Dao Slave 21 let out a cold harrumph and took a step forward. He was confident that he could definitely kill these two people with his next strike! Almost the moment he moved forward, Dao Yuan flew out from behind him and charged towards Su Ming.

　　“Dao Slave, move back, I’ll do this personally! Didn’t you want to kill me just now? I’ll have a taste of your woman right in front of your face, and I’ll make sure you see it!” As Dao Yuan laughed maniacally, he closed in on the pair. As for Su Ming and Yu Xuan, they were already close to the Rune around the ninth summit.

　　Dao Slave 21 paused in his movements and let his young master fly past him towards Su Ming and Yu Xuan. Yet at the moment Dao Yuan lifted his right hand to seize Yu Xuan, a great presence that filled the hearts of all those who felt with shock and fear suddenly erupted from over there.

　　The strength of that presence was so great that it caused the world to quiver and an endless amount of whirlpools to appear in the sea. It made the sky tremble as it quivered, and even the yellow light as well as the three Dao Slaves that were fighting against it felt their hearts tremble.

　　“This is your Grandpa Crane’s territory! I was taking a nap here, and you dare to come and offend me?! Begone!” A voice filled with a mighty pressure came from the ninth summit with an intensity that shook the sky and earth.

　　Not only did this powerful presence cause the hearts of the three Dao Slaves to shudder at the instant it appeared, it also shocked Dao Yuan, who was about to execute a divine ability to kill Su Ming, and Dao Yuan 21.

　　“This is… This is Solar Kalpa’s [1] presence!”

　　Dao Yuan 21’s expression changed drastically. He did not have time to think. He seized Dao Yuan, who was stunned with fear, and turned into a long arc that charged backwards.

　　Dao Yuan screamed. As he shuddered, shock and terror appeared on his face.

　　“Solar Kalpa’s presence! There’s no doubt about this! This is a great cultivator who has reached Solar Kalpa Realm! He’s only one step away from reaching Plane Kalpa!”

　　Dao Slave 21’s face turned stark pale. His mind was in a mess. He had not expected… to run into such a dangerous situation in the land of Berserkers.

　　But at that moment, a hint of doubt rose in his heart. He immediately lifted his right hand, and a resolute look appeared on his face. An item appeared on his palm, and he crushed it.

　　It was a green medicinal core. At the instant the Dao Slave crushed it, a shocking boom swiftly spread out.

　　As that sound reverberated in the air, the world trembled. A wave of ripples spread out towards the area, but there was not a great amount of lethal force within those ripples. Instead, the green light shining from within simply spread out and covered a circular area of several hundreds of lis.

　　Dao Slave 21 stared at that green light and watched it cover those hundreds of lis. His face remained unchanged for a moment before a strange emotion mixed with anger took over.

　　“You’re not a cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm! Young Master, there is no cultivator in Solar Kalpa Realm here, that is just a Dao Illusion Art!”

　　Once Dao Slave 21 roared those words out, he no longer retreated. Instead, he charged once again towards Su Ming and Yu Xuan. Dao Yuan was momentarily stunned by his side. He knew that the medicinal core his slave had used was Morning Dao Sect’s Kalpa Seeking Core. That core could test whether there was any power that belonged to Plane Kalpas within a region, and it could also determine whether there was anyone who had reached Plane Kalpa Realm in that area.

　　If its color changed, it meant that there was someone with the power of Plane Kalpa around, or it could be that there was simply some power that belonged to Plane Kalpas in the area. Yet the medicinal core had spread out to several hundreds of lis just now, but the color did not change, which could only mean that… no matter what he’d felt when the presence moments ago had spread out, there was no one with the power of Plane Kalpa Realm in this place. That was the truth.

　　Once Dao Yuan registered this, he fumed in rage and exasperation before charging back towards Su Ming and Yu Xuan, whose consciousness was already muddled at that point. He was so quick that he arrived in the blink of an eye and even roared at them.

　　“How dare you lie to me?! I’ll kill all of you with my hands one by one! Dao Slave 21, protect me! Watch as I crush their bones and scatter their ashes!”

　　Dao Yuan charged forward. He closed in on Su Ming And Yu Xuan, then lifted his right hand, about to seize Su Ming, but at that moment, furious roars came from the hundred li Rune.

　　They were immediately followed by shadows of people flying out.

　　Those were… the people who now lived in the ninth summit. They had chosen to die in battle to protect the ninth summit as well as Su Ming.

　　At the moment of crisis, they rushed out without any hesitation. The person at the very front of the crowd was an old man. He had already reached Berserker Soul Realm, but his level was not high. At the instant he walked out, he charged towards Dao Yuan without a care for his own life in an attempt to stop him from killing Su Ming and Yu Xuan.

　　“You’re just asking for death!”

　　Dao Yuan let out a shrill screech. He changed the direction of his right hand to punch the old man’s body, but at the instant his fist was about to touch him, a bizarre smile appeared on the old man’s face and his body exploded with a bang.

　　As he exploded, his cultivation base erupted, and the waves of power that burst forth charged towards Dao Yuan. Blood gushed into the air and splashed all over the area. A large amount of it fell on Su Ming and Yu Xuan’s bodies. Su Ming’s consciousness was about to completely fade away due to his injuries, but when the body fell on him, thick bloody lines immediately appeared in his eyes.

　　His consciousness quickly returned to his body. He trembled. In his ears, he heard the old man’s laughter before he died.

