123: The hope of becoming a god

A certain unknown place.

Around an oversized round table, thirty-six seats were neatly arranged.

At one of the seats, a white light suddenly flashed, and a figure appeared.

Immediately after, more and more figures appeared out of thin air, as if they had been sitting in those seats all along and suddenly revealed themselves.

The faces of those people were each covered by an ancient mask, upon which a star chart was drawn, with one of the stars lit up in gold.

On the top right corner of the masks, the names representing the stars were marked.

Their names all came from the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits.

The head of the Heavenly Spirits, the Heavenly Leader Star, tapped the table, and everyone immediately fell silent.

"Old rules. If there is new news or progress, announce it; if not, pass. Pass!"

Heavenly Spirit Star: "Pass!"

Heavenly Secret Star: "Pass!"

...Heavenly Solitary Spirit raised a stone in his hand: "I have 12k ultra-clear footage covering the entire process of the Tang Family's destruction, with up to 38 close-up shots. The fee is 5 points;"

"For another 5 points, you can see the culprit using Divine-Grade skills, as well as the final outcome."

"Whoa—" The crowd suddenly erupted.

"The Tang Family? Is it the Tang Family, one of the four great Aristocratic Families in the Ninth District?"

"Emperors come and go, but Aristocratic Families remain. Someone actually dared to move against an Aristocratic Family? Aren't they afraid of being condemned by everyone under heaven?"

"Which power did it? I didn't know at all. Damn it, those bastards under me eat for free every day; they should have been dragged out and hacked to death long ago."

...Even the Heavenly Leader Star was surprised and immediately spent 5 points to buy the video.

"The Zhou Tian Xing Dou Immortal Slaying Formation... with this Formation, the Tang Family could still lose?"

When they saw over a thousand Xu Les appearing at the same time, and those Clones easily blowing up the main Bloodline Disciples of the Tang Family, everyone couldn't help but gasp.

Is this guy even human?

As for the breaking of the Formation in three seconds that followed, everyone instead felt it was only natural.

When they saw Tang Qianchuan being used as a spear to slaughter the Tang Family members, everyone frowned. To actually insult an Aristocratic Family!!!

The footage continued. When they saw the ghosts of the Tang Family members all appearing, many people started cursing directly.

"This brat doesn't know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth, actually daring to desecrate the heroic spirits of an Aristocratic Family."

"Reduced to ashes! This kid must be caught and reduced to ashes!"

"..."

Thud, thud!

The Heavenly Leader Star lightly tapped the tabletop, silencing the crowd's shouting. He then spoke slowly: "We are members of the Savior Society, no longer members of Aristocratic Families. Ascending to the heavens to become gods and saving the world are our goals; everything else is just passing clouds."

"If you still cannot adapt to the rules here, you can return your mask. After signing a secret contract to never leak anything about this place, you may return your mask and leave."

The arguing people immediately fell silent!

The Heavenly Leader Star then nodded in satisfaction: "Heavenly Solitary Spirit, is the subsequent video just as exciting?"

Heavenly Solitary Spirit nodded: "Yes, more exciting, to be precise."

Some people sneered in their hearts and did not buy the follow-up video.

The family head committed suicide, and the main Bloodline Disciples of the Tang Family were nearly extinct. What follow-up could there be? It's not like that kid is desecrating corpses, right?

Not worth watching!

Only a fool would spend money to watch the follow-up.

As a result, in less than ten seconds, they heard someone exclaim, and then a few minutes later, many people jumped up.

A while later, another group of people jumped up.

This time, no one thought the subsequent video was garbage anymore.

One after another, they spent their points and chose to buy it directly.

Even though they were prepared, they were still incredibly shocked when they saw the Reapers Scythe.

"A Bit More, it's my Divine Artifact, A Bit More!"

"Heavenly Solitary Spirit, I want to buy it back! Ten times, no, I'll buy it back at a hundred times the price!"

Heavenly Sky Star immediately started shouting.

He once thought A Bit More was useless, but seeing the Fire God Envoy killed in one hit while the weaker Magic Fire Puppet survived, he completely broke down.

He once thought it was useless—no, he once thought it was the absolute worst of the worst, having only the title of a mythic-grade piece of equipment, a literal disgrace to the equipment world.

He never expected it to have such a divine effect.

