Punishment Underway

"Angel Legion, those who need to have their right arms cut off, step forward!"

In front of Tang Xiao, Ling Yuan hovered in midair with one hand behind her back, shouting down at the Angel Legion soldiers landing below.

"Yes!"

Immediately, more than twenty Angel Legion soldiers stepped out from the front row, forming a new first row side by side.

They shoved the Clear Sky Sect disciples they were holding forward. When some stubbornly refused to move, they simply kicked the backs of their knees, forcing them to kneel on the spot.

The Clear Sky Sect disciples who had been kicked to their knees instantly reddened their eyes, panting like bulls. Yet when they saw Tang Xiao facing them not far away, as well as their friends and family watching from farther off, they closed their eyes and stopped struggling.

They had already lost all their dignity.

If they accidentally provoked someone from Spirit Hall now and ended up losing their lives alongside the brothers behind them, they would not even have a place to cry.

Thus, under the threat of death, these twenty-odd Clear Sky Sect disciples ultimately behaved with exceptional obedience—almost docility.

Tang Xiao, who had initially pitied them from a distance, could not help feeling somewhat angry at the sight.

Show a little backbone, will you?!

Sigh!

What happened to the words we had all sworn by together? "Mighty battle hammers, towering Clear Sky Sect!"

Had you all forgotten?

Yet no matter how complicated the feelings in the hearts of the Clear Sky Sect Hammer Men were, the moment the Angel Legion soldiers raised their butcher knives, every stormy emotion was instantly subdued.

Yes.

What could they do?

A man had to bow his head under another's roof.

In the end, they simply were not strong enough!

The scene fell utterly silent.

No one said another word—not the Clear Sky Sect, not Ning Fengzhi, who had been prepared to jump around and make a fuss nearby, nor the spectators in the distance.

Swish!

Hands rose, blades fell.

The right arms of more than twenty Clear Sky Sect disciples were severed in an instant.

Left-handed people were rare, after all.

So now... they were half-crippled.

"Ah!"

Some Clear Sky Sect disciples could not endure the pain, or perhaps their hearts were simply too bitter, and fainted on the spot.

Those who remained conscious wore mournful expressions.

Then the Angel Legion soldiers picked up the arms that had fallen to the ground, gathered them, and placed them into a storage Soul Tool.

Afterward, they waved their hands, lifting the seals on the Soul Power within these one-armed Hammer Men and signaling that they could leave.

They did not delay. Once their Soul Power returned, they immediately sealed their still-bleeding wounds, then stood and supported the few unconscious Clear Sky Sect disciples as they departed.

Along the way, they inevitably passed their sect master, Tang Xiao.

Their gazes met, their eyes filled with complexity.

No words were spoken.

The disciples passed by their sect master...

Heaven knew how stifled Tang Xiao felt at that moment!

Ah!

If the Rakshasa God had not approached Tang Hao first back then, perhaps He might have taken a liking to Tang Xiao instead.

Hehehe...

Before long, after the Clear Sky Sect disciples whose right arms had been severed returned to their own camp, tears welled up uncontrollably in their eyes.

A group of rough men huddled around one another, emotional in a way they had never been before.

Yet before they could properly comfort their companions, they had to turn their gazes toward the Angel Legion in the distance again.

Because—

At the same time, the remaining Clear Sky Sect disciples, who were "for now" still intact, were also escorted to the front row, facing the Clear Sky Sect camp.

These Hammer Men were not as obedient as the previous group. After all, they were the ones doomed to die.

They struggled desperately, while also feeling rather baffled.

What was going on?

What the hell had happened for someone to suddenly dig up old debts from years ago...

And send them to the execution block?!

Even death-row prisoners of the Empire were given some time to prepare.

And besides.

They had merely killed a few peasants back then.

Did they really have to pay for it with their lives?

What had happened to this world?

No matter how much they thought about it, their hearts were filled with doubt, resentment, and regret. Yet from beginning to end, they never felt they had done anything wrong.

There was no other reason. As people born into the Clear Sky Sect, they had been taught by their elders from childhood that they were naturally superior to others, above worldly constraints, unbound by convention, and needed to dare to cause trouble.

If they did not dare to cause trouble and were more introverted or cautious, their elders would scold them as mediocrities!

So they had never imagined this day would come.

And with the Clear Sky Sect as such a powerful backer, they had rarely understood one principle—

Those who killed would eventually be killed!

No matter how miserable these Hammer Men felt inside or how desperately they struggled on the surface,

with their Soul Power sealed, they were easily kicked to their knees by the Angel Legion soldiers.

Just like the previous batch of Clear Sky Sect disciples, except the punishment awaiting them was different.

At that moment, the butcher knives were raised high, their edges exposed, their cold glints biting!

"I hate..."

The shadow of death had already filled their eyes.

Tang Xiao directly turned around in the distance, while everyone in the Clear Sky Sect camp turned away and closed their eyes.

An invisible air of decline seemed to hang over the heads of everyone from the Clear Sky Sect. Their faces could not conceal their dejection, and even the observing factions outside the scene could not help shaking their heads inwardly.

Clear Sky... had fallen.

Swish!

Dozens of heads rolled away!

Was it over?

When Tang Xiao returned to the Clear Sky Sect camp once again, listless and despondent, every Clear Sky Sect member could not help wondering.

Naturally, the answer was not yet.

"Knock, knock, knock."

In the distance, Bibi Dong sat high in her seat and suddenly began tapping the Pope's Scepter at an unhurried pace.

A Red Bishop beside her played along and asked a question. Bibi Dong slightly raised her head, brushed away nonexistent tears, and said:

"My Spirit Hall heroes who died, today your great vengeance has finally been avenged!"

"May you rest in peace beneath the earth."

"But..."

"Just now, I seemed to hear my teacher's voice."

"Do you know what he said?"

Bibi Dong gazed toward the Clear Sky Sect.

The Clear Sky Sect camp immediately felt that something was terribly wrong.

It was as if an enormous black cauldron in the void was about to come crashing down over them.

"What did His Holiness the Pope say?"

At that moment, Tuoba Xi, commander of the Holy Dragon Legion, also stepped out to play the good cop for Bibi Dong.

"He said..."

"Though the Clear Sky Sect is filled with desolation at this moment, how could it possibly compare to the misery of the Angel Lineage?"

"As everyone knows, some days ago, our Pope, His Holiness Qian Xunji, wielder of the Angel Martial Soul, perished. And his beloved daughter—Qian Renxue—had already died young years earlier."

As Bibi Dong spoke that final sentence, everyone around her nodded. Only Golden Crocodile and Lion Douluo wore slightly odd expressions.

This was a matter secretly spread by Spirit Hall, one that had "made" it common knowledge across the continent.

It happened in the year Qian Renxue awakened her Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul with Innate Level 20 Soul Power.

Those who understood, understood.

To this day, only the seven Grand Priests knew the truth behind the matter. The other elders, as well as all Spirit Hall higher-ups including Bibi Dong, knew nothing.

Originally, Qian Xunji had also known, but now he was dead.

Of course, it was not as though no one else in Spirit City knew of Qian Renxue anymore.

However, those who knew only knew of the false identity she used after disguising herself, one attached to a family with a light-attributed Martial Soul.

No.

Perhaps it could not really be called false...