Yellow Court Daoist

"Sister Yao."

Zhou Yujing's face showed a panic as she listened to Lu Yao's words, repeating anxiously, "It's not that I meant to ignore Brother Xiao earlier, I just got back and needed to go home to see my parents first. Not long ago, my senior brother and I were just talking about paying a visit to Uncle Lu and Auntie."

"Or perhaps you sensed that your evil magic has been broken and wanted to investigate?"

Lu Yao sneered sarcastically and turned to Lu Xiao beside her, "Do you see? The words of women from the outside world are the least trustworthy. Their expressions change faster than the colors of the clouds at dawn. Be careful in the future."

Lu Xiao remained silent.

Ignoring Lu Yao's words, Wang Chao looked up respectfully at the couple standing in mid-air, who appeared as ordinary as mortals, and spoke, "I am a disciple under Master Baoping of the Baoping Sect. May I have the honor of learning the esteemed names of you two? Perhaps I have heard of you from my teacher."

The more unassuming Lu Qingfeng and Ao Le appeared, the more Wang Chao realized their formidable strength. With his abilities at the third level of the Soul Condensation Realm, only one step away from stepping into the Third Realm's Unity Realm, he still couldn't perceive the depths of their powers. It was likely that their strength surpassed even his teacher's by a significant margin.

Wang Chao didn't dare to show any negligence.

"Master Baoping?"

"Never heard of him!"

Given his level, he probably wouldn't know the name of Lu Qingfeng either.

Lu Qingfeng held a position of great authority and had been famous within and beyond the Chunshen Nine Provinces over fifty thousand years ago. But given the high echelons of power and the passage of time, not every Primordial Spirit True One would necessarily have heard of his name.

Let alone a mere Third Realm Perfected.

If it was about the East Xian State, there might be a slight possibility.

But seeing Wang Chao's cautious demeanor, Lu Qingfeng finally understood why the Baoping Sect had managed to escape detection of any sinister traces for so long.

"Calling for your teacher?"

"There's no need to trouble yourself."

"I'll bring him here now."

Lu Qingfeng chuckled, waved his large sleeve, and a figure immediately fell from the sky, landing right in front of Wang Chao and Zhou Yujing.

The two rushed to see who it was and were immediately shocked, "Teacher?!"

They saw a man clad in a Xuanhuang Daoist robe, holding a Jade Bottle in his hand, and unable to rise from the ground where he'd fallen. He could only barely lift his head, his face showing the uttermost terror.

He had been cultivating in the mountains.

Suddenly the world around him shifted and he found himself here, knowing that a formidable figure must have interfered. His entire body was bound, unable to rise, but the first thing he saw was his beloved disciple Wang Chao and Zhou Yujing, a recently accepted disciple, standing right in front of him.

His thoughts raced to make sense of the situation.

"It must be these two unfilial disciples who have offended some formidable figure!"

Master Baoping inwardly raged, ready to speak out.

But Zhou Yujing beat him to it.

Seeing her teacher captured and brought here, her expression changed.

Thump!

She knelt on the ground, her voice filled with distress, "It was me who neglected Brother Xiao. If Uncle Lu seeks to avenge Brother Xiao, then please punish me, Yu Jing. Please let my teacher and senior brother go. This is all my fault; it has nothing to do with them!"

While sobbing and pleading, she also kowtowed continuously to Lu Qingfeng in the sky.

Thump, thump, thump!

Her forehead hit the ground, blood seeping out.

"Hmph!"

"Still daring to argue your case even now!"

Lu Yao saw through it all at a glance and was filled with disdain.

Lu Xiao stood by, his face expressionless, his mind in turmoil. As he watched Zhou Yujing kowtow endlessly, he seemed to see flashes of the little girl who used to follow him around, adorably calling him "Brother Xiao" and felt a sense of suffocation, wondering, "How did it come to this?"

"What a fine White Lotus you are."

