True Heir of Chaos: From Villainess to Empress

Jian Dan's words left Ma Yi and Ma Chengjun momentarily stunned. What followed made their expressions shift to outright fury.

"Both were eliminated by a powerful cultivator without even alerting the Heavenly Demon Palace's protective array. I wonder, what exactly did the two of them do to provoke such a figure? Ma Feijun wasn't just a member of your Ma Clan, he was a peak lord of our palace. By offending someone that dangerous, he may have brought calamity to all of us. Who do you expect us to hold accountable for that?"

"Twisting words to shirk responsibility," Ma Wen snapped back.

"Patriarch Ma, there's no need to speak in circles. You're here to have one of your clan members take over as peak lord. I don't particularly mind that, but as for who eliminated Ma Zhūnzhǔ and Ma Feijun, we still have no leads. The peak token is right here. You're welcome to take it—if you dare."

With complete indifference, Jian Dan tossed the black jade token of the Mo Ying Peak into the air. It hovered between them, waiting for someone to claim it.

Ma Chengjun's eyes lit up. He reached out instinctively, eager to grasp the token, but Ma Wen stopped him with a single glance.

The peak token wasn't just a symbol of authority. Accepting it under these conditions would mean publicly rejecting the Heavenly Demon Palace's appointment. That would be equivalent to declaring open defiance. No matter how displeased the Ma Clan was, they didn't have the power to go that far.

"Jian Dan, there's no need to test us. Even if my clan has ambitions for the position, we'll wait for a formal appointment from the Palace Master. We came here to investigate our relatives' deaths. Nothing more."

"Is that so? Then it seems I misunderstood you, Patriarch Ma," Jian Dan replied with a slight smile. She hadn't expected them to take the bait anyway. She knew they wouldn't dare accept a token she already held.

"Gong Yi, do we still have the memory stone from that day's inquiry in the main hall?"

"Yes, it's right here."

"Then let the Ma Clan see if they can spot anything suspicious in it."

"As you command."

The moment Jian Dan gave the order, Gong Yi projected the contents of the memory stone in the hall. It replayed the Heavenly Demon Hall inquiry, including the questioning and the conclusion reached by Mo Lie Gongzhu and Mo Zang Zhēnzhě.

When the replay ended, the hall fell into awkward silence. Ma Wen lowered his gaze, while the other Ma Clan members looked visibly uncomfortable.

The peak's stewards, who had entered in twos and threes during the replay, stayed quiet as well. They bowed respectfully, doing their best to blend in and avoid drawing Jian Dan's ire.

"Gong Yi, make a copy of the memory stone for the Ma Clan. Escort them to Ma Feijun's cave dwelling. Let's see if Patriarch Ma can uncover something we missed."

"Yes, Jūnshàng."

This time, the Ma Clan members offered no protest. They quietly followed Gong Yi out of the hall.

Ma Wen cursed Ma Yi and Ma Feijun inwardly. If not for the fact they shared the same ancestor, he would have considered cursing them out loud. He had believed most of the explanation after watching the memory stone. Knowing Ma Yi, he wouldn't have left the clan grounds without a strong reason. The likely trigger was this very Jian Dan—and more specifically, the Mó Yuè Zhǎn she had inherited.

Decades ago, Ma Wen had learned that Ma Yi had been entangled with Miao Yanli of the Heavenly Demon Palace. He had even helped her scheme for a magic weapon. At the time, Ma Wen didn't pay it much mind. But once Mo Mei Zhūnzhǔ went missing, everything began to make sense. Until now, he had never seen Ma Yi wield any extraordinary artifact—at least not until the emergence of the Mó Yuè Zhǎn.

He now suspected that Ma Yi and Ma Feijun had left the clan for selfish reasons—lust and greed. They likely tried to seize the weapon and failed miserably. Whether this theory held up would depend on what remained at the scene of their deaths.

Once Ma Wen and his group left, the stewards waiting at the side of the hall finally stepped forward to greet their new superior.

"We pay respects to Peak Lord Mo Yue!"

"I'm only acting on behalf of the Palace Master. Just call me Jūnshàng."

Jian Dan didn't bother acknowledging them with more than a glance. These were all leftovers from Ma Feijun's tenure—nothing good would come from relying on them. If she hadn't just purged over a hundred cultivators infected by black armored parasites, she might have had them all cleared out as well. For now, she'd let them scurry around a few more days.

She said nothing further, and none of the stewards dared make a sound. They stood stiffly below the dais, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

Every one of them could feel her shifting aura—murderous one moment, withdrawn the next—like a hand tightening and loosening around their throats. It was psychological torment, and it was working.

Just as they began to feel that their legs might buckle, a voice rang out from beyond the hall.

"Junior Sister, what in the world was that ruckus earlier? I nearly thought someone was staging a revolt. I was about to charge in myself, and then you activated the protective array again."

Mo Yi Jūnshàng stepped into the hall in a flash of dark robes. His face betrayed no concern for the pale, trembling stewards.

"Senior Brother Mo Yi, are you here to laugh at me?"

"You wound me. I came as soon as I received your message. I heard you inherited the peak, so of course I came to congratulate you—and see if you needed help."

"Mo Yue thanks Senior Brother. No need to trouble yourself. The commotion earlier was just me killing some bugs."

Mo Yi immediately understood. He had only recently returned from a mission in Huanlecheng and knew exactly what she meant.

"I saw some Ma Clan people heading toward the back mountain. Are they poking around Ma Feijun's cave?"

"The new Patriarch came to interrogate me. Demands an explanation from the Heavenly Demon Palace."

"Oh? What did you say?"

"The truth. That a filthy insect-obsessed fool like Ma Feijun had no business being peak lord. His death was a blessing."

The stewards lowered their heads even further. If they could sink into the floor, they would.

"Alright, alright. Cool your temper. Someone already helped you settle the score. Some high-level cultivator—who knows where they came from—wiped out Ma Feijun and dragged his old man down with him."

"Truly the most useless son I've ever seen."

The two of them traded casual barbs, fully dismantling Ma Feijun's reputation. The stewards felt their spines go cold. If this was how the new Jūnshàng treated the last peak lord, none of them stood a chance if they stepped out of line.

Meanwhile, Ma Wen and Ma Chengjun followed Gong Yi to Ma Feijun's cave dwelling. The moment the seal was broken, Ma Wen felt a chill deep in his bones.

Nothing inside had been disturbed. The furnishings and layout remained unchanged. Only the pile of ashes on the floor spoke of someone's violent end. As for Ma Yi, not even ashes remained.

The final strands of residual force lingering in the chamber dissipated slowly. Ma Wen recognized it immediately. This was Dao energy.

"Patriarch, should we use a secret art to view Ma Yi's final moments?"

Ma Wen paused in thought. He hadn't intended to resort to that method, but as he glanced at the expectant faces of his kin, he finally nodded. From his sleeve, he drew out Ma Yi's extinguished soul lamp.

Though the flame had gone out, a sliver of fragmented soul still remained inside. Ma Wen extracted it, concentrating his Void Refinement cultivation into the thread. With a wave of his hand, he began to draw patterns in the air, attempting to project the final moment of Ma Yi's soul before its destruction.

Back in the main hall, Jian Dan and Mo Su were still casually chatting when they both fell silent at once. They had sensed something—and without a word, they vanished from the hall.