Chapter 66: Judgment
Chapter 66: Judgment
Beyond the shattered iron gates, more than five hundred Ironpeak disciples stood paralyzed.
Their cultivations ranged from the very first level of the Essence Awakening Realm to level 7 and level 8.
But right now, that meant nothing.
The pillars of their sect, the elders they had revered and looked up to, were lying dead in dust.
Thud.
A Level 3 Essence Awakening disciple was the first to drop on his knees.
That single action broke the dam.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Like wheat falling before a scythe, all five hundred disciples collapsed to their knees in a massive, rippling wave.
"Please! Spare us!"
"I surrender! I will leave the sect! Just don’t kill me!"
"I just joined a week ago, I have my old mother, and two little sister to feed, please don’t kill me."
One young man was crying so hard that his entire body convulsed.
He pressed his forehead to the ground with such force that blood began to seep from the skin.
"Please don’t kill me! I’ll do anything! I’ll join your sect! I’ll be your slave! Anything!"
Desperate wails and sobbing echoed across the ruined courtyard.
Those who had previously mocked the Azure Cloud Sect were now kowtowing so hard their foreheads bled against the stone, weeping tears of terror.
Harmon, Dorris, Kory, Silas, and Amos, stood behind Rhain, their weapons still drawn, their faces grim.
Without a single prior agreement, all five of Spirit Manifestation Realm experts turned their heads.
Normally, as the Spirit Manifestation patriarchs, the decision of how to handle a defeated sect would fall entirely on their shoulders.
But not today.
Their solemn gazes locked entirely onto the dark-robed youth standing quietly amidst the rubble.
Roderick, Torin, and the hundreds of Azure Cloud and Graves family elites standing behind them did the exact same.
After Rhain killed Dorian, his authority had become unquestionable.
He was the undisputed ruler of this coalition.
Feeling their gazes, Rhain slowly stepped forward.
His dark grey irises swept over the kneeling sea of five hundred disciples.
He didn’t feel a shred of sympathy, nor did he feel any sadistic joy upon deciding the lives of these five hundred disciples.
Some of these disciples were innocent, who had perhaps not even killed an ant in their lives.
But in this brutal world of cultivation, leaving weeds at the roots was a fatal mistake.
"Anyone who had a direct relation with the Ironpeak Sect’s elders, blood relatives, personal disciples, even servants..."
Rhain’s dark eyes narrowed slightly.
"Kill them all. Leave no hidden dangers."
The words fell like a heavy guillotine blade, instantly sealing the fates of dozens of disciples kneeling in the crowd.
"As for the rest," Rhain continued, turning his gaze away from the kneeling masses, "you can decide how to deal with them. Enslave them, expell them, or cripple them, I don’t care."
The words were delivered with the casual indifference of a man deciding what to eat for dinner.
Harmon’s eyes flickered, but he gave a slow, heavy nod.
"Understood."
Harmon turned to Torin and Roderick. "Begin."
"NO! PLEASE!"
The screams erupted instantly.
Torin drew his blade. Roderick unsheathed his broadsword.
The Azure Cloud and Graves family elders fanned out across the courtyard with merciless efficiency.
They moved through the kneeling crowd like wolves through a flock of sheep.
The Ironpeak disciples were at the Essence Awakening Realm.
The elders executing judgment were at the Essence Condensation Realm.
Numbers were useless.
The scene became a slaughterhouse.
Those who were spared — the ordinary disciples with no direct ties to the leadership — pressed themselves flat against the ground, covering their heads, weeping, and praying to every god they had ever heard of that the blade would not find them next.
Rhain completely ignored the continuous sounds of begging and the sharp clashing of weapons that soon followed.
He unhurriedly stepped directly through the obliterated iron gates, entering the Ironpeak Sect.
The moment his foot crossed the threshold, the mechanical voice suddenly rang in his mind.
Ding!
[Location Sign-In detected: Ironpeak Sect — Main Entrance.]
[Sign In?]
Rhain’s brows raised in surprise.
He just wanted to take a look at Ironpeak Sect’s treasury, this was an unexpected reward.
"Yes." He confirmed.
[Location Sign-In Successful!]
[Sign-In Reward: Rare-Grade Herb — Nine-Revolution Spirit Elixir x3.]
[Item automatically sent to System Inventory.]
With a single thought, Rhain accessed his newly unlocked System Inventory and reviewed the information regarding the pill.
Nine Revolutions Spirit Elixir.
Unlike the Essence Gathering Pills or Marrow Cleansing Pills that tempered the physical body and expanded the dantian, this pill targeted something far more elusive.
Soul Power.
It was an elixir exclusively designed to strengthen a cultivator’s spiritual sense and fortify their soul.
"System. Open Map," Rhain commanded inwardly.
