Chapter 17: Chapter 75: Zhou Erlian

The sound of thunder rumbled dangerously as Tianyi sat upon his throne. He rested his head on his hand as he looked at the figure standing next to the Sect Master of the Five Poison Sect. 

That figure's presence was weak as if he was part of the world. Qi indistinguishable from the world's qi, that was the hallmark of a Unity Realm Venerable. Should a Venerable wish, those under the Unity Realm would not be able to sense them.

The figure's presence was a result of that. But, Tianyi was clearly able to sense the cultivator next to Sect Master Fivepoison! But that wasn't because Tianyi's sensing abilities were extraordinary, but the Unity Realm Venerable had a problem.

Tianyi observed the Unity Realm Venerable. He was of average height and wore a green robe artifact that was only at the Core Formation Realm. This, in itself, revealed a problem. 

A revered Unity Venerable using Core Formation Artifacts? What a joke.

The Unity Venerable had sparse white hair, so thin that it could be ignored. His skin was full of dark blotches, and the numerous wrinkles nearly buried his eyes.  The bloody aura and death qi surrounding him were also extremely familiar to Tianyi. It was akin to Lei Jingye from the other timeline who had forcibly raised his realm, only far worse.

Not just the Unity Realm Venerable, the other Nascent Soul Grandmasters, aside from Sect Master Fivepoison, also had bloody auras and death qi. 

According to Tianyi's estimation, the Unity Realm Venerable had less than a year to live while the other Nascent Soul Venerable had at most five years.

Tianyi snorted. The Unity Realm Venerable was incomplete; otherwise, Tianyi would not be able to sense him. When one ascended to the Unity Realm, there was a qualitative difference far greater than when one ascended to the Core Formation Realm from the Foundation Establishment Realm or Nascent Soul Realm from the Core Formation Realm.

It was a unique characteristic known as Harmonization. 

"Hmpf. Friend from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, I advised you to stay out of this. This is a matter between the Five Poison Sect and the Fleeting Mist Sect." Sect Master Fivepoison said.

Tianyi gave a mirthless chuckle. "Who was it who said that the Buzhou Immortal Sect could not do anything? Yet the moment I unleashed an attack, you cry for peace?"

Sect Master Fivepoison's facial expression darkened before an ingratiating smile appeared. "I have eyes and did not see Mount Tai. I only heard of the legends of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Seeing the power of this hero, I can see that I was a frog at the bottom of the well. Do not concern yourself with a petty person like me. If I have offended you, I will apologize. But this is truly a matter between the Five Poison Sect and the Fleeting Mist Sect." 

Tianyi felt his lips twitch at how quick Sect Master Fivepoison changed his stance and even lowered himself after all those words.

"It's true that I don't have much of a relationship to the Fleeting Mist Sect," Tianyi said, nonchalantly.

Sect Master Yun's face fell while Sect Master Fivepoison showed a joyful expression. "Friend from the Buzhou Immortal Sect-"

"But," Tianyi cut off Sect Master Fivepoison. "My elder, who has taken care of me since young, is friends with Sect Master Yun."

It was now Sect Master Fivepoison's turn to have an ugly expression while Sect Master Yun's expression brightened. 

"Besides, those Nascent Soul Elders and even that incomplete Unity Venerable," Tianyi paused as he took in the three of them, ignoring the now dead Nascent Soul Grandmaster that he had struck earlier. "You guys refined mortals in order to forcibly increase your realms, didn't you?"

Sect Master Yun who heard Tianyi stared in shock at Sect Master Fivepoison and the three others. "Impossible, how come they don't have Karmic Sins then!?"

For a Core Formation Master to refine people and enter the Nascent Soul Realm, they would incur a huge amount of Karmic Sin. But Sect Master Yun did not detect much Karmic Sin from them and simply thought they were blood or slaughter cultivators.

As for Tianyi.

Tianyi never considered himself a moral person. At least to the moral stratum developed from modern Earth. But Tianyi had this thing called standards. He had no problem causing endless misery to people he didn't like or just kicking while they were down, but refining an unaccountable number of people for power?

How many people would it take to refine in order to raise a Foundation Establishment Disciple to a Core Formation Master? How many would it take to raise a Core Formation Master to a Nascent Soul Grandmaster? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? Millions?

Tianyi didn't know, but the numbers would be unaccountable. A mere mortal could never compare to a cultivator, so they would have to make up the difference with quantity. 

It wasn't as if Tianyi empathized with the victims used in the atrocity. But he felt that if he accepted it and let it be, he would no longer be human. He wasn't a righteous person; in fact, he was petty. But since they dared to do such a thing, then they should not blame him for taking action.

