“Senior, there is a problem,” former Vice Leader Tan reported. He was one of the cultivators who had decided to travel with me and the unofficial leader of the group. I was in the main cabin of my ship working on my cultivation. The counter cube and arrays used to keep energy around the ship was about two thirds as effective as a nexus crystal. The movement of the ship itself was a major reason why energy was lost. Still, it was more than enough for cultivation, which made the cultivators on board quite happy. “Speak,” I said. We had been traveling for over a decade now. There was a mortal crew that sailed the actual ship and the cultivators who handled expenses and other high-level issues. I had only been bothered three times in the past. Two of the times had been due to leviathan attacks. The third time was when pirates attacked. All of these events were easily resolved. Right now, we were at port and would be sailing to the next canal, which implied there was a problem with the planned route. “The canal we want to take falls between two Empires and is currently the central part of their war.” “Aren’t canals normally built through the middle of Empires?” I asked. “The boarders have shifted over time. The Tree Empire split into the Leaf and Wood Empires. A pair of brothers over a millennia ago. The canal revenue was shared, but tensions have recently escalated and now there is war,” Junior Tan explained. “Is the canal blocked in any way, or do both sides just attack whoever is passing through?” I asked. “Both. To reach another canal it is at least two year trip,” Junior Tan added. That was how long it would take to reach the next canal. For a canal to be profitable, there weren’t that many. The journey had to be a minimum of a year away by ship. Even then they were often further due to terrain and political considerations at the time they were built. “If the fighting stopped how long would it take to clear the canal?” I asked. I drew out my metal sword and I heard gasps from the soldiers watching from the gate and the wall, clearly wondering what I was about to do. I used my free hand to make sure my hat was securely on my head. Once I was sure it was snug, I kicked off the ground and flew forward. As I began to descend, I kicked down at the water again, spreading out energy from my foot. A huge concave disturbance formed in the water as I gained elevation once again. The water rushed to fill the gap I had left behind shooting up into the air as it converged from all directions, slamming in the center and then moving upwards, like a pebble dropped into a pool. Three more times I kicked off the water itself, making my way across the entrance of the canal to the city on the opposite bank. As I landed on the shore and I gathered my focus. “One Swing To Sperate Heaven And Earth.” The words helping me focus in order to use the energy as efficiently as possible. A blade of energy exited my sword and struck the gate and the soldiers standing in front of it. They let out screams of shock as their bodies separated into two halves, along with the wooden gate and a portion of the wall. The wall itself didn’t collapse, since it was thick enough I hadn’t cut all the way through, and was Discover more novels on NovelHub - your gateway to endless stories. I rushed forward and slammed into the gate, burst through the wood and then went through the tunnel that was built into the wall, slamming into the next gate. I burst through as well and into the street as there were screams and shouts. I moved over to a group of soldiers and easily moved between them. Heads and limbs were quickly and easily separated from their bodies. I went to one soldier who had lost their hand. “Which way to the palace or the place where your leaders are?” I asked who was on the ground clutching his stump. “Center of the city!” the soldier blabbered out. I turned away from him and set off. There were shouts of alarm traveling through the city. But I was too quick. I ignored the civilians and the occasional soldier as I made my way to the most important looking building. I probably should have asked before for directions before I started the attack, but I wanted to move things along as quickly as possible. Also it wasn’t like finding the people in charge would be that hard. I arrived at the tallest building with its own wall and soldiers guarding it. The symbols of the Wood Empire were everywhere. Normally it would have been a Kingdom controlling a city, but canals were important enough and valuable enough for Empires to take control of them directly. Since this was an active war zone, they would have consolidated command of the surrounding areas as well. “Halt-“ a soldier tried to say, but I swung my blade and decapitated him before he could say anything else. The body remained upright as blood fountained out of the man’s neck. I moved through the open gate cutting down several more soldiers, without hesitation and reached the building itself. Swinging my sword, I easily cut through the wood without having to expend energy. Bursting through I