Phoenix-Chasing Shadowless

The phantom lotus emerged above Yan Shengheng's head once more, while a ten-foot-tall demonic shadow stretched and twisted behind him, dense black mist coiling around his body!

The air was compressed by violent inner force, letting out a shrill scream like the wail of living creatures.

Yan Shengheng's face was covered in frenzied crimson. He wanted to kill this man. Then, he directly detonated the Daoheart Demon Seed within his body.

With a thunderous boom, the twisted demonic shadow opened a pair of scarlet vertical pupils.

A chaotic, icy, violent demonic aura swept forth like a surging tide.

A thick layer of dark clouds gathered high in the sky. The heavens darkened as the clouds spun around the demonic shadow like a storm.

"Hahahahaha!! Beat him to death... beat him to death!!!"

"Secret art, Blood Moon Startling Sword, arise!"

Yan Shengheng burst into mad laughter, looking completely insane. He stomped his right foot on the ground and shot into the sky.

His right arm became a sword as he slashed down with a boom!

The spreading frigid inner force abruptly gathered around the demonic shadow. The shadow then stepped forward and raised its arm in the same slashing motion!

A blood-red sword phantom more than ten meters long surged into existence in the air.

If anyone looked upon it, they might, in a daze, feel as though the bright moon hanging high above the world had been dyed in blood—yet had become even more gorgeous, more bewitching to the mind.

The sword phantom fell.

Like a blood moon breaking through layer upon layer of dark clouds, its sword light twisted the air it cleaved, as though the sky itself were about to be split apart.

But.

Su Qingyang merely stood there, calmly watching it all.

"If your inner force could be condensed another fold, perhaps this sword strike might earn a higher regard from me..."

"Unfortunately, your inner force is far too chaotic. You are even a notch weaker than an ordinary Qi-Congealing Flower Innate Realm."

A layer of brilliant blood-red flame ignited around Su Qingyang. He was like the great sun descending upon the mortal world, walking beneath heaven.

He brought the five fingers of one hand together and simply clenched them into a fist.

In an instant, endless blood and Qi surged. A sharp phoenix cry faintly rang out as the glasslike Blood Flame instantly formed into a Blood Flame phoenix over a hundred meters in size.

He casually threw a punch.

The Blood Flame phoenix a hundred meters away beat its wings and soared into the sky, its speed reaching the extreme.

It instantly swallowed the blood-red sword phantom!

Crack!

The sword phantom Yan Shengheng had formed with all the Demon Seed's power shattered inch by inch, directly crushed apart by Su Qingyang's fist intent. Then the fire phoenix violently ground against the air and shot straight into the high heavens.

"Phoenix-Chasing Shadowless!" Su Qingyang said indifferently.

Then, a deafening boom erupted. A terrifying blast wave exploded high in the sky, surging wildly in every direction like a rampaging mad dragon.

A rain of flowing fire fell from the sky, staining half the horizon red.

Such a disturbance instantly alerted all the hidden experts within the Imperial City.

One powerful figure after another leaped into the air, all racing toward the small courtyard.

Su Qingyang glanced at Yan Shengheng, whose pupils had turned white. He grabbed him by the collar, and with a flicker, vanished from where he stood.

Not far away,

an Innate Warrior suddenly felt a fierce gust sweep past him. His vision blurred, yet he failed to catch even the slightest trace of a figure.

He furrowed his brow in confusion, then descended onto the wall of the courtyard they had just occupied.

Sensing the lingering aura here, he frowned slightly.

"These are traces left behind by two One-Flower Innate Realm experts who had condensed Qi Flowers."

"Old Zhao, was that you who made a move?" Another martial artist arrived through the air. Judging by his clothing, he was from the Six Doors.

"No. I only just arrived myself. I can only sense the lingering Innate aura here."

"It looks as though there were two of them..."

"One of them was crushed and defeated in an instant..."

"But the auras here are both at the One-Flower level. How is that possible?"

