A Chaotic World

Chapter 20: Heaven's Oath

Lu Tianzi obviously did not know what Nanhong Wuze thought about in his last moments, nor did he care.

After taking care of Nanhong Wuze, he turned around and directly made his way towards the last surviving demon.

Of the four demons including Nanhong Wuze, the first one had been killed at the start of the battle, the second one had been killed when Lu Tianzi broke through the demons' formation, and Nanhong Wuze had also just been killed.

The only one left surviving was the one whose right arm had been severed by Lu Tianzi earlier.

Right now, his face was pale and his lips were parched. Seeing Lu Tianzi kill off even Nanhong Wuze in a direct confrontation had caused the demon to lose all hopes of trying to sneak a last ditch attack on Lu Tianzi.

And now that Lu Tianzi was approaching him, the demon dared not remain lying down on his side. Gritting his teeth, the demon struggled to sit up, staring at him with fear in his eyes.

"Who are you?" the demon finally asked, his voice feeble and uncertain, a huge contrast from before. "Just who are you?"

"I will be asking the questions here," Lu Tianzi snorted in response. "Tell me everything about where you came from!"

Hearing that, the demon was stumped for a moment before letting out a malicious grin, "You might be quite capable, but in comparison to our Shadowfront Fortress, you are nothing more than a speck of dust!"

"And this speck of dust just crushed your entire group!" Lu Tianzi retorted, causing the demon's expression to turn ugly once again. "Tell me first, where is this Shadowfront Fortress located?"

"Hah! You don't even know such basic information? That's true, all you are capable of is probably just skirting around the wilds, avoiding any strong entities. How pathetic, as expected of the humans!"

"Just answer the question!"

The demon sneered, "I doubt you will let me off even after I tell you everything, so why should I? Just kill me and get it over with!"

Lu Tianzi frowned.

The demon was right. There was no way that Lu Tianzi could let the demon keep his life at this stage.

"And why do you think I will let you die such a clean death if you aren't even willing to cooperate?" Lu Tianzi brandished his sword once again.

"What are you trying to do?" the demon's eyes widened as his tone softened. "Actually, wait a minute! Don't be too reckless there! There is always room for negotiation!"

"Is there?" Lu Tianzi eyed him suspiciously.

"Yes, of course! After all, the only reason I am here is because I had been tasked by my superiors. It is not like there is some deep hatred between us, is there? If you swear to let me go, I can also swear to tell you all you want to know!"

Lu Tianzi harrumphed in disdain, "Let you go so you can inform all your companions about me? Do you think I am that foolish?"

"And what good would that do me? Revenge? I care about nothing like that! All that matters to me is to live!" the demon hurriedly pleaded his case.

"Why should I trust you?" Lu Tianzi's voice was cold in contempt.

"You naturally won't trust me. Just like how I won't trust you. So in order for this to work, we would have to make a Heaven's Oath! Anyone who reneges on his word shall suffer the wrath of Heaven's Will, and will be struck down by ten thousand lightning bolts from the highest heavens!"

Lu Tianzi narrowed his eyes in contemplation upon hearing that.

A Heaven's Oath was a promise bound by blood. Unlike an ordinary verbal promise, a Heaven's Oath was directed to the highest order of the world, the Heaven's Will. Calling upon Heaven's Will meant that from then on, they would be monitored by the very world itself.

If either party ever decided to break the oath, their betrayal would be noted immediately, and Heaven's Will would immediately call upon the agreed punishment upon the perpetrator.

There were simply no blind spots.

With a Heaven's Oath in place, Lu Tianzi truly did not have to worry about his identity being revealed. That is, unless the demons had a way to defend against ten thousand lightning bolts from the highest heavens.

Lu Tianzi did not believe that was possible.

Even Hu Yuanbo with his Origin Core realm cultivation might not be able to escape unscathed from such a punishment, which was testament to how powerful it was.

Even if the demons were able to defend against such an attack, they surely had to expend a large amount of resources in order to do so.

No matter how talented Lu Tianzi was, he was ultimately still an Essence Building realm martial artist at the moment. There was simply no way that the demons would be willing to go to such an extent just to identify him.

On top of that, just as it was beneficial to the demon by ensuring his safety, going through an oath was similarly beneficial to Lu Tianzi as well.

This way, Lu Tianzi could also ensure that the demon spoke of nothing but the truth. Otherwise, it would truly be difficult for him to verify the authenticity of the demon's words even if he were willing to speak.

"All right then! I swear to set you free if you were to tell me everything you know. In return, you are to answer every one of my questions with the utmost honesty, and will not speak a word about me from this day onwards!" Lu Tianzi finally decided.

"I swear not to lie when answering any of your questions, telling you nothing but the truth. I will also not speak a word about you from this day onwards! I call upon Heaven's Will as our witness! Should I break the oath, I shall be struck down by ten thousand lightning bolts from the highest heavens!" the demon swore.

"Should I break the oath, I shall be struck down by ten thousand lightning bolts from the highest heavens!" Lu Tianzi repeated solemnly.

At this point, both of them bit their tongue and spat out a drop of blood containing their life essence.

As though bound by an invisible suction force, the two droplets of blood floated towards each other. As the two red droplets drew closer, the speed at which they were moving slowly reduced, finally stopping with a gap of barely a few centimetres between them.

Without warning, the two droplets of blood started spinning around each other at such a speed that it appeared as nothing but a blur. Then as though struck by a powerful repulsion force, the two droplets of blood shot right back at them, re-entering them through the glabella.

With that, the blood oath was completed!

