The gathering of the population of the City of Exiles outside, led by the cultivators of the Infinite Dao Sect, took place after a few minor issues. Even so, the approach was by no means fierce or malicious, even going so far as to heal several people throughout the process.
Of course, there were always those for whom a bit of force and coercion was necessary, but merely the threat of the elders' power was enough to deal with most of them.
In the end, under the threat of power, combined with the gentle way they handled the situation rather than carrying out a murderous occupation, everything ended well.
Even the expenses on pills to help those in need were negligible for the sect, which was no longer poor as it once was, now abundant in Formation-Tier materials and below, after Aotian's incursions across all continents.
With the city emptied, it was finally Lie Zheng's turn, the leader of the Punishment Pavilion, to begin his work.
He separated the people into groups, asked questions, and categorized them into three distinct groups.
The first group consisted of those who deserved death, mainly including rapists and deranged murderers who took pleasure in destroying mortal cities or killing cultivators for no reason at all.
Also included were the typical bandits who ambushed, deceived, and killed people without any other motivation than greed, envy, and a twisted mindset. Most of them also kidnapped and sexually exploited victims, something that, in Aotian's view, was a clear death sentence.
Unfortunately, twenty percent of the population fell into this group.
The second group was made up of those who would be banished, without the right to enjoy benefits or stability.
It included parents who sold their own children, bandits who robbed weakened people, even injuring them but never killing, as well as others who clearly did not deserve to live a good life, but whom Aotian did not feel entitled to sentence to death.
Naturally, this category also included people and family members complicit with those in the group sentenced to death, but who never had an active role nor participated directly, merely watching everything happen while benefiting from the situation.
Thirty percent of the population made up this group of exiles.
Finally, the third group into which Aotian divided the population was basically the remainder, representing about fifty percent of the city's inhabitants.
Contrary to what many might imagine, a city of exiles was not composed solely of villains, something Aotian did not find strange.
'The true villains are the people at the top of this world. Unlike Earth's politicians, the powerful here are not bound by any law or rule, not even superficially like in my previous life.'
'Here, the powerful simply act however they want, each limited only by their own morality, just like me, but most of them have none. So those persecuted by blatant villains living at the top usually end up being nothing more than unfortunate souls forced to flee to a place like this desert because they cannot stand up to the injustice falling upon them.'
Aotian sighed as he controlled Lie Zheng to divide the people into these three groups.
People began to move, confused and frightened, as they were separated.
When the third group saw the city bosses being placed in the smaller group, filled with despicable people most hated, many feared that this would be the privileged group, while they themselves would be left with only scraps, not knowing what awaited them.
And indeed, that was a special group, but the reward they would receive was not something the larger group would want to obtain.
Lie Zheng floated in the air and looked at the three groups.
"Everyone, my sect values justice greatly and will not leave you without homes after taking what was yours. On the contrary, we will give you an environment countless times superior to what you had, with far better security than what you had living here…"
As his words echoed, the faces in the crowd split into different expressions. Some showed joy, others caution, and some suspicion.
Even so, in the face of the great power of that sect, they found no reason to doubt the words of the man representing it, and hope remained alive in their hearts.
However, the next words made the crowd pale.
"Well, that is a promise we extend to the majority of you. But for those people who never respected anything, believing themselves above everyone else and that all the evils they commit are admissible, this offer does not extend."
As those words fell, the faces of the crowd grew pale, many imagining that this was merely an excuse to get rid of them.
Still, some people seemed to have understood something.
A young woman with red eyes and hair, with a disfigured face that nevertheless could not hide her heroic temperament, accompanied by her grandmother, among others, looked with sharp and thoughtful eyes at the smaller group, where the power holders of the City of Exiles squirmed in discomfort and fear.
That group separated for slaughter, of course, was aware of all the terrible things it had done. And as they looked around, they realized that everyone around them, companions in the same group, was no different from them in personality, which only increased their fears.
Elder Lie Zheng did not care about the crowd below that was beginning to grow frantic and calmly pointed at the group of thousands sentenced to death, frightening them even more, making them squirm in place, subtly retreating and bumping into one another.
"Those people were separated by me after reading their sinful hearts. Now they have been separated from the rest of you, sentenced to a quick and painless death, a fate far better than the one they imposed countless times upon their victims in the past."
