Witch Wind

Chapter 407 The True Face of the Holy Dynasty (Part 2)

Suddenly, the jade pendant in Ye Lan's hand burst into a burst of extremely bright light. He abruptly raised his head and shouted sharply, "Xingtian Daoist, how dare you!"

Xing Tianli glanced at Ye Lan in surprise, then focused his gaze on the jade pendant in Ye Lan's hand.

Tsk, there are spies under Zhang Bao and Ma Su who have been bribed by the Dali Holy Dynasty. Traitors are always inevitable. Even Liu Bei, or the army under Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, can't avoid such troublesome things.

Xing Tianli sighed, suddenly feeling inexplicably down.

But in an instant, the immortal soul surged with immortal light, all negative emotions were dispelled, and powerful fighting spirit and confidence filled the whole body and mind again—Liu Huangshu and Prime Minister Zhuge were not saints, how could they possibly prevent such things as internal spies?
Moreover, even saints are not immune to some unpleasant things!

With a cold laugh, Xing Tianli said in a deep voice, "Now that you know my origins, then slowly enjoy the... brand new world that I bring you!"

The Heavenly Bamboo resounded with a clang, and the Boundless Sword Technique was unleashed. In the void, trillions of sword beams, as thick as willow leaves and of varying lengths, flashed in the air, accompanied by extremely sharp piercing sounds, and the sword beams rained down from the sky.

Below Ye Lan, whether they were the lucky ones who were uninfected by the plague and in good health, or the unlucky ones who were infected by witchcraft and were vomiting and having diarrhea and covered in pustules, each of them was struck in the chest by a sword, blood spurting out, and they fell into the void, screaming and struggling.

This sword strike did not kill them, but it severely damaged their heart meridians. Without three to five years of recuperation, they would not be able to activate their magic power again and engage in fierce battles.

Enraged, Ye Lan let out a long roar, and a small, crystal tower, half a foot tall, rose into the air above his head.

The three divine statues, formed from incense offerings and the divine power of the gods, rose simultaneously, their immense magical power surging and spreading outwards. The crystalline pagoda emitted dazzling light, absorbing the magical power of the three statues. Strands of divine light pierced through the void, striking Xing Tianli's vital points, especially his face and seven orifices.

This was a strange magical artifact specializing in 'imprisonment and capture'.

Clearly, Ye Lan had also paid a great price to obtain this small tower, and had spent all his energy and spirit carefully refining it. The way he summoned the small tower was incredibly cautious; he seemed to want to curl up and hug the entire tower to his chest, for fear that it would be damaged in the slightest by external forces.

A figure flashed by.

Before the divine light could even touch Xing Tianli's body, Ran Min had already charged forward, wielding a halberd and an axe, bringing down two heavy streaks of blood. With a deafening roar, the small tower was cleaved hundreds of millions of miles away, exploding into a sky full of dazzling sparks.

Ye Lan coughed up a mouthful of blood. The three divine lights above his head dimmed, and his divine body exploded with countless sparks, almost shattering.

"You!" Ye Lan looked at Ran Min in disbelief.

"Weak!" Ran Min curled his lip and shook his head at Ye Lan with disdain. These three-foot-tall little people, even if they were all at the Quasi-Saint realm, Ye Lan was still seven or eight times weaker than the weakest Quasi-Saint among the proper Quasi-Saints of the Nine Provinces.

Despite possessing a high cultivation level, in terms of actual combat strength, a qualified peak Great Luo Immortal from the Nine Provinces could easily suppress Ye Lan. Ran Min frowned in confusion: "It's strange, where do you get the confidence to oppose Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang? Is it because they are honest people?"

Ran Min roared in exasperation, "Should honest people be bullied by you? This is too much!"

Ran Min shouted and kicked Ye Lan.

Poor Ran Min, in his battle form, his blood and energy swelled, and his body became extremely burly and massive. His feet were several inches longer than Ye Lan's entire body. With this kick, he almost crushed Ye Lan into a meat patty.

The tiny Ye Lan's body was enveloped in a surge of immortal light and Dao energy, protecting her entire body.

However, when Ran Min kicked down, layers of immortal light surged and shattered, layers of Dao Qi spread and shattered... Ye Lan spat blood from all seven orifices, his whole body was covered in blood, and he was directly knocked unconscious by Ran Min's kick!
Xing Tian hooked his hand with a carp-like motion.

