Chapter 223

Chapter 223 – Purging Xuanjing of the Remaining Enemies

The light green moon, having been tangled up in the black haze, gave off a clear sound before exploding in a violent flash. More than a hundred sword qis gushed outward virtually simultaneously, tearing through all of the resistance around in one go and rolling downward with a thick cold light.

Queen Dong lifted her head and saw this. Though her head was still in excruciating pain, she knew that if she did not fight for her life at this moment, she would truly fall.

Therefore, she sent the seawater flying backwards with a flick of her tail, simultaneously opening her mouth once again and releasing from it a pale smoke of a fresh, blood-like red hue. It appeared to be only a thin layer at first, but after it flew out of her mouth, it immediately grew to be several meters in size. In a short moment, it caused the falling swords of light to tremble slightly before falling to the ground instantly afterwards.

Queen Dong seized this opportunity, making two small leaps twice in succession to escape out of the area covered by the swords of light.

Seeing this, Liu Ming breathed in deeply, planning to use all of his Fa Li to speed up the Green Shadow Needle. This would help him to regain control and once again vitally attack Queen Dong.

Right at this moment, the earsplitting sound of a crash was heard from somewhere not too far away.

The light coming from the blood formation was suddenly pierced by a snowy-white sword streak.

Then, with a twirl, this sword streak flew more than ten meters through the air and in a flash pierced through Queen Dong’s back. It then flew in a quick orbit around the Sea Jia’s enormous body, chopping it in two.

But the snowy-white sword streak didn’t stop there. With a crisp sound, it turned into a thick cluster of sword streaks which densely covered the two pieces of the body in cold light, quickly transforming them into a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

Once the snowy-white sword streak, with a shake, had retreated to a place nearby, a young girl appeared with no expression on her face appeared where the sword once was. It was none other than Zhang Xiuniang of the Heavenly Moon Sect.

Seeing this, Liu Ming’s eyes widened and mouth fell agape in shock. But after a few blinks, he nonetheless waved a hand at the corpse.

With a “pu” sound, a jade green streak shot out from the corpse’s flesh and returned to Liu Ming’s sleeve, disappearing inside it.

With a quick look at Liu Ming, Zhang Xiuniang raised her hand in a different direction and the snowy-white sword streak unfurled. It caused several bursts of fresh blood to spout violently from the one who had trapped her before cutting the person – the middle-aged servant woman who was spitting blood after Xiuniang broke the formation – in two.

The layer of light surrounding the woman had become thin like no other and in the next moment, she was pierced by the sword streak, utterly unable to block anything at all.

Originally overjoyed at the woman’s serious injuries, Du Hai was shocked after seeing what had just happened. However, after seeing that it was Zhang Xiuniang who had inflicted the damage, all he could do was to rub his nose and let out a long, forced laugh.

And so it was thus. With the exception of Xuanzhi, who was sitting cross-legged on the ground, unable to move and without a trace of color on his face, all of the sea race contestants had been slaughtered.

The curtains had truly closed on the competition.

High in the air, the skinny man sitting cross-legged on the jade boat had a thoroughly unmatched dark look surface on his face. However, with a few rapid changes of his glance, in a flash, he raised an arm and pointed a finger at the area below.

There was a "pu" sound.

Xuanzhi, sitting cross-legged on the ground, let out a wretched cry and a shapeless, powerful wind passed through his head. At the same time, a violent blood flame appeared and turned his dead body into ashes.

“Fellow Red, what is the meaning of this?”

After watching the disciples of the two sects achieve victory below, a trace of amusement had finally showed on Ye Tianmei’s face. But seeing what had just happened, her aura instantly became bone-chillingly cold.

“It’s nothing. As this child has a royal bloodline, there is no way he can be left to live in the hands of another race. Our deal was clear – had they been able to achieve victory, I could bring a few back with me. As we have lost, they have naturally lost the rights of the living. The way I have conducted myself has been completely fair and reasonable.” While the skinny man spoke with a chuckle, his eyes were fixed on the place where Xuanzhi had lost his life, and one could make out a trace of pity on his face.

Though Xuanzhi was only a mixed blood, it was simply too rare for the Sea Race to be born with royal bloodlines. Taking of his life in this manner was truly a tragedy!

But then again, had it been a pure royal bloodline of the Sea Race below, he would not have been willing to kill him so ruthlessly.

After he spoke, the skinny man stomped on the flying chariot below him with one of his feet and, with the Divine Secret Goddess and the others lost in looks of complex thought, turned around and retreated into the far sky.

Ye Tianmei, gaze sharp as a knife, watched the flying chariot in the distance. A slight trace of hesitation flashed across her face before it became once again free of all obstructions.

“Martial Aunt Ye, why don’t I go into the palace and check to see if there are any surviving sea race there?” At that moment, Zhou Tianhe took a step forward and spoke.

Seeing Third Red’s unequivocal departure, anyone would assume that all of the Sea Race in the palace were dead. But this male sword practitioner of the Heavenly Moon Sect could not help but have a glimmer of hope.

