The upstart still couldn't understand the divination results within the crystal, he could only try to interpret them separately.

Based on what he understood before, and from his previous experience, the first half might represent his current situation, and the latter half is a hint.

This kind of hint might be good or bad, but it is always given according to his desires and thoughts.

This time, the hint was relatively simple, just the surface meaning revealed by the rune, but he felt there was a deeper meaning he couldn't quite grasp.

The person sitting there with their back turned was just quietly waiting.

"Has the divination result come out? Have you decided?

Do you want to die quickly, or fight to the death and then be turned into a Human Candle by me?"

The upstart looked at the pile of Human Candles kneeling in the yard, his face was a mix of pain, regret, resentment, despair, and ruthlessness, constantly alternating.

Ever since the largest Abyssal Rift in the west of Dali stabilized and was no longer an endless meat grinder, and with the existence of Almsgiving Town, many people started eyeing the western region of Dali.

The court of the Dali Dynasty couldn't force people to develop the western regions of Dali, nor did it have the money and resources to pour in and burn there.

So, with people keeping an eye on this place, the court was just feeling things out while moving forward, setting rules to attract forces with resources and manpower to develop here.

Other aspects are essentially irrelevant, similar to other places, with only one very important rule.

The court nods to allow you to explore resources and develop resources on this virgin land, but you have to pay taxes.

The Crown Prince of Dali, with great foresight, knew that it would be difficult to levy taxes once a major power arose in the future.

For now, in name, preferential policies were given, with the tax rate only half of that in the prosperous eastern region of Dali, making a good start possible.

However, after decades, those who can truly take root here and thrive have no lack of background support.

The upstart seemingly had background support on the surface as well, but this supposed reliance was mostly for show, just for outsiders to see.

The real background was this person in front of him.

He came from a small cultivator family, nominally a family, but in reality, there were only four generations alive in the entire clan.

With a little more power, those with a longer history, with a bit more heritage, could have family members from a dozen generations living together.

In the stage of great power families, the elder members might have been born thousands of years ago, with descendants hundreds of generations later, many of whom might never speak a word to the family patriarch throughout their lives.

At that time, family members might just share a surname and nothing more.

If in a little tavern, you hear an ordinary person bragging about being from a great family, they might not be bluffing.

Over time, when a family grows big enough, such occurrences become quite normal.

But in small families, cohesion is typically strong, for their blood ties are especially close, with much time spent together, even sharing hardships and risking lives together.

The upstart brought his entire family to fight in the west of Dali, and now became an upstart, but that kind of affection couldn't be severed just because he became prosperous.

Every year he would spend a lot of resources on his clan, just to have comrades in arms.

He alone couldn't develop a family.

Now, it was all over.

All he could do now was to release those family members who had been turned into Human Candles.

All of this was because when faced with a life-and-death crisis, he used a power he shouldn't have and exposed it to the living.

Before that, his order was to find this sixty-four-sided crystal at all costs.

Seeing the miserable state of his clan members, he fully understood now.

Supporting him, giving him ways to gain power, all of this was not to recruit him but to ensure he completed this task.

After completing this task, his value was gone, or rather, his inherent value had long been outweighed by the risks.

Now it was just finding an excuse to silence him.

Because his identity was public, it was easily found that he bought the sixty-four-sided crystal from the auction hall.

Once he died, once his clan was exterminated, the trail would end there.

No one would know where that Divination Crystal went.

At this moment, the upstart finally understood why the divination in the crystal delivered the message in such a tone.

Because his situation had always been one of mockery, manipulation, always on the verge of being discarded.

Looking at the ground full of Human Candles, it was as if he heard the Divine Souls of his clan members wailing, their flames flickering with each plea for a death they could not achieve, a desperate struggle.

This was the price demanded for everything now.

He knelt on the ground, overwhelmed with grief, cursing his foolishness, his ambition, and hating the one before him for the ungrateful slaughter of him when the millstone was no longer needed.

Black power was surging from his body, an intense dark aura beginning to spread.

Strands of black mist twisted into a mass, rushing forward.

The one sitting there remained motionless, merely shaking their head.

The rushing black mist dispersed automatically, diverting to either side about ten feet in front of them.

In an instant, the black mist condensed into form, turning into countless black blades, forming a storm that shredded all the Human Candles on the sides, granting them release.

From the shattered Human Candles came the screams and wails of trapped souls, the bluish flames upon them seemingly suffering greater agony at that moment.