Chapter Ninety: Intervening

The First Elder’s gaze swept over the seven clan chiefs of the eight great clans who had hurried over, and she sneered.

The seven clan chiefs, Bolin and the others, also found the situation rather troublesome. The second generation of the Four Divine Beast clans all possessed sovereign artifacts. Gesreisen, for instance, had a sovereign artifact for soul defense. And the First Elder, Gaia, also had a defensive sovereign artifact fused into her dragon scales. Even with such a defensive sovereign artifact, the eight great clans were not afraid, but this First Elder was truly difficult to deal with.

“Clan Chief Barbary, you should have an easier time handling her. Go,” said Clan Chief Bolin.

Clan Chief Barbary’s tiger eyes fixed on her, and he gave a slight nod. Then his body flickered and he flew onto the arena.

“I knew it. It’s either you or Deen. The other five don’t have the nerve,” the First Elder sneered. With a defensive sovereign artifact, ordinary physical attacks were useless against her; she could also strike with the might of her formidable body.

Moreover, the First Elder’s soul defense was also extremely strong, after all she had her innate azure light as well as an ordinary soul-defensive divine artifact. She was powerful, yes, but the seven clan chiefs on the other side were no less formidable. They were equally hard to deal with.

“Gaia, today will be the day you die,” a deep voice rang out, seeming to echo from within his chest. Clan Chief Barbary, who stood over three meters tall, flicked his right hand, and a long azure whip suddenly appeared. The whip was dozens of meters long, like an enormous azure python.

“Who dies is still uncertain!” the First Elder cried sharply. Her figure shot forward at once, crossing the arena in a flash.

Clan Chief Barbary, however, took a great step forward and lashed out with his whip, creating one loop after another that snaked toward the First Elder. Heavy collision sounds began to ring out in rapid succession. The whip in Barbary’s hand was a sovereign artifact, and the First Elder herself wore sovereign artifact armor. The force of their clashes was easily imaginable.

In terms of comprehension of the water-element laws, Clan Chief Barbary was stronger than the First Elder. So although the battle quickly became a bitter struggle, the First Elder was clearly at a disadvantage. That whip was monstrously troublesome, forcing her to defend passively.

While the two were locked in fierce combat, Gesreisen, Beirut, Linley, and the others also arrived. Beirut had naturally come to end this long and bloody feud between the Four Divine Beast clans and the eight great clans.

In the blink of an eye, the struggle between the First Elder and Clan Chief Barbary had reached its most intense stage. That single whip seemed to have transformed into countless great serpents, wrapping around the entire arena in a ceaseless cycle. The longer Clan Chief Barbary fought, the more at ease he seemed, and that whip was displaying the effect of thousands upon thousands of whips, endlessly enveloping the First Elder. If this continued, the First Elder would likely end up captured alive.

The second page.

“Prefecture Lord, my sister’s condition is getting worse and worse. Please, let us stop here,” Gesreisen said anxiously to Beirut.

Before Beirut could act, a figure on the other side, who had been watching quietly, was already at the center of the arena in a flash, as though by teleportation. In the midst of the muffled impacts, that person seized the whip with one hand and the First Elder’s dragon claw with the other.

“Too strong!” Gesreisen, the Vermilion Bird clan chief, the other four clan chiefs, and the many elders all felt their hearts give a violent jolt. The First Elder’s fist was equivalent to an attack from a sovereign artifact, and that whip was also a sovereign artifact, moreover one of unfathomable variability. Yet this man seized one with each hand, effortlessly. To dare catch a sovereign artifact barehanded—this Quenkun’s strength completely stunned Gesreisen and the others.

Even Beirut could not help his eyes light up in surprise, and he felt a faint stirring of doubt in his heart. This Quenkun’s strength had actually reached such a level. To catch a sovereign artifact with his bare hands—could it be that his body was as strong as mine? How could that be possible?

“All right, let’s end this,” Quenkun said with a faint smile, and with a sweep of his hand he hurled Clan Chief Barbary off the battle platform.

“Lord Quenkun, why did you come without informing us?” Clan Chief Bolin asked with a hearty laugh, looking very friendly.

