Chapter 161: Return

"Wuwu!"

Accompanied by the mournful sound of the horn, all the powerful beings within the Origin Contention slowly raised their heads and looked up at the sky.

They knew the battle was over!

Just like at the beginning, the sound of the horn signaled the start of everything.

At this moment, the sound of the horn signaled the end of everything.

All the Origins had now found their owners.

The Demon race would not allow them to stay any longer.

Because this was the core continent of the Demon race, and their fighting here had already caused extremely severe damage to the land.

Even so, the Demon race had not suffered a loss.

The soldiers of the Human and Fiend races could not help but sigh as they thought of the comrades who had died here in battle.

Had they won?

Wrong!

There are never any victors in war.

While winning glory, many among them were still weeping.

Of course, there were also some who were smiling; they were satisfied, even though their smiles were frozen in place forever!

The living were crying, while the dead were smiling.

Fang Qingyun's expression was also complicated.

His gains this time were beyond imagination.

The enhancement of his strength was likewise beyond imagination.

However, along this journey, he had witnessed too much life and death.

Especially for the Human race—this was the home turf of the Demon race, and they possessed a natural advantage.

The strength of the Fiend race was the strongest; of this, there was no doubt.

What about the Human race?

Strength, equipment...

They simply could not be compared to the Fiend and Demon races, so the sacrifices made by the Human race were undoubtedly enormous.

Fang Qingyun did not know them, but having seen so many of their corpses, it was absolutely impossible to say he felt nothing at all.

"Sigh!"

"I will make myself stronger, and then, I will avenge you..."

Vengeance?

Fang Qingyun felt somewhat dazed.

Perhaps the Demon and Fiend races held the exact same thought.

The members of their clans who had died were certainly not few either.

At the very least, the demons who had died at Fang Qingyun's hands numbered in the tens of thousands, and among them, civilians accounted for a considerable proportion. As for the Fiend race, their casualties also reached the thousands.

Would their families, relatives, and friends want to seek revenge on Fang Qingyun?

They probably would!

Who was right and who was wrong?

There was no clear-cut division at all!

There was only victory and defeat!

Fang Qingyun's gaze grew calm, and he took steps toward the gathering place.

He had come alone, but it was impossible for him to leave alone.

Unless he had truly lived enough and was not afraid of the enemy kings plotting against him halfway.

He needed to rendezvous with the other humans and let a king lead the way out of here.

Furthermore, he now had dozens of followers behind him; he could hardly just abandon them.

When Fang Qingyun reached the gathering place, quite a number of humans had already assembled there.

The moment Fang Qingyun arrived, he immediately attracted everyone's attention.

For no other reason than that Fang Qingyun's great name had long since resounded across the battlefield. Unsurprisingly, at this moment, most places in the entire Azure Moon World had heard his name.

Not to mention, right now, a massive crowd was following closely behind Fang Qingyun.

With a calm expression, Fang Qingyun walked into the midst of the humans. Meeting their gazes filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred, he said calmly, "You can hate me, but if anyone harbors murderous intent toward me, am I supposed to just sit back and do nothing?"

"Stop causing trouble!"

A cold voice rang out.

Xuanji appeared in the crowd, casting a cold glance at Fang Qingyun and then at the crowd. "I don't care what you plan to do, but right now, pack away your killing intent and your hatred, every last bit of it, or I will slaughter the lot of you!"

His words carried a heavy undertone of impatience.

There had been far too many unexpected events in this Origin Contention.

Although plenty of unexpected things had occurred in the past, this time it had directly startled two supreme Emperors.

The Chancellor of the Heavenly Kingdom and the Fiend Emperor.

Right now, there were only three Emperors openly acknowledged in the entire Azure Moon World.

Not counting the Void Beasts.

Including him, three had popped out all at once this time!

Damn it, his poor little heart had almost jumped right out of his mouth.

You little rascals still dared to stir up trouble; did you really think he was easy to bully?

Believe it or not, he could squash every last one of you!

The deterrence of a king was still immense.

When Xuanji finished speaking, the restlessness within the crowd vanished instantly.

Fang Qingyun also gave him a slight bow.

No matter how foolish he might be, he knew that during this Contention, this king had definitely taken action on his behalf more than once.

After all, he had seized nearly a hundred pieces of Origin!

Dozens of Earth Dragon Origins, and dozens of Continent Origins.

He glanced down at his attributes.

[Host: Fang Qingyun]

[Profession: Martial Artist]

[Level: General Rank 9]

[Strength: 56 (+)]

[Speed: 56 (+)]

[Physique: 56 (+)]

[Spirit: 59 (+)]

[Spiritual Energy: 2999 (+)]

[Marksmanship: Supreme]

[Swordplay: Beginner (+)]

[Swordsmanship: Supreme]

[Traps: Intermediate (+)]

[Spiritual Energy Mastery: Advanced (+)]

[Cultivation Technique: Slaughter Art (32nd Revolution) (+)]

[Summoned Beast: Imperial Lion]

[Origin: 1,256,896]

The three basic attribute points had increased by another point.

