"It was just killing a county registrar who was extremely wicked, and I never thought it would escalate to this extent."
On a tall mountain outside the capital, Yu Zhibo looked up at the majestic capital city situated at the end of the plains, his tone filled with emotion.
Having been here for a while, he had gained a preliminary understanding of this world.
The world he was currently in was not the so-called Upper Realm, but rather a middle-thousand world, somewhat similar to the world before the destruction of Yongye.
Here, the land was vast and boundless, with many unknown forbidden zones, as well as numerous sects that possessed legacies from the Upper Realm, not completely isolated from the Upper Realm like Yongye.
The country he was in was called Cangyun.
Cangyun was a nation where imperial power reigned supreme. Unlike other puppet states supported by immortal cultivation sects, the founder of this country was a cultivator named Cangyun himself. He was incredibly powerful, claiming to be an inner disciple of the Xingluo Sect in the Upper Realm.
The Xingluo Sect was renowned in the Upper Realm for its formations. However, this individual took a different path, combining the evil path with formations. He used humans as formation bases and the resentment of all living beings as the medium for the grand formation's operation. An entire nation was a grand formation, capable of killing even cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage.
As for why Yu Zhibo knew all this – it was simply because this emperor named Cangyun was too high-profile. Many pieces of information didn't require deliberate inquiry. Just sitting at a roadside tea stall for a while, ordering a pot of clear tea, was enough to learn the basic information about this monarch.
"Father, are we really going to break the capital?" Chen Kuhe asked, standing beside Yu Zhibo. Looking at his tall, straight back, her eyes were filled with admiration.
"Yes, I can't stand it," Yu Zhibo said faintly.
As he stayed in this country longer and his cultivation gradually recovered, he had come to understand why the spiritual energy in this place was so thin.
The reason was that the capital city of Cangyun, as the center of the formation, absorbed ninety-nine percent of the spiritual energy. From this, it was not difficult to see that the monarch of this country was using the resources of the entire nation to support himself alone.
Furthermore, to generate more resentment among the populace, the king indulged his officials in oppressing the people. Along the way, he had witnessed many scenes of people living in misery.
Three days ago, he had killed the county registrar. After interrogation, he discovered that not only was the registrar wicked, but the county magistrate was also greedy, lustful, cruel, and had taken many lives.
So, he killed the county magistrate as well.
During this time, he also learned that the prefect was an even more significant corrupt official, making the county magistrate seem like a petty criminal in comparison.
Thus, he forcefully killed the prefect with the escort of many guards.
After killing the prefect, a guerrilla commander from the military arrived. Yu Zhibo interrogated them and found that these commanders were also not good people. They often dressed the county's commoners in enemy soldier uniforms and killed them to claim bounties.
So, he killed all the commanders, and then the general arrived.
Then came the governor.
After a period of investigation and tracing memories, Yu Zhibo was truly enlightened. Not a single one of these officials was good. The governor was a cultivator in the Golden Core stage who particularly enjoyed eating children.
After killing the governor, the entire province fell into his hands. Because the governor was an important formation eye in the human dao grand formation, Yu Zhibo's retribution soon followed.
First, the sky turned black, and purple lightning descended as heavenly punishment. Then, the earth cracked open, and subterranean fire and lava erupted, attempting to kill him.
Even the mental storm formed by the resentment of all living beings tried to erase his will, but it was easily offset by the emotions he had absorbed on Earth.
Overall, these attacks were equivalent to the means of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator, causing him no harm.
Instead, relying on his powerful physical abilities and his not-yet-fully-recovered Rinnegan, he erased the connections of the entire formation.
Afterward, he left behind a clone to post announcements seeking talented individuals and adopted the official system of the Ming Dynasty to govern various regions. Soon, the general atmosphere of the entire prefecture became clear.
As for himself, before more formation counterattacks arrived, he directly brought Chen Kuhe to the outskirts of the capital to prepare for a surprise attack.
