Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 407 When Negotiation Fails, Force Is the Only Option

It was still that same glittering palace, but compared to last time, it was not deserted due to the change of emperor; on the contrary, it was much more lively.

Palace maids and eunuchs came and went in an endless stream, their numbers even greater than before.

The fact that there were more people serving her meant that the new emperor's favor towards this princess had not diminished in the slightest.

This change of imperial power was almost entirely orchestrated by Princess Hongyu. Although the newly enthroned eighth prince is still young, he is born into an imperial family and is far more mature than his peers.

He knew very well who had granted him the privilege of sitting on the throne of the supreme ruler.

Therefore, Princess Hongyu not only did not lose power due to the old emperor's "retirement due to illness," but her status became even more esteemed. In the past, she was the emperor's most beloved daughter; now, she became the new emperor's most trusted elder sister. This newly enthroned emperor knew that he needed Princess Hongyu, this "auspicious omen," to stabilize the court and suppress those restless hearts.

Everyone knew perfectly well that Princess Hongyu's power would only grow stronger than ever before.

Inside the palace, the maids and eunuchs held their breath and served with even greater diligence. They even prostrated themselves on the already gleaming floor, meticulously wiping it with their sleeves to ensure not a speck of dust remained.

Before Chen Ye arrived, Princess Hongyu quietly savored her favorite osmanthus cake, disregarding all the gifts sent by the emperor and casually instructing her servants to move them aside.

When Chen Ye reappeared, Princess Hongyu's face instantly lit up with a relieved and radiant smile.

She knew that she had completed the task assigned to her by Chen Ye, and had done it very well.

As agreed, the immortal would remove the restrictions on her body, allowing her to completely escape the shadow of that demon and enjoy the freedom she had never truly possessed since birth.

Just like before, he always keeps his promises.

As for the Taoist priest beside Chen Ye, whose aura was so profound that one dared not look him in the eye, Princess Hongyu only glanced at him quickly before lowering her eyes and bowing gracefully to Chen Ye.

"Immortal Master, the Eighth Prince has successfully ascended the throne. Father has also taken good care of him as you instructed, and he is just waiting to be sent to the Northern Frontier."

According to Chen Ye's plan, all mortals who had been tainted by the Arrow of Time would be sent to the Northern Frontier until the Soul Venerable's split soul problem was completely eradicated. Although this was a massive undertaking, with the current strength of the Yellow Springs Sect, building a city specifically for their resettlement would only require some effort.

Chen Ye nodded slightly and said approvingly, "You did a great job. I never expected that you could use the old emperor's poor health as an excuse to change everything inside and outside the court without bloodshed, and still leave those old ministers with no fault to speak of."

Princess Hongyu humbly lowered her head: "It is all because of the wondrous magic treasures bestowed by the immortal master, which are beyond the ability of a mere mortal like myself."

Chen Ye knew that this was half true and half false.

The transfer of imperial power has always been a bloody and turbulent process. Without the assistance of the ghostly soldiers within the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls, no matter how flawless her excuse, it would have been impossible to so smoothly subdue the court and the public. However, Princess Hongyu's choice of timing and her skillful handling of the situation were truly exquisite. The way she offered a way out was so graceful that those who were unwilling to accept defeat were reluctant to fight and could only follow the steps.

This precise understanding of human nature and this effortless sense of proportion are truly rare.

If she were in his shoes, Chen Ye herself might not have been able to do so flawlessly. She truly deserves to be called a noble lady from an imperial family who grew up in the deep palace.

Looking into the expectant eyes of the Crimson Jade Master, Chen Ye stopped being polite and said frankly, "I've come today to remove the restrictions on you. Last time, when you contacted the Soul Venerable through the jade plate, a blood-red rune appeared on your body. Do you remember how this rune was implanted into your body?"

Upon hearing the words "lift the restriction," Princess Hongyu's body instantly stiffened. With her life and freedom at stake, she dared not be the slightest bit negligent. Without regard for whether it would be of any use, she recounted in detail her experiences of being resurrected by the Soul Lord after her death, and her forced participation in the soul-splitting plan.

Chen Ye listened intently, not daring to miss any details.

However, Princess Hongyu could not provide much useful information.

Most of the time she was just asleep, and when she was a remnant soul, her consciousness was even more hazy, and she could not remember what had happened.

