Emperor’s Domination

“The rewards are the same, whoever kills Li Qiye will be protected by the Myriad Bones Throne!” After the exchange in the air, the Phoenix Maiden immediately let out this message.

Many cultivators who were going to give up suddenly became active again after hearing about the protection from the throne of bones.

This was met with an immediate response from Li Qiye: “I welcome all those who want a piece of me. If you think you are capable, then come and kill me for the Prime Ominous Key and the rewards. Don’t worry, as long as you are able to kill me, the Thousand Carp River will not find you for revenge!”

Li Qiye’s declaration stupefied everyone. This was the same as screaming that he did not mind becoming enemies with the rest of the world.

A sect master was dumbfounded after hearing this news: “This guy is crazy, he’s provoking even more people!”

When facing such a situation, others would try to avoid falling into an even worse state. Li Qiye had the Thousand Carp River as his backing and it was a great deterrence, but his declaration just now was no different from telling the world that he was a fat piece of meat that anyone could take a bite of.

“This brat is either crazy or confident enough to think that he is invincible.” A Heavenly Sovereign predecessor couldn’t help but murmur.

“The Thousand Carp River won’t take revenge?” Those who were apprehensive of Li Qiye’s position became ecstatic after hearing this.

“He chose the hard way instead! Excellent… Such an admirable and domineering attitude.” An expert cheerfully said: “If he wishes to provoke everyone in this world, it would be an affront to our ghost race’s prestige if we didn’t kill him.”

Suddenly, many became restless with excitement. Many great powers that were apprehensive before were now ready to take action.

Many of them gathered their experts right outside of the Snow-shadow Tribe in order to attack Li Qiye. One royal lord commanded: “Go and prepare right outside of the Snow-shadow Tribe, I don’t believe that he is invincible.”

Countless people then congregated right outside of the Snow-shadow Tribe. Experts and masters from the great powers were all there.

No one wanted to be the first to make a move. All were waiting for the right time to take advantage of the situation.

Li Qiye’s declaration also shocked the group of Qiurong Wanxue. This was the first time the stunned Snow-shadow disciples saw an arrogant person of this magnitude declaring war against the rest of the world.

They were conquered by Li Qiye’s domineering style and were full of admiration. They felt that Li Qiye was comparable to the three heroes. His aggressive challenge to the world would be a life-long goal for them to strive for.

“Are you crazy?” Even Lan Yunzhu was startled: “You mind the fact that you don’t have enough enemies already?”

Li Qiye calmly said: “This much is nothing. The more the better; it is time for me to sharpen my blade. It has been a while so I can feel my body rusting.”

Qiurong Wanxue’s group was speechless. The Phoenix Maiden’s army was already terrifying enough, but now Li Qiye wanted to challenge the rest of the cultivators in this world. This was such an insane course of action!

Doing so was suicidal in everyone’s eyes. How many actually managed to live after challenging the rest of the world? Unless it was a rare genius like Di Zuo, one could forget about surviving!

“Your head is the thing that is rusting!” Lan Yunzhu glared at him while showing a charming look, then she snappily said: “Is the Divine Spark Country and the Myriad Bones Throne not enough? Do you want to declare war against the rest of the ghost race?”

Li Qiye waved his sleeve and slowly said: “The decision is not in my hands but theirs; I can’t help it if they wish to oppose me. If they stretch out their necks while waiting for me to execute them, don’t you think that it would be cruel of me to let them down?” He continued to smile and said: “Moreover, so what if I face all of the ghosts in this world? Forget about just this world, I don’t even mind facing the ghost race in all the nine heavens!”

People had to gasp at such a tyrannical statement. Before, the group of Elder Zhi would think that Li Qiye was blustering with an unparalleled egotism. But now, they didn’t think so. These words that came from Li Qiye seemed so trivial. Nevertheless, they were still very skeptical about the extent of Li Qiye’s strength; how could he have so much confidence?

Lan Yunzhu looked at Li Qiye and angrily said: “Have you become insane due to murderous urges? You’re always talking about massacres and such.” Lan Yunzhu knew about Li Qiye’s aggressiveness and that he wasn’t a good guy at all. Li Qiye had planned to slaughter them back at the Thousand Carp River, and he had no reservations against killing the ghost race.