Unable to resist, the unconscious Ye Lan's immortal soul was forcibly extracted and sent directly into the Heavenly Spirit Banner, violently thrust into the deepest part of the Death God Pool. Boundless death energy mixed with the vast aura of blood essence surged into Ye Lan's immortal soul, frantically repairing its innate deficiencies.

Ye Lan's aura was expanding wildly, and his immortal soul was growing at a visible speed, quickly growing from a little over three feet tall to over ten feet tall. Although Ye Lan's strength wasn't particularly high, his cultivation level was undeniably impressive.

As the Heavenly Spirit Banner and the Death Pool continuously repaired Ye Lan's innate deficiencies, Ye Lan's aura quickly broke through one invisible bottleneck after another. Within the Heavenly Spirit Banner, numerous Great Yaksha Venerables, filled with both shock and anger, greedily locked onto Ye Lan's rapidly changing immortal soul. They knew full well that before long, a true Quasi-Saint level powerhouse would appear within the Heavenly Spirit Banner.

Ye Lan's physical body was stuffed into the Tower of Creation by Xing Tianli.

His essence and bloodline were rapidly analyzed by the Tower of Creation. In huge cultivation chambers, Ye Lan's bloodline was purified and then rapidly replicated. Strange rays of divine light of creation swept over Ye Lan's life essence and bloodline code, gradually and thoroughly dissecting the innate secrets of the entire clan to which Ye Lan belonged.

"This guy's aptitude isn't that great either," Xing Tianli murmured. "But, he's still a native of this world, and he's been favored by heaven and earth... Hmm, the entry of cultivators from the Nine Provinces has made this world feel threatened, so the heavens have shown favor, allowing someone like Ye Lan to cultivate to the Quasi-Saint realm so easily!"

Xing Tianli has obtained all of Ye Lan's memories.

Good heavens, this guy, who comes from a top-tier noble family in the Great Li Holy Dynasty, has become a Quasi-Saint in just three hundred years since he came into contact with the Nine Provinces Cultivation Method. Even if he is a Quasi-Saint with reduced strength, it's just that his combat power is too weak, but his realm is not compromised at all!

Good heavens, that's really good heavens.

A Quasi-Saint for three hundred years—if it weren't for the Heavenly Dao of this world opening a huge back door for him behind the scenes, Xing Tianli wouldn't be able to achieve such cultivation. Ye Lan, who is greedy for money, lustful, and extremely afraid of death, is a typical spoiled brat.

"Hmm, bring more samples. Besides, we can't waste these immortal souls of the Great Luo Realm!" Xing Tianli waved his sleeve, and in the void, hundreds of Great Luo Realm cultivators, tens of thousands of Taiyi Realm cultivators, and nearly 300,000 Golden Immortal cultivators from dozens of planets in Ziyang Pass had their immortal souls and bodies collected by Xing Tianli.

The immortal soul was sent into the Heavenly Spirit Banner, and the body was sent into the Heavenly Creation Tower.

All their memories.

All their privacy.

Their bloodline secret.

Everything was laid bare under Xing Tianli's watchful eye, with not a single detail concealed.

"Your circle is truly chaotic!" Xing Tianli rapidly analyzed the memories and bloodlines of these wealthy cultivators and was astonished to find that their relationships were indeed quite messy—at least, among the more than two thousand so-called father-son, father-daughter, and other kinship relationships, their genetic lineages did not match up!

Yes, it's a complete mess!
"That was truly spectacular!"

Xing Tianli curled his lips, and then he extracted some extremely 'interesting' things from the memories of several纨绔子弟 (spoiled brats) whose cultivation had barely reached the peak of the Heavenly Immortal realm.

"Uncle Ran Min, let's go, we have things to do." Xing Tianli looked at Ran Min.

This guy had just caught up with Ye Lan and retrieved her natal immortal artifact pagoda. He was now holding it in his palm, playing with it and rubbing it carefully, looking like a child who had obtained a new and exciting treasure and was afraid that someone would snatch it away.

Xing Tianli curled his lip: "Nobody's going to take this from you. But the way this thing works doesn't suit your style. Do you even need it?"

