Chapter 2022: Hunting The Remnants
Although Davis left the Emperor Sword Sect just like that, as though the death of its upper hierarchy had nothing to do with him, he was feeling good about avenging Old Man Garvin. It was as though a weight had been taken off of his shoulders. He definitely wouldn’t call it a burden but something that must be done to repay.
Davis thought about a few things as he headed towards the east. He arrived at the Territory Gate there, guarded by the Emperor Sword Sect’s people, who obediently lowered their heads at his arrival. Most likely, they had already gotten the news of the destruction of their sect since they shriveled in his presence.
Without bothering them, he entered the Territory Gate and arrived at the Soul Palace Territory, whereupon a beautiful array of women were waiting for him, and in the front was none other than Yotan, a Soul Empress who had grown under his wing. Beside her also stood Threelotus. However, they all cupped their hands and bowed till their waists.
"We greet the Palace Master."
"Palace Master. I apologize for my uselessness." Yotan instantly spoke.
"It’s not your fault."
Davis shook his head, "Who’s going to lead my legion if you die?"
Yotan didn’t really have an expression on her face, but there was a ripple of delight in her eyes. The prospect of being the Emperor of Death’s, no, the man who could control both Life Laws and Death Laws’ Legion Commander was not only attractive, but it gave her an immense position of power, allowing her to execute his authority while receiving his trust.
She wanted to repay that trust with all her might and soul.
Davis had previously given them spirit cores during the competition to be used, and now, he exchanged more of them again. Of course, his legion was made of both genders, but it was just, Yotan was here with her maidens for reasons unknown. Perhaps, they really were just defending this location, awaiting his presence since they would’ve sensed his invasion of the Emperor Sword Sect.
In any case, knowing that many Soul Emperors and Soul Empresses would be born in a month or two, he gave them more light-attributed spirit cores and left the scene, heading towards the southeast.
There, he crossed the Territory Gate and entered the Poison Rift Valley, whereupon he got the map from his Solitary Soul Avatar, who received it from the All-Seeing Emperor’s subordinate. Next, he went to the first location, striking at the heart of the remnants with his deathly soul force.
"Ahaha! I left you people alone as I couldn’t be bothered to end your lives, but you all just had to want to poke the hornet’s nest, huh?"
Deathly energy billowed like a fog everywhere, reaping lives as it saw fit.
Davis covered entire kilometers in his deathly fog, killing the wicked path remnants who tried to escape. Within a minute, an entire area covering about fifty kilometers was decimated, stricken with corpses.
Davis didn’t instantly leave. Instead, he sat mid-air and took in the fresh air of death. He didn’t waste much of his time, just absorbing as many insights as he could before leaving.
At first, it was the Poison Rift Valley’s remnants, then the Deprived Hymn Abode’s remnants, but the other two remnants escaped by this time. However, Davis didn’t let them escape, scouring the lands with his soul sense to find them. He found they had escaped through a spatial formation that was now broken, but it was too bad he could find the other node.
In a few minutes, he paid them a visit and struck them, killing about three hundred thousand people. They dropped dead like flies when the deathly fog engulfed them.
From dealing with the first remnants to now, he had killed about ninety Ninth Stage Powerhouses. Each of them tried to escape the best, but they couldn’t escape death.
Naturally, there were teenagers. However, he left those same youths last time only to see some of them turn into ruthless killers with karmic sin swirling around them. Obviously, they had fallen into dire straits and had to survive by killing innocents first to establish power. If it was going to be like this, later ending up targeting him and his family as a form of retaliation, then these so-called children with karmic sin on their bodies were better off dead in his mind.
Perhaps, some could turn out like Schleya, having a semblance of good in them, but he possessed not even an iota of confidence in them now as he had already given them a chance. Even if he left them alive, it was more likely they would remember he was the one who slaughtered their father and mother or masters, seeking vengeance on him and his family.
However, he didn’t kill the babies and children below three years old. He couldn’t harden his heart to kill them but instead left them in a nearby city belonging to mortals.
The funny thing was these mortal cities were the wicked path’s hunting grounds. Most mortal cities in the wicked path Territories didn’t mean that there were no cultivators. It just meant that it was unlikely for cultivators to exceed the Third Stage in power. Even if they were, they would at most be at the Fourth Stage.
The wicked path people would later come to these villages, towns, and cities to recruit children of cultivating age to their sects in a vile manner, forming a vicious cycle. It was more likely these babies would be integrated into the wicked path sects again after they’ve grown up.
Davis didn’t know what to feel about this matter other than eradicating the wicked path, but he lacked time himself, considering he now knew the danger of the Calamity Light.
He was not a saint, but he wasn’t willing to be the devil either unless required. He felt that it would be apt if he handed over this task to his Soul Legion as a process to temper them in the upcoming months.
Nonetheless, he continued hunting down those vile people who dared to send assassins to his place in a few more locations, killing the remnants from the Poison Rift Valley, Deprived Hymn Abode, Infernal Lightning Palace, and Blood Reaper Underworld, ending up with 129 Peak-Level Spirit Stone Vein Sources in the end.
There was a little bit of doubt in his mind, but once he caught a higher-up and investigated, he learned that some of these Vein Sources were actually funded by the righteous path to assassinate his people.
Who other than could it be other than the Vast Sky Emperor Palace?
’It’s no wonder these remnants gained the audacity out of nowhere to target my Alstreim Family and even mine.’
He already guessed this should be the case, but once he obtained conclusive evidence, he couldn’t help but laugh, turning to look in the direction of the Vast Sky Emperor Palace.
At this moment, he received information that the Vast Sky Emperor Palace had gone into full defense mode. Likely, they received information that he stormed the Emperor Sword Sect and destroyed it, causing their wits to fall and backbones to break, knowing that they were probably next.
Moreover, there were rumors indicating that the Vast Sky Emperor escaped into the Eastern Magical Beast Territories and even the Wicked Path Territories, leaving the Vast Sky Emperor Palace to fend for themselves.
However, this kind of information manipulation was already popular in the modern world, so Davis couldn’t even be bothered to take a look at it. He also received word from Lea, who was closely monitoring the Territory Gates of the Vast Sky Emperor Palace, that the Vast Sky Emperor didn’t appear nor leave.
It was impossible to cover the Territory Fog of the Vast Sky Emperor Palace, but Davis was fairly sure that the Vast Sky Emperor hid in his mini-realm. After all, at this point, Davis came to deeply understand that each hegemon was sitting on top of a mini-realm’s inheritance. However, it was unknown what kind of defenses the mini-realm was equipped with.
As for the promises the Vast Sky Emperor made, that he was going to kill himself and leave his inheritance in the tomb that he buried himself in, who was going to believe that stuff?
Nonetheless, Davis felt that it would be best if he slept for a day to clear the exhaustion and attacked the Vast Sky Emperor Palace that was bound to have greater defenses but not so much than the Emperor Sword Sect. However, he also felt that the Vast Sky Emperor was truly trying to escape from his grasp, escape this world by ascending.
’Well, he probably recovered from his injuries hastily using every resource possible...’
Davis inwardly sneered as it was bound to cause some sequela over sequela if he gets injured by heavenly lightning. He rushed towards the north from the Blood Reaper Underworld Territory, entering the Heaven Gazing Sect’s Territory.
There, he met two people who intercepted him.
"What do you two want?"
Davis cast a derisive smile as he looked at the Mandate Emperor and the Karmic Guardian Emperor.