The Western Heaven Palace was disbanded, and the Tai Xuan Sword Palace was established!

"I... was slapped away?"

"Ouch, my royal posterior!"

"It hurts..."

The Empress sat on the ground, her expression slightly dazed.

It wasn't that she had never fought before; in fact, she had rich combat experience.

But.

She swore.

She had never experienced a feeling and situation like today's!

...The entire scene instantly petrified!

Everyone watched this scene with terror and shock.

Some even doubted if they were hallucinating.

"The master of a top-tier force... is no match for Ye Qing?!"

"Slapped away with one palm?!"

Is this... reasonable?

Meanwhile, Chi Yan covered his Face, lamenting in his heart:

"As expected, she can't win..."

"And she was knocked flying with a single strike..."

"And it seems like Ye Qing was holding back..."

"Strong! Too strong!"

The masters of the other top-tier forces also had their pupils contract violently, their hearts filled with great alarm!

They considered themselves to be on par with the Empress in strength.

Since the Empress was no match for Ye Qing.

Then, if they were to attack Ye Qing without relying on Dao Artifacts.

Wouldn't they.

also be suppressed by Ye Qing?

The two Vice Prefect Lords of the Western Heaven Prefecture were even more bewildered.

They couldn't help but think:

"Your Majesty... could she be acting for our benefit?"

"This is too fake, isn't it?!"

"How could the master of a top-tier force possibly not be a match for a True Disciple Prodigy?"

...At this moment.

The Empress stood up from the ground.

Although Ye Qing hadn't used much force, she wasn't really injured.

However.

That moment just now, being knocked flying without any ability to resist, and publicly falling on her bottom... this feeling truly left her utterly humiliated and burning with shame!

"You!"

After getting up, the Empress did not attack Ye Qing again.

She merely clenched her delicate fists.

She abruptly turned her head, her chest heaving, and angrily reprimanded the two Vice Prefect Lords of the Western Heaven Prefecture with an unfriendly expression:

"What are you still standing there for?!"

"Why aren't you summoning the Dao Artifact?!"

"If we want to capture Ye Qing, now, only a Dao Artifact can suppress him!"

Hearing this.

The two Vice Prefect Lords immediately felt bitter and speechless, their Faces uglier than if they had swallowed a fly.

Summon the Dao Artifact?

We wish we could!

But the Dao Artifacts were all taken away by the Prefect Lord! We don't even know where they are now!

Just then.

Ye Qing suddenly wore a strange expression and smiled.

"Dao Artifacts?"

"Are you looking for these two things?"

As he spoke.

Ye Qing raised his hand and flipped it over.

"Clang! Clang!"

Two treasures, their light dim and devoid of any spiritual fluctuations, were casually taken out by him.

They clanged against each other, emitting a crisp sound.

They were precisely—

The kunwu mirror!

The seven treasures purple gold gourd!

"I told you the Boundless Supreme Venerable has been exterminated by me, along with the Dao Artifacts whose artifact spirits I also destroyed..."

Ye Qing tossed the two items in his hand lightly and said calmly:

"Now..."

"Do you believe me?"

...Boom!

At this moment.

Looking at the two all-too-familiar yet completely spiritless treasures that were the foundation of their Sect in Ye Qing's hand.

All the Cultivators of the Western Heaven Prefecture felt as if the sky had collapsed!

The two Vice Prefect Lords also stared dumbly, their expressions vacant, as if mourning their own parents.

Cang Yuanzi's hand trembled, finally pulling out a few strands of his beard, grimacing in pain.

But his eyes held disbelief and wild joy!

The other top-tier force masters were even more profoundly shaken!

They had been in close contact with Dao Artifacts before, so of course they could tell.

What Ye Qing took out... was real!

And, the artifact spirits.

Had indeed been annihilated!

"Gulp."

Chi Yan and Moon Spirit widened their eyes and exchanged a glance.

"We joked before that if the Boundless Supreme Venerable were here in person, True Disciple Ye might dare to slap his Face..."

"Looking at it now..."

"This is more than just slapping his Face..."

"The Boundless Supreme Venerable... it really seems he was killed by Ye Qing!"

"Even more, it seems the entire Western Heaven Prefecture will be directly abolished by True Disciple Ye... today!"

The Empress of the Burning Emperor Sacred Dynasty, her phoenix eyes shifting, had already begun to consider retreat in her heart.

The situation before her was very clear. Ye Qing could even annihilate Dao Artifact spirits.

His strength and hidden depths were unfathomable.

Offending such a star of limitless potential, even one who could be said to be invincible in the Central Region, for the sake of a dead Boundless Supreme Venerable was truly an unwise move.

She took a deep breath and was about to seize the opportunity to step back and wash her hands of this matter.

But right at that moment.

"Your Majesty!"

Those two Western Heaven Prefecture Vice Prefect Lords grew desperate!

If the Empress didn't help them, the mighty Western Heaven Prefecture might really collapse today!

So, as if grasping the last life-saving straw, they urgently shouted:

"Your Majesty! You can't abandon us!"

