The sudden turn of events baffled everyone else, and even the Liu Imperial Clan's own people were at a loss.
"What is that?"
"Our Liu Imperial Clan has a method like this? Could it be another grand formation?"
In the crowd, an elder of the Liu Imperial Clan scratched his head as he stared at the enormous pillar soaring into the sky, seemingly capable of reaching the heavens.
"Who cares what it is? As long as it can suppress the Devil Race and slaughter the traitors of the Su Imperial Clan, it's a good thing!"
"But... even the Empress said our Liu Imperial Clan deliberately withheld resources from the Su Imperial Clan. Looking at it that way, it seems the Su Imperial Clan wasn't wrong to be angry..."
Someone offered a different view, but the moment the words left their mouth, the people around them began to scold them.
Clearly, they were members of the Liu Imperial Clan themselves. From their perspective, whatever Liu Ruyan and the others did, she surely had her own reasons, and everything they did was right.
"Shut up! Remember, you're a member of the Liu Imperial Clan, and the Liu Imperial Clan's blood runs through your veins. What, a few words from them are enough to make you switch sides? You're a disgrace to our Liu Imperial Clan!"
"Since Her Majesty the Empress did this, and our ancestors of every generation did the same, there must be a reason for it. It takes two hands to clap. Are you saying the Su Imperial Clan did nothing wrong?"
The torrent of scolding left the clan member who had voiced a different opinion too ashamed to show their face.
At that moment, blood-red "meridians" began spreading from deep within the Liu Imperial Clan's ancestral land.
With the Liu Imperial Clan at their center, these meridians formed a pattern tens of thousands of miles across.
It looked like a blood-red totem.
The meridians now seemed alive, their "filaments" twitching incessantly like writhing maggots, making people's scalps crawl.
"Just how many trump cards does the Liu Imperial Clan have left?!"
Elsewhere, the powerhouses of the ten great imperial clans had gathered around Yuwen Shendu.
Among them, Yuwen Shendu gazed gravely at the blood-red pillar piercing the sky and the ghostly web of a pattern on the ground, his expression exceptionally grim.
At the same time, a bad feeling instinctively rose in his heart.
The Liu Imperial Clan's foundation was far greater and stronger than they had imagined.
Take his Yuwen Imperial Clan, the third-ranked imperial clan: it had no qualification to compare itself with the Liu Imperial Clan at all.
By rights, the gap between their first-generation ancestors had not been all that great. How, then, had the gap between the two clans grown so vast in a hundred thousand years?
"Is that... the All Spirits Return to the Ruins Ghost Immortal Baleful Intent Formation?"
In another direction, the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings, who had been fighting the Liu Imperial Clan's puppet, steadied himself and also looked toward the Liu Imperial Clan.
By now, the presence of the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings was noticeably stronger than that of the golden puppet opposite him. It seemed he had gained the upper hand.
It was probably because the Source of All Evil had reclaimed that one-eighth of his origin.
If the fight continued, the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings would undoubtedly win.
At that moment, the Source of All Evil's voice also sounded within the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings. He seemed to have recognized the change in the Liu Imperial Clan.
"So that's it. This was Liu Wuyou's plan. To become an immortal, she really will stop at nothing!"
The Source of All Evil sneered.
Once this grand formation appeared, what the Liu Imperial Clan intended to do had already been laid bare.
"You recognize this grand formation?"
The Devil Emperor of All Living Beings asked.
"Of course I do. I just didn't expect the Liu Imperial Clan to possess a method for using this kind of grand formation. But judging by the look of it, setting up this formation alone must have taken them tens of thousands of years!"
The Source of All Evil spoke with a laugh.
He had once thrived even in the Immortal Realm. What he knew was far beyond anything the Devil Emperor of All Living Beings could match.
Not only did he know this kind of formation, he had actually seen it before.
The grand formation before them could only be called a stripped-down version, but it was still a top-tier formation for the Black-Yellow Realm.
"This is a very evil grand formation. Simply put, it can refine a person or an entire race as a sacrifice, offering up their bodies, bones and blood, hair and skin, even their souls, and converting them into the purest energy to feed back to the caster, thereby bringing about a leap in power!"
"Judging by the Liu Imperial Clan's preparations, the upheaval won't be small. Could their target be an entire imperial clan?"
The Source of All Evil explained, amusement in his tone.
He had not expected the foremost human clan in the Black-Yellow Realm to use a grand formation so thoroughly forbidden that it had nearly been forgotten.
Were they planning to become the enemy of the entire Black-Yellow Realm?
After all, once a grand formation like this appeared, no one could be sure that they or their race would not be the next sacrifice!
Yet as things stood, no race in the entire Black-Yellow Realm could stop the Liu Imperial Clan.
Of course, except for the Su Imperial Clan!
Seeing this, the Source of All Evil could not help marveling once again at how hypocritical humans were.
Some people had evil in their bones even stronger than his, the Source of All Evil's, yet still styled themselves as upright members of renowned and righteous sects.
But which of the things they had done was something a righteous person should do?!
It was laughable!
If not for those evil thoughts, he, the Source of All Evil, might never even have been born.
"Liu Ruyan, what are you trying to do?!"
Su Ting watched the somewhat unhinged Liu Ruyan, his gaze wary.
When Liu Ruyan had publicly admitted what the Liu Imperial Clan had done, he had been pleased and had wanted to finish her off right away.
After all, so many people of the Su Imperial Clan had died over the years, and if blame was to be assigned, it had a great deal to do with the Liu Imperial Clan hoarding resources.
Liu Ruyan's death alone could not ease the hatred in his heart.
But now, what was this?
"Damn the Su Imperial Clan! You should have vanished from the Black-Yellow Realm long ago!"
"We let you live another hundred thousand years, and it would be one thing if you weren't grateful, but you even dared to come knocking at our door. Good! Today, I'll show you the true power of my Liu Imperial Clan!"
Liu Ruyan's face looked somewhat ferocious.
Under everyone's gaze, she took out a transmission stone.
After connecting it, she said only a few cold words: "Do it!"
With that, the power surrounding her shattered the transmission stone into powder.
While everyone was still bewildered, a sky-reaching fluctuation erupted with a boom in another direction.
It was a blood-red pillar identical to the one at the Liu Imperial Clan.
But because it was so far away, from where they stood they could only just make out a thin red line reaching to the heavens.
And that direction was... the Two Forms Continent!
The Two Forms Continent, the Su Imperial Clan!
For a moment, many people turned their eyes to Su Ting and the others.
Although the entire Su Imperial Clan had relocated to the Realm Sea, in their eyes, the Two Forms Continent was still the Su Imperial Clan's true ancestral land.
So now that such a great change had occurred on the Two Forms Continent, those people naturally looked at once toward the members of the Su Imperial Clan led by Su Ting.