Every tribe's choice was different. Shepherd Tower Tribe's choice was to give up decisively once they realized that they could not obtain Su Ming's arm and use their lives in exchange for the possibility of their tribe's freedom.
Blood Absconsion Tribe's staunch nature made them choose to sacrifice themselves. They used their sacrifice and the only thing they could control — death — to express their struggle against fate. They gave Su Ming a serendipity and left behind a thread of hope for the remaining members of their tribe to continue living.
Phantom Dais Tribe used this sort of trade. They used the lives of their entire tribe to beg Su Ming. As they knelt down, they hoped that they could obtain Su Ming's arm.
They did not want to think about whether Su Ming could successfully kill Si Ma Xin. They were afraid that even if Si Ma Xin truly died, he would still be able to kill all those who had been Planted with his Berserkers before he died.
They were even more afraid that Su Ming would die in Si Ma Xin's hands. If that happened, then the fate that awaited Phantom Dais Tribe would be even more tragic.
They only wanted freedom, and according to Si Ma Xin's orders, they would use Su Ming's limbs in exchange for their freedom.
As he looked at the people from Phantom Dais Tribe, Su Ming remembered his second senior brother …
In his silence, the tribe leader's words about knowing where Lei Chen was also a huge shock to Su Ming.
"Freedom is something that you can only truly obtain if you control it yourself," Su Ming said calmly after some time.
"Sir, please grant us our wish. We just want our freedom, I …" The tribe leader of Phantom Dais Tribe looked at Su Ming in anguish. He knew that this request was a little overboard, but he could not think of a better way.
Su Ming no longer bothered himself with Phantom Dais Tribe. If they did not attack, then he would not kill them. He walked towards the sky and lifted his right hand. The long spear shone with a purple light.
"Sir!" The tribe leader of Phantom Dais Tribe stood up and shouted towards Su Ming. Tears fell from his eyes and his face was filled with grief.
"I beg of you, please pity the children in my tribe. They're still young, but Si Ma Xin's Berserker Silk is also in their bodies. They have no future. Phantom Dais Tribe has no tribe members outside either. All of us are here. We either die or continue living in numbness.
"I beg of you, please help us. We will never forget this kindness!"
"Sir, Phantom Dais Tribe had conflicts with you many years ago, but that's all in the past. Right now, we only have these few people in our tribe. We can choose not to go out, but I hope that the children in the tribe and the adults can obtain freedom so that Phantom Dais Tribe can continue to exist!"
The tribe leader of Phantom Dais Tribe sounded sorrowful as he bowed towards Su Ming. All the Phantom Dais tribe members behind him started kowtowing bitterly in silence.
The cries of children could be heard, the tears of the elderly flowed down, and the women also silently shed tears.
Su Ming's footsteps came to a halt in midair, then he continued walking towards the sky. The purple long spear in his hand shone even brighter, and the killing intent towards Si Ma Xin in his eyes grew stronger.
This game that Si Ma Xin spoke of was a test of Su Ming's humanity. It made him unable to kill, but if he did not kill … it would be even more wrong!
Sometimes, making a choice was difficult, but what was even more difficult was having no other choice!
When Su Ming lifted the long spear in his right hand and was about to blast open the sky of the sixth layer, the despairing voice of the tribe leader of Phantom Dais Tribe reverberated in the air from the ground, and every single one of his words was filled with tears of blood!
"Sir, the sixth layer is not the same as the one below. Si Ma Xin has placed our lives in this sky. If this sky shatters, we will all die immediately. All of us, all of our tribe members, will die right before your eyes the instant you break this sky.
"This is our Life …"
Su Ming fell silent. The tip of his spear had already touched the barrier of the sky. The hint of presence from Life Cultivation fused into the sky, and he sensed that there was a hint of a connection between the life force of the people in Phantom Dais Tribe.
It was just as the tribe leader had said. Once the sky was broken, they would also die.
"Si Ma Xin, in the past, you used Bai Su to try and break my state of mind, and from there, you planted your Berserker Seed in me … Now, you've changed your method and used all sorts of things in Heaven Gate to make me hesitate, and from there, you achieved a similar effect." Su Ming closed his eyes, but once the long spear in his hand paused for a moment, he abruptly thrust it towards the sky!
The boom stirred up by that spear shook the sky and earth, causing fine cracks to appear in the sky. Once those cracks connected with each other, they turned into shards, and in the midst of those booming sounds, the shards exploded at the tip of Su Ming's spear!
'Sometimes, death is a form of freedom …' Su Ming closed his eyes. Beneath him, the Phantom Dais tribe members kneeling on the ground trembled as the sky was torn apart. Then, their bodies exploded, and a large amount of red threads burst out of their bodies. As they died, those red threads gathered together in midair and turned into an indistinct figure.
That figure looked somewhat similar to Si Ma Xin.
He looked at Su Ming and suddenly started laughing loudly. His laughter was soft and feminine, causing all those who heard it to feel incredibly uncomfortable.
