Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

"I'm just afraid he'll be recognized and cause trouble. It seems that your abilities can only be noticed by people through evil means."

Compared to the latter half of Shen Xuejun's sentence, the "he" in the first half of her sentence pierced the heartstrings of Venerable Wenxin even more, and Venerable Wenxin stared at the masked man.

"who is he?"

Shen Xuejun glanced at Chu Mingkong, who was blocking her way, and said in a calm and even tone:

“My children.”

"Son...you actually have a son...you appear so innocent to the outside world, yet you have a son in private?!"

Venerable Wenxin's blood and qi surged, his eyes filled with crimson blood vessels, and his aura was surging! He exuded evil energy from his soul and power, and the intense negative emotions caused his sect friends around him to become emotionally unstable, sometimes crying and sometimes howling.

Zuo Qiuchi exclaimed in horror, "What kind of evil technique is this? It's so ferocious! How disgusting!"

Taking advantage of the moment when he lost his mind, Chu Mingkong drew his bow and fired several arrows. The arrow that was about to kill Venerable Wenxin was corroded by the evil energy and could not get close at all, but the other arrows successfully shot the heads off all the elders.

This further accelerated the collapse of the Immortal-Trapping Sword Formation.

However, when Venerable Wenxin released his inner emotions, it fell into Shen Xuejun's area of ​​expertise. A chill emanated from her, quietly spreading towards Venerable Wenxin.

In a fit of rage and loss of reason, Venerable Wenxin charged forward, wielding a knife in one hand and a sword in the other, hacking and slashing wildly. Although his attacks were haphazard and irrational, the flashes of his sword and blade seemed to be coated with a deadly poison, displaying a deep, dark green hue.

Zuo Qiuchi warned, "Be careful, if you get hit, the malicious intent will directly affect your state of mind!"

However, Venerable Wenxin could not get any closer. His hands and feet were frozen by frost. Shen Xuejun's icy mist had quietly gathered, freezing and condensing Venerable Wenxin's evil miasma into a pitch-black ice pill, which she then put back into Venerable Wenxin's mouth.

Shen Xuejun rarely showed any expression; her delicate eyebrows furrowed, and a look of disgust appeared on her cold, jade-like face.

"There are actually men who pursue this kind of emotional strength. If you don't die, will you eventually become... a 'strong man' who is secretly pleased to see his wife having an affair?"

She looked down at Venerable Wenxin and said coldly:

"Kneel down and commit suicide."

In the sky, the enormous sword shadow controlled by Venerable Wenxin was originally aimed at Chu Mingkong and the others, but suddenly it missed several times before pointing directly at Venerable Wenxin himself.

The haggard, dejected, and crazed middle-aged man actually knelt on the ground at Shen Xuejun's command.

The sword energy fell, mercilessly grazing Venerable Wenxin's waist.

Chapter Fifty-One: The Qi of the Dragon Vein

Venerable Wenxin seemed to be completely dead, but after being cut in half by the sword energy of the Immortal-Trapping Sword Formation, although his consciousness dissipated, his body was still writhing and bleeding even in death. To describe Venerable Wenxin as a turtle would probably be an insult.

From that writhing corpse, a lot of miasma carrying negative emotions re-emerged; his corpse itself was an unclean entity.

"He must be completely dead, right? Is there any method to protect his primordial spirit?" Chu Mingkong asked.

"He should be completely dead, right? Madam, do you have any other unusual symptoms?"

Zuo Qiuchi said bluntly to Shen Xuejun that she could feel her swordsmanship level returning to control.

The Immortal-Binding Sword Formation has not completely collapsed. Because of Zuo Qiuchi's sword intent within the formation, she can now even use that intent to seize control of the formation.

After a few casual swings, the Binding Immortal Sword Formation was completely destroyed, dissipating with the sound of a teacup shattering. The azure-black color that enveloped this area gradually disappeared, but the huge sword mark left on the ground did not disappear with it.

The sword marks were so thick they resembled the canal itself, and a few curious civilians had already quietly gathered to see what was going on.

A ripple appeared on Chu Mingkong's note, indicating a message from Feng Ying:

[Mingkong, do you need any more help? I just eliminated a few Sword Profound Sect elders who were coming to reinforce you. If you need any more help, I'll settle this woman down and then come to assist you.]

【No need. You take Madam Zhen back to Xiaoxiang Qin Academy first. We've finished dealing with things here, and we'll go with her shortly.】

After replying to Fengying, Chu Mingkong also sent a message to Yongzhen to report that everything went smoothly before looking at the corpse of Venerable Wenxin. It was still floating in the air, twisting and turning, and dropping bursts of black blood.

