Chapter 720 - Excessive Extent
In comparison to Feng Hengkong’s frame of mind and shrewdness, Feng Tianwei was naturally far superior.
However, the precondition of a psychological warfare was that the opposing party couldn’t know one’s secrets. Otherwise, one would have lost before even starting.
Although he didn’t know, it was even more so the case for Feng Tianwei, as even within the Divine Phoenix Sect, only small number of people knew that the Phoenix God was dead.
“Conditions? Heh heh, as expected of the Phoenix Grand Sect Master, how sharp and straightforward you are. Truly so much better than your wastrel of a son who inherited the position of Sect Master. Previously, I did not immediately act and instead gave you multiple opportunities. Every time I appeared, the first thing I would always do was initiate negotiations with your Divine Phoenix Sect and clearly list my terms. What a shame, even when I gave you people face you continued to throw it away!”
“Yet now, you are the ones seeking to negotiate with me.” Yun Che squinted, his sarcastic gaze like a sharp blade as he looked straight at Feng Hengkong. “Feng Hengkong, I’m really lamenting on the behalf of the Phoenix disciples, princes, elders, and grand elders for the injustices they suffered as it was your foolishness which sent them to their deaths.”
“You!” Feng Hengkong clenched his teeth as he almost spit out blood. As of this moment, he already could not help but acknowledge the bitter fact that he, the dignified Phoenix Sect Master, the Divine Phoenix Emperor, had suffered an utter and complete defeat before Yun Che.
Starting from the first day, Yun Che had shown weakness as he knowingly proposed conditions that were impossible for the opposite party to agree to; conditions which would be viewed as jokes... Then he had gradually revealed his own strength. Every time, he would reveal a little more, and then he would propose another condition that they were even more so unable to accept. Each time, he made them think that it was already the limit of his strength...
He had indeed come to negotiate and propose terms every day. However, every time, he had purposely proposed ones that they could not accept! Now that the time had come where they couldn’t reject the conditions, the conditions that he proposed were ones that they were even more unable to accept...
The purpose of his revenge was not merely to kill and or injure them, but to also cause them to tremble in fear and to feel humiliation and regret...
Just as Yun Che had desired, all of these feelings had been ruthlessly imprinted upon Feng Hengkong’s soul.
Although they had been deliberately lead on by Yun Che, the loss of dignity, the collapse of Phoenix City, the deaths of the four princes, the five elders, and Feng Tianqing and Feng Tianyu… they had all happened because he refused to comply with the requests set by Yun Che time after time!!
Now, faced with the crisis of extermination of their clan, they were the ones that had to take the initiative to seek out negotiations.
All the deaths from before had been in vain!
Such hatred, remorse, and fear had made Feng Hengkong’s heart twitch with pain to the point where no one knew just how many times it nearly shattered.
Feng Hengkong knew that this was Yun Che’s cruel retaliation towards him, and that Yun Che had completely succeeded. At least, the present feeling of humiliation that Feng Hengkong felt was ten million times more painful than death.
In front of Yun Che, he had suffered a crushing defeat. His profound strength was far weaker as well. As even Feng Tianwei’s back had become completely drenched in sweat when he personally faced Yun Che, it was clear that he, even though he was the Phoenix Sect Master… simply didn’t have the qualifications to go against Yun Che.
“What conditions have Yun Che previously set?” Feng Tianwei turned to the side, asking Feng Hengkong with a sinking tone.
Feng Hengkong pressed his palm against his chest and fully calmed his voice before he said, “He wants us to withdraw our troops by a set time, pay thirty billion purple profound coins as compensation, apologize to the Blue Wind Nation, and hang the imperial edict stating our apology on our city walls for at least ten years. Furthermore….” Feng Hengkong clenched his teeth: “Furthermore, he wants us to cede the entire Red Jade Region to Blue Wind and for Ximing to cripple his profound arts so that they can hold him as a hostage in Blue Wind Imperial City for a full fifty years!!”
“…” Feng Tianwei’s brows were fiercely locked. To compensate, apologize, cede territory, and give away the crown prince as hostage… every condition along brought shame that had never before been seen in the history of the Divine Phoenix Nation, every condition trampled upon the five thousand years of dignity of his Divine Phoenix!
“Grandfather, although Ximing is not powerful, I still have the identity of the Divine Phoenix Crown Prince! Even if I were to die ten thousand times, I still would never accept this humiliation! My Divine Phoenix also cannot suffer this humiliation!” Feng Ximing shouted with a trembling voice. Undoubtedly, he feared that under this kind of pressure, Feng Tianwei might actually accept Yun Che’s conditions. He was the Divine Phoenix Empire’s Crown Prince but if he were to cripple his profound arts and go to Blue Wind Imperial City, he would inevitably pass every second within the next fifty years in unimaginable humiliation.