"No matter who it was, anyone who dared act within the Imperial City must be severely punished."

In only a short while, more and more Six Doors and Secret Bureau martial artists with Innate cultivation arrived one after another, quietly investigating and discussing among themselves.

Dozens of Innate experts had gathered in the blink of an eye, revealing the terrifying hidden foundation of Great Jin's Imperial Capital.

Not long after, Su Qingyang landed in an empty alleyway with Yan Shengheng in hand.

He casually threw him to the ground. Yan Shengheng's pupils were white, and his mind, blood, and Qi had all been crushed apart by Su Qingyang's fist intent in their earlier clash.

He was nothing but an idiot now!

But an idiot was all the more convenient to interrogate.

The aura at Su Qingyang's fingertips stirred, instantly transforming into a crimson chain that plunged directly into Yan Shengheng's sea of consciousness between his brows.

Yan Shengheng's pupils suddenly twitched violently. Before long, they became still.

He merely stood quietly where he was.

Su Qingyang nodded slightly at the sight. This was the Soul-Mesmerizing Heart-Confounding Art he had developed while cultivating inner force, specifically for interrogating secrets.

However, now that he had switched to cultivating blood and Qi, most of the martial arts he had once relied on inner force and True Qi to use had been temporarily set aside and rendered useless.

This move was still only barely activated through the aura derived from his blood and Qi.

Yet the difficulty of controlling it had increased severalfold. The slightest carelessness would directly shatter the other party's soul.

"Who sent you to poison Purple Pavilion Manor?" Su Qingyang asked.

Yan Shengheng wore a dull expression, mumbling indistinctly, "Wind... Blood Shadow Tower..."

"Blood Shadow Tower?!"

Su Qingyang frowned slightly. He had never heard of this organization. Could it be another assassin tower?

Then he thought of Liu Qingni. As an agent of the Secret Bureau, she should know far more than he did—perhaps she would know of the Blood Shadow Tower.

"Why poison the candidate princes?"

"Tar... target, kill the real Sixth Prince."

"Why did you have to kill the Sixth Prince?"

"My... lord... protect... Su... Chang'an!"

"What lord? Who is your lord, and why protect Su Chang'an?"

"My lord is... the emper—" At that moment, Yan Shengheng suddenly began convulsing uncontrollably.

Su Qingyang's gaze sharpened as he examined him briefly.

Then,

he discovered that Yan Shengheng had also been implanted with a Demon Seed. It merely seemed to be of a higher grade—one that could actually split weaker Demon Seeds from itself, thereby creating servants for its host.

"Interesting. This Daoheart Demon Seed martial art is rather interesting. It can actually be used like this." Su Qingyang stroked his chin with great interest.

Looking at Yan Shengheng's unceasing convulsions, he more or less understood that he would not be able to extract anything else.

The other party had likely placed some kind of restriction on Yan Shengheng, like an edict carved into his mind that prevented him from speaking their true identity.

Yet that muddled word, "emperor," had clearly reached his ears just now.

"Who could it be? Was it Huang, or... the emperor? Who would want to kill a Sixth Prince with neither name nor standing?"

Su Qingyang began to ponder.

And that Su Chang'an in the Heavenly Prison did not seem simple either.

Someone was willing to go so far for him.

Moreover, he had not suffered any substantive punishment even now. Was the Jin Emperor doing so deliberately, or was he unable to bear it?

Or perhaps that emperor referred to...

the Jin Emperor!

No. If that were the case, the Jin Emperor would have had no need to go to such lengths to find the Sixth Prince.

He could have simply let Su Chang'an remain the Sixth Prince.

Otherwise, was he doing all this merely for amusement?

Su Qingyang blinked, and such a thought suddenly arose in his mind.

Why not go straight to the Heavenly Prison and kill Su Chang'an? He truly wanted to see what amusing spectacle would unfold then!

But the thought only flashed through his mind. For the moment, he had no intention of overturning the entire Imperial City...