Ba Yue turned her head to look elsewhere. He Xiao had been captured and taken away. A powerful Immortal had not even been able to resist. The human civilization that Lu Yin came from turned out to be far stronger than they had imagined.

What would the future hold?

Hong Xia spoke in a low voice. “Jiu Wen, I’ll give you one last chance. What has already happened can be treated as if it never occurred. Crimson Starshade will remain Crimson Starshade. I can even leave that human civilization alone, as long as you bring Bing Xu and the others back.”

The fact that Bing Xu and the others had been captured meant that they intended to break his Twelvefold Path of Dispassion.

This attack had been planned for so long that, even though Hong Xia was extremely confident in his own strength, he was still uneasy.

If he were not such a person, he would have never betrayed the Second Rampart.

Not only that, but among everything else, there was that nuisance named Lu Yin. Like Hong Xia, Lu Yin had also joined Obscura, which made it difficult to attack his civilization. It was infuriating.

Throughout the years, Hong Xia had personally heard Lu Yin talk in Vestigium. The young man argued shamelessly and stubbornly. Hong Xia had heard that Lu Yin’s civilization had completed his task and that he was personally valued by Ba Se and favored by the Keeper of Balance, as they intended to use him to deal with the Plume Immortals.

Hong Xia was all too aware of the feud that existed between the Plume Immortals and Obscura. If Obscura was truly forced to abandon one of them, they might actually choose to abandon Hong Xia instead of Lu Yin.

He was an enormous obstacle.

Fortunately, Lu Yin was similarly disallowed from making any moves against Hong Xia, though he also did not care if Lu Yin dared to break that rule. The brat was completely incapable of harming Hong Xia. No, what he cared about was Lu Yin’s endless shamelessness. No one knew what that brat might do.

One inside the Blood Tower, the other outside, Jiu Wen and Hong Xia stared at each other in silence.

To the side, Xi Shangfeng was equally calm. He was a ruthless man who had forced himself to endure extreme pain. As a result, he was able to face life and death with equanimity, unlike Bing Xu.

Xi Shangfeng’s Path of Dispassion had been mostly directed towards himself.

Hong Xia’s attention shifted past Jiu Wen to land on Xi Shangfeng as he silently calculated.

Of his Twelvefold Path of Dispassion, three anchors had been taken away, and Green Lotus was another one. That meant that Hong Xia’s opponents could break four of his anchors. At the same time, the fate of the Blood Tower and Xi Shangfeng lay in Jiu Wen’s hands, which meant that Jiu Wen could break two anchors at any time. Half of Hong Xia’s anchors were under his enemies’ control.

If they could break even one more anchor, he would be in trouble.

Fortunately, Ji He had not been taken away.

“What do the ancient Nine Ramparts have to do with you? Who did you even meet back then? Did you meet Hong Shuang? Did you meet those Elevenfold Crimsons? At most, you met your master. The Second Rampart’s other peak powerhouses had nothing to do with you. Their deaths had nothing to do with you. My betrayal of the Second Rampart has even less to do with you.

“Look at what’s beneath your feet! This is the Second Rampart! This is Crimson Starshade!

“I am the one who gave them a path to live! Do you really think that the Nine Ramparts could have won if I hadn’t betrayed them? Absurd! I also reached this stage through sheer willpower. If I were certain that the Nine Ramparts would win, why would I have betrayed them?

“I will tell you this right now: the Nine Ramparts were destined to lose. I wasn’t betraying them—I was obtaining a chance for Crimson Starshade to survive. If not, Crimson Starshade would have been erased from the cosmos long ago.

“And that bait-civilization—if not for me, they would have also been destroyed. How could there have ever been a Nine Odysseys Megaverse? How could there ever have been a Lu Yin? None of that would have ever existed!

“Jiu Wen, see the facts clearly: I gave everyone a chance to live. I gave humanity a chance to continue. I don’t care about legacy, and yet this outcome is still something that I provided.”

