Opposite them, Ye Xuan remained silent. In truth, even he hadn’t expected to kill these people so effortlessly. He originally thought they would at least be able to resist his attacks for a while, and that he would need to unleash his Dragon Divine-Demonic Overlord Body to annihilate them. But now, it seemed he had underestimated the might of the Dragon Soul.
By unleashing his Dragon Soul at full power, his strength had indeed only increased by two layers compared to when he used the Hidden Dragon Technique. However, he had overlooked the tremendous pressure the Dragon Soul Power imposed on his opponents!
The Dragon Soul was, after all, the Beast Soul of a Divine Beast. With the might of a Divine Beast’s Beast Soul, what difficulty was there in killing someone across a nine-layer cultivation gap and a major realm?
The Beast Soul Continent was boundlessly vast, teeming with countless billions of cultivators. Yet across the entire continent, there probably weren’t even a thousand people who had awakened a Divine Beast’s Beast Soul. In other words, it was a one-in-a-billion occurrence.
"If I had known killing you would be as easy as slaughtering livestock, why would I have waited until my cultivation broke through to the 6th Layer... I caused my cousin to die for nothing..." Ye Xuan sighed, his self-blame palpable.
Had he known it would be this effortless, he would have unleashed his full Dragon Soul Power back at the 5th Layer of the Demon Spirit Realm. It was his own fault for underestimating the Dragon Soul’s might. Without the concealment of the Hidden Dragon Technique, how could mere mortals withstand the might of a Divine Dragon!
As his voice faded, Ye Xuan walked over to Sun Zhenwu. The only surviving members of the Sun Family were Sun Zhenwu and Sun Juguang.
Sun Juguang’s cultivation was feeble. Had Sun Zhenwu not been protecting him all this time, the Divine Dragon’s might would have paralyzed him with terror, even if he hadn’t awakened a Beast Soul. Under the full release of the Dragon Soul, the pressure of a Divine Dragon would make even humans tremble.
The only one not trembling was Blood Princess. A corpse knew no fear. The only things that could strike fear into her were the Demon Subduing Scripture and monks of the Buddhist Dao.
"Now, it’s your turn. Do you know why I saved you for last?" Ye Xuan’s icy voice rang out.
Sun Zhenwu furrowed his brows tightly. "What do you mean? Do you actually plan to kill me? I am a City Lord! Do you have any idea what price you’ll pay if you kill me?" Despite his fear of Ye Xuan, he could not discard his dignity as a City Lord.
"I know," Ye Xuan said indifferently.
"You know, yet you still dare?"
"Why wouldn’t I dare?! If I don’t kill you, am I supposed to just let the tiger return to the mountain and leave a disaster waiting to happen?"
"Ye Xuan, do you truly know the price? If you kill me, you will be hunted down by an alliance of every City Lord. And by City Lords, I include those of the Main Cities." Fearing Ye Xuan didn’t understand, Sun Zhenwu elaborated.
Ye Xuan let out a cold chuckle. Refusing to waste any more words, he used practical action to show the man exactly whether he dared or not! He suddenly reached out and seized Sun Zhenwu by the throat.
Sun Zhenwu tried to resist, but he was completely powerless. Clad in the power of the Golden Dragon, Ye Xuan was unstoppable. Sun Zhenwu couldn’t muster even a hundredth of his strength.
Lifting Sun Zhenwu into the air, Ye Xuan walked to the edge of the town wall. Looking down at the chaos and the massive swath of dead troops from the Three-Star Main Towns, he let out a low roar.
"This is Sun Zhenwu, City Lord of Hero City! Today, I will mount his head at the gates of my town! I will tell the whole world that whoever bullies my Ye Family will only find death!"
"What! He... he said he’s going to kill a City Lord!"
"Does he not know the price of killing a City Lord?"
The Town Mayors of the Three-Star Main Towns were entirely dumbfounded. Killing a City Lord was an unforgivable crime. In the Moyue Kingdom, it meant absolute, certain death. This was the very reason why all experts wanted to become City Lords. This Mayor of Ye Family Town was far too audacious!
"Ye Xuan, if you kill me, your Ye Family will have no future! As vast as the world is, there will be absolutely no place for you to hide," Sun Zhenwu spoke again. Though his words were tough, his eyes were already filled with panic.
