There is Always War VIII

~~~

Five days later, Pink Flamingo Inn, Qinghe City

"Thank you so much for all your help, Mr. Kong, my Blood Gold sect will not forget this favor!"

Han Xuanyuan expressed his gratitude once more to Mr. Kong, who was becoming increasingly pleased with himself.

After that huge fight nearly a week ago, Han Xuanyuan had cleaned and changed into the clothes of one of the cultivators who had come to kill him.

Then he began to go in the direction Han Wutian had told him and before long, he had found a caravan of merchants and their escorts passing by.

He confronted them directly and asked if he could join them on their journey to the nearest city.

Mr. Kong was the leader of this group of merchants. Upon seeing his attire, he immediately mistook him for a core disciple of the Blood Gold Sect, a local ruling faction.

Exploiting this misunderstanding, he acted accordingly, and soon he found himself being taken to Qinghe City directly.

Initially, the caravan was heading towards Jingmen City but Mr. Kong, probably wanting to gain the favor of a core disciple of the Blood Gold Sect, went out of his way to help Han Xuanyuan.

Right now, the two were sitting at the pub of the Pink Flamingo Inn, with Mr. Kong asking him for a time slot when he could go to the Blood Gold Sect and discuss business with one of their elders.

At this moment, a particular headline from a newspaper caught Han Xuanyuan's eye. A press called "The Xia Daily" had reported on the recent arrest of Han Wutian.

Using his divine senses to pull it over from the adjacent empty table, Han Xuanyuan read it with furrowed brows, much to the annoyance of Mr. Kong.

He felt insulted at being cut off mid-sentence but could not afford to show it, lest he jeopardizes his relations with this core disciple and future core elder.

'Han Wutian, an open heretic who had previously publicly slandered the Three Gods and their Apostles, has been captured during the joint operation conducted by the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Regiments five days prior.'

Han Xuanyuan was shocked at this development, he had not expected that Han Wutian would actually be caught.

Han Wutian was not an ordinary cultivator by any means, he was an expert among experts. Although Han Xuanyuan had never seen him explode with his full aura, it was still unfathomable compared to the level of that ancestor he had seen in his previous life.

Such an expert was incapacitated and incarcerated by mere Galaxy Realm cultivators? Impossible.

But then he laughed at himself, why was he worrying about such things that were so far out of his reach? He had never even properly reached Nebula Realm combat power in three lives but was already dreaming about the Galaxy Realm.

'Han Wutian has been imprisoned in the second Spirit Forbidden Barrier at Canhai and will be executed in three days.'

Reading this part, Han Xuanyuan's heart stopped beating.

He was stunned, he couldn't believe what he just read.

His initial emotion was shock, then disbelief, and finally an unstoppable anger that flooded his entire body and caused his very soul to shake in pure unadulterated hatred and fury.

But then the cold reality truly hit him, and his emotions that had been in a rollercoaster throughout the past week finally took a turn for the worst.

He was drowned in remorse, shame, self-doubt, and finally sank so deep into depression that he even forgot to put up his facade towards Mr. Kong.

"I need a moment to myself" Han Xuanyuan addressed Mr. Kong with a hoarse voice as he excused himself and went upstairs to one of the private rooms, throwing the receptionist a pouch of spirit stones as he didn't bother to take a jade key.

'I can't waste any more time.' He sighed as he pulled himself together, closing the door and leaning against it before sliding down to the ground.

Taking off his robes and pushing aside all the furniture to a corner of the room, he constructed a high-level concealment array formation around the room, using a blueprint that Han Wutian had personally taught him.

After he settled all these things and popped nearly a dozen fasting pills that he bought when he entered Qinghe city, he sat down cross-legged in a lotus position and began his death seclusion.

'In my second life, big brother Xia Shang had obtained the Peerless Grand Marshal System.'

'With that he managed to ascend to the realm of the one and only 10-Star Commander.'

'But he also provided the rest of us with countless other resources obtained from his system.'

'The highest reward of the Peerless Grand Marshal System was the Domination Sutra, an infinitely strengthening and absolutely invincible cultivation technique.'

'That one technique was responsible for allowing me to singlehandedly suppress countless masters above my realm in the second life.'

The Domination Sutra is only for cultivating in the Law Path.

It's boundlessly powerful methods did not extend to any of the other paths.

The cultivation of the Domination Sutra was also very selective, so much so that even Xia Shang himself was eligible to cultivate it.

Only Han Xuanyuan out of the countless humans on the planet was qualified to practice it, and it instantly propelled him to a powerhouse at the level of a 9-Star Commander.

He was often referred to as a half-step 10-Star Commander by the human experts, as well as the monster tides' leaders.

The greatest pity of everybody was that more people could not cultivate it.

However, in his previous life, after countless hours of trial and error, endless backlash and retribution, he had succeeded in converting the Domination Sutra's methods to the Body Path, allowing his power to soar.

Now, Han Xuanyuan was going to try to extend the limits of this simply unnatural cultivation art to the Spiritual Path as well.

He knew he could not save Han Wutian by the deadline, but he also knew he was a genius.

And he wasn't trying to be arrogant or prideful, he was simply solidifying this fact in his mind to make his confidence soar and allow him to perform miracles.

Oftentimes in life, things don't go the way we want them to not because we are incompetent or unlucky, but rather just because we do not have the confidence to try the more difficult and demanding options.

Right now, Han Xuanyuan was excogitating exactly that, the most difficult and demanding option.

He would find the perfect translation of the Dao Domination Sutra to the Spiritual Domination Sutra, cultivate according to it, achieve supreme power, rescue Han Wutian and bring death to his enemies.

But of course, deep down even he knew it was nothing more than false hope, an unrealistic dream.

But then again, we do not dream of things that are within reach.

Mortals dream of flying in the sky, cultivators dream of becoming immortal, and geniuses dream of walking the road to supremacy.

