a massive prison. He was unable to imitate the Human King and kill a seventh rank with one move, but his mountain of clouds and sea of fog bore tremendous powers of suppression. Red Velarium could barely move.

He wanted to continue struggling, yet a dao universe abruptly appeared on the scene—the Skycloud dao universe!

Waves of Skycloud power descended; it was as if someone watched him from the dao universe. A consciousness probed forward, seeing what had taken place.

“Fog Mountain! You...” sighed a voice within the dao universe.

“If I leave Skycloud, I will make the world whole for my loss!” Fog Mountain’s voice rang within the dao universe. “As for Red Moon, they just lost Siren. I’m already shouldering the blame for that—they will not forgive me for it. Is the world master going to hand me over?

“If not, does Red Moon dare provoke Skycloud?”

“New Martial is not a faction to antagonize either,” came the world master’s voice. “They are exceedingly aggressive, even more so than Red Moon. Vanquishing Red Moon only helps New Martial!”

“I know... but the New Martial Human King is here. He’ll kill the remaining seventh rank even if I don’t do so. Who will be able to stop him from setting foot into eighth rank if he has two seventh rank corpses in hand? Are you willing to come and put an end to him, world master?”

The Skycloud master didn’t say anything.

Did Fog Mountain make sense?

He did.

The New Martial Human King might truly be infinitely close to eighth rank. Killing one seventh rank may not push him over the edge, but killing another... might do the deed.

Was the world master willing to come in person?

Why should he??

Not even the Red Moon master had deigned to move himself. If the Skycloud master did, wouldn’t he become a scapegoat?

All of these considerations flashed through his mind in a split second; the Skycloud master stayed silent at the end of it. That meant tacitly agreeing to what Fog Mountain had done.

He would not come in person now, that would only spark a conflict with the New Martial Human King. While the world master didn’t say a word, neither did he stop Fog Mountain from requisitioning Skycloud’s power of great dao. He didn’t even mind the man pulling from dao origin.

It took only a second for a formidable wave of power to surge into Fog Mountain.

Rumble!

The five mountains ground into the void.

“How dare you kill me, Fog Mountain!” Red Velarium’s angry voice echoed through the void.

The exalted emperors in hiding jerked with enormous shock! What was going on

now??

Wasn’t the New Martial Human King trying to kill them, and they were jointly defending themselves against the Human King?

How had it turned into Fog Mountain killing Red Velarium?

Rumble rumble rumble!

The world shattered and the chaos trembled. As expected, Fog Mountain outright suppressed his opponent. When Red Velarium sought to call upon his dao universe, he couldn’t pull as much energy as he might have due to the disturbance in the great dao.

In order to stabilize the Red Moon dao after the deaths of two seventh ranks, the Red Moon master had withdrawn a large sum of strength to keep the dao universe in check. There was no extraneous power for another seventh rank to utilize.

......

Red Moon major world.

The Red Moon master’s expression suddenly changed drastically. He roared with fury, “Damn you to hell, you bastards!”

New Martial wasn’t stopping! They wanted to kill more people after killing two seventh ranks! The Red Moon master was about to lose his mind! He was seized with a sudden impulse to fully travel to Skyward and duel the Human King to the death!

A new realization struck him as he extended his mind in the relevant direction. It... wasn’t the Human King attacking his exalted emperor, but Fog Mountain!

How could this be?!

Skycloud... has betrayed me!

No, they’ve broken the alliance and Skycloud is here to kick me while I’m down!

He might face even more severe consequences if he descended upon the scene now.

Skycloud, Fang Ping, and Fog Mountain might be jointly lying in wait! That would clear the way for the New Martial Ash Emperor to invade Red Moon!

They want to devour all of Red Moon! I get it now! And Light major world is part of them. I see! No wonder Siren was so easily killed, it wasn’t just the Human King over thing!

I didn’t sense anything wrong when Clarity was killed so close to Red Moon either. This means... that there are other heavyweights involved, one that obscured their doings.

Who?

Multiple candidates came to mind—other Skycloud seventh ranks, exalted emperors of Light...

Perhaps these three factions want to carve up Red Moon!

Damn them!

The livid Red Moon master came to a decision; he stripped away the vast majority of Red Velarium’s power. Since he could not rescue the man, he could only sacrifice the seventh rank. However, Red Velarium couldn’t be allowed to die in his current condition. That would gift most of his dao strength to the enemy if he truly fell.

Problems would develop in Red Moon’s dao universe after being stripped of three seventh ranks’ strength. The most severe consequence might be a decline in rank!

That would also make the Red Moon master a seventh rank, which would be horrifying indeed. Saving the dao strength might mean that he could quickly create another seventh rank.

Red Moon did not lack sixth ranks.