Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

On the council platform in the center of Tianhuang City, the lingering smell of burning still lingered in the air.

Jiang Yining sat upright in the main seat, her fingertips tapping the table idly. Her cold eyes looked down at Pei Henian, who was tightly bound to the pillar by the Purple Gold Demon Vine.

Pei Zheng strode forward and slammed a storage bag full of blood samples from collateral branches onto the stone slab in front of Pei Henian. He then pulled out a thick register for the distribution of Blood-Dried Pills.

"The 3,700 lives recorded in this register were all drained of their lifeblood under the pretext of treating illnesses. Coupled with the irrefutable evidence of your forging of the Elder's Blood Order and your unauthorized activation of the Remnant Mirror of Revelation, what else do you have to say today in front of the entire city?"

Chu Ling Shuang stood to one side, carrying the crimson heavy hammer. The battle scars on her shoulder armor had not yet faded. She coldly swept her gaze over the indignant Pei clan members below the stage, her voice loud and clear.

"The City Lord's Mansion has verified all the evidence, and Deputy Commander Han Que has also handed over the array plate on which you forcibly planted the fire control secondary seal. Pei Henian, your grand scheme of burning the city with the blood sacrifice of ten thousand people has been completely exposed."

Although Pei Henian's limbs were bound by the demonic vines, a sneer of arrogance still lingered on his deeply lined old face.

He struggled to lift his head, his cloudy eyes fixed on Jiang Yining, as if certain that she wouldn't dare to really kill him.

"Jiang Yining, do you think you can sentence me to death based on these accusations from collateral branches? Don't forget how the poisonous fire of the Divine Realm bypassed the boundary barrier and entered the Great Thunderclap Temple. Don't you want to know?"

He paused deliberately, watching Jiang Yining's slightly hesitant fingertips, and his smile grew even more unrestrained.

"If there were no inside agents within the Buddhist community, how could the Merit Pool have fallen so easily? If you kill me now, that little monk Fan Chenxin will have died in vain, and you will never find out who the real mastermind is."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yining's lips curled into a cold, mocking smile. Far from being thrown off balance by this threat, she slowly stood up and walked down the platform step by step.

"Do you think that because I just lost my man, I'm desperate and willing to do anything for a clue?"

She walked up to Pei Henian and mercilessly placed her palm on the top of his head. A surge of violent lightning-type spiritual power instantly pierced into his sea of ​​consciousness, forcibly freezing the fragments of memories that were trying to self-destruct.

"I, Jiang Yining, do want to find out the truth, but I never make deals with a mad dog that is about to die. I will personally seal your sea of ​​consciousness. When I have time, I will naturally use the Soul Searching Technique to extract the information little by little."

Pei Henian stared in horror. He never expected that this seemingly weak woman would act so unpredictably, not even giving him a chance to bargain.

Pei Yunji stepped forward at the opportune moment, holding the inner ancestral seal that represented the legitimate lineage of the Pei clan tightly in his hand, and without hesitation, he slashed his palm with the sword.

"Pei Henian, you have been abusing your power as an elder for too long. Today, I will use the inner seal of the young master of the Pei clan as a guide to completely sever your last connection with the blood pool of the ancestral hall."

Dark silver blood dripped onto the ancestral seal, transforming into a sharp array pattern that directly shattered the blood jade within Pei Henian's body, which symbolized the authority of an elder.

Upon seeing this, Pei Zheng immediately raised the Ancestral Bone Whistle in his hand and led thousands of Pei clan members to cut their fingertips in unison, withdrawing all the bloodline recognition that had been forcibly branded onto their heart meridians.

"We, the collateral branch of the Pei clan, hereby formally depose Elder Pei Henian and reclaim all bloodline members who have been enshrined in us!"

Without the support of his collateral bloodline, Pei Henian's semi-saint realm cultivation level was like a punctured ball, plummeting at a visible speed.

Jiang Yining gave him no chance to catch his breath. The Soul-Devouring Vine rushed into his meridians and forcibly extracted the blood marrow and ancestral fire that he had stolen from his collateral branches over the years, skin and flesh.

"These things never belonged to you. Today, I will settle accounts with those you killed, one by one."

As the last wisp of ancestral fire was extracted, Pei Henian let out a miserable scream, and instantly collapsed to the ground. His cultivation level plummeted to the mortal realm, devoid of any spiritual power, making him even weaker than an ordinary body tempering martial artist.

Jiang Yining turned around, her cold gaze sweeping over the trembling members of the Pei family elders below the stage, her tone carrying an undeniable sense of oppression.

"Pei Henian has fallen, and you accomplices will not escape unscathed. You have half an hour to hand over 300 million top-grade blood crystals, the antidote formulas for all the Blood-Drying Pills in the Medicine Hall, and all the profits from the Earth Fire Well for the next hundred years."

She slammed the blood-stained demonic vine heavily against the stone pillar, making a crisp cracking sound.

"These compensations will be prioritized for treating the wounded in the city, rebuilding the disaster area, and providing relief to the families of the dead. As for me personally, I only want the piece of star beast spinal cord and all the space bone crystals in your treasure vault."

The elders dared not utter a word and scrambled to gather supplies, fearing that if they were even a step too late, they would suffer the same fate as Pei Henian.

Chu Ling Shuang watched this scene with a hint of admiration in her eyes. She strode forward and raised a token representing the highest authority of the City Lord's Mansion.

"The City Lord's Mansion hereby announces that the million-dollar bounty on Jiang Yining and others is immediately revoked. Although Deputy Commander Han Que was coerced, considering that he took the initiative to disconnect the fire control seal at the last moment and assisted in the evacuation of the people, he is hereby granted the right to keep his life and be handed over to the City Lord's Mansion for trial."

She paused, then turned her gaze to Mu Chongshan, who was bound hand and foot and held to the side, her eyes instantly turning icy.

"As for Mu Chongshan and his remaining members of the Mu family, their collusion with foreign enemies and attempt to massacre the city is unforgivable. They are all imprisoned on death row and will be executed after the investigation into the ambush at the secret passage is completed!"

At the end of the trial, Jiang Yining ordered her men to drag Pei Henian, who had become a cripple, to the blank stele outside the city.

She did not use his dirty blood to offer a sacrifice to Fan Chenxin, because she felt that would taint the clean stone.

"You will kneel here and watch with your murky eyes how those collateral branches you trampled underfoot will rise again. The rest of your life will be spent under the strict watch of the collateral branch council, living a life worse than death."

After dealing with all the trivial matters in Tianhuang City, Jiang Yining, along with Lou Xiaotian and Pei Yunji, returned to the Pei Clan's main tomb with the collected star beast spinal cords and space bone crystals.

The ancient ship, which had crossed realms, rested quietly in the underground river. The intricate array patterns on its hull began to emit a faint glow the moment they came into contact with the spinal cord of the star beast.

Jiang Yining carefully embedded the repaired star map bone plate into the third Returning Realm Array slot, preparing to inject lightning-type spiritual power to fully activate the array.

Just then, a familiar yet somewhat weak aura suddenly pierced through the layers of void barriers and crashed directly into her sea of ​​consciousness.

That was the unique bloodline fluctuation of the Four Treasures Heavenly Eye, yet it was mixed with traces of the pursuit of the divine laws that made one's heart tremble.

"Mother, do not light up the third Returning Realm Array. The people of the Divine Realm are borrowing our blood, waiting for you to open the gate."