The twin Gods... I mean the previous Gods, slumped to their knees in the empty space, powerless, both staring toward the front without moving a muscle. Their pupils were shrinking, and their scalps were tingling like never before.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" Wu Shenxing stared at Yun Wuji with empty eyes. He was desperately praying that all of this was just a dream, a terrible nightmare that would eventually end. He bit down hard on his tongue, trying to wake himself from it, blood dripping from his lips.
Even if the price of attaining the True God Realm came at the cost of losing a significant portion of one's lifespan, given the chance, no one in the Abyss would turn down such an offer. The absolute power to stand at the very ceiling of this world was far too tempting. Even if it were to take ninety percent of their lifespan, many would still accept it without the slightest hesitation.
The same was true for these femboys. They had lived their entire lives standing at the top as Divine Sons, then climbed even higher after becoming Divine Regents. The shock of losing their power was so overwhelming that their minds and souls simply could not withstand it.
Not only that, the loss of Divine Power meant they could no longer produce Divine Grace to keep the Abyssal Dust out of their Kingdom. This alone was a sin they could not bear under any circumstances. They would rather die than carry the stigma of being the sinful ones who lost the very thing that made the Star Moon Divine Kingdom a Divine Kingdom.
Even if they were to survive, as the Divine Regents and absolute rulers of the Kingdom, just as there were many who revered them, there were also those who hated them for countless reasons. After all, conflict existed everywhere.
Now that they were only at the 7th level of the Divine Extinction Realm, who knew whether they would even be able to survive?
"Because I wanted to," Yun Wuji answered calmly. He was no longer smiling. His face was indifferent, and his eyes looked completely detached. He felt no remorse or guilt over taking their power. This was, after all, a world where big fish ate small fish, and small fish ate shrimp.
Since he needed their power, then it was logically their fault for owning it in the first place. It was even more their fault for not handing it over when he demanded it..
"You! I will kill you!!!!" Wu Shenyue snapped, his once beautiful face twisting grotesquely, as if countless worms were crawling across it. Fury and killing intent burst from him like an erupting volcano.
Crawling a few steps before forcing himself to his feet, he pounced toward Yun Wuji with his hand outstretched, as if he wanted to tear him apart with those bare hands. He wanted to chop him into pieces, slice through skin and bone, and torture him for endless years just to appease his hatred.
"Pathetic fool, do you have a death wish?" The frenzied femboy failed to reach Yun Wuji, slamming straight into an invisible wall. Yun Wuji glanced at him with faint disdain. This man had once been a True God. He should have possessed enough mental fortitude to understand his situation clearly, yet he was still desperately rushing toward his own doom.
"Bastard! Wretched spawn of nothing! Motherless wretch! Fatherless scum! I will kill you! I will rip your soul apart and massacre all those you cared for!" Wu Shenyue had already lost his mind. He kept punching and kicking the invisible wall blocking him from reaching his hated enemy.
Never in his life had he felt this level of hatred and rage toward anyone or anything. Even if every emotion he had experienced throughout his entire life were combined, it would not amount to even a tenth of what he was feeling right now. "Give me back my power! Give it back!"
Pa!
"..." Yun Wuji watched his pitiful struggle for dozens of seconds, listening to the stream of insults hurled his way. Slowly, he stretched out his hand and delivered a casual slap. The crazed femboy's head exploded into gory fragments of blood, flesh, and bone.
He did not care if people insulted him. Many had done so in the past, and many would continue to do so in the future. What he could not accept was anyone insulting his parents and family. He might not have seen them in this life, but they were still the ones who gave birth to him, especially his mother, who died to bring him into this world.
Thud!
The headless body of Wu Shenyue remained motionless for five long seconds before it finally swayed and collapsed to the side. Just like that, he became the first Divine Regent in the history of all six Kingdoms to not die a natural death.
"I originally planned to spare your life and even give you some help as compensation, but since you were courting death so badly, I could only oblige and send you to her." Yun Wuji glanced at the dead Moon God before turning his attention to the Star God. "Since your brother is dead, you should go and accompany him."
