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Chapter 25: Collecting Dues (Part 1)

Chapter 25: Collecting Dues (Part 1)

As Zhi flew through the air, he had naturally noticed the army following him. He could have flown a lot faster and already arrived at the enemy camps but he slowed down so that the others could keep pace with him. Zhi kept observing all of them as they flew as was pleasantly surprised when he saw them forming ranks mid flight. They all seemed to have their own squad and during the flight they all kept changing positions to find their squads.

By the time they reached the enemy camp, they had stopped shuffling around, seemingly having found their squads and formed their ranks. Zhi just smiled when he saw that and disregarding any courtesy, he just seemed to step on air as he suddenly flew through the air like he had been released from a bowstring. The enemy had seen them coming so they also formed ranks but sneers were evident on their faces when they saw all of them coming towards them.

They outnumbered them a hundred to one, to disregard everything and just attack them like this, to them it meant, that Dragon Cross had lost all other options. In their eyes, this was a final resistance they could put up.

When they saw Zhi just leave the group and fly towards them so recklessly, one of the people even smiled and said in a ridiculing manner, “Seems like they had completely lost all hope.” Until now Zhi had been keeping his aura restrained, so none of them had sensed that a Primadorial God was flying towards them. When Zhi was only a few hundred meters away from them, he released his restrained aura. The domineering Aura of a Dragon coupled with the oppressive aura of a Primadorial God spread out and struck them.

Since Zhi also released all of his killing intent towards them, the people under the Second Tribulation either blacked out from the fear or were even scared to death. Those that had passed the Second Tribulation took a collective step back when they felt the oppressive, murderous aura that was directed towards all of them. The aura sent shivers down their spines as fear started sprouting inside them.

Since most of these people had never seen Zhi, they could not understand where he came from. Until now, they had always had the upper hand, so they became a bit complacent. Now that Zhi flew towards them like an Ancient God of War and Death, they just lost all of their courage. In a large fight, what mattered more than strength was morale. Before, their morale had been high from their continuous wins and Dragon Cross’s morale had been low from the continuous losses. However, Dragon Cross’s morale had skyrocketed when they saw Zhi.

In their eyes, Zhi was akin to a God that could reverse any bad situation and create a miracle after a miracle. Now, when Zhi had flown towards the enemies by releasing such an oppressive, murderous aura, he had shattered their morale. When Zhi finally reached their front line, the enemies started dropping like flies. Zhi needed only a casual sweep to take care of most of them, so the current situation was in his favour.

Zhi’s understanding of the Naginata Art hadn’t deepened in the past ten years, so he was currently only relying on the forms and his oppressive Qi and his stronger body. When the enemies in the back line felt the oppressive aura closing in, they felt as though an invisible hand was choking them. They didn’t get the full brunt of the attack like the front line had but theirs was about half, even less, than what the front line suffered. So their losses weren’t as disastrous as the front lines were but fear crept to their hearts when they saw their front line drop down like flies. The morale that was still positive in the backline, suddenly started dropping as well.

One of the Peak Paragon old men, who had gathered his courage, shouted towards Zhi, “How underhanded, for a Primadorial God to come and slaughter weaker foes like this. Do you have no shame what-so-ever?” Hearing this Zhi stopped and looked towards the old man. Everyone stopped and it was as if the time had frozen, no one moved and Zhi said in a ridiculing tone, “Do you have noodles for brains? You gather an army that is a hundred times bigger than my Dragon Cross and then have the face to say that I am using underhanded methods?”

Hearing this, the old man ‘s mouth stayed shut. The battlefield had turned as silent as a graveyard during nights. Even the Dragon Cross members, who had now arrived at the battlefield, just stayed on their positions and did not immediately start fighting.

Seeing the old man shut up, Zhi said in a loud voice, “You shitfucks bullied my Dragon Cross when I was not here. Now that I am here, I will give back all the suffering and humiliation my Dragon Cross suffered over the past ten years.” He then took a deep breath and yelled in a domineering manner, “SO NONE OF YOU SELF RIGHTEOUS PRICKS SHOULD NOT EVEN DREAM OF LEAVING ALIVE!” As he yelled that, he raised his Naginata and a single word echoed out in the minds of Dragon Cross members, “KILL!”

The Dragon Cross’s members eyes turned bloodshot as they raised their weapons and yelled out, “KILL!” before they started pouring in the enemies ranks like a raging river. Whoever was in their way, fell by their blade. Seeing Dragon Cross slaughter so mercilessly, Zhi just nodded his head inwardly and stepped on air again. As he shot through the air towards the backline, the United Front made of a hundred Sect and Clans, collapsed. Zhi’s domineering and merciless slaughter had scared them witless and then seeing every able member of Dragon Cross killing all of them like they had lost all of their reasoning, their morale plummeted to the ground and everyone started fleeing. Their morale had plummeted and they were overcome by fear.

