The Great Purge!

"By Imperial Decree! The Ximen Clan has committed every manner of crime—tax evasion, oppression of the people, collusion with the enemy, and treason. Their entire clan is hereby exterminated!"

Bai Qi arrived walking through the air, while a sea of blood silently encircled the entire Ximen residence.

He had not originally intended to investigate this clan first, but after receiving news that Ximen Qing had forcibly taken a young woman, he decided to deal with them as a priority.

The blood-red palm print descended.

Most of the Ximen Clan's buildings were mercilessly crushed into rubble.

"Senior, could you spare my clan?"

An elderly Soul Douluo with a Flight Device strapped to his back shot into the sky. Bai Qi saw that the man looked listless; one glance told him he was someone who frequented brothels.

His Divine Sense swept across the entire Ximen territory. After marking the innocent, he said nothing and simply pointed a finger.

The listless old man was still thinking of offering a bribe. "Senior, all the women of the Ximen Clan can be offered to you! Please, spare our lives!"

With a lecherous grin, he was about to call those women out for Bai Qi to inspect.

Before he could react, the beam from that finger pierced through his skull. His body immediately turned into a mist of blood.

"Run! The Patriarch is dead..."

Seeing that Bai Qi had no intention of sparing them, the people below who had been kneeling and begging for mercy wished they had an extra pair of legs as they fled. Yet after only a few steps, blood poured from their seven orifices, and they fell dead one after another.

At a dog hole, Ximen Qing crawled out in a miserable state. Covered in filth, he no longer had even a trace of his former splendor.

Hearing the screams and pleas for mercy behind him, Ximen Qing secretly rejoiced that he had held himself back at the critical moment. He immediately took off running.

"The continuation of the family line will ultimately rest on me alone! I'll change my name to Ximen Qing and hide in some remote border town."

What he did not see was Bai Qi teleporting in behind him.

Listening to the man mutter to himself about his grand plan to hunt beauties in some border town, Bai Qi kindly sent him to keep his family company on the road to the underworld.

Inside an ordinary house, a middle-aged man dressed in Taiyue Empire official robes happily admired the treasures filling the room. He had heard that the new emperor, Xu Xiao, liked promoting officials who worked diligently and remained uncorrupted.

He felt that, after waiting so many years, his chance had finally come. Today, he had entered his treasure room, intending to give a few trinkets to the inspectors.

Of course, he would casually mention that these trinkets were actually worth tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins.

"The Empire's officialdom really needs cleansing. Officials like me, who have remained honest and incorruptible all these years, are already rare."

An attack of Spiritual Power as thin as a hair instantly struck him, and his collectibles slipped from his hands and fell to the floor.

Several thousand meters away, Bai Qi's lips twitched slightly. After crossing off the man's name, he looked toward the next lucky fellow.

I never expected the Empire to have someone like this. In my lord's words, I think this was called a freak?

Bai Qi thought this, but his Divine Sense did not stop searching for the next person on the list.

As for why he called Xu Xiao his lord, it was because those who had been summoned all realized that the pinnacle of this world was becoming a god and possessing an endless lifespan.

Thus, after discussing it among themselves and receiving Xu Xiao's approval, they agreed to still call him Your Majesty before outsiders, but privately address him as their lord.

Xu Xiao also thought that "my lord" sounded rather good. He planned to have capable subordinates call him that in the future, while ordinary Soul Masters and officials would still call him Your Majesty.

The killing continued.

A day later, outside Mingdu.

Several dozen injured people rested inside a cave.

"Damn dog emperor, is he really going to be this heartless?"

A burly dark-skinned man spat out a mouthful of clotted blood and said bitterly.

"Idiot! Don't say those words! Do you want us all to die!?"

The white-bearded old man adjusted his relatively clean clothes and sternly rebuked him.

"Sorry, I was just angry. He's too terrifying. Many people in our clan died before they could even react." The burly dark-skinned man seemed to greatly respect the white-bearded old man.

"Our ancestors were all meritorious servants of the Empire! Even if we had no achievements, we at least put in hard work! Why was he so ruthless? Our clans were all willing to support him in securing his throne!"

The bronze-skinned boy felt that his clan's loyalty over the years had been wasted.

"Our clans worked hard our entire lives. What was wrong with wanting to enjoy ourselves a little? What was wrong with taking a little more money from those commoners, or taking their wives as concubines and maidservants?"

"Those commoners are trash who don't even have Soul Power. This master is feeding their women; they should be secretly overjoyed!" The potbellied, lecherous middle-aged man complained as he treated his wounds.

The others all looked at him with disdain. It was people like him who had dragged them down!

What hobby could you not cultivate? Why did you have to do those things? In the end, they followed the clues and investigated every one of our noble relatives to the bottom!

"Ow! You damned darkie, why did you hit me?"

Unable to bear it any longer, the burly dark-skinned man punched the lecherous middle-aged man's fat face. The gold tooth in his mouth, which seemed to have been beaten loose many times before, finally fell out.

"And you still have the nerve to say that! You played with those filthy commoner women every day, and every time, my elders had to clean up your mess. Later, they had to clean up not just your mess, but everyone else's too!"

"Pah!"

The lecherous middle-aged man spat in the dark-skinned man's face. The latter moved to hit him again, but the others hurriedly held him back.

"You lecher, and you have the nerve to criticize me? When did I not send their daughters to you for fun? Didn't you say I was like your second father because I understood your unspeakable troubles?

Last time, you even wanted to exchange them with me to improve relations between our two families. Heh heh."

After speaking, the lecherous middle-aged man spat again, but the prepared burly dark-skinned man dodged it.

"Cough, cough. Stop it, both of you. Say less. We're all tied to the same rope now; we need to stay united!"

As soon as the white-bearded old man spoke, the people who had still been arguing immediately stopped obediently.

It was not because they respected or felt grateful to the old man, but because he had connections in the Heaven Dou Empire across the sea and could take them there to continue enjoying their lives.

"There is no longer any place for us in the Empire. I just received word that another group of fugitives has died. We are now the last survivors."

The white-bearded old man's face was full of dejection.

The bronze-skinned boy glanced strangely toward the cave entrance.

"Have you noticed something strange outside? Since just now, not a single sound has come in?"

The pointy-headed, burly dark-skinned man did not think much of it.

"Those guards are all loyal. No sound coming in proves they aren't slacking off and chatting."

The lecherous middle-aged man finally realized something. His expression turned ugly as he shrank backward.

"I understand people not speaking, but this is a forest. Why can't we even hear insects chirping?"

At those words, everyone's expressions changed drastically. They drew their Soul Tools one after another, aiming their barrels at the cave entrance.

Several minutes later.

Seeing that nothing happened, everyone finally relaxed.

The burly dark-skinned man and the lecherous middle-aged man exchanged a glance, then grabbed the bronze-skinned boy from the front and back. "What are you doing?"

"What are we doing? You scared us all just now. Now you need to properly compensate us. Heh heh heh."

The white-bearded old man turned to face the wall, pretending not to hear the boy's cries for help.