Chapter 42: Into Dust
*Things like sexism and racism are purely for worldbuilding and to make it more realistic. Thank you for your understanding.*
Huoyan Huizhong tore through the atmosphere of Ronghua Planet with unholy speed and thudded the earth.
He had landed near the top of a huge and domineering mountain that stood tens of thousands of meters tall. Along the mountainside were various huge pagodas and courtyards of outstanding beauty.
Even with the raging wars riddling the entirety of Ronghua Planet, this mountain alone was untouched. However, it wasn't due to the courtesy of the invading forces, but because of the hidden dragon within. Just the thought of who may sit in the core of the mountain made those figures tearing through skies steer away.
Huoyan Huizhong landed in a large garden carved out of the mountainside, just before a huge church-like building that had its main structure intertwined with the hard rock of the mountain itself.
As soon as he landed, two young boys rushed over to him. They had blank faces, but the apprehension and terror deep within their eyes was not fake.
"Lord Huizhong..." Just the appearance of Huoyan Huizhong had deep connotations, which put careful expressions on the boys' faces and made their voices soften. The legs of one of the boys started to soften and his stomach felt weak, whitening his face.
Huoyan Huizhong didn't care about what was around him and waved his hand. "Take me to the Clan Head."
"Yes, Lord." The boys spoke and turned around, rushing into the mountain with Huoyan Huizhong following behind with rushed steps. Even in this situation, his face seemed as calm as a river, sparking unease within the boys.
Right as they left, a rain of debris with a fiery trail smashed right into the garden where the three had stood. However, before they could get within a meter of the ground, the meteor-like debris smashed apart against an illusory shield that covered the whole mountain.
...
"The Clan Head is just ahead, Lord Huizhong. We cannot take you further." The voice of one of the boys sounded as the two escorted Huoyan Huizhong hundreds of meters into the mountain.
"Mmm." Huoyan Huizhong just hummed in acknowledgement and walked on ahead, not even sparing the two a glance.
Right now, he was standing in a huge western-styled royal hallway laced with gold and artwork. There were dozens of doors on either side of the hallway that was deathly quiet.
After hurriedly walking for a few minutes, Huoyan Huizhong arrived at the end of the corridor where a large door stood. Pushing it open with one hand, his robes carried the wind as he glided in.
Inside, there were nine figures stood behind a throne that overlooked the whole of Ronghua Planet. It seemed that this "throne room" was right at the very top of the huge mountain and was above the clouds themselves.
Two of the figures turned back to see Huoyan Huizhong rushing in. However, when they saw him, one grimaced while another smiled ruefully.
Huoyan Huizhong still had a blank face as he took powerful strides that filled up the silence in the room. He walked towards the back of the throne, however, before he could; the figure stood nearest to the throne stopped his movements with one hand.
Huoyan Huizhong looked at the figure, which seemed to be a young man with bright yellow hair. He gave Huoyan Huizhong a deep stare that seemed to say "be careful."
However, there was no reaction on Huizhong's face as he rudely barged past the figure and stood right behind the throne. At this moment, he opened his mouth.
"Clan Head, Doushan has fallen." His voice had no caution and merely stated the facts. After he spoke, Huizhong could feel some of the figures' shoulders behind him droop. However, there was no reaction from the throne before him.
If he didn't know beforehand, he would've thought there was no one sat there.
Finally, a frown appeared on the expressionless Huizhong's face after his words went unanswered. As if he was the only one aware of the situation they were in, he spoke even louder this time. "I have confirmed that it is the Qing Clan attacking, Clan Head."
Still, there was no noise from the throne.
"Is this related to the time Clan Head went out to look for the young miss?" His words deliberately provoked a reaction.
And finally, he received one. "Ha! As if the Qing Clan would strike just because of one elder..." A deep voice came from the throne, and the words made the, now ten, standing figures grimace.
"Clan Head killed an elder of the Qing Clan?" A depressed voice sounded. His words contained the bitterness that everyone present was feeling.
"That coward Qing Xie Han would never act like this..." Muttering to himself, the Clan Head sounded malcontented, however, his words suddenly trailed off.
The ten Huoyan Stage 6s were confused as to the Clan Head's incoherent mutterings. However, they head him speak not a moment later.
"We will move in."
"What?" Many of his Stage 6 advisors were speechless. If their entire force, including the patriarch himself, moved in; then so would the opposition. If that happened, the entire group of planets as well as the entire armies of both clans would be destroyed.
"I said we will move in!! Look at the battlefield! We are being slaughtered! Four of our planets have fallen!" The patriarch of the Huoyan Clan shouted murderously as he finally stood up from the throne and showed his face, distorted by an ugly expression.
"The Qing Clan would dare to completely wipe us out? The Heavenly Court would not stand for it..." Huizhong's voice came, however, he was silenced by a glare that said "you know nothing."