Lu Qingfeng found Zhou Yujing's pretense uninspiring. With a thought, the Jade Bottle slipped from Master Baoping's hand and floated in midair.

"My Jade Bottle!"

Master Baoping panicked. That Jade Bottle was his lifeline, the supreme treasure into which he had poured the majority of his life's cultivation. If anything happened to it, even if he escaped with his life today, his future would be bleak.

Lu Qingfeng, however, paid no heed.

With a flick of his fingers, mana surged into the Jade Bottle, and it shattered with a resounding crash.

In that instant—

"Ugh!"

Master Baoping spewed a mouthful of blood in reverse flow, his expression quickly fading, his face revealing a mix of viciousness and despair.

And following the shattering of the Jade Bottle, shadowy figures burst forth and materialized in mid-air as human shapes. These figures were pairs of identical brothers and sisters, all dragon and phoenix twins.

"Demons that slaughter lives, practicing their evil magic."

"They must be executed!"

Lu Qingfeng's voice was calm, and as his words fell, the bleeding Master Baoping's face twisted with fear as he shouted, "Spare me!", but in the next moment, he turned to ash with a 'poof' and dispersed.

Lu Xiao and Lu Yao watched, their eyes wide open, their breath held.

They had not anticipated that their father, known for his healer's compassion, also possessed such decisiveness.

Their hearts pounded relentlessly, leaving them stunned in place.

"Teacher!"

Zhou Yujing abruptly stopped kowtowing.

Wang Chao was so frightened that he knelt to the ground, repeatedly calling out, "I know nothing of this rogue's practice of wicked techniques; I beseech you, elder, to spare my life!"

With a teacher of the Third Realm being executed so effortlessly, Wang Chao dared not harbor even the slightest thought of resistance, promptly bowing on the ground, ceaselessly begging for mercy.

Zhou Yujing also came back to her senses, crying out in a piteous voice, "Uncle Lu, you watched me grow up. I truly didn't know about the Demon Path's actions. Uncle Lu, you know my heart!"

Lu Qingfeng shook his head without saying much.

With a wave of his sleeve,

A scene appeared in the air—

Between green mountains and rivers, a man and a woman, disheveled in dress. The woman's face still flushed with post-coital color—it was Zhou Yujing and Wang Chao. Zhou Yujing nestled into Wang Chao's embrace, cooing, "I heard the teacher is scouring far and wide for a pair of dragon and phoenix twins for the Baoping ritual. In Qing City, where I come from, there's just such a pair. Why not go back, secretly abduct them, and present them to the teacher?"

"Excellent!"

"Qing City is remote, no one will mind two missing brats!"

A glimmer flashed in Wang Chao's eyes as he groped Zhou Yujing's chest, eliciting another bout of bashful giggling, before he laughed heartily, "If this pair has decent aptitude and the teacher is pleased, there might well be a reward for us. If we're granted a Spirit Pill, maybe I could even break through the Soul Condensation Realm and ascend to the Unity Realm!"

The two laughed,

And walked out of the scenic mountains and rivers.

...

The picture faded.

Zhou Yujing and Wang Chao's faces had lost all color.

Wang Chao turned ashen, pleading urgently, "Elder! Elder! It was that wench Zhou Yujing who beguiled me; she used me!"

Zhou Yujing collapsed on the ground, blood seeping from her forehead, her visage smeared with blood, one moment in a daze, the next coming to her senses with an expression of terror, realizing her predicament. She hastened to kowtow to Lu Qingfeng, "Uncle Lu, spare my life! Uncle Lu, spare my life! Yu Jing knows her wrongdoing."

Sobbing, she then turned to kowtow to Lu Xiao, tearfully begging, "Brother Xiao, Brother Xiao, please spare me. I was possessed by a moment of madness; I'm truly inhuman!"

Her cries were mournful.

Lu Qingfeng paid her no heed, turning to Lu Xiao to say in a clear voice, "In this world, where there is good, there is evil; where there is truth, there is falsehood. Amidst these, there are all sorts of wonderful things, but also dangers abound. As you set foot on the path of cultivation, you must hold kindness in your heart, yet also see through the wicked. Do no evil deeds, nor be harmed by the wicked."

