Chapter 796: 796 - Mo Shouming (02)
"Y-you son of a bitch, I’m going to—"
Beifeng’s words died in his throat as Qingyi’s boot came crashing down on his skull with a wet, sickening thud.
Qingyi didn’t even glance back at the body. Beifeng wasn’t worth a single thought anymore, much less the luxury of prolonged torture.
All of his attention was now focused on the words of that demonic cultivator.
[Be careful with this guy. He’s a celestial emperor concealing his cultivation level, a servant of that woman for at least a few million years.
Among the demonic race, he must be only weaker than the Heavenly Demon himself.
The Heavenly Demon was—and probably still is—nothing more than a fly compared to the Primordial Demon Empress at the height of her power, before she was poisoned.]
Auranys’s voice echoed in Qingyi’s mind.
She had already crossed swords with that demon before, during the bloody war between the cultivators and the followers of the Celestial Father.
At the time, he had been considerably weaker than the Heavenly Demon, but even so, he ranked among the most powerful Celestial Emperors of that era.
Now, much older and infinitely more experienced, his power had almost certainly multiplied several times over across the millennia.
"Your Majesty, upon her resurrection, the first thing the Empress did was send us to this region with two missions."
"The first: to recover an artifact capable of masking her demonic aura while she infiltrates the Orthodox Martial Alliance, so she can recover her power before taking revenge against the Heavenly Demon!"
"The second was to order us to report any information regarding Long Qingyi, master of primordial chaos... her destined husband!"
Shuoming’s voice trembled with a mixture of reverence and urgency, his eyes briefly darting toward Beifeng’s shattered body before snapping back.
"You are the master of the flames of primordial chaos, and your name is Long Qingyi! By your deeds, you can only be the destined prince consort!"
Qingyi let out a dry laugh at the absurdity, shaking his head slowly.
It was hard to believe something so insane, but Shuoming’s eyes burned with absolute seriousness.
More than that, there was a fervent devotion in them—something that far surpassed the mere loyalty of a servant toward a superior.
"If you are truly as loyal as you claim..." Qingyi took a step forward, his eyes cold, "cripple your own cultivation."
Shuoming’s eyes filled with sheer terror, his entire body shuddering involuntarily.
"I did not give you permission to hesitate."
Faced with Qingyi’s icy voice, Shuoming reacted without hesitation, driving his own palm into his chest and crushing his Dantian with a wet, nauseating crunch.
Waves of chaotic energy erupted throughout his body. The cultivation he’d accumulated over millions of years began bleeding out of him like blood pouring from a mortal wound, distorting the air around him with violent, unstable pulses.
He didn’t even have time for the blood to rise to his throat before Qingyi had already unleashed the Nine Paths of Creation Reversal Art upon him.
"Ah... w-what?..." Shuoming muttered through clenched teeth, his eyes wide with disbelief as his cultivation flowed back into him, filling the yawning void his Dantian had left only moments before.
Without a word, Qingyi turned to Chen Wei and his wife.
"You know what will happen if anyone besides us finds out about this, don’t you?"
Both nodded at the same moment, not daring even to lift their eyes from the floor.
"Good, since you didn’t give in to Beifeng’s torture even after all this time, I’m sure you’re loyal." He gave a slight smile, turning his face toward Shuoming.
"Come on, get up," he ordered, and Shuoming sprang to his feet at once, still gasping for breath. "I acknowledge your loyalty."
Without delay, Qingyi mentally accessed the system store, purchasing a primordial-grade artifact at a cost of nearly two hundred thousand lust points.
Shuoming had no idea that Qingyi was capable of restoring his lost cultivation, but even so, he—a celestial emperor in his prime—had crippled his own cultivation at a single word.
That, in and of itself, was all the proof Qingyi needed to trust him.
After all, who would throw millions of years of effort down the drain for a simple order, if not someone whose loyalty was absolute?
Qingyi held out the artifact to Shuoming, who examined it for a brief moment before his eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
It was even superior to what they had been trying to obtain for so long!
"Thank you very much, Your Majesty! I will report your presence to the Empress right away; she wishes to see you urgently!"
"No. I will meet her myself when I go to the central region. Tell her I’ll be in the care of the great-great-grandson of the venerable immortal Dragon Emperor—though it won’t be long before my name becomes known there as well."
Qingyi looked up toward the horizon, sensing energy signatures approaching in the distance.
"Now leave immediately. The Pavilion of Celestial Justice will be here in a few minutes."
Shuoming didn’t dare question the orders, bowing deeply before activating a spatial teleportation artifact.
In a burst of silver light, he and his more than one hundred men vanished without a trace.
Qingyi let out a long sigh.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t managed to have a good battle here, but that didn’t matter much in the end.
A few minutes later, five elders from the Celestial Justice Enforcement Pavilion arrived, accompanied by hundreds more disciples.
Among them was Elder Shen himself, who, despite belonging to the Recruitment Pavilion, had insisted on coming along anyway.
The moment he saw Qingyi safe and sound, Elder Shen’s face lit up with pure relief and excitement.
As for the fact that Beifeng had been executed without permission, he hardly gave it a second thought.
After all, Qingyi was the sect’s young lord.
Theoretically, he was second only to the sect leader himself, since, by right of inheritance, he was next in line for succession.
He wouldn’t be punished even for killing a disciple without any justification, and would only face real trouble if he committed an indiscriminate massacre.
As for Beifeng... although he was an important disciple, in the end he had been killed with more than enough justification.
"Ah... Long Qingyi, you really never cease to amaze me, hahahaha!" Elder Shen roared with laughter, pulling Qingyi into a bear hug and patting him vigorously on the back.
"Ah... it’s a shame that—"
Elder Shen’s words died in his throat when, in the very next instant, an overwhelming, suffocating aura crashed down upon everyone present.
"Who dared to lay a hand on my Beifeng?!"
The arrogance in that aura lasted only the briefest moment, for its owner needed but a single heartbeat to realize just how fucked he was.