People like Quenkun and Beirut were monstrous figures few clans dared to provoke. Even in their heyday, with a sovereign backing them, the Four Divine Beast clans would not have feared great perfection highgods, but they still would not have wanted to offend people of this level.

Quenkun laughed softly. “Oh? I’ve become Lord Quenkun already? Bolin, are we that familiar? Must I notify you in advance whenever I come? To be honest, I have already stayed with the Four Divine Beast clans for several hundred years, and for the past several hundred years I have lived there the entire time.”

“What?” Bolin and the seven clan chiefs all changed expression at once. Quenkun had actually been staying all along with the Four Divine Beast clans—what was his relationship with them? At that moment, Bolin and the others could not help feeling tense and worried. If Quenkun were determined to aid the Four Divine Beast clans, then perhaps today they would truly have no choice but to withdraw.

While Bolin and the others were startled, the First Elder, who had remained silent, suddenly flashed with brilliance in her beautiful eyes and gritted her teeth as she sent Quenkun a message. “Quenkun, if you help my Four Divine Beast clans drive them back, or kill a few of those seven clan chiefs and frighten the rest away, then I will agree to marry you.”

“Really?” Quenkun’s eyes lit up as he turned to look at the First Elder, then grinned widely. “Good. Then today I shall begin a great slaughter.”

After sending a message to the First Elder, Quenkun fixed Bolin and the others with a sharp gaze, his whole body releasing killing intent. “Bolin, I advise you to go back whence you came and never again come looking for trouble with the Four Divine Beast clans. Otherwise, today I will leave only the seven of you behind. Even if I cannot keep you all, I am still somewhat confident of leaving half of you here.”

“You...” Bolin and the others stared at Quenkun in shock and fury, involuntarily taking a few steps back.

The third page.

Having fought Quenkun before, they naturally knew how terrifying he was. If Quenkun truly intended to kill them, then perhaps one of them would die here today. Was it worth sacrificing their lives for their hatred of the Four Divine Beast clans? That question was not difficult to answer, nor difficult to decide.

Quenkun advanced step by step toward Bolin and the others, and just as he was about to strike, a blurred black shadow abruptly solidified nearby, becoming Beirut in a black robe.

“All right, Quenkun, there is no need to kill,” Beirut said, then looked toward Bolin and the others. “For over ten thousand years, you have fought within my Azure Bloom Prefecture, and I have seen it all. By now, the Four Divine Beast clans have lost enough elders and their reputation has been badly damaged; this punishment is more than sufficient. In my view, you eight great clans should go back whence you came.”

Go back whence they came? The seven clan chiefs were so furious their faces flushed red, and the elders of the eight great clans were likewise nearly livid.

“Prefecture Lord,” said Clan Chief Adrick, unable to suppress his anger, “for so many years our eight great clans have never defied your word, and we have never entered the Heavenly Ancestral Mountain Range. You said at the beginning that as long as we did not attack the Heavenly Ancestral Mountain Range, you would not interfere. Why are you interfering now?”

The seven clan chiefs hated Beirut for breaking his promise. Beirut only smiled lightly and said nothing.

Then Clan Chief Bolin’s hoarse voice rang out as well. “Prefecture Lord, it is true that many of the Four Divine Beast clans have died. But over these years, have our eight great clans suffered any fewer losses? More than that, when the four sovereigns were still alive, their Four Divine Beast clans owed us debt after debt of blood. My son, for example, was killed by someone from their Four Divine Beast clans. And the reason was simply that they coveted my son’s wife.”

“Prefecture Lord,” said the Chief of the Nether Serpent clan in a low voice, “I had nine children, but now? Only one remains. Of the other eight, which one did not die with utter injustice? My Ashercroft clan has many other blood debts, but I will not mention them. If we were not so enraged, would we risk losing elders just to annihilate them?”

The other clan chiefs also spoke out in anger one after another. After years of struggle and slaughter, both they and the Four Divine Beast clans had accumulated mountains of blood debt. To simply walk away with one sentence, to simply lay down this hatred—how could that be possible?