"As expected, you're the same type of person as me. I originally intended that if you really gave them an arm, then I would fulfill my promise and give them freedom, but that freedom is death!
"Because I, too, believe that sometimes, death is freedom!
"You're good, very good … I'll wait for you in the ninth layer. There are still two more layers. You have to hurry, or else you'll face the same choice as when you ran into Bai Su … I'd like to see how you'll choose at that time!"
The moment those words left his mouth, the indistinct figure formed by the blood threads dissipated abruptly. Those blood threads turned into a puddle of blood that spilled on the ground. Killing intent shone in Su Ming's eyes. His desire to kill Si Ma Xin had become an incredibly strong existence in his life.
He turned around quietly and moved towards the seventh layer!
A slaughter that surged into the sky raged in the seventh layer. All of this was because the instant Su Ming stepped into the seventh layer, Si Ma Xin's words echoed in the entire seventh layer.
"If he reaches the eighth layer, then all of you will die!"
There were no words spoken, only heavy breathing and an endless amount of divine abilities. Su Ming, who was surrounded by five hundred Berserkers, could sense a callous and murderous aura coming from them.
These five hundred Berserkers were not ordinary people. Each of them had extraordinary power and a rich amount of experience in killing. They were the sharp blades of Freezing Sky that were sent to protect the southern frontier!
They did not kill for freedom, but … to die in battle!
They would either kill them or be killed by them. To them, dying in battle against powerful warriors was a glory that was even more noble than their own lives!
Su Ming looked at them. As he lifted his right hand, the long spear whistled through the air, and he moved about at full speed. Wherever he went, there would be slaughter. These people did not fight back. They only used their full strength and divine abilities to kill, and once they were injured, they would also self-destruct.
The murderous aura stirred up by these five hundred people surged into the sky, causing even Su Ming to fall silent as he faced them.
When he closed his eyes and the armor on his body turned into an endless amount of purple threads, those threads shot out in all directions, but there were no screams of pain. There were only soundless smiles and a dazed feeling as if they had been released.
Su Ming did not know how much time had passed. Perhaps it had been the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, perhaps it had been even longer. When the rumbling and sounds of battle around him disappeared and the ground became sticky again, he opened his eyes. The purple threads returned and turned into the armor on his body once again. There was only one person left before him who was trembling, but had gritted his teeth and refused to fall.
It was an old man. His hair was white, and blood trickled down the corners of his mouth. He looked at Su Ming, but there was no hatred on his face. Instead, there was a smile on his face.
"Kill me! Don't let me die under Si Ma's despicable Berserker Threads! I am Hao Tian Sen. Use that spear of yours that can absorb souls and absorb my soul. Turn it into a battle soul and help you fight against Si Ma!"
The old man's voice was like thunder. As it rumbled in the air, respect appeared on Su Ming's face. He flicked the long spear in his right hand, and when he walked past the old man, he took away his soul!
He held the long spear in his hand. There were five hundred incredibly distinct battle souls surrounding the Undertaker's of Evil Spear at that moment. None of them were letting out shrill screams, only a soundless silence, along with the terrifying murderous intent that would erupt from within that silence.
As Su Ming charged forward, he charged towards the sky, towards the sky that led to the eighth layer. A shocking boom reverberated in the air, and a crack was torn in the seventh layer's sky. Su Ming rushed forward and turned into a purple shadow. With the five hundred souls accompanying him, he rushed … into the eighth layer!
Heaven Gate's eighth layer!
The place where the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky was located!
Yet at the instant Su Ming stepped into the eighth layer, his pupils shrank.
This was a desolate world. It was a world without any signs of life. The sky was gray, and the ground was also gray …
The people here were also … gray!
The gray ones were their eyes, the broken ones were their bodies, and the ones that didn't have any trace of life were all the people in this world who had gray eyes …
Perhaps they could not even be called people. In Su Ming's eyes, the area that belonged to the Great Tribe of Freezing Sky was covered in ruins. Within those ruins were an endless amount of corpses. Perhaps more accurately speaking, these were not corpses, because their eyes were open, and they were gray.
There was no breathing, no ripples of power. In this silent world, the sight Su Ming saw was filled with an indescribably bizarre air. There were men and women, old and young, and all of them were lying quietly on the ground, as if they were in deep sleep … There was one similarity between all of them, and that was that they did not have left hands!
All of them no longer had their left hands.
There was a big stone in the shape of a cone in the gray sky. That stone platform was incredibly wide, and there was a person sitting cross-legged on it. That person was looking at Su Ming, and a sinister smile appeared on his face.
Perhaps that stone platform was Heaven Gate's ninth layer, because Su Ming could tell with just one glance that the person sitting on it … was Si Ma Xin!
I said I'm going to explode, so I'm going to explode. This is the fourth chapter, and there's still the fifth chapter to go. Let me ask you, do you still have monthly votes?! (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com to vote for me. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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