"I—"
Su Moran still wanted to argue, but Daoist Buyu twisted the spirit sword lodged in his forehead, directly mincing his spiritual platform.
Cultivators at the Tribulation Transcendence stage were exceptionally difficult to kill. A soul flew out of Su Moran's spiritual platform, burning through its origin essence in a desperate bid to escape.
"Thinking of running?"
Daoist Buyu sneered. With a thought, crisscrossing sword qi filled every inch of the surrounding space. Any object attempting to move within this sword qi domain would be sliced to ribbons.
Terrified, Su Moran's soul froze, not daring to twitch. Daoist Buyu produced a red wine gourd, uncorked it, and sucked Su Moran's soul inside.
A soul search would have to wait until he returned, when he could ask his master—a fellow Tribulation Transcendence cultivator possessing formidable soul strength—to handle it. If Buyu rushed to search the soul himself, he might easily suffer a backlash from Su Moran's soul.
"What a pity. The people I saved back then won't be able to see this," Daoist Buyu sighed inwardly. That had been more than a thousand years ago. Only Void Refining stage cultivators could live that long, and none of the mortals and low-tier cultivators he had rescued had ever reached that realm.
Daoist Buyu looked up and casually flicked a streak of sword qi through Wu Lei, who was just turning to flee.
Meanwhile, the battle between Clan Head Jin and the Emotionless Cult Body Integration cultivator was drawing to a close. Having witnessed Su Moran's defeat, the Emotionless Cult cultivator was scared out of his wits and had lost all will to fight, wanting only to escape the battlefield.
Clan Head Jin was not about to give him the chance. Flapping his wings, a metallic gale rooted his opponent to the spot for a split second. Before the man could react, Clan Head Jin opened his gaping maw and swallowed him whole.
"Look at that! That is how you should fight—completely single-minded! Only like that can you unleash your maximum combat strength!" The Immortal Fairy was full of praise for the Qiongqi Clan's combat style, having frequently instructed the Barbarian clan to learn from them.
"I-it's over?" City Lord Duan could hardly believe his eyes. He had just witnessed Daoist Buyu break through mid-battle and execute a Vice Cult Master of the Emotionless Cult.
"It's over. I'll have to trouble you to handle the cleanup, City Lord Duan. I'll head back to the dungeon first to check on my cellmates."
"All done." Returning to the dungeon, Daoist Buyu patted the red gourd, flaunting his spoils before Lu Yang and the others.
He calculated with relish, "Capturing one mid Tribulation Transcendence and one late Body Integration... If I turn these in for contribution points, how many days can I serve as Acting Sect Master? Oh, wait, I *am* the Sect Master!"
Daoist Buyu suddenly remembered his own position.
"Incredible." Daoist Xiantian gazed at Daoist Buyu with undisguised hero worship. Breaking through mid-battle and defeating an opponent of a higher cultivation realm was a feat destined to leave a monumental mark in history and be praised for generations.
"Having captured a Vice Cult Master, Su Moran is bound to hold a wealth of intelligence. We must stay on guard against the Emotionless Cult coming to stage a rescue." Daoist Buyu knew matters had not truly concluded; only when Su Moran's soul was safely delivered to the Dao Seeking Sect could a full stop be put on this affair.
"Should I invite Eldest Senior Sister over?" Lu Yang volunteered, ready to deploy the Eldest Senior Sister Imitation Fist.
Daoist Buyu waved his hand dismissively. "Why trouble her over such a small matter? Just inviting Ancestor Hanhai will do."
He lowered his head toward Daoist Xiantian. "Patriarch, you should have a way to contact Ancestor Hanhai, right?"
"Yes, absolutely." Daoist Xiantian was both a senior and a junior to Daoist Lord Hanhai; by any reason or relationship, he naturally had means to reach him.
He drew a teleportation talisman from his robes. The talisman spontaneously ignited, opening a spatial rift, and a figure stepped out.
