Chapter 500: Capture!
Chapter 500: Capture!
Translator: Radiant Editor: Radiant
Xue Ying, accompanied by his wife and children, very quickly led his personal guard back from the Nest of Myriad Devils. It wasn't long before the Starfield Flying Ship arrived at Eastern Region City of the Calm Sea Prefecture. By this point, the White Sand City Lord had yet to even depart from his territory.
In the sky above Eastern Region City, General Mo was leading a large group of subordinates from Eastern Blaze Region, all of them waiting in mid-air. As soon as they saw the Starfield Flying Ship appear in the distant void, they rushed over to welcome the people it carried.
"Your Highness, news of your battle has spread out all over the Calm Sea Prefecture. I believe that many more World Deities from the territory of the Bloodshed God Palace will soon be informed of your combat power." General Mo was now acting with deep passion. Previously, he had merely been trying not to offend Xue Ying, while he had now naturally lowered his position; the stronger a cultivator, the more respect they would be shown.
"It's a pity that Venomous Ying actually dared to exterminate every last one of those million Deities responsible for collecting faith energy." Xue Ying shook his head. "In the end, this expedition was a failure."
"They were all killed?" General Mo was startled.
"I've made sure to thoroughly interrogate everyone, so this information is likely true. It's truly unfortunate that Venomous Ying distorted the space time continuum to avoid investigation as she killed those Deities," Xue Ying lamented. "Without sufficient evidence, we can't get rid of her."
"Considering the combat power you've shown, Your Highness, you will definitely get the chance to deal with Venomous Ying before long. She can't run forever," General Mo replied.
Xue Ying sent a sidelong glance toward General Mo. This was the first time the man had taken a clear-cut stand for his faction.
"I still have some matters to attend to, so I'll have to return to my residence first. General, should you find yourself free in the future, I'll reserve you a seat at my place," Xue Ying said.
"Certainly, certainly," General Mo replied.
Xue Ying then rushed over back to the residence, followed by his subordinates.
General Mo looked toward Xue Ying's back with a grin. The words Xue Ying left with gave off a sense of closeness! With him being so powerful as a stage two World Deity, he would likely be able to match stage four World Deities in might as a stage three World Deity in the future! Any fool could understand that offending such an existence was a foolish affair. In any case, he, General Mo, would definitely do no such thing.
******
Upon returning to the supervisor envoy's residence, Xue Ying turned around and left in secret for the location of the Temporal Temple within the city.
As the most important city in the entire eastern region of the Calm Sea Prefecture, Eastern Region City's Temporal Temple was lofty and majestic, with it being only slightly smaller than the nearby Bloodshed Tavern.
The Temporal Temple, huh? As he entered the Temporal Temple, complex emotions swirled through the black-robed Xue Ying's heart.
He had been through a few entanglements with the Temporal Temple before.
"Ah, Your Highness Dong Bo." Once Xue Ying was inside the majestic palace, a silver-robed World Deity immediately came over to welcome him. The man was a stage two World Deity, and he held the highest authority within the entire eastern region in the Temporal Temple, an organization known for its ability to collect intelligence and information. Naturally, they were well aware about what Xue Ying had done to startle the entire Calm Sea Prefecture. This person in charge spoke in a respectful and humble tone. "Your Highness, this one is called Yu Yun. I am the one responsible for this temple. Please, come in and have a seat inside."
Inside the temple, Xue Ying could detect several other guards looking at him from the distance, yet not one dared to move any closer.
Ordinary outsiders who frequented the Temporal Temple would be received by various attendants, yet as soon as Xue Ying entered, the person with the highest authority, Yu Yun, had rushed over and taken the initiative in welcoming him.
After entering an elegant reception hall, Yu Yun sent for his attendants to pour tea for the both of them.
"Your Highness, is there any issue in particular that brought you to my Temporal Temple today?" World Deity Yu Yun asked.
"I would like to place a request. I want the Temporal Temple to collect any available information in relation to the collection of faith energy, from every planet that has life within the White Yang Starfield," Xue Ying said.
World Deity Yu Yun stared at Xue Ying, astonished at what he just heard. "Every planet that has life?"
Any single starfield would have many planets with life within its borders. They had to be extremely big, or there would not have been so many Deities who emerged from them.
"Your Highness, the collection of faith energy is done every ten thousand years," Yu Yun began. "If you truly want us to investigate every last planet with life within an entire starfield, it will cost you quite a lot."
Xue Ying nodded. "I'm aware."
Of course it would cost a lot!
When it came to reversing the flow of time, it wasn't very difficult to merely reverse it to recent events. However, the further back one wanted to move, the more energy they would have to use, and the greater their understanding of the Profound Mysteries of Space and of Time would have to be. Xue Ying himself could have also summoned a large amount of Deities who specialized in the Profound Mysteries of Spacetime if he just wanted to find out about some recent events. It was simple to set down a large group of Deities and let them slowly investigate.
But if he wanted to investigate events that went further into the past, this method was no longer viable. At that point, only World Deities with great talent in regards to the Spacetime Deity Heart would be able to do so. But would such experts accept to go through and investigate every single planet? Even if they didn't dare ask for more than a Deity crystal per planet, when counting all the planets in a starfield, not even powerful existences could afford it! In that case, Xue Ying had no other option than to turn to the Temporal Temple.
The Temporal Temple was one of the strongest weapons related to Spacetime refined by the Temporal Island Lord. Most powerful existences could not use their strength to pass through the material world and attempt teleportation, but the Temporal Temple was different. It was easy to see just how formidable it was, as a weapon that could even match the might of the Bloodshed God Emperor himself in regards to Spacetime. It was, after all, just a weapon, and it would make nothing of hardships.
