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Emperor Ji Zhi of Zhou sighed in his heart, well aware of the origin of this title.

At that time, a defeated extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon employed the body fragmentation technique and transformed into ten thousand pieces of itself, engulfing the entire city. The affected inhabitants fell into the influence of the heart demon regardless of their cultivation level. They lost their senses and bit anyone they saw. Anyone bitten became a new source of contamination, infecting others.

If these people were not slain immediately, the entire region of Jiuzhou would be mired in contamination.

However, the cause and effect involved in this incident were too significant and its disclosure would tarnish their reputations. Therefore, none of the candidates for the Human Emperor were willing to take action. Only Jiang Li unhesitatingly rushed into the crowd, killing anyone he saw without hesitation until he was too exhausted to even lift his arms. It was only then that the spread of contamination was halted.

At that time, Jiang Li said that a solution had not yet been found, its disclosure would only result in needless panic. He suggested it was he who had unintentionally hurt innocents during the fight against the Heavenly Demon.

After that, no one dared to claim the candidacy for Human Emperor in front of Jiang Li.

Jiang Li casually tossed away the man in his hand and spoke to the Clan Leader Jiang lying on the ground:

“Clan Leader Jiang, I understand your intention in stirring up the crowd. You think I care about public opinion and try to manipulate me by exploiting the people’s views, so as to force me to permit the Jiang family to join the Imperial Palace.”

“The position of the Imperial Palace is superior with numerous privileges. If the Jiang family joined, the case of Jiang Yixing’s practice of demon cultivation would naturally fall under its jurisdiction. You, emphasizing Jiang Yixing’s innocence and repentance repeatedly and reminiscing about his childhood, is nothing more than an attempt to encourage me to show leniency towards the Jiang Family.”

“Clan Leader Jiang, do you really think I would care about what people think?”

Jiang Li no longer cared about the reaction of the Clan Leader Jiang or the thoughts of the public. He turned towards Emperor Ji Zhi of Zhou and said, “Brother Ji, you handle Jiang Yixing’s demon cultivation case as you see fit. There’s no need to consider me.”

“What a pity, if you had pleaded with me for leniency for the Jiang family, I would have had the opportunity to have a good fight with you!”

After they finished speaking, the two looked at each other and burst into laughter.

Enlightened, Yuan Wuxing tossed away his feelings of fear and quietly completed the transformation of his fragmented core to a Nascent Soul, demonstrating it in its finest form.

…

With Emperor Zhou and the Human Emperor presiding, the progress of the case was swift. Emperor Zhou even used the memory sphere in combination with the power of time tracing to capture all those involved in the case.

Save for a few who were oblivious, all the Jiang family members were arrested and locked in jail, waiting for execution after the autumn session.

Of those who had held the post of City Lord in Qingcheng, only two of them were ignorant about the Jiang family’s activities. The rest were arrested and sent to jail to await execution after the autumn session.

Jiang Yixing was thrown into the Heavenly Prison and was sentenced to Obliteration.

Emperor Zhou used this opportunity to crack down on corruption and favoritism, leading to turbulence in the Da Zhou officialdom.

The Heavenly Prison was gloomy and damp, with the base stone of the Ten-direction soul-extinguishing array immersed in it. The sparse spiritual energy and obscure spiritual connections made it impossible for the cultivators imprisoned here to break free. If one were to live here all their life, they might not even be able to draw Qi into their bodies, let alone proceed with Qi cultivation, Foundation Establishment, or Core Formation.

Only two types of people were imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison. One was individuals with high cultivation levels, who had to be paralyzed with silver needles in the body’s eight meridians and seven apertures to prevent them from cultivating. The other type was individuals guilty of extreme crimes whose cultivation levels were not high but were rather fierce. It was dangerous to hold them elsewhere as they could easily cause trouble.

In the Heavenly Prison, neither of these two groups of people would yield to the other. The first group, being arrogant, considered all beings as minuscule and looked down upon those who rely on ferocity to commit crimes. The latter group, fearless and reckless, didn’t care about your previous level of cultivation. Here in the prison, we are all just mere mortals after all.

Hence, arguments and scuffles were a common sight in the Heavenly Prison.

However, things were different today. These two groups were no longer arguing, but quietly meditating, not daring to cause any trouble.

“The mighty Jiang Human Emperor sits here in absolute silence, managing to subdue a group of prisoners.” Jiang Yixing chuckled as he looked at Jiang Li. His old body meant that each laugh brought on a series of coughs.

