"Heaven and earth have no limits, heaven and earth borrow laws.
Heaven's secrets are hard to predict, human hearts are hard to predict. We use the heart of heaven to predict human traces.
Heaven's secrets trace back to their origin - Open!"
Outside the Eagle Hall, Yang Jian only heard a complex incantation, and a white light flashed.
Then time seemed to stand still.
Yang Jian could actually see the sunlight, beam by beam, shooting towards him.
It felt like an instant, and yet like an eternity, before the light began to move again.
The world also started to function normally.
"Yang Jian, pass down the order, gather everyone in the palace. I want to check them one by one."
Just as Yang Jian was still in a daze, the emaciated old man walked out. He looked weak and on the verge of death.
Before Yang Jian could speak, he saw the burly men from before also emerge.
However, they had all lost a significant amount of weight and still looked sickly.
If they were Schwarzenegger before, they were now at most Donnie Yen.
The change was too drastic.
"Did you hear? Go quickly."
Seeing Yang Jian still stunned, the emaciated old man shouted loudly.
"Ah~ Oh~ I know, I'll go gather them now."
Yang Jian finally came to his senses and used his Phantom Steps to disappear quickly, going to find people.
He knew that the burly men had become like this because their vitality had been drained by the white light.
Clearly, the white light before was extraordinary.
"Elder Yuan, aren't you going to rest for a bit?"
After Yang Jian left, a relatively sturdy middle-aged man supported the tottering, emaciated old man.
"Alas, I cannot rest. You all saw what happened when the origin of the heavens was traced. Although Yuan Shoucheng was bewitched by that vixen and his entire vital essence was drained, causing his death,
there was still a faint presence at the scene. If this presence is not found, I fear there will be great trouble.
I fear the great tribulation of heaven and earth is about to begin."
"Even so, Elder, you need to rest a little."
Saying this, the middle-aged man suddenly produced a grand tutor's chair and helped the old man sit down.
The old man did not refuse and, after sitting, took out some pills and swallowed them.
The quality of the people in the palace was quite high. In just the time it takes for a cup of tea to steep, guards and palace maids began to arrive for inspection.
The methods of cultivators were mysterious and unpredictable.
Everyone lined up and walked past a mirror about a zhang wide. Two to four people could be checked in the time it takes for one breath.
Those who were generally fine were allowed to leave directly.
Those who were deemed problematic by these cultivators would be questioned individually.
If their answers satisfied them, they would pass. If there were still issues,
they would be directly annihilated.
An annihilation that left no trace, not even dust!
Fortunately, very few people were annihilated in this manner.
Yang Hong and everyone from the Pavilion of Unheeded Admonitions had been notified.
While waiting in line, they heard that someone had been annihilated by the celestial beings.
The mirror itself was also rumored to be miraculous.
Everyone discussed with both excitement and apprehension,
thinking about how they had always been diligent, kind, loving, scorned the poor and loved the rich, were greedy for money and lustful...
Cough, cough, in short, everyone was a good person, better than everyone else.
They were sure they wouldn't be annihilated.
Listening to them, Yang Hong also began to worry. He had many big secrets.
Would he be discovered in front of that mirror?
With a heart full of apprehension, Yang Hong arrived before an old man and ten cultivators whose auras were at or above the Fusion stage.
"No, you can go down."
The old man merely glanced at the mirror, shook his head faintly, and waved him away.
Just like that?
Yang Hong was dumbfounded. Standing in front of the mirror, he had felt as if he had been stripped naked and examined from head to toe.
It felt as if even the few hairs on his body were displayed on the mirror.
While he was marveling and thinking, "This is the otherworldly version of an X-ray machine."
He had passed so easily.
This left Yang Hong, who had been prepared to expose his secrets, stunned.
"Still not going?"
A burly man, seeing Yang Hong dazed, said in a cold tone.
His eyes were filled with disdain.
"Heh heh, I'm going, I'm going."
Yang Hong put on a fawning smile and left quickly.
He didn't want to linger. If any of his secrets were discovered, he would be in danger.
Afterwards, Song Yu Zhi and the others also passed easily.
Although their displayed Grandmaster cultivation during the inspection made the emaciated old man's eyes gleam,
after examining the mirror, he lost interest when he realized it wasn't the person he was looking for.
In the Divine Continent where he was from, the Grandmaster realm was the most basic threshold for a sixteen-year-old to participate in a sect's introductory assessment.
The youngest among Song Yu Zhi and the others, Jia Yuan Chun, was already thirty years old, and Song Yu Zhi was thirty-one.
There was no value in cultivating them.
Moreover, he had more important tasks to attend to.
However, the old man did notice that the younger generation of the Sui Dynasty seemed to be on the rise, with a large number of royal descendants and relatives having excellent martial arts cultivation.
"You are all out, good. Let's go back."
Seeing that everyone from the Pavilion of Unheeded Admonitions, including the eunuch Old Wang, had come out completely, Yang Hong breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he didn't know what abilities the old man's mirror possessed, it was always good that his secrets hadn't been discovered.
Afterward, Yang Hong heard that in over a day, everyone in the entire palace had been inspected, including newborns.
During this period, a total of sixty-nine people died, including five infant princes less than a year old.
He truly didn't know by what standard these cultivators killed people.
And on what grounds did they kill?
Infants less than a year old, who knew nothing, were killed just like that!
Perhaps it was just because they were in a bad mood.
Who knew.
In any case, to these cultivators, mortals were perhaps even less than ants.
The next day, the emaciated old man, along with his ten subordinates, flew away.
They departed in a flying boat that could travel in the sky.
Before leaving, the emaciated old man summoned Yang Jian.
This made Yang Jian extremely excited and incredibly proud.
Because the emaciated old man gave Yang Jian a pill that extended his lifespan by ten years, as a reward for his years of managing the Sui Dynasty.
However, the emaciated old man also left Yang Jian with a message, urging him to govern with diligence and love for the people, and to manage the Sui Dynasty well.
The cultivators left, and Yang Hong, while relieved, was completely bewildered.
He didn't know what these celestial sect cultivators were doing.
Judging by their actions, it didn't seem like they were investigating the cause of Old Daoist Yuan's death.
But it was hard to say.
Under such doubt, Yang Hong didn't dare to open the storage bags of the three female cultivators from before.
He waited for a full month. He heard from Yang Zhong that the cultivators had gone to the Tang, Wu Zhou, Song, and Ming dynasties.
Moreover, they had killed tens of thousands more people in these four dynasties!
Hearing this number, Yang Hong found it unbelievable.
Since he possessed merit, this world must have cause and effect, and there must be the concept of karma.
Cultivators would not casually kill people and increase their karma.
Perhaps there were demonic cultivators who killed indiscriminately, but they would certainly have their reasons for doing so.
The emaciated old man's group might have killed people in other dynasties, but surely not many.
Only at this point did Yang Hong confirm that those cultivators had truly left.
Cautious Yang Hong waited for a few more days. It wasn't until the night of the fifteenth of the seventh month that he dug out the three storage bags from the mud.
"Heh heh, I hope to find something valuable, otherwise it would be a waste of my patience for so long."