Immortal Kingdoms

"You know me?"

Leonardo feigned surprise, raising his eyebrows. "Now that you mentioned it, you do look like the typical watchdogs hired to do some shady business."

"We have no business with you, Leonardo. Aren't you worried about those people coming for you?" The middle-aged man asked, his tone flat and unhurried.

Both Leonardo and the High Saint turned a blind eye to the conflict and slaughter going on below them, while the lightning seemed to consciously ignore them as well.

Leonardo smiled faintly, "No, no, no, no. You see, one of their people is already my student. How can I sit here and watch my precious student's people getting bullied without doing anything?"

The middle-aged man frowned as he didn't expect things to get this thorny. He could already sense the peculiarities of this region, he even had a few bold assumptions that this is some corner away from the normal population of Arcadia as cultivation in this environment is nothing short of self-harm.

"Where is Wendy?" Patriarch Ye interjected in the conversation with a worried expression, he didn't wish for that child to get involved with this fight lest she met some misfortune.

"She should be right behind me, I'm simply quite fast you see," Leonardo nodded at Patriarch Ye with an easy expression before his attention returned to the middle-aged High Saint.

"If I were you, I'd be worried about whether or not I could leave this place, then worry about invading Arcadia after that. I thought you guys were supposed to invade this planet through the passage in the Elven Domain?" Leonardo was somewhat intrigued by this turn of events, so he wasn't in a rush to jump into a decisive battle with a High Saint.

Although he was confident he wouldn't die, he was also confident that he didn't have the means to actually kill a High Saint within a short period of time. A fight on the level of laws could very well spell doom for everyone else on the battlefield.

Just then, space shuddered and a tall, tan-skinned woman in white robes and long multicolored hair like a rainbow river appeared on the edge of the battlefield. Then, with a jump, she tore through the sound barrier and landed on a high hill not too far from Patriarch Ye.

The moment Wendy arrived on the battlefield, what greeted her was hundreds of mangled corpses, plenty of them belonging to the hidden tribe warriors.

At first, she was stunned. Then, her cold killing intent began to freeze over in the depths of her indifferent eyes.

"That's your student?"

Wendy's appearance shocked the middle-aged man as he could sense a frightening aura brewing within her body despite her pitifully low cultivation. If she were to join the battle, his troops would suffer unimaginable losses.

"Indeed she is." Leonardo nodded.

Patriarch Ye and the other leaders that grouped up with him stared blankly at Wendy, shocked to the core.

"Little girl, what happened to you?" Patriarch Ye asked, his voice hoarse from disbelief.

A trace of warmth fleeted across Wendy's eyes as she replied incipiently. "It was all master's doing, I'm not sure how he did it."

"Cough, just call me teacher from now on, I don't like the sound of 'master'," Leonardo couldn't help but associate master with something quite immoral since it was a pet name executive to Juvia.

If Juvia heard this woman addressing him as such, some conflict might spark between them. Further, Leonardo felt much more comfortable with the terms teacher and student, perhaps this is something related to his educational experience on Earth.

While Wendy reassured everyone about her current condition, the battlefield entered a strange standoff. Behind Leonardo was the army of the hidden tribe warriors, or at least whatever remained of their people.

As for the middle-aged man, a fleet of spacecrafts and saints stood behind him. However, they were constantly fending off the lightning bolts, making them look somewhat awkward. Even the hundreds of thousands of mortal warriors within the spacecrafts, leaving the protection of the spacecrafts will spell nothing but doom for them.

Leonardo knew it, the hidden tribesmen knew it, the saints knew it, and even the High Saint knew it.

"Are you going to join this battle then?" The middle-aged man frowned, "Aren't you worried about what the others might do to your people on the other side? Assuming that you have your way to leave this place whenever that is."

"What is there to be worried about? They'll need at least three months of travel to lead the Elven Army from the Elven Domain to my Grace Imperial City, and three months is plenty of time to eradicate you to the last under these circumstances don't you think?"

Leonardo shrugged his shoulders. "But, I indeed feel it to be a hassle to join this battle, why don't you and I go elsewhere to grab some tea and discuss life? Let the youngsters handle their own business."

