"Huh? Let them collect?" Qin Xuan was puzzled at first, but soon looked as if the realization had hit him, and he said with a grin: "I get it. You want to let the mantis stalk the cicada while the oriole lurks behind — let them do all the collecting, then we snatch it from them."
But Chu Feng simply smiled and shook his head.
"No?" Qin Xuan was even more confused.
"I'll tell you later."
Chu Feng was being deliberately mysterious, a mischievous grin on his face.
Qin Xuan grew more curious, but trusting Chu Feng as he did, he didn't press further.
In the time that followed, waves of giant birds appeared one after another.
The young master of the Red Soul Sect eventually realized that he couldn't keep burning through his own tokens alone. He began issuing orders, having the others channel the power of their tokens to fight the giant birds.
Of course, he wasn't about to be generous. He would give a portion of the power harvested from the birds to those who had used their tokens — but only a portion.
He certainly wasn't a good person, either. Normally, once someone's token was spent, all the power they helped gather should be returned to them. Yet he only gave them half.
He dressed it up with a fine excuse: you owe your gains entirely to me, so giving you half is more than merciful.
But even with nearly ten thousand people, they couldn't withstand the giant birds pouring out wave after wave — it was practically endless.
Eventually, every last blank token among them had been drained. The young master of the Red Soul Sect had no choice but to lead everyone away from the area.
By now, the sky above was filled with a thousand giant birds. Yet once the young master and his group departed, the birds actually made no move to attack anyone on their own.
Instead, just like the earlier ones, they circled around the barrier gate.
After another stretch of time, yet another thousand giant birds swept out from behind the barrier gate.
"So these birds just keep coming forever. If I'd known, I would have held off the assault a bit longer," lamented a junior from the Seven Realms Holy Academy upon seeing the sky black with birds.
With numbers like these, channeling their power would make short work of them. After all, with so many targets, even wild flailing would bring a few down — and none of them were fools.
Wuaaah—!
However, the moment those words left the junior's mouth, a miserable scream rang out as he was sent hurtling backward, landing in the grasp of the young master of the Red Soul Sect.
"Are you blaming me?" the young master asked coldly.
He wasn't stupid. Whatever this junior had just realized, the young master had realized it long ago. But who could have predicted beforehand that so many giant birds would keep pouring out endlessly? He was already brooding over it, and this fool had to open his mouth and add to his irritation. How could he tolerate that?
"I wasn't—" the Seven Realms Holy Academy junior tried to explain, but before he could finish, there was a sickening crack. The young master had snapped his neck.
With a casual sweep of his sleeve, the corpse was tossed in front of the other Seven Realms Holy Academy juniors.
"You—" Seeing this, the other juniors from the Seven Realms Holy Academy wore expressions of displeasure.
"Remember — all of you are ones that Chu Feng abandoned."
"Everything you have now is because of me. If you can't even show gratitude, that's one thing. But if you think I'm someone you can afford to cross, you'd better think twice."
"I don't care where you come from — the Seven Realms Holy Academy or any other power. In my eyes, you're all the same."
"When I'm pleased, I'll reward you. When I'm displeased, I'll crush you underfoot."
"All of you current-era juniors — hand over half of the power you collected earlier."
The young master of the Red Soul Sect stood with his back to the crowd, extending his hand.
"Half? That's—" The current-era juniors were speechless. They had already received only the half they were owed, and now he wanted them to give up another half of that?
But just then, a True God Realm pressure erupted from the young master's body, enveloping them all.
Seeing this, no one dared hesitate. The man had already shown his true colors — kill on a whim was no idle threat.
And so the current-era cultivators each extracted half of their gathered power and handed it over to Red—