"The ones who laid hands on my clansmen weren't just from the Tantai Heavenly Clan. So will you come out on your own, or shall I, Chu Feng, come and drag you out?"
"If you admit your wrongdoing now, there may still be room for negotiation. But if I have to root you out myself, you won't even get the chance to apologize."
Chu Feng's voice was ice-cold, his gaze dark and heavy. Every word he spoke bore down like the arrival of death, brimming with crushing pressure.
Looking at Chu Feng like this, even ordinary people felt afraid—let alone those who had attacked the Chu Heavenly Clan's members.
Most importantly, Chu Feng's gaze swept across everyone present, and the moment it passed over them, those who had struck earlier all felt their hearts tremble. In that instant, cold sweat broke out across their bodies.
It wasn't that they were cowardly—it was that in that very moment, they understood they had been exposed. Chu Feng knew they had made their move. There was no concealing it.
"Young Master Chu Feng, we were wrong, we were wrong!"
"It was the devil in our hearts that led us astray. Please, give us one more chance!"
In an instant, people from every faction stepped forward and dropped directly to their knees.
It wasn't that they had no dignity or that they were spineless. It was that, in the wrong as they were, and facing such a ruthless, domineering Chu Feng, they knew perfectly well that stepping forward to admit their faults was the best choice.
If even the members of the Tantai Heavenly Clan had dared not raise a hand, did they still have a path to survival?
Stepping forward on their own might still mean they could live. Otherwise… in this place today, no one would be able to protect them.
"Those who attacked the Chu Heavenly Clan are not the only ones. Everyone who attacked anyone from the Great Thousand Upper Realm—get out here." Chu Feng spoke once more.
When Chu Feng's words fell, it wasn't just the powerful factions from various realms who were stunned—even the factions native to the Great Thousand Upper Realm were taken aback. In their bewildered eyes, a look of disbelief surged forth.
Chu Feng standing up for the Chu Heavenly Clan was perfectly understandable.
But now…
Could it be that Chu Feng was going to stand up for them as well?
Chu Feng was going to stand up for everyone from the Great Thousand Upper Realm?
Yet, this action of Chu Feng's also caused the faces of those who had previously been content to spectate to turn grim and uneasy.
They had restrained themselves from attacking the Chu Heavenly Clan out of concern, but the other factions of the Great Thousand Upper Realm were a different story.
In their eyes, the other factions of the Great Thousand Upper Realm were nothing but ants. So in terms of casualties, the number of dead and wounded from the Great Thousand Upper Realm's native factions was far beyond what the Chu Heavenly Clan had suffered.
If Chu Feng only sought to root out those who had targeted the Chu Heavenly Clan, that would have been one thing.
After all, those who had dared to strike at the Chu Heavenly Clan were still in the minority.
But if he sought to root out everyone who had attacked the people of the Great Thousand Upper Realm, then perhaps most of those present would not escape unscathed.
"Young Master Chu Feng, aren't you going a bit too far?"
"We can all understand you standing up for the Chu Heavenly Clan. After all, you have shown us kindness, and on both moral and practical grounds, we should never have harmed your clansmen."
"But what do the people of the Great Thousand Upper Realm have to do with you?" an elderly man asked.
This man was no ordinary figure either—he was an elder of the Puyang Heavenly Clan, one of the Ten Great Heavenly Clans.
"My clan governs the Great Thousand Upper Realm. Every living being within it falls under our clan's protection. You ask what they have to do with me?" Chu Feng laughed with a touch of sarcasm. "If you don't even understand such basic reasoning, how did you ever become an elder of the Puyang Heavenly Clan?"
"You—" The elder's face turned an ashen shade of fury, yet he could not find a way to rebut. After all, what Chu Feng said was, in truth, entirely reasonable.
The ruler of an Upper Realm did indeed bear the responsibility of protecting its inhabitants.
It was just that most Upper Realm rulers had never fulfilled this duty, and over the long years, many people had simply forgotten it.
Chu Feng bringing it up today could, in a way, be considered a reminder of this forgotten obligation.