Inside the imperial hall knelt the two Elite War Generals. Despite their ruthlessness and domineering strength, they still obediently knelt before the Human Emperor with their heads bowed.

"Rise. How come there's only two of you?" The Human Emperor plainly questioned.

Both of the Elite War Generals gulped and one of them took the courage and spoke up. They knew that they had to face this sooner or later.

"M-my King, Elite War General Er was unfortunately killed in the process of fighting with the Patriarch of Righteous Sword Sect," Elite War General Yi nervously spoke.

The Human Emperor was silent before speaking up again, "Since both of you have succeeded in cleaning the Dark Forest Region, I will let this go. However, remember this. There won't be a next time."

The Elite War Generals sighed in relief as they thought that they have overcame this obstacle. However, another challenge soon presented itself.

"In a week's time, I want a hundred virgin girls and a hundred virgin boys to be brought before me. While you are at it, choose another suitable candidate for the Elite War General position. Do not fail me this time."

"Yes, My King!" Both of the Elite War Generals replied without a shred of hesitation. Although they knew that the current Human Emperor was extremely inhumane, they dare not voiced out their objections in front of absolute strength.

"Dismissed!" With that, the Human Emperor waved his sleeves and walked further into the imperial hall.

Once the presence of the Human Emperor was gone, Elite War General San immediately cursed, "F*ck! This is way too cruel. How are we supposed to this?"

As if he did not hear his question, Elite War General Yi gazed into the distance, with occasional flashes in his eyes.

Upon seeing that Elite War General Yi was staring into space, Elite War General San gave him a small nudge before asking him again.

"Hais... Capture the children from the village located outside of the capital." Elite War General Yi immediately awoke from his stupor and regained that ruthless look.

After giving the orders, both of the Elite War Generals once again started to prepare for their next mission.

***

Imperial Cultivation Chamber.

In a spacious secret underground room within the palace, the Human Emperor firmly walked towards a stone platform with several mysterious runes etched on it. If one look closely, they could feel that the runes were giving off a sinister and devilish aura, causing one's soul to tremble uncontrollably.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The Human Emperor then placed his hands on the rune while infusing his Qi into the runes. Soon enough, the walls at the side opened before revealing several cages with naked humans in them.

Upon seeing that they were summoned, the naked humans in the cages started to scream in fear while some begged for mercy. Only a few of them remained silent as they stared blankly at the floor, it was as if they had lost all hope.

"Quiet!" With an intimidating roar, the prisoners were all suppressed by the force from the Qi. Next, with a wave of his hands, several cages opened and immediately, the chosen ones were then forcefully grabbed by an unknown force and after struggling for awhile, they exploded into blood pools, forming a river of blood.

When the blood touches the runes, the mysterious runes glowed and started to absorb the river of blood at an increasingly fast rate. Without waiting for long, the river of blood was absorbed, leaving behind the stench of blood.

Once the sacrificial ceremony was done, the Human Emperor then retracted all the cages and nonchalantly left the Cultivation Chamber.

***

A dark figure was standing amidst the ruins, observing the surroundings; Whenever the figure tired to touch something, his hands would always pass through it. He was Shadow.

All of a sudden, it struck him. Isn't this Righteous Sword Sect?! Immediately, he ran towards the graves of the Righteous Sword Sect. His mind was in disarray; How did I get here?! What if... What if...

When Shadow reached the graves, the scene in front of him caused him to froze.

In front of him stood a large crowd of people with their backs facing him. Shadow could tell that they were disciples of the Righteous Sword Sect based on their clothes.

"G-guys?" Shadow hoarsely said, his throat turning dry.

Slowly, one of the disciples turned around. To be precise, only his head turned. However, what shocked Shadow wasn't the illogical turning of the head but the face it belonged to.

On the face was two bloody holes which had replaced the eye sockets and in that moment, it looked extremely terrifying.

"L-Lin Fan?!" Shadow could not help but call out his name. Even though Lin Fan looked extremely terrifying right now, Shadow still wanted to run over and hugged him.

However, Lin Fan's next sentence stopped Shadow in his tracks. "Shadow... Do you know how terribly we died?! It was all your fault! Why have you not avenged us? Why..." Lin Fan's tone was extremely cold and eerie.

"I... I..." But before Shadow could reply, the rest of the disciples turned their heads around, each one of them died differently, however, one thing was common, they all died miserably.

In the next moment, their mouths opened and started to chant. Words like "Why?", "We died so miserably!" and "Your fault!" flooded the space.

As their voices resounded in Shadow's ears, his heart started to ache with his hands trembling slightly. Eventually, Shadow's right eye started to give off a golden light and slowly, he stretched out his right hand, which was similarly, emitting out a radiant golden glow.

"Goodbye Lin Fan. Goodbye everyone." Shadow gazed at the crowd with sorrow. Just as they started to run towards him, Shadow softly murmured, "Holy Soul."

In a flash, the entire scene was enveloped by a dazzling golden light which seemingly threatened to pierce through the heavens.

When Shadow reopened his eyes again, he discovered that everything in front of him was quite dark. After adjusting his eyes to the darkness, he found out that he was still in the cave.

'So it was a nightmare...' Shadow thought as he struggled to stand.

After using the colossal sword as support to stand up, Shadow felt that something was amiss. Suddenly, his body gave a jerk before throwing the colossal sword into the distance.

'How did the sword end up in my hands? How am I still alive? And more importantly, how did I even manage to throw the sword?!' Shadow's mind was once again in chaos.

After calming himself down, Shadow adopted his cultivation stance and to his horror, he realized that he could not absorb the Dark Qi at all. However, after checking his body carefully, he realized that the unknown dark mist had completely fused with the Spirit Qi and all of the Dark Qi had all been replaced by Spirit Qi.

Shadow was dumbfounded. 'Did I just skip a whole cultivation realm?!'

However, he swiftly recovered from his daze and went forward to pick up the God Decimating Sword. As expected, he pulled it out of the ground with ease, it was as if there was a bond between the sword and Shadow.

Shadow then carefully scrutinized the colossal sword. It was incomparably sharp while maintaining its previous thickness and size.

Filled with anticipation, Shadow advanced towards the entrance and with a casual horizontal slash, an immense force was brought forth, completely obliterating stone walls into smithereens.

Amidst the dust, a lone dark figure sauntered out with two distinct colors radiating from his eyes. In his right hand was a colossal sword that was firmly placed on his back. In whole, he was the epitome of Godly.

When Shadow flew up into the sky, the cave that he previously resided in collapsed and a grand voice sounded out, "Congratulations, you have mastered the technique and received my legacy. Now, show the world you might!"

With a grin, Shadow spread out his divine sense and soon enough, he located a Spirit ranked demonic beast. Demonic beasts were much stronger than ferocious beasts due to their demonic bloodlines. Spirit ranked Demonic beats usually had their own Demonic beats army and that was what Shadow was looking for.

'I will definitely avenge you guys!' With that, Shadow flew into the direction of the Spirit ranked beast.