Not that he planned to watch on the sidelines when Fleeting Mist Sect was attacked, Tianyi just had even more reason to kill all of them now.

But just where did the Five Poison Sect sacrificed so many mortals? For them to have so many Nascent Soul Grandmasters and a Unity Venerable, it should be difficult to hide the existence of their actions.

As Tianyi raised his hand in preparation to attack, the Unity Venerable next to Sect Master Fivepoison spoke. "Evil Wind Flower Picker Zhou, do you know of him?" 

Tianyi paused, sensing hostility. "I do." His lips twitched as he recalled the event. "I killed him. I am quite proud of that. I was only at the Foundation Establishment Realm back then, after all." 

The sky was dyed red from the murderous aura the Unity Venerable emitted. The people in the vicinity felt chills up their spin from it, and Tianyi, as the target, felt it more clearly than anyone else.

"HE WAS MY PRECIOUS ELDER BROTHER!!!"

With a roar, a tornado formed from Zhou Erlian, Evil Wind Flower Picker Zhou's younger brother, hand, and shot towards Tianyi.

The murderous aura had caught off Tianyi. The killing intent was not something differentiated by ones' realm, but a person's thoughts. An Immortal might have a weaker killing intent than a mortal general who slaughtered countless armies. 

Tianyi had never felt anything quite like it before and thus was blown away by Zhou Erlian's attack. But the tornado began to rumble as lightning streaked. Soon, the tornado dispersed, and Tianyi was revealed without a hint of injury.

"Evil Wind Flower Picker Zhou's younger brother, huh?" Tianyi lightly said. "He deserved to die. I'm sure his victims will thank me!"

Zhou Erlian roared in rage as he shot towards Tianyi with a punch. But the punch never reached Tianyi as a barrier of lightning appeared and blocked it. 

His fist began to be burnt black as lightning continuously electrocuted it, but Zhou Erlian acted as if he never felt anything and unleashed a barrage of punches.

"WHAT DOES A BRAT LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND!!!" Zhou Erlian seemed to have lost his mind as his oppressive aura increased and the death qi that surrounded him became denser. "HE WAS MY LIFE!! I WOULD HAVE DIED HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR HIM!!!"

Tianyi said nothing. He frowned and made several hand seals. Numerous armaments, from swords to spears and even vajras composed of lightning, appeared around Tianyi's throne. With a flick of Tianyi's hand, they shot towards Zhou Erlian.

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"That doesn't excuse him for all the sins he committed. Walking by the shoreline will eventually cause his shoes to get wet." Tianyi said.

Zhou Erlian laughed derisively. He formed several hand seals and formed a barrier of wind, which the lightning armament clashed against. Several lightning armaments exploded, but even more, survived and pierced towards Zhou Erlian.

Zhou Erlian was struck numerous times. His skin became burnt black, his clothes destroyed, and what little left of his hair burned away. But a maniac smile remained upon his face. "Sins? Then you should have more sins! Because of you! I refined numerous mortals just to reach this realm. You are the greatest sinner of all!"

Tianyi said nothing and just looked contemptuously at Zhou Erlian. But Zhou Erlian seemed to not have seen this and continued ranting. "HAhaha! This is all because of you! Had it not been for you, all those infants would not have died, had it not been for you, none of this hell would have EXISTED!!!!!"

Zhou Erlian charged towards Tianyi once more, his body seemingly having merged with black gales. 

Thirteen lightning pillars descended from the heavens and enclosed Tianyi and the black gales inside a cage of lightning. From each pillar, bolts of lightning struck the black gales until Zhou Erlian was forced out. But he did not care as he recklessly charged towards Tianyi, his aura rising even higher.

Without care, he rammed his head into the lightning barrier and unleashed a barrage of punches. He didn't seem like a Unity Venerable, but a thug, using punches like a martial cultivator instead of a spiritual cultivator he is. 

Tianyi frowned as the lightning barrier cracked, and Zhou Erlian entered his range. Just as Tianyi was about to stand up, he felt the hairs on his body rise.

Zhou Erlian gave a ghastly smile as his body began to become bloated. An enormous amount of energy was ignited within Zhou Erlian's body. The more bloated he became, the more power there was. The sense of crisis Tianyi felt was nearly the same as when Monarch Soulfish attacked him.

"You madman!" Tianyi finally yelled, his composure lost.

But Zhou Erlian could no longer appreciate as his thoughts began to blur. His last thoughts were of his gentle older brother smiling at him. Since young, he had been sick. His parents had long given up on him, but his older brother never did. He never abandoned him, even when he became a mighty immortal cultivator. What good things he had, he would share with Zhou Erlian.

