Nine Dragons Saint Ancestor

"Let’s go!"

Yun Xiao wasn’t about to bother with those Ye City Cultivators whose minds were all over the place, nor did he pay any attention to the sneers and disdain of some people. As his soft voice sounded, Xu Qingshan at his side immediately turned around to lead the way.

As the former Young Master of the Hidden Blade Sect, Xu Qingshan was extremely familiar with Ye City, and naturally knew where the Emperor Palace was, so Yun Xiao didn’t need to trouble himself asking around.

Seeing the two of them disappear from the Jade Sword Sect Headquarters, many people felt curious and followed behind them toward the Emperor Palace, but some others chose to stay at the Jade Sword Sect Headquarters.

Those who remained stared at the still-blazing inferno, all filled with emotion. They secretly thought that although the top experts of the Jade Sword Sect were still alive, it would probably take quite a long time for them to recover their vitality.

Swoosh! Swoosh swoosh! Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

About an hour later, several sounds of tearing wind suddenly came from a certain part of the sky, startling the Ye City Cultivators who were still here. They immediately turned their heads to look.

"Ah! The Jade Sword Sect Master and the Great Elder are back, and... Lord Supervisor Liu from the Emperor Palace?!"

One sharp-eyed cultivator recognized the first two at a glance, but when his gaze swept past the pair, shock surfaced on his face again.

The first two among the approaching figures were naturally the Jade Sword Sect Master, Daoist Jade Sword, and the Jade Sword Sect Great Elder who was at the Heavenly Realm Early Stage. The Ye City Cultivators were all extremely familiar with these two.

But that other figure standing alongside them in the front had a status far, far higher than Daoist Jade Sword—there was simply no comparison at all.

Never mind that the Ye City Emperor Palace Director Liu Wenzong’s cultivation was only a notch stronger than Daoist Jade Sword’s; with the Emperor Canglong Palace at his back, even those who had reached the Heavenly Realm Peak or were Half-step Holy Rank experts would not dare to lightly provoke him.

The Emperor Palace was like a hornet’s nest—once poked, it would bring endless calamity. If the Emperor Canglong Palace took the matter seriously, there might no longer be a foothold for them in the entire Nine-layered Dragon Cloud Human Territory.

"This..."

The moment the Jade Sword Sect Great Elder swept over the sky above this place, he saw the raging blaze burning fiercely below and his old face instantly darkened to an extreme. That was the Jade Sword Sect Headquarters.

Ever since they annihilated the Hidden Blade Sect, the Jade Sword Sect had undoubtedly become the one dominant power in Ye City. In the past two months, they had enjoyed carefree days without the Hidden Blade Sect holding them in check.

Who could have thought that before such good days had even lasted long, someone would burn down their Sect Headquarters with a single fire? This was truly something that could not be tolerated.

"Xu Qingshan, fuck your grandma!"

Compared to the Great Elder’s dark face, as the Sect Master of the Jade Sword Sect, Daoist Jade Sword naturally found this outcome even harder to accept. Usually steady and composed, he actually roared out a vulgar curse at this moment, revealing the extreme fury in his heart.

To be honest, when he’d previously received the report that someone had charged up to the Jade Sword Sect’s mountain gate, and that the intruder was merely a fish that escaped the net from the Hidden Blade Sect, Xu Qingshan, Daoist Jade Sword hadn’t been particularly worried.

After all, on the day the Hidden Blade Sect was wiped out, Daoist Jade Sword had sensed very clearly that Xu Qingshan’s cultivation was about the same as his prized Disciple Zhuo Bufeng’s; both were at the Floating Life Realm Late Stage level.

The Jade Sword Sect Headquarters had the Third Elder, Dong Shu, a Cloud Ascending Realm Middle Stage expert, sitting in town. Daoist Jade Sword was convinced there was no way any accident could occur. Even if Xu Qingshan had some helper, there shouldn’t be any problem with them holding out until he and the others rushed back, right?

Earlier, when Daoist Jade Sword received the information that his treasured Disciple had died because of Xu Qingshan, he had been holding back a bellyful of rage, wanting to capture Xu Qingshan and subject him to endless torment.

Who could have known that the full-of-confidence Daoist Jade Sword, upon hastily returning to the Jade Sword Sect Headquarters, would be greeted by such a scene of the Sect in flames? How could he possibly accept this?

The Jade Sword Sect was Daoist Jade Sword’s lifelong work, and this Sect Headquarters had been passed down for several generations. Now that it had been reduced to ashes, he no longer had the face to meet the ancestors underground.

"Where are they?"

In his berserk fury, Daoist Jade Sword noticed out of the corner of his eye a few Jade Sword Sect guards who looked somewhat familiar. He immediately shouted, and under the pressure of his long-accumulated might, those guards didn’t dare be slow. They hurried over and bowed.

"Reporting to Sect Master, Great Elder, after Xu Qingshan killed the Third Elder, he then slaughtered all the adults in the Sect who had reached the Heavenly Rank Realm, and after setting a fire... after that..."

The guard speaking looked somewhat timid, but still recounted roughly what had happened. When he reached the end, his gaze flickered toward Liu Wenzong, whose face was also gloomy, as if he didn’t know how to phrase his words.

"Speak!"

Seeing the Jade Sword Sect guard’s wavering gaze, a bad premonition rose in Liu Wenzong’s heart. He couldn’t help but bark out the command, making the guard’s body jolt.

