This time, even the patriarchs of the imperial clans were at a loss for words.
They had always assumed that the Liu Imperial Clan had delivered the resources to the Su Imperial Clan on time, as agreed.
For the past hundred thousand years, their ten imperial clans had paid "tribute" to the Liu Imperial Clan once every five thousand years, pooling their resources.
So the resources that should have gone to the Su Imperial Clan included a share from their ten imperial clans as well.
And with those resources bolstering the array, they had naturally felt no qualms about leaving the affairs of the Realm Sea alone.
After all, as long as resources were plentiful, the Nine Heavens Devil-Suppressing Mystic Firmament Grand Array did the real work. To put it bluntly, all the Su Imperial Clan really had to do was keep watch and patrol.
What was going on now?
Had the Liu Imperial Clan failed to hand the resources over to the Su Imperial Clan, swallowing even the share from their ten imperial clans?
"Even so, your Su Imperial Clan shouldn't have been in cahoots with the Devil Race!"
"Exactly! Look for yourselves. How many people have died since the Devil Race reappeared? The lives of your entire Su Imperial Clan wouldn't be enough to pay for them!"
"That's right! You're an imperial clan, so what if you suffer a little? Didn't you just need to patrol around the Nine Heavens Devil-Suppressing Mystic Firmament Grand Array every day?"
The silence had hardly lasted before someone in the crowd immediately raised an objection.
"Is that so? Then see for yourselves!"
Su Ting said coldly.
At the same time, dozens more image-recording stones flew into the air, and new scenes unfolded.
The Su Imperial Clan's resources had run short, and the Devil Race had begun to fight back. The Nine Heavens Devil-Suppressing Mystic Firmament Grand Array could be seen starting to shake.
With no other choice, the Su Imperial Clan's experts entered the fray one after another, going into the grand array and clashing with the Devil Race's experts.
This delayed the Devil Race from breaking through the grand array, while allowing the array to slowly repair itself.
But as a result, the Su Imperial Clan's people were completely exposed to the Devil Race.
And the scenes Su Ting had brought out were not limited to those of his own generation.
They had begun recording when the foundations of the Nine Heavens Devil-Suppressing Mystic Firmament Grand Array first began to shake, starting with the first group who entered the grand array.
In these scenes alone, no fewer than five Emperor Realm experts of the Su Imperial Clan had fallen in the Realm Sea.
The lucky ones could return wrapped in horsehide; the unlucky ones were devoured outright by the Devil Race, without leaving a single trace!
"This is what you call suffering a little? Patrolling?"
Su Ting's voice rang like a great bell, each sentence like heavenly thunder crashing into their ears, leaving everyone's ears ringing.
Another silence fell!
Su Ting knew that, with the current strength of their Su Imperial Clan's ancestor, he could wipe out the Liu Imperial Clan outright.
The reason he had let them return on their own was to use this chance to clear the injustice staining the entire Su Imperial Clan and lift the black pot that had been clamped on them for a hundred thousand years.
There was no reason for them to suffer injustice and shoulder the blame while the ones who started it all went scot-free!
"Why didn't you ask the imperial clans for help?"
Another voice rang out.
But no sooner had he finished speaking than he remembered that Su Yi seemed to have already asked the Liu Imperial Clan for aid.
He hurriedly changed his words. "Why didn't you ask the other imperial clans for help?"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A few more image-recording stones flew out.
The scenes all showed people from the Su Imperial Clan going to the various imperial clans to request support, only to be turned away in the end.
Without exception, the excuses were much the same. In essence, they said that the Su Imperial Clan's job was to "guard a prison."
With the Devil Race suppressed by the Nine Heavens Devil-Suppressing Mystic Firmament Grand Array, how could they possibly riot?
For a moment, even the patriarchs of the ten imperial clans turned to look at Liu Ruyan.
By now, Liu Ruyan knew her deeds had been exposed, yet there was still not the slightest remorse in her eyes.
"Hehe! Pocketing the resources may count as a fault of my Liu Imperial Clan, but it's nothing compared to what your Su Imperial Clan did!" Liu Ruyan looked at Su Ting and suddenly smiled. "If you hadn't colluded with the Devil Race and opened the grand array, how would things have come to this?"