"Alright, why don't you and Niece Lin go to the palace and take a look. And while you're at it, see if there are any members of the Imperial family remaining in the palace, and choose one of them to be the next emperor. The mortals of the Da Xuan Country is of utmost importance to our Five Sects and we must not disturb its order." Hearing what was said, Ye Tianmei gave her instructions right away with no additional thought.

Zhou Tianhe and Lin Caiyu bowed and voiced their responses. Each transformed into a light beam and shot away.

“As for Nephew Lei and you lot, I have here a list of names, all of which are evil cultivators. Find each one of them and kill them all. In a moment, I will use a treasure to close off all of Xuanjing for three days again. This long a period should be enough for you all to complete the task at hand.” Ye Tianmei once again produced a jade slab from within her grasp and, seemingly carelessly, tossed it to Master Lei.

Master Lei caught the jade slab and though he felt a pang of fear at Ye Tianmei’s words, he nonetheless voiced his assent with the utmost respect. With that, he took the remaining Spirit Masters of the two sects and flew off in another direction.

With a turn of her hand, a couple of thick grey handkerchief suddenly appeared in Ye Tianmei’s hand. She flung them high in the air and then made hand signs in their direction.

An astonishing Crystal Level aura exploded out around the woman and moved out towards the heavens.

Around the palace were several audacious loose cultivators. The lower level cultivators who had been stealthily watching the battle heard nothing but a “weng” sound, their eyes darkened and they fell to the ground.

Slightly farther away were some loose cultivators of a slightly higher level. All of a sudden, they felt difficulty breathing and their legs weakened to the point that the practitioners were unable to stand.

Then, above the palace, a ball of grey light spun violently into being and with a muffled sound, a grey cloud billowed out from its center, expanding out in all directions with astonishing speed.

However, after a few manipulations completed in only a few breaths’ time, all of Xuanjing was once again strikingly surrounded by an incomparably thin grey netting.

The various faction leaders, who had withdrawn one by one because they knew that sect elders had arrived in Xuanjing and were now stunned seeing what was happening.

However, there were some wise men among them, who, remembering ill rumors from long ago, astonishingly began to rush wildly at the grey netting.

However, since this netting had been produced from Ye Tianmei’s crystal-level treasure and it was a given that it could only be more powerful than the Four Seas Overturning Sky formation and not any less. How could these loose cultivators have the power to break through it.

On the contrary – as some of these cultivators had been extremely vicious in their attacks, the counterattack from the gray netting was powerful.

With a “weng weng” sound from the netting, an incalculably large amount of cold light billowed forth from it. The loose cultivators standing in its vicinity were instantly chopped to countless bits.

The remaining cultivators were scared senseless by this, now realizing that their rise to action amounted to nothing more than a death sentence. With a shout, they scattered and hid themselves around Xuanjing once again.

It was precisely at this moment that Master Lei and the others started on their killing spree!

……

One day later, Liu Ming stood respectfully in a corner of the flying chariot.

He was not alone; Hu Chunniang and Zhang Xiuniang each stood similarly in other corners of the chariot.

In the middle of the chariot sat Ye Tianmei, cross-legged, on a spotlessly white cushion and with a sandalwood board set in front of her. On the board was arranged a thick array of black and white pieces intersecting one another. With one hand on the black pieces and the other on the white, she played the game, playing both sides of the board herself.

TL: The game is Go

Across from Ye Tianmei sat Lin Caiyu and Zhou Tianhe, faces flush with expressions of the utmost respect.

“So all of the sea race in the palace committed suicide by poison and even used secret techniques to wipe out their souls so that they are nowhere to be found.” Ye Tianmei placed one of the white pieces on the board before asking lightly.

“Yes, Martial Aunt Ye. Goddess Lin and I have searched the palace inside and out, even tens of meters below it, and can confirm that not a single member of the sea race remains in the palace. Regarding those palace guards as well as subjects, they have remained intact. They were unconscious and they have all been imprisoned. The one issue is that we have not been able to locate even a single member of the royal family or their direct descendants. I have investigated this matter further and it seems that after the sea race’s plot was exposed, some of the factions in Xuanjing schemed privately and caught the king and princes. Whether they are currently alive or dead, I cannot say. The only ones we could find were a few maidens of distant royal lineage.” Hearing Ye Tianmei’s words, Zhou Tianhe stepped forward and responded reverently.

“Hmph, in order to finish off these evil cultivators, it looks like we will need to search Xuanjing a few more times. As we only have these few royal maidens, let us choose one of them with a clean record and make her queen of Da Xuan Country! As for the king and those princes, regardless of whether or not we are eventually able to find them, we will just pretend what they did never happened.” Ye Tianmei cackled as she spoke and placed a black piece on the chess board.

“Affirmed. Nephew understands how to proceed.” Hearing Ye Tianmei’s words, Zhou Tianhe responded at once.

“Martial Aunt Ye, Fellow Lei has just sent word saying that they have taken care of all of the factions on the list and killed more than half of the evil cultivators. However, there are still some others who have concealed themselves quite effectively, and he is afraid that he will need one or two more days to completely finish the job.” Lin Caiyu bowed as she spoke.

“As long as they can finish within three days it will be fine; they don’t need to report the details to me.” Ye Tianmei said dismissively.