Leonardo had a refreshing smile while talking. However, Patriarch Ye and his peers felt odd at being called youngsters by someone who looked so young and tender.

However, they knew that one's appearance is too deceitful when it comes to cultivators, so it wouldn't be surprising if Leonardo was someone a few hundred years old given the strength he had shown.

"I might agree if you call back your student to join us as well."

"Ah, you see now that wouldn't be appropriate. You killed so many of her aunties and uncles, she looks like she might explode if she doesn't release that bottled-up resentment."

Leonardo unhurriedly shook his head. He needed Wendy to experience what it's like to actually kill someone with her own hands, a living breathing human being, not some brainless beast.

"Wendy!"

"Teacher!"

"Since you've chosen to become my student, this is a sight which you have to get used to from now on. Where I come from, as I already told you, merely having the will to survive will get you nowhere."

"I can see the anger and the intent to kill in your eyes, but can you really do it? Can you really take away someone's life just because you nurtured that thought due to a moment of anger? Having those thoughts is useless."

"My students can't hesitate when it comes to killing. The moment you had the thought to kill; you immediately kill. Act first, think later."

"Don't worry about this flashy guy over here, he won't dare move around as though this is his backyard with me present."

The middle-aged man frowned at Leonardo's words. Although the display desolate domain was rather troublesome, it had a minimal effect on him because he relied on the powers of law.

From his understanding and the previous exchange, he could already deduce that Leonardo's martial intent was more of a debuff. If it could affect someone, it could be considered a frightening martial intent. However, if someone had the means to deal with it, then it is nothing more than a nuisance.

"Your domain might be very dangerous to your peers, but the gap in our cultivation is too wide. Your martial intent is obviously an auxiliary attribute, regardless of its high tier. We might not be able to decide on a winner between us in a short amount of time, but I can find plenty of opportunities to kill your student if I really wanted it."

The middle-aged man reached out to the hilt of his sword on his back, his aura climbing steadily yet sharply. Sword intent filled the sky, tearing at the dark clouds and the lightning within.

"Wow, those guys told you nothing about House Hestia, did they?"

Leonardo felt speechless that this guy jumped into a war not knowing what to expect. Before the man could respond, Leonardo's voice echoed between heaven and earth.

"Wendy, what was my first lesson to you about my place?"

As he spoke, Leonardo actually put away his divine sword and took out another one. However, this sword wasn't just an ordinary sword, but a saint-grade weapon that would be durable enough to withstand the shockwaves of such a battle of high intensity, even if for a little bit.

"The powerful must have the will to abandon their humanity and sail through seas of blood and mountains of corpses, be it their own blood or their enemies," Wendy answered in a not-so-confident tone, feeling uneasy since she was talking against the Patriarch's and their ancestral teachings.

However, since her teacher asked, she was obliged to answer. Hence, she simply acted as though she didn't see Patriarch Ye's expression.

"Apparently, your friends from the higher realms didn't tell you why they don't dare to oppose my House Hestia openly, but they'd rather sneak into the middle realms to find trouble somewhere where the eye can't see so the heart won't feel. Sigh, you're really pitiful…"

Everyone had their eyes on Leonardo, this once gentle-looking younger brother material as his eyes slowly began to turn crimson, as though his swirling pupils were the floodgates to a sea of blood.

A heavy, dense bloodthirsty aura exploded from Leonardo and enveloped the entire battlefield.

Under everyone's shocked eyes, even the clouds in the sky began to drip blood. This was the blood of saints and thousands of deceased mortals, forcibly extracted from these clouds.

Rivers of blood flowed through the sky and earth, coiling around Leonardo's figure. As he held onto the hilt of his sword, he muttered. "You see, I seem to be a sword cultivator as well."

Like the High Saint, an incomparably sharp sword intent rose from Leonardo. However, this sword intent intertwined with a pillar of crimson blood that climbed into the sky, seemingly pooling into a crimson sun that loomed over the battlefield.

As Leonardo began to slowly unsheathe his sword, he spoke but a simple command that dripped with killing intent.

"Leave no one alive."