~~~

"Haha, look at your pathetic grandson Han Wutian! You may have taught him how to cultivate, but you haven't taught him any common sense."

A burly middle-aged man with short hair, dark skin, mutton chops, and wearing crimson robes laced in gold, laughed in Han Wutian's face as he pulled Han Xuanyuan's hair and show Han Wutian his bloodied and bruised appearance.

"This little shit thought, just because he has achieved some small success in cultivation, he can waltz in here and save you?"

Then the man threw Han Xuanyuan onto the stage beside Han Wutian's feet and was about to kick Han Xuanyuan when his shoulder was pulled back by another man who shook his head in disapproval.

This one, with longer hair that fell to his chin, fairer skin, and a scholarly appearance with his rimless glasses, was wearing azure robes laced in silver.

"Today is a grand day for our Three Religions, do not ruin the mood, Leng Qing."

The scholarly man said to the burly one in a reprimanding yet still slightly respectful manner.

Leng Qing, the man in the crimson robes, opened his mouth to retort angrily but was stopped as a cold and irritated voice rang out from behind them.

"Settle down you two, what will the Twelve Holy Powers think if they see us quarrelling?"

A beautiful woman with golden hair, stunning green eyes, and wearing olive colored robes laced in bronze was standing with her hands on her hips behind them, her dark green shawl crossed around her arms

She had come up to the stag to remind the two.

She then said something else to them that Han Xuanyuan couldn't quite catch before bringing them down to the platform where the rest of the people were standing.

Barely managing to open his eyes through the intense pain coursing across his body, Han Xuanyuan saw Han Wutian tied up on a cross with a look of hatred and depression plastered on his face.

So even Han Wutian was powerless? What was he thinking.

But he did not regret one bit, he would rather die fighting for his benefactors than live in fear after letting them be slandered, shamed, and slaughtered.

But just as he was about to get up once more and try to fight once more, he noticed a huge commotion in the sky.

His pupils shot to pinpricks as his heart started palpitating faster and faster.

There was a black spinning vortex in the sky, and it was so astronomically gigantic that the very sight of it induced a primal fear within Han Xuanyuan.

Compared to his measly comprehension of the Skyless Sword Art, this was a true 'Covering the Sky.'

Everybody on the ground was standing upon a vast platform that stretched on for seemingly endless distances, but this vortex was so massive that it cast a shadow on the entire platform.

There were countless experts on here, with experts at the Celestial Realm being reduced to mere servants and waiters carrying food and drinks for the enjoyment of these monsters in human skin.

They were treating this execution as a noble gathering, as if it were some sort of celebration.

Surrounding the stage upon which Han Wutian was going to be crucified, at the feet of whom lay Han Xuanyuan, staring pitifully at the immensity of the sky.