"Ye Xuan, are you truly going to kill him? Think thrice before you act," Ye Zeyun suddenly said, appearing by Ye Xuan’s side. After the incident with the Gongsun Family, he had gained some understanding regarding the fall of a City Lord. He knew that a City Lord absolutely could not be killed!
But Ye Xuan said firmly, "Grandfather, I’ve thought it through very clearly. He must die."
"But our Ye Family will face the pursuit of all the other City Lords."
Ye Xuan pointed at the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon above his head. "Is there a difference? Today, I exposed my Dragon Soul. There will definitely be no shortage of people who want to kill me. I’ve already become a public enemy of the kingdom."
"A public enemy of the kingdom? What do you mean? Is there a problem with the Dragon Soul? Awakening a Dragon Soul should be a cause for great celebration."
It seemed Ye Zeyun was unaware that if a person who possessed a Dragon Soul died, Dragon Blood could still be extracted from their corpse. Although this was only a legend, there would definitely be people coming to test its validity.
Ye Xuan explained, "The blood in my body can be refined into Dragon Blood."
"What!"
With Ye Xuan’s explanation, Ye Zeyun instantly grasped the gravity of the situation.
Dragons were creatures of myth. A Divine Dragon hadn’t appeared on the Beast Soul Continent in a very long time. Only ancient tomes recorded details about Divine Dragons and Dragon Blood. But over all these years, it seemed no one had ever heard of anyone awakening a Dragon Soul anywhere. Therefore, these matters had all faded into mere legends.
Everyone believed that Divine Dragons were extinct and that all Dragon Blood had been depleted. Although Dragon Blood could be extracted after death, if the person had been dead for too long, the power within the Dragon Blood would eventually dry up.
"If you kill him, have you thought about what to do next?" Ye Zeyun spoke again.
"After I kill him, I’ll tell you my plans," Ye Xuan said indifferently.
As his voice fell, Ye Xuan produced an Earth-rank weapon. Golden Spiritual Qi enveloped the longsword. Wielding the Golden Sword, Ye Xuan slashed toward Sun Zhenwu’s head.
Sun Zhenwu turned pale with fright and bellowed, "You lowly bastard, how dare you!"
How dare you.
His voice was still echoing in the air.
With a soft SWISH, Sun Zhenwu’s head and body parted ways.
THUD.
His body crashed heavily to the ground; only his head remained, grasped firmly in Ye Xuan’s hand. Sun Zhenwu was dead. Ye Xuan had actually killed a Sub-City Lord.
In that instant, the scene erupted into an uproar.
"Heavens, he actually killed Lord Sun!"
"How could he be so incredibly audacious? He’s courting death!"
"My god... a Three-Star Main Town killing a City Lord. I wouldn’t even dare to imagine it."
In this world, there actually were cases of City Lords being killed. But others always relied on assassinations, ensuring no one could find out who the culprit was. But this Ye Xuan was way too arrogant, wasn’t he? He murdered a City Lord right in front of a million cultivators! Wasn’t this a blatant provocation against the dignity of all City Lords?
"Sun Zhenwu is dead. You were only following orders, so disperse. I won’t kill you," Ye Xuan spoke once more.
As these words fell, the Town Mayors of the Three-Star Main Towns exchanged glances and ultimately, by tacit agreement, withdrew their troops.
"Everyone, retreat!"
The sound of horns echoed across the entirety of Pingye. These were the horns of retreat. The blasts rose and fell in continuous waves as the great army began to withdraw, kicking up clouds of dust.
Half an hour later.
Ye Family Town returned to tranquility. Ye Xuan glanced down at the base of the town wall, where numerous corpses and bones lay scattered. The carcasses of the Beasts were piled everywhere, forming veritable hills. Some of the Beasts hadn’t fallen to their deaths, but unable to take flight again, they wailed miserably on the ground. Beneath each Beast lay the crushed bodies of hundreds of cultivators.
"The Patriarch is mighty! We’ve won!"
"An army of a million besieged us, yet our Ye Family managed to emerge completely unscathed. This is simply a miracle!"
"Patriarch, you truly are someone who creates miracles time and time again!"
The belated cheers of the Ye Family finally rang out.