Jiang Qingyao was dead.
Her Divine Soul was annihilated, without even a remnant left behind.
The entire area fell deathly silent; you could have heard a pin drop.
The crowd of onlookers stood stunned for a long moment before suddenly erupting into a thunderous cheer.
"Fairy Gu is amazing!!!"
"Lord Mosquito is amazing!!!"
One male cultivator was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes.
"That damn Jiang Qingyao, you finally got what you deserved."
"Back when you toyed with me, did you ever imagine you’d face such a bitter end?"
"Oh, Heavens! You’ve finally opened your eyes!"
Cultivators who had suffered the same fate as this man, all bullied by Jiang Qingyao, quickly chimed in.
"That evil woman deserved worse than death!"
"She got off easy, not having to feel the pain she inflicted on us!"
"Thank you, Fairy Gu, for avenging us!"
A group of cultivators excitedly knelt and kowtowed in Gu Yuexi’s direction.
They were all Loose Cultivators who had been tormented by Jiang Qingyao.
Some had been toyed with like monkeys by her.
Some had had their Cultivation crippled by her.
Others had family or friends murdered by her.
And yet, relying on the Jiang Family’s backing, Jiang Qingyao had never once been punished.
She committed so many evil deeds.
At most, she would offer an apology or provide some Spirit Stones as compensation.
It wasn’t that the laws of Luoping City didn’t dare to touch her.
Rather, every single one of her victims had, without exception, signed a settlement waiver.
As for the tears shed while signing those waivers, they could only grit their teeth and swallow their bitterness.
More rational Loose Cultivators, however, began to worry for Gu Yuexi.
"Fairy Gu, you have to escape, quickly."
"Neither the Jiang Family nor the Eight Great Clans will let you go."
"Even if the City Lord returns, he won’t be able to stop the Eight Great Clans’ revenge."
"That’s right! While the Eight Great Clans haven’t reacted yet, get on your Frost Bone Dragon and leave!"
"The farther you go, the better. Never come back to Luoping City again."
Just as the Loose Cultivators said,
the Eight Great Clans had not yet made a move.
The best proof of this was Ye Guxuan and Chu Nianci, standing stunned on the tall building.
Their eyes were wide as they stared at the shattered Soul Guardian Bottle at Gu Yuexi’s feet, their minds completely blank.
A disciple of the Eight Great Clans could be crippled, humiliated, or utterly defeated.
But they absolutely could not die at the hands of a Loose Cultivator.
This was an unwritten rule that had maintained order in Luoping City for hundreds of thousands of years. It was the shared bottom line of the Eight Great Clans and a symbol of their authority.
Anyone who dared to break this rule was challenging the dominion of the entire Eight Great Clans and would surely face their joint pursuit and execution.
Even the City Lord, Xu Hongbo, could only remain silent in such a situation, tacitly allowing the Eight Great Clans to handle it themselves.
Since the Eight Great Clans solidified their power in Luoping City, this unwritten rule had stood for hundreds of thousands of years.
No one had ever dared to openly break this rule, one not recorded in any legal statute.
Even experts capable of killing a disciple from the Eight Great Clans would be wary of retaliation and would not dare to strike a fatal blow.
At most, they would just teach them a lesson.
But today,
a young female cultivator from the outside, one who had just entered the Divinity Transformation Realm,
had broken this unwritten rule in front of the entire city.
She hadn’t just killed a Direct Lineage disciple of the Eight Great Clans.
She had done it as a public execution.
She was clearly telling everyone that she was the one who did the killing.
This was, without a doubt, a blatant provocation against the Jiang Family and the entire Eight Great Clans.
It was equivalent to viciously slapping the Eight Great Clans across the face in front of every cultivator in Luoping City.
"Brother Guxuan, what do we do?"
Chu Nianci wrung her fingers, her earlier relaxed, spectating mood gone as she murmured in a fluster.
But regarding Jiang Qingyao’s death,
Ye Guxuan, who was usually so decisive, was now completely at a loss.
He had never encountered a situation like this; he’d never even heard of one.
’After all, what kind of Loose Cultivator would be this insane!’
