The poorest member of the Imperial Guard, the Empress begged me to embezzle.

However, when Chu Xiu threw the culprits of the Xu and Yang rebellions in front of the disaster-stricken people, things did not develop as he had expected.

Xiao Longcheng and Yang Yantian had their cultivation crippled and were thrown into the mud.

In front of all the disaster victims, Chu Xiu revealed their identities and what they had done.

"Are you saying that these two are the ones who caused us to be separated from our wives and children and lose our home?"

The leader among the common people was the local official of a certain county in Xuzhou.

During his tenure, he suffered greatly from the oppression of local powerful figures, yet he had no right to know that the people behind those powerful figures were the Yang family, who regarded the entire Xuzhou as their own property!

After the rebellion broke out, he spent all his wealth and maneuvered among powerful figures to safely relocate more than half of the county's population to this place.

The title of "parent official" is truly well-deserved!

"That's right!"

Chu Xiu looked around at the people whose eyes were filled with uncertainty about the future, and said softly:

"The rebellions in Xu and Yang prefectures will soon be over, and you will all be able to return to your hometowns. The imperial court will help you rebuild your homes, so there is no need to worry about that."

"As for these two culprits, whether they are killed or tortured is entirely up to you!"

Chu Xiu deliberately silenced the two men to avoid having to listen to their endless ramblings as they faced certain death.

The people were furious to see the culprit right in front of them, but not a single person stepped forward with a weapon to cut the culprit into a thousand pieces to appease the people.

"If you are unwilling to take action, I can do it for you..."

Before Chu Xiu could finish speaking, a girl with tattered clothes and a dirty face suddenly ran up to the two old monsters.

She stuffed the two steamed buns she had been given that evening into the arms of the two old men who, in her eyes, were already skin and bones from hunger, and then quickly ran back behind her mother.

This action silenced Xiao Longcheng, who had been frantically begging for mercy with hand gestures. He stared blankly at the steamed bun in his arms.

Yang Yantian, who had been silent and resigned to his death, also looked at the steamed bun with a complicated expression.

The people who had gathered there gradually dispersed after thanking and bowing to Chu Xiu.

They wouldn't lay a hand on these two unarmed old men, even though they were the culprits who had displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

The only force capable of punishing evildoers is the justice of humanity, represented by the Marquis of Champion!

Upon witnessing this scene, Chu Xiu couldn't help but sigh:

"Is human nature inherently good or evil at its inception...?"

Chu Xiu remotely took two military knives and threw them in front of Xiao Longcheng and Yang Yantian, breaking their verbal sparring.

"I will confiscate all the property of your Xiao and Yang families to help the people rebuild their homes, but I will not exterminate your families."

"As long as the Embroidered Uniform Guard verifies the crime and finds it not to warrant death, they will be convicted according to the law and their lives will be spared!"

"Those who commit heinous crimes will be punished to the death, even if they flee to the ends of the earth, the Embroidered Uniform Guard will grind their bones to dust!"

"As for your lives... there is absolutely no reason to spare them!"

"Take your own life!"

After saying this, Chu Xiu left with his hands behind his back to seek out Zhao Junshen for a discussion.

Xiao Longcheng and Yang Yantian were left behind to end their own lives.

When Chu Xiu returned to this place the following morning,

Xiao Longcheng and Yang Yantian were no longer there; only two small, unmarked graves remained under a withered old tree not far away.

In front of the grave, there were two untouched cornbread buns and two bunches of wildflowers.

Unexpectedly, in the end, it was the ordinary people who were the victims who collected the body of the perpetrator who committed suicide...

Chu Xiu sighed deeply, his eyes filled with relief.

This is one of the reasons why he wants to protect humanity!

Although life is full of hardships, it has not distorted the mind and will of most ordinary people.

He was proud to be born as a human being and to have so many kin who uphold the righteous path!

Pulling himself back to his senses, Chu Xiu's face quickly darkened again.

Last night, he learned from Zhao Wuyang that there was an urgent report from the southwestern border that the barbarians had launched a surprise attack and invasion!

The war in the east had just ended when it broke out in the west. This so-called era of great strife truly brought suffering to humankind.

Now that he is the most powerful person in the world, he must completely quell the rebellion before things get out of control!

"Barbarians..."

Chu Xiu's face was grave.

It should be understood that after the Great Conflict began, the laws of heaven and earth of the entire world no longer restricted the appearance of cultivators above the True Immortal Realm and below the Limit Realm, including barbarians and demons.