"Yue... Yue... It can't be... this is just a dream..." Wu Shenxing seemed not to hear Yun Wuji's words. His eyes were fixed on the headless body, still faintly twitching, blood spraying from its neck like a fountain.
"Yeah, it's just a dream." Yun Wuji waved his hand lightly. An icy blue light flashed, enveloping Wu Shenxing in the power of the Ice Phoenix, freezing his body solid. Then he shattered it into a billion specks of icy dust.
Upon his death, the pocket dimension inside him ruptured, and a plethora of items scattered everywhere.
Li Suo appeared at his side. She held the hand he had used to blast Wu Shenyue's head and said, "That was cruel of you."
"What do you mean by that? I've always been cruel," Yun Wuji chuckled at her words. "I am a very cruel and vengeful person." He had always been someone who held grudges, even over the slightest slight, and he certainly couldn't call himself a good person. For most of his career as a 'professional cultivator', he had been offering his protection services.
Li Suo sighed and shook her head. "No matter what you say about yourself or what others say, I think you are a much better person than the majority of people."
Yun Wuji did not respond to her words. Instead, he silently dispelled his Omnipresent Domain and closed his eyes, turning his attention to the two orbs within his world of profound veins. 'Should I refine them, or give them to Qingyue and Caizhi?' he pondered.
Xia Qingyue's core power was the Purple Pylon Divine Power. If he were to give it to her, with his assistance, she could easily inherit it, especially since she possessed the Nine Profound Exquisite Body.
On the other hand, Caizhi had inherited the Heavenly Wolf Star God Legacy when she entered the Eternal Heaven Pearl. Since Jasmine always carried the Star God Wheel, the Heavenly World's power had reacted to Caizhi during those first few years. If he were to give it to her and put some effort into it, he could certainly ensure she inherited the Star God power without any side effects.
'Nah, I need it more than they do right now,' Yun Wuji pondered for a moment before dismissing the idea. The fastest way to grow his strength was to devour the Divine Power of other Gods, including those in the Pure Land. Once he became strong enough, helping his women become True Gods would be a piece of cake.
There were many methods to achieve that. The most straightforward was dual cultivation using the Devil Emperor's Internal Classic. Another was to use the Power of Nothingness to directly boost his strength, but that would require him to be at least at the level of the Ancestral Goddess, both in terms of power and in his comprehension of the Power of Nothingness.
"What are you going to do now? Take over this Kingdom and refine the power you plundered?" Li Suo's mesmerizingly beautiful face moved closer to his as she stared intently at him while asking.
"I'll first go to the Owl Butterfly Divine Kingdom before beginning to refine the Divine Powers." Yun Wuji waved his hand, and golden fire ignited the headless body of Wu Shenyue, reducing it to ashes. Numerous items burst from his now crumbling pocket space.
Without bothering to look at them, he casually stored the items of the two Gods in the Sky Poison Pearl and then took off into the air.
"The death of two Divine Regents will surely alarm the other Kingdoms and, more importantly, the Pure Land," Li Suo said, following closely beside him. Unlike her usual habit, she did not retreat into the Sky Poison Pearl or the Primordial Seal of Life and Death. Instead, she stayed right next to him.
This was the 'advice' that Hei Xiaolian had generously and graciously given her to 'seduce' Yun Wuji and make him fall for her.
"Pure Land? Haha, it would be better if they came on their own," Yun Wuji laughed disdainfully. He would surely go to the Pure Land once he finished with the Divine Kingdoms. The reason he had gone there first was that he wanted to save the best for last. Another, more important reason was that he wanted to meet the Vermillion Bird before doing so.
Things with her would become a bit complicated if their first meeting involved him ravaging the Pure Land.
"Speaking of which, it's strange that even after all this time she hasn't come looking for me. Could it be that she doesn't care about the Primal Flame Crystal as much as I thought?" Yun Wuji glanced ahead, wondering aloud.
...
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