"Ugkk...ghh..."
The senior brother was choking on his own blood and own regret.
If he knew these people were the Divine Emperor of Death's women, he wouldn't have. played with them but killed them on the spot. They had received orders from the sect to kill the Anarchic Divergent as long as they were sure they could absolutely kill him. Otherwise, they were told not to engage for their own safety.
Now, he knew they weren't a match for these women, so he regretted being full of himself.
"The immortal or transcendent are both quite undying in another perspective... no matter how their bodies are badly injured, as long as their souls don't collapse, they won't die..."
Isabella sighed lightly, "Make no mistake. If you are uncooperative, we will kill you."
The senior brother instantly sent a soul transmission, but it was deflected.
"You are unworthy of using your soul to talk with me."
Isabella coldly uttered, "Talk using your mouth or die."
The senior brother literally coughed up more blood. He wanted to talk, but he couldn't. The celestial goddess in front of him now appeared like she was the devil. She simply had no mercy.
*Whoosh!~*
At this moment, more women appeared in the scene.
There were two women and one man with them who was unconscious. They were
clad in the same brown robe the geniuses from the Towering Earth Firmament Sect.
wore.
"What's wrong, big sister Isabella?"
Shirley landed beside Isabella, "I neutralized them since they were suspiciously maintaining their distance in the pathway. They even looked like they were hiding while waiting for something. Were they bandits, after all?"
She panned her gaze and noticed the five men whose limbs were missing and their bodies crushed except their heads. An unamused smile ran across her lips as she knew Isabella wasn't the one to be so heavy-handed without a reason.
She guessed they must have courted death.
Isabella informed her of the happenings and Shirley understood.
Fortunately, this gave enough time for the senior brother to actually talk after spitting mouthfuls of blood.
"Don't.... kill... me. I will do whatever you say... the spirits... they have all been killed and captured by other major powers... we only came here three months ago..."
"Three months..."
Isabella's eyes narrowed, "How many groups have you dealt with here?"
She raised her hand and collected their rings scattered across the ground. She forcefully cut off their connection, causing their souls to shudder heavily as they suffered a backlash.
She injected her soul sense inside and saw an extreme amount of resources inside, at least twenty percent of what they plundered in the border town.
"I don't know... maybe around sixty... we had to let some go because they had Kingly Sovereigns in the group... as for Empyreal Sovereigns, we didn't bother to offend them... as it would be a waste of time and energy... ugkkk."
The senior brother spat out more blood. The puddle of blood before his head had many pieces of his organs, making it a gruesome scene as the scent of iron filled the air badly.
"I see. We'll take the rings then. As for you, let's see if you will survive after offending so many groups of geniuses. What's your name?"
The senior brother's eyes turned bloodshot, his heart stricken with fear as it tried to pound within its crushed state while his soul surged with intense anger.
"Daiton...!"
He roared as though indicating that she should remember his name.
Isabella merely smiled before she turned around and left with the others. They didn't go down but followed the path of this valley that was much easier to traverse since it had many splitting pathways that led to other areas. With the map found in Daiton's spatial ring, they felt like their journey was considerably shortened.
Clearly, he or his fellow cultivators had nearly mapped out these mountains by staying here for three months and choosing to rob whoever came this way, whether it be towards the other areas or towards the town.
After making some distance, Isabella used a messaging talisman to contact some random in the town and told them about the fallen members of the Towering Earth Firmament before crushing it.
"Woah, elder sister is ruthless Shirley giggled.
"I learned it from my long-lost subordinate~" Isabella shot back, and they laughed together, remembering the old times while the others were clueless.
Nonetheless, they finally crossed the path where the long crevice that led downward ended.
Here, they were met with two pathways. They looked at the map and saw it led to more pathways the further they went. Some were actually dead ends- no, settlements that earthen spirits used to live in. There were tribes like in any other spirit tribe, but all of them were killed or captured.
"Poor spirits... I hope they're fine..." Aila sadly uttered.
"Even spirits capture other spirits since they are highly nutritious to them..." Shirley shook her head, "The spirits in our galaxy wouldn't protect these wild tribes. They are resources for them. In one way, the world of spirits is much more crueler than us humans..."
"..." Aila didn't know what to say.
"Don't worry. We won't harm them as long as they don't harm us. We don't harm aboriginals. This place belongs to them." Isabella comforted her.
"No... I understand we need to be pragmatic about obtaining resources, so a bit of conflict couldn't be avoided with the aboriginals." Aila clenched her fists.
Isabella couldn't help but smile, "A bit of conflict would happen, but it shouldn't reach a point where we start considering genocide unless absolutely necessary. Fortunately, I will have more patience in dealing with them than dealing with those who have leering eyes and wicked intentions."
"That's right-" Shirley also agreed.
As they talked, they finally made it to a point where there was a dead end. However, there was a secret cave here that they needed to traverse. It was pointed out in the 'treasure map' they obtained in the town and also on Daiton's map. Evidently, some people have already traversed this path.
This path is connected to a newly found region.
Only after reaching this region would they need to find a new secret pathway that was recorded on the 'treasure map' and reach there first.
They were sure that many heavenly resources were awaiting them.
Nonetheless, after entering the cave, they sensed a vast amount of earth energy, exciting Isabella and Bylai. The density of the earthen heaven and earth energy here was enough to nurture Empyreans. As they crossed this dark yet wide underground space, Niera lit up the area with her staff.
It was called the Blazing Sun Staff.
As soon as the underground space lit up like it was receiving sunlight, the entirety of the cave could be seen. It had a long and winding path. As they traversed it cautiously, they could see many marks of battle, one that still held the remnant energy of various geniuses battling Earth Spirits, their spirit energy actually in the range of Level One or Level Two Empyrean Spirit Stage.
There were adversities that only an Empyrean Sovereign could battle, and they had passed through this space, meaning that they were actually strong. Isabella and Shirley were excited at the prospect of battling these people. There weren't many Empyreal Monarchs back then in the Astral Forgeheart Minor Realm since the quota demanded only five of them appear, but for this secret realm, there was no quota. All Immortal Emperors and Sovereigns could enter. Hence, there were hundreds and thousands of geniuses here and the number of supreme geniuses also wasn't limited.
*Crack~*
Abruptly, the sound of a rock shattering could be heard, causing the group to come to a halt.