"Every single one. Kill them all!"
"If you encounter any problems, just tell me!"
Qi Ping's voice was very calm, yet it carried a terrifying killing intent. As his Way of Sentient Beings operated, his voice resonated like the wrath of heaven itself.
"Yes, Star-Sovereign!" the crowd responded in unison.
Since they had joined the Star-Sea Academy and placed Qi Ping at their head, they had naturally addressed him as 'Star-Sovereign,' acknowledging him as the rightful Emperor of the entire Star-Sea Continent. Now, the only thing missing for Qi Ping to become the sole Sovereign was a formal ceremony to declare it to heaven and earth.
As Wood Immortal, Meng Tianqi, and the others felt the increasingly heavy pressure from Qi Ping, their sense of awe grew. But this awe was reserved only for Qi Ping; beyond him, they were still the peerless experts of an era—beings above billions, second only to one. Whether in strength, status, or fame, it was so.
After leaving, they immediately coordinated with Lin Yue on how to mobilize the Qing-God Army to sweep through the remaining Aristocratic Families of the continent. These families possessed profound foundations; they were currently the greatest threat to the Nine Domains. They held heritage and trump cards that had endured for ages; if they erupted, they would exert staggering power.
If the continental war hadn't happened so quickly not long ago, these people would have surely become a terrifying force that would have disrupted the Star-Sea. Once so many families united, they could have instantly caused massive losses to the continent's power. Even after Qi Ping and the others had swept through the continent, they hadn't acted against these people yet—not because they lacked the strength, but because the damage these people could cause if they turned desperate was too great.
Another reason was that Qi Ping and the others wanted to see if they could integrate these people into the Nine Domains. After all, the noble houses occupied nearly half of the continent's middle-tier cultivators, and not every family was irredeemable. Qi Ping had thought there would be some smart people among them.
But as things stood, he had overestimated them. By now, less than half of the families had chosen to join the Nine Domains. Most had only sent a few clansmen to join while their core spirit veins and industries remained untouched outside, as they were unwilling to give up their profits.
The slaughter began quickly. Once the majority of rogue cultivators had been moved to the Nine Domains, the noble houses remaining outside became a flock of sheep before the Qing-God Army. Without any worries about collateral damage, Qi Ping's side took the evidence of their crimes and came knocking on their doors.
'I thought these families, having survived for so many years, would have strong vitality. It turns out they were just a bunch of amateurs!'
Qi Ping sighed as he looked at the war reports. Though he didn't like them, they did represent a large portion of the continent's mid-to-high-level combat power. If they could have been preserved, he hoped they would become a major force for development in the new era. His heart was not so narrow as to be biased only toward rogue cultivators; the fairness mechanism he built was for everyone—rogues, noble houses, and even other races! As long as they sincerely wanted to be part of the Nine Domains, he would give them protection and opportunity. He wanted more than just humans; he wanted all races of the world to be the foundation of his home.
But the facts proved that the noble houses had rotted from the root. After the Qing-God Army made contact with them, they found that many of them viewed ordinary cultivators—even the Qing-God Army—with disdain. They believed that as people with "noble blood," they could not be treated as equals with "livestock cultivators." That inherent sense of "innate nobility" made communication impossible.
This didn't mean they weren't strong. Their foundations, methods, and trump cards were very powerful. They had established mature systems for enslaving low-level cultivators, screening risks, eliminating dangers, seizing opportunities, and creating 'human sacrifice livestock.' As long as there was no external interference, they could stably harvest any resource that appeared in their territory, kill any threat, and identify the right livestock. Over half of the noble houses were like this.
They believed from the bottom of their hearts that everything in their territory belonged to them—opportunities, rogues, and beauties alike—just as a ranch owner surveys his stable. Under this mature harvesting system, if a person showed even a hint of abnormality, they would be captured by the 'Black Guards' and harvested. The idea of someone gaining an opportunity and then showing off or being appreciated was non-existent; any disciple who dared to show even a bit of abnormal strength would be accurately locked onto.
Once locked onto, the disciple would be analyzed, and a decision would be made to either recruit them or seize their resources. In this way, the majority of opportunities and heritages that appeared in a region flowed into the hands of the noble houses, becoming part of their foundation.
'So ruthless! But so realistic!'
Qi Ping felt a chill after learning about this. It was the first time he had realized that these noble houses had such a terrifyingly complete harvesting system for those at the bottom! Under this spontaneous system, they could accurately harvest over ninety-five percent of opportunities and geniuses. He finally understood how they had remained so stable in their positions. With the territory harvested to such a degree, all opportunities and resources were in their hands. They could even plunder the talents of low-level cultivators; while the conversion rate of such plunder was low, the sheer quantity made up for it!
Thus, even if an oppressed cultivator at the bottom was a genius of the ages or had a "Gold Finger," they had no chance of rising, let alone overthrowing the oppression. Qi Ping felt incredibly lucky for his own caution when he had first awakened as a Druid. Now it seemed that his near-obsessive persecution complex had saved his life. If he had shown off or been careless even once, what awaited him wouldn't have been admiration or beauties, but the noble families' sharp knives, cutting his flesh inch by inch to extract the maximum value.