"If they can help it, the Qing Clan would kill even me right here today." After that, his aura rose gradually as he turned to face the battlefield spanning planets. Then, the temperature suddenly rose and thousand of cultivators spanning the entirety of Ronghua felt their skin itch because of the heat.
What followed was a horrific display in which hundreds of thousands of cultivators went up in blue flames, their despondent screams lighting up all of Ronghua Planet. Cultivators melted into pools of flesh and blood that merged with the soil and saturated it with death itself. Flaming cultivators fell from the sky like meteors as terrifying screams followed their plummet.
However, before the Clan Head could get any further, a planet-sized torrent of water directly smacked down on him. A fraction of Ronghua Plamet was instantly destroyed from this one attack.
The battle of the Stage 7s had begun.
...
Qing Bai rushed over to Qing Fang. He expression was full of dread and on the verge of tears. Her pearly teeth bit her lower lip as she had her eyes on a huge hole in the earth just ahead.
She and always had her eyes on Qing Fang for his safety. Even Qing Fang hadn't realised this. After all, how could this doting big sister leave his survival up to chance?! She had to ensure his safety with her own power.
'But that freak of nature...' Her thoughts drifted back to the strange Huoyan boy that had his entire face burnt off. She watched as she battled with a famous Qing Stage 5 in the sky. One had to know that this was a famous Stage 6 seed that had reached the absolute peak of State 5!
As Qing Bai saw the very same Huoyan boy corner her little Fang onto the floor as his screams followed...
She shut her eyes just thinking about it, not wanting her thoughts to drift to the worst possibility.
She finally reached the huge hole that Qing Fang was buried in and started straight down. However, when she did, her pupils instantly shrank!
"Fang!!" Her horrified scream came as she used her tremendous power to smash up a huge dust cloud when she drilled into the hole and towards Qing Fang.
'Oh no, oh no, oh no, please no! Ohhh...' Her thoughts were in chaos as he eyes sparkling with fresh tears reflected a mangled body strewn with fresh and splattered with blood all over. Twisted shrapnel of blue metal intertwined with skin on the forearms and fingers, and with them twitching from time to time, Qing Bai's face went pale white.
The sunken chest and mangled limbs were all she could see. And without even confirming if he was still alive, probably due to her denial, Qing Bai scooped up Qing Fang and rushed away with all her power.
Her destination was the nearest Qing Stage 6.
...
Commander Tian swept the battlefield with unparalleled force befitting of a peak Stage 5. Indeed, this was the same Commander Tian that had greeted Qing Fang when he was gearing for war.
This powerful Stage 5 was a lofty figure of the Clan and had the power to match. He had already slaughtered dozens of Huoyan Stage 4s and even a couple of Stage 5s like himself.
However, this Stage 5 power was starting up at the sky in a daze, attracting the attention of his subordinated not far from him.
"Commander..?" They looked up to the sky but saw nothing. However, they had faith in their Commander's judgment.
With regards to his subordinates question, Commander Tian couldn't even hear him. He was just starting at the sky which was empty at the moment. He was just too shocked. So shocked that he could swear he was dreaming.
His eyes continued to widen before he shouted with all his might and deafened those close to him.
"Retreat!!!"
However, before anyone could regain their bearings, a subtle yet profound wind blew past the battlefield for miles and finally landed on the pale Commander Tian's forehead.
And then, many lines started to appear on his face before he fell into a pile of flesh.
"Wha-" Cultivators were sliced into dust before they could even think. Stage 5s were completely helpless as tens of them fell like they had their strings cut in the blink of an eye. It was as though a plague swept through the air, turning everyone in sight into dust and turning the roaring battlefield into a terrible silence.
If one were to look up at this moment, they would see the clashing of god-like figures up above the clouds and among the stars. The world of earthly-shackled cultivators could only bow in death and be thrust into the eternal cycle of reincarnation.
Up above the sky, Stage 6 Formation Masters formed bundles of pure-white light in their palms and throw it at the speed of light toward their enemies amomg the stars. The white light hit a shadowy figure weaving between space itself and sent him hurting toward the earth with cataclysmic might.
The Stage 6, sealed by the sealing formation in the form of white light, a, a shed toward the ground like a nuclear bomb and killed thousands instantly. Embedded in the earth, and with the white light still binding him, the Stage 6 thrashed about like a rabid dog under the earth, sending out tsunamis of dirt and earth to swallow everyone for a hundred kilometres.
Cities were toppled and the earth was torn at the mere aftermath of the heavenly realm of Stage 6.
...
Huoyan Huizhong stood among the stars next to nine figures and behind the Clan Head who shone like a behemoth high above Ronghua Planet and its six daughter planets.
Before them, Huizhong could see a raging planet of water reaching out and enveloping everything in sight before circling around a blue-robed figure.