Just now, Venerable Wenxin was probably controlled by his master's wife, Shen Xuejun... This ability is a bit exaggerated. The people most easily controlled are ordinary people without cultivation, beginner cultivators, and spirit beasts with extremely low levels of intelligence. Moreover, when it comes to their own safety, the original soul will provoke strong resistance.

While there is indeed a difference between Venerable Wenxin and his master's wife, it's truly excessive to have one's soul directly manipulated and ordered to commit suicide...

Chu Mingkong continued to recall the situation just now. It seemed that his master's wife had sensed his emotions and thoughts through the miasma.

He could only sense that the emotion was somewhat ominous, but he had no idea what it was, making it even more difficult for him to understand how Shen Xuejun had managed to do it.

“This person’s soul has already dissipated, and now all that remains is a corpse carrying demonic miasma. Mingkong, go and burn it to prevent it from harming innocent civilians,” Shen Xuejun said.

Chu Mingkong came to his senses and spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. Like a spark into oil, the extremely yin fire spiritual energy instantly ignited, burning the corpse and miasma to ashes. In the end, it even burned out a piece of something.

This thing is dark green, I don't know if it counts as a relic. Relics are said to be crystals formed from the body of a monk, containing the monk's wisdom and the karmic power accumulated from his good deeds during his lifetime.

So, is this black and green thing the culmination of Venerable Wenxin's lifelong cultivation and profound wisdom?

This thing is extremely difficult to burn. Even Chu Mingkong's extreme Yin Fire spiritual energy could not destroy it instantly, and could only burn it slowly.

The ground suddenly trembled, and a powerful aura came from the capital, moving underground and quickly reaching the group below.

Chu Mingkong and the others scattered in unison. The next instant, the ground was pierced, and a huge golden dragon with overwhelming power burst out of the ground. It bit the spot where the group had just been standing, but instead of biting the people, it swallowed the black relic.

After the attack, the giant dragon hovered in the clouds, its angry eyes fixed on Chu Mingkong and the others.

Several large holes appeared in the ground, from which surges of extremely yang dragon energy spewed out, one after another chasing after Chu Mingkong and the others.

"This is... the dragon vein of the Heavenly Pole Empire? The work of that dog emperor?" Chu Mingkong dodged repeatedly.

Although his Abyss Injury has been suppressed to a great extent, he would not be able to laugh if he were to be touched by this level of Extreme Yang Power.

"Let's go first. This branch came from the capital. If they go too far, they won't be able to keep up."

Zuo Qiuchi grabbed his apprentice and wife and fled, weaving through the constantly spewing dragon energy. He would occasionally strike with his sword to neutralize the dragon energy, and they escaped the dragon energy's pursuit range from the capital city without any major incident.

However, the dragon veins are distributed throughout the Tianji Empire, but the dragon veins in other places are slightly weaker than the one in the capital area, and soon another dragon vein's aura is approaching them.

"Is this never going to end?!"

Zuo Qiuchi, somewhat irritated, unleashed two sword strikes. The two intertwined sword energies pierced the ground, directly choking the dragon vein and making it difficult for it to move.

After that attack, Zuo Qiuchi sighed wearily:

"How can we possibly draw a few more small dragon veins from other places? I'm outta here."

------------

Chu Mingkong, Zuo Qiuchi, and Shen Xuejun returned to Xiaoxiang Qin Academy without any further harassment from the dragon vein.

Wenqing Pavilion and Xiaoxiang Qin Academy have a relationship. Since Shen Xuejun has come, it is necessary to inform the current sect leader, Qu Wuyue, and meet her first. After exchanging pleasantries, the group gathered in the room.

“Mingkong, Madam Zhen has asked the people at Xiaoxiang Qin Academy to find her a room nearby. She is doing well,” Fengying said.

"Yes, thank you for your hard work~" Chu Mingkong quickly poured tea for them before filling his own cup. He took a sip of tea and said, "Madam Zhen has been taken back, and Venerable Wenxin is gone. This is equivalent to the Tianji Royal Family severing ties with the Jianxuan Sect. The Jianxuan Sect can no longer find an excuse to cause trouble openly and put pressure on the Xiaoxiang Qin Academy."

The reason Jianxuan Sect initially pressured Xiaoxiang Qin Academy was that Xiaoxiang Qin Academy was harboring Chu Mingkong.

However, if a force is shameless, it may find other excuses to retaliate later, but it certainly won't be as legitimate.

If the Sword Profound Sect wants to cause trouble again, they can only focus on Venerable Wenxin, claiming that Xiaoxiang Qin Academy is behind it, and continue to exert pressure.

"If there's any follow-up, Mingkong can just say it was me who did it."

Shen Xuejun spoke calmly, perhaps because she didn't like the taste of the tea. She gathered icy spiritual energy at her fingertips, freezing the warm tea in the teapot into ice balls, placing them in an empty cup, and then put her own tea leaves back into the teapot, indicating to Chu Mingkong to brew tea.

