Chapter 1077 - A Betrayal
One attack, and he suppressed the world within the chessboard!
Garuda, the Blue Ox Yao Emperor, and the others felt as if they were trapped in a swamp with a divine mountain weighing them down. Their faces flushed red with exertion, and throughout their bodies, their bones rubbed together and creaked. They couldn’t hold out much longer.
The Blue Ox Yao Emperor in particular had been forced back into his original form. He was now a massive blue ox over a hundred feet tall with sharp horns and hooved legs as sturdy as pillars.
But that terrifying pressure nonetheless almost forced him to his knees, and his breath came in ragged gasps.
“Elder Yin——!” Garuda’s eyes bulged as if about to pop, and he cried out for aid.
In the distance, Elder Yin’s expression changed dramatically. He was now fully aware that this didn’t bode well, and there was no sign of his former calm composure.
There was no need for Garuda to even remind him, as he was already taking action.
“Capture!” He stretched out his right arm and grabbed.
Boom!
A massive hand formed of the Laws of Spirit Nirvana condensed in midair and reached for the chessboard manifested of the Starry Combat Diagram.
But practically simultaneously, an incomparably forceful streak of sword qi cleaved at Elder Yin.
It was so sudden that Elder Yin was completely caught off guard. All he could do was meet it head-on.
Bang!!!
Sword qi shattered.
But Elder Yin was forced several hundred feet back. His right arm was an indistinct, bloody pulp, and even his bones were visible.
Without Elder Yin to control it, the massive hand flying toward the Starry Combat Diagram silently disappeared without a trace.
“Red Pine, what’s the meaning of this!?” Elder Yin’s hair and beard bristled with fury, and his face was ashen.
That sudden streak of sword qi was actually the work of the Red Pine Yao Emperor!
This development caught the distant onlookers, Ye Luo and Wang Zhuofu, completely off guard. What’s going on?
“Fellow Daoist, please, calm your fury. For now, let’s just watch the show.” The graying but youthful-looking Red Pine Yao Emperor said with a smile.
“Have you and that Su Yi person been working together all this time?” Elder Yin’s expression shifted.
The Red Pine Yao Emperor shook his head, but he didn’t explain.
Within the chessboard, Garuda and the others saw this too. Despite themselves, they were dumbstruck, and they almost broke down.
In the Ten Directions Yao Mountains, Yao Emperor Red Pine was the uncontested strongest yao cultivator around. He was the uncontested greatest of the Nine Great Yao Emperors, as well as the only Profound Unity Emperor among them. His terrifying cultivation base dazzled the Wilds and its subsidiary worlds.
When they set this trap, their greatest pillars of support were Elder Yin and the Red Pine Yao Emperor.
Who’d have thought that the Red Pine Yao Emperor would turn on them and attack Elder Yin without warning at a time like this?
But Su Yi didn’t find any of this at all surprising.
Rather, the moment the Red Pine Yao Emperor showed up, their eyes met, and they signaled to each other in secret!
“No——!” A terrified, unwilling shout rang out.
A mighty Profound Serenity Realm yao broke beneath Moonlit Shadow’s pressure, his body shattering as he died on the spot.
This bloody spectacle made Garuda and the others’ eyes bulge, and their hearts filled with despair.
But as Su Yi put more strength into his grip, the Moonlit Shadow’s pressure only intensified.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
One after another, the Profound Serenity Realm yao exploded beneath the pressure, dying brutally where they stood.
This bloody spectacle was unquestionably unsettling. Were the outside world to see this, it would inevitably stir up a massive uproar.
After all, these were all mighty Profound Serenity Realm yao who’d lived for countless years. They made their homes in the Ten Directions Yao Mountains, and their infamy spread far and wide.
Yet now, they’d been executed, one after another, like condemned criminals!
Before long, only Garuda, the Blue Ox Yao Emperor, the Falling Star Butterfly Empress, and the Dark Mountain Yao Emperor remained.
“Red Pine, if you stand in my way any further, the Studio of the Heart will return to crush your lair and scatter your ashes!” Elder Yin roared in fury, his entire body surging with murderous intent.
He took out a four-foot bronze paintbrush. Its sharp tip was like a blade, while the handle was emblazoned with strange, contorted cloud markings.
Boom!
Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, Elder Yin leaped toward the chessboard, raising his bronze brush. It stirred up a terrifying rain of misty light, as if ink were splattering the skies and gathering into a strange scroll painting.
Within the scroll painting, demons and gods ran rampant. Thunder rumbled and boomed, and the terrifying power of the river of heaven breaking through a dam instantly burst forth.
This expert of the Studio of the Heart was powerful beyond imagination, but the Red Pine Yao Emperor didn’t just stand back and watch.
He drew a black Dao Sword and immediately intercepted Elder Yi.
Boom!
Sword qi shot forth, throwing heaven and earth into uproar.
An unparalleled grand battle broke out between the dome of heaven.
Elder Yin was only in the late-stage Profound Serenity Realm, but he’d mastered the Laws of Spirit Nirvana, and his combat strength far surpassed others of the same level. He was up against the early-stage Profound Unity Realm Red Pine Yao Emperor, but he shockingly wasn’t at all at a disadvantage.
Even just watching, Ye Luo and Wang Zhuofu gasped repeatedly.
However, this development made Garuda and company completely give in to despair.
Win or lose, Elder Yin couldn’t possibly save them any time soon!
Finally, the Falling Star Butterfly Empress couldn’t take it anymore. She coughed up blood, and startling cracks spread across her skin. A moment later, her entire body split into chunks.
In the last moments before her death, her beautiful eyes locked onto Su Yi, and she stammered, “You… Don’t tell me you’re really… the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force?”
Before her bewildered voice had even finished echoing through the air, she crumbled like a burnt-through stick of incense. She would never learn the answer to her question.