The reason why the Great Zhou Dynasty was able to keep the barbarian and demon races outside the border with its army was that the barbarian and demon races were more easily suppressed by the laws of heaven and earth than the human race.

At that time, neither the barbarian nor the demon race had any experts above the Xuanxian realm; their strongest experts were all suppressed to below the Xuanxian realm.

Now that the restrictions have been lifted, several powerful individuals at the eighth level of the Profound Immortal Realm have appeared from both the Barbarian and Demon races. The border soldiers are finding it difficult to resist, and only powerful individuals like Chu Xiu, who are also at the Profound Immortal Realm, can step in.

After all, if either the barbarian race or the demon race were to rule the world, they would annihilate the other races!

Compared to the barbarian and demon races, the human race is already quite tolerant of other races.

Without delay, Chu Xiu set off immediately.

The sooner the chaos caused by the barbarians and demons is resolved, the fewer casualties there will be among the border soldiers!

Previously, Zhao Junshen received a battle report from the southern border of Yizhou: the barbarians had invaded, and he also informed Chu Xiu of this matter.

Chu Xiu's journey was headed straight for the southern border of Yizhou.

Barbarians most admire martial prowess and respect the strong.

Only by defeating the strongest of the barbarians with force can we subdue them!

The sword light that Chu Xiu transformed into did not linger on the border front.

Instead, it flew directly to the location of the strongest barbarian—the Barbarian Emperor—that it had detected with its divine sense!

When Chu Xiu arrived at the barbarian camp where the barbarian king was located, a sense of unease suddenly arose in his heart.

Just as he was using his divine sense and aura-gazing technique to investigate the cause of his unease, the void above his head suddenly shattered, revealing a huge spatial rift.

Chu Xiu looked up at the crack, his unease growing stronger.

From the enormous spatial rift, countless dark purple vines climbed out, intertwining to form a massive wisteria trunk.

At the tip of the branch, a strangely shaped flower bud seemed to have grown.

As the flower buds appeared, a purple light array suddenly appeared on the ground, enveloping the entire barbarian camp, seemingly echoing the wisteria flower buds in the sky.

In an instant, countless thorny wisteria vines suddenly appeared amidst the flashing light array, growing wildly and directly piercing and killing hundreds of thousands of barbarian warriors in the camp!

The corpses of these barbarian warriors at the Immortal Realm and above were directly refined into essence blood by the magic array. Under the control of an invisible force, they rose into the air and disappeared into that strangely shaped flower bud.

After being nourished by this essence of blood, the flower bud gradually began to bloom.

"Is someone sacrificing the lives of barbarian warriors to that flower bud?"

Chu Xiu was shocked by the bloody scene before him.

His divine sense quickly detected the figure of the barbarian king.

To Chu Xiu's surprise, the person who sacrificed the lives of barbarian warriors was actually the Barbarian Emperor!

The highest-ranking member of a race is nourishing himself with the lives of countless members of his own race!

At this moment, the burly and tall barbarian emperor was sitting cross-legged in the eye of the purple light array.

As the flower bud gradually bloomed, the Barbarian Emperor's aura also gradually increased, moving from the eighth level of the Profound Immortal Realm towards the half-step limit.

"It wants to use this secret technique to forcibly advance to the half-step limit?"

Chu Xiu suddenly realized that the Barbarian Emperor must have sensed his existence as the only person in the world at the ninth level of the Profound Immortal Realm. In order to defeat him, it chose to sacrifice its own people to forcibly increase its strength to deal with him, the one at the pinnacle of power.

After all, if Chu Xiu were to die, no one in the world would be able to stop the barbarians from marching north!

At this moment, Chu Xiu had a strong premonition: once the flower bud fully bloomed, the Barbarian Emperor would be able to break through to the half-step limit under the blessing of the Blood Sacrifice Secret Technique.

Once the flower buds have fully bloomed and the flowers have borne fruit, the Barbarian Emperor can eat and refine them to further enhance his cultivation, bringing him infinitely closer to the true limit where Chu Xiu is!

This is the result of sacrificing hundreds of thousands or even millions of our own kind!

Even though they weren't of his kind, the tragic deaths of those barbarian warriors still filled Chu Xiu with uncontrollable rage.

He hated those who disregarded life more than anything else in his life!

Even if these lives are not of his kind!

"Barbarian Emperor!"

"You! Damn it!"