"You could have announced all this to the world. Then, even if only because of pressure from all living beings in the Black-Yellow Realm, we imperial clans would have gone to support you. Yet you insisted on choosing the one path you never should have taken!"
"To get revenge on us imperial clans, your Su Imperial Clan didn't even hesitate to make all living beings in the Black-Yellow Realm your burial offerings, your sacrifices!"
Sure enough, those words immediately sent the crowd into a fury again, just as they had begun to feel the faintest trace of guilt toward the Su Imperial Clan.
Su Ya and the others had thrown stones at someone who had fallen down a well, and the Zhao Imperial Clan could testify to it!
Su Ting and the others had stood before the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings, yet neither the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings nor any of his devils had attacked them. They had seen it with their own eyes, so how could it be false?
"Your merits don't make up for your faults. You're still sinners!"
"That's right, you're too selfish! You can't see the bigger picture at all!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Su Ting could no longer be bothered to argue with these people. He flung out another image-recording stone.
In the image-recording stone, the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings was offering Su Ting a deal, seeking to leave the Realm Sea with a Heavenly Dao Blood Oath as the condition, but Su Ting had refused him.
Yet even after watching to the end, these people still chose to ignore it!
"Look! Hahaha! So it was a Heavenly Dao Blood Oath! I knew it! Why else wouldn't these devils attack the Su Imperial Clan's people?"
"With a Heavenly Dao Blood Oath in place, if it's broken, let alone the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings, even an immortal would have their body and soul destroyed by the Heavenly Dao!"
"But didn't Su Ting refuse?"
Someone spoke up timidly, but his voice was quickly drowned out.
"Idiot! Maybe he only took part of the recording. That's what he said to their faces, but behind the scenes he still made a Heavenly Dao Blood Oath with the Devil Race. Anyway, I only believe what I see with my own eyes. Just answer me this: didn't these devils refrain from attacking the Su Imperial Clan's people?"
"Yes!"
"Then there you have it!"
Liu Ruyan smiled as well. "Su Ting, you really are stupid, stupid enough to throw out the evidence yourself!"
If the recordings Su Ting had produced before had all been unfavorable to the Liu Imperial Clan, then the last one was the finishing blow, turning their defeat straight into victory!
"Is that so?"
Su Ting sneered. He suddenly reached out and struck toward the Devil Race on the other side, sending several bolts of Purple Firmament Divine Thunder shooting out.
The next second, those bolts of Purple Firmament Divine Thunder exploded amid the Devil Race's army. At least half of the more than ten thousand devils who had followed the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings were reduced to ash in the thunder.
"Su Ting, you..."
Seeing this, the Blood Annihilation Devil Emperor shouted in anger, but did not attack.
With Su Ting's current strength, going at him would be sending himself to his death!
Meanwhile, inside the Liu Imperial Clan's grand array,
At first, the crowd did not understand why Su Ting had done this.
But once they realized it, they could not help gaping, shock written all over their faces.
Hadn't they said the Su Imperial Clan and the Devil Race were bound by a Heavenly Dao Blood Oath?
And now, Su Ting's move had directly dispelled the doubts in their hearts.
The Heavenly Dao could not be wrong!
The Heavenly Dao had not acted, which meant that the Su Imperial Clan and the Devil Race had never made a Heavenly Dao Blood Oath at all.
So the Su Imperial Clan had not released the Devil Race?
Considered alongside the scenes Su Ting had shown them earlier, everything seemed to fall into place.
Without enough resources to bolster it, the Nine Heavens Devil-Suppressing Mystic Firmament Grand Array could not withstand the Devil Race's endless attacks.
So as long as the Su Imperial Clan's people did not stop them, it was possible for the Devil Race to break through the grand array on their own.
Seen that way, the Su Imperial Clan did not seem to be in the wrong either.
The Su Imperial Clan had only stopped tending to it for a short time, while the other eleven great imperial clans had been hands-off shopkeepers for a full hundred thousand years!
There was just one thing they did not understand.
By that reasoning, shouldn't the Devil Race hate the Su Imperial Clan's people most of all?
Why hadn't the Devil Race attacked the Su Imperial Clan's people?