Ran Min grinned, tucked the pagoda into his sleeve, and whistled loudly: "It's a good treasure, what's the big deal? Hey, even if I don't need it myself, later on... I can use it to pick up girls, wouldn't that be great?"

Xing Tianli was taken aback.

The three girls pulled out a large bag of pumpkin seeds, quietly munching on them and drinking their old wine, while staring longingly at Ran Min—this guy actually dared to say something about 'flirting with girls'? Hey, this is interesting.

Within the Heavenly Spirit Banner, the immortal souls of powerful cultivators roared, causing earth-shattering changes.

Inside the Tower of Creation, their essence and blood were analyzed, their bloodlines purified, and then, through the manipulation of the divine power of creation, they were refined and purified again and again, constantly evolving and transforming towards the most perfect, ideal, and heavenly level that best suited the needs of the natives of this world. Xing Tian Li leaped up in a beam of auspicious light, heading straight for Ziyang Star, the largest habitable planet in Ziyang Pass.

Ziyang Star is also the location of various government offices in Ziyang Pass, and a place where powerful cultivators gather.

Ziyang Star, Ziyang Mountain.

On the southern slopes of a mountain range stretching for hundreds of thousands of miles, nestled between mountains and lakes, stands a majestic city.

Inside the city, in the northwest corner, a nearly 10,000-acre area was carved out by towering copper and iron walls. The ground was empty except for a few small stone houses, with constables dressed in black and red uniforms coming and going.

Underground, heavily guarded, the walls and floors were also made of real copper-iron alloy, enclosing a vast dungeon space with eighteen levels.

The dim, yellow lights flickered and swayed.

The grotesque and lewd-looking constables moved silently through the narrow passageway like ghosts.

In the deepest part of each dungeon level, in the torture chambers scorching hot from the furnace, the sounds of whips and branding irons, along with piercing screams and hysterical curses, rang out continuously.

In some cells, the piercing, heart-wrenching screams and cries of female prisoners continued incessantly.

The stench of blood and various filth, fermented over many years, created a terrifying atmosphere, like a thick paste, that permeated the entire dungeon, making people want to vomit—it was like a nightmare.

Li Wu lay paralyzed in a corner of a cell, his face deathly pale. His tendons in his hands and feet had been severed, his spine had been broken, and large amounts of flesh had been slashed away from his chest using methods of slow slicing and dismemberment. In some places, even the white bones were exposed.

A small swarm of insects common in dungeons was gathering on the wound on his chest, slowly gnawing at his rotting, foul-smelling flesh.

He is not far from death.

However, Xiao Li was still seething with anger and had many things on his mind. He stubbornly held on to his breath and refused to let go.

In the opposite cell, a group of prison guards, led by two head constables, were ruthlessly committing atrocities against three beautiful women.

The three women had been tormented for almost half a month. They were covered in filth, on the verge of death, and not far from it.

Occasionally, they would let out shrill cries, begging Xiao Li Wu to quickly hand over the things that the powerful figures behind these constables were asking for!
Xiao Li gritted his teeth, but simply refused to agree.

They were Xiao Li Wu's concubines... In fact, they weren't even considered concubines.

They were "savages," lowly people in the Dali Holy Dynasty without "identity certificates," people who could be bought and sold at will, and even if they were killed, they would only have to pay some money as compensation.

Xiao Li Wu would never agree to someone's outrageous demands just because they are being tortured.

Impossible. The three of them could never make Xiao Li Wu submit.

Xiao Li Wu was a very low-ranking 'commoner' in the Dali Holy Dynasty. He didn't even have the right to use the proper 'Hundred Family Surnames'—he had to add the word 'Xiao' before the surname 'Li' to highlight his 'commoner' status.

Those who could openly use the surname 'Li' were either from the lowest social class or, at the very least, powerful clans with a large fiefdom, a vast territory, and millions of households. Only then could they use the surname in a proper manner.

Fortunately, although Xiao Li Wu was a commoner, his ancestors were worthy and did not let their bloodline fall into the abyss. His clan was a "free people", a "free man" who could move freely throughout the Dali Holy Dynasty and do all kinds of business.

They are not the kind of 'citizens' who are confined to the lord's territory for their entire lives, or even for their descendants, and are never allowed to leave the lord's fiefdom.

