Chapter 1357 - Deterrence (2)
The spy he had sent out was Hei Huang's disciple.
The guy had already been one of his men before he was accepted by Hei Huang as a disciple. He had done the man a great favor, erasing the man's past and reshaping his life, before he sent the fellow to Hei Huang.
However, he certainly wouldn't publicize the matter in front of that many people. He could reach out to the spy in secret.
Shen Huang immediately split some of his consciousness and contacted said disciple with special code, all to be briefed about the situation.
Meanwhile, he sent out invitations to a few of Hei Huang's disciples on the Astral Nexus with his Celestial State expert permissions.
One of the disciples accepted his invitation.
Shen Huang quickly explained what had happened and asked the lad to check his master.
"My master's fine. There's no need to worry about him, senior Shen Huang," the disciple quickly replied.
Shen Huang raised his eyebrows; naturally, he wouldn't suspect what Su Ping said. He soon realized what the guy was doing. He sneered and asked, "Did something happen to your master? Is he dead?"
The man was obviously stunned after hearing that Shen Huang pointed out the truth, but quickly realized a lot of things and gnashed his teeth as he replied, "Did you do it? My master objected to joining forces with you, but he wasn't opposed to the alliance itself; you were just trying to take advantage of the situation. You people call yourselves leaders of the universe, and yet you ambushed my master at such a dangerous moment!"
"Hilarious. You of all people know what kind of person your master was; I'll give you three minutes to pick out a leader amongst yourselves. Then, I'll invite him to this conference room," said Shen Huang coldly.
The man looked awful.
Their master was dead. They weren't confident of tackling Shen Huang without the help of a Celestial expert and just using the treasures their master left.
......
Besides, their master had been killed even after the array was activated. They didn't know how he was killed; they didn't even see Shen Huang. That had truly been an unprecedented method.
Without further ado, Shen Huang ended the communication. At the same time, Shen Huang's projection in the conference room said, "I've already asked Long Chen, Hei Huang's disciple. He said that his master truly is dead, so I asked him to talk with the others and elect a leader for this meeting. If you don't believe me, feel free to contact them yourselves."
The other Celestials were rather shocked by the news. Considering how Shen Huang had expressed the fact, it was probably true.
Actually, they had been reaching out to Hei Huang's disciples and their spies for updates, even before Shen Huang said anything.
Moments after, the Celestials who had been informed became sullen.
They looked at Shen Huang and Su Ping with anger and vigilance.
A Celestial cultivator was gone, just like that. Very few Celestials had ever died in the history of the universe.
Even those who died mostly perished in extremely dangerous Mysterious Realms; few had died while fighting each other.
In less than a century, two Celestial experts had died due to infighting.
If Shen Huang, Chi Huo, Xu Kong and Su Ping had joined hands, they truly had the power to kill Hei Huang.
"Shen Huang, a catastrophe is underway. Are you really going to continue this nonsense?" said Long Yang gloomily while giving angry looks at Su Ping and the others.
"It is you who are speaking nonsense!" said Shen Huang coldly, "Forming an alliance is the best strategy to resist the worms together, all to minimize the sacrifices! You've been postponing it, all for your own interests. Do you know how many people die every day?"
"Why don't you accept our terms? Are they outrageous? We simply want to keep our power. Do we not even get to vote since we are Celestials?" said another expert angrily.
"We've been over this a million times. Are we still going to debate on that?" said Chi Huo coldly, "Not only do you want to vote, you also want to establish a Supervision Committee where everybody has equal votes. You know fully well who's going to be in charge!"
"We're not on the same side. You have four votes; as long as you persuade two or three of us, you will hold the power. Is that not enough?" said someone.
The ever taciturn Xu Kong said in a frosty tone, "Looks like you're not on the same side; in fact you'll consider us a common foe in order to protect yourselves. Weakness is your common ground. You'll naturally gang up because you can't resist us on your own!"
"You're just grasping at straws! Getting to the bottom of it, you simply want a dictatorship!" roared someone furiously.
Shen Huang was going to talk again, but Su Ping raised his hand and stopped him.
"Let Hei Huang's disciple in," said Su Ping. His voice was extremely calm; guessing his mood was impossible.
However, all the attendees' faces changed a bit after hearing what Su Ping said. The conference room fell quiet for a moment.
Shen Huang nodded and immediately reached out to Hei Huang's disciples. He soon confirmed their leader and sent out an invite.
A figure appeared in the conference room and gradually became clear; it was a tall and handsome young man. He looked around and saw all the Celestial experts. He slightly changed his expression.
He had seen those experts before. Once he looked around he noticed Su Ping, who wasn't a Celestial, and discovered that all the other Celestials were there, except for his master.
That meant that only his master had perished.
He thought for a moment about all kinds of possibilities, even suspecting that they had joined forces to kill his master.
"It's an honor to meet you, Celestial State masters."
The young man lowered his head and spoke in a low voice, neither arrogant nor humble.
"Han Ji, did something happen to your master? Tell us what happened. Did Shen Huang and the others gang up on him in an ambush?" One of the Celestials slapped the table.
Han Ji was stunned; his speculation was proven to be false. He looked at Shen Huang and the others with shock and suspicion. Then, he discovered the two factions vaguely forming in the conference room.
Realizing what was going on, he lowered his head and said, "My master is indeed no longer among us, but the murderer never revealed himself. I reversed time and space, but only saw a few green lights. I didn't get to see the murderer."
"Green lights?" Everybody was dazed. They all looked at Su Ping.
When Hei Huang quit the Astral Nexus, Su Ping had waved a hand and released three green sword auras. Were the green lights that Han Ji mentioned the sword auras that Su Ping released back then?
The three sword auras killed Hei Huang?
Even though they were launched from the Astral Nexus?
They found it absurd and unbelievable. However, it was Hei Huang's disciple who told them about the situation; he couldn't be lying.
Han Ji found the silent conference room weird. However, being the late Hei Huang's disciple, he had to demand an explanation for the sake of his master.
"Shen Huang, was my master really killed by
you?"
Although his master had died and there was no one backing him, he knew it was pointless to win sympathy by showing weakness.
All the experts present had made names for themselves by fighting their way out of oceans of blood. Counting on their mercy was even more unreliable than counting on himself rising to the Celestial State all of a sudden.
Noticing his determined look, Shen Huang knew that he had mustered all his courage to ask that question. He replied calmly, "I didn't kill him. Your master offended Xiao Su, so he killed him."
"Xiao Su?"
Han Ji was stunned. He had never heard about that Celestial before.
"I was the one who killed your master. I can send you off to join him if you disobey," said Su Ping directly, with bloody cruelty.
He looked around and said, "I killed him just to set an example, so that you know how easy it is for me to kill you; arguing with you is just a waste of time. This is my last warning… In ten days, mobilize all your forces and move to the Celestial Court to establish a defense line and resist the worms together.
"If you can't make it by then, you won't have to anymore!"