In a dark room, tied to a chair and restrained by formations, sat the figure of a man.
The door to the room opened, and Jin Leng, the second elder of the Punishment Pavilion of the Infinite Dao Sect, entered.
He was tall, with a cold face, blue eyes, and blue hair.
As he entered, light illuminated the room, revealing that the prisoner was the grand elder of the Eternal Sovereign Sect.
Jin Leng calmly walked up to him and stared into the cautious and cowardly eyes of the enemy.
"I will ask you some questions, and you will answer me honestly. Do not lie, because I will know."
The grand elder nodded frantically, but Aotian thought it best to add a few more words:
"Of course, you can lie if you want; the choice is yours. But we can do this the easy way or the hard way…"
The cold words came out of the elder's mouth, but inside, Aotian smiled excitedly.
'I've always wanted to say that…'
…
What followed was rather traumatizing for Aotian.
At first, the man truly answered honestly, but as he began to realize where the conversation was headed and what his likely fate would be, he started lying and hiding information. Aotian could still obtain answers from the man's heart when he lied, but when he refused to speak, Aotian couldn't capture anything.
So, Aotian had to resort to some torture methods he had synthesized himself.
Among the thousands of spells he had acquired, some were peculiar, created solely to cause excruciating pain. And with the improvements he made, they became even more terrifying.
Putting those methods into practice was disturbing, but fortunately, Aotian had seventy brains to handle the emotional burden. Besides, knowing that the person in question was complete trash also helped.
Even so, the man's terrifying screams would linger in his minds for several days.
After extracting everything he needed, Aotian decapitated the grand elder and moved on to the next rooms, controlling Jin Leng to interrogate other prisoners.
In the next room, the thirty internal elders of the enemy sect were imprisoned.
Aotian didn't intend to extract information from them as he had with the grand elder. His intention was only to judge them.
When Jin Leng entered, all of them turned to him.
"I will ask one question, and you will all answer at the same time. Whoever doesn't answer, I will decapitate without giving another chance." His voice was cold, leaving the elders stunned.
This was something he had discovered in his tests. He could read the hearts of several people at the same time.
Then, with a cold face, Jin Leng asked:
"Have you ever raped, killed, or ruined the life of any innocent person, with no reason other than cruel pleasure?"
The elders' eyes widened.
"No!" they answered in unison.
Seventeen heads rolled.
Everyone who survived trembled with fear. They knew the ones who died, and they knew they had been clearly lying.
But it didn't stop there—Jin Leng kept asking questions, and heads kept falling without pause.
Soon, to Aotian's complete astonishment, only two elders remained.
His questions aimed to eliminate only complete trash, not necessarily to save only good people. Selfish, cowardly, and petty people wouldn't be killed just for being like that. If they hadn't committed unforgivable atrocities and didn't show a tendency to do so in the future, they could live.
In the cities where Aotian had carried out similar judgments in the past, such as the sixteen cities in the region of the Bamboo Sword Sect, he had never once executed more than half of those judged. This only proved how oppressive and cruel the Eternal Sovereign Sect was.
Looking at the two remaining elders, Jin Leng, to their astonishment, dispelled the formations that held them.
"You may go. Never return, and never try to raise the name of this filthy sect again, understood?"
The two elders, incredulous, were really freed, and they didn't know if this was just a cruel joke or if they were simply dreaming.
Jin Leng then explained:
"What saved your lives was the fact that, even in this filthy sect, holding such high positions, you did not surrender to madness and evil. You may not be perfect, but where everyone else became demons, you still remained human."
That said, he turned and headed to the next area, leaving behind the two old men who fell to their knees on the ground, tears in their eyes, amidst their decapitated former companions.
Aotian didn't worry about leaving those men alive, nor did he consider them enemies worthy of attention. The power he and his disciples possessed allowed him to be arrogant and not bother with 'cutting roots' in such a weak sect.
Of course, he would never release enemies who knew something important or who could truly represent a threat to him. And he would not allow people who had a chance of causing harm to others in the future, if freed by him, to go unpunished, even if they hadn't done anything yet.
The Punishment Pavilion's ability allowed him to see the hearts of people, and his judgment was quite accurate. Without it, he might have had to walk the path of eliminating all possible enemies to avoid future problems.
Jin Leng then moved on to the next area, where the external elders were, and after that, in the end, he would interrogate the disciples of the Eternal Sovereign Sect.
