Perfected Qiuyue stood in the noisy royal court, his thoughts drifting.
Besides being a Void Refining Elder of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, he was also a high-ranking official in the Military Inspectorate. Furthermore, his surname was Bai.
Hundreds of years ago, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion had already paid close attention to the Azure Cloud Li Clan.
At that time, the Azure Cloud Li Clan was still a group of pathetic wretches struggling on death's door under the Wu Tribe.
In the past, the Military Inspectorate had sent personnel to the Azure Cloud Region to supervise the battles, only to end up with everyone being wiped out by the Wu Tribe.
The commander among them was named Bai Yu.
Many years ago, Perfected Qiuyue had begun investigating the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
The deeper he dug, the more incredulous he felt.
Fortunately, many in the Imperial Dynasty knew someone was going to make a move against the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
At that time, since no Void Refining cultivators stepped forward, Perfected Qiuyue also left the Li Clan to die.
It was a pity that Tian Xing ultimately perished.
Their rapid growth hid a massive secret.
An ordinary once-in-a-century genius would need two to three hundred years to break through to the Nascent Soul realm, and at least a thousand years of effort to reach the Divinity Transformation realm.
Yet, after the Azure Cloud Li Clan plundered Tian Xing's spoils of war back then, their rise became unstoppable.
Over these past few centuries of worldly chaos, Perfected Qiuyue had continued to investigate the Li Clan's secrets, watching as their power grew ever greater and their relationships with various factions became increasingly complex.
However, everything was still somewhat within reason.
Through their maneuvering to annihilate Prince Qian and the Immortal Zhao Clan, the Li Clan produced two Void Refining cultivators, mostly thanks to the contributions of Tian Xing.
Afterwards, under Crown Prince Fei Heng and the Department of Immortal Suppression, the Li Clan did not stand out, and everything was left unsettled.
But this trip to Deston Prefecture was different.
One by one, members of the Li Clan broke through to the Void Refining realm.
Most crucially, their cultivation seemed to have no bottleneck.
Unlike other cultivators who required extensive planning from various factions, spending vast amounts of years comprehending laws and accumulating their foundations to break through to the Void Refining realm, they did it with ease.
Even more terrifying, every single Void Refining expert in their Immortal Clan was under a thousand years old!
"If you don't die, who will?"
Perfected Qiuyue thought with cold indifference.
The trip to Deston Prefecture had completely brought the Li Clan into the limelight, but it also drew the wariness of the major figures from all sides.
Within this short month, aside from the younger generation's worship and the widespread praise for the Li Clan's geniuses within the Imperial Capital, there was mostly fear and apprehension.
The almighty experts of the Imperial Capital had only shown themselves recently due to the world's great chaos, and they had begun to subtly mention the Li Clan.
At the very least, Perfected Qiuyue could sense that these almighty experts were transmitting certain messages—
They had captured Nun Dairou and possessed an opportunity for Body Integration; those surnamed Li had a massive secret for rapidly breaking through to the Void Refining realm; the Li Clan was incomparably wealthy...
A lamb waiting to be slaughtered was right within the Imperial Dynasty's borders.
Perfected Qiuyue looked around the entire court.
He saw the dignitaries filling the hall—hailing from major prefectures and possessing long histories of power—whispering among themselves.
In reality, every single one of them was itching to devour the Li Clan clean, but they were also terrified that the Li Clan would go mad and drag them down with them.
Thus, only Perfected Qiuyue, Zishu Ling, and Gongyang Ju were pushed to the forefront.
It was almost laughable.
These ten deadly sins were actually listed by Qiu Xundao from the Northern Border, who knew absolutely nothing about the events in the Western Border.
Yet, all that was needed was a facade to serve as a butcher's knife, regardless of whether the blade was sharp or not.
"Feng Tu, Her Majesty the Empress is right here on the Golden Throne, and all the civil and military officials are present. Speak everything you know!"
Perfected Qiuyue shouted sternly.
Both civil and military officials in the court fell silent.
At this moment, Feng Tu weakly propped his hands on the ground. His blurred eyes looked around until he saw Li Chang.
The resemblance... On Li Chang's face, the faint outlines of those Li Clan members from the Western Border could be seen.
Li Chang looked at him, his brows slightly furrowed.
Only struggle remained in Feng Tu's eyes.
He knew about the events in the Western Border.
Most of the evidence for the crimes Perfected Qiuyue listed was half-true and half-false, but the moment they were spoken aloud, everything would be set in stone.
The Li Clan killed Bi Shihu, killed the Crown Prince, and used Huan Gui for their own purposes...
He didn't want to speak, but he also knew that in this court, there were far too many major figures who could easily pinch him to death and make his Feng name completely disappear.
"I ask you, is the Li Clan in the Azure Cloud Prefecture colluding with the Huan Gui of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems?"
Perfected Qiuyue asked angrily.
Feng Tu's expression was numb.
He clenched his fists tightly and squeezed out a single word through his gritted teeth: "Yes."
This single response caused the entire court to erupt like churning, stormy seas!
"The Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems uses living people to refine corpses; this is known to all under the heavens. The Li Clan is so foolish!"
"Perhaps the Li Clan's trip to Deston Prefecture this time for revenge was fake, and their true purpose was to help Huan Gui absorb human vitality to break through to the Body Integration realm."
"Do you think the Li Clan has also cultivated the Corpse-Stitching Art? Investigate! We must investigate!"
"..."
Amidst the incessant whispering.
Perfected Qiuyue let out a cold sneer.
Taking advantage of Feng Tu's resignation to fate, he continued to question loudly:
"Did the Li Clan kill the Undefeated Marshal Bi Shihu?"
"Yes."
"Are there members in the Li Clan who cultivate demonic Daoist arts?"
"Yes."
"Did the Li Clan..."
"Yes! Yes! Yes!!!"
Under Perfected Qiuyue's coercion, Feng Tu, drained of all color, responded hoarsely.
For each of the ten deadly sins, he answered "Yes," until the civil and military officials of the entire court fell silent.