Lu Tianzi sheathed his sword and the demon seemed visibly more relaxed as well, though his face was still pale from the grievous injury.

"Now then, ask away!" the demon snapped.

With that, Lu Tianzi started the questioning. Bound by the oath, the demon dared not lie, and answered every question without hesitation.

With enough luck and the right medical attention, he might even be able to reattach the severed arm, but that would also depend on how much time had passed!

The demon could not wait for this to end so that he could get his arm treated, thus he tried his best to answer each question as concisely as possible.

Shadowfront Fortress was where the group of demons had come from. Other than finding out its exact location, Lu Tianzi also learnt that it was the main bastion that guarded the northern borders of the Scarlet Moon Kingdom, a kingdom of demons.

The fortress was commandeered by General Nanbai Zhaoyu. Just like Hu Yuanbo, this Nanbai Zhaoyu was also at the Origin Core realm.

Other than that, Lu Tianzi also learnt that the demons and the City Lord Manor had each other's communication marks. This allowed them to communicate even without having to meet in person.

Apparently when the previous group of demons failed to return, this was how General Nanbai Zhaoyu had contacted Hu Yuanbo to request for another round of exchange. In fact, the demons had gotten so used to the trade that they barely had any suspicions about the humans over this matter.

After all, there was no reason for the humans to stop with the sacrifice.

If they decided to stop, then all they would be was a threat to the Scarlet Moon Kingdom. There was no way that General Nanbai Zhaoyu would leave them be in that case.

Even if General Nanbai Zhaoyu judged it to be beyond his means to destroy Ivory Rock City, all he had to do was to ask for reinforcements and the demon armies would have been able to easily wipe Ivory Rock City off the map!

The demon's voice was full of pride when he spoke of this matter.

In his eyes, Shadowfront Fortress was the only thing standing between Ivory Rock City and the main army of the Scarlet Moon Kingdom. The fate of the humans lingered on nothing but a single decision by General Nanbai Zhaoyu.

Lu Tianzi, on the other hand, frowned deeply.

He cared nothing about people of the City Lord Manor, especially Hu Yuanbo himself. However, the lives of the many others in Ivory Rock City were at stake as well!

Right now, he was seeking revenge on Hu Yuanbo. In the midst of doing so, he would break the current balance, ridding them of the atrocious practice of sacrificing martial artists to the demons for the safety of the majority. But it seemed like things might have greater consequences than he thought.

But aside from that, Lu Tianzi found out about another horrifying fact.

The reason why General Nanbai Zhaoyu had chosen to accept annual sacrifices from Ivory Rock City rather than directly plundering the city for a large number of martial artists was because he was cultivating a certain item that required the life essences of martial artists over a long period of time.

The demon did not know what it was exactly, but what he knew was that this item was prepared for General Nanbai Zhaoyu to attack the Overlord realm that came after the Origin Core realm!

If General Nanbai Zhaoyu were to succeed, then the defences of Ivory Rock City would no longer stand a chance against him.

At that time, General Nanbai Zhaoyu would be able to single-handedly crush everyone in Ivory Rock City!

If the humans were to continue sending human martial artists to him, would they not just be heading towards a slow death?

Lu Tianzi shook his head. No matter what, Ivory Rock City would have to face the attack of the demons. Rather than fight a lost battle against a Demon Overlord, it would definitely be better for them to make their stand before General Nanbai Zhaoyu broke through!

Therefore, stopping with the annual sacrifices was definitely the better option!

"That's all I know! If there's nothing else, then I will be going now!" the demon struggled to his feet.

"Wait!"

"What?" the demon was shocked. "Don't forget about the blood oath! I fulfilled my end of the oath, and if you were to go back on your word, you will only die a painful death!"

"I am not asking for your life, but you will have to leave all your belongings behind!" Lu Tianzi instructed.

"What?!" the demon's face grew livid, but relented nevertheless. He did not have much on him anyway. But even if he had, would it be more important than reattaching his arm?

The more he was delayed here, the lesser chances there were of a successful reattachment!

After throwing everything on the ground before him, the demon looked at Lu Tianzi one last time, "Don't say that I didn't warn you. If you think that you humans are capable of taking down Shadowfront Fortress, then that is nothing more than a pipe dream!"

"Just leave if you are done," Lu Tianzi was not going to dally with him.

The demon harrumphed in disdain before picking up his severed arm and disappearing into the forest, leaving Lu Tianzi as the only one left in the clearing.

Three demon corpses lay motionlessly around him.

Considering that the escaped demon did not even bother asking about bringing these corpses back, Lu Tianzi was even more convinced about his personality. This selfish demon would definitely not risk his life to tell others about this incident.

Searching the corpses of the demons, Lu Tianzi found another Essence Stone as expected.

Just like what the servant from City Lord Manor had mentioned, and corroborated by the surviving demon's statement, the demons were indeed exchanging an Essence Stone for each sacrifice.

Other than the Essence Stone, the only things of note were the weapons of the three demons. However, it was impossible for Lu Tianzi to carry this many weapons with him, so he only took the sabre of Nanhong Wuze.

After which, he took care to throw each of the corpses into the underground cavern from before. Including the three demons from a week ago, there were now a total of 6 demon corpses, though one of them was already half eaten.

It was not a good idea to just leave so many corpses lying around, so Lu Tianzi was intending to burn their corpses.

But before that, he still had one thing left to do.

Lu Tianzi immediately turned and headed back. His destination was where he had left the horse carriage carrying the wooden cage and the new Holy Guardian, Yan Bingren.