When he appeared once more, that figure was already standing before Ye Chen, whose head and part of his body were still deeply embedded in the ground.
[Name: Ye Chen][Cultivation Level: Spirit Formation Level 3][Special Body: Underworld Flame Body (Heaven Grade)][Luck: Gold][Affinity: 0]
The man in white extended his hand. His slender fingers touched the ring on Ye Chen's finger before pulling it off with effortless ease.
Spiritual power surged violently into the ring at once.
Rumble!
Black light burst into the air as a soul was forcibly dragged out.
"Aaaaaah!"
A piercing scream echoed throughout the area.
The soul slowly took form, revealing a woman of peerless beauty, her features like those of a celestial goddess. Long hair cascaded freely behind her, her eyes filled with hatred and resentment. She struggled to stabilize herself before speaking in a trembling voice.
"I am Huang Ran, former Empress of the Huang Dynasty. If you release me, I will repay you generously in the future."
The man in the black mask remained silent as information surfaced within his vision.
[Name: Huang Ran][Cultivation Level: Nirvana Level 2 (Collapsed)][Special Body: Heavenly King Body (Sacred Grade) (Destroyed)][Luck: Gold][Affinity: -100]
Kang Hao, who was on his way to find clothes, tilted his head slightly and spoke.
"Oh, the one who was just overthrown, was it not…"
Before he could finish his sentence, Huang Ran's scream rang out once more.
"Aaaaaaah!"
Her soul convulsed violently. The beautiful face twisted in agony as the man in white directly inserted his mental power into the core of her soul.
Memories were torn open layer by layer. Scenes of the past poured out savagely. He did not care that she had once been an empress, a supreme figure, or anyone of status.
The only thing he wanted was all the knowledge contained within this soul.
Huang Ran forced herself to lift her head. Her eyes were filled with venom as she clenched her teeth and screamed through tears.
"You… you…"
Her voice trembled until it nearly lost shape.
"If… if I had not lost my body, then ants like you…"
Before the insult could be completed, another crushing wave of mental force descended.
"Aaaaaaaaah!"
Her scream reverberated across the courtyard, as if announcing to the world that the once exalted empress now possessed nothing left except a soul on the verge of collapse.
Kang Hao walked through the ruins of the City Lord's manor in silence. Stone pavement lay shattered in long cracks. Dried blood stained the ground everywhere. The stench of blood mixed with lingering spiritual power made the air heavy and suffocating.
On his way to find clothing, his gaze passed over the corpses of his former subordinates scattered throughout the grounds.
Some had their limbs torn apart. Some were crushed into distorted shapes by spiritual force. Some no longer even resembled human forms.
His thoughts drifted back to the moment Kang Jin, the son of his wife, had died.
At that instant, what was called emotional attachment had been torn straight from his heart. The chains that once bound him to the past shattered completely.
At first, he had felt sorrow over Kang Jin's death.
But now, within his heart, not a trace of grief remained.
Kang Hao slowly raised his hand.
At this moment… he had nothing left to lose.
All of a sudden, four immense auras surged straight into the sky.
Overwhelming pressure spread outward simultaneously. Dark clouds churned violently as the spiritual energy around the city trembled. The auras of four Saint Kings erupted from the courtyard.
Yet before Kang Hao could even move, all four auras extinguished in an instant, as if those four had vanished from the world entirely.
His heart jolted violently.
Kang Hao hastily grabbed a cloak nearby and threw it over his body before rushing back toward the courtyard at his maximum speed.
When he arrived, the scene before him forced him to halt at once.
The bodies of the four Saint Kings lay submerged in pools of blood. Their eyes were wide open, faces frozen in shock, as though unable to accept reality even in death. The life pressure that once suppressed the entire city had completely vanished, leaving behind only cold corpses.
At the center of the courtyard, the man in white wearing the black mask stood in silence. One hand gripped the throat of a slender young woman, lifting her off the ground. Her feet kicked desperately in the air.
