"No, No! I need to do something about this! I can no longer ignore it. Who knows how bad and exaggerated they can get if left unaddressed?
But first, I need to find out who has been spreading it this far to the point it can reach even the elusive vice presidents. At the rate it's going, even the president and the chancellor and the other mysterious figures will know of me, in a bad way...
It can't be Old Lei, he isn't that much of a talker and his reach isn't that far, but other than him who could it be? he is the only top figure I annoy.." Yang Qing wondered with gears turning in his mind completely ignoring what was happening around him.
He had even forgotten he had lost an arm and only remembered when he tried to stroke his chin in a contemplative pose, which prompted him to regrow it back. His cultivation art, the Universal Duality Indulgent Of The Myriad Worlds was something he got from the Hall Master of the Medicine Valley, one of the top most figures of the Order, and a purple-grade alchemist and healer.
His breadth of wisdom and connections were as vast as the stars. He had gifted Yang Qing that incomplete purple-grade art in the hopes of roping him to the Medicine Valley but also because it complemented Yang Qing's yin-yang jade bones perfectly.
In terms of attack power, it fell a little bit short of its rank as a purple-grade art, but when it came to versatility it was unmatched, especially the restorative aspects of it. Yang Qing could regrow any parts of his body effortlessly without a downgrade of his ability, and the more he familiarized himself with it, the greater the ability would be, to the point he could reform his body from a single drop of blood.
He wouldn't need expensive materials and techniques, or a gold-grade alchemist and healer to reform his body, he could do it with a single thought.
This was one of the reasons he took a fancy to the technique. For an extreme self-preservation coward like him, there was no better technique.
With his arm reformed, he went to work to decipher the identity of the gossip monger looking to ruin his reputation within the Order.
Despite a single thorn releasing enough power to destroy him to bits with a single graze, Yang Qing wasn't bothered. This was why he joined the Order. With tall trees like Vice President Tao Wen, providing shade, why would a tiny grass like him bother about anything else? He would just bask in the shade, and protection provided by the tree while he grew in comfort, even shamelessly stealing a few nutrients from the tree.
The other judges were the same. With the appearance of Vice Presiden Tao Wen, they looked visibly relieved, as they went about healing their wounds, and even discussing the thorn tree like it was a research object they were about to be quizzed on.
..
"Would the fellow Daoist care to make an appearance?"
"Mmmh I guess they are shy.." Vice President Tao Wen added as he stroked the harbinger's horn he had handed to Yang Qing. Yang Qing didn't even know how it had appeared in his hands. After being exposed to the means of a soul formation expert, he knew why such powerhouses were feared.
Vice President Tao Wen gently stoked the horn and released celestial glowing ring-like seals from it with every touch. The horn immediately transformed from its grey look to a pure white look with cloud markings that had lightning flashes and thunder rumblings.
Those flashes and rumblings immediately appeared on the skies above them, as the horn released an excited hum when it was being held by the vice president.
"Descend.."
Despite the gentle nature in which he uttered those words, a calamitous taboo lightning instantly descended from the skies above and instantly drowned the area around the red abyssal thorn tree.
A blinding blue lightning fell in the area as it rumbled almost everywhere sending shockwaves to everything around.
A red dome instantly appeared and blocked the rain of lighting. The dome looked like it had been made of thin skin, with veins all around. It was filled with black worm glyphs that released black smoke aiming to corrode the lightning, however they seemed to fall a little bit shot of it.
The dome seemed to cave in beneath the might of that lightning that seemed to carry the weight and the grandness of the universe within it.
Tear marks immediately appeared on it by the dozens. When half the dome had almost collapsed, a red seal shined on the thorn tree as the thorns and branches and the tree coalesced together to form a red blood sword with a red pearl that looked like it contained a world within it, and that world was the underworld from the ocean of blood and skeletons contained within it.
The sword let out a sharp slaughtering cry as it sliced apart the lightning.
"A sword cultivator, interesting..too bad they're unwilling to show themselves and are just using a spiritual apparition.." muttered the Vice President as he pointed his index finger forward and waved it downward like it was a sword.
An ocean-sized sword qi filled with an ethereal and abstruse light, and destructive power sufficient to split the continent in half descended on the red sword with terrifying momentum.
Every sword within a 100,000-kilometer radius that had its spirit activated, all let out a cry of submission the moment the sword qi appeared, while sword cultivators felt the urge to genuflect themselves to that sword qi. It didn't matter whether they were in the qi refinement or in the domain realm, they all had the same reaction.
Boom!!
A terrifying, catastrophic explosion appeared when the ocean-sized Qi and the red weapon clashed.
The horn let out a celestial glow forming a barrier that isolated the clash from the five judges.
"So this is a soul formation expert.." muttered Yang Qing in awe at the fearsome power being radiated from the clash.
The world around them changed, as the heavens shook, the space got torn apart, and the clash echoed all around.
A red light sliced and diced apart the sword qi aiming to drown it, but eventually, it got too much for it, and it eventually got overwhelmed and swallowed by it.
"What a cautious person.." Vice President Tao Wen said in disappointment as he waved his hand and the ocean-sized qi disappeared in an instant.
At the location, the thorn tree was no more, and oddly enough despite the degree of destruction radiated from the oceanic sword qi, the ruins of the Ice Emerald Sect remained untouched which was a testament to the degree of control Vice President Tao Wen had.
" It seems the fish escaped brother Zhu Qiu.." Vice President Tao Wen said with a genial smile as he looked to his right.
Yang Qing and the rest wondered who he was talking to when the space on that side warped as a resplendent white branch with stars appeared from the warp, and a kind-looking elderly man walked from it with his hands behind his back.
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