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Chapter 186: Chapter 183 Right and Wrong
"Chief Wen."
Liu Yují’s eyes flashed sorrow as he witnessed Wen Rulong being killed by a sword.
But then, a resolution welled up in him, as if he was ready to embrace death.
Despite the gap between him and Gu Jinlai, he launched a life-and-death charge at him without regard for his own safety.
"Perhaps, in your eyes, you see yourself as a person of unwavering loyalty, ready to sacrifice your life for the justice in your heart, earning praise for your righteousness even after your death,"
Gu Jinlai stared at his bright red Karma: "But to me, you’re nothing but a stooge for tyrants, a devil beyond redemption, inferior even to the devils that roam the wilderness."
"Stop with the pretense!"
Liu Yují roared in anger, "What do you know!? Chief Wen saved my life! My life was given to me by him! Without him, I would have frozen to death in the snow that night after we were bullied and everything was taken from us!"
"It’s because of people like you, who don’t know right from wrong, who can’t reason, that these high-seated, negligent ones raise followers who assist them in tyranny. Those followers commit all kinds of evil, leading to more people losing their families and livelihoods."
Gu Jinlai looked at him: "These people then wander the streets, freeze to death in the wilds, only to be taken in by their supposed kindness and righteousness, to continue oppressing even more people, until the order of the entire world collapses."
Determination on his face, Liu Yují, embracing a do-or-die attitude, was struck to the core.
"I advocate violence be met with violence, but not the misuse of it! To kill is to pay with one’s life, it’s only natural! If you were only taking revenge on those who ruined your family, I could spare your life. But now that you’ve joined the wrongdoers, committing evils everywhere, no matter your original reasoning or motives..."
With large strides, Gu Jinlai moved forward, his nearly five-meter-tall frame casting an oppressive shadow.
The rolling approach of the aura of death snapped the shocked Liu Yují back to his senses.
"No! No! This isn’t my fault!"
Liu Yují yelled out frantically: "If I didn’t do tasks and earn achievements for Chief Wen, I wouldn’t get top-notch cultivation skills, I wouldn’t get precious resources, without resources for cultivation techniques I wouldn’t be able to achieve Refining God! Without achieving Refining God, I can’t avenge... This isn’t my fault! I..."
"Then get ready to pay the price for your actions!"
Before Liu Yují could finish speaking, Gu Jinlai had already stretched out his hand to seize his head. The hurricane carried by the move broke the void and forced a resentful howl from Liu Yují, who gathered all his True Qi into his sword and slashed at the giant hand coming to capture him.
"Bang!"
The Gang Qi vibrated, and shockwaves dispersed in all directions.
The Sword Gang unleashed by Liu Yují was blasted to smithereens by the shocking force from Gu Jinlai’s "All Swords Return to One·Eternal."
Just like that, he was captured with a single palm.
With his understanding of the Mental Realm, Gu Jinlai could clearly perceive all of Liu Yují’s changes in sword techniques and movements. In his rather desperate resistance, Gu Jinlai firmly grasped his head.
"I...I..."
Liu Yují’s eyes, once resolved to disregard life and death, now showed fear. He opened his mouth as if to say something.
But then...
Gu Jinlai applied pressure with his fingers.
Like popping a bubble’s film.
"Bang!"
The sound stopped abruptly.
Sending Liu Yují to his death took a bit of time... 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝑐𝑜𝑚
But it wasn’t a waste.
A Red name could still reveal a Qingguang.
His gaze shifted, looking toward another scene.
There, the fleeing Xie Shanhe seemed to have encountered a change.
It appeared that upon learning of Gu Jinlai and the reinforcements’ arrival, the sheltered Alliance Leader Nie Shisan of Star Sky Alliance, along with the Refining God Elders from Lingxiao City, had finally shown themselves, intercepting the grievously wounded Xie Shanhe.
Seeing this, Gu Jinlai didn’t mind the extra effort.
He strode forward to pick up his thrown Cheng Ying Sword, quickly accelerating and arriving at the outskirts of the battlefield.
His arrival greatly disturbed Xie Shanhe, who cried out, "Heavenly Monarch Gu, our Xie Family is willing to serve under Heavenly Monarch Gu, from now on we will follow your lead..."
But Gu Jinlai, upon reaching the outskirts of the battlefield, did not hesitate for a moment.
As Xie Shanhe’s focus faltered due to Gu Jinlai’s arrival, the Cheng Ying Sword in his hand was immediately thrown.
"Swoosh!"
The sword blade cut through the air.
Breaking the sky!
The Cheng Ying Sword, like a shell fired from a cannon with a piercing screech, tore through the air and violently entered the battlefield where Star Sky Alliance Leader Nie Shisan and three Refining God Immortals were locked in combat.
Xie Shanhe tried to block it, but the power of the Cheng Ying Sword never weakened by anyone’s interference.
Amidst a spray of blood, this Xie Family Patriarch was almost utterly destroyed by the incredible force of the rapidly spinning Cheng Ying Sword.
This simple yet devastating method of killing, leaving no corpse intact, shocked Nie Shisan and the other Refining God Immortals of Star Sky Alliance.
The leading Nie Shisan immediately stepped forward to salute, "Heavenly Monarch Gu! Many thanks for your assistance, Heavenly Monarch Gu!"
Gu Jinlai nodded, "Now is not the time for conversation, let’s first eliminate the Refining God and Hugging Pill Realm experts they brought to restore order in Star Curtain City."
"Yes."
Nie Shisan complied, "I am willing to follow Heavenly Monarch Gu’s orders."
"Then have the people of Star Sky Alliance blockade the city, don’t let them escape over the walls."
