Chapter 1805 - Sins of the Sun Emperor
Those in the Divine Sun Palace immediately cheered at the sun emperor's words. They seemed even more zealous than Tianming's believers. If the sun emperor had the legacy of the Primordial God-Emperor, he would no doubt have tens of thousands of times more Omnisentient Threads than Tianming.
"Just because you'll be described as a saint by history doesn't overwrite your sins or cleanse the filth of your soul. Your son, Li Tianyi, set fire to the Azurecloud Divine Tree and caused the deaths of countless lives. All of that blood is sin on your hands. Since ancient times, the ones that stray from the righteous path will always be judged by fate. You crossed the line and gathered too much sin, so you’ll be judged one day!" This didn't resemble the gentle demeanor Fengling Suyu was known for. She was firmly resolute and moved many hearts.
People fell silent after hearing her speak. They could tell that the sun emperor was deep in thought. He looked back and saw his son, Li Tianyi.
"Esteemed Father, I was just setting fire to the tree. It wasn't my intention to kill people with it," he said, his face entirely pale and sweaty. He hurriedly prostrated himself, his fingers shaking from fear. Despite not intending to kill, countless people had indeed died. What kind of elite cultivator would bother with the welfare of normal folk just living their lives? What happened at the Azurecloud Continent had made the Myriad Solar Sects as a whole loathe the celestial orderians. They were worried that the orderians would continue sowing destruction even as they were retreating. Gods could still flee, but the mortals would be doomed to their fates. A sun emperor that destroyed defensive formations to occupy territory and a tyrant who slaughtered innocents were completely different concepts.
People nervously looked at the sun emperor. How would he define himself? Would he pillage and plunder, slaughtering countless innocents simply for not being of his ilk? As they waited for his answer, he suddenly laughed and squinted at Fengling Suyu. "You called me a senseless killer that’s accumulating sin? No worries. I'll add another five million lives from your sect to my tally. The victors write the history books, after all. I’ll just demonize you in those books for the children of the future to read. As for fate's judgment, I look forward to it. Hahahaha! I wanted to take over the Myriad Solar Sects without spilling unnecessary blood, yet you resisted me! The tens of millions of celestial orderians lost at the Myriaddragon Mountains have to be made up for. So you’ll be paying for that with your lives on top of those already claimed at the Azurecloud Continent. All of our fallen are heroes of our race, and since ancient times, we’ve never let the sacrifice of our heroes go unaccounted for."
Those words were for the celestial orderians to hear. It was a signal that they could kill as much as they wanted, as long as they were brave enough to give their all in the fights rather than shirk away like cowards as the bluebloods did. That was why he wouldn't bring up Li Wushuang. Tianming and the rest could hear him, and he knew his speech would give them despair. Tianming could tell that the sun emperor had gone mad from suffering the loss at the Myriaddragon Mountains, even if he didn't want to admit it. There was no longer anything holding him back from using the cruelest of methods to wipe away that humiliating stain of loss. That made it necessary for everyone in the Myriad Solar Sects to take a firm stance. Apart from the wargodeans, everyone was ready to fight to the death. Any naive hopes of fence-sitting would only lead to worse suffering.
"Fengling Suyu, did you understand me?" the sun emperor said, still standing in his palace.
"I did. You’ve turned from a worthy ruler of totemancers into a lowly animal. The greatest shame in my entire life is having held a conversation with a lowly beast like you."
"Hahahahaha! It's too bad that when you're exterminated, I’ll tell your children that you are the actual beasts!"
"Lowly beasts! Lowly beasts!" the celestial orderian troops chanted, filled with an air of mockery.
The sun emperor raised an arm to stoke the flames. "So witness how we civilized people destroy the crude and primitive structures you built for yourselves. I heard that the Windheed Pavilion was the benchmark of all things beautiful, yet you look like nothing more than ugly, weak people to me."
The Divine Sun Palace rumbled as the flames around it glowed ten times brighter. It had never shown any attack capabilities until now. The two miniature nova sources gathered unbelievable amounts of power and channeled them to the mouth of the golden head, the light of which enveloped the sun emperor entirely. No doubt, this was a sign of an impending attack. Historically speaking, it was quite embarrassing for the celestial orderians to have to stoop to using the Divine Sun Palace to attack as well as carry sixty million troops. But now they no longer cared. They had revealed their shameless nature, all of them devils ready to strike. Now, the Divine Sun Palace looked like a gigantic ball of fire.
"Everyone..." Fengling Suyu turned to the five million precious members of her sect with tears in her eyes, "since we decided to remain, let’s use everything we have to let what we built remain in this world, if only for a moment or two longer."
It almost seemed laughable for people to die in vain for a city that would be destroyed whether they stayed or not, but their will was unshakable. Everyone held on to the formation spirit threads, powering the grade-seven defensive formation to the maximum. Storms began brewing more and more intensely until the defenders were between the raging storms and blazing flames. A gigantic tornado then surrounded the entire sect, threatening to eviscerate any that approached it.