"I don't know if this grand formation can truly kill cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage, but it seems rather ordinary."
Yu Zhibo looked at the capital's formation and found that beneath the surface prosperity, killing intent erupted. Several powerful Nascent Soul auras shot up like pillars, with the strongest one faintly carrying an evil and imperial aura.
But that was all.
This country had no cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage.
"Ku'er, are you scared?" Yu Zhibo slightly turned his head to look at Ku'er beside him.
During this period, every time Yu Zhibo killed one of Chen Kuhe's enemies, a grotesque human face on their forehead would appear. Although Yu Zhibo instantly removed it each time, he could feel that the hidden danger within her body had not been completely eliminated.
He didn't know Chen Kuhe's background, but his intuition told him that Chen Kuhe's identity was not simple.
Yu Zhibo had always trusted his intuition, but he was reluctant to kill the little girl prematurely based on baseless speculation.
Therefore, to prevent her from blackening out after awakening, Yu Zhibo often made her watch cultural and film works from Earth to shape her good and correct values.
As a result, the girl's face gradually lost the sorrowful expression she had when they first met, and gained some of the liveliness that a young girl should have.
Hearing Yu Zhibo's question, Chen Kuhe looked at him with full trust and adoration, "With Father here, Ku'er is not afraid wherever she goes!"
Yu Zhibo chuckled and asked, "Do you think Cangyun should be destroyed?"
"Of course!" Chen Kuhe said with indignation, "The dog emperor is cruel and unjust, treating his subjects like livestock. Countless people have been persecuted to death because of him, so of course he should be killed!"
Yu Zhibo nodded with satisfaction, then said, "But have you considered that Cangyun is bordered by the Monster Beast Mountain Range to the west? Once the emperor's protection is gone, billions of common people might soon become food for various monster beasts..."
"If Cangyun is not destroyed, although the common people will still suffer, they will at least have a chance to survive. If it is destroyed, more people will die due to monster beast invasions – do you still think the dog emperor deserves to be killed?"
"This..." Chen Kuhe's face showed a confused expression: killing is wrong, not killing is also wrong, how should one choose?
Yu Zhibo smiled and stroked her head, "So we must consider the consequences of everything we do. At least the development of events should not worsen because of our influence. If we only act on our sense of justice and fight, causing more people to fall into suffering, it would be better to do nothing in the first place."
"The path of cultivation is long. The more powerful one becomes, the easier it is to view ordinary people as ants. I... no, it should be Father. Father doesn't know what heights you will reach in the future, but Father hopes that when you are powerful, you will not forget that you were once in a humble position."
Chen Kuhe nodded heavily, "So, Father wants to destroy Cangyun because he has the ability to make the people of this country live better?"
"Yes, but not entirely."
He was not a person driven by a sense of justice. If the emperor of Cangyun were a cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage, he might have to act cautiously and preserve his life for future plans.
But this did not prevent him from teaching Chen Kuhe with a noble and righteous image, just as no morally corrupt father would want his child to be a beast.
The reason for choosing to meddle was more of a test of this world's heavenly dao.
If he did good deeds, would he receive the favor of this world's heavenly dao?
Something within his body was stirred. Yu Zhibo didn't know if it was the Primordial Creation mentioned by the Six-Eared Demonic Ape, but he could feel a certain unseen gaze.
This was the will of this world, the heavenly dao that countless protagonists wanted to defy.
This was Yu Zhibo's first encounter with the heavenly dao. His eyes showed a look of interest, and then a trace of crimson spread across his dark pupils.
The Mangekyo Sharingan was activated.
"Boom!"
Golden energy intertwined around his body, enveloping him and Chen Kuhe, and finally materialized into a Susanoo form of a Heavenly Emperor thousands of feet tall.
The moment he transformed, the capital city at the end of the plains trembled violently, and terrifying energy erupted.
"You destroyed my prefecture and didn't run, but you dare to come here!"
An enraged voice echoed from the center of the capital, and the entire world began to shake.