Chapter 68: The Ancient Race Covenant
"Unfortunately, that great battle took place so long ago, and none of us were there to witness it firsthand. We have little knowledge of the details surrounding it, and with so much time having passed, there was simply no way to definitively confirm the true identity of that Xiao Family. Even so, their existence stayed with us, and we quietly ordered people to continue observing them in secret."
"During this period of observation, 'Hell's' people neither intervened nor revealed themselves. So the Xiao Family continued to develop in their own way."
"According to the reports from our scouts, the Xiao Family's origins are shrouded in mystery — there is no clear trail leading back to where they came from. They have also kept an extremely low profile, not stirring up trouble anywhere, and not using their formidable strength to carve out a position of dominance. During this period, the empire to which the Xiao Family belongs even underwent a change of ruler, welcoming a new emperor to the throne. Not only did the Xiao Family have no objections to this, they devoted themselves fully to supporting the new ruler — as though they were simply native inhabitants who had always been meant to do exactly that."
"But very soon, 'Hell's' people noticed something was wrong. When the Xiao Family first appeared, it was in the imperial capital of a place called the Jia Ma Empire in the Northwestern Region, and their numbers included no shortage of Battle Emperor realm cultivators. However, over the course of several years of observation, we discovered that a mysterious force had apparently been targeting this so-called Xiao Family from the shadows all along. They even joined hands with local clans and various other powers to suppress and move against the Xiao Family together."
"It was for this very reason that the Xiao Family's strongest members were either assassinated or killed in ambushes. Every cultivator who had reached the Battle Emperor realm perished, and the Xiao Family's overall strength was cut in half."
"And yet this mysterious force did not give up. Their goal appears to be the complete and utter eradication of the Xiao Family. What remains unclear is why they do not simply mobilize their own strength to eliminate them directly — instead choosing to work through local powers. While this approach has inflicted serious damage on the Xiao Family, it has not been enough to deal a fatal blow, and they have been unable to wipe them out entirely in one stroke."
Upon hearing all of this, Xiao Feng's heart had already arrived at a firm conclusion: this Xiao Family was without question the one from the original story — a clan founded by descendants of the Xiao Clan. And this mysterious force behind it all was, in all likelihood, the Soul Palace.
As an ancient race, it was naturally impossible for them to handle every matter personally, nor could they afford to expose themselves openly at every turn. Therefore, many such races maintained or established forces of their own to act on their behalf — allowing those proxy forces to move while the ancient race itself remained hidden in the shadows. Some did this to conceal their existence entirely; others did it for the sake of appearances, delegating unsavory tasks to their publicly visible proxies so that nothing could be traced back to them. Either way, it left no impact on the ancient race itself.
And the Soul Palace was precisely the top-tier force that the Soul Clan had established within the Central Region.
As for why the Soul Palace had not moved against the Xiao Family directly, instead choosing to work through local clans and powers — there was, in fact, a hidden reason behind this. It was not that they did not wish to act directly; it was that they were not able to. Had they done so, their strength would have been more than enough to wipe out the Xiao Family in moments — and the entire Jia Ma Empire along with them, reducing it to rubble.
Xiao Feng could roughly guess what that hidden reason was. After all, the original story had touched on matters related to this. From what he could now observe, his own appearance and the creation of the Xiao Clan's small world had not brought about sweeping changes to the broader course of events — the very existence of the Xiao Family was proof enough of that. Of course, he could not be entirely certain of any of this, so it remained nothing more than a conjecture — a bold and rather extraordinary one at that.
In his view, the matter was also tied to the Xiao Clan itself. After the Soul Clan had moved against the Xiao Clan and brought about their complete destruction, the ancient races led by the Ancient Clan and the Soul Clan had convened an unprecedented assembly. At this gathering, they not only confirmed the Ancient Clan's position as the foremost of the Ancient Eight Races and divided a portion of the spoils — they also agreed upon what came to be known as the Ancient Race Covenant.
Among the terms of this covenant was the following provision: the ancient races must coexist peacefully among themselves. Any grievances were to be resolved openly and honorably.
Hatred between races was not permitted to escalate, no ancient race was to strike against another at will, and under no circumstances was any race to be subjected to complete annihilation as the Xiao Clan had been.
Any party found in violation would face the united sanctions of all the other ancient races.
Beyond this, there was an additional clause stipulating that the survivors of the Xiao Clan were to be treated with leniency — none were to be hunted to extinction.
This clause had been added under the forceful insistence of Gu Yuan, and had even sparked considerable argument before it was accepted. It was, in a sense, his final gesture of compensation toward Xiao Xuan — ensuring that the bloodline of the Xiao Clan would not be severed entirely. (This resolves a loose thread from earlier — for those who may be unclear, please refer back to the previous chapters.)
At the time, Hun Tiandi was gravely wounded, and the Soul Clan's foundations had been shaken.
The Ancient Clan, by contrast, had not suffered a single loss and had even gained a portion of the Xiao Clan's wealth, with their overall strength steadily on the rise. Faced with this situation, Hun Tiandi chose to compromise — acknowledging the Ancient Clan's title as foremost among the Ancient Eight Races, and, after exchanging a furious glare with Gu Yuan, accepting the clause that forbade any further action against Xiao Clan survivors.
Unlike Hun Tiandi's smoldering resentment, the ancient races such as the Lei Clan and the Yan Clan had little objection to this arrangement.
After all, only Hun Tiandi harbored a bone-deep hatred for the Xiao Clan, wishing he could tear them apart a thousand times over. The other races had no particularly deep enmity with the Xiao Clan, and so naturally they had no strong feelings about the clause one way or another.
But while Hun Tiandi had agreed to the terms, he clearly had no intention of honoring them. He continued to dispatch the Soul Palace to hunt down Xiao Clan survivors and eliminate them. The hatred he carried for the Xiao Clan was not something that would fade so easily. The wounds on his body that had yet to fully heal were a constant reminder of everything — and since the Xiao Clan itself was already gone, these surviving descendants were the only outlet left for his rage.
As for the Soul Clan's actions, the other ancient races were likely largely unaware. So much time had passed, and nothing can withstand the erosion of time. The Xiao Clan had held little connection to the other races to begin with, and under such circumstances, the clan had faded into nothing more than a distant memory for them. Naturally, they paid no attention to a race that had already been destroyed.
Of course, even if they had known — even if they had become aware of Hun Tiandi's violation of the covenant — they likely would have done nothing.
After so many years of recuperation, the Soul Clan's strength had been largely restored, and Hun Tiandi's injuries had healed considerably. Who, after all, would be willing to take on the enormous risk of offending the Soul Clan for the sake of a few survivors from a clan that had already been wiped from existence?
This also illustrated something from a different angle: the Ancient Race Covenant, jointly drafted by the Ancient Clan, the Soul Clan, and the other ancient races, was nothing more than a worthless scrap of paper — utterly without effect, serving only as a hollow comfort to those who had agreed to it.
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End of this chapter...