If he was still alive and able to return to the Divine Phoenix Empire after fifty years, it would be impossible for his crippled self to still be the Divine Phoenix Crown Prince. When people saw him, they would only think of the history of humiliation that he carried on his back.
“Yun Che, if these are the conditions you put forward…” Feng Tianwei’s eyebrows slanted into a V-shape, “Did you think there was a possibility that my Divine Phoenix Sect would accept these!!”
“No, no, that’s not the case.” The anger and coercion Feng Tianwei had been secretly storing was just about to be surface until he heard the denial Yun Che gave while smiling, which left him stunned. Contrary to the chilling expression Feng Tianwei had, Yun Che’s expression was actually that of happiness, “Those were only just yesterday’s conditions. Your son should already clearly know. How could today’s conditions possibly be the same as yesterday’s?!”
“Sss…” Feng Hengkong’s lip trembled, the nightmares he had experienced in the past three days hovered over his mind and soul. Each one had been more frightful than the one before and the pain, resentment, rage, regret, and humiliation accumulated one after the other...
Thinking back to the Yun Che from the first day… he had seemed like the reincarnation of the benevolent Buddha from legends.
“What do you mean?” Feng Tianwei’s brow sunk even deeper.
“Royal father……” Feng Hengkong opened his mouth, however, he was not able to utter a sound for a long time. Finally, he lifted his finger, gathered the memories of the past days into profound strength, and passed it to Feng Tianwei’s soul.
Suddenly, what Feng Hengkong had experienced when facing Yun Che in the past couple days was completely displayed within Feng Tianwei’s mind. His face did not change, but yet a quick glance revealed his fierce shock...
He was not shocked by Yun Che’s schemes.
Rather, he was shocked by the plans and methods he used which were more murderous than a devil and more venomous than a poisonous snake.
Is he… really only twenty-two years old!?!
“Hehe, Grand Sect Master need not worry. Although I, Yun Che, am not a good man, when facing your Divine Phoenix Sect, I believe that I have already offered the greatest amount of kindness of my life.” Yun Che gave a light chuckle; to anyone in the Divine Phoenix Sect, his words all seemed like jokes, only he himself knew that his words were true to the utmost extent: “These opportunities have been wasted by your arrogance and stupidity, you have no one to blame but yourselves. However the Grand Sect Master came personally and moreover, conceded on his own initiative, I naturally must give him some face as I am from the younger generation. Therefore compared to yesterday, today I will only slightly modify the three conditions.”
After he read the memory fragment that Feng Hengkong had passed over, Feng Tianwei understood that Yun Che was more than just difficult to deal with… right now, it could be said that he was negotiating with a real devil. He raised his heal slightly and with a calm and tranquil tone, “Say it then, those three conditions.”
“First, the compensation amount will be changed to fifty billion purple profound coins! Deliver it to the Blue Wind Imperial Family, not a single coin less!!”
“Fifty… fifty billion!” The face of the Phoenix elders who were unable to accept the ten billion originally proposed by Yun Che twitched. Feng Ximing clenched his teeth, “Yun Che, quit daydreaming already!”
“...Continue.” Feng Tianwei said in a deep voice.
“As for the second…” Yun Che’s gaze fell on Feng Ximing, making his whole body tighten, “Yesterday I mentioned that your Divine Phoenix Crown Prince must come to the Blue Wind Imperial Family to be a guest. Who knew that the distinguished Crown Prince would unexpectedly be scared shitless, making it so that people pitied him just by looking at him. If he came to my Blue Wind Imperial City and became insane after being terrified, that would be too awful to see.”
“Yun Che, you!!” Feng Ximing’s face turned jet black, he hated that he couldn’t use his mouth to bite Yun Che into pieces.
“Therefore it would be better for this Divine Phoenix Crown Prince to not go to my Blue Wind Nation’s land. However there must be someone who will become a guest of my Blue Wind Imperial Family…” In front of everyone’s startled eyes, Yun Che’s gaze fell upon Feng Hengkong body, “Then the current Phoenix Sect Master will do.
“Completely cripple Feng Hengkong’s profound arts, have him return to the Blue Wind Imperial City with me, and kneel in front of my royal father Cang Wanhe’s grave for one hundred years!
“Not a single day less!!”
~！@#￥%…………
These words from Yun Che hit the minds of everyone in the Divine Phoenix Sect like thunder, causing all their faces to drastically change color, angering them to the point their their chests were about crack. A sound that resembled the the dislocating of bones could be heard from Feng Tianwei.