"Have you forgotten? Three hundred years ago, when you suffered Qi Deviation while cultivating the 'Burning Heaven Divine Art', your Divine Soul nearly collapsed, it was our Western Heaven Prefecture that opened the treasury overnight and sent the thousand-year-stored 'Soul-Stabilizing Divine Pill' to help you overcome the crisis!"

"Will you turn a blind eye to this bond of friendship?"

Hearing this.

The Empress narrowed her eyes slightly, a dangerous glint flashing in her long, narrow phoenix eyes.

She glanced at the two and thought to herself:

"These two fools have such nerve!"

"Daring to use an old favor to coerce this Emperor at such a time?"

In another setting, she would have long ago slapped these two ungrateful wretches to death.

But... as the Empress of a dynasty, openly breaking faith and abandoning righteousness would indeed damage her majesty.

And would chill the hearts of her subjects.

Furthermore, she ultimately wasn't that kind of ungrateful person.

"Sigh..."

The Empress sighed inwardly.

She still remembered that sentiment in the end.

And also to preserve the Burning Emperor Sacred Dynasty's Face.

Therefore.

The Empress took another step forward, looked at Ye Qing, and spoke in a tone carrying a hint of negotiation.

Even a trace of a plea she herself might not have noticed:

"Ye Qing... Fellow Daoist."

"Show mercy where mercy is due."

"The Boundless Supreme Venerable is dead, the chief culprit has been punished. The Western Heaven Prefecture is now leaderless and no longer a threat."

"For the sake of this Emperor's Face, can you forgive the Western Heaven Prefecture this time? Give them a way out?"

As if afraid her weight wasn't enough.

The Empress paused, a scorching and vast aura faintly emanating from her body.

It was the pressure belonging to an eighth-rank Dao Artifact.

She said solemnly:

"Fellow Daoist, you should know."

"My Burning Emperor Sacred Dynasty is the strongest Imperial Dynasty in the Central Region, possessing a complete eighth-rank national treasure—the Burning Emperor Cauldron!"

"If we truly act, even if you could win, you would likely pay a heavy price."

"Is it worth it?"

This was both a display of strength and a negotiation.

However.

Upon hearing this.

Ye Qing smiled.

He smiled with utter nonchalance.

"An eighth-rank Dao Artifact?"

Ye Qing said calmly:

"You can try?"

Ye Qing thought to himself.

An eighth-rank Dao Artifact, this thing,

Sorry to say... it's not like I don't have one.

As soon as Ye Qing said this, instantly, the Empress's aura couldn't help but falter!

This... Ye Qing looked at the Empress, his eyes playful:

"If you want to use that cauldron to pressure me..."

"You really can try."

"See if your cauldron is harder, or my sword is sharper."

"..."

The Empress's expression shifted, uncertainty flickering across her stunningly beautiful Face.

The scene fell into dead silence.

After a moment of silence.

The Empress took a deep breath, her aura instantly retracting.

She took a step back and spoke no more.

"Fellow Daoist, please do as you wish."

"This matter, this Emperor... will not interfere."

She, did not dare to try!

Especially because.

Just at the moment she stepped back.

She secretly transmitted a message to Cang Yuanzi, who had been watching the show:

"Old fellow, give me a straight answer!"

"Did your Sacred Academy... lend him the 'Sacred Heart Brush' or the 'Five Directions Sacred Heart Seal'?"

However.

Cang Yuanzi shook his head with a bitter smile.

He transmitted back:

"Empress, if I said we didn't lend them, would you believe me?"

"I really didn't lend them! The Sacred Academy's Dao Artifacts are all at the Academy!"

Receiving this definitive reply.

The Empress's heart was stirred by towering waves, shocked beyond measure!

"Not lent?!"

"Then how were the Boundless Supreme Venerable and those two Dao Artifacts destroyed?"

"This means..."

"Ye Qing either possesses a formidable Dao Artifact unknown to others, perhaps even deeper than the Sacred Academy's reserves..."

"Or..."

"His own strength has reached an inconceivable level that we old folks cannot comprehend!"

Whichever it was.

It pointed to one fact—Ye Qing, she, could not afford to offend!

"This muddy water of the Western Heaven Prefecture..."

The Empress made a wise decision in her heart:

"This Emperor will no longer touch it!"

...Seeing this.

Ye Qing thought this Empress was quite sensible, saving him some trouble.

Immediately after.

His icy gaze fell once again upon those two Western Heaven Prefecture Vice Prefect Lords.

"Now, it's your turn."

The two Vice Prefect Lords trembled, looked up at the Empress who had retreated to the side and remained silent.

Then looked at those two Dao Artifacts, originally belonging to the Western Heaven Prefecture, now like scrap metal.

Instantly, their Faces turned ashen.

The tide had turned!

Even the Burning Emperor Empress had stepped back, and their own Prefect Lord, the Boundless Supreme Venerable, was clearly killed by Ye Qing like slaughtering a chicken.

"It's over... all is lost!"

At this moment.

In their hearts, they harbored intense hatred for the already dead Boundless Supreme Venerable.

Cursing him madly inwardly:

"Boundless old thief! You are simply trash!"

"Not a shred of tolerance!"