"Senior brother!" Daoyi, who had been watching this beside Elder Shan, cried out.

The explosion was cataclysmic. 

Zhou Erlian, even as an incomplete Unity Venerable, was, frankly speaking, underwhelming. His techniques were still that of a Core Formation Master's. Only his realm had increased, nothing else.

In addition, because he had refined numerous mortals in, Tianyi's attacks were especially effective against him, who was surrounded by Karmic Sin. Lightning already suppressed evil and yin attributed attacks and cultivators, but it was doubly so since Tianyi embued his attacks with his Tribulation Essence. 

But Zhou Erlian had never planned to live. He had been planning revenge since the day he received news that his brother had died. A mysterious benefactor had given him the technique to refine mortals to increase his cultivation base. By the time he gathered the necessary amount of mortals, his brother's killer had long left.

It was only recently that the mysterious benefactor contacted him with news that his brother's killer had returned. Zhou Erlian had wanted to beat Tianyi and mock him with his Unity Realm cultivation, but alas, he was suppressed in both techniques and attributes. 

Zhou Erlian unleashed the only method he could kill Tianyi with. He used his body and cultivation base as a bomb and ignited himself.

Sect Master Yun and Sect Master Fivepoison were knocked away by the wind created from a Unity Realm Venerable's self-destruction. 

"No!" Sect Master Yun cried out. The blast radius of Zhou Erlian's suicide attack was nothing to laugh at, and he could see the explosion widening even further. At this rate, all the people in the Fleeting Mist Sect would be killed.

Even Sect Master Fivepoison had a nasty expression. His own sect members would be caught up within the radius as well.

Just as it seemed that the self-destruction would enlarge, the thirteen lightning pillars bent and caged the explosion. Under the disbelieving eyes of everyone, the explosion was locked within the cage. Slowly the light brought about by the explosion dimmed until it entirely disappeared with the lightning pillars.

Tianyi stood in the air with smoke was rising from his robes; his face was dark as he sent a glare towards Sect Master Fivepoison. His throne was nowhere to be seen, and parts of the landscape caught with the blast radius had turned to glass from the extreme heat. 

He turned his gaze towards Sect Master Fivepoison.

Sect Master Fivepoison and the members of the Five Poison Sect all felt chills up their spines. 

"RETREAT!!!" It was an action brought about by his intuition, but Sect Master Fivepoison ordered his sect to retreat immediately. 

Tianyi said nothing and raised his hand in the air. Black clouds gathered above him, streaks of lightning were even absorbed into it from the Fleeting Mist Sect's lightning seas. Miles upon miles, black clouds could be seen, blotting the night sky once more. 

Tianyi brought his hand down, and endless lightning bolts struck down upon the fleeing Five Poison Sect members. 

Sect Master Fivepoison vomited blood after a bolt of lightning struck him, his body burnt black. The last two Nascent Soul Grandmasters attracted the most lightning with their massive amounts of blood aura and died under the onslaught of lightning.

Strangely, half Core Formation Masters and Foundation Establishment Disciples survived the lightning bolts that fatally injured Sect Master Fivepoison. But soon, half of them stopped as they descended into despair. 

Core Formation and Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation descended upon those near the peak of their realms, sending the whole Five Poison Sect into a panic. 

Sect Master Fivepoison could feel himself choking as he witnessed this scene, his eyes caught sight of Tianyi's emotionless eyes as if he was the ruler of lightning passing judgment.

The Sect Master quickly continued to flee. He didn't have the leisure to worry about his sect. But even as he ran, his heart bled profusely. After this, how many years would it take to rebuild the loss forces of the Five Poison Sect? 

That was assuming Tianyi didn't chase after him.

Tianyi paid special attention to Sect Master Fivepoison and deliberately ordered several lightning bolts towards Sect Master Fivepoison. Sect Master Fivepoison in response, split into five versions of himself and fled in different directions. 

In response, even more lightning bolts descended upon. A happy side effect was that the lightning falling upon the other Five Poison Sect members decreased in numbers and power. Not that Sect Master Fivepoison would be pleased if it was at his expense. 

But before Tianyi could continue, an argent pillar of light erupted from within the lightning seas and destroyed the black clouds. 

Tianyi frowned as he felt himself unable to summon the black clouds and even his true qi being suppressed. He sent one look at the fleeing Five Poison Sect members before he descended to the grown, his innate ability to step on air suppressed by the argent light.

As time passed, the fragrance of lotus enveloped the Fleeting Mist Sect and its surroundings. He could see a tiny figure next to the pillar of light. Even from a distance, Tianyi could see that it was his mother, Xi Mengfei.