kept moving forward, cutting down everyone in my path. I soon arrived at a great hall that look similar to the one from the Leaf Empire that I had just been in a short while ago. It made sense since these two neighboring empires had history and probably similar cultures. While there were different color and banner choices, no one was about to redo the actual concrete that made up the structure itself unless there was a very good reason. “What is the meaning of this!” the person on a throne at the back of the room shouted and stood up. I counted three cultivators in this great hall. “I am Cultivator Yuan Zhou and I am here to kill you all,” I declared. The three enemy cultivators acted immediately drawing their metal blades and rushing at me. They were at the Nascent Soul realm, which was a joke. I swung my sword and easily moved around their attacks. Their blades were easily cut apart and I delivered fatal wounds onto all of them. While I took a bit of care since they were cultivators, there was no difficulty. The gap between us was just too big. This happened in seconds as everyone in the great hall was trying to process what exactly was happening. I killed the person in charge and moved onto the soldiers. Already people were fleeing and I let them go. In under a minute, the great hall was a scene of carnage and I felt sick. These people had done nothing to me. The only reason they were dead was that I had stopped in the Leaf Empire first instead of the Wood Empire, and I needed to travel through the canal. I had considered just traveling up the canal, but fighting both sides wouldn’t have accomplished anything. Especially if there were blocks that needed to be cleared. While I would assist in clearing anything in my way, it was better to ally with one side to make both sides fight each other. Killing people was easy, far too easy. But killing hundreds, or thousands, it would be a waste of energy. My goal was to use as few projected slashes as possible and rely on the innate superiority of my blade when attacking. Also, there was a small but not insignificant chance that both sides might team up to attack me. It was better to have a clear ally right from the start. They would not risk upsetting me since they would already be gaining massive advantages by joining the attack and seizing the canal. Eight cultivators rushed into the great hall a few minutes after I had finished my massacre. Six men and two women. Their martial robes and the symbol of their sect making it clear they were cultivators. Also, I could see the small bit of energy inside their bodies as well. There was no need to say words to dead people. I launched myself towards them as they brought up their swords. I easily cut them down before they were even able to counter attack. The first corpse fell to the floor just as I finished beheading the eighth cultivator. The rest fell to the ground in the seconds afterwards. Despite the massive mess I had made, not a single drop of blood marred my robes. I swung my sword, to remove the blood on it, splattering it against a nearby wall. I then exited the great hall as soldiers rushed towards me. I didn’t bother asking for a surrender. Something I had learned about the Great World was that they didn’t have slavery. There just wasn’t enough food and the poor people were basically slaves regardless. Also there was a long history of spies, betrayals, and national loyalty. All of that combined togeather to create a strong anti-slavery culture, which was horrific. While many idiots might have thought not having slavery would be a good thing, it made any kind of conflict extremely brutal. The bandits I had killed earlier did not have good morale. They were desperate and surrender meant death. With no slavery, no kingdom or empire was about to feed or take care of hundreds or thousands of prisoners. That meant the losers were summarily executed. If someone was a noble, then they might be taken prisoner for a large ransom. But the common people had no chance. Even the civilians would be heavily purged of all men to make way for people from the opposing force. Women would be given to the soldiers instead of money, along with housing and land, taken directly from the populace. Nobles didn’t like paying their soldiers with money, which was why they got the spoils of war. In smaller conflicts this wouldn’t happen. Nobles would just be replaced and only a small portion of the population. But since it was a conflict between empires with standing armies, it was total war. It was all or nothing for every single person on both sides. All of this brutality could be laid at the feet that there was no slavery. Without any way to make use of the losers, it was better to execute them all to prevent future banditry. That was why what followed was horrific and something I hoped to avoid. Soldiers, civilians, women, and even children rushed at me once I had exited the main building for the city with whatever weapon they had. The richer people were probably fleeing, but the poor had to win or die. That meant killing me. It was