　　“Sir Su Ming, I’ve been under the care of the ninth summit for many years! Now, I will use my death to repay your kindness!”

　　As the old man died, one person after another charged out of the Rune. Some of them even grabbed Su Ming and Yu Xuan to drag them back into the Rune.

　　One after another, these people charged out. One after another, the rumbles from self-destructions shot up into the air, affecting Dao Yuan. The roars from those explosions continued, and in the blink of an eye, more than ten people had chosen self-destruction.

　　“Sir Su Ming, I, Chen, am here to repay your kindness!”

　　“Sir Su, I, Xu, will repay your kindness with my death today!”

　　“I will repay your kindness with my death! Sir Su Ming, if we reincarnate, let us meet again in our next lives!”

　　One after another, long strings of laughter before their owners’ deaths rang in the air. More and more people rushed out and chose self-destruction to hold Dao Yuan back and save Su Ming. All of this brought Su Ming’s consciousness back. He… regained his senses, but he could not summon even a single bit of power. His injuries left him at death’s door.

　　His eyes turned red. He could only watch these people die, hear them declare their intention to repay his kindness. As his body trembled, he let out a hoarse roar.

　　More people flew past him. Among them were the elderly and the young. These were his people who lived in the ninth summit. At that moment, they were using blood and self-destruction to complete the promise they had made when they were allowed to stay in the ninth summit.

　　To protect the summit, even if they died.

　　Tears fell from Yu Xuan’s eyes. She watched all of this with a blank stare, looked at these people dying, heard their voices as well as Su Ming’s hoarse roars. More and more tears fell from her eyes.

　　Dao Yuan was forcefully held back and could only watch as Su Ming and Yu Xuan were dragged back into the Rune. In his anger, Dao Slave 21 took a step forward and lifted his right hand before swinging it in front of himself aloofly. Immediately, a large number of the people who had rushed out of the Rune crumbled before they could self-destruct.

　　The hundred li Rune also started trembling violently. Once Dao Slave 21 closed in on it and struck it with his palm, the starlight that erupted from his hand caused the Rune to begin collapsing again.

　　As it collapsed and Dao Slave 21 continued to attack, the hundred li Rune shrank to eighty lis, sixty lis, forty lis… Dao Slave 21’s expression was cold and aloof as he continued to destroy the Rune and slaughtered all the people who flew out from the ninth summit.

　　Dao Yuan was behind him. His face was filled with bloodthirst as he charged forward excitedly.

　　Su Ming and Yu Xuan were held by four residents of the ninth summit within the Rune, and these people were charging forward desperately, intending to send the two of them back to the ninth summit. Tears fell from their eyes as they listened to the booming sounds ringing in their ears. They knew full well what they meant. With each rumble, not only did the Rune collapse a little bit more, a number of their comrades also died.

　　When the Rune collapsed to only ten lis, the four people holding onto Su Ming and Yu Xuan let out a roar in unison and pushed Yu Xuan as well as Su Ming in the direction of the ninth summit before turning around and choosing to self-destruct. There was no hint of hesitation in their actions. As the four of them exploded at the same time, the explosion and the stirred up rumbles charged towards Dao Slave 21, who had instantly closed in on them.

　　Yet to Dao Slave 21, these four people’s explosions were nothing. He shot through without care and stretched out his hand towards Su Ming and Yu Xuan’s bodies, like a cat toying with a mouse.

　　Yet at the instant he was about to catch them, more than a hundred people flew out and charged past Su Ming and Yu Xuan’s bodies. They blocked Dao Slave 21’s path forward, while another three people caught hold of Su Ming and Yu Xuan began to swiftly drag them backwards.

　　Su Ming’s heart bled. His hoarse roars were reverberating in the air… but he could not make even a single bit of his cultivation base stir. His injuries were too grave, so grave that if he had not been in Life Cultivation Realm, he would have already died.

　　Even if his body was continuously recovering, the speed of its recovery could not match up to the rate of it being destroyed. At that moment, there were rays of starlight that were continuously destroying all signs of his life.

　　Blood continued seeping out from his wounds.

　　Yu Xuan felt the same way as he. Besides tears, only despair seemed to remain on her dazed face.

　　Su Ming could only watch these people who were shielding him and blocking Dao Slave 21’s path be instantly enveloped in starlight. There were no screams, no rumbles. There was only blood and flesh flying in the air once the starlight faded away.

　　All of them died…

　　Su Ming was not too familiar with these people. He had only saved them when he killed Si Ma Xin all those years ago and let them treat the ninth summit as their home, yet on this day, they used their lives to repay his kindness.

　　However, this so called kindness he’d showed was nothing to Su Ming, while the deeds they did to repay it were too great!

　　The three people holding onto Su Ming and Yu Xuan were weeping as they rushed away. They were already less than ten thousand feet away from the ninth summit, but even so, what could they do after they closed this distance? Under Dao Slave 21’s moderately paced execution of his divine abilities, under that power which they could not hope to stand against after Su Ming had lost his power… everything seemed to have already been set in stone and could not change.

　　However, in this situation where things could no longer change, Su Ming saw just how importantly people regarded kindness. Even if they knew it was useless, they still continued to give away their lives for him.

　　This made tears of blood flow from Su Ming’s eyes.

　　Translator’s Notes:

　　1. Solar Kalpa: Full name is Plane Kalpa’s Yang. Solar Kalpa would be after World Planes.