A Chaotic Situation

The Royal Mausoleum.

The Three-Inch Flying Immortal sliced across the sky and returned to Ling Yun's hand.

Through the Heavenly Eye Spell, Ling Yun had seen everything that happened inside the manor.

There was no sound, though, so he couldn't tell what the conflict was about.

What kind of unbearable hatred and enmity was this?

Ling Yun's pounding heart had only just begun to settle, and he couldn't help asking himself that question.

Heaven knew how shocked he had been when he saw a Primordial Spirit Dharma body suddenly appear above the manor. He had nearly thought the dignified Spirit King's Manor was about to be wiped out.

Fortunately, Madam Wang had reacted in time and ultimately averted a great disaster. With Ling Yun's final, discreet intervention, the crisis had been perfectly resolved.

What's going on? Has the Spirit King's Manor had bad feng shui lately? Day after day, there's never a moment's peace. If this keeps up, sooner or later I'll be frightened into cardiac arrest!

Ling Yun was thoroughly fed up, and he decided to act quickly and get to the bottom of this sudden incident.

That Dharma body only had one chance to strike, but even that single divine ability should have had the power of the Middle Primordial Spirit Realm. It seems its master can't be weak. If things go badly, I might have offended that person.

The gulf between the Primordial Spirit Realm and the Core Formation Realm had been laid bare by that attack. In any case, with Ling Yun's cultivation having only just reached the Core Formation Realm, there was no way he could win.

I don't know what they talked about to make them fight so fiercely in the manor. This Chen Ling is definitely a scourge!

At the thought, Ling Yun felt a headache coming on.

The mastermind behind his assassination, the person behind the secret visit to the Royal Mausoleum, and now this Primordial Spirit Realm expert...

One thing after another, one wave had yet to subside before another rose.

Could the same person have caused all of this? The thought suddenly flashed through Ling Yun's mind, only for him to dismiss it a moment later.

Besides Ling Yun, the people in the manor who had experienced it all firsthand took even longer to recover their senses.

An absurd feeling of having survived a calamity filled their hearts and lingered for a long time.

"Madam, that Dai Cheng seems to have gone mad..."

A manor elder spoke.

Madam Wang looked over, her eyes full of weariness, and saw Dai Cheng still shouting and screaming, his eyes vacant and his mind clearly deranged.

Suddenly, Madam Wang remembered something and looked in another direction, only to see Chen Ling lying motionless on the ground, her eyes wide open. The sight was so eerie that a chill rose unbidden down her back.

Seeing this, a guest elder hurried over to investigate, then said with a look of shock, "Madam, she... she's dead..."

Madam Wang stared at her with wide eyes, and the others crowded around as well.

"My heavens..."

Within a few breaths, everyone saw Chen Ling's body crumble away inch by inch, turning to ash.

The last to dissipate were her eerie eyes, in which a speck of chilling green flame seemed to flicker past.

"Wasn't she here to break off the engagement? Why does it feel like she came here to kill herself and splash filth all over me?"

Madam Wang gnashed her teeth in hatred, utterly unable to understand what King Chen's Commandery Princess had been thinking.

"Madam, what do we do? That young man has a powerful background, and now something has happened to him in our manor. Won't the person behind him come looking for trouble?"

The elders and guest elders all asked worriedly.

Madam Wang's expression was complicated and helpless.

She was almost certain that Chen Ling was the one who had made Dai Cheng like this. But now Chen Ling was dead, and the dead could offer no testimony. When that elder from the Moon-Gazing Sect arrived, they wouldn't be able to clear their names even with a hundred mouths!

After all, there was no washing their hands of the matter. Although they hadn't made Dai Cheng like this, it did indeed have something to do with them.

"That Chen Ling, what was her background? What was going on with her? How could she drive Dai Cheng so mad? It felt as though she could... control people!"

Everyone in the manor found it inconceivable. Of all the divine abilities and secret arts they cultivated, they had never heard of one with such a terrifying effect.

