King of Creation Chapter 1689: 1674: Severed Arm

A burst of green light abruptly erupted above the Thousand Pearl Tree at the entrance of the Luo State Branch Temple, from which Mu Xu, the Mu Hall Master; Baili Fei, the Moon Hall Master; twenty Grand Divine Masters; and eighty Divine Masters materialized out of nowhere.

The surviving Divine Masters and Grand Spirit Masters who had reported the attack dropped to their knees right away upon spotting the Hall Masters' personal arrival.

By the Heavenly Temple Branch's monastery rules, they bore no blame; exiting the temple had occurred under normal circumstances.

Yet, the Luo State Branch Temple lay in ruins with its abbot slain, while they emerged unharmed—this cast heavy suspicion upon them.

It's akin to soldiers surviving the destruction of their marshal's camp, deemed severely culpable under military law.

Right now, though, neither Baili Fei nor Mu Xu could spare a moment for such issues.

'How long ago did the incident take place?' Baili Fei demanded as he marched straight into the Luo State Branch Temple.

'Hall Master, exactly two hours have passed since we reached this spot and witnessed the demon clan assailants escaping,' one surviving Divine Master replied.

'What's their cultivation level? Any Dao Realm experts in their ranks?' Baili Fei pressed.

'I pursued them briefly, but those demon clan members surely have no Dao Realm experts among them.'

'Two hours without Dao Realm experts—even if they sprouted wings, they'd cover at most fifty to sixty thousand miles. Reckless use of spatial divine abilities might stretch it to a million miles at best.'

With that, Baili Fei motioned to Mu Xu. 'Brother Mu, split them into twenty groups—one Grand Divine Master and four Divine Masters each—in two waves. Launch the search centered on the Luo State Branch Temple, expanding layer by layer to one million miles and fifty thousand miles!'

'Prioritize the escape route of the demon clan,' Baili Fei added, pointing westward.

Mu Hall Master Mu Xu offered no words, only a nod. The Grand Divine Masters and Divine Masters swiftly assembled into groups without needing more directives.

As green light flashed, Mu Xu and ten others vanished once more, reappearing at the Luo State Branch Temple after scarcely two breaths.

In the meantime, Baili Fei meticulously surveyed the chaos inside the Luo State Branch Temple.

A mere hundred breaths afterward, Mu Xu had shuttled another hundred experts from the Heavenly Temple Lower Court near the Luo State Branch Temple to kick off the hunt.

'Alas, Brother Mu, our forces remain too few! Scanning a million miles with the formidable divine sense of a hundred Grand Divine Masters and Divine Masters is still like hunting a needle in an ocean.'

'We require no fewer than a thousand Divine Masters or stronger to mount a thorough search....'

Mu Xu, face icy, cut Baili Fei off before he could end. 'My divine ability drains immensely, and repeated recent casts have pushed me to my limit. One more day allows me five additional uses, maximum!'

'Five casts might cover two round trips. Brother Mu, head to Weizhou’s Ancient Teleportation Formation and fetch two hundred more....'

Mu Xu's lethal glare halted Baili Fei mid-sentence.

What nonsense—forcing him to deplete himself until he couldn't even safeguard his own life at a pivotal juncture. Mu Xu's words stayed somewhat tactful, yet he was no fool.

'How about one round trip for another hundred? Count it as this old man's favor to you,' Baili Fei proposed with a wry smile.

Mu Xu nodded deliberately at those words. Green light surged anew, his form dissolving into nothingness. Ten breaths passed before the light returned, bringing a fresh hundred Heavenly Temple experts to the Luo State Branch Temple's forefront.

After rapid deployment, these hundred experts dispersed in every direction, as Moon Hall Master Baili Fei's countenance grew profoundly somber.

'Brother Mu, come look at this!' Baili Fei gestured toward a corpse.

'See here—these corpses show traces of Heavenly Thunder Spirit Fire.'

'These pair of corpses fell to Evil Punishing Divine Thunder.'

'Over here, if my eyes don't deceive me, that's saliva from the Ancient Fierce Beast Nine-Headed Beast. These severed limbs match the Nine-Headed Beast's kills perfectly, identical to the injuries on Shahe City Branch Temple's victims.'

'Furthermore, observe these hundreds of Grand Spirit Master corpses—all precisely severed by sword strikes!' As he spoke, Baili Fei shut his eyes, unleashing a torrent of divine sense in all directions.

Moon Hall Master Baili Fei muttered dreamily, “I detect the lingering sword Qi of an Acquired Spiritual Treasure—it's extremely similar, extremely similar, to the lingering sword Qi from the Shahe City Acquired Spiritual Treasure!”

Usually taciturn, Mu Hall Master Mu Xu turned profoundly serious too, nodding slowly. “Correct, what are you suggesting?”

“At this site, unlike the bodies in the Shahe City Branch Temple, demonic clan traces appear, yet it might just be a misleading ploy from the culprits,” Baili Fei explained.

“Do you already hold a theory?”

“I strongly suspect Ye Zhen!” Baili Fei declared.

“That can't be, right?” Mu Xu shook his head. “Ye Zhen remains under constant watch from us, still located in Luoyi—he couldn't possibly have done it!”

“That's debatable. After all, countless hints keep directing toward Ye Zhen, rendering him the prime suspect!”

With that, Baili Fei swiftly pulled out a conch horn. As spiritual power poured into it, he instantly linked up with Grand Divine Master Shou Hui, who was keeping tabs on Ye Zhen.

