87: Chapter 87 The Emperor's Martyrdom!

The third year of Yongning, Winter Solstice.

The Winter Solstice Grand Ceremony was the largest festival of the year for the Great Li Dynasty.

All the citizens of the capital were required to attend, and the Emperor himself would preside over the ritual to worship Heaven.

At the same time, this was also an important moment for the demons to demonstrate their authority.

Xue Du would attend in person, sitting in the VIP seats beside the altar to receive the bowing and Blood Tribute of the Mortal.

On the central square of the capital, tens of millions of Mortal knelt densely on the ground.

Under the gray sky, a cold wind swept across the wilderness, whipping up withered leaves and dust.

No one spoke.

Tens of millions of Mortal were gathered together, yet it was as quiet as a graveyard.

The altar towered into the clouds, open on all four sides.

Zhao Heng, wearing the imperial crown and robes, held the ritual jade tablet. Guided by the ceremonial officials, he climbed step by step to the highest point of the altar.

The twelve strings of beads on his crown swayed gently in the cold wind, obscuring his face.

But behind those beads, Zhao Heng's eyes were extremely calm.

Calm to the point of near emptiness.

He had not slept last night.

He had sat in the Hall of Mental Cultivation all night, reviewing all the Blood Tribute reports that had accumulated over the past three years, flipping through them one by one.

In every document, there were millions of lives.

He flipped through them one by one, without pause, without expression.

When he reached the last one, the horizon was just beginning to turn white.

He stacked all the documents neatly and placed them on the left side of his desk.

Then he stood up and changed into the plain white undergarment hidden inside his dragon robe.

White was his mother's favorite color during her lifetime.

He stood still on the altar, facing south, with the gray sky behind him.

Tens of millions of Mortal inside and outside the capital could clearly see his figure.

Xue Du sat in the VIP seat beside the altar, its vertical pupils slightly narrowed, waiting for Zhao Heng to complete that boring ritual to worship Heaven.

It had been three years; this dog had always performed perfectly every time, never making a single mistake.

Today would be no exception.

But Zhao Heng did not recite the sacrificial text.

He stood at the highest point of the altar, slowly raised his hands, and removed the crown from his head.

The bead strings clattered between his fingers.

The ceremonial official was stunned.

Zhao Heng placed the crown by his feet and then untied the sash of his dragon robe.

The heavy dragon robe slid off his shoulders, piling up at his feet.

Inside was a plain white undergarment.

The white clothes were like snow, snapping in the cold winter wind.

Below the altar, there was a commotion among the millions of Mortal.

The Winter Solstice Grand Ceremony, and the Emperor took off his dragon robe.

This had never happened in the history of the thirty-nine emperors of Great Li.

Xue Du's vertical pupils contracted suddenly.

Something was wrong.

This was not a normal ritual to worship Heaven.

But before it could react, Zhao Heng had already spoken.

He did not use the ritual chants for worshipping Heaven.

He used his own voice.

The voice of a twenty-two-year-old young man.

Clear, firm, piercing through the sky above the entire capital.

"I am the thirty-ninth Emperor of the Great Li Dynasty, Zhao Heng."

"But I stand here today, not as an Emperor."

"Rather, as a son."

Millions of Mortal raised their heads.

"Three years ago, my mother was refined alive by demons, her flesh and essence drained dry. After she died, not even a complete corpse was left behind."

"My imperial father knelt before the demons, not daring to say a single word."

"I did not dare either."

"Because I was afraid of death."

"I was terrified."

The whole place was deathly silent.

Tens of millions of people looked up at the young Emperor in white on the altar, not a single person making a sound.

Xue Du stood up from the VIP seat.

It had not yet figured out what Zhao Heng was going to do, but its instinct told it: it must stop him immediately!

However, Zhao Heng's voice did not stop.

"But today, I am no longer afraid."

"Because I have realized one thing."

"People who are afraid of death have actually already died long ago."

"My imperial father lived for more than forty years, but he had already died the day he knelt down."

"If I continue to kneel, I am nothing more than a walking corpse."

Zhao Heng's voice was trembling.

But every word was incomparably clear.

He turned around, facing Xue Du in the VIP seat.

