The Slaughter of Luoyang

The Yaksha King styled himself a Heavenly King, an overbearing presence that looked down on all beneath heaven, and he did indeed possess the strength to match that arrogance. Even after being pinned down within the Divine Domain and bombarded with a world-wrecking weapon, he had not been slain.

After breaking free from the dimensional realm, he had gone on a rampage, slaying in every direction with no one able to withstand him. In battle with several Otherworldly Kings, he had routed Liu Mu, Jin Sanyi, Niu Ren, the Inverse Dragon King, the Black Dragon King, the Azure Dragon King, and others, leaving them with no news of life or death.

Xiao Chen seethed with anxiety. A full day and night had already passed. He truly did not know if the Inverse Dragon King and the others could survive the pursuit of those Otherworldly Kings.

He longed to go to their aid, but he had no idea where the fighting had taken them.

Everyone was talking about this earth-shaking battle. The might of the Yaksha King shook the world, but no one knew where the combatants had finally ended up. They seemed to have vanished without a trace, completely lost.

Xiao Chen made inquiries all over Chang’an, but learned nothing. Finally, gritting his teeth, he decided on a swift, ruthless strike to force the Yaksha King out.

Since the Hundred Races had emerged, the Otherworldly Kings had entered the Nine Provinces one after another, carving out territories for themselves. The Yaksha King, with overwhelming force, had set his sights on the central plains of the Nine Provinces—a portion of Yuzhou—and some of his elite Yaksha warriors had already garrisoned there.

Xiao Chen resolved to strike at Yuzhou and annihilate every Yaksha expert there, forcing the Yaksha King to reveal himself. He was certain that the higher-ranking Yaksha would have a way to contact their king.

He reforged a suit of iron armor that gleamed coldly, donned it, and flew swiftly toward Yuzhou, his destination Luoyang.

Luoyang was a famous ancient capital. For generations, dynasties had favored this city as their seat of power, earning it the title of the Divine Capital of the World. Naturally, it was the foremost sacred city of Yuzhou.

At present, Xiao Chen had no flesh and blood. Naturally, he did not possess the Eight Aspect Worlds divine ability, yet he pushed his speed to its absolute limit. Anxiety gnawed at his heart—he did not wish to waste a single moment.

Luoyang came into view. The ancient city was magnificent and imposing. Seen from afar, it was shrouded in a hazy purple aura, like a sleeping dragon coiled in wait, carrying a profound and ineffable depth.

Its great walls stretched high and grand. Tempered by history and weathered by the ages, they exuded a desolate, ancient aura. The towering, majestic city seemed like a celestial capital descended into the mortal world.

Xiao Chen descended and entered on foot, for the city was now a nexus of turbulent forces. Several powerful Otherworldly Kings were present, and he did not wish to draw their attention.

The Divine Capital Luoyang was a crucial site under heaven. Not only had the Yaksha King set his sights on it, but naturally other formidable Otherworldly Kings had as well, and that was precisely the reason.

But the gate guards, for all their desperate effort, could not stop Xiao Chen, who was bent on slaughter. He exerted almost no effort. With his first step, he drove the head of one Yaksha deep into its chest cavity. With his second step, a hand-knife blow severed another Yaksha at the waist. With his third step, his fingers hooked like talons, leaving five finger-holes in a third Yaksha’s skull.

Three steps, and three Yaksha lay dead on the ground. He did not spare them another glance and strode inward.

Such were the methods of a king—only an Otherworldly King of this caliber could achieve them. Strength decided everything.

Advancing through seven courtyards, Xiao Chen killed with ruthless efficiency. Over thirty Yaksha corpses lay behind him, blood pooling across the ground.

“Who are you?” At last, a Yaksha general appeared, leading more than a dozen elite Yaksha warriors to surround Xiao Chen in a courtyard.

When Xiao Chen saw a Yaksha tearing off and devouring a child’s arm, rage surged straight to the crown of his head. “Tell me where the Yaksha King is, and I’ll grant you a swift death.” He wasted no words, killing as soon as he moved.

Dodging the Yaksha general, he cut a swath through the dozen elite Yaksha. His speed was swift as a ghost, his strikes fierce as thunder and lightning. With every palm-knife blow, a Yaksha was split apart.

In the space of a few breaths, over a dozen heads tumbled across the ground—all severed by his palm-knife. Such iron-blooded tactics made even the savage Yaksha race shudder; a chill ran down their spines.

The three surviving Yaksha turned pale with terror. The Yaksha general spit through clenched teeth: “The Heavenly King will never let you go! He will grind you to ash!”

“I’m giving you a chance to go and tell him. I will wait for him here.” Xiao Chen pointed his finger, and the other two Yaksha elites instantly burst apart, blood spilling across the ground.

“Aah…” The Yaksha general let out a furious cry and shot into the sky.

“Too weak…” Xiao Chen felt something was very wrong. There was only one Yaksha general, no threat to him at all.

