Chapter 1269: Foreign Aggression And Internal Turmoil
The Bloodshark Sovereign’s reputation spread far and wide. Many people were startled to hear this name. This was especially true for the youth who had just made their debut; they thought of the sovereign as an untouchable existence.
“It really is a bit too much to call him a sea god, but he is powerful without a doubt.” A paragon who knew about what happened back then shook his head: “Yes, I can’t deny that he is strong, but he didn’t become a sea god back then. The Trident ultimately abandoned him.”
“Even if he isn’t a sea god, if a real one doesn’t show up, who can stop him?” A youth said: “Once the sovereign is here, Dongting Lake will be destroyed and Li Qiye will die. This is fine, the humans will know the consequences of opposing sea demons in this region.”
Some humans were quite annoyed at this rhetoric. Another couldn’t help but retort: “Generations are always changing. So what if the Bloodshark Sovereign is strong? Li Qiye is the strongest genius of the human race. He has sacrificed billions of Teeming Fish, defeated Feiyan with one hand and stomped Meiyu to death. He will be invincible in the younger generation!”
The humans had been weak in this world for very long, but they had high hopes in Li Qiye, the rising star of the younger generation. If, say, a human could become an Immortal Emperor in this generation, then the human race would have a greater status. They could even suppress the sea demons in this world.
“Hmph, don’t flatter him too much.” An unhappy young sea demon replied: “Everyone in the world knows that it was the Peacock Tree who performed the sacrifice, Li Qiye was only the errand boy. As for him hurting Miss Shangguan, it was only because he is a despicable wretch and ambushed her when she wasn’t paying attention. Otherwise, how could he hurt a God-Monarch like her?”
“Oh? Then what about Gongsun Meiyu? He killed her with one stomp. Hmph, in my eyes, he will surely become the next Immortal Emperor.” The human cultivator didn’t back down: “Maybe you sea demons are afraid of him becoming an emperor and suppressing you all…”
Before one knew it, small quarrels broke out among the youths before the battle had even started. The humans and sea demons were unrelenting. The young sea demons were certain of Wyvern and Bloodshark Village’s victory while the young humans had absolute confidence in Li Qiye killing Feiyan and crushing Wyvern.
Meanwhile, the older generation was quiet, especially the ones with sects closest to Dongting Lake. Regardless of the victor, this war might spread to them as well.
“Dongting Lake, huh.” A charming spirit imperial lineage heard this news. An ancestor smiled and gently shook his head: “It has been too long, the sea demons have probably forgotten how the lake was established. Back then, in the entire Dragon Demon Sea, they didn’t even dare to breathe loudly. But now, when the lake is in decline, those ants actually want a piece of the cake. Fine then, let them take the lead. I want to see if the lake is still as strong as before or not!”
The 100,000 strong army surrounded the lake in a short period of time. Alarms rang everywhere across the lake. It didn’t matter if the disciples were willing to fight or not, they had to prepare for war.
Hong Tianzhu brought Hong Yujiao back to the lake overnight. Of course, Li Qiye was with them as well.
The lake had entered a state of alert. All locations were heavily guarded with checkpoints scattered across the eighteen docks full of patrolling disciples.
The eighteen docks were the largest foundations of the lake as well as their most fortified strongholds.
The great clans all had their businesses in these docks. According to the iron laws of the lake, these docks and mountains belonged to the lake itself and couldn’t become private properties. For a long time, the clans obeyed these creeds and ruled the lake together.
However, the ancestors later on abandoned the iron laws in order to gain more power. They divided the eighteen docks and the nearby mountains into their own properties.
With that, the division of power became chaotic and messy. Changes of power were frequent, resulting in the lake being lost in chaos.
From then on, the clans became even more disunified and followed their own whims. By only worrying about themselves, many past covenants and pacts with other powers could no longer be carried out.
After Hong Tianzhu returned, he saw many disciples along the way. However, the disciples looked at them with strange stares. Some even avoided the group like a plague.
After seeing this situation, Tianzhu felt quite negative and knew that something big had happened. He knew that the situation was not favorable.
Even juniors like Hong Yujiao and Miss Lin could feel that something was amiss. They became quite nervous as well.
Only Li Qiye was smiling without a care while leisurely walking through the lake.
A disciple quickly told Miss Lin along the way: “Senior Sister Lin, Senior Uncle has called for you.”
With that, Miss Lin stopped to look at Li Qiye and Hong Tianzhu.
In fact, this didn’t only happen to her, several other disciples had the same happen to them.
“Brother Xu, the ancestor wants you to come back right now…” Previously, many disciples didn’t know how to start this conversation, but after the Lin disciple took the initiative, they all came up and opened their mouths.
The group consisted of many excellent disciples from the different clans. They came with Hong Tianzhu to the Jian Clan in order to befriend them.
These disciples glanced at Hong Tianzhu at this time. They weren’t stupid and knew that something was wrong.
In their minds, Hong Tianzhu was a good clan master. He was ambitious with great vision, so they were willing to follow him.
“You all should go back.” Tianzhu gently sighed. He knew exactly what was going on, but he didn’t explicitly reveal it.
These disciples were silent for a moment. Miss Lin bit her lips and secretly glanced over at Li Qiye. In the end, she gathered courage out of nowhere and said: “Junior Brother, you go back, I won’t be returning just yet.”
Miss Lin and Hong Yujiao were good friends. They grew up as sisters, so their bond was quite deep. In this key moment, she chose to weather the storm together with Hong Yujiao.
“Yes, I’m willing to follow the sect master as well.” A different senior brother said: “Go back and tell that ancestor this: if the lake has made any decision, it should be publicly announced. Don’t treat us as pawns for those ancestors’ benefits.”
“That’s right, senior sisters aren’t objects, the ancestors can’t betroth them to whoever they want. One day, it might be us next.” A male disciple stated his displeasure as well.
Some of the disciples felt cheated after finding out that the ancestors from several clans had privately decided the marriage of the two girls. They weren’t stupid. Today, it was these two, tomorrow, it could be them!
Such arbitrary decisions had made them very unhappy. Moreover, Hong Tianzhu was vigorously opposing these marriages. This was something as clear as day to them.
At the very least, their current master was willing to fight for their sake. But as for those ancestors, they treated marriages as a means for their own gains. It inevitably led to some aversion in the minds of these brilliant disciples.
“Yes, we are willing to follow Clan Master through the turmoil. Everything should be transparent instead of being decided in secret meetings! We are not cattle!” All the other disciples were quite unhappy.
After seeing the revolt, Li Qiye smiled and commented: “Not returning is fine.”
The group’s eyes darted towards Li Qiye. Even though they hadn’t known him for too long, he gave them great confidence. His invincibility and decisiveness had conquered their hearts.
“Yes, we have decided! The fate of Dongting Lake should be decided by everyone together, not a few ancestors!” One more disciple concurred.
Hong Tianzhu gently sighed after seeing this. He didn’t know whether to be happy or hapless. He was glad because at least the younger generation was opposing the old. What made him feel sad was that a disaster was befalling the lake, yet these ancestors were still vying for their own benefits.
“Master!” A male disciple rushed over. He immediately whispered after seeing Hong Tianzhu: “Master, you need to run now. The ancestors have decided to depose you and want to keep you under house arrest. I heard them privately say that they want to hand you over to Wyvern as a token of apology!”
Hong Tianzhu’s expression sank. He understood why those disciples from before looked at him as if he was a plague.
Being deposed was something he had expected, but being handed over to Wyvern never crossed his mind.