Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Eunuch Su strode briskly toward the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Along the way, every eunuch who saw his bright crimson python robe knelt early to pay their respects.
A trace of gravity hung on Eunuch Su's face. He ignored the eunuchs along the way and went straight to the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
The Imperial Astronomical Bureau had nine floors, soaring straight into the clouds.
The Director of Imperial Astronomical Bureau resided on the ninth floor. Other than the Son of Heaven, anyone wishing to ascend to the ninth floor had to report in advance and receive the Director's consent.
"Go inform the Director. I have an urgent matter to discuss..."
Before Eunuch Su could finish—
A voice drifted down from above the clouds.
The Director seemed to have anticipated Eunuch Su's arrival long ago.
"Eunuch Su, this old man is unwell today."
"The case of the divine aberration shall be handled by my disciple."
Hearing the Director's words, Eunuch Su first froze, then revealed a look of astonishment.
Worthy indeed of the Director.
He had even divined His Majesty's decree.
The ninth floor of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau towered into the clouds, suffused with immortal air.
A tall young woman stood beside the Director, dressed in white. Her skin was fairer than snow, and her bearing was ethereal, as though she had stepped from a painting.
She stood quietly at the Director's side, her expression cool and detached, seemingly devoid of all emotion.
"Qianxue, make a trip to the Prince's Residence."
"Understood, Master."
Mu Qianxue harbored no doubts about the Director's orders. She rose and left at once.
It was nothing more than divining the whereabouts of a divine aberration.
As he watched Mu Qianxue's long, jade-like legs carry her slowly away, an eerie glimmer flickered in the Director's profound eyes.
Qianxue, this is your tribulation!
Only by passing through it can you inherit my mantle.
As Mu Qianxue descended the stairs, her ethereal bearing drew the gazes of countless Heavenly Mechanism Masters from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
Mu Qianxue seemed long immune to such looks and showed no reaction whatsoever.
The instant Eunuch Su saw Mu Qianxue, he was stunned.
The Director had actually sent his last disciple.
Eunuch Su was quite familiar with the young woman before him.
She was the Director's last disciple, whom he treasured dearly in ordinary times.
Eunuch Su had thought the Director would merely send an ordinary disciple to cooperate with the God Slaying Department and the Ministry of Justice.
He had never expected this one to come.
"Immortal Maiden Mu, time is tight. Let us go."
"Mm."
Mu Qianxue lightly nodded her lovely head, fully displaying the aura of a cold and lofty goddess.
In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
Dressed in white, Mu Qianxue tapped the air with the tip of her foot and descended from the sky, arriving within the Prince's Residence.
Her descending figure resembled a fairy from the Moon Palace, instantly stunning Fang Heng.
When Vice Minister Yin Tingshu saw who had come from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, his pupils shrank slightly, and no small ripples rose in his heart.
The one sent by the Imperial Astronomical Bureau was actually the Director's last disciple.
Yin Tingshu was truly shocked.
It must have been His Majesty's verbal decree ordering Mu Qianxue to investigate the case.
Otherwise, how could that old man, the Director, bear to let his last disciple act?
The Ninth Prince was deeply favored by the Emperor.
His status in His Majesty's heart was far higher than Yin Tingshu had anticipated.
Perhaps he should have the Second Prince properly win over this prince who had risen like a strange army.
The congratulatory gift sent earlier seemed somewhat too meager.
Seeing the two of them, Fang Heng stood and asked.
"Eunuch Su, this is..."
"Your Highness, His Majesty has issued a verbal decree ordering the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to cooperate with the God Slaying Department and the Ministry of Justice in tracking the divine aberration."
"This is the Director's last disciple, Immortal Maiden Mu Qianxue."
"Greetings, Your Highness."
"Greetings, Immortal Maiden Mu."
Fang Heng could not help taking several more looks at Mu Qianxue.
Over these past dozen years, he had seen no small number of beauties.
The imperial concubines in the harem alone each had their own merits.
Yun Menglan, Shen Qiushui, and Second Senior Sister were all peerless beauties as well.
Yet the instant he saw Mu Qianxue, Fang Heng discovered in astonishment—
There was actually such a beauty in this world.
Cool and ethereal, untouched by mortal smoke and fire, she resembled a fairy of the Moon Palace.
It seemed that taking one more look would be a desecration of her.
When Mu Qianxue saw the youth before her, her clear, beautiful eyes brightened.