Therefore, her descriptions were pieced together from fragments of memory, making it difficult for Chen Ye to deduce any further information.

Chen Ye only knew that she had been implanted with more Time Arrows, but it was definitely not just Time Arrows.

To revive a broken soul, it's not enough to simply let time pass; Chen Ye must fully understand the purpose of the Time Arrow.

After Princess Hongyu had explained everything, Chen Ye turned to Qu Heng and asked, "Grandmaster, what is your opinion on this?"

Master?

Upon hearing this title, Princess Hongyu was startled. The Immortal Master had initially claimed to be a rogue cultivator, so how could he suddenly have a senior disciple? Was he a later apprentice, or was there another hidden reason?
She couldn't help but overthink, realizing that her encounter with this immortal was purely by chance, and that she had only spent a short time with him, so she knew far too little about him.

Qu Heng pondered for a moment, his gaze sweeping over Princess Hongyu, and slowly said, "I have a bold guess. That Soulfire brat probably experimented on this girl's remnant soul first. Only after confirming that her remnant soul could be restored using this method did he dare to divide his own soul into those hundreds of thousands of parts."

Chen Ye asked, "How do you know?"

Qu Heng explained, "Because the little girl mentioned that she had taken several different pills, based on her description of the color and taste, I could roughly guess one or two of them, and roughly know their effects and usage. Soulfire didn't know if he could save this remnant soul, so he used the medicine very carefully, trying it little by little, and finally succeeded."

"Now that this little girl's soul is intact, I have some respect for her. That demon is indeed a master at manipulating souls. Even I might not be able to do it so perfectly."

Chen Ye's knowledge was diverse, but alchemy was his weakest area. He was still at the level of heating oil in a wok to refine Qi-gathering pills, which was not even comparable to a junior disciple who could keep track of the fire in other sects.

Qu Heng, however, is quite knowledgeable in this area, and since he has said so, he must be very confident.

"But what exactly does that demon want to do? Dividing himself into hundreds of thousands of fragmented souls, he can't possibly be trying to create hundreds of thousands of versions of himself, can he?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Ye himself was startled.

No way, it can't be that outrageous, right?
But upon closer reflection, it didn't seem quite right. If the Soul Master really wanted to play this game, there was no need to split into hundreds of thousands of parts at once. He should have extracted a wisp of remnant soul first and tried to cultivate a second version of himself. If successful, he could create a third or fourth version. This would have been much safer and wouldn't have required such a risk, leaving himself powerless to resist.

Just as Chen Ye was deep in thought, Princess Hongyu in front of him suddenly let out a scream, and her petite body slumped to the ground.

Chen Ye instinctively reached out to help, but Qu Heng stopped him.

"do not move."

In that split second, countless blood-red runes spread across Princess Hongyu's entire body like vines, radiating an eerie light.

Immediately afterwards, the little girl who had fallen to the ground stood up again in an eerie manner. She raised her head, and her eyes had turned into two ghostly flames.

Chen Ye's heart sank, but he wasn't entirely surprised.

When he retraced the cause and effect last time, he knew that the Soul Venerable's strongest fragment of soul was hidden within Princess Hongyu's body. The so-called message from the jade plate was nothing more than a smokescreen used by this demon to confuse the public. He had never gone far away at all, but had always been hiding within Princess Hongyu's soul.

"My good disciple, you understand your master best." A harsh, hoarse voice, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other, came from Princess Hongyu's mouth. "But you unfilial disciple, why do you insist on opposing your master!"

"Master?" Chen Ye looked at Qu Heng in astonishment. Wasn't the generational hierarchy a bit too messed up?

Qu Heng didn't even raise an eyebrow, and retorted sarcastically, "Back then, I was just trying to trick you into giving me the 'Eight-Nine Arcane Arts.' I casually called you 'Master,' and you actually took it seriously? You're supposed to be an old demon who has lived for countless years."

Chen Ye was speechless for a moment. His grandmaster was really... too unconventional.

However, the fact that the Soul Lord dared to show himself suggests that Qu Heng had indeed seen through his secret. He was truly using Princess Hongyu as an experiment, intending to use this method to revive the hundreds of thousands of his divided souls.

