Ba Yue turned her head to look elsewhere. He Xiao had been captured and taken away. A powerful Immortal had not even been able to resist. The human civilization that Lu Yin came from turned out to be far stronger than they had imagined.
What would the future hold?
Hong Xia spoke in a low voice. “Jiu Wen, I’ll give you one last chance. What has already happened can be treated as if it never occurred. Crimson Starshade will remain Crimson Starshade. I can even leave that human civilization alone, as long as you bring Bing Xu and the others back.”
The fact that Bing Xu and the others had been captured meant that they intended to break his Twelvefold Path of Dispassion.
This attack had been planned for so long that, even though Hong Xia was extremely confident in his own strength, he was still uneasy.
If he were not such a person, he would have never betrayed the Second Rampart.
Not only that, but among everything else, there was that nuisance named Lu Yin. Like Hong Xia, Lu Yin had also joined Obscura, which made it difficult to attack his civilization. It was infuriating.
Throughout the years, Hong Xia had personally heard Lu Yin talk in Vestigium. The young man argued shamelessly and stubbornly. Hong Xia had heard that Lu Yin’s civilization had completed his task and that he was personally valued by Ba Se and favored by the Keeper of Balance, as they intended to use him to deal with the Plume Immortals.
Hong Xia was all too aware of the feud that existed between the Plume Immortals and Obscura. If Obscura was truly forced to abandon one of them, they might actually choose to abandon Hong Xia instead of Lu Yin.
He was an enormous obstacle.
Fortunately, Lu Yin was similarly disallowed from making any moves against Hong Xia, though he also did not care if Lu Yin dared to break that rule. The brat was completely incapable of harming Hong Xia. No, what he cared about was Lu Yin’s endless shamelessness. No one knew what that brat might do.
One inside the Blood Tower, the other outside, Jiu Wen and Hong Xia stared at each other in silence.
To the side, Xi Shangfeng was equally calm. He was a ruthless man who had forced himself to endure extreme pain. As a result, he was able to face life and death with equanimity, unlike Bing Xu.
Xi Shangfeng’s Path of Dispassion had been mostly directed towards himself.
Hong Xia’s attention shifted past Jiu Wen to land on Xi Shangfeng as he silently calculated.
Of his Twelvefold Path of Dispassion, three anchors had been taken away, and Green Lotus was another one. That meant that Hong Xia’s opponents could break four of his anchors. At the same time, the fate of the Blood Tower and Xi Shangfeng lay in Jiu Wen’s hands, which meant that Jiu Wen could break two anchors at any time. Half of Hong Xia’s anchors were under his enemies’ control.
If they could break even one more anchor, he would be in trouble.
Fortunately, Ji He had not been taken away.
“What do the ancient Nine Ramparts have to do with you? Who did you even meet back then? Did you meet Hong Shuang? Did you meet those Elevenfold Crimsons? At most, you met your master. The Second Rampart’s other peak powerhouses had nothing to do with you. Their deaths had nothing to do with you. My betrayal of the Second Rampart has even less to do with you.
“Look at what’s beneath your feet! This is the Second Rampart! This is Crimson Starshade!
“I am the one who gave them a path to live! Do you really think that the Nine Ramparts could have won if I hadn’t betrayed them? Absurd! I also reached this stage through sheer willpower. If I were certain that the Nine Ramparts would win, why would I have betrayed them?
“I will tell you this right now: the Nine Ramparts were destined to lose. I wasn’t betraying them—I was obtaining a chance for Crimson Starshade to survive. If not, Crimson Starshade would have been erased from the cosmos long ago.
“And that bait-civilization—if not for me, they would have also been destroyed. How could there have ever been a Nine Odysseys Megaverse? How could there ever have been a Lu Yin? None of that would have ever existed!
“Jiu Wen, see the facts clearly: I gave everyone a chance to live. I gave humanity a chance to continue. I don’t care about legacy, and yet this outcome is still something that I provided.”
Mockery filled Jiu Wen’s eyes. While he said nothing, his gaze infuriated Hong Xia. He could not accept the way that Jiu Wen was looking at him. It was not him looking at a traitor, but rather something even worse. For so many years, Jiu Wen had been Hong Xia’s dog, and he had been the one who allowed Jiu Wen to grow step by step.
“If not for me, you would have died long ago. What right do you have to betray me? You are the traitor! I gave Crimson Starshade a chance to continue. What have you given?
“Go ask the people below whether they feel it’s better to live or to die. Ask them if I gave them life. Go ask them, Jiu Wen.”
Jiu Wen just closed his eyes in response. Hong Xia stared at the man. “Do you think that sitting in the Blood Tower leaves me with no options? I can still have someone else act in my stead and destroy all of Crimson Starshade.”
As he spoke, he raised his hand and clenched all five fingers.
Ba Yue was grabbed from inside the Sect of Dispassion and pulled out. Her movement was completely beyond her control. She did not even dare to resist. Before Hong Xia, she was unqualified.
She slammed against the side of the Blood Tower, her back pressed against multiple layers of human skin. The air near the tower reeked with a choking stench of blood.
Hong Xia faced the woman with a cold gaze that seemed able to freeze space itself. “Seize the sequence strings. Reset this megaverse.”
Jiu Wen’s eyes snapped open, and he stared at Ba Yue.
She was staring blankly at Hong Xia. Mad! Ancestor Hong Xia has gone mad! He truly means to destroy Crimson Starshade.
Hong Xia’s gaze swept past Ba Yue and back to Jiu Wen. A cruel sneer twisted the man’s lips. “See? Destroying a megaverse is simple. Do I even need to personally act?”
As he spoke, Ba Yue was crushed by even greater pressure, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.
“Seize the sequence strings.”
She coughed, raised a hand, and grasped at the void. The megaverse caved inward as she seized the sequence strings with one hand.
Hong Xia stared at Jiu Wen. “Come out, or else Crimson Starshade will become history.”
Far away, in the watery prison within Baiquan Mountain, Rang Yu cackled. “So good! Splendid, truly splendid! Hahahaha! Hong Xia, go on, destroy it! Destroy everything! Hahahaha!”
Ji He stared at Ba Yue’s hand. Destroy the megaverse? Turn Crimson Starshade into history? No.
He may not care if those people lived or died, but if Crimson Starshade disappeared, what would he do? Wander about the Aevum Inch? Live among non-humans? Endure with only Ancestor Hong Xia at his side? No, absolutely not. “Master, this-”
“Shut up!” Hong Xia barked, his eyes still locked on Jiu Wen.
Ba Yue trembled. If she exerted just a bit of force, she could snap the sequence strings and reset the entire megaverse. She had never imagined that the fate of her own megaverse would ultimately end up in her hands.
Down below, one figure after another rose into the sky, including Chu Songyun and other Sixfold Crimsons. “We beg Ancestor for mercy.”
“We beg Ancestor to grant us a way to live.”
“We beg Ancestor...”
Hong Xia did not care about any of that. He focused solely on Jiu Wen.
Finally, the man spoke. “You... will you truly destroy this megaverse?”
Hong Xia stared at Jiu Wen. “Do you think I care about it?”