Sword-like brows, starry eyes, a Jade Tree and Orchid.
He was far more handsome than the Crown Prince with those thick eyebrows.
Mu Qianxue's mood immediately improved considerably.
Even the Director did not know that his last disciple was someone obsessed with good looks.
Composing herself and withdrawing her gaze, Mu Qianxue parted her red lips, exhaling orchid-scented breath.
"Your Highness, do you have any object that came into contact with the divine aberration?"
"Will this Divine Seed do?"
Mu Qianxue glanced at the Divine Seed and slightly nodded.
"This Divine Seed once bore the divinity of the divine aberration. It could not be more suitable for divining the heavenly secrets."
"However, the Divine Seed was extremely well concealed. How did Your Highness discover it?"
"Speaking of it, it was all luck!"
"Somehow, I had a vague feeling and sensed that there was something wrong with the songstress."
Fang Heng spoke with a face full of humility, brushing it off.
Yet to Mu Qianxue's ears, it carried an entirely different meaning.
"Your Highness possesses clear spiritual perception. You have great talent for becoming a Heavenly Mechanism Master."
As she spoke, Mu Qianxue raised a finger and lightly traced a circle around the headless clay idol.
"Ziwei Dou Shu!"
Immediately after,
The Bagua disk at her waist began to turn.
White light bloomed from the very center of the Bagua disk.
It formed a curtain of light in the void.
All manner of scenes appeared upon the curtain.
It gave Fang Heng the feeling of watching a holographic film.
The images within the light curtain constantly shifted and flickered.
Before long, a sea of blood appeared in the light curtain.
"Blood Sea Lineage!"
Eunuch Su, Yin Tingshu, and Peng Xiaochuan cried out almost in unison.
They had not expected this divine aberration to belong to the Blood Sea Lineage.
In ancient times, the Ancient Eerie Temple emerged into the world.
The Outer Realm Evil Gods used the Ancient Eerie Temple to beguile people's hearts and spread their faith.
According to ancient records, the Outer Realm Evil Gods of that age were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.
Great and small Evil Gods all had believers of their own.
Yet after tens of thousands of years of suppression by the imperial court and internal strife,
Only six lineages of divine aberrations remained today.
White Lotus, Blood Sea, Corpse Mountain, Six Desires, Longevity, and Witchcraft.
Among the six lineages of the Path of God Worship, the Blood Sea Lineage had also suffered severe losses in the battle twenty years ago.
Its main altar had been destroyed, its sect master had fallen, and it had vanished without a trace for a long time.
The appearance of Blood Sea remnants this time filled everyone present with grave concern.
At the same time, Yin Tingshu was fortunate that His Majesty had ordered the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to investigate this case.
Among the six lineages of the Path of God Worship, the Blood Sea Lineage was famed for preserving its life and concealing itself.
Once Blood Sea divine aberrations achieved success in cultivation, they often transformed into divine blood and attached themselves to their host's heart.
Even these hosts did not know that Blood Sea divine aberrations had already attached themselves to them.
Such methods were exceedingly covert and difficult to investigate, let alone discover the true body of a Blood Sea divine aberration.
Fang Heng stared at the sea of blood in the light curtain, his brows tightly furrowed.
Why had the Blood Sea divine aberration targeted him?
Was it purely to take revenge because his imperial father had razed mountains, destroyed temples, and crushed the Blood Sea's main altar?
If it was merely revenge, would it not have been more effective to target the Crown Prince?
Or was there... another purpose?
Fang Heng's heart was filled with doubts.
However, Mu Qianxue's divination had not yet ended.
Her ten fingers moved in succession, and the hand seals she formed changed.
The scene in the light curtain shifted accordingly.
After it continued for roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Mu Qianxue said faintly.
"Found it!"
As her words fell, the image in the light curtain froze on a small boat upon the river.
At the river's center, a small boat.
As on any other day, the young fisherman was catching fish.
With a splash.
He hauled the fishing net from the water, and the sounds of fish flapping against the deck rang out without end.
Among the many fish, the youth's gaze suddenly froze as he spotted a yellow croaker in the net as large as an adult's arm.
"Big yellow croaker!"
"It can sell for several hundred copper coins."
A delighted smile appeared on the youth's childish face.
Just then.
A towering wave suddenly rose from the windless, tranquil river surface.
The wave stood three zhang high, like a towering wall.
It came crashing down upon the youth, covering him from head to toe.
