“Supreme Leader, Xia Changqing, this wicked beast, cruelly severed the tendons of my grandson’s hands and feet. This crime is unforgivable. You must give me an explanation. Otherwise, I will go to Reflection Cliff and ask Master to seek justice for me!”
Ye Zheng, with his hair and beard completely white, stood in the fierce wind like an enraged old lion.
He roared at the Supreme Leader, Murong Bing, who stood proudly and coldly above the sea of clouds.
“Boom!”
Murong Bing’s long, narrow phoenix eyes revealed an iron-blooded killing intent.
With a casual wave carrying the might of heaven and earth, she extended her jade-like hand and slapped Ye Zheng into the ground as if swatting a fly.
Her voice was firm and domineering, “Ye Fan was inferior to others; he deserved his fate. A mere ant at the Great Saint Realm dares demand an explanation from me? You even dared lay a hand on my disciple — you must be courting death. Li Qiushui herself can barely protect her own life now; how could she have time to care about you? If not for the ancestral rule forbidding sect members from killing each other, your entire lineage would have been wiped out by me long ago. Next time you dare to touch my disciple, I will descend upon the Ye family and annihilate all nine generations of your clan.”
“Cough, cough, Supreme Leader, please calm your anger. This old man was foolish,” Ye Zheng crawled out of the pit, bloodied, and knelt to apologize in fear.
“Master, why won’t you help me? If you lent me your power, I could have defeated Xia Changqing. Grandfather wouldn’t have suffered such humiliation. Are you just using me to rebuild your Dao body without caring about my life and death?”
Ye Fan roared resentfully at Gu Chen, hidden deep within his sea of consciousness.
He had been miserably abused by Xia Changqing and kept begging Gu Chen for help, but Gu Chen remained unmoved, filling him with rage.
“Fan’er, it’s not that I don’t want to help, but Murong Bing has used the Haotian Mirror to enshroud this space. If I make a move, she will definitely detect it. Then both of us would be truly doomed. Alas, a tiger fallen into the plains is bullied by dogs! In ancient times, I could have suppressed her with a single finger,” Gu Chen, now a mere wisp of Primordial Spirit, explained helplessly.
“Master, I’m sorry. I wrongly blamed you,” Ye Fan calmed down and immediately apologized.
He had not yet risen to the Emperor Realm and still needed Gu Chen’s assistance.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for defeating Ye Fan head-on, brutally ravaging his body, humiliating and ridiculing his spirit, causing his Dao heart to shatter and weakening his Heavenly Dao fortune. Ye Fan’s current Heavenly Dao fortune value is only 70%.]
The system prompt sounded in Xia Changqing’s ears.
“System, doesn’t this mean I can get another fixed-point Sign-In opportunity?” Xia Changqing said joyfully.
[Correct. Would you like to start scanning for Sign-In locations?] the system responded.
“No rush, I’ll wait a bit,” Xia Changqing said and stopped communicating with the system.
“Wuwu, Master, Xia Changqing ignored the bond between fellow disciples. Not only did he viciously injure Brother Ye Fan, but he also shattered my physical body! I beg Master to abolish Xia Changqing’s Dantian and expel him from the sect!”
Lin Xinyue, now reduced to her Primordial Spirit state, cried out in despair.
Her physical body had been shattered by Xia Changqing’s halberd, leaving only a weak golden Primordial Spirit.
“Xia Changqing, what do you have to say?” Murong Bing glared coldly at the handsome young man and asked.
“Reporting to Master, I had just returned to Holy Son Peak from the Supreme Leader Peak and unexpectedly encountered Ye Fan and Lin Xinyue ambushing me. They wanted to snatch the Nine Heavens Emperor Scripture that you bestowed upon me. I had no choice but to resist with my halberd, defending myself the entire time. Lin Xinyue tried to sneak attack me, but her Ten Thousand Swords Return to Sect technique was undertrained, causing her to suffer a Qi deviation and destroy her own body,” Xia Changqing spoke calmly and righteously, though it was a blatant lie.
