The Grand Heavenmaster smiled, and a profound gleam appeared in his eyes. “This isn’t a matter of him getting someone else to do his dirty work for him. He’s going crazy trying to find his soul slave!”

“Soul slave?” the bearded heavenly duke said in surprise.

“Someone just captured that soul slave of his. Whoever it was knew how to do it in just the right way so that I wouldn’t notice in time. Furthermore, no evidence was left behind....”

The bearded heavenly duke was clearly stunned.

“Go look into who did it.” The Grand Heavenmaster knew that whoever had done the deed had planned on him not interfering. And the truth was that, before Bai Xiaochun revealed his plan, he wouldn’t have. But now he was hesitating.

The bearded duke hesitated for only a short moment. “I suspect that only

those

four would be able to do something like this. Your humble servant... will look into it immediately!” He paused, then added, “However, I still think Bai Hao is a ruthless schemer who must not be left alive!”

“You’re only looking at things on the surface,” the Grand Heavenmaster said with a profoundly intelligent smile. “The Giant Ghost King only has a single daughter, and therefore, Bai Hao’s plan won’t affect him. The fact that his plan protects the Giant Ghost King shows that he knows how to be grateful!

“If he was the completely ungrateful type, I wouldn’t dare to use him. However, considering that he is, I think I’ll bless him just the same as the Giant Ghost King has! If he follows the Giant Ghost King, his prospects will be limited. But if he follows me, he will have no such limitations!

“He is definitely a ruthless dagger, but the important thing is that I hold him in my hand. The Giant Ghost King doesn’t qualify, only I do.

“The Giant Ghost King tried to get him together with Zhou Zimo, right? Well, he likes Chen Manyao, so if he manages this upcoming affair properly, then I’ll give him her hand! Afterward, he can become my stepson!” Although the Grand Heavenmaster did not speak in a loud voice, there was something profoundly meaningful to his words. In response, the bearded heavenly duke simply voiced his assent and left.

Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun had appeared outside of the imperial palace, a very grim look on his face, his eyes shining with cold light, and his murderous aura seething. He looked like he had gone mad, and was now so tightly wound that he seemed ready to snap and kill someone at a moment’s notice.

He sent out a thought, which caused his army of corpse troopers to fly over, along with Zhou Yixing, who was feeling very apprehensive. It was without a single word that he followed Bai Xiaochun all the way back to the Inspections Manor.

He reached the place with blinding speed, and instead of descending and landing inside, he hovered in the air above it and pulled out his command medallion. After sending some divine sense into it, an image of the area below the manor appeared in his mind.

He saw more than 90,000 coffins, all of them visible in complete detail, and surrounded by a sinister and cold aura.

Without the slightest hesitation, he sent his divine sense sweeping over them, selecting 2,000 and saying to them, “Awaken!”

RUUUUUUUUMBLE!

The intense sounds which erupted out from the manor caused the ground to shake and the sky to flash with bright colors. Virtually all of the soul cultivators in the area could feel what was happening.

“Something is happening at the Inspections Manor again!?”

“What... what is that black cloud?!?!”

“Heavens! I can’t believe that so many coffins are visible! How is this even possible?! Isn’t everybody talking about how Bai Hao is in big trouble?!?!”

Amidst the resulting commotion, quite a few people flew up into the air and saw what looked like a black cloud above the Inspections Manor, radiating a shocking murderous aura.

Even as everything in the area shook, the coffins began to swirl about through the air.

There were 2,000 of them, a shocking sight, and yet things weren’t over yet. At this point, the coffins began to open up, and numerous black-armored corpse troopers emerged from within them.

Especially noteworthy was the fact that five of the coffins were unique. All of them had ornate designs on them, and as for the last of that group, it was a different color: silver!!

From within the first four of those coffins emerged... hulking, black-armored corpse troopers who had half-deva cultivation bases!

Most shocking, though, was the figure which emerged from the silver coffin, a middle-aged soul cultivator... with silver armor!

Just like all the other corpse troopers, his face was completely expressionless, and he was surrounded by a shockingly cold air. However, as soon as he opened his eyes, thunder crackled in the air above, and the fluctuations of a deva erupted out from him.

At the same time, the command medallion in Bai Xiaochun’s hand vibrated a few times. There was something completely obstinate and unyielding about this silver-armored warrior that the command medallion instantly identified and connected with.

As the deva fluctuations erupted out, the burly man’s murderous aura erupted out, and it was so strong that it immediately caused the other roughly 5,000 corpse troopers to tremble, as if they were matchlessly weak.

As for the nine half-deva corpse troopers, they were also trembling. The only one who didn’t was that one corpse trooper who always accompanied Bai Xiaochun. As he looked up, his eyes shone with a strange light, and he also erupted with the shocking fluctuations of a deva. Clearly, he and the silver-armored corpse trooper were equally matched!

Everyone who saw that gasped and was completely taken aback!

“Heavens! He has two deva corpse troopers, nine half-devas, and an army 5,000 strong!!”

“Dammit! Whoever was just saying that Bai Hao is in trouble was obviously just trying to start rumors! He’s not in any trouble. He’s gotten more powerful than ever!!”

“He’s already at the same level as the previous inspections commissioner, Hei Ming! 5,000 corpse troopers....”

“That’s the same level of power as the four heavenly kings and the Grand Heavenmaster! Bai Hao is the number one figure under the Demigod Realm!!”

Shocked, people began to take out jade slips to spread the news. Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun hovered in the air above the Inspections Manor, looking at the two most powerful corpse troopers facing off. Clearly, the silver-armored corpse trooper didn’t want to be controlled. Under normal circumstances, Bai Xiaochun might have been inclined to talk things over, and maybe figure out another way to get the silver-armored corpse trooper to submit.

But right now, he was in a very bad mood, and was in the grips of madness. The silver-armored corpse trooper’s obstinacy only served to get on Bai Xiaochun’s nerves. Eyes growing colder, he reached out and pointed at the corpse trooper.

Instantly, his Quasi-Deva Realm corpse trooper burst into action, as did his nine half-deva troopers, murderous auras raging as they attacked the silver-armored corpse trooper.

Of course, that wasn’t enough. The rest of the 5,000-man-strong army all howled as they attacked along with the others.

Rumbling booms immediately filled the air. At the moment, it didn’t matter that the silver-armored corpse trooper was a deva, he could only last for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, whereupon he slammed down into the ground. At first, he still seemed defiant, but the most powerful of the black-armored corpse troopers bashed him with another divine ability, whereupon he shivered and finally showed compliance.

With that, Bai Xiaochun flicked his sleeve and paid no more heed to the matters of the corpse troopers. Flickering into motion, he headed into his secluded meditation chamber, where he sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.

He was waiting for the official announcement of the Proclamation of Universal Grace!

From what he could guess, it wouldn’t be much more than a few hours before that happened. The Proclamation of Universal Grace... would definitely shake the entire city, and quickly shock all of the nobility and aristocracy in the Wildlands!

Furthermore, the news that he had 2,000 additional corpse troopers had been witnessed by many people in the area of the Inspections Manor, and as they began to spread the news, all of the aristocracy in the city heard.

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Wait a second.... What happened? How could this have happened?!”

“I thought he was in trouble and couldn’t defend himself! As it turns out, he’s as aggressive as ever! Something fishy is going on!”

“Why do I suddenly have a very, very bad feeling?!?!”

“Something big is about to happen!!!”