Saint Emperor Devourer of Heaven

In the days that followed, the powerhouses from the Heavenly Dao Academy remained in the imperial capital, Qingyun City.

They gathered information from various channels to investigate, scrutinizing every woman around Jun Wuxie.

Among them, Anning had the most information, followed by Xu Yan'ning.

Regarding Jingya, the information they obtained was very limited.

Although Jingya had always been by Jun Wuxie's side, she had appeared in the eyes of the world for too short a time, so people had little understanding of her.

"All the women around Jun Wuxie, his senior sister can be directly excluded, including those prodigies who only appeared by his side this year, can also be excluded."

"Among the remaining people, Anning is definitely not the one. Judging from the trajectory and experience of this princess's life, there is no sign of Heavenly Dao reincarnation."

"That Xu Yan'ning once entered the Seven Killing Tower. Analyzing from various sources, she should be a person from the Lower Realm, so she can also be excluded."

"Now only Nanli Jingya is left. Why would this former Holy Maiden of the demon race hide in Qingzhou? We still haven't figured it out. Even if she broke face with the Teng Snake lineage, she wouldn't have to hide in such a place. In the vast Canglan Ancient Star, where couldn't she go?"

"The problem now is that all the news says Jun Wuxie is in this city, but no trace of him has been found in the imperial palace or Qingyun Cave Heaven. Nanli Jingya is also not there. We can't observe them carefully, so it's difficult to make a judgment."

"Hmph! Those Elder Kings know who the reincarnation of the Heavenly Dao is, but they refuse to say it, otherwise, why would it be so troublesome!"

"Alright, stop complaining. The Elder Kings couldn't get an answer from them, so what's the use of you and me complaining here. If they don't say it, does that mean we can't find it? It just takes more time. With the Heaven-Identifying Technique taught by the Heavenly Dao Master, what is there to worry about?"

"What's the rush? Take your time, there is plenty of time. The Heavenly Dao Master issued such a task, only asking us to complete it, and did not specify a time limit, so we only need to wait. Even if Jun Wuxie and Nanli Jingya are not in this city, they will eventually return. How many tens of thousands of years have we lived? We've lived through such a long time, what's the harm in waiting for this little bit of time?"

"In this case, I will stay in this city, and you can go to other cities to take a look."

A powerhouse made this suggestion, and the other powerhouses did not object, and immediately reached an agreement.

… …

Time passed quickly, day after day.

The dynasty's atmosphere was getting better and better, and people were full of passion for life and hope for the future.

The Liming Dynasty appeared harmonious and prosperous, showing no signs of having just experienced several months of war.

However, beneath this seemingly harmonious environment, there were also undercurrents lurking.

Since the dynasty had just been established, there were too many things to do, and various matters were prioritized.

For example, the investigation of former and current officials and military generals, although it has been ongoing, is still in the verification stage.

The results of the verification have not been announced, but those being investigated are becoming increasingly uneasy as time goes by.

Some people have already begun to prepare for how to respond after the incident, and some have even begun to transfer assets, planning to flee the city and hide to avoid disaster.

Recently, many unjust and wrongly decided cases have been reopened and investigated, and a group of people have been punished, but they are all minor officials and clerks, and the superiors involved have not been touched.

In the imperial palace's imperial study, Anning stood in front of the desk, flipping through the memorials presented by the Surveillance Department, so angry that her breathing became disordered, and a cold light flashed in her eyes.

"These bastards!"

She slammed the memorial on the table, then picked it up again and handed it to Yun Shu.

Yun Shu read it through, her face also turning livid.

In the past six months, the Surveillance Department, led by the Void Saint Son and the Divine Wind Saint Son, traveled to various cities of the dynasty, collecting too much information and obtaining all the criminal evidence of most of the officials in each city.

What these people had done was simply shocking.

Before seeing the contents of the memorial jade scrolls, even though Anning and Yun Shu had already prepared themselves mentally and tried to think of things in the worst possible way, they felt extremely shocked and even dared not believe it after truly understanding the truth!

The jade scroll contained a summary of the Surveillance Department's investigations, and there was too much content inside. Reading through it all was a thousand times more exciting than reading folk novels.

There were too many jaw-dropping things inside.

For example, the magistrate of a small city, a seventh-rank sesame official, but his arbitrariness of power was simply appalling.

The record above stated that the county magistrate had a dream one night, and the next day, he told the contents of the dream to his subordinates, and as a result, the people around him helped him realize it.

Covering the sky with one hand, doing whatever he wanted!

This kind of thing is more likely to happen in cities farther away from the imperial capital.

"The heavens are high and the emperor is far away, they really treat themselves as the local emperors of their own little fiefdom!"

Anning was trembling with anger.

Although she had been involved in anti-corruption when she helped Prince Ning manage government affairs in the past, the manpower for investigation was far less powerful than the current Surveillance Department, so many things could not be investigated clearly, and most of the information obtained was false.

In some places, in order to amass wealth, they even increased nearly ten kinds of exorbitant taxes and levies without authorization, causing people to live in dire straits, and frozen bones were often seen by the roadside.