Gu Jinlai ordered.
While pursuing Wen Rulong and Zhang Wuliang, he had crossed half of Star Curtain City, already sensing over a dozen bright red Karma lights.
After instructing Nie Shisan to seal the city, he didn’t waste another moment and swiftly headed in the direction where the Karma lights had been.
...
When order is lost in a place, evil breeds with astonishing speed.
Gu Jinlai did not know whether it was the quantity of the extremely wicked among the Refining God, Hugging Pill, and Gang Condensation Level Experts brought by Wen Rulong, Zhang Wuliang, and others that was numerous or if they had indulged their desires after occupying Star Curtain City, thereby increasing the amount of evil substantially.
In any case, the proportion of cultivators who should belong to the orderly faction of the State Lord Mansion and who were stained with Karma like blood was remarkably high.
They could fully rival the original Three Great Families of Lingxiao City, who regarded humans as pills and colluded with devils for trade.
Among these, Gu Jinlai personally executed more than twenty.
Not to mention those many strong individuals who died at the hands of people like Gu Chifeng and the counterattacking experts of the Star Sky Alliance.
In addition, with the Star Sky Alliance shattered, even though Gu Jinlai ordered a lockdown of the city, for the coming and going Gang Condensation and Hugging Pill Masters, the city was never completely sealed off. Out of the more than four hundred people, there were still over a hundred who escaped.
Half of the Refining God Immortals with a high Red name rate escaped as well.
If not for this, the number of the extremely wicked might have increased by another fifty percent.
...
Members of the Star Sky Alliance.
Shao Yaoguang, Zhan Hongying, and others gathered around Nie Shisan, their eyes brimming with the joy of surviving a calamity.
Ahead, a group of people also hurriedly approached.
Seeing Nie Shisan safe and sound brought a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden was lifted.
"Brother... It’s so good you’re all right."
"Qingqing, why did you come?"
Nie Shisan said to the newcomer.
Zhan Hongying added, "When I sensed something was wrong, I immediately had the Dark Son send the message through a special method to Miss Nie in Lingxiao City, asking her to seek help from Heavenly Monarch Gu... That’s the reason why Heavenly Monarch Gu was able to arrive in time."
Turning to Nie Qingqing, he said, "We were able to escape our predicament so quickly; Qingqing’s role in persuading Heavenly Monarch Gu so swiftly cannot be overstated."
The Refining God Elders, such as Shao Yaoguang, nodded in deep agreement.
"You flatter me too much; I was able to persuade Heavenly Monarch Gu because he deeply understands the principle of shared fate. Knowing that if one falls, the other is at risk, so as soon as I spoke, he immediately ordered the assembly of troops and came straight for our Star Curtain City..."
Nie Qingqing said, then seemingly thinking of something, fell silent.
"A shared fate... It seems that our initial decision to ally with Heavenly Monarch Gu was indeed the wisest one," Nie Shisan said.
Zhan Hongying and others also nodded in agreement, "If Heavenly Monarch Gu finds himself in trouble and asks for our aid in the future, we must dispatch our forces to assist him at once."
"Right! As a steadfast ally to Lingxiao City, from now on, we shall share in both glory and adversity!"
"I’ve taken note of this favor; from now on, if Heavenly Monarch Gu has any requests, he just needs to speak, and it shall be done."
Several Refining God Immortals voiced their concurrence.
However, Nie Shisan seemed to notice Nie Qingqing’s sudden silence was somewhat unusual and couldn’t help asking, "Qingqing, by the look on your face, has something happened?"
Nie Qingqing glanced at Nie Shisan, hesitated for a moment, and still said, "I’m afraid even if Heavenly Monarch Gu really had trouble, he wouldn’t need our help."
"Why so?"
Zhan Hongying asked, puzzled.
"Because..."
Nie Qingqing took a deep breath, "With the scale of our Star Sky Alliance, we simply can’t be of much help to Heavenly Monarch Gu."
"Can’t be of much help?"
Nie Shisan, Zhan Hongying, Shao Yaoguang, and a series of Divinity Transformation and Refining God Immortals exchanged glances.
After a while, Xiong Tianxia, an elder who had achieved Refining God status for more than forty years, said, "Although our Star Sky Alliance has suffered heavy losses in this battle, we still have ten Refining Gods and Alliance Leader Nie, who is a Divinity Transformation Great Cultivator. If we claim to be weaker than Lingxiao City, we concede, but to say that we’re completely useless to Lingxiao City now, I don’t believe it."
The others nodded in agreement as well.
They were all Refining God Immortals.
Such figures, unless they were matched against a Divinity Transformation Cultivator, would be tycoon-level individuals in any city.
In some Lower States, it wouldn’t be difficult for one of them to occupy a city and govern a population of a million.
Naturally, their words carried extraordinary weight.
"One Divinity Transformation and ten Refining Gods... indeed, a strong and numerous force, but how do they compare to just now, with Wen Rulong, Zhang Wuliang, and Xie Shanhe, the three Divinity Transformation Cultivators?" Nie Qingqing asked.
The crowd looked at each other, a bit embarrassed.
How do they compare?
Didn’t you see the outcome?
This girl, always bringing up the most uncomfortable topics.
"Ahem..."
Xiong Tianxia coughed, "Divinity Transformation... possessing the advantage of flying swords, is indeed not easy to deal with..."
"If Divinity Transformation is a challenge, then what about Primordial Spirit True Monarch?" Nie Qingqing continued to press.
Primordial Spirit True Monarch?
If any Primordial Spirit True Monarch set their sights on them, the high-ranking members of the Star Sky Alliance would simply be wiped out.
For a moment...
The crowd did not know how to answer.