Both are ordinary citizens, but 'free citizens' are much happier than 'citizens'.

Therefore, Xiao Li Wu inherited the family business and possessed considerable wealth. He was able to travel freely, buying low and selling high to earn substantial profits. In fact, by Xiao Li Wu's generation, the business-savvy Xiao Li Wu had amassed a fortune a hundred times greater than his ancestral inheritance. He even purchased twelve small transport ships and began trading between planets.

The dozens of habitable planets in Ziyang Pass each have their own unique products.

Xiao Li made a fortune; he even married twenty-four wives and concubines, had nearly eighty maids and servants, and countless maids in his room. He also had more than one hundred and fifty children.

The entire Li family, by the time of Li Wu, had become extremely wealthy.

He even managed to befriend a powerful figure and, through the connections of that person, secured some business opportunities providing daily necessities to the garrison at Ziyang Pass. With this backing, his business flourished even more.

Xiao Li Wu even offered his two most beautiful daughters to that nobleman as concubines.

As a result, Xiao Li Wu's backing became increasingly solid, and in recent years, things have gone smoothly for him, with his family business growing ever larger. He already has his sights set on acquiring a small mountain range on his habitable planet to become his family's hereditary territory, taking a solid step towards becoming a local powerful clan!
He even started to keep a private army of guards. Every day when he went in and out, he was always surrounded by dozens of guards wearing military-style energy armor.

But how did things get to this point?
Just half a month ago, it was the birthday of the nobleman he had climbed up to. Little Li Wu was incredibly attentive, personally leading two transport ships, carrying a large number of fine items, from his own remote planet to Ziyang Star and Ziyang City to celebrate the nobleman's birthday... and incidentally, he also brought some good things for his two daughters, so that they could secure their favor in the inner quarters.

How did things turn out this way?
Xiao Li Wu had no idea what had happened. He hadn't even been able to see the influential person he had been trying to curry favor with, nor had he been able to say a word to him. His two transport ships were seized, and he, along with his guards, servants, concubines, and others, were thrown into this prison.

For the first few days, Xiao Liwu was treated relatively well. However, several constables strolled around in front of him, saying some rather cryptic things, such as "spending money to avoid disaster" and "being unworthy of one's position and receiving windfall gains will surely bring calamity."

Xiao Li pretended to be deaf and mute for a few days.

Then, the nightmare began.

Xiao Li was being severely tortured, while his three concubines were being wantonly bullied and humiliated by these lowly jailers and servants in the cell opposite him!
Hearing their pitiful cries and pleas, Xiao Li Wu actually felt a sliver of relief—fortunately, he had only brought three concubines to amuse him during this birthday celebration for the nobleman, and had not brought his own wives and concubines with him... He dared not imagine what he would do if his own wives and concubines were bullied like this!

In another corner of the cell, a middle-aged man, also covered in wounds but still breathing slightly longer than Xiao Li Wu, murmured, "Brother, what exactly do they want from you? If you can give it to them, then give it to them..."

Xiao Li Wu struggled to lift his head and looked at the middle-aged man, asking, "If I could give it to you, I would... but I can't! Cough, and why did you come in?"

The middle-aged man chuckled dryly: "It's the same old story. I have a son who is quite handsome and excels in his studies. I was hoping he could pass the imperial examinations and become an official... but unexpectedly, a nobleman wants to take him as a page and convert him into a servant, a slave!"

The middle-aged man smiled bitterly: "It's said that for a humble family like ours, having a daughter of unparalleled beauty would certainly be a source of trouble, but I never imagined that having an exceptionally handsome and intelligent son would actually... actually..."

The middle-aged man spat out a mouthful of blood, shook his head, and said, "So be it, so be it, we're both going to die here anyway."

Xiao Li glanced sideways at the middle-aged man: "You might be going to die here, but I'm different... I'm really different. I have someone behind me!"

A strange, ethereal light illuminated the entire prison cell.

A strange puppet, made entirely of metal, clattered along as it approached Xiao Li Wu's cell. A deep, metallic voice rang out: "You really don't know that your cheap son-in-law, because of your affair, got slapped twice by his concubine and has already decided to kill you?"

Xiao Li was struck dumb, frozen on the spot.

(End of this chapter)