The smoke and dust had settled.
King Pindola appeared, retreating several feet backward, his feet scraping two deep trenches in the ground. At this moment, he was spitting blood, half-kneeling on the ground, able to stay upright only by supporting himself on his steel whip.
"My Lord." Seeing King Pindola in this state, one of the Yin Department's sham grandmasters tried to rush over.
Pei Xuanjing swung his robe, a surge of energy struck directly at the man's chest, sending him flying backwards.
Effortlessly having repelled a sham grandmaster, the rest of Yin Department's personnel didn't dare to move rashly. They could only look at Pei Xuanjing with fear in their eyes, while also staying alert to the Brocade Guards.
However, aside from this, Pei Xuanjing also did not make any other moves and merely glared coldly at King Pindola.
At this moment, King Pindola laboriously stood up.
Cough, cough.
King Pindola coughed up a mouthful of blood, mixed with pieces of his internal organs.
Clearly, Pei Xuanjing's previous palm strike had exceeded his limits. With nowhere for the force to disperse, he had to bear all of it, causing his internal organs to shatter.
If it were not for his strong vitality as a second-class martial artist, he would not have been able to stand up at all.
However, even so, everyone was aware that he was merely struggling in his last moments, and his end seemed to be near.
Yet at this time, King Pindola seemed indifferent to his own imminent death, and he didn't even care about his own subordinates who were repelled by Pei Xuanjing's robe swing.
He erupted into hysterical laughter, "Hahahaha… Pei Xuanjing, you are indeed formidable. I underestimated you, everyone underestimated you."
"But, even so, what of it? You've been hit by my Netherworld Death Palm. Even if I die, I can take you down with me, and that will make my death worthwhile."
Upon hearing King Pindola's words, everyone's eyes were drawn towards Pei Xuanjing's left hand resting behind his back.
"Are you referring to this?"
At this time, Pei Xuanjing extended his left hand that showed a dark spot in the palm the characteristic mark of one hit by the Netherworld Death Palm.
"Hahahaha…" King Pindola laughed even harder.
No matter how talented Pei Xuanjing was, he would still have to die with him.
If he could take this prodigiously gifted genius down with him in his last moments, death would not be a loss. "Brother Pei…"
"My Lord…"
Upon seeing this, Lin Qingyi and the Brocade Guards could not help but ccall out.
Pei Xuanjing did not respond to their words, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he asked King Pindola: "Are you sure it's irreversible?"
Having said that, Pei Xuanjing activated the Four Seasons Heavenly Phenomenon Skill. With the circulation of his True Qi, the black spot in his palm gradually disappeared and eventually vanished without a trace.
"How is this possible!" King Pindola's laughter came to an abrupt halt as though he was choked, his face was filled with disbelief.
Knowing well the power of the Netherworld Death Palm, throughout the years, he had killed countless people with this martial skill. How could there be anyone who could dissolve its effects so easily?
The opponent was definitely deceiving him, using a trick to blind his eyes.
Yes, perhaps, the opponent was merely suppressing it with his own True Qi.
King Pindola roared in fury, "By suppressing it with your True Qi, you're causing the Yin Sha Qi to spread faster and you'll die even faster…"
Looking at the disbelieving King Pindola, Pei Xuanjing wasn't bothered to explain and asked instead: "It seems you have accomplices."
He wanted to extract some last-minute information from King Pindola's mouth, but unfortunately, at this moment, King Pindola was unwilling to further engage in conversation with him.
"If that's the case, let me send you on your way."
The sword flashed, splashing a trace of blood, as King Pindola fell to the ground.
One of the ten Great Yamas of the Yin Department, King Pindola, who made the whole Great Ming fear upon hearing his name, thus met his end in Tiandu.
Seeing King Pindola's death, the rest of the members of the Yin Department no longer had the will to fight and attempted to flee.
However, these people, who could originally hold their ground against the Brocade Guards, were no match now with the addition of Pei Xuanjing.
In a short span of time, the fight had come to an end.
Undeniably, though the Yin Department, like the Mire Sect, was an organization that worked in the shadows, these killers from the Yin Department had more backbone than those from the Mire Sect.
Even when Pei Xuanjing, himself, took action, these killers chose death rather than surrender. Even if they were overpowered, they would choose suicide.
If it weren't for Pei Xuanjing knocking out a sham grandmaster and a third-grade martial artist at the end, they probably wouldn't have captured a single one of them alive.
After capturing these people, Pei Xuanjing swapped to a new robe brought by Lin Qingyi, then moved over to King Pindola's corpse. First, he picked up the Thousand-Refined Steel Whip that King Pindola had used earlier.