On the other hand, Dragon Cross had everyone in a berserk state and they also had a Primadorial God that did not give a damn about courtesies. Usually, Primadorial God’s were Ancestor level people, who did not show up unless the Clan or Sect was facing immediate destruction. So most fights were usually done by people of lower cultivation because losing them was still acceptable but if the Ancestor fell, then they would have lost their most important pillar. This was actually the case here as well.

When Zhi fell into a comatose state, it was not known when he would awaken, it was not even known if he would awaken at all. Zhi had struck fear into all of the Clans and Sects with his unlimited potential and unreal fighting strength. This United Front had actually hoped that they would be able to take down Dragon Cross and kill Zhi before he awakened. Now that Zhi had awakened, none of them would actually dare to attack Dragon Cross any more even if you gave them a hundred time more guts and courage.

When the bloody battle finally ended, every single survivor of Dragon Cross was covered in blood from head to toe. Zhi was no exception to this. The ones who took part in this battle were only the members of Dragon Cross, so on the Island, when the people, who were from the three Clans, saw that Zhi had led everyone to victory like this, they truly felt fear towards Zhi. Inwardly, however, they were thanking their lucky stars that the Main Clans had told them to ally themselves with Dragon Cross instead of against it.

The Phoenix Clan would have allied themselves any ways because they had made an alliance but the Tiger Emperor Clan and Black Tortoise Clan had at most some good business ties with Dragon Cross, nothing more. They had truly grit their teeth when an envoy from the Main Clan had come and told them to ally themselves with Dragon Cross. In the beginning, they had cursed their luck and did not put a lot of effort in but as time passed and they heard, how people regarded Zhi as their God, they had been disgusted at first.

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They could not see how they can put all their hopes on one person, yes, he created some miracles but he was in a comatose state right now. The people from Dragon Cross however, never lost their hope in Zhi. Now that these three Clans saw what had happened the moment Zhi took the lead, they truly felt very lucky that they had allied themselves with them, not against them. They also saw that, against all odds, one person could reverse a situation of this scale.

They had always been on the losing side but now with just the appearance of this one person, the entire situation had been reversed. The Matriarch just closed her eyes as she said, “Now I understand, why this place is called “Dragon Cross”.”

The two other representatives looked at the Matriarch in confusion. She just opened his eyes and sighed, “The people on the Island are the Cross and Zhi is the Dragon. The Dragon coils around the Cross in a protective manner. Usually, the Dragon sleeps but when someone tries to take the Cross, the Dragon bares his fangs.” Hearing this, the two representatives faces flickered.

The Matriarch’s explanation made a lot of sense and usually the name of the Sect or a Clan, represented the Clans or Sects meaning. For example, the Phoenix Clan was the Phoenix Clan because of their Phoenix Bloodline and so on. Now the three Clans also saw that, why their Main Clans had ordered them to ally themselves with Dragon Cross. From the years here, they had gotten a good understanding about Zhi’s personality from speaking with the Four Island Lords or with Fanghong, Long ancestor.

Zhi was a person who always remembered debts and always repaid them in the same manner. If you showed him kindness, he would do the same. If you showed him enmity…. The answer to that was before their eyes and it couldn’t be clearer.

Back on the battlefield, Zhi took a headcount of how many people survived on their side. About a quarter of their total force had fallen. Before coming here, the number of people they had, was about half of the number of people Zhi remembered. So now, compared to ten years ago, their total number was below half. This was something that made Zhi smile bitterly but it wasn’t all bad. A lot of people had progressed their cultivation by leaps and bounds during these ten years.

They even had a few more Primadorial Gods that had broken through from the Paragon Realm. Everyone was silently looking Zhi and Zhi just told them, “Return! Rest up and we will go collect all the dues they owe us!” Hearing this, everyone cheered as they flew back to the Island. Only Zhi stayed there standing in the air, looking over the bloody battlefield. Seeing Zhi stay there, all of the Core Members of the Island like Fanghong, Island Lords and everyone of the Primadorial God Realm stayed there looking at him.

Zhi looked over all of them and sighed. Of all the Island Lords, only Feng and Zhishi had survived, however, Feng had lost his left arm from a bit higher than the elbow and Zhishi had lost one of eyes. There was a deep bleeding gash running over his right eye.

Zhi looked at them and asked, “Do you think I did the right thing?” No one answered. This question was something that had no right answer because if Zhi hadn’t done this, what would they have done? Kept hiding on the Island? At that moment, this was the right answer, now there may seem a hundred better ways to have approached this but they were useless now. Everyone is a Genius speaking of the mistakes of the past. Long Ancestor just sighed and said, “At the moment, this was our only option. If you had not gone out like this, the last bit of morale we had, would have crumbled.”

