For many years, the human city-states within the Realm of No Regret had remained independent and autonomous.
Even Emperor Jing, with his intense desire for control, had not extended his reach into the Realm of No Regret, adhering to an unwritten rule that dated back to ancient times.
It wasn’t until the great chaos in Jiangdu City that new regimes began springing up like mushrooms after rain, each one trying to seize control of the human city-states in the Realm of No Regret.
After all, most cultivators spent their entire lives stuck between the Four Symbols and Six Harmonies stages.
The power within the Realm of No Regret formed the backbone of Shenzhou’s cultivator world.
Under the assault of heavy bribes and various threats, over half of the human towns in the Realm of No Regret had fallen, each aligning with a different political faction.
This severely limited the speed of information transfer between city-states and made unified mobilization extremely troublesome.
As the nominal Alliance Leader, Lu Qing glared at the negotiation representatives from the various city-states in front of him, his head aching.
“One day! I issued an emergency notice yesterday, and it took you a full day to take it seriously!”
His veins bulged as he suppressed his anger, staring at the representatives with disgust.
“Alliance Leader, please calm down. Our Ximing City just had some urgent business to deal with. We didn’t mean to delay.”
“Us too…”
“Same here…”
A chorus of agreement rang out, making Lu Qing even more furious.
“Do you realize that the Ruins Snake God was killed single-handedly by a Demon Race cultivator, and the corpse has fallen entirely into the hands of the Demon Race?!”
“?!”
Sharp intakes of breath sounded everywhere.
“And you still have the nerve to gasp? You still have the nerve to be shocked? Didn’t I tell you this yesterday?!”
“We didn’t know you were serious yesterday…”
Of course, they thought the Alliance Leader had fabricated some outrageous excuse to make the city-states take him seriously and trick them into coming.
I mean, that was the Ruins Snake God! Killed? Are you kidding? How could something like that happen? And done single-handedly at that!
Alliance Leader Lu Qing was so angry his liver ached.
“The entire Realm of No Regret will be destroyed by you sooner or later!”
“No, no, we’ll put the human race’s overall interests first.” The representatives clamored in agreement.
“It’s just one Ruins Snake God, no big deal. We’ll quickly send troops to attack Dongming City and seize the Ruins Snake God’s corpse,” one representative suggested.
“Ring~”
The flashing red urgent communication made Alliance Leader Lu Qing sigh softly.
He answered, “I’m in a meeting. What is it? Make it brief.”
“… ”
After a moment, Lu Qing hung up and stared expressionlessly at the city-state representatives.
“Great. The Void Night God and Wing Ruin Deity have also gone missing.”
“…Don’t worry, maybe they returned to the Void Realm!” the representative from Ximing City said with an awkward laugh.
“Heh, is that so?” Lu Qing sneered.
“This morning, there was a large-scale personnel mobilization among the Demon Race. Several of their emergency response teams headed to the territories of the Void Night God and Wing Ruin Deity, then transported mysterious giant objects deep into Demon Race territory.”
“All Demon Race researchers, along with a large number of Taiming Sect medical cultivators, rushed to the main city in the interior. Word is they have an important dissection task.”
“Our investigation team discovered damaged tissue fragments from the Void Night God and Wing Ruin Deity near White Mountain.”
“And even now, you still cling to wishful thinking?”
“…”
The representatives lowered their heads and fell silent.
Lu Qing frowned deeply and sighed.
“Furthermore, it is said that the deaths of the Void Night God and Wing Ruin Deity, along with the Ruins Snake God, were the work of the same Demon Race individual!”
“Crash—”
The representatives sprang to their feet in unison in terror, their chairs clattering backward in a mess.
Damn it! Such an unbelievable, unprecedented, world-shattering, illogical event…
“Qing Yi?!” they exclaimed.
The same name flashed through everyone’s minds in an instant.
“Qing Yi is here?!”
Only someone who could pull off something like this—crushing all common sense and conventions with overwhelming power—could be her! No doubt about it!
“Uh, sorry, I have something to take care of, I have to go first,” one representative said, eyes wide as he bolted out the door.
“I… I have something too! My wife is giving birth!”
“My wife is also giving birth!”
“Me too!”
“I’m giving birth too!”
“My whole family is giving birth! Don’t block my way!”
A swarm of representatives suddenly charged toward the door.
Their pathetic state was so starkly different from their earlier slick arrogance that Lu Qing stared in disbelief.
What a bunch of worthless trash!
And what kind of magic did the name Qing Yi hold to scare them shitless like this?
In the blink of an eye, dozens of city-state representatives had fled, leaving only six!
Among those six, three had their legs give out from fear or had fainted from the shock.
The other two huddled in a corner, sobbing hysterically as they peed themselves, “Wahhh, Mom, Qing Yi is here. It’s over, I’m coming to see you…”
Only one representative remained composed.
Lu Qing looked at him.
He was from a city-state under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Dasi.
“With thugs like these proclaiming themselves kings these days, the future of humanity is bleak,” Lu Qing sighed.
“Then, please report the situation to the royal court and have the city-states of Great Sima join us in competing for the Ruins God’s corpse…”
“No need. We can’t win.”
The representative from Great Sima said as he put on his coat.
“I just reported the situation to His Majesty. He said to abandon all pointless resistance. It’s best not to provoke her. Settle accounts after she leaves the Realm of No Regret… I’m planning to leave the Realm of No Regret myself. You should go home and self-isolate until she leaves too.”
Lu Qing was exasperated.
“When did you all become so spineless?”
“It’s not spinelessness,” the representative paused.
“It’s just avoiding unnecessary sacrifice. If we don’t strike, fine. But if we do, we must kill in one blow. She won’t last a few more days. His Majesty has other plans. Stay calm and don’t alert the enemy.”
“But… these are the Ruins Gods…” Lu Qing glared at the representative unwillingly.
The representative suddenly let out a disdainful laugh.
“Gods? They don’t deserve to be called gods. They’re just toys of the gods…”
Lu Qing was taken aback, unsure where this representative had gotten such arrogance.
And just now, he hadn’t seen him contact the royal court at all… how could he casually claim he had? Fabricating the emperor’s orders was a serious crime!
Intuition told Lu Qing that this young representative was no ordinary person.
He couldn’t help but ask warily, “Who exactly are you? How can you represent the royal court?”
The representative didn’t answer. He calmly draped his coat over his shoulders.
Though his steps were unhurried, he quickly disappeared from Lu Qing’s sight.
By the time Lu Qing snapped back to reality, the young representative was nowhere to be seen.
Qiao Xiaoxian was angry.
No, not exactly angry… It was just that her behavior had been a bit strange lately.
Jiang Ke’er pretended to be calm, not turning around to look at Qiao Xiaoxian’s expression.
A cold gaze was boring into her back.