To the unaware, the two people sitting opposite each other would appear to be a grandfather and grandson, never imagining them to be cousins merely a year apart in age.

Jiang Yixing had killed hundreds of infants and practiced the dark arts. A single crime would be enough to condemn him to the Heavenly Prison, let alone when he was guilty of them both.

“You should consider yourself fortunate that this is the Kingdom of Zhou. Otherwise, were it another dynasty, I would have had you killed within the Jiang family’s threshold, disregarding any law!” declared Jiang Li, his face cloaked in anger.

Jiang Yixing scoffed, “The Mahayana Realm truly is extraordinary. Unlike someone of average talent like me, with neither a Spiritual Root nor an unending Taoist Body. I had resigned myself to stagnating forever at the Foundation Establishment Stage.”

“Don’t play the fool here. When I first started cultivating, my Spiritual Root was hidden, my unlimited Taoist Body blocked. All I had was the worst kind of Five-Element body. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have dared to bully me. To have cultivated to the Mahayana Realm, surviving countless life-or-death situations, I can’t even enumerate them all myself.”

“I never resort to oppressing the weak, yet you tread down that path, mercilessly slaughtering infants. Truly devoid of humanity!”

Jiang Yixing gave a cold snort, saying nothing further as his earlier words were merely voiced in anger.

“I only have one question. You haven’t returned home in five hundred years, why did you decide to come back a few days ago? Had you not come back, nobody would have discovered me!”

As Jiang Yixing said this, resentment surfaced on his face, wrinkles trembling with ire. Had Jiang Li not returned, he would have been able to quietly manipulate the entire Qingcheng City, flaunting his power and enjoying all its riches. Eventually, he hoped to have an opportunity to achieve Divinity Transformation and happily live until a thousand years old.

You be your Human Emperor, and I’ll be my uncrowned king of Qingcheng. We would both live in peace, so why did you come back?

“I felt something amiss and wanted to check. I can’t really articulate it.” Originally, Jiang Li had intended to explain to Jiang Yixing about the system, but found it was too complex to easily convey. So he simply chose to refer to it as a premonition.

“The ways of the world are constant. Perhaps even the heavens could not stand my behavior, so they sent you to punish me.” Jiang Yixing muttered, not surprised by the answer.

This response was what Jiang Yixing had anticipated. But because Jiang Li did not confirm it, he couldn’t ascertain for sure, always feeling a stifling stone in his chest.

Now with Jiang Li providing an answer, the heavy stone was lifted, transforming Jiang Yixing from despondency to brightness, seemingly prepared for the inevitability of death.

“I’ve asked my question. Now it’s your turn.”

“You knew I had a question?” Jiang Li expressed his surprise.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If only you were here to send me off, I would gladly thank you.”

Not mincing any words, Jiang Li directly asked, “Where did you learn the ritual of blood sacrifice of infants, and how did you find out that belief power could neutralize the resentment of infants?”

Jiang Yixing stared at the damp cell ceiling in silence, seemingly lost in thought or trying to gather his words.

“It was probably around three hundred and eighty years ago. A man dressed in black appeared before me, and with a mere gesture, elevated me from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core. At that time, my life was nearing its end, trapped in the intermediate stage of Foundation Establishment with death looming, the power the black-clothed man bestowed got me an additional hundred years of life, for which I gratefully thanked him.”

“He then disclosed to me the method of blood sacrifice of infants. Having just cheated death, no one could desire life more than I. The idea of the blood sacrifice spell was deeply enticing. However, I was apprehensive that the resentment of the infants would expose my practice of the dark arts.”

“The man in black, seeing my hesitation, assured me that belief power could eradicate resentment. Then, he vanished into thin air and I’ve never seen him since.”

Jiang Li brooded, if he relied on belief power himself, once Jiang Yixing’s deeds became public knowledge, the fallout for him would be significant. Was this a plot against him? Or simply a ploy to spread the dark arts? But three hundred and eighty years ago, he was just a candidate for the Human Emperor. Could this black-clothed man have left a trap for all the candidates for the Human Emperor?

As the thoughts circulated through his mind, Jiang Li vanished, sailing off to an unknown destination.

Jiang Yixing gazed at the blue sky and flying birds outside his window bars, tears flowing down his anguished face.

Even though he had prepared himself for it, in the end, he was still afraid of death…