The golden-haired man screamed and yelled as spittle flew everywhere as he watched the black swallowing vortex inch closer and closer.
"Just kidding," Yang Qing teasingly said as he made the black vortex disappear when he was just a few inches away from the golden-haired man's face.
Thud!!
The golden-haired man collapsed on the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The whites of his eyes were showing. He had fainted before Yang Qing put away his fist.
"His mental fortitude is even weaker than the first-year students at the Institute.
Fellow daoist make sure you work on some spirit training exercises. You have a solid cultivation base but it doesn't mean a thing if you don't have the mind to make the most out of it," Yang Qing leisurely said.
Though it seemed like he was talking to himself since the golden-haired man wasn't in a state to hear or answer anything, him being unconscious and all.
"Hehehe I can't believe he really thought I'd kill him. I don't want to get sent to the Requiem to serve time plus I'm not sure I would have been able to, even if I decided to go through with it," Yang Qing meaningfully said as a wary and curious glint flashed in his eyes.
He could faintly feel a threat to his life the closer his fist got to the golden-haired man. If he really went through with the punch, he had no doubt some life protection mechanism within the golden-haired man would have retaliated in response to the threat.
Based on the intuition he was getting, he had no doubt it was a domain-level protection most likely left there by the golden-haired man's father.
"His father must be pretty powerful in the Golden Bamboo Pavilion ranks," Yang Qing said as dryly smiled at his mildly trembling hands.
Despite one-sidedly defeating three palace stage experts, he couldn't handle the threatening aura of a domain's intent.
"Well if he came, I can always run to the Order and bring old man Lei Weiyuan with me or ask for backup from the Order branch in Yellow Plain County. They should have a domain expert stationed there," Yang Qing thought as he went on to seal the cultivation base and the acupoints of the three palace realm cultivators.
He was just done sealing the base of the elderly man, who was the last person when he saw Ellie swoop in as she bashed her beak against the golden-haired man's already injured face.
Yang Qing could have sworn he heard something break.
"ELLIE!!! What are you doing? This isn't the time to act petty and cause trouble," Yang Qing angrily said as he punched her in the head.
"Luckily it's just a few fractures," Yang Qing silently muttered as he examined the fresh injuries caused by Ellie conveniently forgetting the mental blow and physical blows he had left on the golden-haired man.
Ellie screeched with an aggrieved expression at Yang Qing's hypocrisy as she rubbed her head with her wings.
"If you want payback, do it yourself. Breakthrough to the palace stage and seek him out. Don't beat him when he is unconscious. I have nothing against using unscrupulous means in a battle but not when he is like this.
Just who do you learn these petty habits of yours from? I think you need to undergo reeducation from the beast hall again, better yet, I will have Luo Meili do it," said Yang Qing as he chastised Ellie.
Ellie immediately flinched upon hearing Luo Meili's name that she kept making whimpering noises. But Yang Qing heard none of it. Since Ellie was part of his team whatever troubles she caused, he would be the one to incur it. He already had troublesome members and habits as it is, he didn't want to add more.
Yang Qing shook his head as he decided to push the matter to the back of his head until he got back to the Order. At the moment there were a few things he had to do which couldn't wait.
He took out two different talismans. One was the white jade recording talisman and the other was the communication talisman.
He quickly activated both of them.
The communication talisman quickly connected through.
"Yang Qing what do you want? Shouldn't you already be doing the evaluations? Are you slacking off?" Lei Weiyuan's voice sounded from the other end.
"I'm not, I promise, I'm not," Yang Qing hurriedly said trying to mask his guilt.
"So what's wrong?"
"I encountered three palace stage experts trying to steal Ellie so I gave them a beating. One of them is royalty from the Red Maple Empire while the other two are from the Golden Bamboo pavilion. I suspect one of them might be the son of one of the founders of the pavilion. He was also the prime instigator of all this," Yang Qing patiently explained the circumstances.
"What's their state? Are they dead, crippled, or..?"
"They are alive, though barely, but I haven't crippled them. They just have a few serious injuries that would take a few years to heal, that's all. Though I think the time will be shorter for the royalty from the Red Maple Empire. I wonder what kind of special physique they have…,"
"Yang Qing…" Lei Weiyuan interrupted.
"Hehehe sorry about that. I wanted to send a recording with my judgment. I deem the beating to be sufficient punishment for their actions with no further actions needed but that only applies to them trying to steal Ellie.
I would like to open an official investigation into the Red Maple Empire and also the member who I suspect is the son of one of the founders. They acted wantonly despite knowing Ellie was mine and my cultivation base. I have a feeling it's not the first time something like this has happened, especially with that scion of the Golden Bamboo Pavillion.
I would like the case and procedural investigation to be placed under my docket. But I don't know how that would work since even though that person is a palace stage expert, the Golden Bamboo pavilion is a rank 2 organization. I can't handle their cases yet," said Yang Qing.
He had a nagging feeling that the blood on the golden-haired man might not be small but his relationship with a potential domain expert father, complicated matters.