Since he knew the Holy Spirit Cult's master roster was in the core region of the Evil Demon Forest, Xu Tianming didn't want to linger, even though the fight had caused little commotion. He wanted to avoid any unexpected complications from letting the situation drag on.
Xu Tianming asked the eight-ring Evil Soul Master a few perfunctory questions, such as the objective of their operation, how many people were involved, and who had provided the mission intelligence.
These weren't particularly secret matters, so the eight-ring leader answered readily. His instinct for survival also kept him from daring to lie.
But when the questions went deeper and touched on the Holy Spirit Cult's secrets, he changed his tune. Though his expression was twisted with pain, he still clamped his mouth shut.
Kong Deming, whose experience had taught him to read such things, spotted the problem at a glance.
"He must have had a mental restriction placed on him by the Holy Spirit Cult's higher-ups, preventing him from revealing the cult's core secrets to outsiders."
Though Xu Tianming had known this already, he feigned surprise as though hearing it for the first time.
"In that case, I have nothing else to ask. If you don't have anything either, Uncle, then let's dispose of him too."
At those words, sheer terror instantly filled the eight-ring Evil Soul Master's heart.
At that moment, he could finally understand, at least in part, what the people he had tortured to death must have felt as death approached.
His heart was full of regret, but he didn't regret the evil deeds he had committed. He regretted accepting this death sentence of a mission, and regretted how weak he was—that he couldn't even fight back when facing a powerful foe.
Knowing his death was near, the fear in his eyes lasted only a moment before turning into utter madness.
But before he could spew his final deranged words, his throat went dry. Then his vision went black, and his consciousness grew heavier and heavier...
After killing the last Evil Soul Master, Kong Deming immediately channeled his Soul Power, preparing to destroy their corpses as he had before.
But just before he could act, Xu Tianming suddenly thought of a better way to deal with them than destroying the evidence.
"Uncle, do you have any Shrek Academy Inspectorate Badges on you?"
Kong Deming was taken aback at first, but within two seconds he understood what his nephew meant.
Every Shrek student who entered the inner court, as well as the inner court's senior teachers, received the status of Shrek Inspector.
The organization had been established to deal with heinous crimes committed by Soul Masters that the four great empires either couldn't or wouldn't handle. Its main targets were Evil Soul Masters, as well as corrupt officials who treated human lives like dirt. Under normal circumstances, it didn't interfere in the empires' internal affairs.
For Shrek's inner court members to graduate, they had to complete thirty inspection missions. As the empire with the highest concentration of active Evil Soul Masters on the Douluo Continent, the Sun Moon Empire naturally saw many Shrek inspectors come to hunt down evildoers over the years.
Some succeeded in completing their missions. Others failed and died with regrets.
As a result, Kong Deming really did have a few Inspectorate Badges from Shrek.
He had originally kept them as collectibles. He never expected them to come in handy today!
With a faint smile, his uncle took two badges from his Storage Soul Tool. Xu Tianming naturally accepted them, examined them briefly, and confirmed that they bore no identifying marks. Then he summoned his Radiant Sun Martial Soul.
He used flames to burn the Evil Soul Masters' corpses to ash, making sure no one could tell from their injuries how they had died. Then Xu Tianming casually tossed one of the two badges beneath a few fallen leaves and the other into the ashes of the eight-ring Evil Soul Master.
After finishing everything in one smooth motion, Xu Tianming dusted off his hands and looked at Kong Deming again.
"Uncle, now no one can follow the clues and confirm that we killed these Evil Soul Masters, right?"
At that, Kong Deming couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"Did we do anything at all? Didn't these Evil Soul Masters die at the hands of Shrek's Inspectorate?"
Hearing his uncle say that, Xu Tianming laughed too.
"Exactly! Shrek's Inspectorate did it. It had nothing to do with us!"
The Evil Demon Forest.
Less than two hundred meters from Xu Tianming, in a relatively quiet spot.
After leading her frail husband and daughter there, Mother Ye recounted everything that had just happened to her husband, from beginning to end.
Father Ye fell silent at first. Then, relieved, he chuckled and took the initiative to ease the heavy mood hanging over the family of three.
"Looks like our luck wasn't too bad. We thought we were sure to die today, but who would've thought we weren't meant to? As the saying goes, those who survive a great disaster are bound to have good fortune later. Neither of you should be sad. Since we're alive, let's put today's unpleasantness behind us as soon as we can. The good days are still ahead of us!"
Though Father Ye could no longer channel Soul Power, as the family's pillar, his words still helped his wife and daughter find hope again.
Seeing that their spirits had recovered somewhat, Father Ye laughed happily for a while, then couldn't help letting out a sigh.
As the saying went, saving a life was a debt greater than the heavens—especially when the lives saved belonged to their entire family of three.
How could their family ever repay such an immense kindness?
Just as Father Ye was frowning over the matter, the sound of footsteps suddenly reached his ears.
In the silent Evil Demon Forest, the unexpected sound instantly put the three who had just survived a disaster on guard.
But when they looked toward the sound and saw who was approaching, the family of three immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Though he was weak, Father Ye still asked his wife to help him up. He wanted to offer his most heartfelt thanks to the benefactor who had saved their family's lives.
But before he could speak, Xu Tianming, who had walked up to them, interrupted his thoughts.
"Let's skip the formalities for now. We can talk more after we get back to Ming Capital."
At first, Xu Tianming hadn't thought much about it. He had simply wanted to save someone, nothing more.
But when he saw the Angel Martial Soul on Father Ye, he immediately realized there was more to it. The situation had been urgent at the time, though, and he hadn't had the chance to think it through.
He didn't want to say much now because he wanted to use the journey back to Ming Capital to sort through the questions still on his mind and make detailed plans afterward.
The three members of the Ye family didn't know what their benefactor was thinking, but since he had spoken, they couldn't very well argue. They exchanged glances, then nodded in agreement.
Before you continue