Having examined the whip and swung it a few times, he set it aside.
Then, he hoped to find some clues or martial arts skills on King Pindola's corpse.
Unfortunately, King Pindola did not have any martial arts skills on his person. Perhaps because he was a highly placed official whose every need was attended to by others, he didn't even have silver banknotes on him.
However, Pei Xuanjing did have a discovery. He fumbled out a sheet from King Pindola's arms. It was not made of gold or jade.
[Acquired unique item – Page of the Netherworld's Book, able to refine and acquire 100000 Taoyun.] This was the response the Life Simulator gave when Pei Xuanjing held the paper page in his hand.
At the same time, the loot from the Brocade Guards was not small, they found a top martial arts skill, a martial art, and two each from middle grade martial arts skills and martial arts, along with some elixirs and a few silver banknotes from within the mansion and on the bodies of the grandmasters and sham grandmasters.
According to the agreement between Pei Xuanjing and Lin Qingyi, these martial arts skills were first handed over to Pei Xuanjing, who would later provide copies to the Brocade Guards.
As for the elixirs and silver banknotes, Pei Xuanjing picked out a few of the elixirs for his own use. Then, he turned down the ten thousand silver banknotes that Lin Qingyi wanted to give him and distributed the rest of the items among the Brocade Guards present.
He still had the banknotes he took from the Three Wolves of MO Bei and his own savings, amounting to nearly two hundred thousand banknotes. He didn't need this extra ten thousand banknotes.
His actions garnered him the gratitude of the Brocade Guards present and won him their loyalty.
Here in Tiandu, such a commotion would inevitably draw onlookers from various powers. Even though the Brocade Guards were guarding the perimeter, it had already attracted the attention of various influencers.
Representatives from the Military Equipment Department, Capital Guards, Two Factories, and Six Gates had arrived early, but because their rank was low, they didn't dare to interfere with the Brocade Guards.
However, as the higher-ranking individuals began to arrive, the Brocade Guard's defense couldn't keep them at bay.
Fortunately, the cleanup had been completed by this time, and Pei Xuanjing and the others were preparing to leave.
However, with an incident involving the Yin Department and the death of a second-class martial artist, even with the influence of the Brocade Guards, other factions wouldn't let the matter rest.
The representatives from the Military Equipment Department and Capital Guards were either unwilling to provoke or had no interest in provoking the Brocade Guards.
But the representatives from the Two Factories and Six Gates were not the kind to back down easily. As soon as they saw Pei Xuanjing and the others come out, they immediately surrounded them..
Although Pei Xuanjing had been in Tiandu for a considerable time, he had never crossed paths with the notorious Dong and Xi Factories. Little did he expect to encounter them all in one day.
The leader of the Six Gates who Pei Xuanjing recognized was none other than Fu Changge, one of the Four Great God Catchers.
Fu Changge had spotted Pei Xuanjing early on and, seeming unsurprised to see him there, gave him a faint smile and a slight nod. Pei Xuanjing returned the courtesy.
"What do you intend to do?" Seeing his path blocked by all three sides, Lin Qingyi frowned, stepped forward, and asked.
The Brocade Guards are the emperor's personal troops, and the Two Factories are the emperor's personal servants, hence their power is typically balanced.
However, the emperor's current favor of martial arts and the immense trust in the commander of the
Brocade Guards has shifted the balance. After the downfall of the Eunuch who had been the head of Office of Imperial Sacrifices and one of the Eight Tigers, the Brocade Guards used the opportunity to suppress the Two Factories and became unrivaled for a time.
Despite being a mere Fourth-grade martial artist, Lin Qingyi, as a deputy commander of the Brocade Guards, stands fearless facing the Third-grade masters, pseudo-masters of the factories, and the Six Gates.
What's more, he has strong support. Besides having the Four Chiefs, Qinglong, Båi Hu, Xuanwu, and Zhuque, behind him, he also has the Second-Class martial artist Pei Xuanjing on his side, filling him with fearlessness.
Pei Xuanjing merely stood next to Lin Qingyi, observing these people with interest but remaining silent.
Hearing Lin Qingyi's question, the people from the three forces just smiled but didn't seem inclined to reply.
Lin Qingyi's expression turned colder. He didn't expect these people to disregard him so blatantly, which stoked his anger.
Regardless, he restrained his anger and directly addressed one of them, "Eunuch Zha, since when has your Xi Factory started caring about the Brocade Guards' affairs?"