He followed at a leisurely pace and watched as the Yaksha general fled toward a barren mountain range outside Luoyang, disappearing into the peaks.

“So the strong ones are all here.” The moment Xiao Chen descended, he sensed powerful energy fluctuations—at least three formidable Yaksha warriors, not yet reaching the level of an Otherworldly King, but close.

Slaughterous qi surged through the mountain range. Three Yaksha war-generals appeared. Apart from their green hair, their skin was nearly identical to humans, unlike the common deep-green-skinned Yaksha; their features were almost human. Behind them stood several dozen ghoulish Yaksha with green faces and fangs.

Xiao Chen gradually understood: the higher the Yaksha’s level, the more they resembled humans, no longer ugly and ferocious.

“Bold! You kill our people and still dare to pursue us here? Today, you’ll leave your life!” One of the Yaksha war-generals roared and charged, sweeping out a hundred-meter-long green blade of light. Xiao Chen rose into the air, dodging just in time, and the peak below was sheared off, rumbling as it tumbled down the mountain.

“Today, I will annihilate every last one of you.” Xiao Chen spoke no further and began a wholesale slaughter.

In the desolate mountain range, over forty elite Yaksha warriors gathered. The strongest were the three war-generals, who looked nearly human, maneuvering through the hills like three green beams of light as they encircled and killed Xiao Chen.

They were indeed troublesome foes. All three were more powerful than an average Sacred Dragon, though still slightly inferior to a typical Otherworldly King. Even fighting with reckless abandon, they could not contain Xiao Chen’s fierce onslaught.

The surrounding Yaksha elites fell one after another; whenever Xiao Chen touched them, they burst apart, exploding across the mountain terrain. He had pushed the Hand of the Supreme to its peak.

Still, it must be said that the three Yaksha experts were quite formidable—they fought Xiao Chen for a full half-hour, dodging the Origin Heavenly Sound several times. But in the end, they could not escape defeat.

Strength decides everything; the ending was already written. Two of the powerful Yaksha war-generals were wiped clean, body and soul extinguished. The mountain range was littered with corpses, a mist of blood hanging in the air. Only the last powerful Yaksha general was still alive, barely breathing.

“You… were you sent by the War God King?!”

“Who I am doesn’t matter. The Yaksha elite in the Divine Capital Luoyang have been wiped out. This secret will never be known.”

“The Heavenly King will avenge us! When the time comes, he will rip out your three souls and seven spirits and seal them in separate hells, tormenting you for eternity!” The Yaksha general, lying in his own blood, let out a savage roar.

“Pity you won’t have the chance to report it.” Xiao Chen wore bracers under his outer robes; not a single drop of blood had touched him.

“Hah… the Yaksha King already knows all of this. With my life burning, no matter how far away he is, he will witness this slaughter firsthand!” A towering flame roared up; the Yaksha general’s entire body was consumed by green divine fire—the burning of life-force, the sea of consciousness communicating across dimensions.

When the last flash of light faded, nothing remained. Body and soul were extinguished.

“So there’s no need for me to waste any more effort. Everything I’ve done is to make the Yaksha King stop pursuing Liu Mu and the others.” Xiao Chen gazed at the corpses filling the valley, then shot into the sky.

That day, in the Divine Capital Luoyang, the power of the Yaksha race in that region was uprooted. Nearly a hundred Yaksha experts died violent deaths, including three powerful war-generals.

News spread swiftly across the Nine Provinces, and cultivators everywhere were shaken. The Yaksha King, a Heavenly King whose might shook the world, had finally met someone bold enough to bring iron-blooded slaughter against this dominant race—truly audacious beyond measure.

Everyone guessed that the War God King had struck! After all, he had once fought the Yaksha Heavenly King to a draw, and now he was most likely the only one daring enough to pull the tiger’s whiskers, the only one who would dare to slaughter the fearsome Heavenly King’s clansmen.

But the War God King immediately denied it, saying he had not acted.

The world was shocked. Who had done it?

Eventually, many remembered the mysterious man who had issued the Kill-Yaksha Edict at the Misty Rain Pavilion in Chang’an. Suspicion and speculation swirled—Xiao Chen had ignited an uproar.

Xiao Chen cultivated quietly in a mountain range for a day and a night, but when he emerged, he found that the Yaksha King and his friends like Liu Mu still had no word. His anxiety deepened.

Finally, he decided this was not enough. For a harsher blow, he flew directly overseas, intent on finding the Yaksha Island.

Compared with the overseas swarms of Yaksha, the experts in Luoyang were only a very small part of their strength.

Once overseas, he understood just how grave the situation was. Those colossal islands, each like a continent unto itself, radiated an overwhelming pressure like surging oceans from horrifyingly powerful beings on every massive island.

Dozens of such islands had already been discovered, scattered across the vast sea.

Moreover, ancient cities and giant fortresses hung suspended in the sky.

Of course, each great island and giant city stood far apart, each with its own sphere of influence.

Like a dream, these formidable powers converged from overseas—the very foundation of the Hundred Races.