’To kill the Jiang Family’s direct-lineage daughter in public is to offend all Eight Great Clans at once!’
Ye Guxuan gave a bitter laugh, feeling completely overwhelmed.
"What else can we do?"
"The only thing we can do is immediately notify all the Patriarchs of the Eight Great Clans."
Chu Nianci nodded quickly and hastily summoned her trusted subordinate.
"Go. Relay everything that happened here, exactly as it occurred, to every Patriarch of the Eight Great Clans."
"Remember, do not add any embellishments or personal feelings. Report it exactly as it happened."
"Understand?"
The subordinate nodded gravely, acknowledged the order, and quickly turned to leave.
Chu Nianci had repeatedly emphasized not to add any personal feelings to the message.
This wasn’t out of a sense of fairness, but because she was afraid the Jiang Family would blame them for standing by and doing nothing to save her.
After all, Jiang Qingyao had died right under their noses.
And they had done nothing from start to finish, just stood by and watched the show.
If the Jiang Family decided to vent their anger on them, the two of them wouldn’t get off easy either.
"What now?"
Chu Nianci cast an inquiring glance at Ye Guxuan, feeling completely uncertain.
Ye Guxuan sighed, his expression grave.
"Prepare to intervene at any moment."
"Jiang Qingyao is already dead. It’s too late to say anything now."
"But we absolutely cannot let anything happen to Jiang Xinglan. He must be protected."
"If we still don’t act and just watch something happen to Jiang Xinglan, there’ll be no way to answer to the Jiang Family."
"We won’t even be able to face our own families when we return."
"We should at least go through the motions for appearance’s sake."
The two of them had just come to watch the show today, purely as two members of the spectating crowd.
They just never, ever expected it.
Gu Yuexi was truly ruthless; when she said she would kill, she killed.
Without a hint of hesitation, she had torn a hole in the sky.
And now they were stuck with the blame for failing to intervene, dragged into this mess for no reason.
Chu Nianci nodded. A faint glow of Divine Power lit up her fingertips, and her entire body tensed, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
The moment Jiang Xinglan couldn’t hold on any longer, she and Ye Guxuan would immediately enter the fray and save him first.
「A short while later.」
The news reached the Jiang Family estate at top speed.
Master Jiang Wei was in his study, toying with a Seven-Colored Glazed Cup.
It was a treasure he had spent a great fortune on, winning it at an auction a few days ago.
When he heard Master Jia report that his daughter, Jiang Qingyao, was dead and her Divine Soul had been annihilated,
his fingers tightened abruptly.
CRACK! The priceless Glazed Cup shattered in his hand, its fragments scattering across the floor.
But there was not a trace of regret in his eyes, only a thick rage so intense it was almost tangible.
"Master Jia, wasn’t Xinglan at the scene?"
Jiang Wei’s voice was low, suppressing a towering fury.
Standing beside him, Master Jia gave a wry smile.
"Patriarch, Young Master Xinglan arrived long ago."
Master Jiang Wei frowned, his face a mask of confusion.
"If he was there, how could Qingyao possibly have died?"
He was Jiang Xinglan’s father.
He knew his son’s strength better than anyone.
He was perfectly aware of all of Jiang Xinglan’s trump cards, including his hidden Law of Gravity.
Forget a mere Gu Yuexi at the Divinity Transformation Realm First Layer.
Even a veteran cultivator at the Integration Realm Peak would be no match for Jiang Xinglan going all out.
Unless the enemy was a True God Realm expert.
But there were only a handful of True God Realm experts in all of Luoping City.
If a True God Realm cultivator had truly made a move,
he would have definitely sensed the fluctuation of the Law in the first instant.
And taking a step back,
even if it had been a True God Realm cultivator,
Jiang Xinglan wielded the All Things Return to Origin Bell, a Divine Level Upper-Grade Defense Treasure.
Even if he couldn’t win, protecting both himself and Qingyao for a short period would have been absolutely no problem.
It would have been difficult for them to die even if they wanted to.
Master Jiang Wei had been cultivating for over a hundred thousand years.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.
How had Jiang Qingyao died under Jiang Xinglan’s protection?
Unless...