Chu Mingkong honestly brewed another pot of tea and asked:

"Isn't Master's wife worried that Wenqing Pavilion will get into trouble?"

"I don't need to worry about what others think. Venerable Wenxin has tarnished the name of my sect, and he should be dealt with both morally and logically. Moreover, he has become inhuman in his pursuit of evil arts, so he deserves to die even more. If the people from Jianxuan Sect dare to cause trouble in the future, you can just take this ice ball away."

Following his master's wife Shen Xuejun's words, Chu Mingkong looked at the ice ball she had just frozen. Inside, there was a hint of black, as if the remnant soul of the Venerable Wenxin was trapped inside.

Chu Mingkong flicked the ice ball, and the remnant soul inside began to ramble on, repeating some of his strong thoughts from his previous life, including plans for how to treat Madam Zhen.

The women present groaned and frowned at his words, which only fueled Chu Mingkong's anger.

Chapter Fifty-Two Inheritance

While the concept of XP has evolved to the point where it no longer focuses on whether the subject is human, the occasional emergence of new XPs within the human realm is still quite astonishing...

The words spoken by the remnant soul of Venerable Wenxin were truly beyond Chu Mingkong's imagination. His reliance on becoming stronger seemed to be giving his beloved woman to another man to play with, and the more humiliated he felt, the faster he became stronger.

That's a true hat trick...

Perhaps subconsciously he regarded this as a mental test of "heaven is about to entrust a great task to this person", but the positive feedback from his realm of understanding that he could become stronger after humiliation had already distorted this strange humiliation into the happiness he actually pursued during his seclusion and self-reflection.

If it weren't for the fact that Venerable Wenxin's remnant soul still had to be protected from the backlash from the Sword Profound Sect, Chu Mingkong would have wanted to burn and torture the remnant soul to pieces just after hearing the vile words it had just spoken to Madam Zhen.

"This is really bizarre. What kind of strange technique is this?" Chu Mingkong said, his mouth dry, feeling shocked and disgusted by this strange pursuit.

"I don't know. Mingkong, didn't you ask that person from the Immortal Treasure Pavilion before?"

Although he agreed with Chu Mingkong, Zuo Qiuchi frowned as he looked at the remnant soul like it was a monkey, having learned something new.

Chu Mingkong recalled that he seemed to have inquired about this with Qingse before, and wondered:

"Qingse said that Venerable Wenxin once filmed a fragment of a cultivation technique. Could it be that one?"

“With the royal family as his backing, Venerable Wenxin has no shortage of cultivation techniques. He shouldn’t be buying a fragment of a cultivation technique at an auction. Only important figures in sects would snatch such a thing. They would search for fragments to find inspiration from predecessors when they want to create their own cultivation techniques. Normally, these kinds of things are unwanted,” Shen Xuejun said.

Following Shen Xuejun's words, Feng Ying pondered and guessed:

"So, does Pavilion Master Shen mean that this Venerable Wenxin already obtained another part of this incomplete cultivation technique from somewhere else?"

Shen Xuejun did not deny it, but only gave another guess, saying:

"It is also possible that they have already obtained the complete version, but feel that the original technique is too evil, and want to see if there will be any new discoveries in the fragments that are circulating outside."

When he took my finger strike back then, he used his internal energy to resist it. The energy he possessed then is from the same source as it is now, but he was too weak then and the energy felt unfamiliar, so he didn't realize it was such a strange technique.

Chu Mingkong nodded. He remembered that when he was looking at his master's memory projection at his master's place, the Venerable Wenxin did indeed deploy a green light barrier to resist it. Unfortunately, he was too weak at the time, and the barrier was as fragile as paper, so it failed to attract attention.

This means that he was already practicing this strange technique before he showed any signs of rising to prominence. However, at the time, he felt that something was wrong with the technique, which is why he bought an incomplete copy to see if anything was missing.

Could this technique have originated from the royal family...? Did the late emperor teach it to him?

—Brother, although I beat you in the fight over women, you must feel humiliated, right? This cultivation technique is perfect for you, and I'll make you stronger as compensation!

This topic will be put aside for now. Venerable Wenxin is dead, so we don't need to focus on him for the time being. What we need to consider are the potential consequences of his death and the changes in the power dynamics among various factions.

“The Sword Profound Sect has no designs on the Heavenly Extreme Royal Family, but they are thinking about whether they can take this opportunity to add a powerful member to the sect,” Shen Xuejun analyzed.

"That's what I think too." Zuo Qiuchi wasn't interested in this topic, so she went to lie down on the bed next to her and suddenly said something to make her presence known.