Qinglong City Falls

Ever since Han Liangyun had left, command returned temporarily to the Supreme Elder of the Qing branch, Han Qingchao. As someone who had reached the 4th realm of the Initial Ascension Stage, he was by far the most talented and strongest Imperial Han Family member in this world–at least until Han Liangyun's arrival.

Every other expert of the same cultivation stage that the Qing branch had ever produced had never managed to go beyond the very first realm of the Initial Ascension Stage, showcasing just how extraordinary Han Qingchao truly was. As a result, he unsurprisingly had become quite arrogant, used to being the most powerful being in the whole world!

Fortunately, he had managed to keep himself in check when a general of the Imperial Guard appeared at his doorstep, else he might have already lost his head. But this also meant that he had grown considerably frustrated in his heart over this period of time when he had been relegated to a mere minion.

'Finally, that man's gone. I hope he succeeds, then he can piss off sooner...'

Mentally grumbling to himself, Han Qingchao resided in a minor hall of his own palace, as he had had no choice but to cede the most luxurious area of this world–and the one with the greatest cultivation environment–to Han Liangyun. But despite his complaints, he nonetheless kept a watchful eye on the outer areas of Qinglong City as well as its vicinity, ensuring that no enemy would be able to slip in easily from the outside.

The main reason as to why he didn't bother with the Inner City–as well as the less distant parts of the Outer City–was that any threat would have to approach from beyond the walls first. So why should he excessively exhaust himself by scrutinizing every single detail of his home? It was already safe, all that he needed to do was to guard the door!

This somewhat lazy, but reasonable approach, however, was not responsible for all of his effort going to waste. Even had he done his utmost, he wouldn't have been able to detect Theodore's and Vigdis' infiltration–or Salvator's, for that matter. The ones he was dealing with were simply far beyond his pay grade.

When an unbelievably stealthy, yet powerful, ripple spread throughout all of Qinglong City, he felt it the moment it impacted his perception.

'What's going on?! Who did thi–'

Right as he was about to jump up in alarm, his thoughts came to a halt, his mind strongly suppressed within an illusion of normalcy. Everything was just like before, as if nothing had ever happened.

'Huh. I guess that was my imagination. I've been way too tense and exasperated lately.'

Frowning for a moment, he soon relaxed and shook his head, then resumed his surveillance. Both the Hans outside, as well as the undesirables, busied themselves with their desires and duties.

As the minutes trickled by, he began growing restless and uncomfortable. It started out small, but this sensation grew stronger with every passing second, distracting him from his task and causing him to grow alarmed. By the time that ten minutes had passed, he knew that something was wrong, but couldn't put a finger on it.

"Seriously, what is going on? Is my intuition warning me of an impending catastrophe? But why don't I see anything strange? Where is the enemy? What method of attack are they using? Did that Han Liangyun fail?"

Murmuring to himself, he grew increasingly solemn as the seconds came and went. He racked his brain, attempting to figure out exactly what was tormenting him, observing his surroundings as thoroughly as possible. Yet it was all in vain.

His heartbeat quickened and became irregular, his breathing turned panicked. Shivering and trembling, he dashed throughout the city, as well as its vicinity, yet the sense of impending doom only grew stronger, strangling him slowly but surely.

Three hours went by in this manner, and his eyes had grown dangerously bloodshot, his paranoia forcing his gaze to dart around rapidly, whilst confused and terrified cackles escaped his mouth. He was teetering on the edge of insanity, yet was incapable of doing anything at all.

It was at this moment that an incredibly potent pain spread throughout his body, enveloping his mind. There was no injury to be seen, and he had no idea what had occurred–yet then and there, he knew that his physical vessel had sustained a lethal wound.

Before he knew it, everything his senses had been displaying to him shattered like glass, and he found himself back where he had been all along–that minor hall in his own palace. Yet right beneath him, there was his own corpse, and he was now just a soul, desperately clinging to the realm of the living.

'How did I die?!'

Bewildered, he attempted to turn his head, or move his eyes, yet he found out that even in the form of a soul, he could not stir in the slightest! In the corner of his vision, he could barely make out a ravishingly gorgeous, red-haired beauty eyeing him with a hint of caution whilst wiping off the blood on her hands.

Evidently, it had been her who had ended his life–yet despite his rage, Han Qingchao felt nothing but despair engulfing him. He had already attempted to ignite the distress signal buried deep within his soul, but it simply didn't work at all. Other than the capacity to think, his soul was unable to even change the look in its very eyes, incapable of doing anything at all.

Worst of all, he soon noticed that something was siphoning the Energy from his soul, causing him to grow weaker at an incredibly rapid pace. Under normal circumstances, he could have persisted in his current state for months, or even years. However, it was likely that he wouldn't last longer than another ten minutes.