Everyone nodded to this. At that time, this was their only option because if Zhi had decided to take things slow and steady, it would have created a misunderstanding that even Zhi could not reverse this situation. Then the last thread of hope Dragon Cross had, would have faded and their morale would have just crumbled. Zhi just sighed deeply and started turning to head back when suddenly, there was ripple near them. Everyone immediately tensed up and took their battle positions. As they looked at the ripples, suddenly over a hundred figures appeared. Every single one of them excluded an aura of a Primadorial God. Feeling this, everyone’s faces fell.

Zhi stood before the group and shielded them from the collective aura, however, his face was very grim at the moment. Zhi said mentally, “Go back to the Island.” Everyone looked at Zhi in shock but before anyone could say anything, Zhi turned his head and tossed the Command Medallion to Fanghong and yelled at them, “NOW!”

Startled by the yell, every single one of them grit their teeth as they flew back, following the order. They did not know what Zhi had planned but they understood that they would not be able to help Zhi at all. Suddenly, the Long Ancestor stopped as he saw a familiar figure amongst the group. His face turned serious as he said to Fanghong, “Go back to the Island. I am staying.”

Fanghong was startled by this but before he could say anything, Long Ancestor told him seriously, “I still have the other me born from the Nirvana Rebirth. If this old body dies, it won’t affect me much.” Hearing this, Fanghong just nodded as he flew towards the Island with clenched fists. Although he had reached the late stage of the Primadorial God Realm, he still could not help them. What pained him even more was that he had to leave his son there all alone to face against everything again. He had just gotten him back and now he felt as though, he would lose him again. When they had reached back to the Island, the Long Ancestor arrived by Zhi’s side.

Zhi looked at his serious face and asked, “What are you doing?” The Long Ancestor didn’t even glance at him, he kept his gaze locked on single old man that stood before the group of people. He said to Zhi with a resentful voice, “The one in front is Sheng Jack.”

Hearing this, Zhi was startled for a second but then a wide smile spread on his face. The puppet master had decided to come out to the open by himself and delivered himself to Zhi on a silver platter. Zhi looked at the group of old men and said, “So, have all of you foggies decided to come and die?”

Hearing this, the old man that Long Ancestor had been intently observing, just laughed loudly as he spread out his Origin Realm aura, “You make me laugh little brat. You truly think you can take care of all of us by yourselves?” Zhi looked at him and just laughed, “Well, I can take care of a pathetic worm like you by not doing anything at all. Now then, do you feel happy about all the shit that you have stirred up?” Zhi’s words clearly angered the old man.

What made him cautious was that Zhi’s face didn’t even change for a moment when he spread out his aura. It was like it wasn’t even there. The old man just snorted, “Hmph, you speak so confidently but how do you plan on taking on all of us?” As the old man said that, he spread out his hands and glanced behind him. Zhi just smiled sinisterly, “I will do it like this.” As he said so, he snapped his fingers and a huge dome of blood covered all of them.

None of them could not react before the Dome had fully formed. Jack’s face fell as he tried to break the Dome with no luck. He looked towards Zhi and asked in a cold voice, “You think that you can kill us all with just a dome?” The Long Ancestor also looked at Zhi in suspicion but Zhi just smiled and said, “Blood Demons, Arise!” As Zhi said so, the Blood all around started gathering and forming into 15 Figures in armour. These figures all had an aura that was on par with Sheng Jack but they all just stood there blankly.

Even Sheng Jacks face fell when he felt the murderous, bloody aura those figures excluded. He asked in an enraged tone, “What kind of a sinister method is this?!” Zhi just chuckled coldly, “This is called the “Blood Demon Formation. I have to thank you guys for arrogantly placing all of your forces at my doorstep. If not for that, I would have never been able to use this Formation.” Hearing this, all of their faces fell even more. How could they not understand the blatant slap on their faces from Zhi’s words.

These figures had all been made from the Blood of their people and now they are going to kill them. This formation was one of the most sinister and most powerful Formations Zhi had acquired form the memories he had obtained in the past ten years. Sheng Jack released all of his aura and dashed towards Zhi yelling, “Take down the Formation Caster and the Formation will cease to work!” This sentence woke up all the old men from their thoughts and they resolutely looked towards Zhi. However, their face paled when they saw what happened next.

Just as Jack was about to reach Zhi, he just pointed his finger towards him and while smiling sinisterly, said, “Kneel.” As Zhi said so, Jack stopped and actually fell on his knees. All of Jack’s aura was gone and his face betrayed a look of horror.