Ahead of the battleships, Beacon City’s lights illuminated it brightly. Compared to the city’s usual bustle, things were much quieter at the moment.
In anticipation of the Day of Offering, many cultivators had returned to the Spirit Nidus, which had greatly reduced the population of Beacon City.
Beacon City did not fear an invasion from the Consciousness Megaverse. Conscients were only capable of sneaking in by following the Spirit Nidus battleships. Outside of that, it simply took too long to travel from the Consciousness Megaverse. That megaverse lacked any universe-class battleships.
Boom!
A building in a corner of Beacon City collapsed. Several cultivators fled from the resulting chaos, scattering in every direction.
A tall figure rose from the rubble, their eyes scanning the area with an air of authority, despite clearly being drunk. “Who? Who dares to insult me, Emperor Wu Slayer? Step forward! Watch how I teach you a lesson!
“Virtue rules the way! You lowly cowards, let virtue guide you!”
There was no answer. Everyone nearby completely avoided eye contact, afraid that they would be singled out.
The one who had emerged from the rubble was none other than Emperor Slayer.
He had fled from the Spirit Nidus to avoid Astral Anura, among others, and he had announced that he was going to fight in the Consciousness Megaverse. The truth was that he had never moved past Beacon City after arriving. There, he had been throwing his weight around as he pleased. No one was able to do anything about him. Even Yi Xia was forced to be respectful and call the brute “Senior.” Any time Emperor Slayer became upset, he lashed out.
Yi Xia had been suffering in silence.
Emperor Slayer had completely refused to share any information regarding the Spirit Nidus. Yi Xia had not been able to get a single word from the other man. Emperor Slayer was a complete rogue.
Even without the Spirit Nidus’s expedition to the Consciousness Megaverse, Yi Xia had already been planning to go into hiding. Emperor Slayer’s behavior had grown increasingly outrageous. Once, he had even run amok in the city lord’s own home. If Yi Xia had the strength to deal with Emperor Slayer, the man would have already been skinned alive.
Emperor Slayer’s presence left everyone in Beacon City stifled. The man was simply too repulsive. His character was completely rotten, and yet he strutted around claiming to lead with virtue. It was disgusting.
And yet, no one dared to speak out in his presence. All they would do was curse him behind his back to vent their frustrations.
Who would have expected the bastard to even start eavesdropping? He refused to allow people to insult him behind his back. How tasteless.
Who was Emperor Slayer? He considered himself to be the strongest beast‑form Spirit Rebirth, which made him the best candidate to lead them to surpass the human‑form Spirit Rebirths. He saw himself as an individual of both virtue and talent who won others over with reason and logic. How could he accept any insults behind his back? It was unconscionable! It would never happen so long as he lived. He would make sure that his reputation remained unsullied.
Besides, cursing someone behind their back was simply shameless. Such people were unworthy of even speaking of Emperor Slayer.
This led to him being very busy. He was forced to teach one group of people after another the same lesson, only to then sneak off to hide somewhere so that he could eavesdrop on anyone else who dared to speak bad about him.
Ever since Emperor Slayer had started doing this, the atmosphere in Beacon City had changed. Everyone had become extremely cautious, afraid of being watched from the shadows. Some of the women refused to even undress. Even the slightest disturbance created a flurry of shouts. All of the citizens of Beacon City were on edge.
Emperor Slayer found it all quite amusing, and it greatly encouraged him. He had even developed another hobby: placing flags.
The flags were his emblem. Each one carried the single character for virtue. “Virtue rules the way! Let virtue lead.”
That was the essence of Emperor Slayer.
It took no time at all for Beacon City to be filled with the virtue flags. Seeing them caused people’s eyes to twitch. Everyone had seen shameless people before, but never someone as bad as Emperor Slayer.
One day, Emperor Slayer marched straight into the city lord’s own home, carrying another virtue flag. Swaggering in, he placed the flag inside and then happily watched it flutter in the wind. “Yi Xia! Yi Xia, where are you? Come out here!”
An old man with a miserable expression on his face hurried over. “Greetings, Senior Emperor Wu Slayer.”
Emperor Slayer looked at the man, a broad grin on his face. “Aren’t you one of the deputy city lords? Where’s Yi Xia? Send him out so that he can see the flag I’ve brought for him. One must lead with virtue! I’ve noticed that the atmosphere in Beacon City is off. Everyone loves to gossip behind people’s backs.”
The old man was left speechless. He had no choice but to report, “City Lord Yi Xia is in seclusion.”
Emperor Slayer’s eyebrows rose. “In seclusion? Since when?”
“A few years ago.”
Emperor Slayer was astonished. “It’s been years since I last saw Yi Xia? Huh... that does make sense. In recent years, I’ve been so busy spreading virtue across Beacon City that I forgot to drop by. Tell me, how many years has it been?”
The old man thought for a moment. “About ten years.”
"Ten years? That’s enough. He can just end his seclusion now. Send him out to see my flag! Let it hang here from now on. May the people of Beacon City see what it means to be led by virtue. They’ll remember me, Emperor Wu Slayer, every time they see it!"
The old man sighed. "There’s no need for anyone to lay eyes on the flag to remember you—your deeds will surely be remembered throughout history. As long as Beacon City stands, you will not be forgotten.
"However, the city lord is in seclusion, and we cannot call him out."
Emperor Slayer was starting to get irritated. "What do you mean that you can’t call him out? What’s he even doing in seclusion? Trying to improve his cultivation? Does that even help? Yi Shang is already a lost cause, so Yi Xia will never reach the level of the Seven Seraphs, no matter how long he lives. Go, send him out."
The old man was taken aback, yet he did not move.
Emperor Slayer leaned closer, glaring at the old man with large eyes. A surge of aura crushed the void, and a chill ran down the old man’s spine. It was clear that he could be smashed dead at any moment.
"Are you saying no to me?"
The old man’s blanched. "I don’t dare! I am simply unable to approach the city lord."
"What do you mean, ‘unable to approach’ him? Beacon City isn’t big. Could he have run off to the Tianyuan Megaverse?"
"The city lord is within the Severance sequence base."
Emperor Slayer was taken aback. "What is he doing there?"
"He’s cultivating in seclusion."
While Emperor Slayer was despicable and shameless, he was not stupid. The Severance sequence base protected the springboard because the Spirit Nidus was afraid that it might attract some unknown civilization’s attention.
The greater one’s understanding of the omniverse, the more one respected it. While a powerful cultivator could easily destroy a single parallel universe, each universe was nothing more than a speck of dust on the scale of all of reality.
Springboards harnessed the omniverse’s power to achieve results that were beyond the abilities of living creatures. The omniverse was vast and infinite. Who could say that there were only three megaverses? Emperor Slayer himself knew that there were more, though who could say just how many there might be?
Even the mere existence of a springboard was bizarre. The Spirit Nidus did not even know if the springboard was a natural phenomena or man-made.
If the springboard drew out creatures from other megaverses, who could say what kind of civilization might appear? The only thing that could be said for sure was that such an appearance would not be good.
Yi Xia had been quite clever, hiding within the Severance sequence base. As long as the city lord was in that place, even if Emperor Slayer managed to find the man, he would not be able to do anything about it. Hiding within the sequence base was the best way to avoid any unexpected trouble.