The masked woman let out a sigh, though her emotions remained hidden beneath the mask.
"Lord Bloodfiend..." she softly said, "Winter did what was necessary. The situation was... quite unstable."
Bloodfiend's eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint within them. "Unstable? With the blood-bearing flag almost fully merged? Explain yourself, Winter."
Winter opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything, he saw the old man in front of him suddenly vanish.
"Huh! Where did he go?"
Both of them were surprised seeing the old man disappear before they could ask for forgiveness.
They just stared blankly at the empty spot where Bloodfiend was standing moments ago.
Bloodfiend himself was equally confused.
One moment he was about to lecture Winter, and the next moment he found himself standing inside a dining hall.
His eyes widened as he looked around.
Before him sat a young man with white hair and an old cultivator whose presence alone made his body tremble.
The old cultivator was gripping his shoulder casually, yet Bloodfiend felt as though an entire mountain was pressing down upon him.
His throat went dry.
If he had known that such a monster was hiding inside the city, he would have never targeted the city. Forget about even entering, as he might have not even thought of looking towards this city.
But regret was meaningless in this situation.
After gathering his thoughts, he forced a respectful smile and clasped his hands.
"Greetings, senior. May I ask why you have brought me here?"
He knew that the senior not killing him directly and bringing him here must be due to the value he could provide.
Riven broke the silence. "Killing innocent people for cultivation is not a pleasant way, you know."
Bloodfiend immediately began sweating.
"And what's more is to force others to walk the same path as them."
Riven's voice remained calm. "It is one thing that you have killed countless people to reach your current cultivation, but now you are forcing those two children to do the same."
Hearing this, Shen Chu was momentarily surprised, then realization struck him.
Only now did Shen Chu understand why Riven had stopped him from simply eliminating them.
He would have done the same as Bloodfiend, killing innocents. Without even understanding the root of the problem.
Bloodfiend's eyes flashed as he suddenly took out a black sphere from his sleeve and attempted to crush it.
However, the moment he moved, the surrounding space froze solid, locking his body in place.
Shen Chu looked at him coldly. "Forget about leaving this place in one piece."
Bloodfiend's expression twisted, then he suddenly burst into loud laughter.
"So what if you are a supreme spirit realm cultivator? Our divine blood sect also has a supreme spirit realm ancestor, and when he comes here, there will be nothing but rivers of blood flowing on the whole continent."
Hearing this, Shen Chu just scoffed and said, "So it's that dog Bura from the Divine Blood Sect."
Bloodfiend's expression froze when he heard their ancestor's name from Shen Chu.
He then looked at Riven and said, "When I was at the Nascent Soul realm, I went out to hunt the demonic cultivators and met him.
"After we fought, he ran away with his tail between his legs."
He then looked back at the demonic cultivator and said in a mocking tone, "I chased him for a whole day, but he still kept running and even sacrificed his sect's elders to help him run away."
"Now that I remember, he has slaughtered a lot of cities and even went to mortal kingdoms to recover from his injuries I gave him that time."
"Unfortunately, I haven't encountered him since." Shen Chu's voice then turned cold as he continued, "Otherwise I certainly wouldn't let him run next time."
Hearing this, Bloodfiend's face turned pale.
He wanted to intimidate the cultivator in front of him with the sect ancestor's name.
But who would have known that the cultivator not only knew the sect ancestor but had even once gone to hunt him?
It was one thing to fight, but his sect ancestor was running from the fight and sacrificing the sect's elders.
Even Bloodfiend knew of this situation when it happened.
At that time, their sect had to go into hiding because it was told that the people from their sect were being hunted down by powerful sects.
Now that he knew the truth, his confidence completely vanished, and he lowered his head.
Shen Chu, looking at the silent demonic cultivator in front of him, smiled coldly and said, "Immortal master, should I simply behead him and hang his head at the city gate?"
Bloodfiend shuddered at the thought of his death and wanted to beg for a chance that he could prove that he still had value, but as if suddenly remembering Shen Chu's word, his eyes widened.
Immortal Master.
Until now, he had focused entirely on Shen Chu.
Now that he looked clearly at the person in front of him, he noticed that he had a different complexion compared to any other person he had previously seen.
The more he looked at him, the stranger he seemed.
Certainly unique, in every sense.
Whether it's the clothes compared to traditional cultivator robes, he has a simple, distinct clothing style unlike anything he has ever seen.
Even compared to other cultivators having long hair tied into a bun, the person in front of him had short hair.
Riven, looking at Bloodfiend, simply said, "There is no future for him if he were to simply die."
"He should feel the same helplessness of the people he forced upon others."
Then Riven slowly raised his hand and brought it close to Bloodfiend's face.
"Leave!"
The simple word echoed like thunder in Shen Chu's and Bloodfiend's ears.
At once, Bloodfiend's qi erupted into chaos. The vast reserves of blood qi he had accumulated over the centuries began rushing towards his head.
Streams of crimson energy surged out from every meridian in his body and flowed towards his head and gathered in Riven's hand.
Pain beyond imagination tore through his body, and Bloodfiend immediately collapsed.
Every cultivation realm he had painstakingly built felt as though it were being ripped from him.
His scream echoed throughout the entire building, yet no one heard him.
Most of the city remained unconscious because of the effects of the formation, and the few who were awake were occupied elsewhere.
Bloodfiend crawled across the floor and grabbed Riven's feet and begged desperately with tears mixed with blood.
"Immortal master, please spare me!"
"I'm begging you!"
"Please!"
Riven, looking down at Bloodfiend quietly.
"You don't have to worry."
"The pain will soon go away."
Bloodfiend froze when he heard those words.
Wasn't this something he used to say when he drained other people of their blood while they kept begging for mercy?
Whenever they cried and pleaded for their lives, he had always smiled and told them, "Don't worry. The pain will pass soon."
For the first time in centuries he understood what those words truly meant.
He then simply went unconscious.
Meanwhile, the qi flowing into Riven's hand condensed into a sphere of crimson light and pulsed like a living heart.
Every pulse released immense pressure, and even the air trembled.
Shen Chu looked down at the demonic cultivator who was bleeding from many parts of his body.
The once-powerful demonic cultivator was now an ordinary mortal without an ounce of qi in his body.
Seeing this, Shen Chu just gulped and then looked at Riven, who was holding a small ball of qi, which was equivalent to everything Bloodfiend had cultivated throughout his life.
Without saying anything, Riven stood up and walked outside while Shen Chu followed him.
By the time they left the building, dawn was already approaching. The cultivators who had fled the city throughout the night gradually began returning.
Many cultivators noticed that the city was the same as they had left, as many of them expected to find the city in ruins.
The cultivators rushed towards the site where the battle had taken place, but they found nothing, and even the Moon Lake brothel was empty.
The demonic cultivators were gone, and the formation had vanished.
Many cultivators began doubting themselves, while some wondered whether the entire incident had been an illusion.
Others believed they had been tricked by the demonic cultivators and ran home to check whether their possessions had been stolen or not.
None of this concerned Riven and Shen Chu.
As they walked through the city, they saw the previous unconscious people slowly awakening.
The crimson sphere floating in Riven's hand suddenly shot upward into the sky, and within moments it vanished beyond the clouds.
Shen Chu was curious about the sphere, but compared to witnessing Riven stripping a cultivator of his cultivation with a single word, it felt insignificant.
The core was beyond the path he cultivated, so he remained silent and continued walking beside Riven.