The Revenge of the Reborn Supreme Sovereign

Sky Lantern!

In the history of Huaxia, this was a form of torture so infamous it could drain the color from a person’s face.

With the fall of the Great Qing and the rise of a new society, the so-called Sky Lantern torture seemed to have long vanished into the torrents of history.

However, when Hua Xiaotian’s lighter flew from his hand and landed precisely on the feet of Tanaka Nobuo, who was tied upside down to a wooden post... FWOOSH—! The flame ignited! The Sky Lantern was lit!

The long, oil-soaked silk strips slowly erupted into a scorching blaze!

From top to bottom, the roughly 1.7-meter-tall Tanaka Nobuo began to suffer an earthly torment worse than death. Amidst the sizzling flames, Tanaka Nobuo let out hysterical, heart-rending screams.

His powerful Divine Ninja Life Force only prolonged the agony, allowing him to feel his feet being completely consumed by the encroaching flames!

And this was merely the beginning.

"Old Hua, your expression tells me you find this rather cruel?" Qin Fan remarked with a calm and detached air as he watched the spectacle unfold, suddenly turning his head toward Hua Xiaotian.

Facing Qin Fan’s smiling question, Hua Xiaotian first shook his head, then let out a breath. "The method is indeed cruel, but I’m not about to feel any sympathy!"

"Do you know what his mission in the Jingguo Society was? Guardian of the Spiritual Tablets! Those war fiends are his heroes, his faith! He claims those monsters weren’t wrong. In his view, the reason Huaxia was once plunged into misery and its people left destitute wasn’t the fault of those war fiends! Rather, it was because the people of Huaxia shouldn’t have resisted their Iron Cavalry. They should have obediently submitted and completed the Co-Prosperity Sphere! Haha..." Qin Fan said, shaking his head mockingly as he glanced at the sizzling body of Tanaka Nobuo, which now emitted an acrid, scorching stench. "Now do you still find it cruel?"

"What?!" Hua Xiaotian’s eyes flew wide open, his face flushing red as he roared.

"Now, do you still find it cruel?" Qin Fan repeated.

"That bastard! That damned bastard! Consigning him to the eighteen levels of Hell wouldn’t be enough to quell my rage! Dammit, dammit!" By the end, Hua Xiaotian was clenching his fists tightly, gritting his teeth in fury.

His position as the Director of the Guardian Institute was proof enough of the depth of Old Hua’s fervent patriotism. Faced with such extremist rhetoric, not just the Director of the Guardian Institute, but any ordinary citizen of Huaxia would find it unbearable.

"He has to die. It’s just a matter of how! Lighting a Sky Lantern for him seems too lenient, if you ask me!" Qin Fan said with a casual laugh.

Then, his Divine Sense stirred. He lowered his head, a wicked smile spreading across his face.

"Master Qin, is someone approaching?" Hua Xiaotian asked, his brow furrowed. His senses had grown much sharper since he had entered the Gang Realm.

"That’s right! With this old tortoise’s Sky Lantern lit, those armed devils outside can’t sit still any longer. Get ready to slaughter! In this battle, we kill any man we see and slay any god we find! I’ll cut a path with you all the way to Mount Fuji! That is the final battlefield! The Onmyoji and this old bastard we’ve dealt with so far are nothing more than appetizers!" Qin Fan said with a faint smile.

"Yes, Master Qin! Wherever your blade points, Hua Xiaotian pledges to follow and serve!" Hua Xiaotian declared, his gaze firm as he looked at Qin Fan’s profile, illuminated by the firelight.

From that moment on, he no longer feared death, nor did he question the feasibility of the plan.

Qin Fan’s heaven-defying power had shown him a level of madness he’d never dared to imagine before. A Divine Ninja of Japan, a legend in his own right, was being tortured with a Sky Lantern right before his eyes. What in the world could possibly stand in his way?

It had to be said, at that moment, watching that profile illuminated by the firelight, Hua Xiaotian felt a sense of admiration begin to swell within him. Indeed, the man lauded as the premier Grandmaster of the Gang Realm in Huaxia’s Martial Arts World felt a profoundly dissonant sense of admiration for this young man who was more than twenty-four years his junior!

「At the same time, outside the Jingguo Society」

The commander in charge of the containment operation furrowed his brow tightly. The hands holding his binoculars were trembling faintly, almost imperceptibly.

Through the lens, he clearly saw Tanaka Nobuo tied to the wooden post! However, he had no idea that this was the face of the fabled Divine Ninja Guardian of the Worship Room!

"Major Inoshita, what’s wrong?" his adjutant, a man clearly his senior, asked with a confused frown, noticing his commander’s troubled expression.

"Yonezawa, take a look!" Swallowing hard, Major Inoshita passed the binoculars to his adjutant.

"Nani?" Yonezawa took the binoculars, lifting them to his eyes in puzzlement.

"Baka! A Sky Lantern, that’s a Sky Lantern! It’s that cruel Huaxian torture, the Sky Lantern! Major Inoshita, that man isn’t one of the two Butchers! He must be someone from inside the Jingguo Society! Baka, baka! The Onmyoji failed! The Jingguo Society has fallen! To use a torture like this, those two bastards must be from Huaxia! They have to be!" the adjutant roared, his voice a mixture of shock and rage after seeing the image in the binoculars.

At his adjutant’s words, Inoshita shuddered violently. He finally understood the source of his earlier, foreboding feeling.

The victim wasn’t one of the Butchers, and the method was a cruel torture from Huaxia. Combined with the merciless, demonic slaughter inside the Jingguo Society, where the invaders killed everyone on sight without a shred of humanity... these two bastards were from Huaxia! They had to be!

RUMBLE—!

But before Inoshita could respond, a deafening roar ripped through the air, as if something massive had exploded.

The next moment, flames shot toward the sky. Acrid black smoke billowed rapidly from within the Jingguo Society!

"Baka, baka, bakayaro! Major Inoshita, the Jingguo Society is on fire! It’s out of control! Those two Huaxian bastards are trying to burn it down! They must be trying to burn down the Jingguo Society! Bakayaro!" Adjutant Yonezawa screamed, his hands trembling as he held the binoculars, his face turning deathly pale.

The fire, which had erupted and spread in the blink of an eye, sent him into a complete panic. If the Jingguo Society was destroyed, what would that mean? He dared not imagine the chaos that would engulf all of Japan.

"Baka!"

Inoshita shoved his adjutant aside and frantically snatched the binoculars back. But when he saw the raging inferno through the lens, his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

I’m the commander of this containment operation, and I’m just going to stand here and watch the Jingguo Society burn to the ground? No! If that happens, the only path left for me is to commit seppuku to atone for my failure! But I’d much rather die on the battlefield than do that!

"Major Inoshita! We can’t wait! We can’t wait any longer! The Onmyoji mission has definitely failed! Even if it means walking into our deaths, we cannot wait a second longer!" the adjutant cried out, seeing the savage, crazed look flash in his commander’s eyes.

He’s right. We can’t wait any longer!

Leaping down from the roof of the armored vehicle, Major Inoshita drew his sword, raised it to the sky, and roared with hysterical fury.

"Protect the Jingguo Society! Attack!"