As soon as the three of them stepped into Black Cloud City, Zhao Haifeng saw that the street was packed with people.
The collapse of the stone tower had sent many falling stones rolling into the street. Coupled with the wailing crowd, the originally wide street seemed to have become incomparably congested.
Their cultivation bases were still far from allowing them to soar through the sky, so it was difficult for the people in the crowd to move along.
PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!
The three bone spears that had been closely following Zhao Haifeng turned into three pale-gray lightning bolts that pierced through three of the crying mortals.
The momentum of the bone spears was so strong that the three mortals were brought into the air.
“Who’s there?”
All of the civilians of Black Cloud City were drowning in extreme grief. Upon seeing three of their people getting killed, their eyes immediately turned red.
Many of them madly lunged towards Zhao Haifeng.
“Mortals…” Zhao Haifeng knitted his brows and whispered. The three bone spears swiftly flew out again and pierced through each and every person who attempted to attack them.
The bloody massacre forced the civilians to rapidly quiet down. After examining the garments of the intruders, people began to shriek, “H-hell sect disciples!”
There was a lifelike pattern knitted on each of their chests, which resembled a roaring devil.
“Get out of our way.”
Zhao Haifeng’s face was cold and indifferent. With a wave of his left hand, the three bone spears that had never fallen onto the the ground once again whizzed forward.
The citizens of Black Cloud City, who were standing in the street ahead of them, were scared to death. They all pushed their way to the sides, fighting to create a clear path for the trio.
Zhao Haifeng briefly nodded his head and stopped his massacre, then led Duan Yuan and Hu Qingwen in the direction of the Yun clan.
Inside the Yun clan…
Nie Tian hopped off of the ice-cold meteor and joined Nie Donghai, An Rong, and the others at the main gate of the Yun clan.
A few members of the Yun clan dashed past Nie Tian and ran inside. They all lost control and cried out loud as they looked at the remains of the Yun clan within the huge crater created by the meteor.
“Where’s the clanmaster?”
“The Yun clan is gone?! This can’t be happening!”
They could not believe that the Yun clan, which had stood so steadily in Black Cloud City the day before, would have been reduced to nothing but ruins overnight.
They were all unable to accept the truth in front of their eyes.
“The Yun clan is gone just like that?” The master of the An clan, An Rong, let out a sigh and shook his head. Struck by mixed feelings, he said, “In front of such a catastrophe that fell right from the heavens, clans like ours won’t able to survive. Only strong sects like the Cloudsoaring sect may be able to. The Yun clan has stood in Black Cloud City for a long time. Who would have thought that it would be wiped out by a catastrophe in an instant?”
Nie Donghai was also taken up by mixed feelings. “It’s a pity. It took me so much effort to rebuild my spiritual sea. I had even planned to sort things out with Yun Meng.”
Standing beside him, Nie Qian had a grim expression on her face, not saying a word.
Even though she had hated Yun Zhiguo, they were once husband and wife. During the past few years, she had watched as Nie Tian slowly grew up. Seeing that Nie Tian had gotten off to a great start, she had even planned to seek out justice with Yun Zhiguo and Yuan Qiuying one day with his help.
She also had never anticipated that the whole Yun clan would crumble to dust in the blink of an eye like that.
“It’s better this way,” said Nie Tian. “This has saved me the work of ferreting out those bastards from the Yun clan and paying them back.”
In his mind, once he was strong enough, he would have single-handedly entered the Yun clan, and held all those who had been involved in his aunt’s mistreatment accountable.
However, the Yun clan was destroyed before that day ever came.
At that moment, frightened shouts rang out from the street where Nie Tian and the others had come from.
“Get out of the way!”
“Those three from the Hell sect will kill without batting an eye!”
“Clear out a path for them!”
Nie Donghai and An Rong exchanged a glance. Both of their expressions became incomparably grim. “The Hell sect!”
They all knew that numerous experts from the Hell sect had surrounded Clousoaring Mountain to prevent the disciples of the Clousoaring sect from rescuing the Spiritual Treasure sect.
Generally speaking, the battles between the major sects would not involve the commoners from the various cities.
The Clousoaring sect had been besieged by the Hell sect for quite a few days. However, not a single expert from the Hell sect had entered Black Cloud City to kill people.
Now that disciples from the Hell sect had arrived in Black Cloud City, it clearly violated the unwritten rule that all sides had played by for decades.
“Who can they be?” An Rong felt deeply worried.
Nie Tian was also secretly nervous.
When he was in Green Illusion dimension, he had witnessed the power of the disciples from the Blood sect and Ghost sect. He had even battled with the witch Yu Tong on several occasions.
He was fully aware that the disciples from both the Blood sect and the Ghost sect had more battle experience than the disciples from the four sects, but he had never encountered any disciples from the Hell sect.
However, he had learned from Jiang Lingzhu, Pan Tao, and the others that disciples from the Hell sect were even more terrifying than those from the Blood sect and the Ghost sect.
During the time when Jiang Lingzhu, Pan Tao, and the other trial takers thought that the Hell sect had also entered the Green Illusion dimension and targeted the Mystic Mist sect, they all had believed that no one from the Mystic Mist sect would survive.
