Even if Feng Baxing had done crimes against the Temple of the Four Guardians as well as the Empire, his punishment wouldn't have been the crippling of his cultivation.
At the very least, it wouldn't be done immediately.
Regardless of his actions, he was still a prince of the Dao Wind Empire and they needed to follow the rules and regulations. The only person who was qualified to punish him without consequences would be his father, the Emperor himself.
As much as Feng Shun and High Elder Juxue would have wanted to do the same, they knew to hold back. Plus there were still lifesaving treasure and a ward on him that would protect him from fatal harm like that.
But much to their surprise, they were simply useless.
Whatever the colossal cloud serpent had done was bypassing all defenses and restrictions.
"Give him Qi freezing pill and a Vital overflow pill!" High Elder Juxue ordered, knowing that the situation was grave.
Even if Feng Baxing were to be sentenced to death later, it couldn't be right now. He would first have to be judged by the temple and the emperor.
It wasn't just because of the rules either. Instead, it was to learn more about Feng Baxing's condition and the choices he had made.
Having been part of the Temple of the Four Guardians for so long as well as having experienced several worlds and people, High Elder Juxue knew there was something wrong— Something that they were missing.
The High Elder was highly suspicious of the way that Feng Baxing had behaved. Even if the chances were low, he simply couldn't let the man die this easily.
'If there is someone else behind this… they would have played the Empires and the Temple… the Rust Sky world's powers will be a joke in the Immortal Court.' High Elder Juxue hadn't forgotten the interference of the other powers as well as diviners that they had suspected.
If there was even a fraction of a percent's chance that they might have been involved in this, it had to be investigated.
~SHUA~ SHUA~
The healers quickly got to work and fed Feng Baxing two pills before trying to manually stabilize his Qi. With his meridians destroyed they would have to personally control the flow of Qi.
Another issue they had was that with his cultivation base being effectively crippled, there was a high chance his body would start to deteriorate. As such they needed to maintain a certain amount of Qi in the man's body.
While they did all this, a certain thought appeared in the mind of Feng Shun.
"Why has… Father not arrived yet?" Feng Shun said out loud. 'Even if he didn't come when the Imperial Might Talisman was activated, he should have still come with the appearance of the colossal cloud snake…' he thought.
It was simply impossible that the Emperor wouldn't react to something this severe in the capital. Feng Shun and High Elder Juxue didn't know who could do something like this in the Rust Sky world, but they knew for sure the person who had done that was not an immortal.
'No Immortal… even a Transcendent would be able to do this. It is the work of a Celestial… and since they only acted when Mu Lin was about to be killed it seems like they are backing him up." High Elder Juxue thought, which was very close to the reality.
'Was that Mu Lin's master who did that?' Feng Shun knew a bit more about Lin Mu and that he had a master behind him.
Seeing this now made him aware of just how strong of a backing that was.
Unfortunately, what he didn't know was the fact that the master hadn't even acted out against Feng Baxing. It was someone else entirely. And the reason why the Emperor hadn't appeared yet was because he had been restrained high above the Rust Sky world!
Even if the man wanted to, he simply couldn't move. He along with the other top experts of the Rust Sky World, were being squeezed helplessly like worms.
"Ugh! Let us go!" One of the elders that was in the group shouted in a mix of fear and anger.
He had never been treated like this as he was the ancestor of an old clan that had existed for tens of thousands of years.
Hearing his shout though, the three emperors knew just what kind of mistake he had made.
~CRACK~CRACK~CRACK~
In the next moment, the old elder who had spoken up felt his chest collapse inward. Blood tried to burst out but was pulled back into his chest with a great force.
~POP!~
But that was merely the start as the rest of his body also started to shrink into his chest. His arms turned inward and were sucked into his torso, before the same happened with his legs.
The old ancestor's head was the last to go, leaving him to watch all that happened to him in horror.
~poof~
Then in the next second, his entire body disappeared into a tiny hole that had appeared in the space he was in before.
The emperors and all other immortal experts looked at the small black dot in horror, only a few understanding what had happened. They tried to lean away from it as much as possible even in the small confined space. They all knew even coming close to it meant absolute death.
"S-spatial… Spatial Erasure…" The Holy Topaz Emperor muttered in shock having recognized the terrifying spatial skill that only a few were capable of using. 'Peak Celestial? No… more…'
"HUMPH!" After that a prideful and utterly domineering harrumph was heard, that made all the experts cough out blood.
~COUGH~COUGH~COUGH~
The top experts of the Rust Sky World felt their Qi flow backwards while their hearts shook with pain.
~shua~
But perhaps it was their fortune that this seemed to be the last punishment. Their bodies became free again and the small black dot also disappeared.
The large Spatial Tear in which the ten golden yellow eyes could be seen also closed up, leaving only a few small ones open. But even those were starting to slowly close, the Rust Sky World attempting to repair the Spatial Fabric.
"We… We're free again?"
"It let us go!?"
They almost couldn't believe they had survived this. Though the relief was momentary for them as Emperor Feng had more concerning things to worry about.
"The Capital!" Emperor Feng said before flying down.
The Holy Topaz Emperor and the Huiqing Emperor looked at each other for a moment before following behind. The other top experts though were a lot more hesitant and only a few decided to go check.
The rest of them were far too terrified and wanted nothing more to return to their homes and dive deep into the ground to recover. They had received far too much of a shock, and the trauma would be lasting.
It wouldn't be surprising if they also developed heart demons from this encounter.
~SHUA~SHUA~SHUA~SHUA~
A short while later, just when Feng Baxing was being treated, the Emperors arrived.
"Father!" Feng Shun felt his father's presence and called out.
The Emperor didn't say anything though and instead took a deep look at the scene. Feng Shun and High Elder Juxue couldn't help but notice the state of the emperor.
Not only were his robes in a disarray, a trail of blood was also dripping from the corner of his mouth. Not to mention, the man's usually imposing royal aura was also gone.
"Father… what happened…" Feng Shun couldn't believe the state his father was in.
But this was only until he heard the shouts of others.
"That's the Huiqing Emperor!"
"And the Holy Topaz Emperor!"
"There's even the Ancestor of the Twin River Clan!"
The people in the audience recognized the big shots of the Rust Sky World.
"But wait… why are they all looking unwell?"
"Unwell? They look injured too." The people commented, finding it hard to believe.
But regardless of what they thought, the reality was already set.
Normally the emperors wouldn't have tolerated comments like this, but right now they couldn't even pay attention to that. All of them were actually sensing the traces of energies that had been left behind along with the Dao Traces and Dao Insights that could still be felt.
"It really is that… but why is it still different?" Emperor Feng immediately realized that the being that had restrained them and the one who had done the damage here were different.
"We're dealing with not one… but two Celestials?" Huiqing Emperor's expression darkened.
"Why would they even interfere here?" The Holy Topaz Emperor was lacking information about Mu Lin and was not able to tell.
"Why you ask? Do you not see that kid still standing?" The Huiqing emperor pointed with his eyes.
The Holy Topaz Emperor noticed Lin Mu who was standing there with a relatively calm expression. As if all that had happened didn't faze him at all.
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