Interrogation

As Yan Yun watched the Evil Emperor’s power directly obliterate the Upper Realm cultivator who surpassed ordinary Divine Venerable Realm experts, she gained a clear understanding of the Evil Emperor’s strength.

“He’s… just gone like that?” Yan Yun asked, dumbfounded.

“What else did you expect?”

“The one surnamed Qi is a six-realm perfection heaven-tier Divine Venerable.”

“Cultivators like him, while they seem to possess power beyond the Divine Venerable Realm, are only at the level of a three-realm perfection, half-step Divine Fire Realm existence in my perception.”

“They’re no match at all,” Yan Lingyun said as if it were a matter of course.

With that, the Evil Emperor’s power began to dissipate.

Yan Lingyun casually took the treasures left behind by that fellow and then accelerated her escape once more.

However, they did not return to the Poison Sect but headed in the direction of Tianyi City.

Near Tianyi City, they hid in the Heavenly Tome space, waiting for them to return.

“Ancestor, what level of Divine Venerable is an ordinary Divine Fire Realm cultivator generally equivalent to?” Yan Yun asked curiously.

Yan Lingyun explained in detail.

“If it’s just a cultivator who has cultivated all realms to major accomplishment before breaking through to the Divine Fire Realm, their combat power is probably only comparable to a four-realm perfection earth-tier Divine Venerable.”

“Such a Divine Fire Realm is an ordinary one.”

“If it’s minor accomplishment, then they are a weaker Divine Venerable, and their combat power is comparable to a three-realm perfection earth-tier Divine Venerable.”

“However, this is just a comparison of power.”

“A Divine Fire Realm cultivator possesses even stronger realm-specific divine abilities.”

“In a real life-and-death battle, it’s very difficult to compare.”

In the end, one had to cultivate all six realms to perfection before breaking through to the Divine Fire Realm.

Such a Divine Fire Realm cultivator was a Divine Fire Realm expert in their strongest state.

After a brief conversation, Yan Lingyun and Yan Yun each inspected the treasures they had obtained from the Tianchen Treasury.

“Ancestor, I have a good thing here.”

“If you want to go to the Upper Realm in the future, I can open a back door for you,” Yan Yun told Yan Lingyun about the key she had.

After hearing this, Yan Lingyun was greatly shocked.

In her view, the value of this key to the cultivators of the Tianchen Continent was definitely more attractive than the Heavenly Tome.

Because they still had a partial understanding of the Heavenly Tome’s function, but the key’s function was very clear—it could let them enter the Xuanyuan Realm unharmed.

“I never thought you would obtain such a good thing in the treasury.”

“In this case, it will be very simple for us to leave this small world.”

“It’s just, why would you take this treasure? It doesn’t seem like your personality,” Yan Lingyun said, although she was very surprised, she felt that something was not right.

Yan Yun naturally would not hide such a thing from Yan Lingyun, so she told her about the cultivator who had suddenly appeared and was suspected to be an expert of the Tianchen Sect.

“What? You said an expert of the Tianchen Sect guided you to this because of a key?”

“Little girl, I must remind you, never trust others easily.”

“If that person is truly a surviving expert of the Tianchen Sect, then he’s probably lived for tens of thousands of years, and there might be something fishy going on.”

This reminded Yan Yun.

She was not the type of person who easily trusted others, so she needed to find time to verify the function of this key.

“I’ll find a chance to try it.”

“By the way, Ancestor, how many good things did you get?”

“If you don’t need them, just give them to me,” Yan Yun said with a playful smile.

Yan Lingyun rolled her eyes and casually threw Yan Yun a storage artifact.

“Take it, I really don’t need it.”

“These are all for you.”

“Let me take a look at that Upper Realm cultivator’s storage artifact first.”

Yan Lingyun opened the storage artifact of the Upper Realm cultivator from before.

Since he was from the Upper Realm, he must have a lot of information about it on him.

But to Yan Lingyun’s disappointment, although this fellow had some treasures on him, there weren’t many that could be called particularly good.

“Tch! An Upper Realm disciple, you say?”

“I think he’s just a nobody, sent down to do manual labor.”

“So poor,” Yan Lingyun complained listlessly.

Looking at Jiang Yao and the others, after the sky quickly changed, half a day later, the Tianchen Treasury in the chasm suddenly disappeared, and all the remaining cultivators inside were sent out.

They found that they were surrounded by the experts of the righteous and demonic paths.

To prevent another accident like Yan Lingyun’s, the two factions had even set up a powerful grand array, trapping everyone inside.

“All righteous path cultivators who entered the treasury, listen carefully.”

“Hand over the items on you that surpass this world.”

“We will compensate you for your losses.”

“If you dare not, then we can only search you forcefully.”

“If we find anything, then you’ll get nothing at all,” a vice alliance master of the Righteous Dao Alliance said in a deep voice.

As soon as these words came out, many cultivators from forces not directly under the Righteous Dao Alliance showed ugly expressions.

As for Jiang Yao and the others, they had already been called to a separate place by the cultivators of the Dao Palace.

“I know you may be very unwilling to hand over your opportunities, but things that do not belong to your realm will only bring disaster upon you if you keep them.”

“You can keep a copy of the cultivation techniques, but for treasures at or above the Divine Venerable Realm, you can keep them for yourselves.”