The translucent interface materialized at the edge of his vision.
The entire compound of the Ironpeak Sect was now added beside Azure Cloud Sect’s map.
His gaze swept over the layout.
Deep within the innermost sanctum of the sect, there was a glowing node.
Another Sign-In location.
Rhain extinguished the interface and adjusted his trajectory.
Using the Flashing Thunder Boots, he quickly bypassed the expansive pavilions and courtyards in the blink of an eye.
He arrived before a massive, fortified stone building built directly into the side of a mountain cliff.
The Ironpeak Sect’s Treasury.
Normally, this place would be guarded by at least two Essence Condensation elders.
But right now, not a single soul was there to safeguard the foundation of the sect.
They were all either dead at the gates or rotting in the Hollow Realm.
Rhain didn’t even bother looking for a key mechanism.
He simply pulled his right fist back.
BANG!
His fist slammed into the center of the fortified steel doors, blowing it off directly.
Rhain lowered his hand and stepped inside the dimly lit vault.
The moment his foot touched the stone floor, the System chimed once more.
Ding!
[Location Sign-In detected: Ironpeak Sect — Treasury.]
[Sign In?]
"Yes."
[Location Sign-In Successful!]
[Reward: Epic-Grade Artifact — Black Gold Armour.]
[Item automatically sent to System Inventory.]
Epic-Grade!
Rhain’s dark grey eyes lit up brilliantly.
With a single thought, he retrieved the item from the System Inventory.
A sleek, unimaginably light vest materialized in his hands.
It was forged from a mysterious, pitch-black metal laced with shimmering golden threads. It felt as soft as silk, yet the aura it emitted was incredibly heavy and indestructible.
New information related to Black Gold Armour crashed into his mind again.
Its defensive properties were absolutely logic-breaking. It could passively and effortlessly withstand strikes of an expert at the Spirit Manifestation Realm without breaking.
Furthermore, it could seamlessly merge with the user’s skin, becoming entirely invisible to the naked eye and untraceable by any spiritual sense untill attacked.
Rhain’s lips curled into a smile.
His Abyssal Sovereign Physique already granted him peerless offensive power and regenerative abilities.
But in the world of cultivation, unexpected traps and suicidal ambushes from higher-realm experts were always a threat.
With this Epic-Grade armor, that threat was significantly reduced.
He willed the armor onto his body.
The Black Gold Armour instantly dissolved into a stream of dark-gold light, seeping directly into his skin and binding to his flesh without adding a single ounce of weight.
Having secured the Epic-Grade reward, Rhain finally raised his head and swept his dark grey irises over the interior of the Ironpeak treasury.
Rows upon rows of heavy wooden chests, racks of Uncommon-Grade weapons, and hundreds of jade bottles filled with pills stacked to the ceiling.
This was the accumulated wealth of the strongest sect in Greymist Town, hoarded over decades of brutal expansion and robbery.
But Rhain’s expression remained utterly unbothered.
After stripping the False Hollow Realm bare of its hundreds of Rare-Grade and Epic-Grade treasures, this mundane sect treasury looked like nothing more than a beggar’s loose change.
Footsteps echoed from the stone corridor outside.
A few Azure Cloud elders hurriedly stepped through the obliterated steel doors.
Their eyes swept over the massive piles of resources, and their faces were filled with excited expressions.
Rhain turned around, and said flatly, "Take Everything."
The elders jolted, looking at Rhain with reverence.
"But separate any Rare-Grade pills and bring them to me. Everything else here is completely useless to me.
"Understood, Rhain! We will gather every last pill for you!"
They nodded their heads quickly.
Rhain didn’t look back.
He stepped out of the dim treasury and walked back towards the gates of the Ironpeak Sect.
The air was filled with the heavy stench of blood.
The desperate screams and begging had completely ceased.
Corpses of those who possessed direct ties to the Ironpeak elders littered the stone pavement, their blood pooling into the cracks of the ruined gate.
The surviving disciples knelt in trembling silence, their foreheads pressed firmly against the dirt, not daring to even breathe loudly.
Just a day ago, the Ironpeak Sect had been the undisputed overlord of Greymist Town.
Their disciples had walked the streets with absolute arrogance.
Their elders had dictated the fate of the entire region.
Now?
In the span of a single afternoon, the strongest sect had been wiped from the face of the world.
Rhain calmly walked to Harmon through this carnage.
They had just finished suppressing the last remnants of resistance.
Seeing Rhain approach, they instinctively straightened their backs.
"We are finished here." Harmon stated, his voice carrying a complex emotion of exhaustion, profound relief, and awe.
Decades of fear and suppression had been washed away in a single river of blood.
Rhain gave a slight nod.
"Then we shall move to the Barlowe family next."