Tongtian had only just appeared when the feudal state below had already formed up in grim readiness.
"Daoist Tongtian, what are you trying to do? It violates the rules for someone of the Dao Realm to interfere in mortal affairs. How dare you act so recklessly?"
The ruler of this feudal state was a new ruler who had taken office only recently. Having fled back from the Xia Dynasty, he looked very young, yet there was something strange about his entire bearing. He stared at Tongtian as he berated him, his tone less a threat or coercion than a provocation.
"Hmm..."
Tongtian fell silent for a moment. Looking at the ruler below, he said, "It seems you already know why I have come here. And you have made your choice—chosen death, have you?"
The ruler froze at first, then flew into a rage. "Do not think you can do whatever you please just because you are a Dao Realm cultivator! It is not as though we lack Heavenly Divine Artifacts left behind by our ancestors!"
As his words fell, patterns emerged from the void. The entire capital transformed into a massive formation diagram—no, it should have been called a massive furnace.
Billowing black smoke rose from all corners of the capital. Specks of fire drifted over living beings one after another, while strands of blood, flesh, and vital essence turned into crimson light within the flames and rose upward, dyeing more than half the sky red.
Every living being within had become fuel, supplying the Heavenly Divine Artifact floating before the ruler.
It was an ancient-looking weapon made of bone, still bearing a great many traces of blood.
Looking at the Heavenly Divine Artifact, Tongtian said in understanding, "So it is a divine weapon devoted purely to slaughter. No wonder