The figure had his eyes tightly shut, arms spread wide, clothes disheveled. "Come, Ya'er, give me a kiss—wait, where is this?"
Daoist Lord Hanhai felt his spatial coordinates shift from the East Sea back onto dry land.
Everyone stared silently at Daoist Lord Hanhai emerging from the spatial gateway, too frightened to utter a sound. Before a half-immortal who wielded a rudimentary spatial Dao fruit, nobody stood a chance of escaping.
Daoist Lord Hanhai looked around and found mostly familiar faces: Daoist Xiantian, Daoist Buyu, Lu Yang, Meng Jingzhou, and an unfamiliar Qiongqi. He deduced Daoist Xiantian had used that teleportation talisman—something that was supposed to be reserved for mortal peril.
He cleared his throat dryly and asked with a serious expression, "I was in secluded cultivation. What made you summon me?"
Seeing Daoist Lord Hanhai in his current state, everyone thought he had hardly looked like he was in secluded cultivation.
Daoist Xiantian pointed at Daoist Buyu and explained, "It's like this: he captured a Vice Cult Master of the Emotionless Cult and is worried about accidents during transport, so he wanted to trouble you to teleport the soul back to the Dao Seeking Sect."
"Captured a Vice Cult Master of the Emotionless Cult?" Daoist Lord Hanhai was genuinely surprised. The Emotionless Cult was notoriously cautious, making high-ranking members exceedingly difficult to apprehend.
"Good, good, good! Leave this to me! I'd like to see which dog from the Emotionless Cult dares snatch anyone from my hands!" Daoist Lord Hanhai rejoiced, speaking with natural arrogance.
Over at the City Lord's Estate, City Lord Duan personally arrested his son.
Looking at his struggling son, he let out a long sigh. How had a perfectly fine son turned into this?
The crimes his son had committed were far too severe, well beyond a city lord's authority to handle. Handed over to the imperial court, execution was almost certainly unavoidable.
The city lords of neighboring cities rushed over leading large contingents, alongside regional garrisons stationed nearby. They arrived at City Lord Duan's side as fast as they could, only to discover the fighting was already over.
"What on earth? Daoist Buyu captured an Emotionless Cult Vice Cult Master?!"
Everyone was thunderstruck. This was a monumental affair, far exceeding their jurisdiction, and required an immediate report to the imperial court so high officials could be dispatched to decide matters.
***
Imperial City.
It was already late at night. By all rights, officials should have retired to bed long ago, but high-ranking cultivators enjoyed the distinct advantage of working day and night without pause.
The Minister of Justice listlessly reviewed an official document. Normally, he never had to work overtime this late. The issue was that the East Sea had drawn intense attention recently, prompting Great Xia cultivators to form expedition groups there, which led to a surge of cross-border incidents that were an enormous headache to manage.
Furthermore, as the variety of foreign cases multiplied, the existing legal code proved inadequate, necessitating the formulation of new laws.
Then there was the Demon Empire, which intended to establish diplomatic ties with Great Xia. The Minister of Justice was personally tasked with liaising on judicial harmonization—another colossal nuisance.
"First the Demon Empire, now the East Sea. Both places were peaceful before, yet in the past two years, everything has erupted. Is it all because of the struggle of the Golden Age?"
"Wasn't the struggle of the Golden Age supposed to recreate the splendor of antiquity, where peerless geniuses competed to transcend and fought everywhere?"
The Minister of Justice finished stamping the final document and prepared to head home to rest.
A subordinate burst through the door in a panic, hurriedly reporting, "My Lord, an urgent dispatch from Ye City in Jizhou! A demonic cult ringleader has been caught!"
"Such good news actually happened?!" The Minister of Justice was instantly invigorated, his exhaustion vanishing in a flash. He had never expected such magnificent news in the dead of night.
"Which fellow Daoist captured him?!"
"Uh... it's Daoist Buyu."
"I asked who captured him, not who got captured!"
Chapter 900