Including Zheng Bin!
Clearly, they thought that the disciples from the Hell sect had posed a much greater threat than the disciples from the Blood sect and the Ghost sect.
Nie Tian had a grim look on his face. “The Blood sect and the Ghost sect each have one Profound realm expert. The Hell sect on the other hand…… has two. According to my master, the current master of the Hell sect seems to be on the verge of breaking into the Profound realm. If the Hell sect alone has three Profound realm experts, then it will surpass all the other sects by a large margin, and be totally worthy of the title of number one sect in the Realm of Flame Heaven.”
At the same time, Zhao Haifeng’s voice once again rang out from the distant street. “Duan Yuan and Qing Wen, you two go take a look at that meteor. If you see a key to the Heaven Gate, you guys collect it first.”
Soon, he appeared in front of Nie Tian and the others, standing as straight as a sword, proud and arrogant.
“It’s just three juniors…!?” Looking at them, An Rong went blank for a moment. Suddenly, a sense of insult filled his heart.
Zhao Haifeng and the other two were clearly only around fifteen years old. However, they actually dared to barge into the heart of Black Cloud City and kill people everywhere with just the three of them.
What did that mean?
No one from the Hell sect had ever put Black Cloud City in their eyes, or attached any importance to An Rong, the Yun clan, or the Nie clan!
It was as if in the eyes of the Hell sect experts, three juniors were already powerful enough to do anything they wanted in Black Cloud City.
An Rong was the master of the An clan. Every commoner in the city had inwardly regarded him as the master of Black Cloud City.
The fact that the Hell sect sent three juniors on a task in the city had made him feel incredibly insulted.
Right before An Rong could lash out, Zhao Haifeng called out to his partners with a frown, “Duan Yuan! Qing Wen!”
The two of them stopped and looked back at him, curious of why he stopped them.
He narrowed his eyes, and his piercing gaze, like an ice-cold, sharp sword, landed on the back of Nie Tian’s left hand. He said, “The key on this meteorite has already been taken by him.”
Both Duan Yuan and Hu Qingwen followed his gaze and looked towards Nie Tian’s left hand.
Duan Yuan gave a cold harrumph. “Yeah, you’re right.”
Cold, gruesome air wreathed around the three pale-gray bone spears as they shot out from behind Zhao Haifeng.
The three bone spears were still dripping with blood as they flew forward.
Zhao Haifeng took a glance at Nie Tian and said in a relaxed tone, “We’ve come for the key to the Heaven Gate, and we don’t want to waste our time. We still need to find more keys in the wasteland, so…”
After a brief pause, he said to Nie Tian, “As long as you cut off your left hand and give it to us, together with the Heaven Gate key that’s branded on it, we will leave immediately, and not waste another minute in Black Cloud City.”
Nie Tian grinned. “You want me to cut off my left hand for you?”
“At least that way, you’ll get to live,” said Zhao Haifeng.
“What if I refuse?” Nie Tian countered.
“Then you’ll die,” Zhao Haifeng answered.
SHEW!
A messenger eagle suddenly swooped in and landed on An He’s shoulder.
An He quickly tore off the pile of papers that was attached to the eagle’s leg. His face abruptly turned grim after he opened the paper and took a glance at it. He said, “Clanmaster, the guards that we have deployed to the city gate have been killed.”
Glowering at Zhao Haifeng, he added, “The guest elder from the Nie clan, Wu Tao, is also dead. They all died by the hands of these three!”
“Mr. Wu!” A explosive shout escaped Nie Tian’s mouth.
In the entire Nie clan, Wu Tao was the only one besides Nie Donghai and Nie Qian, who had cared for Nie Tian.
Deep down, he had great respect for Wu Tao. He could still vividly remember that he had even specially visited Wu Tao and expressed his gratefulness before he left the Nie clan for the Cloudsoaring sect.
He never expected that Wu Tao, who had treated him so nicely, would have been killed by the three Hell sect disciples in front of him. A raging flame was instantly born in his heart. “You’ll die here!”
“Big brother Haifeng, it seems that it’s time to make a move.” Duan Yuan grew a bit impatient.
An Rong burst into a burning rage. “You dare to run amok in Black Cloud City with just the three of you! Does the Hell sect really think that we have no talents in Black Cloud City!?”
“Old man, you turned me down when I ask nicely, so I guess I’ll have to force it.” Zhao Haifeng shook his head as if he felt that their decision was very unwise. “An old man like you has spent your whole life cultivating, yet can’t even get admitted into the four sects. You never had the chance to learn real cultivation methods from the four sects, or to experience the most brutal and bloody baptism.
“None of you will pose a threat to us, even though your cultivation base is slightly higher than ours.”
After making that comment, Zhao Haifeng held out his hand, pointed at An Rong and said, “Leave him to me. You two choose whoever you would like to fight from the other two old men.”
He was clearly referring to Nie Donghai and An He. In his eyes, out of all the others, only Nie Donghai and An He could somewhat pose a threat.
As for Nie Tian, he was completely ignored by Zhao Haifeng.