"So what if your son was inferior in skill and killed by Ye Qing? The Cultivation world is survival of the fittest, that's normal!"

"Especially since he provoked the other party first!"

"Why couldn't you just apologize and compensate Ye Qing properly?"

"You had to court death! Had to go to the Demon Domain to ambush Ye Qing!"

"And the result?"

"Utterly useless, couldn't even win with a sneak attack, ended up leaving your old life in the Demon Domain Battlefield!"

"Die if you must, but you had to lose the Dao Artifacts too, bringing such a catastrophic disaster upon the Western Heaven Prefecture!"

"You are truly the eternal sinner of the Western Heaven Prefecture!"

...At this life-and-death juncture.

These two, who had managed to reach the position of Vice Prefect Lord in a top-tier force like the Western Heaven Prefecture, were naturally not stubborn fools.

Their expressions changed as they frantically weighed the pros and cons in their minds.

"The Western Heaven Prefecture today... I'm afraid it really is going to fall."

"This disaster was brought by the Boundless Supreme Venerable, it's the sin of his lineage, it has nothing to do with the two of us!"

"We don't need to keep propping it up and be buried with that dead ghost!"

"As for these Vice Prefect Lord positions..."

The two exchanged a glance, seeing determination in each other's eyes.

"If our lives are about to be lost, what use are Vice Prefect Lord positions? Let them go!"

Having figured this out.

The two immediately knelt down with a thud, kowtowed heavily to Ye Qing, and shouted loudly:

"True Disciple Ye! Senior Ye! Spare our lives!"

"The two of us have never gotten along with that old thief Boundless Supreme Venerable!"

"While he was in power, he always suppressed us, and we dared not speak out in anger!"

"His plan to ambush you, we knew nothing about it and certainly did not participate!"

To save their lives.

The two directly transformed into "tainted witnesses."

Pointing at the surrounding crowd, they loudly said:

"We are willing to atone for our crimes by performing meritorious service!"

"Senior Ye, that person! That one! And that one!"

"They are all die-hard loyalists of the Boundless Supreme Venerable! They bully others relying on his power and have done countless evil deeds!"

"And also!"

One of them added:

"In Mangxing City, at the Demon Quelling Alliance operations command center, that Western Heaven Prefecture Elder is also a trusted confidant of the Boundless Supreme Venerable!"

"He was the one responsible for passing intelligence to the Boundless Supreme Venerable!"

In one breath, the two pointed out all the trusted followers of the Boundless Supreme Venerable's lineage to Ye Qing.

Selling them out completely.

Even.

Considering their high positions as Vice Prefect Lords in the Western Heaven Prefecture, Ye Qing might not spare them to eliminate the roots.

These two ruthless individuals exchanged a glance.

"Let's go all out!"

"Bang! Bang!"

The two actually raised their hands and struck their own chests fiercely!

This strike showed no mercy, directly shattering part of their own Meridians and Dantian Qi Sea!

"Pfft—!"

The two spat out a large mouthful of blood simultaneously, their auras instantly withering.

Their cultivation even plummeted from the Late Stage of the Return to Void Realm, nearly falling to the Soul Transformation Realm!

"Senior Ye..."

Their Faces pale, they said tremblingly:

"We have lowered our own cultivation as penance for our offense against you!"

"And we swear a Heavenly Dao oath!"

"From now on, we are willing to go far away to the desolate lands of the extreme west, never to return to the Central Region for the rest of our lives!"

"We only beg Senior Ye... to spare our lives!"

...This scene.

Left the surrounding crowd dumbfounded, inwardly clicking their tongues in amazement.

"Ruthless people!"

"So ruthless even to themselves, they're desperate to survive."

Ye Qing looked at these two kneeling, blood-covered fellows and was slightly taken aback.

Then.

A glint of interest flashed in his eyes.

"Interesting."

These two could bend and stretch, assess the situation, and were ruthless enough to themselves at critical moments. They were indeed talents.

Moreover.

Reaching the position of Vice Prefect Lord meant their management and administrative abilities were undoubtedly sufficient.

Ye Qing thought for a moment.

"Go far away?"

He shook his head and said calmly:

"No need."

"You... don't need to leave either."

Hearing this.

The two stiffened abruptly, despair flashing in their eyes.

"Could it be... he still won't let us go?"

"Are we... going to die here today?"

Just as their hearts turned to ashes, ready to close their eyes and await death.

Ye Qing's next words.

Made them hear music from the heavens, their eyes suddenly brightening with wild joy!

"Stay here."

Ye Qing swept his gaze across the scene and spoke calmly:

"I'll give you a chance."

"From today onward..."

"There will be no more Western Heaven Prefecture in this world!"

"The Western Heaven Prefecture is officially abolished today!"

"And on the original site of the Western Heaven Prefecture..."

Ye Qing thought for a moment and said:

"A new Sect will be established!"

"Named—the Taixuan Sword Mansion!"

Ye Qing looked at the two Vice Prefect Lords, who were somewhat incredulous, vaguely guessing something, and stunned with joy.

He said calmly:

"You two, stay and become Elders of this Taixuan Sword Mansion."

"Manage the Sect's trivial matters for me."

"What do you think?"