Of course, they could still be raised further, but Fang Qingyun wanted to hold some back; forcing it too much might instead affect his foundation.

"Just how strong am I now?"

Fang Qingyun did not know, and he desperately wanted to test it out.

Snake King!

Liu Hen!

If that fellow appeared by his side right now, Fang Qingyun would choose to test the waters.

Perhaps!

However, even though he was unclear about his own strength, outsiders were even less clear.

He was in a very dangerous position right now, so he had better keep it under wraps!

The more he exposed, the faster he would die!

Because of this, he could have advanced to Divine General, but he had forcefully suppressed it.

Fang Qingyun shifted his gaze to the people following him and said slowly, "You may leave as well."

"Of course, those who don't want to leave can stay, and together we will carve out a territory that belongs to us!"

Fang Qingyun did not say any superfluous words, nor did he say anything to make people's blood boil.

However, his strength was his greatest source of confidence.

The civilian generals immediately decided to stay.

Some collateral nobles also chose to stay.

Aside from the Origin, Fang Qingyun was quite generous; all kinds of equipment, supplies, and even battle merits were theirs for the taking.

As for the Origin, they could understand as well—Fang Qingyun also needed to enhance his own strength as quickly as possible.

Gu Shanshui chose to stay too.

All of these added up to account for one-third of the total number of people. The remaining two-thirds were either direct descendants or heirs to various noble families.

Even if they wanted to stay, in the end they could only shake their heads helplessly and leave.

Many things in life could not be done simply because one wished to do them.

Yet another third remained hesitant.

In the end, a total of nearly thirty generals chose to stay. Among them were two high-tier generals, fifteen mid-tier generals, and ten low-tier generals.

Fang Qingyun was already quite satisfied with this number.

The people staring at him from the surroundings once again found it difficult to conceal their jealousy.

With such a large group of generals cooperating with Fang Qingyun's strength, he would be fully capable of establishing a division.

Because of this, quite a few people uttered sarcastic and sour remarks.

Regarding this, Fang Qingyun merely glanced at those individuals a few times, memorizing their appearances. There would be plenty of opportunities to settle accounts with them in the future.

"Wuwu!"

A massive floating battleship appeared before everyone.

The captain was a Divine General!

He stepped down from the warship, swept a indifferent gaze over the crowd, and finally let his eyes linger on Fang Qingyun, a flash of astonishment crossing his eyes. Then, walking up to Xuanji, he said in a deep voice, "My King, do we depart now?"

"Depart!"

Xuanji nodded.

Those who had participated in the Contention still gazed in shock at this colossal warship.

Gu Shanshui explained in a low voice beside him, "This is no ordinary warship. It is King Xuanji's personal flagship, commanded by a Divine General."

"The combat power of this warship must be formidable, right?"

"Of course!"

Gu Shanshui rolled her eyes and said, "Even an entire sub-fleet couldn't defeat it, not even if a Divine General were holding down the flagship. The entire Human race only possesses five or six warships of this caliber."

Fang Qingyun gazed at the warship in silence, saying nothing.

In the future, he would also possess a ship just like it, definitely!

Everyone boarded the warship together.

This warship would send them back to the Human territory—this could also be considered a special reward.

The Origin Contention was a large-scale campaign fought for the sake of the Human race, concerning the future of humanity. Since the generals had made enormous sacrifices, the upper echelons of the Human race had to show some gesture.

At the same time, these people were all elites; the upper echelons of the Human race would not feel at ease unless a powerful expert was sent to protect them.

If these people were wiped out, the Human race would be practically finished.

Therefore, they had paid a heavy price to invite Xuanji out and use his warship to bring these people back.

Just as they entered the warship and before they could even find a place to sit, a general-rank crew member walked up to Fang Qingyun. "Are you Fang Qingyun? The King wishes to see you."

"Understood, please lead the way!"

Fang Qingyun stood up.

This time, the people around him did not even look at Fang Qingyun.

Instead, they silently closed their eyes to wash away the fatigue of the days of continuous battle and recover their strength.

As the owner of the warship, Xuanji naturally resided in the most core location.

Following the general, Fang Qingyun walked for a full ten minutes before arriving at Xuanji's location. Only then did he realize just how massive this warship truly was.

After bringing Fang Qingyun before Xuanji, the general-rank crew member stepped outside.

"Greetings, King Xuanji!"

Fang Qingyun bowed respectfully to Xuanji.

Holding a glass of red wine, Xuanji stood by the window, silently gazing outside, and slowly spoke, "Fang Qingyun, how much do you know about your own background?"

So direct...