The twenty-two-year-old young Emperor, and the Golden Core Great Perfection demon, their eyes met.

The gaze between an ant and a god.

But Zhao Heng laughed, laughing with incomparable madness.

"Three years."

"You thought you had raised an obedient dog."

"But you didn't know that this dog never barks before it bites."

Xue Du was furious.

"Kill him!"

A dozen demons swooped out from all directions simultaneously, blood-colored demonic energy condensing into sharp blades, striking directly at the altar.

But Zhao Heng did not give them a chance to get close.

He had already turned around.

Facing the tens of millions of compatriots looking up at him.

At this moment, his fear, forbearance, hatred, and sadness all turned into an incomparably clear composure.

He opened his arms, in a posture of embracing the world, for the last time, as an Emperor, looking down at the landscape he loved deeply but was powerless to save.

The smile on his lips remained.

But his eye sockets were red.

"Compatriots of the world, today, I return this life to you all!"

The moment his words fell.

Zhao Heng detonated his Mortal Self-Severing Method.

There was no earth-shattering loud noise, nor was there the power to tear through the void.

His flesh and soul vaporized in an instant, turning into an extremely pure white beam of light, shooting straight into the clouds.

Just like Leader Li Zizai back then.

It was a pity, even though he was the Emperor.

The rain of pure spiritual energy produced by his detonation of the Mortal Self-Severing Method could only cover the pitiful dozen-zhang range around the altar.

To the demonic energy filling the sky, it was insignificant.

But the meaning behind it was completely different.

Because the person who died was Zhao Heng.

The Emperor of the Great Li Dynasty.

The most symbolic existence in the hearts of all Mortal in this world.

The Emperor who represented absolute submission and obedience!

Even the Emperor had taken off his dragon robe, willing to turn into a rain.

This scene was like a heavy hammer, fiercely smashing the last trace of fear and hesitation in the hearts of the tens of millions of Mortal in the square.

A belief called resistance grew wildly in everyone's mind like weeds.

After a brief silence.

In the crowd, the first movement emerged.

It was the Resistance Army suicide squad hidden among the tens of thousands of Mortal in the world.

They had waited too long for this moment!

"The Emperor has already gone first, what are we waiting for!"

A roar sounded in a corner of the crowd.

Immediately after, a second white beam of light shot into the sky.

Then a third, a fourth, a hundredth, a ten-thousandth!

It was like throwing a spark onto a dry grassland.

No extra mobilization was needed, no one's command was needed.

One hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand...

Hundreds of thousands of Resistance Army members and Mortal deeply touched by this, at this moment, ignited the trace of innate pure energy deep in their souls without hesitation.

Countless white beams of light converged together, connecting into a dazzling sea of light.

Life was severed, flesh was vaporized.

An unprecedented rain of pure spiritual energy poured down.

Wherever the rain passed, the sinister demonic energy melted like ice and snow, instantly washed away completely.

One mile, ten miles, thirty miles...

The demonic energy within a radius of fifty miles was completely wiped out by this heavy rain bought with hundreds of thousands of lives.

Above the capital, the thick, gray haze that had shrouded it for tens of thousands of years was torn open by force, revealing a huge gap.

The sky had cleared.

Millions of surviving Mortal looked up.

Through that gap, they saw a color that only existed in the oldest legends.

Azure blue.

For the first time in tens of thousands of years, the Mortal of this world saw the real blue sky with their own eyes.

For Mortal, this was the cleanest air.

But for those high-and-mighty demons, this pure spiritual energy within a fifty-mile radius was the deadliest sea of poison in the world.

Around the altar.

The three closest Foundation Establishment stage demons didn't even have time to scream.

Pure spiritual energy poured frantically into their seven orifices, clashing violently with the demonic energy in their bodies.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three lumps of minced meat mixed with black blood exploded in mid-air, dying on the spot as their bodies burst.

The rest of the Foundation Establishment demons were like birds with broken wings, falling miserably from mid-air.

Even Xue Du, sitting in the VIP seat, had its expression changed.

It hovered on the edge of the surging demonic energy, staring fixedly at that azure blue sky, its vertical pupils filled with fear and rage.