Chapter 320: Thanks for the Delivery from Afar, the Gift Is Heavy but the Sentiment Is Light

"I'm getting sick of this slaughter."

"The Tai Sui God's speed still isn't fast enough. If it were just a little quicker, I could be much more efficient in wiping out these families."

Qi Suian wasn't disgusted by the brutality of the slaughter, but by the travel time between the various Mage Families.

'I'll have to add a speed module for the Tai Sui God in the next slot,' Qi Suian mused. 'Getting around is critical.'

He wasn't satisfied with its current speed for simple travel, let alone for escaping.

By rushing, and using a combination of the Polyform Great Hand Seal and bombardments from his strategic missile system, Qi Suian managed to wipe them all out in a single night.

The rewards, however, were immense. He had now secured the resources for two breakthroughs for the Tai Sui God, as well as for the Middle-Grade Spiritual Root needed for its Abyssal Form.

It would just take some time to process and assimilate them.

Once that was done, he rushed back to the Taiping Heavenly King Army to conduct a bloody purge and consolidate control over its members.

The goal was to prevent news from leaking, which might cost him a portion of the resources.

By the time these matters were handled, it was already nearing dusk.

Qi Suian was either killing someone or on his way to kill someone. It was a good thing the Tai Sui God could handle things automatically; otherwise, maintaining such a high-intensity slaughter would have been a real hassle for him.

After ten-odd hours of killing, he'd probably just be tempted to flatten everything with an ICBM.

It was all just too much trouble.

When he finally took a moment to rest, the generals who had been colluding with the Mage Families suddenly became paragons of "loyalty."

They had never imagined that this Taiping Celestial King would dare to engage in such a reckless slaughter.

He hadn't even spared the corpses. Now, they were all as silent as cicadas in winter, terrified of being devoured alive by Qi Suian.

Qi Suian himself didn't eat people, but Fei did.

It had even created over a thousand zombies in the process, which were now wandering outside Qi Suian's command tent.

To maintain stability, he hadn't recalled Fei, instead letting it lie coiled outside his tent.

After merging with the Mad Cathedral, Fei's body had become enormous.

Normally, Qi Suian wouldn't undo the fusion unless he needed to use the Mad Cathedral as a petri dish.

This was mainly because after the fusion, the Abyssal Virus it cultivated tended to be the slaughtering type, whereas Qi Suian wanted a functional type.

Using the Mad Cathedral by itself as a petri dish yielded a higher success rate.

'In a chaotic era, you really have to be ruthless to get a foothold.'

"I take a break from killing for a little while, and these people dare to undermine me," Qi Suian muttered cursingly. "But look, I slaughter until the blood flows like a river, and suddenly they're all my most loyal subjects."

Qi Suian shook his head. 'These people truly fear might, not right.'

'I gave them the best food and drink, hadn't even laid a finger on them, and they were already planning their lives after betraying me.'

'If they can betray you once, they'll betray you again and again.'

'So their submission, forced by violence, isn't a problem at all.'

"Sigh, why can't there ever be a world with decent people?"

"These last two Doomsday Worlds... it's like a vow to not stop until all the blood has been shed." Qi Suian felt helpless about it.

Before the Sacred Artifact World, he had engaged in massacres, but rarely on such a grand scale.

Now, wiping out entire families had become commonplace.

He then glanced at the number of survivors. There had been losses—nearly half were gone, leaving only forty-one.

But the death rate was slowing. Clearly, they had adapted to this new Doomsday World and were beginning to stabilize.

"And I still have to deal with these last few people. What a pain," Qi Suian thought, shaking his head.

He felt it was truly a difficult task.

The fewer there were, the harder they were to find.

His rest was more or less over. Qi Suian began a new phase of his work.

He took out a large number of Middle-Grade Spiritual Roots and began to sift through them, searching for a suitable one.

There were many types of Spiritual Roots, so Qi Suian had to choose carefully. Just because he could accommodate ninety-nine of them didn't mean he could just use any random one.

Compatibility and synergy were key.

Only then could he forge the high, middle, and low-grade Spiritual Roots into a cohesive whole.

Qi Suian was brought back to reality only when his AI assistant reminded him he had a visitor.

"So the fat pig you lured is here?" Qi Suian's eyes narrowed as he quickly put his things away.

[Yes, but there are some issues. You may need to prepare yourself.]

"What kind of issues? His base attributes hit 10, so now he's feeling arrogant?" Qi Suian chuckled.

[No. If it were as you say, that might actually be better.]

[According to the data, he is a Second-Grade Mage, but his base attributes are still in the 9-point range. They have not reached the 10 points you previously estimated.]

The moment he heard this, Qi Suian's expression shifted slightly.

In his estimation, a Second-Grade Mage should have base attributes of 10, and a First-Grade Mage should have 11.

But now, this standard hadn't been met. This meant that even a First-Grade Mage might only have base attributes of 9.

So why were they stronger? Because of their Spiritual Roots, of course.

This meant the extra power, what seemed like higher base attributes, didn't come from them but from additional boosts granted by their Spiritual Root—akin to talents, skills, or templates.

And that was not good news at all.

It meant that the Mages' path to power was fundamentally the same as his own; the only difference was the type of enhancements they received.

Qi Suian's were a mix of talents and skills, while theirs were of a single type.

If so, the Spiritual Root system couldn't help him break his fundamental limits.

He would be growing his power laterally, not raising his actual ceiling.