He saw with held breaths as three figures descended from the vortex, gaining a thunderous round of applause from everybody present.

As their feet touched the ground, tremors were sent all across the platform and everybody knelt down in respect for them.

With reverence in their eyes, they stared fanatically at the feet of these three individuals, not daring to stare directly at them as it would mean desecration and that was simply unforgivable.

But Han Xuanyuan didn't care.

He stared straight at their faces, and it made his blood boil with an anger he couldn't seem to comprehend the origin of.

As if sensing the disrespect, all three of the figures turned to stare directly at Han Xuanyuan, casting a pressure that seemed to crush him in his entirety.

But then the pressure immediately disappeared as the three figures' expressions turned to shock, and they looked at Han Xuanyuan with wide, dreading eyes.

Han Xuanyuan's wounds started to rapidly heal, and his bones snapped back into place as a demonic aura flooded out of him.

He had recognized those three figures as monsters from the vision he experienced during his Spiritual Awakening.

The first was a creature of the Blazing Titan Clan, a giant beast with a humanoid body but a bird like face with a flat beak and reddish orange skin.

Behind him, piercing out of his crimson robes laced with gold and decorated with flame patterns, were folded two pairs of orangish-yellow feathered wings.

The second creature was from the Tidal Nexus Clan, an equally large humanoid monster with a disgustingly grotesque fish-like face.

It was wearing azure robes laced with silver and decorated with celestial objects. But the robes could not hide the large fins and deep gills that needed to be exposed to let it breathe.

The third and final creature was one that Han Xuanyuan was already familiar with, having come across it during the final moments of his previous life.

The Umbral Elf Clan, a notorious tribe of dark elves, infamous even among the alien community for its exceptionally cruel and merciless methods.

It had pale gray skin with a faint purplish tint, long ears and a hooked nose with dark red eyes. It had a tall and thin figure with slender, spider-leg-like fingers.

Wearing olive-colored robes like the Galaxy Cluster realm clansman from Han Xuanyuan's previous life, except this one was patterned in mobile depictions of humans burning in a dark fire.

They were among the countless creatures that wronged humanity during ancient times, and now seeing that they were being worshiped, it incited a primal wrath from deep within him.

An unprecedented power exploded from his body, sweeping everything away as his clothes were ripped apart and his sword re-appeared in his hand.

With a wave of his free hand, the vortex in the sky was ripped asunder, letting the golden light of the twin suns of this world to once again shine upon the corrupted land.

Noticing this abnormality, the rest of the crowd turned to stare at the three 'Godkin.'

The Godkin in question, were the three alien monsters, and they were equally shocked at this new development.

A deep-set terror embedded directly in their very bloodlines made them tremble in trepidation.

Han Xuanyuan pointed his sword at the three Godkin much to the dismay of the other cultivators who shouted at him, ordered him to apologize, bend down and kneel, cut off his head as punishment and so on.

But he completely ignored them as he made his way towards the Godkin who were standing right in front of the stage.

"What are you staring at, you filthy mongrels? Go unshackle him!"

He barked at the three, pointing at the cross Han Wutian was tied to, causing them to shiver in fright before heeding his command and rushing to untie Han Wutian.

The rest of the cultivators present were utterly mortified at his actions, staring at him wide-eyed in disbelief for several breaths.

But then the realization struck them, regardless of how the boy did it, he brought great shame to the kinsmen of the Three Gods, this was a matter of grave consequence.

If they did nothing and just watched idly as this went on, the anger of the gods would be cataclysmic.

So one by one, all the Celestial Realm experts went to suppress Han Xuanyuan, but they could not even get to within ten meters of him.

His Oppressive Divine Senses had completely locked out the entire area, turning it into an impregnable invisible fortress.

Next came the Nebula Realm, the Starfield Realm, Star Cluster Realm, Black Hole Realm, Quasar Realm, and finally the Galaxy Realm, but even they couldn't enter within five meters of him!

This was not as simple as a breakthrough.

This was a transformation, a total internal metamorphosis.

The demonic aura that raged around him enhanced all of his powers by a vast margin, to the point where he could suppress Galaxy Realm cultivators with only his divine senses.

In another breath, the Godkin had finished untying Han Wutian who would have fallen to the ground with a loud thump if it weren't for Han Xuanyuan who caught him in time and crushed a teleportation jade to immediately escape the place.