"..."
Everyone held their breaths. They no longer felt the ground moving underneath them. Instead, their bodies shivered in trepidation for what is to come.
When the onlookers saw the Emperor move his head to them, many of them bowed their heads down into submission regardless of cultivation level. Some of them plopped down on their knees and relentlessly kowtowed, so low that they were grinding the floor.
Perhaps because of the horrific scene they just watched none of them dared to bang their heads in case they followed the same end.
But that didn't stop them from slacking.
The combined effort from the cultivators caused vibrations to be felt, but it did not cause quakes to ensue.
'This… I swear I'm innocent.'
Li Cheng was sweating bullets, wetting his dirty, smudged face. His exquisite robe, however, magically so immaculate that it was not wetted or stained.
'Who told her to bang her head to death?'
'Why am I seemingly accused of being responsible for this?'
'What did I even do?!'
All around him were people grovelling, worshipping, and begging for mercy.
Just when Li Cheng had found a solution on the spot to the unexpected, the problem escalated to a degree unsalvageable.
'No! Maybe she's not dead! As long as she has an ounce of breath and a beat remaining!'
"Mother!!"
"Wait!"
A young youth, about 6 feet tall, came running from the vendors of the city's street. Beneath his wide-brimmed straw hat, his face was covered in snot and tears. Following behind, was another youth a little taller than him with the same brimmed straw hat.
They passed the world without a care to what's happening, trodding upon some cultivators that were laid on the ground passed out or floored from bowing.
Li Cheng watched as the brave boys went to confront him. No matter how one looked at them, they looked like village boys.
'Mother?' he looked at He Fang, and then back to the boys.
'No, no no… why am I feeling guilty. I'm innocent. I'm innocent.'
Ignoring him, the boys scuffled to their mother, crouching down, and their backs facing away from him. It was hard to see what they were doing, but it was evident from the tears dropping and dying on the floor that they were mourning for their mother.
'I need to hurry up before it really becomes unsalvageable."
Cutting off his pretences in his walk, he quickly arrived by the side of the boys and without a word moved his body down to inspect her.
"Ah senior, please help my mother!"
!!
Just when he was thinking about replying, he felt something so familiar send shivers down his spine. Something that he had only truly felt a handful times in his life in the cultivation world.
'Killing intent!!'
A murderous aura was right in front of him, so close that his instincts reflexively activated the Three Realms Illusion in his mind and the teleportation talisman in his sleeves.
Whoosh!
The spot he was in was whooshed with a striking force, kicking up a slight sand in its wake. Two silvery metals gleamed, dripping with a strange slimy green which bubbled upon contact with the floor. And their holders were a surprise to see: they were the two children mourning for the fallen expert!
Those children were assassins!
With their heads down, their straw hats hid their identity, but their large crooked smiles were all to see from the gaps when looking at the sides.
However, their smiles were stiff. As experienced assassins, they were sure that they had hit their mark. But their target was nowhere in sight.
"What!"
The people present couldn't believe their eyes.
It was the same scene they saw before.
Right in front of their eyes was the Emperor unscathed standing at the same spot as before!
The sudden appearance of the Emperor appearing in thin air made the assassins freeze. In the next moment as though it was coordinated, one dagger from the left, one dagger from the right, the daggers clawed in like a beetle's jaw.
Clang!
The two daggers hit. But what they hit was the acute points from the tips of their brother. Halted in mid air, the children's eyes enlarged when they saw the Emperor materialise in front of them.
He just appeared as though he was always there in the first place!
After a brief moment of pause, without exchanging looks, they glared at the terrifying enemy. Life on the line, they thrusted a series of sharp blows into the Emperor's direction.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Clang!
Whoosh!
Flurry of strikes, milked with horrid greens stripped the surrounding space. Two small figures pursued the enemy, unceasing in their movements to strike and kill. Various martial arts incorporated the movements of their blade, but they were unable to leave a sole dent on their aim.
There were many times they felt their blades had hit something, but when they saw the target's long legs unhindered, they knew they had failed.
They tried baiting the enemy to disappear and attacking the location he would appear, but when that occurred he would either disappear immediately or be a small distance away.
It was as if he was teleporting, but it really wasn't the exact word to use. It would be better to describe him like a ghost disappearing and materialising into the world.
Impervious!
"It's impossible. Our attacks need to be a little faster and have much more strength. We must reveal our cultivations." The taller one stopped and shook his head.
"...But.."
"The exalted one is watching. We must!" he snapped.
Without waiting for his duo's response, he stirred up his Qi, gaining a surge of power and consequently revealing his cultivation base. Cultivators were quick to sense the abhorrent abnormality; their brows knitted and their eyes turned sullen.
No choice, the other boy also followed through.
The energy the boys emitted was no ordinary Qi. It was much more sinister, dark, and brimmed with evil.
"Demonic cultivators!" the onlookers shouted.
Two demonic kids both at the early-stage of the Foundation Establishment.
They're small frames suggested that they were younger than Li Cheng and yet they had higher cultivation!
Whoosh!
Their speeds of being unshackled from the normality of mortals meant their speed was a hundredfold more than before!
Li Cheng, who had long started using his cultivation base for quick bursts of speed to save his talismans, could no longer dance around and use them as sharpening tools for intense combat training.
At the beginning, when he realised the attacks despite being tipped with poison couldn't leave a scratch or mark on his robe, he used a talisman only when he sensed a feeling of danger, meaning the attack would land on a part not covered by the robe.