Mockery filled Jiu Wen’s eyes. While he said nothing, his gaze infuriated Hong Xia. He could not accept the way that Jiu Wen was looking at him. It was not him looking at a traitor, but rather something even worse. For so many years, Jiu Wen had been Hong Xia’s dog, and he had been the one who allowed Jiu Wen to grow step by step.

“If not for me, you would have died long ago. What right do you have to betray me? You are the traitor! I gave Crimson Starshade a chance to continue. What have you given?

“Go ask the people below whether they feel it’s better to live or to die. Ask them if I gave them life. Go ask them, Jiu Wen.”

Jiu Wen just closed his eyes in response. Hong Xia stared at the man. “Do you think that sitting in the Blood Tower leaves me with no options? I can still have someone else act in my stead and destroy all of Crimson Starshade.”

As he spoke, he raised his hand and clenched all five fingers.

Ba Yue was grabbed from inside the Sect of Dispassion and pulled out. Her movement was completely beyond her control. She did not even dare to resist. Before Hong Xia, she was unqualified.

She slammed against the side of the Blood Tower, her back pressed against multiple layers of human skin. The air near the tower reeked with a choking stench of blood.

Hong Xia faced the woman with a cold gaze that seemed able to freeze space itself. “Seize the sequence strings. Reset this megaverse.”

Jiu Wen’s eyes snapped open, and he stared at Ba Yue.

She was staring blankly at Hong Xia. Mad! Ancestor Hong Xia has gone mad! He truly means to destroy Crimson Starshade.

Hong Xia’s gaze swept past Ba Yue and back to Jiu Wen. A cruel sneer twisted the man’s lips. “See? Destroying a megaverse is simple. Do I even need to personally act?”

As he spoke, Ba Yue was crushed by even greater pressure, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Seize the sequence strings.”

She coughed, raised a hand, and grasped at the void. The megaverse caved inward as she seized the sequence strings with one hand.

Hong Xia stared at Jiu Wen. “Come out, or else Crimson Starshade will become history.”

Far away, in the watery prison within Baiquan Mountain, Rang Yu cackled. “So good! Splendid, truly splendid! Hahahaha! Hong Xia, go on, destroy it! Destroy everything! Hahahaha!”

Ji He stared at Ba Yue’s hand. Destroy the megaverse? Turn Crimson Starshade into history? No.

He may not care if those people lived or died, but if Crimson Starshade disappeared, what would he do? Wander about the Aevum Inch? Live among non-humans? Endure with only Ancestor Hong Xia at his side? No, absolutely not. “Master, this-”

“Shut up!” Hong Xia barked, his eyes still locked on Jiu Wen.

Ba Yue trembled. If she exerted just a bit of force, she could snap the sequence strings and reset the entire megaverse. She had never imagined that the fate of her own megaverse would ultimately end up in her hands.

Down below, one figure after another rose into the sky, including Chu Songyun and other Sixfold Crimsons. “We beg Ancestor for mercy.”

“We beg Ancestor to grant us a way to live.”

“We beg Ancestor...”

Hong Xia did not care about any of that. He focused solely on Jiu Wen.

Finally, the man spoke. “You... will you truly destroy this megaverse?”

Hong Xia stared at Jiu Wen. “Do you think I care about it?”

“You don’t care, I am well aware of that. After all, that’s exactly what you yourself once said to the Plume Immortals and to Obscura.”

Hong Xia’s pupils shrank. “What do you know?”

Jiu Wen looked down. He saw the Sixfold Crimsons and countless other cultivators scattered across the universe. He saw the nervousness, panic, anxiety, and despair that filled their eyes.

“Back then, there were just as many people watching, weren’t there? And yet you asked Obscura to destroy the entire Crimson Starshade Civilization.”

Those words caused Ba Yue to shudder. She stared at Hong Xia in horror.

Chu Songyun and the others also heard Jiu Wen.

Ji He was shaken. This was not something that he had been aware of. He had only known that Hong Xia had betrayed the Second Rampart, but he had never known any of the details.

Hong Xia stared at Jiu Wen, his face contorting. “How do you know that?”