Without waiting for their angry roar, Yun Che voice continued to ring, “Thirdly, within two hundred years from today, your Divine Phoenix Empire must present at least one billion purple profound coins, fifteen thousand kilograms of purple crystals, twenty five hundred thousand kilograms of profound iron and stones, and five thousand sets of phoenix fire weapons and armor as tributes to my Blue Wind Imperial Family!”
“And every ten years, the quantity will increase by twenty percent.”
“There can only be more, not less!!”
Even if Feng Tianwei had several thousand years more of mentality and self-control, he would still wish that he could curse out loud at Yun Che while pointing at his face this instant.
The faces of all the people in the Divine Phoenix Sect darkened, their expression uglier than if they had swallowed five tonnes of dog turd. Even if Feng Tianwei exhausted all his energy into constraining his anger, he was not able to keep a calm tone, and instead it trembled fiercely, “Yun… Che! I saw that you rescued Xue’er before and yielded to you on my own initiative, do not… go too far…”
He could not find any words to describe his own emotions at the moment... The words “go too far” were simply not enough to express his anger towards Yun Che!
“Go too far?” Yun Che’s eyebrows sank, his happy expression becoming incomparably cold, “Because of you, the lives of fifty million citizens of my Blue Wind Nation were lost. Countless people are destitute and homeless. For them, to mention a mere fifty billion purple profound coins; five hundred billion, even five trillion are not enough to return the lives of even one of their lives!!
“Fifty billion in compensation, how is that excessive in the slightest!!”
“The late emperor of Blue Wind and the royal father of my wife Cang Yue and I, Cang Wanhe, had always revered your Divine Phoenix and had not even a shred of enmity or disrespect for it. Yet you set a death trap for him... he who was also the emperor of a nation. My royal father was cruelly murdered by you, yet I have not said I wanted the life of Feng Hengkong, who should have died a thousand deaths, and instead wanted him to just redeem his sins for just a short hundred years, how is that excessive in the slightest!”
“Since the founding of Blue Wind a thousand years ago, we have given your Divine Phoenix Empire generations of tribute for a total of a thousand years, never having a missed year! Now that your Divine Phoenix trampled upon my Blue Wind, all I’m making you do is a trivial two hundred years of tribute to my Blue Wind, is that also too excessive?!”
“Feng Tianwei, you explain to me, was it I who bullied your Divine Phoenix, or was it your Divine Phoenix who bullied my Blue Wind?!”
The last few words fell and Yun Che’s voice caused sand to surge through all directions throughout the entire Phoenix City, making every soul tremble.
“Yun Che, there is no need to chew words with me.” Feng Tianwei looked sternly, the veins on his forehead looking ready to burst, “My Divine Phoenix can completely give the compensation of fifty billion purple profound coins to the Blue Wind Imperial Family, we can even cede the Red Jade Region to your Blue Wind! However, this is the bottom line that my Divine Phoenix can tolerate, as for the others…”
“There is no need for you to waste your time talking rubbish with me, either.” Yun Che sneered without leaving any ground, “You only need to say whether you accept or do not accept, you do not have the qualifications to bargain back and forth.
“Not even in the slightest!!”
Every single one of Yun Che’s words were like thunder, and not the slightest room was left.
“Grand Sect Master, regardless of my Divine Phoenix Empire or the Divine Phoenix Sect, none of them may be trampled and humiliated like this!” the four Phoenix elders shouted out.
“We have the protection of the Lord Phoenix God. If he really is prepared to destroy Phoenix City at this moment, Lord Phoenix God will definitely appear. Each of this devilspawn’s words are just wishful thinking!!
“Yun Che, you just wait to receive Lord Phoenix God’s anger and sanction!!”
“Silence!” Feng Tianwei waved suddenly, bringing about a blast of turbulent wind. To the knowledge of the Phoenix elders and disciples, the Phoenix God still lived in this world, therefore, even though they were angry, their hearts were assured because they believed in the existence of the Ancestral Phoenix God. But the pressure that was put in the hearts of Feng Tianwei, Feng Hengkong, and Feng Ximing undoubtedly surpassed theirs by many times.
Only they clearly knew that what they faced may be complete extinction.
If it really reached that point, then Phoenix City would only be the starting point. The chain reaction from discovering that the Phoenix God was dead would be the scariest.
Therefore, no matter what, they could not let Yun Che choose to sink the destruction domain.
However the conditions he put forward…… how could they accept them?!
“Good, very good.” Feng Tianwei looked angrily at Yun Che, his whole body trembling slightly. At this moment, the only thing he could take rely on was to use the Ancestral Phoenix God to frighten Yun Che, “What if I don’t comply?”