However, it was different now.
Although the attacks would not cause any harm on the robe, he would still feel the brunt of the blow, at most a jab from a pencil. But if a series of them fired across his body… if he wasn't careful it could lead to a fatal mistake.
Not to mention there were 2 of them!
'Ugh this is really hard.'
The whole time it was one side overwhelmingly assaulting the other. Li Cheng had wished he could counter by giving a soft blow to show off the image of showing an Emperor stepping down to mentor his subjects, but the combined teamwork and martial arts left Li Cheng with no gap to exploit even without the children using their cultivation.
Although he had some hard training with his older brother's master, he realised that he hadn't trained hard enough at all to be compared with these 2 little monsters.
They were true fighters, experienced in numerous killings, and most importantly had genuine experience of life and death battles.
'This is what I deserve for holding back.'
He couldn't do much about his combat experience as a low-key cultivator, but he certainly could have at least sharpened himself to death in his martial skills in secret.
If there was anything to be thankful for, it was that this illusion was so powerful that if he really needed to catch a breath, he had the opportunity to simply stay in it for a bit before reappearing again in the real world.
'*Sigh* looks like I have no choice.'
Because the two were assassins and they had revealed themselves to be demonic cultivators, he was unable to call an end to the fight, say a few words, and mysteriously leave.
Otherwise, everything he did would go to ruins and his image would be tarnished.
"Your majesty, we lowly ones wish you to stop entertaining these evils and end this matter."
"Yes! They are children past redemption. They don't deserve your benevolent treatment! The only treatment you need to give them is your guidance to send them off to the yellow springs!"
Hearing the demands of the crowd, Li Cheng's ears twitched and his face turned ashen. If he could do that, then he would have so already.
Everything escalates from one point to another with no time to think.
The main problem was he was all defence and no attacking moves. Sure, he had many things to attack with, but almost all of them were rendered useless with his imagery of an Emperor, and that he had to be sure to 1 shot the enemy, as well as not disclose the tools and preparations to do so.
In the cultivation world, there were many ways to find out how a person died and it wouldn't take a genius to understand that Li Cheng was a fraud.
'Hmm?'
Li Cheng looked towards where He Fang's body was. He saw a few cultivators arguing amongst each other. He thought they were shamelessly fighting for the loot, but it seemed like they were arguing about saving her?
"I've already diagnosed her condition. If I don't take her with me then she will most certainly die within the next 2 hours."
"Bullshit! I'm a doctor too. What 2 hours? Many of her bones are broken, her meridians are in a mess, and she hasn't breathed for a few minutes! If she wasn't such a powerful cultivator, she would be long dead with how faint her heart is beating." The fierceness in his old eyes could be seen through the thin layers of his craggy bangs, staring straight at the black clothed man. He added,
"She probably doesn't even have 20 minutes left to live!"
"Probably? Fuck, I have had enough of your shit old man." With an uplift of his arm, he prepared to swing.
"What are you doing?!" A young woman intervened, catching the arm in her grasp.
"Bitch, you're going to regret this."
"Hah, an early-stage golden core thinks he can just bully whoever he wants?"
Slam!
Put to the ground, the young woman tried to look up, but she ended up coughing out blood and feeling a sharp pain puncture her back.
"You…"
"Why are you looking at me?"
In confusion, when the dying woman tilted in search, she saw a bladed sword bathed in blood held by a woman she hadn't seen before.
"AHHH!!!"
"Emperor Sav—"
"Demons! The Demonic Path is attacking!"
All of a sudden the entire surroundings was filled with hundreds of demonic cultivators. They took advantage of the cultivators incapacitated by the Emperor, killing them or leaving them grievously injured as they fought to escape from their imprisonment.
The evil turbulent energy, chaos of cries from disorder, and blood stench filling the skies, awakened the rest from their stupor.
Around 75% of those under the late stages of the Foundation Establishment had died without being able to retaliate a proper resistance.
Those cultivators who were in the city or had arrived to watch the show during Li Cheng's fight against the assassins were most fortunate.
DONG!
DONG!
DONG!
In the time it took for an incense to blow out, the city's gongs rang. A resonant, deep, peculiarly sonorous sound echoed to alarm the citizens that a calamity had arrived.
Shortly after, thousands of white rays short forth from the edges of the city, converging at a single point in mid-air. After emitting a thudding sound from the collision, an enormous white barrier spread out. It completely enveloped the city, shutting away the blood-hungry demonic cultivators who were chasing the frightened escapees.
Those blood-hungry demonic cultivators were disgruntled that their victims escaped from their clutches. But once they exposed their backs away from the city, they smiled in glee as they sized up the ones a little too late.
If they wanted to live, then they had to get past them.
Overwhelmed by the numbers and wounded by surprise, it looked bleak for the non-demonic cultivators.
However, cultivators were cultivators. Not everyone was wavering into death's doorsteps. There were still a few experts that were able to overturn their plight.
In the middle of the catastrophe was a young, tall man appearing as otherworldly, unchanged. Encircled by waves of demonic cultivators like no other, they blocked the land and skies from any retreat, stacking to hinder his prowess.
Despite this, this man did not blink an eye.
He stood before his dozen of people who had lost everything but the one light front of their eyes, praying for light to envelop the darkness and bring forth a miracle.
The demonic cultivators approached him seemingly all about to pounce and annihilate him.
And yet,
not a single one of them moved after they heard him finally open his mouth.
"Who among you desires to die first by the hands of, I, the Son of Heaven?"