Rise of Humanity

Zhong Yue cast aside his worries immediately upon hearing King Geng’s words. As the former ruler, it was likely that the foundation of his rule, and thus his influence, was still intact here.

Judging from what King Geng said, he was probably going to introduce some of his men to Zhong Yue. His reasons for doing was twofold: first, he wanted to show off his power and second, he wanted to recruit Zhong Yue and the others.

Apart from Zhong Yue, there were also a few from the Prison Realm that were invited by King Geng.

The Lesser Void Heavenly Saint Realm was the place where the Realm Monarch’s bloodline gathered and those who lived here were either extremely rich or powerful. This made this place a place teeming with royalty. Huge inns were everywhere and they were all luxuriously decorated and the place where King Geng organized the feast was the Inn of Heavenly Treasures, the best among all inns. When everyone seated themselves, they realized the seats were so high up that when they looked up, they could see the sun, moon and galaxy easily and everything beneath them when they looked down.

King Geng laughed and said, “I’ve spread news and my men will arrive in no time. In fact, these men are all famous people and back in those days, only people like them are qualified to be invited by me!”

He was very proud of himself. After all, he was the brother of the current Realm Monarch, the second in place in the Heaven Court and a person with great power.

Everyone present continued to enjoy the wine and they patiently waited in the inn where the dragon carvings on the pillars and roof were actual dragons.

The guest flow in the inn was very high as well and among the guests, most of them were all gods with terrifying power. And occasionally, there were even celestial emperors and demon emperors among them.

These guests were all people with fame and power and they were here in hope of gaining the friendship of those of the bloodline of Realm Monarch. Thus, though it would take quite a fortune to organize a feast here, there were still generous people that wouldn’t bat an eye at all when they organize a grand and luxury feast for their guests.

“There are a total of eighteen of them that I invited. These gods and demonic gods are given the title of the Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud. Among them are Qian Shan, Bi Er, Tuo Yu, Duo Yi, Shen Guang and the others. There were also Heavenly King Lu, one of the four Heavenly Kings, who is also one of the Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud!”

King Geng added, “Unlike the others or Heavenly King Shang that have some little to no friendship with me, these guys are extremely loyal me. Heavenly King Shang is like a grass that would bend against the will of the wind, he had sided himself with the current Realm Monarch ever since my defeat. My brother had passed away and after my defeat, only these men remained loyal to me. While they are my subordinates, they are my brother’s troops, and only they will never betray me.”

Zhong Yue, Li Tianxing and the others were so shocked by the news; they never thought that King Geng still had eighteen gods that remained loyal to him. It was no wonder everyone still called him King Geng!

Shu Ye, however, remained silent and continued drinking the wine in his cup.

Heavenly King Shang was his teacher and when King Geng said that Heavenly King Shang was a man whose allegiance changed with the wind, all he could do was take in the criticism.

“Twenty fourth prince, what a rare customer. Welcome!”

Suddenly, noises came from below and King Geng’s pupils shrunk right away. He looked towards the bottom level only to see Prince Yun He walking right into Inn of Heavenly Treasures while surrounded by gods and Qi Practitioners.

The shopkeeper led Prince Yun He and his followers all the way up into Inn of Heavenly Treasures and arranged for them seats not too far away from King Geng and the others.

The two then exchanged glances and after they stopped making eye contact, their expression darkened down slightly.

“My prince, may I ask for our purpose here?” A Heaven Realm Qi Practitioner asked as he looked at Zhong Yue fiercely, “Are we here to avenge Wu Yangsheng and kill this petty human?”

Prince Yun He however, grinned and said, “Be patient, we are here to witness a great show.”

Beside him stood nine Qi Practitioners and after they seated themselves, the gods around them remained standing as they served the Qi Practitioners, which suggested that these Qi Practitioners were most definitely disciples that had come from gigantic families with great power.

After Wu Yangsheng was killed by Zhong Yue, only nine of them remained, but now, the Realm Lord of Heaven Realm had replaced the missing slot with another candidate to fill up the ranks, thus, there were still ten of them.

After all, the Heaven Realm was a place that produced a great number of talented Qi Practitioners as people with the greatest and strongest bloodline in the Six Paths World were born here. Hence, just how hard was it for them to get another person that is not any weaker than Wu Yangsheng?

Prince Yun He then threw out some scrolls and he said, “Here is the information about the ten Qi Practitioners in the Prison Realm which include their techniques, soul weapons, arts, and everything. Read them and learn as much as you can about them to gain an upper hand against them.”

The nine other Qi Practitioners were surprised and happy and one of the ladies among them said, “Impressive! You are indeed an impressive!”

Prince Yun He smiled and said, “With just a simple order, I can easily buy over their masters, senior martial brothers and sisters of theirs. Be it the Prison Realm, Heaven Realm, or Celestial Realm, I can obtain their information as long as I want to.”

“These guys are so dead!” said the Qi Practitioners of the Heaven Realm.

They did not lower their voice at all and when their words reached the ears of Zhong Yue and the others, they all frowned upon the fact that Prince Yun He could easily bribe their masters and senior martial siblings to obtain the secrets of their arts!

King Geng humphed and said calmly, “Don’t worry. As long as my men arrive, they would not be so arrogant anymore. With Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud’s training, you will all go through a series of vein washing, have your body and Yuan Shen reforged and your energy refined and these will boost your strength in a short period of time!”

Zhong Yue and the others were moved and they were all invigorated upon thinking of this.

King Geng smiled and added, “Besides, with my power in the Heaven Realm, what he can get I can get easily as well. In no time, you will receive the information about these fools. The outcome of the battle has yet to be decided!”

They then waited patiently and after quite some time, King Geng frowned and he was slightly puzzled.

