Chapter 1082

Meanwhile at the lower levels of the astralscape.

"Sovereign Xi must’ve guessed that I’d take away the cauldron. I bet she's puking blood right now."

The death of the Pentamoon Slayers had greatly chipped away at the divine moonrace's forces.

"The Flameyellow Continent's natives are humans, just like those in the Divine Moon Realm. We should be protected by them! But given her personality, I think she's going to make a ruthless move to get me to submit."

Tianming hoped that she wouldn't send more than a thousand ascendants against him. There would be no hope if so many gods came to slaughter humanity. "The Flameyellow humans are all innocent."

He thought about far too many people. His family and friends, fellow disciples and subjects of the Nine Divine Realms.... The sky plunderers no longer had a home, so the Flameyellow Continent was his only home. No matter how pretty the Divine Moon Realm was, it could never replace his home.

Now, he was waiting for the answer to only one question: why would Sovereign Xi go so far to achieve her goals? What was driving that mad determination? Tianming recalled that Great Emperor Xuanyuan had warned him to never offend the divine moonrace. Perhaps that was a sign that he had encountered many obstacles when going to the moon and asking them for help against the specters. He must have been feeling the same as Tianming was now.

To protect his fellow humans, Tianming had used the divine moonrace to exterminate the elites of the specters. Little did he know that would result in the sovereign of the moon sending an entire army to slaughter those he tried to protect in a bid to make him submit. After waiting for a few grueling hours, the army finally arrived. He saw many ascendants escape the moon's gravity and assemble into a huge army. His last hope had now been extinguished.

"A hundred thousand! Haha! A freaking hundred thousand!" It was almost insulting. Tianming had thought that only a few hundred ascendants would be deployed. That alone would be more than enough to spread him thin. Yet now there was an army of a hundred thousand. It seemed like the sovereign no longer cared about how many casualties this would incur. It was either he submit or all humans perish. It was all just a number to her anyway.

Tianming had seen real tyrants before, Autarch Qian for instance. He was of the same breed as the sovereign. The first time he met her, in fact, he felt like she was gentler than the legends suggested. But his conflict with her gradually peeled away at the layers and drew out her inner demon.

That number wasn't just staggering; it was payback against Tianming for destroying her formation. It was pure hatred that was about to be vented on the humans of the Flameyellow Continent.

"Impressive. Truly impressive." He had no more words. Prince Fengyue looked to be the general of an army formed by the citizens of the Eightmoon Skycities. One might not be faulted for thinking that they were going on an expedition to conquer another world with a stellunar source, not a puny little mortal world.

Tianming had underestimated how cruel the sovereign was willing to be, as well as how much the divine moonrace looked down on the world below. The specters had enslaved humans, sure, but the divine moonrace couldn't even be bothered with that. In fact, Huiye Shi included, they all thought the humans down below were mere primitive cavemen with no civilization.

"We're humans all the same, even if we aren’t as powerful. It's one thing to form hierarchies, but it's another to treat people like grass!"

Tianming respected every living being, but the divine moonrace didn't. It was something that had been ingrained in them across generations spanning millions of years. It couldn’t be changed. All hundred thousand troops of the army saw nothing wrong with what they were about to do, either.

"Don't go too wild, guys. Let's just keep the kill count of each of us to around ten thousand. We're only going there to make a splash."

"That's right. We'll make Li Tianming cry and go back to receive his punishment."

"That damned bastard ruined the formation core and caused at least six thousand royals to die. Killing him doesn't even seem like enough."

"If each one of us kills ten thousand, we'll kill a total of a billion people. That's more than enough to make up for six thousand of our fallen brethren."

"A billion.... What a terrifying number."

"Don't let the number bother you. The people from the world below are weak. They’re mere insects that’re only good at proliferating. Breeding is all they can do. Even gods like us, who live for centuries, only have a few children, yet they have more than ten even though they live for less than a hundred years. A billion might seem like a huge number, but they’ll breed enough to make up for it within three years, you know? Cockroaches can't be completely exterminated. They always find a way to breed again."

"You're right. Not to mention, superior lifeforms like us have morals, unlike those insects. Let's not get caught up by ethical concerns."

"I heard the environment down there's good, at least. Once we finish exterminating the insects, we can vacation there!"

"Don't tell me you want to fool with the women there? How could you have such bad taste? You'll get parasites, you know!"

"Eww, get out of here. That sounds gross."

They thought of themselves as gods, and humanity as insects. This wasn't just a conflict between Tianming and Sovereign Xi alone anymore; it was complete discrimination by those who thought they were inherently superior lifeforms.

Though Huiye Shi didn't let it affect her too much, it was all the same for her. The divine moonrace had had that attitude since two hundred millennia ago. All they wanted was to return to Orderia and be truly deserving of the title of superior lifeform. They even looked down on the non-divine moonrace residents of the Divine Moon Realm. On the one hand, they kneel to the celestial orderians, but on the other, they rule their subjects with impunity. It was all the same, from Huiyue Yin all the way to the imperial guide and the sovereign; even Liu Qinghuan, the rootbeast race member that was willing to be a pet dog of the divine moonrace. It was only when Bodhi had started his assault that they learned true fear.

Tianming felt his rage boiling over. Though the army had no choice and was acting under the orders of the sovereign, they were relishing in the cruel acts they were about to commit. There was no way they would hold back.

"They aren’t innocent. They’re all just as guilty."

Tianming had remained hidden the whole time and immediately left when he saw the army. He had abandoned all notions of peaceful coexistence and would head to the continent right away. Even though the specters hadn't even come close to doing what they were about to, the divine moonrace had forced humanity into another abyss.