Well, of course—he was a king, why would he bother wasting words with you?

Fang Qingyun pressed his thin lips together and said indifferently, "The son of Fang Zhiheng, nothing more!"

Xuanji let out a lingering sigh and said, "Then do you know whose son Fang Zhiheng was? And where your mother came from?"

"I don't know, and I don't need to know!"

"You don't need to?"

Xuanji chuckled dryly, saying, "Is that really so?"

He turned his head to look at Fang Qingyun and said pointedly, "You took out that spear. Could it be that you haven't made any guesses about your own birth?"

Fang Qingyun remained silent.

"It's not peaceful out there!"

Xuanji sighed, looking at Fang Qingyun with a complicated expression. "The Wrath of the Earth King—that spear belongs to the Imperial Family, hailed as the strongest offensive-type spear in the current era. It was the personal weapon of the Martial Ancestor Emperor."

"That spear has slain Demon Kings and slaughtered Fiend Kings!"

"Furthermore, it has been blessed with Origin power by generation after generation of Imperial Emperors, making it growing ever more powerful."

Xuanji said calmly, "This, you should have felt."

After a moment of silence, Fang Qingyun asked, "Why was I able to summon it?"

"A coincidence!"

Xuanji said calmly, "Only those with the purest bloodline can summon the Wrath of the Earth King from the deepest depths of their blood, because this spear already possesses a soul."

"In truth, any member of the Imperial Family can summon it. However, members of the Imperial Family with ordinary bloodlines can only summon a phantom of the Wrath of the Earth King, yet you summoned the physical entity itself."

"Do you understand what this represents?"

Fang Qingyun was dumbfounded as well.

Damn it, how could he possibly not understand!

Did this mean he possessed the blood of the Imperial Family, and that his bloodline was the purest at that?

Was there anything more absurd than this?

No wonder even Xuanji wore such a complicated expression.

The people of the Imperial Family probably wanted to tear his heart out right now.

Just think about it: someone who didn't even carry the surname Qin possessed a bloodline purer than those surnamed Qin. Ordinary noble families wouldn't be able to stomach that, let alone the Imperial Family.

Just thinking about it was enough to make people break down.

The Human Emperor probably wanted to kill him right then and there.

"Who was my father's father? Who is my mother?" Fang Qingyun finally could not hold back any longer.

He was utterly speechless.

How did he, someone with a system, manage to run into this kind of mess?

Clearly, he didn't need any bloodline to become a top-tier expert.

"Want to know?" Xuanji chuckled. "Then I'll tell you roughly so you can be mentally prepared and not die without knowing what hit you."

This was also the intention of that person!

"Your mother was a member of the Imperial Family, of that there is no doubt!"

"Qin Hongjin!"

"She was a woman with little natural talent, but great literary grace!"

"Literary grace?"

"Right!" Xuanji smiled. "You wouldn't have guessed it, would you? Your talent is so extraordinary, yet your mother's martial talent had to be forcefully elevated until she finally reached the General rank—and that was only because vast mountains of resources were piled onto her. She herself was much more like a scholar who loved the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting."

Fang Qingyun fell silent.

This was indeed completely different from what he had imagined.

In his memory, his mother was likewise a powerful martial artist.

"Your father..." Xuanji hesitated for a moment before saying, "You should know the surname of the most sought-after figure in the Human race right now, shouldn't you?"

Fang Qingyun smiled bitterly.

This time, it was a thorough, unadulterated bitter smile.

The most sought-after figure—who else could it be?

The Chancellor of the Heavenly Kingdom, Fang Qinghe!

He had heard of him long ago and had even joked with Junhong that since they both shared the surname Fang, perhaps they were relatives.

"My dad is related to him?"

"His own grandson! There's only a father in between!"

Fang Qingyun was truly speechless.

"Then how could he die in a small city?"

"That was an accident!" Xuanji sighed. "To put it simply, that person didn't want to be entangled with the Imperial Family, but your parents fell in love anyway. Family conflicts erupted, the young couple eloped, and as a result, they died in a fierce beast stampede."

"You might not like hearing it, but I have to say, when the news first broke, how many people were dumbfounded."

"The grandson of the Chancellor of the Heavenly Kingdom, that extraordinarily talented Fang Zhiheng, actually died just like that? It felt like a joke."

Fang Qingyun fell into a daze.

He had thought...

As it turned out, there were no schemes, no conspiracies, just a mere accident.

Xuanji shook his head. "If it hadn't been an accident, given that old man's temper, a war would have broken out long ago. The Fiend and Demon races aren't afraid of a fight with the Human race; do you think that old man is afraid? To put it bluntly, for the sake of his grandson, he wouldn't even care if the entire Human race was wiped out in battle. Yet, it was simply an accident. Sigh!"

After a moment of silence, Fang Qingyun asked slowly, "What do you want me to watch out for?"