It was very strange that after waiting for so long, not even one of the Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud arrived.

He was very confident that they were loyal to the previous Realm Monarch and him and that they would never turn their back on him, but his confidence shook inevitably when none of them showed up.

Jun Wudao, Yu Bochuan and the others exchanged glances and they remained silent; perhaps, the Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud were afraid of the current Realm Monarch’s power or they had betrayed King Geng already.

After waiting for quite some time again, a gloomy expression climbed up on King Geng’s face and he said mockingly, “I thought that I would receive the same treatment if I treated them sincerely and maintained my loyalty to them. Seems like I’ve thought too highly of myself. It’s fine, the Realm Monarch possesses such great power and I won’t blame them if they merely seek a brighter future for themselves….”

Suddenly, a burly voice sounded out angrily, “Surrender to the current Realm Monarch? Is he worthy of our loyalty? King Geng, you have underestimated us!”

“We are the men of the previous Realm Monarch, the wings of King Geng and a loyal subordinate will never have a second lord!”

King Geng was surprised and happy at the same time and he immediately got up as he welcomed the newcomers, “Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud! I’ve returned!”

Zhong Yue and the others immediately got up and they looked towards the entrance of the Inn of Heavenly Treasures, and they saw seventeen strange looking gods walking into the inn.

The one leading them was a god blind in one eye and another eye of his appeared to have contracted with some kind of decease and it kept on tearing.

Behind him was another celestial emperor who had his arms placed on the shoulder of the leader and another one of them placed his hands on the shoulder of this celestial emperor and the Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud walked in one by one in the same manner.

Upon seeing this, King Geng trembled in anger and his eyes turned red.

Under the lead of the god with one blind eye, the seventeen of them got up the stairs carefully and stopped at where King Geng, Zhong Yue, and the others were seated.

The leader continued to the other side of his eyes tearing non-stop and through his remaining half blinded eye, he looked at King Geng and the others who appeared extremely blurry in his eyes and he shouted, “King Geng! Which of you is King Geng! My eyesight is as good as it used to be and after King Geng is reborn, this old man could no longer recognize you, King Geng.”

King Geng held his tears in and restrained himself from crying, and he got up saying, “I am over here. “Brothers, your eyes….”

The one-eyed god laughed happily and the other gods behind him raised their head as happy smiles blossomed on their face and in sync, they all said, “Good! Good! It’s nice to have you back, King Geng!”

And it was at this time that Zhong Yue and the others saw the face of the seventeen other Emperors of Heavenly Cloud. Goosebumps rose on their skins as they noticed that none of them had eyeballs in their eye sockets. Rather, their eye sockets were occupied by white stones instead!

The stone eyeballs were embedded tightly into their eye sockets, and within these stone eyeballs was a great power that prevented them from regenerating, permanently keeping them in a blinded state unless the seals were lifted.

Other than that, the power hidden in these stone eyeballs had also blinded their Yuan Shen and they could no longer see anything!

However, the one-eyed god still had one eye that could vaguely see things around him but it just kept on crying to a point that it seemed like its tear ducts would dry up!

“Brothers, what happened to your eyes!”

King Geng was consumed by hatred and without giving it a thought, he shouted, “I gave you an order to behave and stay low until my return! Why did you act recklessly? Even I am not Helian Yunshan’s opponent, not to mention you guys.”

Suddenly, from the opposite table came the voice of Prince Yun He sneering, “Blind even with eyes.”

And what he said was true.

With their eyes dug out and replaced by stone eyes, they had all became blind.

The seventeen celestial and demon emperors kept quiet for a moment and the one-eyed god said, “After King Geng’s defeat and exhile, we listened to your orders and we laid low. One day, a lady called Queen Shi Ji came forth and gave us two choices; surrender or become blind men.”

Then, the seventeen of them widened their eyes and said happily, “And we chose the second option.”

Right away, tears filled King Geng eyes. After a long pause, King Geng said with a heavy heart, “Hahaha…. Quen Shi Ji… Queen Shi Ji…. It’s good as long you are all alive. Where is Heavenly King Lu? Why is he not here? Did he surrender?”

The seventeen Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud kept quiet and the one-eyed god said softly, “Brother Lu is here as well….”

“Where is he?” asked King Geng angrily.

Suddenly, there came an old and tired voice from the light wheel of one of the gods, “This old man is here! King Geng, rest assured. I who has grown under you and your brother’s wing, an outsider you’ve treated like a brother. How is that possible that I turn my back on you?”

An old man then flew out from the light wheel and like the other seventeen Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud, his eyes were also replaced by stone eyes. But what was even more terrifying was that his arms and legs were all severed!

At the severed joints, there were also rocks that prevented him from healing!

Heavenly King Lu, however, did not seem to pay any mind to his awful condition as he said, “Queen Shi Ji said that this old man’s strength is too strong and that my strength is close the a Creator. She feared that by sealing my eyes, I would still be too much of a threat. So she had my arms and legs severed as well. She said that if I change my mind, she will lift her curse, but do you think that is possible? Please forgive me, King Geng. With my legs severed, I could not move freely anymore so all I could do is hide inside the Brother Qian Shan’s secret realms.”

Heavenly King Lu lowered his head and he could be seen trembling in joy at the reunion with his one and only lord.

On the other hand, King Geng failed to keep his emotions in; he knelt on the ground, bowed at the Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud and he cried, “Brothers! I’ve failed all of you! I shouldn’t have asked you to wait for me! This is all my fault!”

The Eighteen Emperors of Heavenly Cloud immediately knelt down as well and they all cried as well, “Please stop, King Geng! You and your brother have treated us like family, and if we really surrendered, then we would have truly become blind! We may have given up our eyes but our consciousness remains clear! Please get up, King Geng!”