In the All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds today, just three ways exist to send messages across a single world, ignoring any distance.

The first involves the fairly common small-scale Communication Transfer Formation, though it suffers from one fatal flaw: lack of instant delivery.

Without a dedicated guard constantly monitoring it, messages won't transmit right away.

To overcome this delay problem, choices narrow to the Water Clan’s Mother-child Magic Conch or the Demon Clan’s Long-eared Audio Demon’s ear. The latter proves even scarcer than the former.

Thanks to the Heavenly Temple's resources, acquiring the Water Clan’s Mother-child Magic Conch remains feasible.

They deploy it for crucial communications.

“Any odd behavior from Ye Zhen lately?” Baili Fei inquired.

Grand Divine Master Shou Hui, gripping the matching Mother-child Magic Conch, replied at once. “To the Hall Master: all normal. He's focused on cultivation, staying completely still.”

“Cultivation?” Baili Fei creased his brow faintly.

“Within fifteen minutes, even if it sparks conflict with the Ancestor God Hall, verify whether the Ye Zhen you're watching is his real body or merely an illusion,” Baili Fei ordered.

Stunned, Grand Divine Master Shou Hui reeled—Ye Zhen had stayed under his watch; how could it be fake?

“Hall Master, that's out of the question! I…”

“That's a direct command!” Baili Fei barked in a tone brooking no defiance.

“As you command!”

Within Luoyi's Posthouse, Grand Divine Master Shou Hui gazed at the throng of martial artists eyeing Ye Zhen’s cultivation abode and sighed inwardly.

Persuading the Heavenly Patrol Department and Ancestor God Hall forces to allow a check on Ye Zhen’s authenticity was utterly hopeless.

Regarding clashing with the Ancestor God Hall, Shou Hui trusted Moon Hall Master Baili Fei’s resolve, yet he shrank from shouldering that weight.

After pondering deeply with furrowed brows, Shou Hui unleashed his divine sense and discreetly gave the command.

Moments later, a faint ripple burst from below ground, darting straight toward Ye Zhen the instant it surfaced.

This force acted like stirring a wasp nest.

Moon and Star Priests from the Ancestor God Hall’s Man Spirit Hall, plus Heavenly Patrol Divine Hunters from the Heavenly Patrol Department, all bellowed furiously—yet their power levels left them helpless to intervene in time.

Right then, a frigid spatial ripple exploded outward, as a phantom blade slashed toward the arm poised to smack Ye Zhen’s back.

Still, that arm stretched abruptly, slamming Ye Zhen’s back with crushing force, before the phantom blade gleamed and severed it clean like carving flesh.

The figure, ignoring its lost limb, burrowed back underground and vanished.

Simultaneously, the palm-hit Ye Zhen flew backward, coughing up a gush of blood.

Before Ye Zhen’s spurting blood could splatter the floor, Ancestor God Hall members, Heavenly Patrol Divine Hunters, Central Patrol Jings Zhan, Grand Divine Master Shou Hui, and Heavenly Temple soldiers stormed into Ye Zhen’s quiet chamber.

The room crammed full in a flash.

“Lord Ye, are you okay?”

“Chief Priest Ye, you alright?”

Face somewhat ashen, Ye Zhen gradually wiped blood from his lips. “The attacker possessed profound cultivation, probably Dao Realm level, though the Void Hunting King’s meddling likely weakened that palm strike.

If not…..” Ye Zhen shuddered hard.

Jings Zhan narrowed his eyes, casting an icy glare at Grand Divine Master Shou Hui. “Didn’t you station a Dao Realm expert underground to guard? How exactly did the assassin slip inside?”

“Jings Patrol, didn’t your Heavenly Patrol Department also station men underground? Why didn’t you detect anything? At least our Heavenly Temple’s Grand Divine Master has already set off in pursuit.”

Even though Ye Zhen was wounded and the assassin remained at large, the incident devolved into nothing more than a heated exchange of words.

Grand Divine Master Shou Hui felt deep relief; despite the gamble, he had verified that the Ye Zhen standing there was his genuine body!

Had it been a mere illusionary form, the palm strike from our Heavenly Temple’s Grand Divine Master would have shattered it completely, not just drawn blood.

That strike carried true weight!

Now he could finally report back.

Yet what truly bothered him was that in this affair, their underground sentinel, Grand Divine Master Shou Xuan, had lost an entire arm.

Still, thanks to the Heavenly Temple’s array of secret arts and precious elixirs, retrieving that severed arm would allow immediate reattachment, sparing Grand Divine Master Shou Xuan any major setback.

Right then, Grand Divine Master Shou Xuan bombarded Grand Divine Master Shou Hui with nonstop Divine Soul Telecommunications. “Brother Hui, hurry and fetch my severed arm. The quicker you act, the less I’ll suffer.”

“Brother Hui, I carried out your orders, so you can’t abandon me now.” Grand Divine Master Shou Xuan grew ever more frantic.

After a brief pause, Grand Divine Master Shou Hui’s eyes fixed on the severed arm within Ye Zhen’s silent chamber. “The assassin hasn’t been caught yet. With this arm, maybe our Heavenly Temple’s secret technique can trace the culprit…”

Grand Divine Master Shou Hui seized on this excuse for himself and reached out to grab that severed arm.

Suddenly, a streak of white light burst from Ye Zhen’s bosom, snatching the arm in its jaws.

Crunchy munching sounds followed, resembling beans popping one after another.