"This is indeed a problem. Still, let's meet him first." Qi Suian wasn't discouraged.

'Raising one's limits isn't easy anyway. As long as I'm getting stronger, that's what counts.'

'For now, I need to get my hands on those resources.'

Before long, someone came to announce his arrival, and Qi Suian went out to greet the man personally.

He was a veteran elder from the Zijing Hu Family, an old man named Hu Hao.

He showed no arrogance. On the contrary, he had the demeanor of a kindly old man and was exceptionally warm from the moment they met.

After being welcomed into the command tent, he continued to make small talk with Qi Suian, avoiding the main topic.

Seeing this, Qi Suian just handed the conversation over to his AI, letting it handle the social niceties.

In this regard, the AI was far more human than he was.

If it were left to him, he would have been blunt. If the man tried to speak in riddles, Qi Suian would have simply considered the deal a failure and attacked.

The conversation made Hu Hao realize that this Taiping Celestial King was an incredibly difficult person to deal with.

The witty back-and-forth was especially not what one would expect from a young man.

This made him wonder. 'The man's words revealed extraordinary competence, so how could he have been sidelined by the other Mage Families?'

'He can't just be all talk and no action, can he?'

'But if he wasn't being undermined, then his contacting our Hu Family to sell the Taiping Heavenly King Army must mean there's a trap.'

'Otherwise, why would he abandon such a huge enterprise?'

'These were all points of suspicion.'

"The Celestial King is truly a man of great literary talent. It's a pity this world is so unpredictable, forcing a man like you to become an outlaw."

"If the Yunhan Dynasty still stood, you would surely be a renowned minister at court," Hu Hao flattered him before getting to the point. "As for the plan we discussed... is your offer genuine?"

"Of course, it is. I am willing to give up my position as Celestial King to focus on my cultivation."

"In this world, I am no match for you Mage Families."

"They want me dead, so I might as well get a good price for my legacy," Qi Suian said with an aggrieved expression. "As it is, my orders don't even carry beyond my own tent."

"What good is being a Third-Grade Mage when every one of those other families has one?"

"The Zijing Hu Family is one of the most prestigious in the land. I'm sure you can keep things under control," Qi Suian added with a mocking tone.

Hu Hao didn't fall for such a crude taunt. He replied calmly, "My Hu Family backs the King's Banner General."

"If you are willing, Celestial King, you can pledge your allegiance to him. That would settle matters, and your reward afterward would surely be..."

Qi Suian cut him off before he could finish.

"I want to see the payment first. It's hardly a rare thing for members of the great families to hide behind a banner of righteousness while acting in bad faith."

"I've been burned before. If the Hu Family can't afford this transaction, I can find someone who can. Yours is not the only great family in the world," Qi Suian said calmly.

As his words fell, Hu Hao's gaze sharpened, and an intense pressure radiated from him as he released the aura of a Second-Grade Mage.

Qi Suian, however, remained unmoved. Just then, Fei's enormous head poked into the tent.

Polyform energy materialized into the shapes of an Evil Dragon and an Evil Tiger, which stood guard around Qi Suian.

Seeing this, Hu Hao immediately reined in his expression.

"No wonder you want to make this deal, Celestial King. It seems the Taiping Heavenly King Army can no longer contain a Second-Grade Mage like yourself." Hu Hao couldn't gauge Qi Suian's true depth.

But based on this display, he was clearly already a Second-Grade Mage.

'He must have broken through recently,' Hu Hao thought. 'That's why he's trying to offload the Taiping Heavenly King Army.'

'He's a ruthless one, to be so decisive.'

'If it were me,' he mused, 'with this kind of power, I would have just killed those families with only Third-Grade Mages and used them as a foundation to vie for supremacy.'

"However, surrendering to the King's Banner General is something you must do, Celestial King."

"But since you are a Second-Grade Mage, providing the payment afterward would certainly be inappropriate."

"The items will arrive within forty-five minutes. You can rest assured, Celestial King." Hu Hao conceded.

"A pleasure doing business with you," Qi Suian said with a smile.

'He wants me to go surrender to a Warlord? Fine by me. I'll just devour them all in one go.'

'It's not like I forced his hand. My original plan was just to have them send someone to take over, and that would be that.'

'But since they insisted on adding this complication, they can't blame me for what happens next.'

"I wonder, Celestial King, when you go into seclusion, have you considered our Hu Family?"

"I see you are a man on your own. The Hu Family has a daughter from the main line, eighteen years of age, who would be a fine match for you," Hu Hao offered.

Recruitment, offering a daughter of the main branch... if he joined, future glory and wealth were guaranteed.

This was a top-tier recruitment offer.

"My ambitions lie with becoming a First-Grade Mage. If I am fortunate enough to break through, perhaps I can cooperate with the Hu Family on other matters," Qi Suian replied, tactfully refusing.

'Once my Abyssal Form is complete, I'll definitely pay them a personal visit,' he thought. 'And I'll make sure not a single one of them is left alive.'

"Then I shall congratulate you in advance on achieving the rank of First-Grade Mage." Hu Hao was inwardly disdainful but showed none of it.

'As if becoming a First-Grade is so easy,' Hu Hao scoffed internally. 'Even the scions of the great families, with all their resources, can't manage it. Let alone you, a Taiping Celestial King who has made a fool of all the families in the world. Your day of reckoning will come.'

What he didn't know was that Qi Suian wasn't just making a fool of the Mage Families—he planned to slaughter them all.