All of his curses never left the realm of his own thoughts, and his soul soon vanished without being able to stir up any waves of resistance at all.

Appearing right next to Vigdis, a bright smile blossomed on Theodore's lips. The various Arrays which had been spread throughout the city even before his arrival had been of such high quality that–using the materials that he had gathered–he could even suck souls dry of their Energy!

But that was not the part which had caused him to brighten up–instead, it was the fact that upon Han Qingchao's soul entering the cycle of reincarnation, he had got a Heavenly Dao notification, acknowledging that he had killed him! Despite Vigdis dealing the fatal blow, as the man's body had been too tough for him to damage, his Existence's Foremost Calamity had still triggered.

"It worked! Fantastic, this will make the means I'll be able to utilize in the future a lot more varied. Good job, Vigi. Let's continue."

Acknowledging his praise with a nod of her own, Vigdis followed behind him in a relaxed manner. For the past three hours, they had already cleaned up the entire city. Theodore had been the one to eliminate all of the other Initial Ascension Stage experts, as their bodies had been significantly weaker than the one of Han Qingchao–only this one had been a tiny bit of a concern.

Usually, they would have proceeded to uproot all of the Energy Veins and gathered all usable items throughout the city, then gone back home or moved on to their next target. However, this time, it would be a little different. First, they teleported to the last city which they had used to lure out Han Liangyun–there, they finished what they had started. But when they returned to Qinglong City, they first went to a massive underground chamber housing tens of thousands of slaves.

All of them had been allowed to cultivate a slight bit, although not enough to exceed the Energy Refinement Stage. Even though every single one of them had begged for death in the illusion, they had not yet been released from their suffering. Instead, they had been 'hired' to man the various communication artefacts gathered here. Previously, this had been the job of the Qing branch's members themselves, but Theodore had repurposed these men and women who wanted to die.

Naturally, he wouldn't needlessly prolong their torment–he would end them all as soon as the next step of the plan had been carried out. Following his slight manipulation of the Illusion Array, the slaves injected Energy into their respective artefacts, sending a singular message to all of those Soul Sculpting Stage strongmen who had been spread out to thousands of cities.

'The branch-exterminating threat has been extinguished. By the order of the Imperial Guard, return immediately. The deadline is five hours. Anyone who isn't here by then will be executed.'

Right after this missive was spread, thousands of experts all over the Qinglong World shot to their feet in a mixture of panic, relief and rage. While they were happy that the chances of them simply randomly dying out there had reduced, they were terrified at potentially being hunted down if they acted too slowly. Admittedly, other than reporting back, they had been using their power and influence to have one hell of a good time here in the lesser cities. While it was a bit uncomfortable to stay there, due to the lower Energy concentration, they still enjoyed being treated akin to kings and queens by the local rulers!

Now, after having experienced a prolonged period of time like this, some of them couldn't help but feel fury at the Imperial Guard treating them as if they were disposable pieces of trash. Yet, despite all of their grumbling and roaring, every single one of them knew not to play with their lives.

Hastily bidding farewell to the ones who had been hosting them until now, they departed and hurried off towards the state capital at their fastest speed. Little did they know that instead of preventing their demise, they were akin to moths to a flame. As soon as one of them stepped into the range of the various Arrays which Theodore had employed, they got eliminated by him. And worst of all, none of them were able to detect anything amiss from the outside, as all looked exactly like usual.

Before too long, within a mere four hours, they had all managed to make it back–and therefore had exited this stage forever.

Whilst he had been waiting, Theodore had not been idle. He had temporarily sealed the Teleportation Array right after Salvator's escape, then once the message had been sent out to those outside, he had gathered every single Array-related item and trinket throughout the city. Because he had skipped a step and went straight from prefectural capital-level cities to the only state capital, his means now broadened by a few orders of magnitude!

Although he had found a couple of rarer materials during his past cleansings, he hadn't truly come in contact with the most precious and useful ones which this world could offer. Not only would he now be capable of creating a decently advanced Array Disk, but he could also make use of far more Arrays than before, as well as reinforced or altered versions of the ones which he had been relying on so far.

Coupled with the fact that this place had the highest Energy concentration in the Qinglong World–except for his new base, that is–the amount of doors that this opened to him was astonishing. Of course, it was possible that some of the ruins which he had heard of in passing also sported Energy concentrations as high as here, but he doubted that anything out there could surpass the room where he had found Faavi.

Step by step, Theodore laid out a Compound Array whose level even surpassed the one that he had used to extract the Energy Veins all around the world. While it was not necessarily as detailed and complex, it consisted of even more different Arrays, and spanned the entirety of Qinglong City, combining with his previously laid out Arrays seamlessly.

Both for the rest of the Heaven's Chosen in this world, as well as the reinforcements which the Han Empire might send here, the trap was set.