This kind of thing was not uncommon in remote counties.

Those small cities were too far away, and in the past, the teleportation arrays were not open, the news was blocked, and it was difficult to spread.

Anning and Prince Ning were shocked because they did not know until today that people were actually starving and freezing to death.

Although the dynasty has now been established, new laws have been promulgated, and the officials and merchants in various cities have restrained themselves a lot due to the majesty of the Divine Monarch, and people no longer starve or freeze to death.

But these things really existed in the past, and just not long ago.

The direct culprits who caused this human tragedy are still sitting in their positions, enjoying a comfortable life and high-quality resources!

"I! Can't wait to cut them into a thousand pieces right now!"

Anning's face was full of frost. There were too many people recorded in the memorial jade scrolls, which was an extremely alarming number.

The entire dynasty has more than 10,000 cities. To this day, the Surveillance Department has only investigated more than 1,000 cities. In just these 1,000 cities, the number of people involved in the case has already exceeded one million.

On average, more than 1,000 salaried people in each city violated the law, abused their power, and exploited the people. This number is almost four-fifths of the total number of officials in each city.

"Hmph! Do they think that they can escape the heinous things they did in the past just by restraining themselves now? These accounts are all recorded, and when the time is ripe, they will be settled together! You two continue to investigate, every city must be investigated clearly. The Divine Monarch's dynasty cannot tolerate such filth!"

"By imperial order!"

After the Void Saint Son and the Divine Wind Saint Son bowed, they withdrew from the imperial study.

"When does Your Majesty plan to take action?"

Prince Ning looked at Anning. This matter was no small matter, because of the large number of people involved, no major action could be taken without making sufficient preparations.

Otherwise, the order of each city will fall into chaos.

"This matter cannot be perfectly resolved by us. We need to report it to the Divine Monarch and let him decide."

Anning responded in this way, and Prince Ning and Yun Shu nodded in agreement upon hearing this.

… …

Qingyun Cave Heaven, Zhenwu Peak, in Jun Wuxie and Jingya's courtyard, in front of the stone table under that tree.

In the past, Jingya often liked to sit here, but now that Jingya is not here, the person sitting in front of the stone table has been replaced by the demonically beautiful and peerless Linglong.

She stretched out her snow-white, jade-like palm, holding some white petals that had fallen from the tree in her palm.

"It seems that these people will not give up…"

She murmured softly, her eyes indifferent.

She had long sensed the arrival of several Saint Ancestor Realm powerhouses from the dynasty. She knew about these people before they even entered the imperial capital.

The aura on these powerhouses was both familiar and strange to her, because she had not sensed this kind of aura for a very long time.

The true energy cultivated from the [Grand Righteous Heavenly Astral Art] of the Heavenly Dao Academy in the Middle Realm has a very special aura.

This eternal force has a long heritage and profound foundation.

When she was in charge of the Different Dao Sect, the Heavenly Dao Academy had already existed for an extremely long time.

To this day, this force is still flourishing.

It is said that their existence has some kind of origin with the Heavenly Dao.

Since several months ago, several Saint Ancestor Realm powerhouses from the Heavenly Dao Academy in the Middle Realm suddenly descended on Qingzhou. The purpose was self-evident. There was no need to think about it. It was related to Jingya.

However, these people have not yet verified and cannot be sure that Jingya is the person they are looking for.

"I thought that with Senior Sister guarding the dynasty for you, you would be worry-free for a long time. But I didn't expect that people from the Heavenly Dao Academy in the Middle Realm would come to Qingzhou. If there is a conflict, I'm afraid Senior Sister can only resist for a while…"

Linglong's palm tilted slightly, and the pure white petals in her palm fell down.

Among the Saint Ancestor Realm, she is very confident in her strength. In a one-on-one fight, she doesn't think she will be weaker than anyone.

But facing the eternal Heavenly Dao Academy, this is a force with clouds of powerhouses, which cannot be countered by individuals.

The Saint Ancestors who have come are easy to deal with, but what if there are stronger people coming?

"If this matter can be resolved without force, try to avoid it as much as possible. The dynasty now needs time to grow, and Junior Brother needs time to grow even more. It is best not to offend a behemoth like the Heavenly Dao Academy…"

Linglong pondered in her heart. The Heavenly Dao Academy is different from other forces. They have always called themselves the Xuanmen Orthodox Sect. Although they sometimes do some shameful things for their own benefit, they are still more principled than other forces.

Having an intersection with such a force may not only involve head-on confrontation.

"We'll see what happens then," she thought. "I need to tell Junior Brother that Aunt Jing must not come out before the people from Heavenly Dao Academy leave Azure Province, or I'm afraid there will be no room for maneuver."

Linglong made up her mind and immediately got up and walked into the house, arriving at Jun Wuxie's bedroom.

The bedroom was very empty. Linglong didn't know what the Eight-Nine Mysterious Palace had become, so she had to cover the entire room with her divine sense and then try to communicate with Jun Wuxie.