Thinking of the bargain price from back then, Heavenly Sky Star wanted to slap himself.

Heavenly Solitary Spirit shook his head slightly: "It's gone. In the video, Xu Le turned back specifically to pick that thing up."

Heavenly Sky Star: "..."

When everyone had finished watching the video, the Heavenly Leader Star suddenly tapped the table.

"Everyone, this Xu Le's combat power is peerless. I propose we invite him to join the society!"

Everyone looked at the Heavenly Leader Star in shock, and then at the Heavenly Solitary Spirit.

There are 36 seats for the Heavenly Spirits, but currently only 28 are occupied, as they have always advocated for Ning Que rather than settling for less.

Xu Le's strength is sufficient, but... although the Heavenly Solitary Spirit never appeared in the video, everyone knew it was him, and even more so, they knew he was the former head of the Tang Family, Tang Yunjing.

With such a blood feud, could he accept it?

Tang Yunjing raised his hand: "He was exiled into the Void Realm by me. If you want to invite him to join, as long as he promises not to seek revenge on me, it's fine."

Whoa!

Everyone's eyes widened!

A blood feud of family extermination, and he only asked the other party not to seek revenge!

Then they felt they could understand; after all, they had never heard of anyone who could return after being exiled to the Void Realm.

The Heavenly Leader Star, however, knew that Tang Yunjing wasn't lying at all. He had brought every person here into the society and understood everyone deeply; otherwise, he wouldn't have made the proposal.

Because every Star had the power of a veto, if Tang Yunjing didn't agree, Xu Le would never get in.

Furthermore, the Void Realm was vast and endless, but as long as the other party wasn't dead, he had a way to bring people back from it.

The voting began.

Without any surprises, 16 supported, 12 abstained, and 0 opposed... The next day.

The video of Xu Le washing the Tang Family in blood spread on the internet.

The title was #Peerless Demon Slaughters the World#.

"That thief Xu really deserves to die! Nearly twenty thousand lives—how could he do it? Isn't he afraid of having nightmares at night?"

"Slice him, mince him, drag him out to feed the dogs. I want to see if he's really human."

"More of a monster than the monsters themselves. He really deserves to die!"

"..."

They thought it would be a one-sided condemnation, but they didn't expect there to be differing opinions.

"Xu Le's actions were a bit ruthless, but anyone who knows the Tang Family knows it's understandable."

"Don't just look at the result, do you know the reason?"

"Brother Xu is still too kind. That Tang Family's crimes are too numerous to record; how could they even be allowed to leave a Bloodline?"

"Sigh, I really hope Brother Xu comes to visit our Sixth District too."

"..."

The Imperial Palace.

The Emperor pushed aside the memorials on the table.

"The Tang Family's destruction—was there really no other hand behind it?"

In the empty hall, a shrill voice sounded: "Reporting to Your Majesty, that video shows no signs of editing. The Shadow Guards sent to investigate reported: there are still two unfamiliar auras at the scene, one of which is suspected to be Imperial Uncle Zheyuan."

"Is it certain?"

"Eighty to ninety percent. It can be sent back to the palace in an hour for Your Majesty's review."

"Good. Put all effort into investigating Xu Le's whereabouts. I have a great use for him!"

...Demon Slaying Academy.

Liu Rufeng walked out of the principal's office carrying a sword.

The vice-principal hurriedly stopped him: "Old Liu, the big picture, think of the big picture!"

"What big picture? My Sharp Blade is dedicated to slaying demons and ignores everything else. I even took the initiative to demote the school from super-first-class to first-class and changed the name to an academy. What more do I need to do? Must my Sharp Blade be wiped out and I, Liu, die to satisfy someone's heart?"

"Quiet, Old Liu! Don't you know the strength of the monsters yet? If we have more internal strife, the Human Race might not even be able to protect a single city!"

Liu Rufeng's expression darkened A Bit More, but he also knew his old friend was right.

Sharp Blade had always wanted to open a path to the Abyss, but they were becoming increasingly powerless, not just because of the constraints from the Imperial Family and Aristocratic Families, but also because the monsters were too strong.

He even suspected that if the monsters launched a large-scale attack, humans might not be able to defend even a single city.

"I want to become a god!"

"Without becoming a god, the Human Race will always be ants!"