“Killing one is a sin, killing hundreds makes one a hero, killing tens of thousands makes one a king, and killing millions makes one an emperor.” Li Qiye calmly continued: “Since time immemorial, which Immortal Emperor didn’t step on countless bones to reach the throne? From beginning to end, killing millions is normal for an emperor. If one wants to reach the peak, they must have the determination to slaughter millions.”

Li Qiye looked at Lan Yunzhu and said: “The emperor’s path is narrow; when enemies meet, one side must die. Even if you don’t want to kill, the moment you set foot on this path, millions will want to kill you. So instead of offering your head to others, why not kill millions to achieve an eternal title? The years are long and future generations only remember those who shouldered the Heaven’s Will to become emperors, not those stomped below their feet. After becoming emperors, killing millions will become a decorated battle record, not the act of a crazed murderer.”

Lan Yunzhu quietly listened. She was a genius with dual saint talents and had a chance to walk on the emperor’s path in the future, so she understood this logic. Even if you didn’t want to kill people, others would want to slay you on the imperial path.

“This is a form of training.” Li Qiye said with a smile: “It is not as simple as killing; one can perfect their arts during a real battle. Only by experiencing a life and death battle under the baptism of blood would one’s merit laws reach their utmost limit. Even an ordinary technique would become the most frightening sure-kill move after numerous blood-tempered battles.”

“The path towards becoming an Immortal Emperor is not just about learning and marching through the corpses of countless enemies.” Li Qiye slowly continued: “Only after countless battles would one be able to understand more about their own self and utilize an even greater potential. They must temper their merit laws and cultivation in blood to eventually reach the ultimate sublimation.”

Qiurong Wanxue also carefully pondered Li Qiye’s words. She had never been exposed to these things before, so they were quite helpful in giving her a new perspective.

Lan Yunzhu had more insights about the emperor’s path than Qiurong Wanxue. She leered at Li Qiye and intentionally wanted to take him down a notch: “Watch out or you’ll fall on the path before becoming an Immortal Emperor.” But she knew that her counterattack couldn’t really faze him.

“Rest assured, throughout the nine heavens and ten earths, I alone am invincible!” Li Qiye calmly and leisurely declared.

The group of Elder Zhi couldn’t help but show astonishment from this exaggerated remark. Other people, no matter who they were, would be afraid to say such a thing, but this was a simple and common routine to Li Qiye.

Lan Yunzhu wittily quipped: “Oh, Uncle, don’t blow the leather hide too hard or it’ll blow up.” 1

Li Qiye leisurely smiled and retorted: “Just wait for my triumphant return.”

Lan Yunzhu glared at him before calmly saying. “I know, I’ll be waiting.” She was confident in Li Qiye and trusted that he could create another miracle.

***

There were rolling hills right outside of the Snow-shadow Tribe. At this moment, they were occupied with endless shadows of people from the gigantic crowd that consisted of cultivators from all levels and races.

So many were here that it created a myriad of scenes. Some were floating in the sky, some were lingering on the peaks, and some were hiding in the shadows.

The cultivators that came here for Li Qiye numbered in the dozens of tens of thousands or even more; all aimed to kill Li Qiye since the Phoenix Maiden’s bounty was too tempting. More importantly, Li Qiye had the Prime Ominous Key. There were also many sect masters and kings along with high elders, but the young prodigies here were too many to count.

High elders from the great powers didn’t necessarily need King Medicines, precious scrolls, or even a Virtuous Paragon Life Treasure, but the key made them salivate.

Of course, some of the young ones came for fame. At this moment, Li Qiye was very illustrious after killing the group of the Divine Spark Prince; he was called the new Fierce of this generation. His cachet had nearly reached the level of the Titanic Crescent Saint Child or the Ghost Insect Evil Child from the emperor’s lineages.

1. Okay, this is a pun that requires understanding of the idiom. There are a number of theories, one of which is that it originates from the Chinese that lived by the Yellow River back in ancient times. They would make rafts using inflated leather hides since leather was strong, buoyant, and waterproof. The hides were inflated by blowing air into the them like bags (no foot pumps back then!), so it would take a whole group of able men to do this. If someone were to claim “I can blow up a raft by myself”, it was clear to all that he was just boasting. Over time, people came to use 吹牛皮 / chuī niú pí / blow cow hide, or just 吹牛, to refer to “talking big” or bragging. I’ve been using bragging instead of blowing cowhide, but this pun requires me to translate it more literally.