Chapter 1163, Otherwise: Kill Without Mercy!

Translator: Silavin

 

Jiang Baishen’s body scattered into nothingness. Because he was a Player and not a Monster, he dropped no equipment upon death, just like Jiang Baihe before him.

 

Had the two of them been Monsters, given their sheer Level, dropping a handful of Legendary Grade items would have been something to be expected.

 

After slaying Jiang Baishen, Lu Fan put away Refined Undefiled and gave a casual wave of his hand. The Ancient God Power that had suffused Jiang Baishen’s body came drifting obediently towards him, settling right into his palm.

 

On Jiang Baishen were two Slaughter Hearts. The energy stored within them was staggeringly vast.

 

Lu Fan fused the two Slaughter Hearts into one, compressing them together as tightly as he could, until what remained was a radiant sphere roughly the size of a fist, blazing like a miniature Sun.

 

Then, Lu Fan clenched the sphere in his fist, and hurled it with all his might towards the sky.

 

*Boom!*

 

The sphere streaked across the sky in a blaze of light and slammed into the protective barrier overhead. The two collided with a thunderous *crack*, and an enormous mushroom cloud billowed upward into the sky.

 

At the same time, the protective barrier above fractured from end to end, crumbling and shattering, vanishing entirely without a trace.

 

Between the Sacred Island upon which everyone stood and the one above, there was no longer any obstruction whatsoever.

 

Lu Fan confirmed that the path ahead was truly unobstructed, then turned to address the others. “Okay. Since the Sacred Master of the Sacred Jiang Family is dead, there should be nothing to stop us as we press forward. Next, we will be facing the Slaughter Ancient God. We make sure we are in peak condition. The most dangerous battle of all is almost upon us!”

 

The expressions of those around him grew tense and grave, but every single one of them nodded, indicating they had prepared themselves as thoroughly as they possibly could.

 

Along this way, everyone had fought battle after battle, each one more gruelling than the last.

 

Gradually, all of them had settled into a fighting state of mind.

 

Though they knew the next battle might very well be against the Slaughter Ancient God, an existence capable of overturning an entire era, each of them had, through the accumulation of one fight after another, quietly readied themselves.

 

After a brief rest to allow everyone to recover their Stamina, Lu Fan rallied the group and they set off towards the upper Sacred Island.

 

Without the barrier to block them, ascending to the next Sacred Island was simple.

 

Everyone deployed their respective Flight Skills, and they arrived at the upper Sacred Island with ease.

 

The moment they set foot there, everyone was struck dumb with astonishment. Directly ahead lay the true stronghold of the Sacred Jiang Family.

 

Those towers and pavilions, those halls of jade and gleaming marble, made one feel as though one had stepped into an immortal realm!

 

The Sacred Jiang Family had always possessed extraordinary depth.

 

Though the other Sacred Lands had once divided and plundered the Sacred Jiang Family, in the end, with the assistance of the Slaughter Ancient God, the Sacred Jiang Family had quietly exacted its revenge upon each of those Sacred Lands one by one, reclaiming virtually all of its resources and accumulated strength, and then some with interest.

 

Add to that the years of quiet restoration and recovery, the Sacred Jiang Family’s foundations now far surpassed even their peak.

 

Looking ahead, beyond the various grand structures, all manner of Defensive Arrays were laid everywhere.

 

It was safe to say, had Jiang Baishen and the others chosen to make their stand here against Lu Fan and the others, it would have cost Lu Fan a considerable amount of effort to cut down every last one of the Sacred Jiang Family’s people.

 

For reasons unknown, however, Jiang Baishen and the others had still departed from this place and descended to the lower Sacred Island, treating it as the battleground for their decisive confrontation with Lu Fan’s group.

 

The answer to that question came soon enough.

 

Once everyone arrived, a large number of Players began to emerge from within the Sacred Jiang Family’s true stronghold.

 

Lu Fan had initially assumed these were hidden assets left behind by Jiang Baishen, and he braced himself for continued combat.

 

But that was not so.

 

These people were nothing but Players with Lifestyle Specialised Profession, or children and women of very Low Level.

 

In short, their role within the Sacred Jiang Family had nothing to do with fighting.

 

Even within a Sacred Land, it was impossible for every last person to be a fighter. There would inevitably be youths of modest ability, as well as spouses, stewards, servants, and the like.

 

To the ordinary people of the outside world, their cultivation might seem strong.

 

But within a Sacred Land, or even an Ancient Noble Family, they occupied the very bottom rung. They were negligible and unimportant.

 

These people had no meaningful capability for combat. When a real battle erupted, a Sacred Land would never send such individuals to face the enemy.

 

And yet here they all were, every one of them, equipped with an assortment of Low Level, Low Grade weapons, arranged in front of the Sacred Jiang Family’s gates in a posture of resolute readiness, clearly intending to make a move against Lu Fan and the others.

 

Against this group, never mind Lu Fan personally stepping in, even Jian Ying and the rest of them, without so much as drawing on their Ancient God Power, could have cut through the entire group in short order.

 

The gap in ability was just so vast. These people, though they harboured the intent to oppose Lu Fan and the others, they also understood perfectly well that they were not a match for even a single one of them.

 

And so, they were fearful as well. None of them daring to rashly advance.

 

Lu Fan frowned slightly at the sight. He immediately understood and realised at once why Jiang Baishen and the others had been unwilling to use this place as a battlefield.

 

Within the Sacred Jiang Family, there were still many ordinary people. Had a fight broke out here, the first to suffer misfortune would very likely have been these people.

 

Ye Wuxian’s thoughts were identical to Lu Fan’s. Faced with such a crowd of ordinary people, she too found herself at a loss. She could only look towards Lu Fan, her eyes asking silently how he intended to handle them.

 

If they were to fight, there was practically no true combatant on the opposing side. Killing them would be no different from killing ordinary people. In that case, what would be the point?

 

Everyone had slain no small number of Monsters and Players along the way, but to simply commence a slaughter now, against the helpless, they truly found it difficult to raise their hand.

 

Yet if they did not kill them, these people were watching with hungry eyes, and might charge forward at any moment.

 

On a battlefield, mercy towards one’s enemies was cruelty towards oneself.

 

Even if the opposing side was lacking in strength, who could guarantee they would not one day become a source of trouble?

 

Just as everyone was wrestling with the dilemma, a young man at the front of the group suddenly raised a longsword, levelling it at Lu Fan and the others, and shouted at the top of his voice. “Get out of our Sacred Jiang Family! Otherwise, we will kill without mercy!”

 

The young man looked no older than eighteen or nineteen, clearly someone who had only just undergone his Profession Change. In fact, he was still at his Third Profession Change.

 

In the eyes of Lu Fan and the rest, this furious declaration made him look like a tiny kitten baring its teeth, completely without menace.

 

Lu Fan was still turning the matter over in his mind when Ouyang Bai Ge, standing beside him, raised her hand, traced a line through the air, and opened a Void Rift, connecting this place to the Void World.

 

Lu Fan quickly asked, “Teacher Ouyang, do you intend to kill them?”

 

Ouyang Bai Ge gave a small nod, her tone perfectly even. “They are all people of the Sacred Jiang Family. If they are left alive, they might cause some trouble further down the road.”