Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Rumble!

The skyship still rumbled about chaotically for a few moments before ceasing, someone had obviously gained control of the skybound vessel. Yan Zaizen didn’t fear crashing, but he preferred to avoid the many deaths that would follow as a result.

Gently placing the snow-white puppy aside, Yan Zaizen slowly walked forwards to stand directly before the examiner, towering over him with a calm, indifferent gaze. It lacked an innate coldness or hostility, and seemed to truly be apathetic. That gaze left the examiner with a icy-chill through his body, as if his life was deemed meaningless before a god.

"I..." he tried to speak, but Yan Zaizen interrupted.

"I know you want to say some nonsense, but you can hold off on that. I’ll first give you some special massages and then we can talk, okay?" A half-smile formed on his lips. Yan Zaizen’s palm that was as flawless as jade yet contained the contours of a god-like hand reached out to grab the examiner’s shoulder.

Almost immediately, the examiner felt an unfathomable amount of terror within his heart, his eyes brimming with boundless and untold levels of fear. That palm that reached towards him seemed to contain an aura reminiscent of a dreadful reaper!

He had already despaired with his cultivation shattered, and his life no longer his to control, but as a sword cultivator, he had a firm will similar to the unbending steel of his blade. Yet, before this palm, it was as if that firm will which was refined over the course of several hundred years and countless tribulations had been crushed into nothing.

"Wait! Wait!" He wheezed out. His body trembled and Yan Zaizen halted. Sword cultivators were cultivators who possessed some of the most steadiest wills in existence, but with a little bit of his soul, dao, and vital aura was sufficient to crumble this will. Even a Heavenly Cultivator who devoted their entirety to their sword may not be able to withstand this tactic.

"You know what I want to know, so..." Yan Zaizen kept his halted palm before the examiner, and it was treated like the plague as the examiner kicked backwards, but his back had already reached its limits with the wall behind him, so besides some scrapping marks, he accomplished nothing.

"I! I...Yo-You’re a member of the Yan Clan?!" The examiner spat. When he did, his tone had underwent a subtle shift that seemed to be infused with a hint of hatred and discrimination.

Yan Zaizen was briefly taken aback by this, but considering his attempt to slice off his head so decisively after learning his name, he felt it wasn’t entirely out of place. So, he merely nodded. In truth, Yan Clan was too generic.

It was a name that many clans had when he was in the Xiantu Realm all those years ago. Therefore, he felt it to be somewhat odd that the Yan name was synonymous with hate in this person’s eyes.

A deep gulp later, the examiner said with spittle flying, "You dare take that name! You deserve death, a thousand times over, an endless number of times. Your soul should be dispersed by spectrals of hell and abolished to never enter reincarnation, tainting it with your filthy bloodline! You dirty, evil thing!"

"..." Now, this startled Yan Zaizen. However, outside of that, he didn’t take it personally. Instead, he rubbed his chin and asked, "You hate the Yan Clan that much? Even if they did that thing, is it worth so much?" He sent out a fishing sentence.

As if insulted, the examiner spat at Yan Zaizen’s shoes. His eyes filled with rancor and contempt, "Yes! Yes!! Yes!!! They are devils who’ve nearly exterminated the entire population of Presba, genocidal maniacs that should never be alive. You tell me, why shouldn’t I hate them?! They feasted on the blood of children, the bones of newborns, and the flesh of the mature! They are horrifying abominations that should never exist. You should never exist!

"Your freakish strength, I should’ve known who you were the moment I laid my eyes on you and killed you then and there!" At this point, his words were filled with emotions and even a faint hint of tears as if he experienced all those horrendous acts personally.

Yan Zaizen’s eyes went from intrigued to indifferent. He continued to interrogate the subject for a few more clarifications before he kicked out. A crushing smash caused the examiner’s torso and legs to vehemently twitch as his skull exploded beneath Yan Zaizen’s feet. If this man hadn’t attempted to kill him earlier, he could’ve displayed a hint of mercy.

Interesting.

Lifting his leg up, he cleaned his shoes and sat down on the bed. The snow-white puppy leapt into his thighs and got comfortable, completely unaffected by the murderously violent scene just a few feet away.

"The Yan Clan’s infamy started a few thousand years ago...if I calculate it a little, it was a few hundred years after my departure." As he said this, he recalled all that information.

Supposedly, the Yan Clan was born from devils and created a tremendously disastrous slaughter within Presba, nearly wiping out the entire population. The current members of Presba had faint bloodline connections and legacies to the former Presba, but they were actually citizens of other planets brought here to develop and regain its normalcy.

It took a thousand or so years before it regained its stability and peace it has today, but the "Yan" name was synonymous with the utmost evil and devilish existences. There was no one who took the Yan character in their names since. Those who did were like neo demons who were trying to breed fear and hatred.

According to what he could gather, there were soul jades distributed literally everywhere which were like history books that taught many things, including the Yan Clan’s history. Even small children knew the story of these demons, but many had forgotten or simply never considered it relevant. This was different for cultivators of a certain cultivation strength, however. They were not only given detailed soul jades about the event that even filmed some of the incidents, but they were tasked with preventing an event like that from happening again.

This meant being tasked with hunting and decisively killing the Yan lineage.

This last bit wasn’t just distributed to Presba. The entire Xiantu Realm was influenced by this and given such a task. They were infamous, outlawed, and killed on sight. The ability to do this meant the order came from high above.

Learning that his clan was eradicated felt gut-wrenching. His entire body felt a raging flame of anger course through ceaselessly. Ordinarily, he cared very little about his clan, especially after how he was treated in his earlier years, but they were his family, his blood! His father and mother gave him his flesh and bones, so he felt a unique connection with it. How could he not react with a hint of blazing emotion upon hearing this?

Yan Zaizen’s eyes flashed with a sharp light. "It seems I have to have a talk with a certain someone...." He lifted his eyes upwards towards the direction of the Xiantu Realm’s central planet.

He knew his bloodline lacked demonic traits, and there had to be more to it than this propaganda bullshit. Firstly, he should get his hands on the soul jade that contained the vivid details of the event. Unfortunately, this deceased examiner didn’t have it.

Just as he was impatient, a ferocious aura erupted, encapsulating the entirety of the skyship, binding it in midair. A domineering and dark voice resounded, "Murderer of my Soaring Sword Sect’s disciple, come out and face death!"

Yan Zaizen’s eyes slowly lowered to the voice. A dark light flashed within his amber-gold irises.