If he were to actually succeed, Chen Ye dared not imagine what a terrifying scene that would be.

He had no intention of letting the "master and disciple" argue any further, so he went straight to the point and said to the possessed Princess Hongyu, "Soul Lord, whatever your schemes and tricks may have, they have all been exposed. I will find all those who have been planted with the Arrow of Time, and you will surely lose. Why not just end it quickly and lift the restriction yourself, and I might spare your life."

"Hahaha..." The Soul Venerable let out an extremely arrogant laugh, his voice full of contempt. "Arrogant brat! Do you know how many divine souls I have split into? Do you think my pawns are only in this imperial palace and court? Not only in the Central Plains Dynasty, but I have clones all over the world! How many can you catch? And how many can you control?" Chen Ye and Qu Heng exchanged a glance, then said, "It seems you have been in seclusion for a long time, and you don't even know that I can trace cause and effect. Didn't the Flying Lord tell you? Even if you split into millions, I can still follow the thread of cause and effect and find you one by one."

"Tracing the cause and effect?"

For the first time, a hint of surprise appeared in the Soul Master's voice, but he immediately mocked, "Truly worthy of being a little devil of the same lineage, even your ability to spout nonsense is exactly the same as my traitorous disciple's!"

Qu Heng raised an eyebrow slightly upon hearing this. This old devil, calling him a "wicked disciple" and a "traitor" all the time, was truly arrogant to the extreme. Did he really think he couldn't do anything to him?

Chen Ye's expression remained unchanged as he retorted, "Do you think I managed to uncover your hidden clones one by one in such a short period of time? Was it solely by interrogating those useless subordinates under your command?"

These words finally silenced the Soul Master. After his soul split, his perception of the outside world became extremely blurred. If it weren't for someone reporting to him, he wouldn't even know about the many changes that had recently occurred. The reason he appeared today was entirely because he sensed the aura of a Void Returning Realm expert like Qu Heng and realized that the situation was out of control, so he was forced to show himself to find out what was going on.

"Fine," Chen Ye said, losing his patience. "Since you insist on resisting to the bitter end, I don't need to be polite to you anymore."

Before he finished speaking, the magnificent phantom of the Emperor of Fengdu suddenly appeared behind him, and the intense aura of the Netherworld instantly filled the entire palace. He prepared to directly use the divine powers of hell to see if he could force the truth out of this main soul.

However, just as he was about to make his move, the Soul Lord said fearlessly, "Go ahead and torture me. Anyway, it's not me who will suffer, but you, the mortal woman you've been so eager to save."

Chen Ye paused slightly, but the next moment, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and divine lightning of divine punishment rained down!

"boom!"

Countless dazzling bolts of lightning appeared out of nowhere and struck Princess Hongyu's body directly! When used at close range, its power far surpassed that of a punishment from afar, and the blinding white light instantly turned the surroundings into a blazing white color.

A piercing scream followed, but the voice clearly belonged to Princess Hongyu.

Chen Ye immediately withdrew his supernatural power. He saw Princess Hongyu convulsing, looking at him with shock and pain on her face, her eyes filled with incomprehension, as if she did not understand why she had suffered such a cruel fate.

Chen Ye frowned.

Ordinary people, whose sins are not deep, will lose their power after a few strikes of divine retribution lightning. But Princess Hongyu, having been controlled by a demon since childhood and indirectly harming countless people, probably feels deeply guilty herself. Therefore, for her, the divine retribution lightning is a true torture.

This old devil actually managed to hide in the shadows unscathed?

"Immortal Master, this..." Princess Hongyu trembled slightly. The pain of being struck by lightning was no less than being slowly sliced ​​to death. But she was intelligent by nature and did not complain. She just looked at Chen Ye with her eyes full of grievance.

Chen Ye's heart sank. If the Soul Master was truly hidden deep within Princess Hongyu's soul essence, and she was used as a shield, he would be truly helpless. Unless... he could completely separate their souls.

Before he could offer any words of comfort, the blood-red runes on Princess Hongyu's body reappeared, and her eyes transformed into ghostly blue soul flames once more.

Soul Master's triumphant laughter rang out again: "Hahaha... I've already said, you're powerless! Chen Ye, you can't do anything!"

Chen Ye turned to Qu Heng and asked in a deep voice, "Grandmaster, is there any way?"