Kang Hao recognized her immediately.
She was the daughter of the Mu family.
Mu Ling.
Her face was flushed deep red, her breathing broken, yet her eyes still burned with stubborn resolve. She clenched her teeth and forced out a trembling shout.
"You bastard… release Junior Brother Ye Chen at once!"
Her voice overflowed with hatred.
"Otherwise, you will die a miserable death!"
At that moment, within the vision of the man in white, a panel of information appeared clearly.
[Name: Mu Ling][Cultivation Level: Body Integration Level 8][Special Body: Nine Colored Lotus Body (Sacred Grade)][Luck: Gold][Affinity: -100]
The man in white glanced at the panel only briefly before shifting his gaze back to her face without emotion.
The threat stirred not the slightest ripple within his mind.
The fingers gripping Mu Ling's throat tightened slowly. Bones in her neck cracked loudly. Her breathing faltered as her eyes began to tremble uncontrollably.
At that instant, the sky above the City Lord's manor changed color.
Massive black clouds spiraled at terrifying speed. The storm winds intensified even further as thunder roared across the heavens. The pressure of the heavens descended, splitting the ground with long cracks.
Heavenly punishment was forming.
Purple black lightning tore through the air with dreadful destructive force, striking straight toward the man in white without hesitation.
The man in white remained motionless. In the next instant, he yanked Ye Chen's unconscious body out from the ground and flung it into the sky without mercy, forcing him to receive the lightning in his place.
The heavenly tribulation struck that body directly.
Crack!
Light tore apart heaven and earth as an explosion thundered across the entire area.
Yet Ye Chen's body did not suffer even the slightest injury. The lightning seemed to lose its target, its power dissipating in midair, while Ye Chen's body was instead being healed by the lightning itself.
In the next instant, another bolt of lightning struck down toward the man in white from a different direction.
The man in white turned his head calmly and immediately pulled Ye Chen's body back toward himself.
Ye Chen collided with the lightning once more, and this time it dissolved again just the same.
The black clouds churned violently. The sky trembled as though the heavens themselves were confused, and no further lightning descended.
Kang Hao stood at a distance, his gaze fixed on Ye Chen's unconscious body beside the man in white. Rain continued to fall endlessly from the sky above, yet the lightning that should have annihilated all things left not even the slightest mark on the young man's body.
The sight made Kang Hao furrow his brow unconsciously.
That lightning seemed… unwilling to harm Ye Chen.
It even appeared to be healing him.
A question surfaced instantly in his mind.
Why?
Before he could think any further, the man in white moved.
With a casual flick of his hand, transparent water bubbles began to form in midair. They expanded rapidly, enveloping the bodies of the twenty one Saints lying motionless on the ground, as well as the four Saint Kings whose corpses lay soaked in blood nearby.
The bubbles then compressed into twenty five massive droplets of water, each sealing a body within, before rising together into the air.
The man in white raised his hand once more.
An enormous curtain of power spread in all directions, sealing the entire City Lord's manor completely. The sound of rain outside was cut off. Within the barrier, the world fell silent, as though severed from reality itself.
Then
Boom!
All twenty five droplets began to spin at extreme speed. Water pressure within them surged madly as the surrounding air warped and trembled.
Terrifying compression descended from every direction. Inside the clear bubbles, the crack of breaking bones rang out repeatedly. Faint screams of souls were swallowed by the violent rotation.
Within only a few breaths
Bang!
The bodies of all twenty five were crushed into nothingness, reduced to blood mist in an instant. Blood, vitality, and souls were refined together within each droplet until they transformed into deep crimson, like pure living blood.
Kang Hao watched the scene without speaking.
Though he had experienced countless battles, witnessing Saint Kings and Saints die in such a manner still caused his breathing to grow heavier without him realizing it.
And the reverence born from fear toward the man in white deepened further still.