Feng Lintao had been appointed as one of humankind’s heavenly kings!
The matter caused quite a stir. The reality was that there had been quite a few battles between humans and the Devilbirds, and when it came to the total victory count, humans had the edge. What was more, humans had won some victories that could only have been possible if they had access to leaked information. In fact, humans seemed to be intimately familiar with all the details about the Devilbirds’ top experts, and even the complexities of their relationship networks.
The result was that the Devilbirds were starting to feel a lot of pressure. When it came to war strategy, the humans had the initiative. What was causing the biggest headaches for the Devilbird holy land were the spies!
Ever since the war broke out, the Devilbirds had been focused on trying to take down the humans’ unique spell formation. In order to make that happen, they sent out a lot of spies. Some spies went to remote locations, some immediately took action. Some of them went into hiding.
Regardless, all of them were focused on the goal of destroying the formation. It was a very important matter, and thus, they had a very detailed plan to follow in that regard. Unfortunately, over the time that had passed, their spies just kept being exposed one after another. And all of it started getting really bad... after Feng Lintao received his appointment to heavenly marquis. And after he became a heavenly king, it got even worse.
If that were all there were to it, it wouldn’t have been possible to prove Feng Lintao’s usefulness and value. After all, there were some things that Feng Lintao couldn’t possibly have known about given his status and identity, and the Devilbird holy land knew that.
However... when Feng Lintao was appointed as a heavenly king, he was offered the chance to slaughter 10,000 prisoners of war in a blood sacrifice. That was a monumental matter as far as the Devilbird holy land was concerned. After all, those prisoners of war had relatives, daoist partners, fellow disciples, and friends in the holy lands. As a result, the extended ramifications were dozens of times if not a hundred times more dramatic than the deaths alone. If those people had died on the battlefield, the people of the Devilbird holy land would have mourned, but wouldn’t have been infuriated. But for those people to be sacrificed… would instantly provoked intense hatred by everyone in the Devilbird holy land!
Thanks to the spell formation, the Devilbirds didn’t have very many human prisoners of war, and thus, trying to retaliate in kind was as effective as punching a cotton pillow. The public nature of the blood sacrifice was just another thing that made the Devilbirds so incredibly angry.
Feng Lintao was the one carrying out the execution, and he was also receiving an amazing reward for his action. Thus, he became the focus of every ounce of hatred for everyone in the Devilbird holy land.
As soon as the empress’ words rang out, and Feng Lintao offered excited thanks, the holy lands outside of the spell formation rumbled as numerous streams of divine will locked onto that specific area. The rage and killing intent in them was unprecedented. Whether or not it was a smart move to do something like this didn’t matter. What had happened... couldn’t be accepted! Their reaction was required as the response to an open plot that everyone could see! It was like a raging inferno that could ignite all heaven and earth.Meanwhile, Feng Lintao was left reeling mentally. He was a crafty person, and was no fool. He had long since started to get nervous with how things were playing out. And now... although he seemed excited on the outside, the reality was that his heart was in complete chaos. It was not some sort of secret conspiracy. It was very obvious to him what was going on.
They’re forcing me down a path of no retreat! They’re ensuring that I’m utterly and thoroughly tied to humankind.... But that’s just the first part of their plan. The empress has a second goal.... Shē wants to make me so valuable that I’m priceless. The more shē packs it on thick, the better for hēr. Shē wants the vast majority of people in the Devilbird holy land to hate my guts.
When that happens, even the top leaders in the Devilbird holy land will realize that I’m being set up. There’s no way it’ll be lost on them that I couldn’t possibly be privy to so many intelligence reports!!
However... if everyone there hates me down to the core of their being, then it won’t really matter if I’m being set up or not. They’re painting a big target on my back.... The holy lands will be able to shift the blame for any losses onto me. At the same time, they can whip up their forces’ battle spirit into a frenzy. That will be beneficial to the holy lands’ interests.
The same goes for humankind. If the holy lands hate me that much, then I’ll become the perfect bargaining chip for the humans. If humankind starts to lose the war, they can offer to turn me over in exchange for some big advantage. After all, humans have been setting things up perfectly so that the holy lands hate me more than they hate the humans.
The leaders in the Devilbird holy land must surely realize this. And maybe they’re not happy about it. But in the end, they’ll go along with it because it serves their own interests. How ruthless! Whether it’s the humans or the holy lands, they’re full of rigorous schemes and deep foresight from bottom to top!
Despite such thoughts running through his head, Feng Lintao kept an excited expression on his face. He looked at the holy lands beyond the spell formation, and then looked at the imperial palace. Finally, he turned to the Devilbird prisoners of war. Stretching his hand out... he unleashed the full power of his cultivation base!
Heaven and earth filled with rumbling sounds as one-tenth of the group of Devilbird cultivators exploded. They were killed in body and soul!
Outside of the spell formation, the Devilbirds observed, and their rage burned.
Feng Lintao’s eyes were bright red, making him look completely and utterly bloodthirsty. As all the humans watched, he walked forward... and continued the slaughter. As the prisoners of war died, and as the reek of gore grew more intense, Feng Lintao seemed to be enjoying himself. And the holy lands cultivators on the other side of the spell formation were overwhelmed with grief and terror. ŘΆΝȯ𝖇Еš
All they could do was watch their fellow people die. There were members of the older generation, fellow disciples, offspring... and none of them died decent deaths. They died in the most brutal fashion.
But this was war, in which there was no such thing as right and wrong. From the moment the holy lands had come and launched their invasion, it was a given that things like this would happen.
Either you die, or I die.
The humans looked on coldly. It was the same with the other species present. Xu Qing did nothing to stop the events from unfolding. Erniu licked his lips.
