Ancient Godly Monarch

It was true that Qin Wentian was still in the governor’s manor two hours ago before he left. In that case, the killer would surely not be Qin Wentian. If he didn’t use the teleportation array in the Lifire Palace to connect to Jialan Emperor City, it was impossible for him to travel there so quickly.

Since so many people could be witnesses for him, this meant that it must be true. They can already eliminate all suspicions from Qin Wentian. The Lifire Empyrean also felt more at ease. Maybe, this wasn’t a killing due to a grudge but because that bandit head was simply too arrogant and wanted to challenge the Lifire Palace’s prestige. Hence, that bandit head killed the Jialan Monarch.

The people from the Jialan Clan were puzzled as well. Could it really not be Qin Wentian?

Their first thought was that the Lifire Empyrean was trying to shield Qin Wentian? Did he intentionally make this man say such a thing? However, this conjecture was quickly overturned. If the killer really was Qin Wentian, given the current state of relations between Qin Wentian and the Lifire Empyrean now, the Lifire Empyrean would definitely kill Qin Wentian with no hesitation. The act of killing the Jialan Monarch didn’t merely involve the Jialan Clan, it was also challenging the Lifire Empyrean’s bottom line. It would be more harmful than beneficial to the Lifire Empyrean.

“Since Qin Wentian isn’t here, let’s forget about it. What ideas do you all have with regards to this?” The Lifire Empyrean glanced at the other governors. Naturally, this discussion was merely a farce. His true purpose in gathering the governors here, was to see whether the governors were present in their respective manors or not.

“Palace lord, no matter who did this, by daring to kill a monarch of our Lifire Palace, that’s clearly a challenge to your authority. We have to investigate this all the way till the end. After capturing the bandit head, we must execute him in public and use him to warn everyone else. If not, if there are more bandit attacks in the future, where would the prestige of our Lifire Palace be?” The newly appointed Central Governor Sun Qian spoke. However, he might as well not have said anything.

Naturally, he could only say this right now.

“Zhuge Xiong, any thoughts on this?” The Lifire Empyrean glanced at Zhuge Xiong.

“Did the bandits leave behind any clues?” Zhuge Xiong’s eyes gleamed sharply, staring at the person making a report.

“There are no other clues available, we only know their law attributes. From this aspect, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.” That person replied. In the Supreme Ancient Immortal Realms, there are simply too many experts and it was unknown how many people had similar law attributes. Unless they coincidentally met the bandit head again and saw his style of combat. Only then would they have a chance to recognize him. However, the possibility of such a thing happening was almost nil.

“Palace lord, they committed a major crime and might very well not appear again in the future. If they don’t show up ever again, it’s almost impossible for us to find them. Without any clues to go on, if we wish to make progress in this case, we have to start acting from the bandit group itself.” Zhuge Xiong spoke.

“What do you mean?” The Lifire Empyrean glanced at Zhuge Xiong.

“We will divide and conquer. The one who killed the Jialan Monarch is the bandit head alone. There’s no need for us to kill them all, we can send out a news saying that as long as one isn’t the bandit head and is willing to provide information, coming forth voluntarily to surrender, we won’t pursue criminal charges for them being a bandit and will reward them instead. By doing this, we only need one of the bandits to surrender and we can find out more from him.” Zhuge Xiong spoke.

The Lifire Empyrean frowned, “Could it be that we are really not pursuing charges if they surrender voluntarily? We are even rewarding them heavily?”

“Palace lord, only our Lifire Palace isn’t pursuing.” Zhuge Xiong had a meaningful look in his eyes, he even intentionally glanced at the people from the Jialan Clan. This caused the eyes of everyone to flash, as expected of the grand governor Zhuge Xiong, truly ruthless enough. The Lifire Palace wouldn’t pursue it, but it would all be too easy for the Jialan Clan to make someone die behind the scenes.

“But, will they be so foolish and willing to take the risk?” Someone from the Jialan Clan asked.

“This is why we must heavily reward them. We have to make them fully believe in the news, causing their hearts to be stirred by greed.” Zhuge Xiong replied.

“Excellent. I’ll hand this matter to you to handle then. The other governors are to cooperate and assist Zhuge Xiong for this mission. As for everyone here, none of you are allowed to leak anything from the meeting here today.” The Lifire Empyrean coldly swept his eyes over everyone, causing their hearts to tremble. The people here all respectively nodded.

Not long after, everyone had dispersed but the atmosphere in the Lifire Palace was still as tense as ever. It was the same in the Jialan Clan. After they brought the Jialan Monarch’s corpse back, the atmosphere in their clan was also extremely tensed.

Zhuge Xiong instantly acted on the order. He personally went to Jialan Emperor City and released news that the bandit head was too arrogant and he would be executed if caught. But for the other bandits, as long as they came out to surrender voluntarily, not only would they not be punished, they would still receive three high-grade emperor-ranked weapons, 3,000 high-grade emperor stones and will receive a small property from Lifire City where they can cultivate within in peace and their safety would be protected by the Lifire Palace.

The moment this news circulated out, a huge commotion was created. This was the first time everyone heard that being a bandit actually could have such a good payoff. This was simply unbelievable.

The first thing everyone thought of was that this was a scheme. However, the fact that the bandits were able to make the Lifire Palace send out such news, was truly incredible. The Lifire Palace clearly was enraged enough that they didn’t care about face anymore. They wanted to capture all these bandits as soon as possible. After all, a monarch had been killed.