"No, I must seek an audience with His Majesty. Otherwise, a great calamity may befall our manor."

Madam Wang quickly gathered her thoughts and returned to her calm, commanding manner.

"All of you, keep watch over Dai Cheng at once. Don't let him run around in a frenzy. Find someone skilled in medicine and see if there's a way to restore him to normal."

"Also, check every formation eye inside and outside the manor for me, and keep them all half-activated at all times."

With that, Madam Wang hurried off to make preparations.

Those who had received her orders dared not delay. They began carrying them out while also cleaning up the mess.

Ling Fei was the only one left with nothing to do. Looking at the manor's main hall, which had long since been reduced to powder, and at Dai Cheng, who was still howling and shouting as he was led away, his expression cracked.

"I nearly died. Is the Primordial Spirit Realm really that powerful?" This was also Ling Fei's first time seeing such an expert in action.

When he was little, he had only known that his father was very powerful and that many people feared him, while he himself had been filled with pride. For that expert whom everyone feared was his father.

But that was all he remembered of his father. He had never had any real conception of the Primordial Spirit Realm.

His understanding of it had gone no further than people's rough descriptions: forging a Primordial Spirit, stirring heaven and earth, and wielding unfathomable power with every move.

Only just now had he understood why Primordial Spirit Realm experts were so rare in the Ling Kingdom. After all, anyone who could wield such power had truly entered the ranks of the great cultivators of the path.

Thus, after witnessing the scene firsthand, everyone in the Spirit King's Manor was gripped by unease.

Inside the Royal Mausoleum, Ling Yun withdrew his gaze, his face completely solemn.

Clearly, he too had noticed that there was something unusual about Chen Ling. Before this, he had thought King Chen's Commandery Princess simply wanted to break off the engagement and climb a higher branch by stepping on the Spirit King's Manor's face.

Both he and Madam Wang had thought so.

But after that shocking turn of events, Ling Yun realized he couldn't see through Chen Ling's intentions at all.

As a dignified princess, she must have been doted on all her life. How did she end up like this? Perhaps visiting the Spirit King's Manor was only an excuse from the start.

Ling Yun's mind raced.

I don't know what secret art she cultivated, but she directly controlled that young man and unleashed a major attack that nearly destroyed the manor.

But why did she do it, even at the cost of her life? If she hadn't pulled this stunt, the Spirit King's Manor couldn't have forced her to marry me anyway. After all, in outsiders' eyes, I'm practically under house arrest here now. What the hell kind of marriage could there be?

So, clearly, what Chen Ling did had nothing to do with me. Breaking off the engagement was just a smokescreen, which means she could only have had another objective...

Without meaning to, Ling Yun realized he seemed to have grasped something.

Wait, wasn't King Chen the one who personally proposed breaking off the engagement in the first place?

Later, the Spirit King's Manor had no mind to respond, but King Chen's daughter came here in person. She was simply looking for something to do when there was nothing wrong.

Ling Yun did not become happy at discovering this connection.

With King Chen newly dragged into the water, the situation had become even more chaotic. Those who previously seemed to have little to do with the Spirit King's Manor were falling into the game one after another, for reasons unknown.

There's no doubt that, in this sudden upheaval, the Spirit King's Manor has had filth splashed all over it and gotten itself into a stinking mess.

Never mind the strange Chen Ling; that young man's identity alone is enough to give the Spirit King's Manor plenty of trouble.

The Spirit King is asleep now. If we've offended a Primordial Spirit Realm expert, our manor might not be able to withstand them.

Once the manor is held down by that Primordial Spirit Realm expert, the other demons and monsters can take advantage of the opening...

The one who crippled the original owner of this body, the one who trespassed in the Royal Mausoleum, the murky waters behind Chen Ling...

Ling Yun frowned deeply. He couldn't shake the feeling that a great net had long since closed over them, waiting for the right moment to draw tight and catch its prey!

Could it really... be the same group of people...?