Seeing Lu Xiao kind of understood but not quite,

Lu Qingfeng wasn't in a hurry. He continued, "Evil must be eradicated. Those who would kill without cause, like these two, deserve death."

As his words fell,

Zhou Yujing and Wang Chao's eyes had split with horror, before they even had a chance to look up, they felt their hearts and gall shatter. They instantaneously turned to ash, their Divine Souls dissipated from the world alongside.

Lu Xiao's eyes widened.

Lu Yao held her breath.

Three living, breathing beings had just vanished before their eyes, jarring their years of understanding. For a moment, even Lu Yao couldn't quickly adjust.

Lu Qingfeng, continuing without pause, called out to the heavens and earth: "Where are the Scripture Country's City God and the Nine Yang Mountain God?!"

With that call,

Spirit light began to converge in the space between heaven and earth.

Two divine beings arrived in terror and haste, bowing before Lu Qingfeng and calling out, "Your humble servants pay respects to the Investigation God Monarch!"

Lu Qingfeng didn't hide his Divine Position.

Mortals could not see it.

But the aura that fell on these two highest-ranking divine beings of Scripture Country had them immediately recognizing their own fright to the extreme. They were under the Shang River Divine Dao, but Scripture Country was merely a small state, and their ranks didn't even reach the Fifth Rank. Before an Honorable God like Lu Qingfeng, notably the Investigation God Monarch, who judged demons and oversaw good and evil, they trembled with dread in their hearts.

"These two dressed up seem to be the City God and Nine Yang Mountain God of Scripture Country, the great gods who receive Incense Fire worship throughout the entire country."

"Why are they so scared of seeing our father?"

Lu Yao's eyes shone brightly, glancing back and forth between the two divine beings and Lu Qingfeng, feeling as if the world had turned upside down in a single day.

Her heart was in tumult, feeling both joy and nerves.

Observing Lu Xiao,

He seemed a bit dazed, but with the appearance of the two gods and the display of his father's might, he was roused from the complications surrounding Zhou Yujing's death. His eyes looked toward his father, widened in disbelief, "Investigation God Monarch?"

Lu Qingfeng, with dignity inherent in his being,

Flicked his fingers, sending two rays of spirit light into the brows of the two gods. Instantly, the whole story unfolded in their minds.

"God Monarch, forgiveness!"

"It was our negligence that almost allowed the demon to harm your noble offspring!"

The City God and Mountain God were extremely fearful, kneeling before Lu Qingfeng. The demon of Scripture Country had almost endangered the children of the Investigation God Monarch, fear and despair overwhelmed the two minor deities.

Before a deity of such stature,

Even just a breath could smash to death dozens or hundreds of minor gods like them—how could they be not fearful?

Seeing their demeanor,

Lu Qingfeng maintained an intimidating presence and spoke, "The two of you manage the Divine Dao of Scripture Country and thus bear the duty to discern good from evil. How could you be so negligent in your duties?"

"I command you both to promptly investigate Scripture Country's mountains, rivers, and cities, and report any demonic beings or people following the Demon Path to the Good and Evil Envoys—The Investigation Divine Bureau will dispatch someone to handle it."

Good and Evil Envoys.

Fourth-grade divine beings of the Investigation Department, tasked with seeking out virtue and inspecting evil.

"We shall heed the divine order of God Monarch!"

The two deities, upon hearing this, finally breathed easier. It was fortunate that this God Monarch was not bloodthirsty nor unreasonable. Otherwise, once his wrath was provoked, what chance would they have had to survive?

"It's time to go."

Lu Qingfeng, having given his instructions and feeling his eighteen years in Scripture Country were repaid, promptly ceased to speak. He used the Cloud Blowing Technique and, with Lu Xiao and Lu Yao in tow, escaped towards the heavens beyond.