Tyrant grinned. "Hear that? Then you can die now too."
At the next moment, he grabbed out across space, splitting the old man's body into two. He grabbed the upper half of the body, crushed it into a meatball, and stuffed it into his mouth. Meanwhile, the lower body was left to drop to the ground in a bloody state.
Seeing Tyrant's brutal actions, the ferocity of the plains' experts were aggravated. They charged out toward Tyrant with furious bellows.
"Fight it out with him!"
"Avenge His Majesty!"
Several tens of the plains' warriors roared out furiously, bringing along all sorts of flames, light, electricity, and strong gales as they charged out toward Tyrant.
These warriors who worked under the Heavenly Lion King were extremely loyal to their king. When they heard that it was unknown as to whether the Heavenly Lion King was still alive, all of them had the thought of dying together with the enemy, joining their king in the afterlife.
Seeing the several tens of warriors from the plains who were unafraid of death, Tyrant laughed. A strong menacing feeling grew within him, and he let out an exhale, releasing gray air currents that surged out like a tempest. In the blink of an eye, the entire place was dyed in blood as several tens of warriors were crushed into minced meat without being able to resist at all.
Seeing Tyrant's brutal actions, the remaining experts from the plains, as well as the people who had surrendered to those from the plains, did not dare to resist anymore. All of them lowered their heads, not daring to look into Tyrant's eyes.
Ciel sighed as he kept on thinking about what Prince Zuoxian had said.
'For him to have killed ten of the Sacred Generals single-handedly and forced the Heavenly Lion King to enter the Nine-Tiered Heavens... The Sacred Fire Order's Patriarch and female Saint are probably done for as well.
'Sigh... To think that Fang Xingjian was able to do this... It really was a wrong move to surrender.'
At the thought of this, Ciel's gaze revealed a hint of regret.
Simultaneously, the people in the surroundings also kept on thinking about the content of the news. Regardless of what happened, they all understood clearly that as this piece of news spread through the world, Fang Xingjian's reputation would soar like the rising sun... and no one in the west and south of this world would be able to fight against him.
Similar scenes also happened in the other regions taken over by the plains. This time around, Tyrant, Prince Zuoxian, Blue Sacred Moonlight, Astral Ancestor, and the Sacred Fire Order's Prince Zuoxian were all sent out to bring liberation to those regions and to take in the advancing experts from the plains and the desert.
As time passed, the news of Fang Xingjian's battle in the Imperial Capital spread through the entire world.
In the beginning, most people did not believe this. They were unable to accept such astonishing news.
However, as more and more information arrived, even the people from the plains—who were the most reluctant to believe this—were forced to accept the truth.
From this moment onward, the name 'Fang Xingjian' had already become an unrivaled force in the west and south. Countless people held respected him for his power, admired him for his sword arts, and revered him for his amazing abilities.
However, Fang Xingjian could not be bothered to care about these. His actual form was cultivating the Heaven-Connecting Upper Extremity Sword Physique on the Sun. The four Divine Swords kept on improving under the Sun's great flames while his conjured physique also had its intrinsic structure changed slowly.
Fang Xingjian's clone stayed to watch over the Imperial Capital, making use of the Ether particles' resources to cultivate. He used the Thunder-Inducing Technique as the structure and countless heavenly and earthly treasures—as well as the world's ether particles—as the energy source, slowly strengthening the power of his martial will.
Three days later, in the secret chamber in the Empire's palace, the Fourth Prince reported a matter to Fang Xingjian.
It was about the turmoil in the four regions. With the plains attacking southward, the Sand Country attacking eastward, and then the defeat in Buluo City, numerous Knights and Conferred Knights had chosen to surrender during this period of time.
According to the country's laws, those who surrendered during a war should be punished severely. A lighter punishment would be to cripple them of their cultivation while a more serious one would be to kill them.
However, this time around, there were far too many people who had surrendered. When there were so many people involved, there tended to be a trend where the law would not impose punishment upon the wrong-doers.
After hearing the Fourth Prince's issue, Fang Xingjian said calmly, "Let Tyrant handle it."
"You're saying..."
"Kill those who should be killed, lock up those who should be locked up. We don't need so many factions in the Empire either."
Therefore, from the next day onward, Tyrant swept through the four regions, bringing forth great bloodshed. Many powerful clans and top-notch factions were all completely massacred within a short period of time.
The Empire's plan to wipe out the different factions caused a great shock to run through the country.
In fact, back from the days when Alexander had been in power, the Empire had been putting in great effort to weaken the various factions' influence. They had even slowly destroyed their legacies.
After all, there was no king who could tolerate there being so many forces that were not within his control.
Back then, there were the ten great experts and the world's metamorphosis had yet to arrive. Therefore, Alexander had dealt with the matter slowly. He had used the Knight system, as well as the Prefectural, Regional, and National Academies, to seize resources and reduce the factions' influences.
Presently, however, there were six known Divine level experts under Fang Xingjian, and he himself had also gained great prestige after clinching victory in the battle in the Imperial Capital. There was no one in the country who could stand up against Fang Xingjian.
There were only two paths placed before the many factions. They could either join the Empire or be wiped out.
Within a short period of time, huge bloodshed appeared within the Empire's borders. Numerous factions were unwilling to see their ancestors' efforts being destroyed and put up strong resistance, swearing to defend their factions until death.
The people from the numerous factions saw Tyrant as a murderer, an executioner. A great number of members from these factions who managed to escape worked hard in their martial arts, waiting for the chance to exact vengeance.
As for Fang Xingjian, he had become a great demon in their eyes.
However, with six Divine level experts suppressing them and the Mage Association secretly providing support, none of the factions could succeed in getting revenge.
The Immortality Saint also seemed to have verified the mystical prints' effects, so he sent people to have dealings with Fang Xingjian.
Just the second level of the mystical prints had them providing 12 pieces of Divine Remains Equipment and many other precious treasures. This showed how wealthy the Church of Universal Truth was.
All of the Divine Remains Equipment were handed over to Fang Qian's group, and Fang Xingjian also gave them a set of the knowledge he had gotten from the wordless monument back on Earth. He wanted them to forge the last sword for Instant.
In the meantime, Fang Xingjian continued cultivating for another one month or so, and he finally achieved some success in his Heaven-Connecting Upper Extremity Sword Physique. The rate of his Thunder-Inducing Technique cultivation was also slowly reducing.
"It's time to strive for tier five of the Divine level."
Fang Xingjian raised his head and looked toward the sky. His indifferent gaze seemed to penetrate through the layers in the skies and into the Nine-Tiered Heavens.
However, he still did not leave immediately to strive for the next tier. Instead, he called back his many subordinates and announced that he was going to cultivate in seclusion. Then he slowly dissipated before everyone's respectful gaze.
His true form, that was on the Earth's Sun, also appeared in the sky above the Imperial Capital. Fang Xingjian's two figures merged together in an instant, and the four Divine Swords also darted into his body with a flash.
...
The space-time changed intensely once again.
The countless changes in time and space flashed before Fang Xingjian. However, the current Fang Xingjian was not as ignorant as he had been in the past. He looked at the changes occurring to the space-time around him, occasionally seeming to be deep in thought.
Even after the changes to the space-time came to a stop, he was still deep in thought and only started assessing the surrounding environment after a few minutes.
This time around, he had not been sent directly to outer space. Instead, all the barren land and numerous tall buildings within his sight had come crashing down.
The scene of the world's end had appeared before him.