The Eunuch Zha Lin Qingyi mentioned was called Zha Xiaobo, who was one of the few eunuchs under Factory Supervisor Gu Dayong from Xi Factory.
Wearing a pointed hat, white leather boots, and a brown outfit, 40 in appearance but actually in his sixties, Zha Xiaobo was a master who had reached the Third-grade realm with his Drofound
understanding.
It was because of his strength that he managed to survive a catastrophe back then.
"How can Deputy Lin say such things? With such a major incident occurring in the capital city, how could we of the Xi Factory not come and see?" Zha Xiaobo's somewhat soft voice replied, neither yielding nor aggressive, echoing back Lin Qingyi's question.
He emphasized the word "deputy" and cast a cold glance at Lin Qingyi.
Indeed, the Xi Factory was experiencing hard times for some reason. And Premises Supervisor Gu Dayong himself was as walking on thin ice, not to mention his subordinates.
But even so, they would never let themselves be dismissed by a mere deputy commander of the Brocade Guards.
"Now that you have seen everything, clear the way. I must return with my report." Lin Qingyi didn't expect to be rebutted from the beginning.
He had approached the Xi Factory precisely because they were in dire straits and the weakest among the three forces.
Even after being rebuffed, Lin Qingyi did not back down.
"You can go, this official hasn't stopped you." Although Zha Xiaobo said this, he stood in his place without the slightest intention of moving aside.
"You…" Anger flashed in Lin Qingyi's eyes. He contemplated whether to force his way through.
However, he also had reservations. It was one thing to have a dispute with these three factions, but a full-on conflict was entirely another.
If it provoked some people's dissatisfaction, it could end up being a disaster for everyone.
This experience, however, made Lin Qingyi's thirst for martial arts and power even more relentless.
It was clear to him that these people belittled him only because he held a low rank and his martial arts skills were somewhat inferior.
If he were a Third -grade master, or even had the strength of Pei Xuanjing, these people would never dare to belittle him like this.
Seeing Lin Qingyi's raging eyes and increasingly grim expression, Fu Changge tried to mediate ,"Deputy Lin, could you explain what exactly happened here? At least, give us something to report when we return."
"Um…" Seeing Fu Changgets attempt to mediate, Lin Qingyi reluctantly explained what had transpired.
"Assassins from the underground… Prince Pingdeng…" "I heard that Prince Pingdeng was a Second-Class martial artist. You were able to capture him?"
"Even if you're going to spin a tale, at least use your brain."
These people were doubtful of Lin Qingyi's words.
When they arrived, the battle at the mansion had already ended, and they were unaware that Pei Xuanjing had already broken through to the Second-Class Realm.
Lin Qingyi looked at Pei Xuanjing, questioning with his eyes whether he should reveal the truth. Pei Xuanjing, nonchalantly, nodded in agreement.
He had no intention of concealing it. On the contrary, he utilized this opportunity to let the news spread, which could save him a lot of trouble.
"It'S because Brother Pei took action and personally killed Prince Pingdeng," Lin Qingyi said with pride on his face.
Upon hearing this, everyone was taken aback. There was doubt, skepticism, and various other expressions.
"Brother Pei, you've advanced to the Second-Class Realm?" Fu Changge asked in amazement, somewhat uncertainly.
"Indeed, I was fortunate enough to make a breakthrough."
Pei Xuanjing nodded, releasing his aura, which then quickly receded.
Although it happened in the blink of an eye, there were many martial arts masters present who could clearly discern that without a doubt, Pei Xuanjing's aura belonged to a Second-Class martial artist.
"Congratulations, Brother Pei." Fu Changge congratulated Pei Xuanjing with a complex expression on his face.
Pei Xuanjing just nodded, not saying much.
Looking at Pei Xuanjing's young face, everyone present remembered that he is not even 24 years old. At such a young age, he had surpassed them, causing them to be immensely shocked.
The person who was most shocked was unquestionably Fu Changge.
When they first met, they were both in the Third-grade realm. But in just half a year, Pei Xuanjing had broken through, which made Fu Changge feel like he had wasted all these years.
Thinking back to when he was once called a genius, compared to Pei Xuanjing now, he felt utterly insignificant.
No matter what Fu Changge thought, even though Pei Xuanjing's breakthrough to the Second-Class Realm shocked the people there, it still couldn't stop their mission.
Zha Xiaobo started, "Our Xi Factory has several cases related to the underground. Why don't you let us interrogate these people…"
Before he could finish, representatives from the other two factions also spoke up.
"Our Six Gates…"
"Our Dong Factory…"