The canopy boat rocked violently.
It seemed as though it would be swallowed by the giant wave the very next moment.
The joy on the young fisherman's face instantly vanished, replaced by boundless terror.
Yet the fear in his pupils lasted only for a single breath.
The next instant, the fear flashed away, replaced by a shrewdness and ruthlessness utterly unsuited to his age.
From his mouth came three icy words.
"God Slaying Department!"
"How did the God Slaying Department find this place?"
"Hmm? It is actually the Imperial Astronomical Bureau!"
"Looks like that sickly prince has licked the dog emperor quite comfortably."
The divine aberration attached to the young fisherman's body awakened.
In the span of lightning and flint, it grasped the situation before it.
It stomped down fiercely.
Terrifying force directly shattered the canopy boat.
Without even looking back, the divine aberration fled straight south.
"Where do you think you're going?"
A thunderous shout came from far to near.
Immediately afterward, a burly man clad in black dragon-scale armor appeared above the river, blocking the divine aberration's path at just the right moment.
"Slash!"
A dazzling blue blade gleam slashed down from the sky.
The ceaselessly surging river was cleaved cleanly into two.
Even the reefs at the bottom of the river were exposed above the water.
Terrifying blade qi tore through the air.
The killing intent condensed to the utmost extreme within it made the divine aberration's pupils suddenly contract.
A bloody gleam flashed through his eyes.
The aura within his body seemed to boil as it erupted outward.
With a splurt!
Blood gushed from the youth's body.
The crimson blood transformed beneath the sunlight into a blood lotus.
With a flick of the divine aberration's fingertip, the blood lotus shot forth.
With a boom!
The blood lotus collided head-on with the blade qi.
Blood and blue, two different colors, clashed and intertwined violently in midair, evenly matched.
The shockwaves from the collision swept in all directions.
After exchanging one move.
The divine aberration had no intention of tangling with Peng Xiaochuan.
The blood-red escape light made a ninety-degree turn in midair and swept eastward.
Yet he had not fled very far.
A middle-aged man in a long purple robe stood upon the river's surface, a faint smile lingering at the corners of his mouth.
"Heh heh—"
"You dared extend your hand into our Ministry of Justice. Today, this old man will chop off your claw."
At the sight of the newcomer, the divine aberration's pupils abruptly shrank, and he blurted out instinctively.
"Yin Tingshu!"
Damn it!
The divine aberration cursed inwardly.
The Three Prime Ministers and Seven Ministries had always been at odds with the God Slaying Department.
He had not expected that, to deal with him today, the God Slaying Department and the Ministry of Justice would actually join forces.
He formed a hand seal, then turned north again along an eerie arc.
Watching this bizarre turn, Yin Tingshu raised an eyebrow.
"The Blood Sea Lineage's Blood Escape Art truly is strange."
"But..."
Yin Tingshu shook his head. He did not finish speaking, nor did he show any intention of pursuing. Instead, he stood quietly upon the river.
Because...
The next moment.
A graceful white figure came walking over the waves.
Her bearing was otherworldly, like a fairy from the moon palace untouched by mortal dust.
The Eight Trigrams disk hanging at the white-robed woman's waist swayed from side to side with her steps.
"The Imperial Astronomical Bureau!"
"Damn it!"
Though the divine aberration did not recognize her, the moment he saw the Eight Trigrams disk at her waist, he knew she was a Heavenly Mechanism Master from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau.
The Heavenly Mechanism Masters of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau might not possess great combat power.
But the Imperial Astronomical Bureau's people were proficient in Ziwei Dou Shu.
Once locked onto by Ziwei Dou Shu, even if one fled to the ends of the earth, one could not shake it off.
All ten of the divine aberration's fingers moved in rapid succession, and invisible, formless divinity spread from within his body.
It filled the void, as though even space itself were about to twist.
Immediately afterward, countless streams of blood shot out from the youth's body like bloody arrows.
Under the divine aberration's control, the blood and divinity merged seamlessly.
One blood-red human figure after another condensed out of thin air.
Then...
Whoosh—
Whoosh—
Whoosh—
Thousands upon thousands of blood-red figures fled in all directions.
They were as swift as lightning.
They were as numerous as stars.
At this sight, Yin Tingshu nodded slightly.
"The Blood Sea Lineage is renowned for preserving its life and concealing itself. Seeing it today, it truly is extraordinary."