Seeing this, the Blue Ox Yao Emperor completely caved. He knelt on his hooved legs, lowered his head, and said in a quavering voice, “Your Excellency Su, please, spare me! I was wrong! Please, out of consideration for the way I once carried you, spare this little ox’s life!”
He was quivering with obvious fright.
Wang Zhuofu couldn’t help but feel flabbergasted. ‘Little’ ox? I would never have guessed that the Blue Ox Yao Emperor would lower himself like this just to stay alive.
“Hah?” Ye Luo laughed. Earlier, this ol’ ox was as arrogant as could be. He even said he hoped Master wouldn’t die too quickly and put all his effort to waste. He couldn’t have been any more arrogant.
But now, he seems like a completely different person.
It was hard not to hold him in contempt.
“It’s just death. What’s there to be afraid of?” Even Garuda rebuked him; he couldn’t bear to watch any longer.
The Blue Ox Yao Emperor lowered his head and remained kneeling. He paid Garuda no heed.
Here, Su Yi suddenly interjected. “Dark Mountain, lead that beast away for now.”
“As you command, Your Excellency!” The Dark Mountain Yao Emperor solemnly assented. His tall, stalwart figure straightened as he relaxed. He’d obviously only been pretending to be suppressed earlier!
“So, you were a traitor all along too!!” Garuda was both surprised and furious. His expression was incomparably unsightly.
But it wasn’t just him. The Blue Ox Yao Emperor, Ye Luo, and Wang Zhuofu were dazed too. All of them felt as if their minds couldn’t keep up.
“A traitor, me? That’s rich coming from someone who betrayed his sect and turned on his master. You’re despicable!” The Dark Mountain Yao Emperor said coldly, his gaze utterly contemptuous.
He reached out, grabbed one of the Blue Ox Yao Emperor’s back legs, and dragged him out of the world in the chessboard. The massive blue ox didn’t dare to resist.
Now, only Su Yi and Garuda remained within the chessboard.
“Where is Wang Que?” Su Yi said calmly. His eyes didn’t so much as ripple with emotion.
He couldn’t be bothered to ask why the Golden-Winged Great Peng had betrayed him.
Garuda looked up, his expression shifting. “If I tell you, will you spare my life?”
“You have to die,” Su Yi said without hesitation.
Garuda’s expression was instantly incomparably unsightly, and his gaze was vicious. “Then go ahead and do it! I guarantee I won’t give you the opportunity to search my soul!”
Su Yi’s eyes shone with disdain. “This is a world manifested of the Laws of Spirit Nirvana. Here, even if you explode your soul origin, I can gather its fragments and use a secret art to repair it.”
Garuda trembled, but despite his fear, he growled, “In that case, why not just search my soul? Why ask questions?”
Su Yi said calmly, “It would be too troublesome. A dirty little beast like you isn’t worth the effort. Tell me where Wang Que is, and I can let you die with dignity.”
Garuda’s expression shifted erratically. A little while later, he burst into mad laughter and hissed, “Su Xuanjun, did you know that the thing I hate most about you is that cold, indifferent attitude? Nothing matters to you! Back then, I kowtowed for ten days and ten nights. I thought I could become your legacy disciple, but in the end, you just made me an honorary disciple!
“Tell me: in terms of talent, foundations, and backgrounds, how am I any inferior to that little tortoise Xuan Ning? How am I any inferior to Ye Luo, Bai Yi, or Jin Kui?”
Here, Garuda’s face filled with rage, hatred, and indignation. “And Jing Xing? He’s nothing but a muddleheaded scholar! Yet for some inexplicable reason, he’s ranked second among your legacy disciples!
“And I’ve been in the sect far longer than most of your legacy disciples, too!
“But look at you! Over the past eighty thousand years, you’ve never made me your legacy disciple!
“Do you know why Huo Yao betrayed you? It’s because you’re too biased. You trapped him in the Spiritual Revolution Realm for tens of thousands of years, all the while insisting you were doing it for his own good!”
It seemed that Garuda was venting. His voice was hysterical, and his eyes were red.
Su Yi couldn’t help but feel disappointed. He’d considered all sorts of reasons why Garuda might have betrayed him, but he had never even considered it’d be something like this.
“If I hadn’t accepted you into the sect… how could you have even had the opportunity to become my disciple?” Su Yi said coolly. “Besides, throughout the Wilds, there’s no small number of people with talent, foundations, and backgrounds superior to yours. If that were really what mattered to me, you could never have become my disciple.”
Garuda laughed coldly. He was just about to say something when Su Yi said flatly, “You think you’re stronger than Xuan Ning, Jing Xing, Bai Yi, and Jin Kui, but in my eyes, you’re far inferior to them. Thus, you can only be an honorary disciple!”
Garuda was stunned, but a moment later, he quivered from head to toe. “Great! Su Xuanjun, you’re finally willing to tell the truth. You’re biased! You’ve always been prejudiced against me!!”
Su Yi’s expression showed neither joy nor sorrow. He was as tranquil as the depths of an ancient well. “Even if I am biased… that’s why you betrayed me? If every disciple of the Grotto of Abstruse Force thought as you did, wouldn’t they all have betrayed the sect as you have?
“And over the years, haven’t I guided your cultivation on numerous occasions? Haven’t I taught you the Dao, refined your weapons, and watched over you as you underwent tribulation? When have I ever mistreated you?
“If you felt that you’d been wronged, you could have chosen to leave and find another master! So why… choose to betray me?”
Here, his gaze was distant and impenetrable as he looked down at Garuda. “Why choose to view me with enmity?”
He paused for emphasis between each word, and each word went off like a thunderclap in Garuda’s heart. His expression shifted erratically, and he found himself unable to argue.
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