There were also some who believed that this news might be real. After all, the Lifire Empyrean had personally given the order and it shouldn’t be false. Maybe, he did this because he wanted to force the bandit head out so he could execute him to warn the public. Because he didn’t have enough clues to investigate, the Lifire Palace had no choice but to do this.

As the most suspicious person, Qin Wentian clearly knew that it was naturally impossible for the Lifire Palace to find out. Maybe, it was impossible for them to discover who the bandit head was even if they took forever.

Even if the other bandits were too foolish and were blinded by greed, leading them to surrender, he wouldn’t give a damn. Those bandits don’t even know who the bandit head was. Although they had seen his face before, that was merely a disguise he wore for them to see. His appearance was masked by his illusory arts and even his aura was fake. How could anyone trace it back to him?

As to who the Jialan Monarch’s killer was?

Their suspicions were all right. The killer was none other than Qin Wentian.

When he was in Heavenly City, he received news sent by Beiming Youhuang and knew what Ye Qianyu was facing in the Lifelong Saint Hall, also, Beiming Youhuang was trapped there as well. The fire brought on by the grudge those years ago suddenly blazed up in his heart. If it wasn’t because of the Jialan Monarch, all of these wouldn’t have happened. Youhuang wouldn’t be trapped, Ye Qianyu wouldn’t be jailed for tens of years in the Lifire Jail and now, was even being humiliated in the Lifelong Saint Hall by being asked to dance when the Realmlord felt like it. Given his relationship with Ye Qianyu, Ye Qianyu had only danced that dance once for him. That was on the cold lake in the Jialan Emperor City back then.

No matter how the Jialan Clan tries to express their goodwill, the Jialan Monarch had to die no matter what. His actions back then have already determined his fate today.

Under a fit of anger, Qin Wentian gathered some unaffiliated cultivators and directly acted against the Skyfall Mine, killing the Jialan Monarch, settling the grudge in his heart.

As for that white-robed figure that appeared before his men, which proved that it was impossible for him to kill the Jialan Monarch due to the time difference…that, naturally wouldn’t be his true self. It was none other than Di Tian instead!

It was extremely easy to pull this off. Di Tian merely took off his mask, wore a white robe, and sealed his own aura. Without his mask, how was he any different from Qin Wentian?

Also, he left the governor’s manor so openly because of one reason. How would his subordinates dare to use their immortal senses to scan him? But if he went to the Lifire Palace, there was a risk of being exposed. He didn’t know if his disguise would hold up to the Lifire Empyrean’s scrutiny. Hence, he directly announced to his subordinates that he wanted to temper himself outside and they should not disturb him unless absolutely necessary.

He believed that as long as the Lifire Empyrean knew that he just left the northern governor’s manor and that there are so many people who could become alibis for him, the Lifire Empyrean wouldn’t look for him. Ever since after the grand banquet at the Lifelong Saint Hall, the Lifire Empyrean had been very courteous with him. Since the death of the Jialan Monarch had nothing to do with him, why would the Lifire Empyrean forcefully summon him back to the Lifire Palace? Was there any meaning to that?

This move could hide everything. As long as no one knows that Qin Wentian was Di Tian, nobody would know who the killer of the Jialan Monarch is forever.

As long as he didn’t kill the Jialan Monarch, the Lifire Empyrean would continue to be courteous to him and maintain their current state of relations.

Hence, Qin Wentian basically didn’t have to worry that the Jialan Monarch’s death might affect him.

At Lifire City, Di Tian was untouchable. The Emperor Pavilion now was only second to the Jialan Clan in terms of authority and power. In fact, because it was unrestricted by the Lifire Palace and the Realmlord had personally sent out the word to support its development, it’s very possible that the Emperor Pavilion would surpass the Jialan Clan in the future.

In the blink of an eye, several months have already passed after the Jialan Monarch’s death.

The Lifelong Realm, other than the nine world palaces, the Lifelong Saint Hall itself also controls a large number of territories. The region they control was the center of the entire Lifelong Realm, also known as the core region.

In this core region, there were eight major mines that were the most famous.

The Taotie Mine was one of the eight major mines controlled by the Lifelong Saint Hall. It was a true supreme-graded major mine and there would be terrifying treasures born occasionally. The guards here were naturally all also from the Lifelong Saint Hall.

In fact, all eight major mines had teleportation arrays that directly connected with the Lifelong Saint Hall. No bandits have ever dared to target any of the eight major mines. If something like that really happened, that would mean that there’s someone who wants to challenge the supreme authority of the Lifelong Realmlord.

As for the excavators in the eight major mines, all of them had cultivation bases at the immortal emperor realm at the very least. Also, these excavators weren’t slaves or convicts, they were true experts who came here willingly.

Although these major mines are all extremely dangerous but they possess countless bouts of good fortune. As long as they have some harvest, it would surely be enough for an immortal emperor to squander his fortune away for many years. Even if they can only gain 10% of the final harvest, these mines would still attract a great number of experts. There were even some who came here to pry the secrets of transcending the immortal emperor realm, hoping to break through to the empyrean realm.

Right now, Qin Wentian appeared outside the entrance of the taotie mine. He glanced at the majestic mountain range before him as he slowly approached.

It was rumored that the taotie mine, one of the eight major legendary mines controlled by the Lifelong Saint Hall, had a possibility to produce all sorts of extremely rare and unique treasures, as well as different types of empyrean stones.

This was why he came here. In order to cultivate faster and to reach the empyrean level, he had to take risks and temper himself!