Aotian took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself. If the internal elders were an indication of what was to come, it was going to be a very bloody day.
…
While beheadings were taking place in the Eternal Sovereign Sect, the Celestial Venom Sect, notoriously demonic, was not much different.
Lie Zheng quickly finished his interrogation and executions before flying into the skies, heading toward one of the nearby cities seized by the sect. Jin Leng, as soon as he finished his own interrogation, would also depart for the next city.
Things in this domain were far more sinister, and Aotian did not want to make mistakes. For this reason, the internal elders of the Punishment Pavilion would visit each of the 27 cities within the Eternal Sovereign Domain.
The disciples and other elders of the sect, on the other hand, were tasked with sorting and classifying the treasures acquired during the conquest.
And on this long list, nothing was left out, including treasures taken even from the menial disciples who had been freed.
Just because they were free now didn't mean they could take anything with them. Even a mosquito's legs are still meat.
Aside from treasures, the territories and even the nearby cultivation cities that were captured would need proper management to avoid chaos. After all, unlike what was done in the Bamboo Sword Sect region, this time it was not a simple robbery but a full occupation of territory, and Aotian would not allow his domain to fall into disorder.
From now on, that region would be called the Infinite Dao Sect Domain.
…
Inside one of the finest cave mansions of the Eternal Sovereign Sect, Aotian sat cross-legged, meditating with his main body.
At that moment, he was the only person in the Infinite Dao Sect with enough free time to cultivate. Not even Rihai, as a core disciple of the Sword Pavilion, was free, as she had left to pacify some small towns in the surrounding area.
He was basically the only lazy bastard in the sect… if you didn't consider that he had seventy bodies working simultaneously. In truth, he was the most hardworking of them all.
Aotian even considered going out and working with his main body, but he quickly dismissed the idea. It was not wise to wander around with his main body performing tasks instead of cultivating and growing stronger. His main body was his foundation, the factor that determined the sect's power ceiling, so it was better to remain restrained and diligent in cultivation.
Shaking his head, he dismissed those thoughts and began cultivating in silence while analyzing the information collected through his other available minds.
'From what I gathered during the interrogations, there are five sects called Emissary Sects on this continent. These five are connected to powers from one of the mid-continents and receive rewards for sending talents to them.'
He remembered the conversation with the grand elder of the Eternal Sovereign Sect.
'Jian Huiyin, in the past, was a target of the now-dead Wu Juntian. He wanted to capture her and send her to the emissary sects in exchange for resources to advance his cultivation, but the plan failed, and he nearly died from her master's counterattack—her master, who had cultivated his sword-in-sheath technique for more than a century.'
'Apparently, there is no issue with capturing people against their will. The emissary sects prefer the talented individuals sent to them to be willing, but if the target does not want to go, forcing them is also acceptable. The reward only slightly decreases in quality in that case… apparently, the sects from the mid-continents have good methods of control and don't care much about the captive's opinion.'
Aotian reflected seriously, though without much concern about those sects.
He had no intention of advancing the war anytime soon. For now, he would focus on fully dominating this conquered region and improving it, establishing a solid foundation for future conquests.
Simply rushing to conquer more would only create chaos, and Aotian didn't want that. He wanted to dominate, but he also wanted to improve the living conditions of everyone under his control.
But acting this way would delay his plans to acquire new techniques and spells through conquest, and that's why he had already devised a solution—something he called the "Perfect Plan."
'Ideally, I'd send Bao Wuji to the central continent, but anything could happen, and losing an ancestral avatar would be a huge pain. However, only he and the sect leader can currently cross the sea without dying to the beasts lurking within it. And my main body, as well as the other important avatars, could be at risk if a major power descended and Bao Wuji wasn't here.'
'So, the plan is… since only Bao Wuji can cross the sea, he will take an external elder there, leave him with plenty of money in one of the mid-continents, and then return.'
'That way, I'll have an avatar there and Bao Wuji here. Even if the external elder dies, it will be a painful loss, but not a major one. But, if I play this well and don't let him die so easily, in return…'
A small smile formed on Aotian's lips as he cultivated.
'… I can gain a lot.'
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Well, as you can see, a new arc is about to begin. This one will focus more on the development of the sect and its territory, showcasing the elders' abilities in that process, as well as Aotian's adventures in the mid-continent.
And in the middle continents, the xianxia elements will stand out more, so even though I'm not a big fan of it, we can throw in one or two face slaps — after all, what xianxia doesn't have a good face slap or two?