Divine Emperor of Death

"I'm glad you came by, Divine Emperor of Death. May the phoenix ancestors bless you."

Great Ancestor Zenflame uttered with delight before he gestured to Davis to enter the chamber.

Davis nodded and walked together with Great Ancestor Zenflame, heaving a sigh.

"Have you not gone back to the Fire Phoenix Clan yet?"

"How can I go back when we're deemed traitors there?" Great Ancestor Zenflame wryly shook his head, "Although they say our punishments will be lightened in the wake of the Candidacy and our past achievements that founded the Fire Phoenix Clan and made it prosper, I don't want to be a prisoner in my own home. Besides, you know how it is with Reselius, the current ruling Ancestor and the mastermind of the entire fiasco so far."

He chuckled, causing Davis's lips to curl.

It was true that Ancestor Reselius Zenflame was his main target. Such a person was already deep in his ways that there was little possibility he could be changed, not that he was interested in leaving him alive, but to Great Ancestor Zenflame, it would be great if Ancestor Reselius Zenflame changed in his ways, but both he and Great Ancestor Zenflame didn't see that happening.

The only choice left was to kill him.

Davis entered the chamber and saw the two beauties seated inside. They exuded a mature charm that would make most men's throats go dry.

"You're finally here, Divine Emperor of Death."

"I was afraid you wouldn't show your face. Is Shirley doing fine?"

"Fairy Hirona. Fairy Sierra."

The two charming ladies cupped their hands towards him, causing him to return the gesture with a smile.

"Shirley is doing good. In fact, Zahara also became a King-Tier Immortal King Beast."

"…!"

Davis smiled and took his seat comfortably, but the three of them remained standing like they were struck by lightning.

They came out of their reverie but still looked at him like they were looking at a ghost, wondering how he could say that as though it was a common occurrence.

"That's great. With this, we have five inheritors whose prowess is off the charts. Our chances of winning the Candidacy have significantly risen."

"Indeed."

"We will win."

Great Ancestor Zenflame, Fairy Hirona, and Fairy Sierra clenched their fists, but Davis pursed his lips.

"I'm sure you called me here with the intent to spare the Fire Phoenix Clan."

The moment he brought up the topic, the three inheritors lacked words to convey.

Great Ancestor Zenflame let out a sigh as he sat opposite Davis while the other two also sat by his side. As for Schleya, she chose to wait outside.

"Indeed. We have heard about your achievements in the secret realm, that you're capable of battling Mid-Level Immortal Emperor Stage cultivators or even above. We understand well that we are at your mercy, and my Fire Phoenix Clan is also at your mercy, so I could do nothing but beg for mercy in its stead."

"You do realize I have made up my mind the moment Shirley was about to be fooled into signing a slave contract, no?"

Davis's voice turned cold.

The chilling feeling he emanated caused the hearts of the inheritors to shudder, but Great Ancestor Zenflame pressed forward.

"We do realize. However, it is our sincerest wish that you spare the innocents of the Fire Phoenix Clan. As for the higher-ups, we do not wish to involve ourselves with them anymore, even though it's saddening to see them disappear from the face of this world."

Davis stood up, "If that's all, then I'll take my leave."

"Divine Emperor of Death…"

"Please state your conditions."

Great Ancestor Zenflame uttered while Fairy Sierra spoke in an urgent voice.

However, Davis paid no heed and walked away from the chamber, leaving them hanging as they didn't hear his answer. They could only look at each other's expressions, wondering if he would be magnanimous and forgiving enough not to massacre the Fire Phoenix Clan.

After leaving the Starlight Jade Wolf Clan, Davis didn't head back to the Aurora Cloud Gate. Instead, he went south.

"Are you sure it's in this direction?"

"Yes, a little towards the east, and we'll find the newly established hidden branch."

"Alright."

Davis moved east a bit more, and he finally sensed an anomaly hidden within a valley of a mountain range.

In a dimly lit underground chamber, hidden away from the prying eyes of the world, there existed a hidden branch of a particular faction. The air was thick with an eerie sensation and the faint aroma of burning incense. Torchlight cast eerie, flickering shadows against the cold stone walls, revealing runic symbols etched into the newly cast masonry.

The chamber's silence was suddenly shattered as two figures, one in a purple robe and the other in crimson, abruptly burst through the heavy, ornate wooden doors.

"Who goes there!?"

A black-robed man abruptly opened his eyes. He was guarding another door that appeared to connect further back.

However, he couldn't even speak anything else as his head slid from his neck and rolled on the floor.

The man in the purple robe moved with uncanny grace, his every step whisper-quiet as if he were a phantom. He brandished the sinister black-white scythe he held in his hand, splashing the blood onto the stone wall by the side before he proceeded toward the next room.

"You-!"

"Emperor of Death!"

Many black-robed cultivators who were at the Mid Stage Immortal King Stage saw Davis and tried to run or hide. However, the moment they came into his gaze, they dropped to the ground like flies, slithering and struggling like maggots as a huge pressure fell on them.

"Malevolent Blade Hall… meet your end…"

A line of space was ripped all the way to the corners of the room as Davis cleaved apart many Immortal King Stage assassins in one fell swoop.

Brain matter seeped out along with blood as parts of their head were cut in two. The laceration was at different angles, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, but they all targeted the soul, which extinguished their lives in an instant.

"Die!~"

Abruptly, two old men appeared from both his sides as they slashed down with their blades.

Their incredible darkness energy would make any Immortal King Stage cultivator lose his breath and wait for his eventual demise. But Davis merely turned his head and cast a look at one of them, making that assassin feel that he was too slow and his assassination attempt was going to fail.

However, clenching his fist harder and stabbing deeper, he imagined that he could buy time for the other fellow elder to assassinate the Emperor of Death.

But before he could even realize what was going on, he saw that there was a crimson blade pierced into his head from the side, his brain split in half.

The other elder also had his perception shaken before he could no longer see anything.

The both of them fell, smashing face-first onto the floor before the curved crimson blades on them abruptly shuddered and flew back to a crimson-robed woman.

"…"

Davis's gaze flashed as he didn't even sense Schleya's killing intent.

She had suppressed it to a degree that not even the perceptive Malevolent Blade Hall's elders were able to sense her killing strike. Of course, they were afraid and fully focused on the threat that was him, but scoring an easy kill against two elders just like that was a feat that was impossible to even the likes of the Starlight Jade Wolf King.

These elders even seemed to be at the Level Three Immortal Emperor Stage.

Nonetheless, Davis and Schleya kept crossing one chamber after another.

Blood sprayed in gruesome arcs, staining the newly paved stone floor in the pathways and room. The room was filled with the cacophony of relentless carnage and anguished cries as the assassins fought for their lives, only to be cut down by a man and woman who were not even at the Immortal Emperor Stage.

With over a thousand kills, the air grew heavier with the stench of death, allowing Davis to absorb all the soul essences as well as absorb some insights into Death Laws. He took his sweet time killing his way out of another secret exit path, only to see a few hundred assassins could've escaped as he sensed many trails of darkness energy even though they were supposed to be hidden well.

Needless to say, he didn't care as he was going to hunt down a few more branches and send a message to the Soulsteal Pearl Temple, Oracular Reaver Abode, and the Malevolent Blade Hall that they shouldn't have chosen to be on the wrong side of him.