While Yue Wen was winning Qimo Li's trust, a silent arrest was also underway outside the Dragon Hall's barrier.
After sending out the Heaven and Earth Mirror, Gong Yao had remained deeply uneasy, a sense of warning constantly troubling her heart. Finally, when dawn broke without any news coming back, she chose to flee.
She had sent the Heaven and Earth Mirror under her real name. If anything went wrong, responsibility would inevitably be traced back to her, leaving her no room even to argue her way out.
Especially with the Void Dragon King, Ao Yuanchi, in the Dragon Hall, any lie would fall apart on its own.
When Gong Yao first entered the Dragon Hall, she had experienced Ao Yuanchi's capabilities. She had already shed her previous incarnation, and neither the Ascendant Dragon Assembly nor the Dragon Hall's inspections had found anything wrong.
Yet during the Void Dragon King's questioning, when she said she had no connection to demonic cultivators, Ao Yuanchi had still caught a flaw.
But Ao Yuanchi had not exposed her on the spot. After recognizing her talent, he had allowed her into the Dragon Hall. In private, he used this as leverage to make Gong Yao serve him. Gong Yao had successfully stayed in the Dragon Hall and risen to become a Thousand-Scale General, becoming one of Ao Yuanchi's trusted aides.
But Ao Yuanchi had kept her on a wager that she would not become a demonic cultivator again.
Many demonic cultivators abandoned their original bodies because they wanted to take an entirely different path and wipe their slates clean. Ao Yuanchi had recognized this mindset in Gong Yao. He did not care what his subordinates had done in the past, either. As long as they had talent and could serve him, that was enough.