Chapter 529: Lin Xue kills Shang Jun
At first, he was alerted about the presence of enemies but as they came closer, he realized that they were his people who were stationed in the Imperial City and the ones that sent him the message.
However, he didn\'t stay there to have a conversation with them.
With an excuse of leaving for an urgent task, Mark proceeded to accept the quest, as well as accepting the follow-up teleporting to the quest location.
He disappeared from their eyes and reappeared in what seemed like a temple. There\'s a giant statue of a warrior with a sword vertically pointing its blade to the floor.
Before him, there was a stone slab where Shang Jun was lying on his back. It was covered by an energy barrier.
*Ding! You entered the Tower of Doom.
*Ding! You are not a resident of the Tower of Doom. You are afflicted with the Doom curse.
*Ding! You are at the altar where the effect of the curse is at its highest. Your lifespan will reduce at a rate of 1 year per minute.
*Ding! You received a temporary reduction of stats (-5%).
*Ding! Please maximize your resistance stat for resisting the curses further.
As notifications continuously rang inside his head, Mark stopped wondering about his surroundings and focused on the stone slab.
"Multiple Lightning Clones, Activate."
*Ding! State the number
"2"
Two lightning clones mirroring his silhouette but have the appearance of energy beings appeared beside him.
Mark pointed his finger at the stone slab, "Alpha clone, go and bring him to me. Beta clone, stay here."
As one lightning clone stayed beside him in order to protect him from any unexpected danger, the other clone charged ahead and gave a punch to the energy barrier with its demigod-level strength.
A heavy crack formed on the barrier before the clone gave another punch. The barrier crumbled in an instant, letting the clone grab the corpse and return to its master.
Since it is still a corpse, Mark was able to place it in the inventory.
Once the target was secured, he didn\'t stay there to confront the Church of Doom and instead, opened up a portal to return to the Western Moon kingdom\'s Lunaris City.
After informing Fu Sheng and the others to return, Mark went to the palace and explained everything to the others in detail.
Lin Xue was devastated upon learning the news.
During the civil war, Mark tried his best to evacuate members of the Song clan from the Imperial City. Some settled down in Lunaris City, some settled down in towns and cities, while the prideful ones that don\'t want to leave their home stayed there.
However, the Lin Clan didn\'t get such a privilege. Unlike Song Yue, Lin Xue never asked Mark to help the rest of her family members and he turned a blind eye to their situation as he had nothing to do with them in the first place.
As Lin Xue\'s emotions had yet to return, no one could understand what she was feeling at that moment. Even Song Yue could only understand with a nod as Lin Xue went into closed-door cultivation in the name of seeking some time alone.
No one knows why she suddenly tried pushing her cultivation, but she went on absorbing ether crystals at a rapid place while using her ancestral cultivation technique. With her inner emotions running wild when they were getting suppressed by the cultivation technique, her cultivation speed increased multiple times.
Three days later, she consumed all of her ether crystals and successfully broke through the seven-circle realm but didn\'t stop there. She continued her cultivation by absorbing the natural energy and feeding it to her lightning element, refining it again and again.
Eight more days later, the sparks of lightning dancing on her body turned red and the transformation was so violent that her own element took over her body, forcing her to go into berserk mode, losing control of her power and mind.
Fortunately, she was stopped by Fu Sheng in time and woke up a day later.
When she woke up, she learned the news about Shang Jun and she immediately rushed to the City Center where the young man, looked all haggard and stripped off his powers, tied to a pole. His eyes looked lifeless as if he had given up on living. Meanwhile, a large crowd gathered around as usual.
Healers formed a formation around him, constantly healing his injuries as he was being tied to a pole and was being hit by a whip with sharp spikes. Mark was seen standing before him and silently watching the scene. His gaze was calm.
As she slowly made her way to him, Mark glanced to the side and spotted her. He raised his hand. The guards stopped hitting him.
He spoke, "As I have promised, your perpetrator is here. I have kept him alive for you without passing my judgment."
As Lin Xue\'s gaze shifted to the pathetic-looking figure, Mark let out a sigh, "Song Yue forgave him and asked me to give him a quick death for he had suffered long enough. But, you weren\'t awake. So, we had to keep this punishment going for the past six days. Now that you are here, he is yours."
Lin Xue raised her hand without waiting much longer. She didn\'t realize it before but her face no longer looked blank as before.
Her usual cold demeanor is back on her as she summoned something that resembles a lightning bolt in her hand. Seeing it, the lifeless face of Shang Jun suddenly developed a smirk on it.
Irked by his ridicule, she went on piercing his chest, not only ending his life in an instant but also turning him into ashes.
She immediately collapsed onto her knees, letting out all of her frustrated feelings in the form of a loud roar to the sky and shedding a stream of tears for the first, in weeks.
*Ding! The target has died without facing judgment from the Divine throne. You failed the Quest.
"Absorb," Mark muttered under his breath, absorbing his soul into the Orb of Bael while closing down the notification window.
After he was done with the absorption, he looked down at his friend and patted her back a few times, "I destroyed his soul. He will neither resurrect nor ever reincarnate, ceasing to exist for eternity."
She raised her head to look into her eyes and responded in a hushed tone, "Thank you."
"Now, let\'s return home. You have a bit to catch up on what happened during the past week."
As the crowd dispersed and the ashes of Shang Jun dissipated by the wind, Lin Xue returned to the palace, only to encounter a surprising guest right at the entrance.
"Brother Lu, you have returned. Father ordered me to fetch you. I was just about to leave. Oh, Lady Lin, it\'s been a while." An acquaintance of the imperial family with whom she had almost negligible contact appeared in front of her. As the young prince greeted Lin Xue and Mark, the latter\'s facial expression turned stiff, "Prince Shang, I know what he wants to say. But, it is a done deal.
He cannot stop it. Since he retired voluntarily and went on for a long vacation, he shouldn\'t interfere in the affairs of the Empire."
"Well…" The fourth prince, Shang Bo, could only stay silent as he internally agreed with Mark\'s decision while couldn\'t voice his opinion aloud to his father. "Still, it won\'t look good for him if you don\'t meet him. Who knows, it could be for another matter."
"What else we can talk about?" Mark argued a bit before letting out a sigh, "Fine, he is a guest at my home. I can\'t show inhospitality. Where is he?"
"He is with King Shen"
"Okay, I\'ll go and meet him. Can you escort Ms. Lin to my place?"
"That\'s not a problem."
As Mark left them, Lin Xue displayed her curiosity. "Uhh, what happened? Is something wrong?" She asked him as they walked together.