"But... trying to escape the net of heaven and earth? Wishful thinking!"
Just as the divine aberration thought he had escaped alive.
The sky darkened!
A colossal palm that held up the heavens blotted out the sun.
At the source of that enormous palm stood an utterly ordinary eunuch.
"Su Chengen!"
The divine aberration cried out, his voice laced with terror and panic.
At a glance, he recognized that the one unleashing this heaven-supporting palm was Emperor Yuanchu's personal attendant.
Did I kick a hornet's nest?
Is the Ninth Prince really this favored?
The divine aberration was so stifled that he nearly vomited blood.
He had never expected a single assassination attempt to draw out someone like Su Chengen.
Eunuch Su stepped through the air, looking down at the divine aberration from above as he shook his head.
"You have only just entered the Ninth Realm, and you have not even mastered the Divine Descent Art?"
"I wonder who gave you the nerve to commit such savage crimes in Yujing City."
As his words fell.
Boom—
The colossal palm crashed down fiercely.
The countless blood shadows were annihilated in an instant.
They did not have even the slightest power to resist.
Though it appeared to be a colossal palm, it was like a spring breeze brushing across one's face.
With one gentle sweep, heaven and earth became utterly still.
As the countless blood shadows perished, the divine aberration suffered severe injuries at once.
His true body finally revealed its original form.
A single drop of blood!
After the divine aberrations of the Blood Sea Lineage cultivated to a certain level, they condensed their fleshly bodies into divine blood and entrusted their divine souls to that blood.
That lone drop of divine blood hanging in the void was his true body.
Eunuch Su flicked his fingertip.
Casually, as though crushing an ant.
With one finger, he pulverized the divine blood.
Revealing the divine soul within.
Only now did terror finally crawl over the divine aberration.
Endless fear climbed into his heart.
In his panic, he had no time to think.
He randomly chose another direction and fled desperately.
Just as Eunuch Su turned his right hand over, preparing to suppress the divine aberration, he suddenly heard a crisp peal of thunder.
His palm paused. Rather than striking at once, he stopped.
Crackle!
Azure lightning suddenly burst into being out of thin air.
If disciples of Evergreen Temple had been present, they would certainly have recognized it as one of Evergreen Temple's Four Absolutes—the Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning.
Fang Heng had been watching from afar and had originally had no intention of intervening.
But the other party had been far too unlucky, actually fleeing headlong in his direction.
Fang Heng could only reluctantly kick a man when he was down!
The violent Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning became as obedient as dough in Fang Heng's hands, allowing him to knead it round or flatten it as he pleased.
At this moment, Fang Heng was like a nimble-fingered embroiderer, weaving the Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning into a giant net.
It came crashing down over the divine aberration's head.
Already fleeing in blind panic, the divine aberration was caught beneath the Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning net.
He was trapped directly within it.
Realizing something was wrong, the divine aberration tried to break through.
The instant his divine soul touched the Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning, he let out a scream.
The intense pain was fiercer than having flesh carved from bone.
The hand seal in Fang Heng's hand changed.
The lightning net transformed.
It shrank smaller and smaller, becoming a lightning prison in the blink of an eye.
If Daoist Xuanqing saw this scene, he would certainly be left dumbfounded.
Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning could be used like this?
Fang Heng had practically turned it into a thousand tricks.
Still unwilling to give up, the divine aberration rammed into the lightning prison again and again, only to suffer endless agony without shaking it in the slightest.
With the support of both the Wood-Thunder Body and Soul Reaper Envoy destinies.
For the divine aberration, with only his divine soul remaining, escaping alive was nothing more than a fool's dream.
Watching Fang Heng turn the Wood-Thunder Divine Lightning into a thousand tricks, Eunuch Su's eyes flickered with a dim gleam.
"His Ninth Highness has cultivated for barely over a month, yet his attainments in lightning arts have already reached such an exquisite level."
"This talent... far surpasses the Crown Prince's!"
"If His Majesty learned of this, he would surely be greatly gratified."
Eunuch Su thought silently.
Compared to Eunuch Su, the shock in Yin Tingshu's heart was a hundred, a thousand times greater.
"Lightning arts famed for their wild violence are so obedient in His Ninth Highness's hands."
"His Ninth Highness's strength cannot be underestimated."
"After I leave duty today, I must speak properly with His Second Highness."
"We should seize this chance to win over His Ninth Highness. He will surely become an immense source of aid."
Before you continue