"One! Two! One! Two!"
In the spacious, empty hall, a dozen people stood in a line, chanting spirited slogans and marching in perfect unison.
Their faces were filled with fervent adoration as they gazed reverently at the ancient beauty in period attire, who sat languidly on the throne, propping her chin with one hand and idly toying with an antique jade with the other, looking utterly bored.
"Great Your Majesty, please allow me to present a song for you!"
Yagyu Ichinyo, who was at the front of the group, fell in a rather comical manner before the throne and shouted reverently at Zhou Ming.
Zhou Ming sighed and waved her hand listlessly, tacitly granting Yagyu Ichinyo's request.
"Thank you, my most revered Your Majesty!"
Yagyu Ichinyo's spirits lifted. He alternately raised his legs high, performing a crab-like dance, swinging his hands as if holding maracas, and even mimicking a "shasha, shasha" sound with his mouth. His movements were exaggerated, and his expression even more so.
"Deng deng deng deng deng deng deng!"
Yagyu Ichinyo stepped to a rhythmic drumbeat and sang loudly: "Hey young man! I said young man! Pick yourself off the ground, I said young man..."
Whoosh!
Behind Yagyu Ichinyo, four men suddenly leaped out, ripped open their upper garments to reveal their muscular physiques. Each struck a standard bodybuilding pose, with perverted smiles and lewd eyes. Their muscles twitched rhythmically with the song, constantly changing poses to display different muscle groups… "Damn it!" Zhou Ming flinched, startled, and even dropped the antique jade she was playing with. She quickly raised her hand and yelled, "Stop, stop, stop!"
The antique jade landed with a crisp "ding" sound, which Kaka, who had just walked in, noticed.
"Holy crap!" Kaka exclaimed, then quickly pounced to pick up the antique jade.
"Wow, Boss Zhou, even if you failed your practice, you shouldn't take it out on this thing. This is the Yasakani no Magatama, one of the three Divine Artifacts of the East! Even if we don't need it ourselves, we can take it back to the Main God Space and sell it to our friendly neighbors who are doing quite well! It could fetch a high price."
Kaka held the emerald green, chili-shaped magatama, exclaiming repeatedly.
Zhou Ming shrugged, looking indifferent.
"Look at these people. Not only did they not turn into what I wanted, but each of them has become a brain-dead musclehead."
She pointed at the "Martial Forest experts" who still gazed at her with reverence, seemingly ready to do anything for her at her command, an expression of exasperation on her face.
These people were all volunteers who had actively come to the capital in recent days, "willingly" serving as material for Zhou Ming to practice the Hell Soul Cleansing Scripture.
Zhou Ming, of course, couldn't waste them. She repeatedly rewrote their wills and edited their memories. The result was this. Even Zhou Ming herself was a bit unclear how many messed-up memories she had implanted in them.
"Yagyu Killing God and I hit it off. I originally planned to give these people to him when we met again, to show my goodwill and, incidentally, send him on his way."
"But look at them now. How can I present them to Yagyu Killing God? Am I supposed to send Yagyu Killing God off as soon as we meet? That would be too impolite!"
Kaka thought, *You want to kill him and break his spirit too? That's just too vicious.*
He at least kept his wits about him and didn't actually say that out loud. Instead, he changed the subject and said, "Yagyu Killing God hasn't appeared for so many days. Is there a possibility that he doesn't care about these people at all?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Zhou Ming declared, "If he doesn't care about Yagyu Ichinyo, or so many fellow Martial Forest practitioners from the East, does he not care about the entire East at all?"
"Wait three more days. If Yagyu Killing God still hasn't appeared after three days, we'll set off and make a tour of the islands in the East. We'll eventually kill enough to make him unable to resist jumping out!"
"Holy crap, Boss Zhou, are you serious?" Kaka was so shocked he almost jumped up, then he hesitated and asked, "Didn't you say your Soul strengthening has reached its limit? You can't accommodate any more, so why bother expending that effort?"
Soul cultivation, in addition to strengthening, refining, and stabilizing the Soul, also requires specific strengthening methods for the Physical Body, to enable the Physical Body to bear an increasingly powerful Soul.
Zhou Ming's current Soul foundation is equivalent to eight hundred human Souls. Her Soul is condensed, and she has the Soul-stabilizing divine fruit obtained from the Ghost Doctor, making her Soul cultivation smooth sailing. The only limitation is the strength of her Physical Body.
With Zhou Ming's current body, carrying a thousand human Souls is the limit. Once it exceeds a thousand human Souls, the Physical Body will be crushed by the Soul, and she will become a lone wandering ghost. Without Physical Body protection, her Soul will dissipate completely before long.
If Zhou Ming hadn't already gone from city to city, killing and increasing her Soul foundation, why would she be bored waiting for Yagyu Killing God here?
"I'm just killing time, might as well kill for fun," Zhou Ming said with a sweet smile and a flippant tone.
'Good heavens, living saints are common, but a living King of Hell is truly rare!' Kaka muttered to himself.
"Speaking of which, we've already turned this imperial palace upside down these past few days. All valuable treasures have been found. How many have you identified?"