'The Stage 7 Patriarch of the Qing Clan, Qing Xie Han.' Huizhong's eyelids drooped as he felt the sheer inferiority between himself and that person. Even though the fight with that Stage 7 didn't involve himself, he couldn't help but compare himself to him. If he didn't have his Clan Head with him, even a thousand of himself couldn't even touch a hair on the Qing Patriarch's body.
Stood around Qing Xie Han were nearly a hundred figures. All of them were Stage 6.
'So this was the difference between us...' Qing Clan was a tyrant Clan in their own part of the Mortal Realm. And even though both them and Huoyan Clan had a Stage 7, their power was incomparable. Just a dozen Stage 6s were enough to claim a fraction of the Mortal Realm, let alone a hundred!
The shining eyes of those hundred figures made Huizhong's heart beat like a drum. He knew this was a decisive moment in his life. But he didn't have the power to say he would definitely come out of this alive.
Huizhong wasn't strong among Stage 6s. Out of the hundred figures, he could only defeat a couple of them. Naturally, his mind was racing as he stood with his Clan Head.
"Xie Han!! To think you would go this far!?" The voice of the Huoyan Clan Head thundered across the vacuum for millions of meters. His face was ugly. If this was a normal conflict, it would end right here with a warning or a threat. However, the Patriarch of the Qing Clan was ready to fight to the death with himself, which was terrifying.
At their Stage, how often did one not die of natural causes?! Things like this simply did not happen!
"Everything I do..." Qing Xie Han's voice was dignified and wasn't hesitant at all, unlike his usual self. "...is for my Clan." And just like that, heavenly water and flame clashed amongst the planets and stars.
How lucky was the water, to be lifted from the earth and majestically wielded by these figures. And how pitiful was the fire, to be stolen from the depths of hell to be used in such a place.
...
A young boy sat lifelessly on the blood soaked battlefield. As the clouds parted, he could see the huge planets in the sky standing over him like a father in a strange sense. These were the same planets that had always been there, like huge shadows cast upon him.
However, at this moment, he could see colourful blue burst out in the depths of space and hurtle towards a planet. And reflected in his glazed eyes, one of the neighboring daughter planets that had always been in the sky shattered into a trillion pieces.
The red core of the planet painted the sky red as it burst out like blotches of paint on a canvas.
"The end of the world...is really quite beautiful."
These were his last words before the very planet beneath his feet began to crumble and float in space as wreckage. The boy had long incinerated into nothingness, only the earth on which he sat floated into space. And revealed underneath was the crumbling core of the planet which had been ruthlessly killed by the battle of Stage 7s.
...
Qing Bai, the wounded Qing Fang and a few lucky Stage 5s had long since fled by the grace of a passing Qing Stage 6. Meanwhile, the battle of the Stage 6s and 7s raged on the embers and obsidian that once was the seven Huoyan Planets.
However, on the ninth day of conflict, in which many Stage 6s had already fallen from the skies, a heavenly figure descended.
Time seemed to slow down as a foreboding feeling came, as if all the luck and misfortune of the Mortal Realm was gathering around them. Accompanied by gigantic white chain lightning that seemed to light up the Mortal Realm and tear through the void, figures were instantly destroyed, killed.
Into dust.
The Huoyan cultivators, even the Clan Head, could only fade away to nothingness in the blinding light. And in the wake of their demise, an incomparably powerful figure came into existence. As if stepping into existence from the void, a long waterfall-like white robe hundreds of meters long swayed. Space seemed to ripple with his every movement and if one were to gaze upon the Laws of such a person, they would instantly lose their sight.
This was a Stage 8. A true master of the Mortal Realm. His power were as deep and his dull purple eyes and as black as his black hair that reflected the stars in the night sky. Even the Stage 7 Patriarch had no need to confirm; just the mere suppression of his own Laws before such a behemoth made him sure in his heart.
As for the Stage 6s? Their minds were in a perpetual state of confusion. If one were to as them their name in this moment, they would think for hours before forgetting what they were asked. It was almost a natural suppression in the purest form. A higher being that they couldn't even understand the depth of, let alone gaze upon.
With a smile on his face that seemed to shine with blinding light, as if even the Stage 7 Patriarch wasn't worthy to gaze upon him, the Stage 8 parted his lips to speak words that were worthy of scripture, even if they were ordinary words, for such a person had spoken them.
"The Qing Clan owe me a favour."
And then he vanished with a deafening sound that made all of the remaining Stage 6s fall unconscious. It all happened so fast that Qing Xie Han even doubted what he had just seen.
However, this indeed marked the end of the Huoyan Clan.
...
34th Seed, Year 91,854; on the second Sunday of December, the Huoyan Clan vanished along with their seven planets and entire population. The Heavenly Court, for some unknown reason, did not investigate the matter at all and it was soon forgotten.
However, for the Qing Clan, as many as sixty million cultivators were lost, along with seven Stage 6s, including Qing Changshou.
*3,002/3,000 words*
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