"It would cost you three billion Deity crystals," Yu Yun said directly.
Xue Ying nodded. "Alright. I accept the trade." He had earned quite a lot from killing off Venomous Ying's avatar. Using such a sum to deal with her wasn't anything much.
In about the time it took to brew a cup of a tea, the Temporal Temple had already collected the relevant information regarding the recent handing of faith energy on the stipulated starfield. Such speed was nothing short of terrifying.
"Your Highness, this is the detailed information. It includes scenes taken from every single planet after reversing the flow of time," Yu Yun said as he passed over a crystal token.
After grabbing the crystal token, Xue Ying quickly discovered that, other than the recorded scenes taken after reversing time on the many planets, the intel also contained a quantitative record of the handling of faith energy.
How unscrupulous. She actually dared give in no more than 30% of the total faith energy she collected. Xue Ying was inwardly dumbstruck. This Venomous Ying is way past any normal degree of daring.
Let's see just how you plan to escape this time around, then, Xue Ying thought.
He immediately stood up and left the Temporal Temple. Yu Yun naturally first saw him out and then watched him pass into the distance while sighing inwardly. From what I've heard, His Highness Dong Bo is originally from a material world. My Temporal Island should have extremely detailed information on anyone born in the material world, so it would have made more sense for such a formidable talent to have been discovered by the Temporal Temple instead. But, in the end, he still landed in the hands of the Bloodshed God Palace. Truly a pity.
What Yu Yun did not know was that even the Temporal Island Lord himself, the highest existence in the organization, had taken notice of Xue Ying.
It was back when Xue Ying had just been received as a personal disciple. The Temporal Island Lord was quite startled to hear about it. Someone who could become a stage two World Deity within just five thousand years had been taken in as personal disciple by the Bloodshed God Emperor? He immediately went on to investigate more about the situation, and it was only at that point that the Temporal Temple treasure spirit finally reported the past events to him.
Xue Ying had been through three encounters with the Temporal Temple.
The first was in the form of an invitation which the Temporal Temple gave to Xue Ying. He refused it because he was unwilling to accept the restrictions.
The second encounter was another invitation, and it was one that Xue Ying had originally planned to accept. However, after finding out that he would not be able to control what missions he took after joining, he began worrying that the Xia Clan World would be attacked while he was on a mission, preventing him from lending a helping hand. Because of this, he decided to refuse this invitation as well.
The third and final encounter was back when Xue Ying took the initiative in asking to join them. He had a single motive for doing so, and that was to save his wife, whose soul was about to crumble apart.
Unfortunately, the treasure required for the reconstruction of one's soul was too precious, and the Temporal Temple determined that Xue Ying was not of an equivalent value, which led them to refusing him.
I've actually missed such a good opportunity to get my hands on a talented person. Who knows, though, he might not even succeed in becoming a powerful existence in the future. After understanding the situation, the Temporal Island Lord simply let out a sigh and then went back to refining his weapon.
Xue Ying sent out a subordinate to pass the information he gathered back to the Bloodshed God Palace, via the Spacetime delivery array. The report reached the Bloodshed God Palace on the same day he sent it.
Before long, the officials over at the Bloodshed God Palace received the report in person.
As officials located at the headquarters of the Bloodshed God Palace itself, their intelligence network was fast and up-to-date. Just previously, they had been discussing the matter regarding Xue Ying having personally suppressed both Venomous Ying and Dong Xiao, both of them stage three World Deities.
"Such a short while has passed since we were talking about His Highness, yet, in the blink of an eye, he already sent over the necessary evidence."
"His Highness is, indeed, very formidable. He bought this evidence straight from the Temporal Temple. I'm sure they asked for an exorbitant price to investigate every planet with signs of life in an entire starfield, right?"
"It had to cost a lot."
"His Highness even said before that all those million Deities responsible for the collection of faith energy were eliminated."
"In any case, the White Yang Starfield governed by the Nest of Myriad Devils handed no more than 30% of what they were meant to sent as the most recent tribute! There is no way to refute this claim. I feel that we should transmit an order for the Venomous Ying World Deity to be captured for interrogation, so that we can determine whether she really killed those million Deities and also find out what reason she could have had for slaughtering the people responsible for collecting faith energy."
The case relating to the slaughter of those million Deities could not proceed any further because of a lack of evidence.
However, the matter regarding the collection of faith energy in the White Yang Starfield was clearly undeniable and proven! With the Temporal Temple having undergone a full investigation through the reversal of the flow of time, it didn't matter how formidable Venomous Ying was; there was no way for her to obscure the spacetime continuum on every single planet. Even she had no more than two such treasures on her person.
"I agree."
"Indeed. Let's first capture her and bring her back for interrogation."
While her stealing a large amount of faith energy during the last ten thousand years was undoubtedly a crime, that alone would not lead to a very heavy punishment.
But after she was captured and interrogated, the Bloodshed God Palace would discover that the same thing had happened in all thirty-two of the starfields under her control, and she had been doing so over a long period of time. Added up, the criminal charges for her would be extremely heavy. This was the main reason she was unwilling to accept being captured by Xue Ying.
"Capture her."
The Bloodshed God Palace was extremely efficient.
A team from a first class legion was immediately sent over to Monarch Wu Chen's Heavenly Cloud Mountain! It was easy to see just how precise the intelligence of the Bloodshed God Palace was.