“For those that surpass the Divine Venerable Realm, I suggest you also hand them over,” the Master of the Dao Palace said with a helpless expression.

Although they resented the arrogance and tyranny of the Upper Realm cultivators, they cared more about the safety of these outstanding disciples than the treasures.

Faced with immense pressure, the disciples of the Dao Palace still took out their gains one after another.

They could not identify which things surpassed the lower realm and could only let their elders do it.

Of course, these things were not handed over for nothing.

After they were handed over, the Upper Realm would also give a certain amount of compensation.

And so, under the threat of this behemoth, the Righteous Dao Alliance, various cultivators took out their magical treasures for them to inspect.

Opportunities that had not been unearthed were naturally left alone.

In fact, only those who had entered the seventh to ninth levels would obtain some unexpected opportunities.

For the other cultivators, obtaining a Divine Venerable Realm treasure was already considered a great fortune.

Mei Biyu glanced at the things Jiang Yao had taken out.

The items inside surprised even the experts of the Dao Palace.

They took these things and immediately went to Alliance Master Lin and the others.

Beside them was an expert sent down from the Upper Realm, who was identifying these unknown treasures.

“There are quite a few good things, but unfortunately, not what we’re looking for.”

“Go and ask again if anyone has entered the ninth level,” the Upper Realm expert said in a deep voice.

So they could only go and interrogate Jiang Yao and the others again.

But Jiang Yao would certainly not admit that she had entered the ninth level.

The sword that Jiang Yao had taken from the Tianchen Sect was hidden very deeply.

Even Alliance Master Lin could not possibly detect it.

No one admitted, and they couldn’t find it, so they had to let them go.

Finally, the experts of the Dao Palace led the disciples of the Dao Palace on the journey back to the Dao Palace in Tianyi City.

However, upon returning, Jiang Yao was called to Mei Biyu’s place alone.

“Teacher Mei, you were looking for me?”

Mei Biyu stared at Jiang Yao for a long time before she finally spoke.

“Jiang Yao, did you really not enter the ninth level?”

Jiang Yao shook her head without any hesitation.

“No.”

Mei Biyu narrowed her eyes.

She slowly stood up and walked towards Jiang Yao.

“Jiang Yao, you are the most outstanding disciple in the history of our Dao Palace.”

“If even you could not enter the ninth level, I find it hard to believe that anyone else could.”

“Jiang Yao, many times you must be rational.”

“Treasures are good, but personal safety is more important.”

“To be honest, if others said they didn’t go in, we wouldn’t doubt them.”

“But you, we have to doubt,” Mei Biyu murmured.

They didn’t want to do this either, but if they didn’t get to the bottom of it and offended the Upper Realm, they probably couldn’t protect Jiang Yao either.

“Teacher Mei, this disciple has handed over everything that should be handed over.”

“What else do they want?” Jiang Yao’s expression turned displeased.

Mei Biyu let out a long sigh.

“The reason we took you to the Tianchen Treasury was because it was the will of the experts of the Upper Realm.”

“They said that disciples with good aptitude are more likely to obtain great opportunities in the Tianchen Treasury, which is why we brought you all there.”

“And now, all of you disciples who entered the eighth level say you didn’t enter the ninth.”

“I’m afraid that’s hard to justify.”

“It’s still the same sentence, don’t make a mistake,” Mei Biyu continued to persuade.

Jiang Yao still insisted that she really hadn’t.

“Teacher Mei, I’ve already repeated it several times, I did not enter the ninth level.”

Seeing that Jiang Yao was becoming increasingly unhappy, Mei Biyu could only give up for the time being.

“Alright, I’ll take it that you didn’t.”

“Then there’s one more question that you might need to give me an answer to.”

“What is the relationship between you and that pair of master and disciple who escaped?”

“You shouldn’t be unable to know that, right?”

But Jiang Yao could not say this even more.

At this time, it wasn’t just Jiang Yao who was being interrogated.

Su Muyu, Xie Yuyan, and Yang Lu were also being questioned separately by the experts of the Dao Palace.

But the four of them knew very well that they definitely could not reveal Yan Yun’s identity.

To say it would be a big trouble.

But in fact, the Dao Palace had already found out some things.

“Su Muyu, that little girl is your son, right?”

“Your son, who changed gender because he cultivated the poison art of the Heavenly Poison Maiden.”

“I remember she has… she is worth you hiding her like this,” an expert of the Dao Palace stared at Su Muyu and said.

Su Muyu gave a bitter smile.

“Teacher, since you all already know, why do you still come to pressure me?”

“You know very well that for the things you want to know, I can only say I know nothing.”

But this was already considered a tacit admission.

“It really is her.”

“No wonder she was able to break into the eighth level before us.”

“After all, as the successor of the Heavenly Poison Maiden, she must have known the entrance.”

After getting the answer, the Dao Palace immediately told Alliance Master Lin and the others about Yan Yun.

Alliance Master Lin and the others naturally also had to analyze whether Yan Yun had entered the ninth level and whether she had inherited what Yan Lingyun had taken from the treasury back then.

“Go and find out where this Yan Yun is now.”

“If she is within the sphere of influence of our Righteous Dao Alliance, be sure to bring her back,” the Upper Realm cultivator said in a deep voice.

The people of the Righteous Dao Alliance could only nod and agree.