As his cold words echoed in the ears of the crowd, most of the third group moved in surprise, some even happy with what they heard. Few were those who had not suffered at the hands of those villains, having possessions and important people violently taken from them or being subjected to humiliation.
The group of villains and the group of accomplices, on the other hand, were overcome with shock and horror. Many fell to their knees begging for forgiveness, while others looked around, trying to find some escape route.
Indifferent to their attempts, Lie Zheng snorted coldly.
"Is there anyone among you who opposes the sentence given to this group?" he gave them a chance.
Immediately, the accomplice group began to beg.
But Lie Zheng's eyes only grew colder as he observed what was happening, especially in the larger group, where the people who would receive compensation for their losses were.
There, surprisingly, a woman, dressed precariously, with several parts of her body exposed, covered only by a new cloak provided by an elder, knelt down, pleading and crying for a man in the group of villains.
"Ah! Ah! Ahhh!!" the woman screamed, sobbing, but no words came out of her mouth, only formless murmurs could be heard.
As she struggled to speak, unable to truly express words from her mouth, the reason became clear when Aotian saw that her tongue had been torn out.
Even so, through Lie Zheng, he could still hear her clearly, as her plea came accompanied by a spiritual transmission.
["Please, don't hurt master. Master is good to Zhu Nu! Let him go, please, I'll do anything!"]
The woman pleaded, smashing her forehead against the ground repeatedly, crying profusely as she looked at a middle-aged man who gazed at her with satisfaction and joy at seeing her beg for him so miserably.
But there was no compassion in Lie Zheng's gaze, which grew colder and colder at the sight.
The name she was called by was, in fact, not a person's name, but rather a degrading nickname that meant sow-slave, yet she spoke it with such naturalness, as if it were her own name.
Aotian remembered that woman. It was one of his avatars who had rescued her, and when he found her, she had been naked and locked inside a cramped cage, like a frightened animal cowering in a corner.
He could not even imagine everything that woman had been through, but one thing he was certain of. The man who watched her with a satisfied smile harbored no good feelings toward her.
On the contrary, for Lie Zheng, it was enough to look into his heart to understand. The wretch did not even see her as human; he merely delighted in imagining that her miserable plea might save him by touching the heart of that man who seemingly valued justice.
Yet at no point did he think of changing his behavior toward the woman or seeing her in a different light. After all, how could he, when he himself was the cause of all the evils the woman had suffered.
Everything she felt for him was not true love born from him being good to her, but rather a psychological disorder caused by being placed in an extreme situation by her captor, something that on Earth was called Stockholm syndrome.
She was not the only one. There were more people like that in that place.
In the end, Aotian classified this woman and the others—who, like her, had suffered the same—as pitiful people and separated them, intending to try to help them in the future.
As for the relatives of the villains, Aotian listened to them, but in the end did not change his opinion about anyone. A mother's begging would not save a cruel and evil son from his hands.
And so it was done.
Lie Zheng focused his energy into a single invisible spell and waved his hand toward those condemned for their many sins.
Seeing that action, their eyes widened in despair as they tried to run, fleeing in every direction—left, right, up, and down.
But there was no escape.
"No! Stop! Mercy!"
"Please, senior! We won't do it again!"
"Wait! Wait! I'm innocent!"
"Stop!"
Cries and pleas came from all sides, but as that invisible and irresistible power advanced, those thousands of people were simply turned into mists of blood, leaving behind only their storage rings, which soon fell unsupported onto the desert sands.
The last people to die looked back and realized there was no way to flee.
Then, with red eyes, they screamed full of hatred.
"I curse you to suffer a long and painf—"
"You hypocrites! You're no differ—"
"Even if I become a ghost, I won't—"
Cruel curses began to be uttered, but before they could be finished, the wave of invisible power struck those people, cutting off their words as their bodies were turned into nothing.
Only then did a deathly silence fall over that desert, before the wide, incredulous, and terrified eyes of the crowd.
The sect's disciples swallowed hard at what they had witnessed, their hearts filled with immense admiration for the power and ironclad justice of their sect. They might not have been able to read hearts, but seeing the look in the crowd's eyes, they knew the elder had not judged wrongly.