Qu Heng shook his head, his tone cold: "This is not my forte. In my opinion, it would be better to just kill them. Since they can't be saved anyway, after killing them, put their souls into the Myriad Soul Banner for refining. If they still can't be separated even then, then we'll give them a quick death."

Hearing this, Soul Lord showed no fear. He controlled the body of the Crimson Jade Master, pointed at Chen Ye, and said, word by word, "Do you dare to kill him? Can you bear to kill him? If you can kill this one, can you kill all the innocent people in the world who have been planted with the Arrow of Time by me?"

"Chen Ye, this is the Achilles' heel of your righteous path! Your Yellow Springs Sect has finally earned the title of a major righteous sect. If you dare to slaughter these tens of thousands of mortals, then you can only become a complete demon like me!"

Chen Ye sighed, then said, "You forced me to do this."

Endless lightning condensed once more, and the Soul Venerable hurriedly retreated back into the depths of Princess Hongyu's soul.

Princess Hongyu, who had just recovered, was shocked to see the constantly flashing lightning again and asked, "Daoist Master, what is the reason for this?"

Chen Ye did not explain, but said to Princess Hongyu, "In order to break the demon's control over you, you need to suffer some pain. If you trust me, then endure it. Are you willing to trust me?"

After Chen Ye finished speaking, he waited quietly for Princess Hongyu's reply.

Princess Hongyu clearly remembered the feeling of being struck by lightning, which was a hundred times more intense than any restriction imposed by the demon. If she were to endure it again, she feared she would not be able to resist taking her own life.

Is this truly the method to lift the restriction?
Princess Hongyu couldn't help but feel a little suspicious. Having grown up in the treacherous inner palace, she instinctively warned herself not to trust anyone. Although she had known Chen Ye for a while, the time they had actually spent together was very limited.

The more she learned about him, the more unfathomable he seemed, hiding too many secrets.

However, when she looked into Chen Ye's eyes, Princess Hongyu remained silent for a long time.

Finally, as if she had staked everything, she firmly said to Chen Ye, "I believe in the Taoist priest."

Chen Ye smiled slightly; this young girl was much stronger than when they first met.

"Don't worry, although my secret technique will hurt, it will never really harm you. You can also take this opportunity to atone for all your past sins. Once you have repaid your sins, it will no longer hurt."

This was Chen Ye's plan.

So what if the torment of heavenly lightning causes unbearable pain? Once the sins are repaid, the pain will subside.

Princess Hongyu didn't understand what sin was, but she understood the promise. She closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembling uncontrollably: "Please, Immortal Master... tie me up. I'm afraid... I'm afraid I can't bear it and will take my own life."

"Haha, that won't happen. In front of me, you'd have a hard time dying!"

With a thought, Chen Ye conjured countless crimson fire snakes from the void, binding Princess Hongyu tightly like ropes, even gagging her mouth to prevent her from biting off her tongue in agony.

The next moment, lightning crashed down!

There were no more screams, only suppressed sobs seeping from beneath the forbidden seal. Her body convulsed violently like a leaf falling in the wind, veins bulging from beneath her snow-white skin, a horrifying sight.

At that moment, she was filled with immense regret. This was torture beyond anything a mortal could endure; it felt as if millions of red-hot steel needles were simultaneously piercing every inch of her flesh and soul. Compared to this, the demon's torment was as gentle as a spring breeze.

She wanted to beg for mercy, to scream, to die immediately and end this endless purgatory.

Unfortunately, she had accomplished everything. She could only stare in despair as the destructive lightning repeatedly ravaged her body and soul.

Chen Ye's expression was cold and stern, showing no mercy whatsoever. Instead, he pushed his divine sense to its limit, summoning even more violent heavenly lightning that poured down like a waterfall.

The more violent the heavenly thunder, the faster Princess Hongyu would have to pay for her sins.

Once Princess Hongyu has atoned for her sins, when the heavenly lightning strikes again, it will be the Soulfire Lord who will suffer the most!

This was Chen Ye's plan.

If negotiations fail, then resort to force.

As long as he could use torture, he wasn't afraid that the Soulfire brat wouldn't confess.

To date, he has never seen anyone keep their mouth shut under the torture of hell.

(End of this chapter)