Especially since his talent could be upgraded—he would have been a beacon in the night, dying faster than someone looking for death with a lantern. The bloody events and files his subordinates sent back proved his considerations were correct. This cultivation world was not just a place where the strong ate the weak; it was a slaughterhouse managed by the strong and the noble houses!
To ensure the animals in the slaughterhouse grew up peacefully, they hid and beautified their existence, giving the ordinary 'livestock' a bit of hope. Thus, in the eyes of ordinary cultivators, although life was hard, there was still hope. The sects at the top were willing to protect talented disciples, and occasionally an ordinary person could become a powerful figure in a sect. But looking at the big picture, one would see that this was a well-designed illusion!
Ordinary cultivators were encouraged to reproduce, work, and cultivate, providing a wide base of 'cattle and horses' for the families... Then the sects continuously drew in talented disciples, selecting the best seeds to be 'eaten.' Finally, the most valuable things born on this ranch were the true purpose of the noble houses.
'What a sophisticated harvesting system.'
'But the noble houses are harvesters, and are they not also the harvested? In the past ages, truly valuable opportunities would also be harvested by those at a higher level.'
'What a crappy world!'
Qi Ping felt an even stronger sense of identity with the Druid system. He suddenly wondered if his transmigration and the awakening of the Druid profession happened for this reason.
'Perhaps some mysterious existence is trying to find and test a cultivation system that allows the world to develop healthily?'
He felt the probability was high. According to the nature of this cultivation world he saw, take the Star-Sea Continent for example: without his interference, even without the Demon Race crisis, it would have slowly entered an Age of Dharma Decline where spiritual energy gradually withered, eventually becoming a Desolate Land where no sentient life could survive. And without an Earth Immortal like him appearing, the Sky-Dragon Continent people wouldn't have colluded with the demons to invade. Entering a Desolate Age was an inevitable end.
'It's no wonder that with such a stable harvesting system, those families would be unwilling to join the Nine Domains!'
'Resources they could harvest with a flick of a finger in the past now require them to work hard for. From being parasites to being laborers—of course they would be unwilling.'
'So they would rather have their servants continue to grow herbs and manage industries outside rather than work for resources themselves.'
'Heh, what's the point of keeping these parasites who only know how to sit and enjoy?'
Qi Ping no longer felt any pity for this group. He had thought that by providing so many opportunities for resources—allowing them to gain high-level resources they could never reach before—someone would surely come. But it seemed that a "laborer's mindset" had limited him. The beautiful life of these "capitalists" was beyond his imagination; making them work in the Nine Domains was likely no different from making them slaves.
Furthermore, for many families, pursuing immortality was not their goal. They saw through it more clearly; having seen countless opportunities and resources, they knew that no matter how hard they fought, the ceiling was about to be reached. So they wouldn't fight like rogue cultivators. What they learned daily was how to harvest rogues and how to enjoy themselves... at most, they learned how to manage industries and fight other families. Their logic was entirely different from that of a normal cultivator.
Once he saw this, his killing intent was completely ignited. He revised his previous orders. Originally, he had planned to prosecute those directly responsible for crimes; some unrelated people would be taken in for observation according to the Nine Domains' rules, and only those who resisted would be killed. But after reading the files from Lin Yue, Qi Ping changed the order to: "Extermination"!
Anyone related to the noble houses who had not actively joined the Nine Domains and who had a history of crimes would be exterminated—the entire clan wiped out!
Upon receiving this order, the most excited was the Wood Immortal Crone. No one hated these families more than she did! For over half her life, she had fought against these noble houses she despised, suppressing her anger and killing intent. Now that she had Qi Ping's command, she could finally release it without restraint.
In this purge, the name of the Wood Immortal Crone reached its peak!
First, she had transformed from the most repulsive Soul Transformation cultivator into a peerless Void Refiner whose beauty crushed the continent—this was already a massive headline. And in this purge, she was the most frantic of the three Void Refiners. No matter who was in front of her, no one could make her stop, whether it was an innocent-looking person or an old enemy. In this battle, she had only one thought: Kill! Every disgusting family had to die! No one deserved mercy!
One by one, the high-and-mighty families fell before her. The corpses piled up like mountains, and blood flowed like rivers! Even the logistics teams responsible for gathering the corpses could not keep up with her speed. It was undeniably frantic and irrational.
But Qi Ping did not stop her, for she was merely following his orders. Her ability to restrain her killing intent before the order was given had satisfied him. Such an obedient, strong, and non-"holy-mother" general was exactly what he liked; although her talent was slightly lower than that of Meng Tianqi and Bai Liyun, she was worth nurturing.
When the slaughter finally concluded, the entire Star-Sea Continent was shrouded in an eerie blood mist. Wood Immortal's green celestial robe had turned a dark red, and her hair and cheeks were stained with the blood of her enemies. This massacre caused far more deaths than the continental war not long ago, to the point where the continent itself manifested eerie phenomena from the sheer scale of the killing.