"Hmph! The cruel curses of the wicked only pave my path of justice. It's a pity you died before finishing them."
Lie Zheng snorted indifferently after killing approximately ten thousand people with a single attack.
After using the Dew of the Dragon's Lament, the inner elders reached the late stage of the Soul Formation Realm, while the outer elders—who required a longer period of use to reach that realm—stopped at the middle stage before the liquid completely lost its effect.
However, the continuous use of this substance to accelerate cultivation greatly harmed the elders' foundations, considerably reducing the power they should truly possess at that realm, even while holding the sect's inheritance.
Even so, with the energy control Aotian possessed and the terrifying quality of the synthesized cultivation techniques, even after the continuous use of the dew, their raw power was not very different from that of an ordinary cultivator of that realm.
With the addition of synthesized Formation-Tier spells—whose power did not differ much from a formidable Void-Tier spell—the sect's inner elders were far from weak.
Thus, killing so many weak cultivators with a single strike was something simple.
"Monster! You killed my father!"
"Murderous demon! My poor and innocent son! You killed him in cold blood!"
"Mooom!! You killed her!!"
Suddenly, a series of bitter and furious cries reached Aotian's ears.
Lie Zheng turned and stared at the crowd of accomplices with cold eyes.
In truth, most of those there were cowards, who quickly moved away from the people who were shouting, fearing getting involved.
Even many of those who were shouting, upon realizing they were being exposed by those around them, turned pale and lowered their heads, not daring to continue.
Still, there were those furious enough to persist. To them, Lie Zheng, without mercy, extended his hand and violently slammed them into the ground, silencing them.
Of course, he merely made them understand their place with a beating, not going so far as to kill them.
The proof was that soon, trembling, they began to stand up, their faces horrified. If Lie Zheng wanted to kill them, they would no longer exist at this very second, and with such a shock, they no longer dared to speak.
"You know very well what kind of people they were and watched, without doing anything, all the evil they committed. It is already mercy on my part not to kill you, so do not test my patience."
His cold voice echoed under the tense gaze of the crowd.
"You and your families believed that those with strength had the right to do anything. Then accept in silence as I judge you according to my will, in the same way they did, only under my own terms."
"You are not welcome here. Disappear from my sight before I consider your complicity and cruelty worthy of death."
Lie Zheng snorted, and everyone in that group immediately turned pale.
"No, senior, you can't do this to us! The desert is extremely dangerous. We have nowhere to return to on the continent, nor any certainty that we could even reach it without being killed by bandits along the way. And there is no place to stay in this sand graveyard besides here! Be merciful, righteous senior!"
"Yes, you took our homes and killed our families. At least let us stay on the outskirts of the city; we won't cause trouble!"
They shouted in fear, grievance, and lament, but Elder Lie showed no compassion as he looked at those people who sold their own children or enjoyed a good life atop piles of corpses created by their relatives.
"My mercy is already letting you live. I owe you nothing. Just as you took from others using your greater strength, today we take from you using ours. Even so, we will compensate those who deserve to be compensated for what we do today."
"As for you, you deserve nothing. If you do not leave peacefully, you will leave by force."
With a cold snort, Lie Zheng raised his hand, the same way he had moments earlier when he killed all the city's bosses.
"No! We're leaving!"
The crowd turned pale and immediately fled in terror, without thinking twice, flying in all directions. They knew that if they continued to test that man, the little mercy that remained would be exhausted right there.
Thus, the crowd of more than fifteen thousand people quickly left the city, seized by panic.
As for how many would survive or how many would die along the way, perhaps even being killed by one another, none of that mattered to Aotian.
He had already killed too many people that day and did not want to stain his secretly trembling hands with even more blood.
His gaze then fell upon the remaining crowd, withdrawn and terrified, of about twenty-five thousand people, who watched him in silence, except for those with psychological issues, like the tongueless woman who still cried bitterly over the death of the demon who had made her suffer unspeakable things.
Finally, Aotian observed the small mound of sand where the city stood.
Slowly, at the place where Lie Zheng's attack had passed, the sand began to slide, revealing a bit more of the small hill that remained buried.
But Aotian knew that beneath that… there was much more.