Mercenary City was originally an inconspicuous place, like a forgotten garbage heap in the city, a place everyone despised, where a group of people struggled to survive.
They are already at the very bottom of life, at the bottom of the food chain. No matter what level of cultivation they reach, they are destined to live an ordinary life, until their lifespan is exhausted and they die of old age here.
Unlike other cultivators, the people here did not live long, because the Tianhuang Domain had long been corroded by the aura of the Sea of Demons, and the spiritual energy contained a large amount of impurities.
Unlike the Long family disciples, they could cultivate under the filtering of the Spirit Gathering Array; the spiritual energy here was severely corroding their bodies.
The corrosion of spiritual energy, the damage caused by inferior pills, and years of war with various magical beasts and sea monsters over survival resources have left their bodies extremely weak.
What troubled them most was that, for some reason, they couldn't leave the Tianhuang Domain. If they did, the external laws would suppress them, preventing them from absorbing spiritual energy and making it impossible to cultivate.
The path of cultivation is like rowing against the current. Once cultivation stagnates, it begins to regress. With cultivation, they can suppress injuries and delay their onset, but once their cultivation regresses, they will die within years.
Rumor had it that these mercenaries were cursed and destined to suffer here for generations. So, apart from bullying them, Long family disciples rarely interacted with them.
Intermarriage is even less common. Cultivators value bloodline above all else; no one wants their bloodline to be tainted by a group of lowly people.
So, these mercenaries could only band together for warmth, knowing there was no future, yet still stubbornly surviving.
However, their way of life was shattered by Long Chen's arrival. Long Chen passed on the Galaxy Sky Technique to them and gave them pills to activate the ancestral runes in their dantian.
After the ancestral runes revived, their bodies underwent a complete transformation. All hidden injuries were gradually being cleared, and their strength was rapidly improving. They diligently cultivated the Planetary River Sky Technique, comprehending its mysteries.
They experienced a turning point in their lives. They cherished this opportunity immensely, fearing that if they didn't work hard enough, they might lose the chance to change their fate. They longed to change their destiny so much.
Through their diligent cultivation, their strength soared like a comet. Fang Liude improved the fastest, having already condensed a hundred stars and reached the threshold to draw stars into their bodies.
They were pleasantly surprised to find that after the ancestral mark awakened, the corrosiveness in the spiritual energy could no longer destroy their bodies. They could freely absorb it, no longer needing to remove it bit by bit like before, only to still be corroded.
However, a strong body also brings a certain burden: the energy needed for their bodies increases, and to quickly improve their strength, they need more resources.
For mercenaries, they had very few resources and could barely meet their current needs when doing tasks.
But now things were different. They needed more resources and more pills, so they began hunting magical beasts and sea monsters everywhere, searching for rare medicines, and exchanging resources with the Long family to cover their expenses.
As the mercenaries' strength increased, they dared to go to many places they previously dared not go, but this would cause them to clash with some of the Long family disciples undergoing trials.
However, when mercenaries encountered Long family disciples undergoing trials, they would avoid disturbing them. Unfortunately, even so, they still made the Long family disciples feel disgusted.
They began to curse at them and even tried to drive them away. The mercenaries had no choice but to swallow their anger and leave. Although Long Zhantian secured them more hunting grounds, the Long family agreed, and the law was enacted.
But the law is sometimes just a game—laws are issued by the Long family, enforced by them, and the ones who are bound are these mercenaries.
So sometimes, the Long family's promises are just words and never come true. Other times, the Long family disciples, relying on their strength, bully the mercenaries, only to find that the current mercenaries are so powerful that they simply can't win.
This shocked and enraged them, and they began calling on stronger inner disciples to step in. One inner disciple got into a conflict with Fang Liude and the others, injuring Yuying. Fang Liude and the others, furious, beat the other party.
This completely enraged the Long family disciples, who directly reported to the higher-ups that the mercenaries had maliciously attacked the Long family's inner disciples and were showing signs of rebellion.
No one knew how this news had reached Long Zaiye's ears. Long Zaiye was still angry, but upon hearing the news, he rushed straight to Mercenary City.
Fang Liude and the others were terrified. Long Zaiyezi had been humiliated by Long Chen and vented his anger on them, hitting and cursing them, but they dared not make a sound and could only endure silently.
When Long Zaiye insulted Long Chen, Fang Liude finally couldn't take it anymore, retorted a few times, and was killed on the spot by Long Zaiye.
"That bastard, I should have killed him long ago." Long Chen was nearly furious when he heard the whole story. He never imagined this guy would be so shameless—once one of the Four Great Saints, he had no sense of how to bully a group of small mercenaries.
"Boss, I've embarrassed you. I can't beat Long Yifang, so I can only watch them run wild. I ..." It turned out Long Ziwei was present at the time. He wanted to protect everyone, but Long Yifang, ranked seventh on the Heavenly List, deliberately made things difficult for him, and Long Ziwei was severely injured.
Watching helplessly as Fang Liude was killed, he was filled with guilt but powerless to help. He went to complain, but everyone was in seclusion, Lord Tiansi was nowhere to be found, and Long Zaiye ruled with absolute power. He had no way to do anything.
Long Zaiye ran to the Jiuli Tower to wait for Long Chen to come out. But he really did get it, but seeing Long Chen's cultivation level disappointed him. He was afraid Long Chen wouldn't be able to cover these mercenaries.
"Rumble... After
several teleportations, Long Chen arrived at the city closest to Mercenary City. Long Chen summoned Thunder Wings and rushed toward Mercenary City at top speed.
Soon, Mercenary City came into view, and then Long Chen saw a scene that made his whole body tremble: dozens of pillars stood in the square. Yu Ying and the others were tied to them, their bodies covered in whip marks, blood staining the pillars red.
On the pillar at the very front hung a human head—it was Fang Liude's head. In front of the square, a group of people were holding whips, continuously whipping Yu Ying and the others, seemingly cursing.
"Stop right there!"
Long Chen roared in anger, like a god's roar. In that instant, the color of the entire world changed.