"That rough-clothed kid following Xu Qingshan said... said that the ones who destroyed the Hidden Blade Sect back then weren’t just the Jade Sword Sect, but... but also the Ye City Emperor Palace!"

The guard finally managed to stammer his way through the report, and as soon as the words left his mouth, a trace of hostility surfaced in Liu Wenzong’s eyes; in his extreme fury, he actually revealed a strange smile.

"Tsk tsk, it’s really been a long time since I’ve seen someone this outrageously bold!"

When Liu Wenzong said this, although his face was smiling, some of the Ye City Cultivators who were closer couldn’t help but shiver involuntarily upon hearing it.

Because they knew that this Lord Supervisor of the Ye City Emperor Palace was definitely not praising that Young Master of the Hidden Blade Sect, but had already given rise to an extreme killing intent.

And just as Liu Wenzong said, ever since the Emperor Palace was established in the major cities, no one had dared to so brazenly provoke the authority of the Emperor Palace, because those who did, would all die mysteriously within a period of time.

Over time, even experts whose strength far surpassed that of the city’s Emperor Palace Director would not lightly provoke the Emperor Palace, for that might bring calamity of extermination upon their clans.

As for that coarse-clothed brat the guard mentioned, Liu Wenzong truly didn’t care in the slightest; even though at this moment the Jade Sword Sect Headquarters were engulfed in soaring flames, in the end, the strongest person in the previous Jade Sword Sect Headquarters was merely that Dong Shu at the Cloud Ascending Realm Middle Stage.

As a Heavenly Realm Late Stage expert, Liu Wenzong was an existence who could walk sideways within the bounds of Ye City; he told himself that even if that Xu Qingshan had help, he absolutely could not escape from his palm.

Even without this matter of Xu Qingshan burning the Jade Sword Sect, Liu Wenzong would never have let him go, because in the Hidden Blade Sect’s secret chamber, he had already learned Xu Qingshan’s identity.

Now that the Direct Disciple of the Long Xiao Battle God, Xu Tongshi, was dead, and Xu Qingshan was the Long Xiao Battle God’s only grand-disciple, Liu Wenzong had no intention of missing this great merit, which might very well be his opportunity to soar to prominence.

"Let’s go, we’ll go and see just how big a storm those two brats can stir up."

As these thoughts turned in his mind, Liu Wenzong found that his anger seemed to have abated somewhat; with a wave of his great hand, he led two Heavenly Realm experts and headed toward the Ye City Emperor Palace.

Liu Wenzong wasn’t overly worried about the situation at the Emperor Palace, for in this Ye City Emperor Palace, besides him, the Emperor Palace Director at the Heavenly Realm Late Stage, there were also two other experts who had reached the Heavenly Realm.

One of them even had cultivation not much weaker than Daoist Jade Sword, having already attained the Heavenly Realm Middle Stage; with such experts sitting in town, those two brats wouldn’t be able to raise much of a splash.

"There’s going to be a good show now!"

Watching the figures of Liu Wenzong and the other two disappear into the depths of Ye City, those Ye City Cultivators who hadn’t left yet all revealed excited expressions; hadn’t they been waiting here just for this outcome?

Right away, they followed after Liu Wenzong and the others, rushing toward the Emperor Palace, and more and more people joined in; word spread from one to ten, from ten to a hundred, and the events of this day quickly spread throughout the entire Ye City.

......

Time goes back to an hour earlier!

Yun Xiao and Xu Qingshan had no intention of caring about what others thought; under the latter’s lead, in just a brief moment, an extremely magnificent palace appeared in their sight.

The first thing that entered Yun Xiao’s gaze, besides that great hall that looked like some giant beast, were two rather familiar statues—precisely the Emperor Canglong Palace statues that received people’s worship.

Back in Yulong City, Yun Xiao had already seen two statues of Emperor Canglong; in the end, those two statues were destroyed by his hands, and because of that, he drew the attention of the Yongxiu City Emperor Palace.

In cities where the Emperor Palace existed, the Empress Statue would generally stand outside the Emperor Palace’s great hall, so that those Cultivators who came to the Emperor Palace on business would compete to worship; any sign of disrespect would bring certain death.

"Tsk tsk, have they really taken themselves to be Divine now?"

Seeing those two familiar statues again, Yun Xiao couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh, which made Xu Qingshan at his side strongly agree; at this point, he even bore a grudge against Emperor Canglong Palace itself.

This wasn’t just because the Hidden Blade Sect had been exterminated by the Emperor Palace, but also because of that Long Xiao Battle God’s grandmaster; from the things his father had said back then, Xu Qingshan knew that grandmaster had been wronged.

Since the Long Xiao Battle God had been wronged to death, reasoning in reverse, there was clearly something fishy about the supposedly lofty and selfless Emperor Canglong; this made Xu Qingshan feel deep disgust.

Thus, as the two of them strode toward the Emperor Palace, they did not linger, nor did they stop to worship like Ordinary Cultivators, which naturally drew some people’s attention.

"How dare you! Seeing the Empress Statue and yet you don’t kneel and bow—what crime should that be?"

This time, the one speaking wasn’t a guard of the Ye City Emperor Palace, but a Cultivator who was currently kneeling and worshiping before the Empress Statue; judging by his cultivation alone, he had clearly already reached the Floating Life Realm Early Stage.

Over the past hundred years, the dominance and accumulated might of Emperor Canglong Palace had already sunk deep into people’s hearts; even some Heavenly Rank Cultivators, under constant brainwashing, had nothing left in their minds but the majesty of Emperor Canglong.