"How many good things could there be?" Kaka said with a bitter face, "After looking around, only these so-called three Divine Artifacts are worth some money. We still can't identify their functions, so we'll have to wait until we return to the Main God Space to find someone to appraise them."
"After all, it's a small island nation; what good things could it have?" Zhou Ming sneered, then suddenly, as if remembering something, she stroked her smooth chin, deep in thought.
"There aren't many good things in the East, but my vast Central Plains has many good things! Anyway, that Emperor of Great Qi is incompetent and corrupt; living is just a waste of air. How about our two teams cooperate, invade the capital, chop off the dog Emperor's head, and loot the Great Qi Imperial Palace?"
'Damn it… I take back what I just said. You're not just a living King of Hell! You're the kind of person even the King of Hell would get tattooed on his back!'
Kaka complained endlessly in his mind, waving his hands repeatedly and laughing dryly, "No, no, no, our main mission is to protect the Dragon Vein after all. Who can say whether the Emperor of Great Qi is related to the Dragon Vein or not!"
"If we end up failing our main mission, wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse!"
He was genuinely afraid that this boss in front of him would get a hot head and actually fly back to the Central Plains to kill the Emperor of Great Qi, so he could only bring up his entire team to make Zhou Ming calm down.
"That's true, after all, your main mission…" Zhou Ming murmured, her starry eyes flickering, as if brewing something very dangerous.
Kaka swallowed, a sudden sense of unease rising in his heart.
"Boss Zhou, you don't really have such an idea, do you?"
"How could I!" Zhou Ming's pretty face straightened, and she said earnestly, "Am I that kind of person?!"
As soon as her voice fell, her big eyes rolled around, and she changed her tone, saying, "However, if, and I mean if, your main mission fails, what will you do?"
'You still say you don't have an idea!' Kaka was shocked, his mind racing. He cleared his throat and then said, "Actually, we're not entirely unable to accept a failed main mission. There have been cases before where other teams paid a sufficient price for us to abandon the main mission."
He emphasized the words "sufficient price" with a heavier tone.
"Is that so?" Zhou Ming giggled, "Truly worthy of an eight-star team, worth learning from, hahahaha…"
"You flatter me, hahahaha."
"Hahahahaha…"
The two of them laughed hysterically at each other like lunatics. The row of "Martial Forest experts" stared at each other, then mimicked them, also laughing loudly. For a moment, the hall was filled with cheerful air.
Suddenly, Zhou Ming and Kaka's laughter ceased abruptly.
Both turned their heads in unison to look outside the hall, where a figure was rapidly approaching from the sky.
"Finally, he's here," Kaka said, seeing the figure. Instead of panic, he felt a sense of relief.
Good heavens, just come and die already, don't let this little ancestor cause any more trouble!
Wait, he's a man, damn it! Bah, bah, bah, talking nonsense!
Zhou Ming looked curiously at Kaka, who was spitting "bah, bah, bah" to the side: "What's wrong? Yagyu Killing God has changed a bit, but it shouldn't make you so nauseous, should it?"
Kaka: "…"
Yagyu Killing God's figure descended lightly from the sky like willow catkins. His entire image and demeanor had drastically changed: his black hair had turned to silver, he wore white clothes, had white hair, and sported a desolate, unkempt stubble. His eyes were melancholic, and his Aura was withered and decaying, like autumn leaves, devoid of any Life Qi. His former domineering Aura, which once proclaimed him as the sole supreme being, was completely gone.
"Are you sure this is 'a bit' of a change?" Kaka was dumbfounded.
Zhou Ming scoffed, her face flippant: "Oh, oh, oh, isn't this Overlord Saber? Haven't seen you in a few days, gotten so weak?"
Yagyu Killing God's dead eyes swept over the group of Martial Forest experts behind Zhou Ming, led by Yagyu Ichinyo. They were all still gaping and giggling foolishly, not yet recovered from their earlier laughter.
A ripple appeared in Overlord Saber's gaze. His sight shifted, returning to Zhou Ming.
"Overlord Saber is dead," he said slowly.
'You chose this, idol!' Kaka wanted to add that, but he didn't dare, afraid of getting beaten.
"Ah? Then who the hell are you?" Zhou Ming asked impolitely.
'I don't know!' Kaka still wanted to add that, but likewise didn't dare to say it out loud, afraid of getting beaten even worse.
"Hope shattered, born useless, heart like dead ash, emotions extinguished, nature severed, I am… Severing Saber!"
From Yagyu Killing God's body, an Aura of all things withered and Life Qi extinguished, suddenly erupted.
The next moment, Zhou Ming drew her sword. The Sword Qi of the Nine Yin Profound Heaven Sword surged, rushing directly towards Yagyu Killing God.
Yagyu Killing God's entire Aura instantly converged, transforming into a Severing Saber, locking onto its target, and the Saber Intent cut down.
A Saber that severs the Physical Body, a heart that severs the Soul?
When everything before his eyes was shrouded in darkness, losing all vision, this sentence suddenly popped into Kaka's mind.
Then, the second sentence that popped into his mind was: *Damn it, why is Yagyu Killing God's target me!*
All thoughts of defense, counterattack, or anything else, had no time to arise. Yagyu Killing God's Saber only gave him time for two thoughts.
Then, his consciousness plunged into eternal void.