“Then that’s great!!” There was no hesitation or disappointment. Instead, Yun Che’s face had a look of excitement as if he couldn’t wait to reply to Feng Tianwei, “Then let this Phoenix City forever vanish from this world!!”
“Hahahaha!” Feng Tianwei raised his head and laughed wildly, “Indeed, I do not have the ability to offset your flame domain. But do you really think that with that much strength you can destroy this Phoenix City? I have said before, although my Ancestral Phoenix God rarely comes to this mortal world, if you dare sink that domain and threaten this Phoenix City’s safety, Lord Phoenix God will appear! With Lord Phoenix God’s strength, only a moment would be necessary to destroy this destruction domain and completely eliminate you from this world!”
“Alright! Then I will throw this destruction domain down and see what your Divine Phoenix Sect’s so-called Ancestral Phoenix God looks like!!”
Even in Feng Tianwei’s dream he never would have imagined that Yun Che did not show the slightest hint of being intimidated or turn hesitant after he had shouted out “Ancestral Phoenix God”.; instead, Yun Che’s aura acutely shifted about, as his entire body burned with flames, striking a posture of immediately hurling the destruction domain down.
“S… Stop!!!!” Feng Hengkong roared, his voice hoarse and fierce. Yun Che’s movements had startled the three of them almost to the extent of their souls leaving their bodies.
Rrrmb…
The sounds of profound strength rolled down from the skies above like thunder. The scarlet gold domain covered the entire sky like a slow moving sea of magma. The originally scorching hot temperature of the air surged again, and a judgement day-like aura covered all of Phoenix City.
Under Feng Hengkong’s panic-stricken roar, Yun Che’s arm suddenly stopped. Despite the turmoil of the appearance of the destruction domain, he had at least not thrown it down. Yun Che overlooked them with a smile, “What happened Phoenix Sect Master? You have the protection of the great Phoenix God. I cannot possible damage the Phoenix City if I throw this down, it would be suicide. Could it be that the Phoenix Sect Master was actually worried about my life?”
Yun Che’s voice, eyes, and aura clearly radiated confidence. Hence, Feng Tianwei began to feel that Yun Che already knew the truth that the Phoenix God was dead…
Otherwise, how could he be so calm and resolute when faced against the “Ancestral Phoenix God”, which could even deter the Four Great Sacred Grounds!
If it was really like this, then his final bargaining chip against Yun Che was useless.
“Yun Che,” Feng Tianwei opened his eyes, his voice becoming low and drawn out, “Must you do it to such an excessive extent!”
“Excessive extent?” Yun Che replied to him with an ice-cold sneer, “If I had returned one day later, than this Profound Sky Continent would never have a Blue Wind Nation again! In this world, anyone can tell me these words. Only your Divine Phoenix Empire… is not worthy!”
Feng Tianwei: “...”
Rrmmb……
The purgatory in the sky began to churn more and more violently. Hot and chaotic blasts continued to strike down from the air, especially around the edges of the domain. The scarlet gold boiling flames had already begun its slow downward descent. Yun Che lifted his head to take a glance. Then, he narrowed his eyes and said with a sinking voice, “This is only the second time in my life that I have used this destruction domain. Both times were given to your Divine Phoenix Sect. Feng Tianwei, you should have already felt that I currently do not have the strength to maintain its condition any longer. In roughly sixty breaths of time, it will completely break away from my control and even if I wanted it to return, it would be impossible.
“In other words, I can grant you at most sixty breaths of time… to choose either survival or destruction!”
The heat of the air had reached the extent where an average man would burn if he touched it, yet Feng Tianwei, Feng Hengkong, and Feng Ximing felt as cold as ice. The Phoenix elders had also begun to notice that something felt wrong and all of their gazes focused upon Feng Tianwei, not daring to say a single word more.
“Grandfather…”Feng Ximing watched Feng Tianwei’s back, his face pale. He never could have imagined that Yun Che, who he had not paid any attention to back then, would in three short years, return and control the life and death of his Divine Phoenix Sect.
“Royal father…” Feng Hengkong powerlessly uttered, then slowly stretched his right palm, silently pressing it to the position of the profound vein’s core position...
His profound strength had just started to dissipate when a familiar aura touched heavily upon his soul, causing him to instantly lift his head, as though he had been electrocuted.
In almost the same instant, Feng Tianwei, Feng Ximing… and everyone else’s gaze gathered at the same place.
At this time, Yun Che’s facial expression suddenly froze as well…
“Big Brother Yun… is that… you?”
A young girl’s dream-like voice escaped from behind him, sounding like soft clouds, yet also reminiscent of the gentle weeping of the wind.