Jiu Wen laughed. It was an utterly mocking sound. “You still want to claim that it was you who gave Crimson Starshade a chance to continue? Hong Xia, how do you have the boldness to say such a thing? What a joke! A member of Crimson Starshade begged an enemy to destroy his own civilization. The reason why the people of this megaverse were able to survive was not because of you, but precisely because of our enemy. How ridiculous!”

Hong Xia roared, “Who told you?”

Jiu Wen roared with laughter. “I know that you don’t care about Crimson Starshade, and yet you care very much about Crimson Starshade. The reason why Crimson Starshade persisted was not because of our enemy’s mercy, but rather because our enemy placed restrictions upon you! You wanted to destroy Crimson Starshade and keep the other human civilization to use them to cultivate your Twelvefold Path of Dispassion, but Obscura preserved Crimson Starshade and destroyed the other human civilizations. Why do you think that is, Hong Xia?

“It’s because you were too thorough in your betrayal of the Second Rampart! Your betrayal was so grave that not even Obscura could ignore it, and so you were betrayed in turn. Obscura did not grant your request, but instead imposed even more restrictions upon you. They destroyed the other human civilizations so that you would have nowhere to run and be forced to remain in Crimson Starshade. That is the fate of a traitor!”

“Who told you?” Hong Xia screamed. Someone was plotting against him. It suddenly made sense that Jiu Wen had betrayed him.

In truth, if one listened to Hong Xia’s account of history, it was true that he had betrayed the Second Rampart, and it was also true that Crimson Starshade had only survived because of his protection. Thus, Jiu Wen should not have been this determined to betray Hong Xia. Even if they died together, the only ones to be harmed would be humanity itself.

Even so, Jiu Wen had gone through with it.

That was because someone had told Jiu Wen about this matter, and that had allowed Jiu Wen to see Hong Xia clearly. He knew that Hong Xia truly did not care about humanity at all.

In particular, after Obscura discovered the existence of the Three Megaverses, Jiu Wen had known that, the moment another human civilization appeared, Crimson Starshade would no longer hold any value to Hong Xia. He would be free to abandon them at any time, while that other human civilization would be dragged into the abyss by Hong Xia.

That was why Jiu Wen had been so determined to deal with Hong Xia. Sometimes the most terrifying opponent was not an enemy, but rather a traitor. Traitors had even fewer lines that they would not cross. Jiu Wen could not entrust humanity’s future to Hong Xia. If the man had another breakthrough, there would truly be no one who could stop whatever he might do.

In Hong Xia’s eyes, the root of everything lay with the being who had told Jiu Wen about that betrayal. He glared at Jiu Wen. “Who told you? Who is plotting against me? They are plotting against all of humanity!”

Jiu Wen sighed. “I understand that, but I don’t know who it is.”

Hong Xia had schemed against Hong Shuang, while Jiu Wen joined hands with Green Lotus to scheme against Hong Xia. Even so, behind everything, there was still a hidden hand controlling everything. No one knew who it might be.

If Jiu Wen had not revealed what Hong Xia had once said, the man might have never even known that someone was plotting against him. This was the true ambush.

Hong Xia casually flung Ba Yue aside. That threat was no longer useful. He could not truly destroy Crimson Starshade, because as soon as Crimson Starshade was destroyed, Hong Xia’s Twelvefold Path of Dispassion would completely die.

After all, even if Bing Xu and the others had been taken away by Lu Yin, only several anchors of Hong Xia’s the Path of Dispassion would be broken.

The man also understood just how strong the Three Megaverses were; it was simply impossible for Hong Xia to use them to cultivate his Path of Dispassion.

Crimson Starshade was his only hope of recovery, though even that hope would take a long time to come to fruition.

Ba Yue panted, her face deathly pale. She could not stay here. At this moment, there were only two Immortals in the entire Crimson Starshade Civilization who could be of use: herself and Ji He. Ji He was Hong Xia’s disciple and would be fine, but Ba Yue had no confidence in her own safety.

She had to find a way to escape.