Feng Lintao seemed to devolve into madness as he unleashed slaughter. At the moment, all he was thinking about was his own interests. All he cared about was what this massacre would lead to, not the process itself. It was after an incense stick’s worth of time that Feng Lintao killed the last of the prisoners. After that palm strike was complete, he stood there soaked in blood, his facial expression ferocious as he looked up at the holy land and laughed coldly.
After that, he turned to the imperial palace of humankind and bowed at the waist. “Thank you, Your Majesty!”
Both his ruthless actions and the words he spoke made clear his attitude. From the human perspective, there was nothing to find fault with. He had cooperated fully, and had turned himself into a target for the Devilbirds to hate.
When Xu Qing saw it all play out, his eyes glittered.
As for Erniu, he grinned. “The little lunatic really is ambitious and ruthless. We didn’t even have to force him. I have the feeling that he had everything planned out even before he defected. It was all to make sure that his fishing expedition works out the way he wants. In the coming days, little Ah Qing, I need to figure out a way to get five chunks of his flesh. That way I’ll be able to use my Grand Five Ox Essence-Tracing Grand Merciless Dao on him!”
Xu Qing nodded in agreement.
With that, the two of them melted into the crowd and disappeared.
***
Time slipped by slowly but surely. Half a month.
During that time, the clashes between humans and Devilbirds grew more frequent. And the holy land was sending in more and more spies. However, the spies now had a new mission in addition to dealing with the spell formation. They were also assigned to kill Feng Lintao!
As it turned out, there was another mass slaughter of prisoners in the half month that passed. What was more, many of the successes that humans achieved in battle were attributed to Feng Lintao.
As a result, Feng Lintao was now extremely famous in the east of Revered Ancient. What was more, he was considered public enemy number one in the Devilbird holy land. Innumerable Devilbirds hated him so much they wanted to eat him alive.
Given that, it was only natural that there were assassination attempts. In order to protect this most important government official, the humans assigned a personal bodyguard contingent to Feng Lintao.
As for Feng Lintao, he seemed to be on the side of humankind in body and soul. On multiple occasions, he even submitted requests to personally go out and kill enemies. It was as if he hated the Devilbird holy land even more than the humans did. However, the empress, in hēr benevolence and magnanimity, did not approve his requests to go out of the spell formation. Instead, he was asked to stay in the Imperial Region and hunt down spies. Feng Lintao seemed disappointed, but he fully complied with the empress’ imperial decrees. And thus, he hunted down spies and killed them in the most brutal and ruthless fashion. In the process, he ended up with some injuries, but nothing very serious.
And thus... another seven days went by.
At that point, the Devilbird Grand Emperor finally made an appearance, and the conflict went beyond small-scale battles and into full-scale war. Several Imperial Sovereigns took to the field, and numerous Smoldering Gods joined them. On the human side, Empress Summer Departure showed up on the battlefield, joined by the zombie emperors. Heavenly kings from various species unleashed their mightiness to bolster the war effort.
As a critical moment in the war arrived, and the Imperial Region was almost completely emptied of its most powerful forces, an assassination attempt was being carried out in the suburbs of the imperial capital!
There were two assassins, and they were both seven-world Smoldering Gods from the Devilbird holy land! They had been in deep cover for a long time, waiting for the right moment to strike. And when they struck, their attack was like a bolt of lightning.
Their target was none other than Feng Lintao, who was with his personal guard, on his way back from arresting some spies!
The assassination was perfectly timed and ruthlessly carried out.
Feng Lintao’s bodyguards all died. Feng Lintao himself was unable to flee. His fleshly body exploded, and his soul was shredded to pieces. His head was taken away as a trophy.
King Firecrusher desperately rushed over to help, but he arrived too late. Though he managed to take one of the Devilbird assassins captive, he wasn’t able to stop the other one from getting away with Feng Lintao’s head. In the end, all he could do was take away the corpses of the bodyguards who had pledged to protect Feng Lintao with their own lives.
When word got out, the forces of the Devilbird holy land rejoiced. The empress looked grim, but clearly wasn’t going to take the time to sit around thinking about the matter. The war... had to go on.
What no one noticed was what happened to the corpses that King Firecrusher took away. After they were locked up in a certain mansion in the imperial capital, the corpses suddenly turned illusory. Then they became scintillating motes of light that converged onto each other and became Emperor Eastglory. Those ‘bodyguards’ weren’t really bodyguards after all.
King Firecrusher wasn’t surprised by this. After bowing, he turned to look off into the distance, a meaningful smile on his face.
***
Beyond the Imperial Region and on the border of the Gray Sea Region, there was a remote mountain with a cave underneath it. The cave was overgrown and almost impossible to spot when passing by.[1]
A figure was seated cross-legged in the cave, cloaked in so much shadow it was hard to make out any distinct features.
A short time passed, whereupon the figure’s eyes opened, and they glittered with aggressive light. The figure then began to glow, causing light to seep out into the surrounding cave. Thanks to the light, it was possible to tell that this figure was a young man. He looked very similar to a human, except that he had a red mark on his forehead, made of a host of minute magical symbols. It was the mark of the Fardark people, although it quickly disappeared.
Neither the human empress nor the Devilbird holy land can possibly hold a candle to me! I never planned to stay among the humans for long. Although the empress’ scheme put me in a passive position, the reality is... that everything went according to plan! I finally managed to fake my own death! Now that everyone thinks I’m dead, I can use my Fardark body to finally break free of all this karma!
This person was none other than Feng Lintao!
1. The Gray Sea Region was previously mentioned in chapters 744, , and . ☜
Deathblade's Thoughts
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