“Master, this shameless scoundrel Xia Changqing is lying! Brother Ye Fan and I kindly invited him to the Jade Lake Holy Land to attend Sister Mudan’s Hundred Flowers Banquet. Before we could even speak, he attacked us like a mad dog with his evil demonic halberd. Wuwu, my body is now destroyed, and my Dao foundation is broken. I beg Master to extract Xia Changqing’s Immortal-Demonic Dao Bones to rebuild my Dao foundation,” Lin Xinyue sobbed pitifully.
“You, a wretched girl, think you deserve the Immortal-Demonic Dao Bones?” Xia Changqing and Murong Bing both sneered in unison.
“Your root bone and talent are too weak. You can’t bear the Immortal-Demonic Dao Bones. This matter ends here,” Murong Bing declared coldly. Her bias toward Xia Changqing was almost undisguised.
“If the Immortal-Demonic Dao Bones aren’t enough, then use his Sage’s Pupils for yin-yang harmonization! Wuwu, Master, Xinyue doesn’t want to become a cripple without a future. Xia Changqing has ruined me; he should take full responsibility,” Lin Xinyue demanded shamelessly.
“The karmic entanglement between you and your Senior Brother needs to be resolved. Go to the reincarnation world within the Haotian Mirror and settle it,” Murong Bing said coldly.
She then waved her sleeve, instantly sucking both Xia Changqing and Lin Xinyue into the supreme Imperial Artifact, the Haotian Mirror.
Lin Xinyue, not knowing her place, even dared to covet her man’s two innate divine items. Murong Bing was happy to create the conditions for Xia Changqing to ruthlessly kill Lin Xinyue in the mirror world.
…
“Am I really back at the Red Emperor’s ruins from a hundred years ago?” Lin Xinyue murmured as she looked at the crumbling, ancient buildings before her and the flame divine pattern on the back of her hand.
A century ago, she had followed Xia Changqing on an expedition and stumbled into the legendary ruins of the Red Flame Empress by chance.
She had been recognized by the flame divine pattern and was about to receive the Empress’s inheritance when Xia Changqing suddenly destroyed the inheritance orb. Ever since then, she had harbored a deep grudge against him.
“Your hatred toward me started here, didn’t it?” the handsome young man said, arms crossed, smiling faintly.
“If it weren’t for you, that despicable scumbag, destroying my chance to attain immortality, my strength would have soared long ago, leaving you far behind! Xia Changqing, you were just afraid that I’d surpass you after getting the Red Flame Empress’s inheritance and threaten your position. You destroyed my path to becoming an Emperor — I will never forgive you!” Lin Xinyue screamed with hatred.
“You’re truly an irredeemable fool. If you used that dog brain of yours to think carefully, you’d realize there was something fishy about it. Why would those ancient Emperors who ascended to the Immortal Realm choose a mere High-Grade Fire Spiritual Root like you for their inheritance? Was it because you have body odor, are promiscuous, or have hemorrhoids from not bathing? Obviously, those old schemers were fishing for a sucker. They wanted to possess your body as a vessel to return to the lower realm and cause trouble,” Xia Changqing sneered.
If he hadn’t destroyed the inheritance orb back then, Lin Xinyue’s soul would have long been devoured and her body seized.
“You’re spouting nonsense! Even if I’m just a High-Grade Fire Spiritual Root, my heart for seeking the Dao is firm and perfectly aligned with the Red Flame Empress’s flame Dao. Plus, we are both women, so we naturally have a fated master-disciple connection. If you hadn’t ruined everything, I would already be the Saintess of the Azure Cloud Holy Land, the heir to the next Supreme Leader! Everything you have now should have belonged to me!” Lin Xinyue screamed, her voice shrill with hatred.
“Then why didn’t you ascend the altar and grasp the orb to accept the inheritance? If you had accepted the Emperor’s inheritance, you would have gained unimaginable power and naturally could have killed me. After my death, you could have merged with my two treasures and inherited my monstrous talents. Everything I enjoy now would have been yours,” Xia Changqing said with a tempting smile.