a human wave tactic. “One Swing To Sperate Heaven And Earth.” Over a hundred people died in that attack. Adults were bisected, while the children were beheaded. I hoped that I made a strong enough impression that these people would turn around and realize that it was futile to attack me. “He is probably exhausted! Keep attacking!” That shout and similar ones went up across the crowd over the screams of their dying comrades. Hundreds more people charged at me, knowing they would die if they didn’t win. My heart hurt from all the deaths, but this was the consequence of warfare with cold weapons and there being no chance of surrender. I swung a second time as the people closed in, trampling on the bodies of their comrades. More people collapsed to the ground bisected. In fact the ground was no longer visible from the sheer amount of blood and viscera covering it. I felt incredibly sick. I hated this. But there was no better alternative. Even if I had tried diplomacy, it would have taken years and been easier to find another route. Any non-violent alternative would have taken far too long. The ultimate leaders, the Emperors, were not close to the front lines. Pausing a conflict on such a scale was not a simple matter either. And I would have to enforce the peace. Also, the canal passed through too much territory. Only the Emperor on either side would have the authority to grant passage. All these lives were not worth my time. That was what it ultimately came down to. It was easier to kill these people in order to gain passage rather than going around or finding an alternative. It was heartbreaking, but I refused to be delayed for years. I swung a third time as people rushed across the corpses beneath them. Instead of being cut around their cut, many were cut off at the groin or their thighs, making it take longer for them to bleed out. The screams were unbearable, and while they didn’t harm me physically or my cultivation in any way, they impacted me emotionally. I had to force to keep my bile back. Several of the people had dived into the piles of corpses dodging the attack and kept rushing at me with whatever they had in their hands. It was almost like they were zombies, but I could see the desperation etched into their faces. There was no other alterative but to win. They all knew that, which was why they kept rushing forward. The first to reach me was a child with a wooden stick in their hands. I swung and the small girl was instantly killed. While I would like to call this a massacre, it truly was a battle. The field of corpses slowed down the charging people enough, that I could cut them down as they reached me, building up a wall of bodies. They screamed as they rushed me, fear gripping their hearts, but they had no choice. One after another, it didn’t matter, I cut them all down. When people came at me from behind from the main government building, having climbed over the walls, I cut them down as well. When arrows were sent in my direction, I easily knocked them out of the air. This was a city with at least a hundred thousand people. I had probably killed two thousand by the time I didn’t see anyone else rushed me. There were mounds of corpses all around me. The one patch of ground that didn’t have a body laying upon it. Everything else around me was blood soaked with the occasional pitiful cry or scream coming out from someone who had still yet to die. I heard shouting in the rest of the city. Cultivators and soldiers were probably landing already. I hesitated. I didn’t want to kill any more people. But I had started this path, I needed to finish it. I quickly crossed the field of corpses on the street and made my way back towards the canal. I had been hoping against hope that the people wouldn’t have rushed me, which was why I hadn’t killed them while racing towards the administration building. That had been a foolish thought. Now I cut down anyone I came across. Each swing of my sword added another victim to my tally of kills. Eventually I reached a line of soldiers and people rushing towards the canal and walls. I cut into them from behind and kept moving forward. Even with large numbers, these people still couldn’t win and I always had the option to retreat. Slowly but surely, I cut my way through to the gate I had entered the city earlier. With my attack, the soldiers on the other side of the gate along with the cultivators of the Leaf Empire were able to push through. I advanced at the front cutting down the people in front of me, the soldiers spreading out behind me in a wave to attack people rushing in from the sides. With people Discover more novels on NovelHub - your gateway to endless stories. That was when I noted several of the cultivators I had been traveling had arrived behind me, covering my flanks as I went through the city in a large loop around the main building, cutting down anyone I came across. I had looped through the entire city back to the gate when there were no more people to kill in front of me. The soldiers and cultivators from the Leaf Empire would finish off the rest.