Chapter 405 Opening Pandora's Box

"It seems that this box has brought trouble to this honored hall, then lady should we just retract it from here, we already have another gift for his lordship," Servant Mao said.

He clearly knew that opening the box was no good, even if he didn't know why, he felt that it would cause problems so might as well just remove it entirely and then offer something else. He could then make a full background check on the prisoner and understand better who that person is.

Usually, these acolytes always work alone and at best they'll have a few followers of their own, they never join any of the forces of the Vast Expanse since they are all despised by all of the forces.

Du Shen had caused too much grief for any of the forces of the Vast Expanse to ever want to deal with his descendants or followers.

"They say you can't look a gift horse in the mouth," Zhang Tian said, "Open it," he said.

"Lord!" the servant said as he tried to intervene, but the woman in white seemed to be annoyed.

"Just open it, Lord Zhang Tian said so, why are you hesitating?!" she said.

In Servant Mao's head, he thought of slapping the princess in the face not out of anger but out of fear for her life and how her mouth was actually causing agitation. Zhang Tian's shivering hand seemed to shudder now. It was clear at the point of erupting. And it was now clear as day that the opening of this box will cause calamity.

Yet there was no way out of this situation. Everyone was staring at them, and they were in a rough spot.

Servant Mao approached the box and dragged open the frontal wall of the cube.

It revealed a person that was pinned by eight Soul Sealing Stakes. An overkill of a tool to subdue someone that was below the Ascendant Realm.

The Soul Sealing Stakes were tools that could even harm a King Class cultivator, and using nine of them on a sub-ascendant cultivator was nothing but a mind-crippling device.

It was clear from the dead eyes of this person, this was no longer a person it was nothing but a mindless living body.

From the look of the emaciated and weakened person. The injuries that healed over and over again, and the innumerable scars on his body. And how weak he looked. This person seemed to have been caught and tortured for a long period of time. It wasn't even enough with the Soul Sealing Stakes they even tortured him brutally. What could he have committed to having suffered such a fate?

Yet, how is this a gift for the prince of the wind realm? This is nothing but a revolting and stomach-turning appellation. Not even Devil Cultivators deserve this much agony.

Master Rain was not looking at anyone but the king and thus he nodded. His nod was only understood by the king himself as he immediately arrived at his wife's side and lightly pressed the back of her neck.

No one seemed to understand why the King would cause his own wife to faint.

Lord Zhang Tian seemed to have not a single trace of emotion on his face.

Seeing no one speaking Xuan Su spoke up to explain the situation with all gleefulness.

"Though this might be a shocking sight, my Servant had done a great job," she said.

"Lady! Please don't!" the servant said pleading with her to shut up, but she didn't take the hint.

"This is an acolyte of the Poison God that vile creature, I had come to meet him when I was journeying the world, I arrived at an ancient cave along a company of my people, and he was there alongside another vile one of these acolytes, he was a horrible person he caused many griefs to everyone in that raid and we almost died to his hands and his vile methods. But thanks to my wit in calling my Servant to my aid, I managed to survive, though many of the disciples of the other realms have probably perished. So I had my servant capture him and have him tortured for five consecutive years. And now I present to you a disciple of your most hated enemy the Poison God," she said.

Her words ended in a light bow as if she was waiting for a compliment from Zhang Tian, but seeing that nothing of the sort had come, she felt that something was wrong, did she not explain enough?

"Lies." The words were spoken when everyone in the room was far too focused and quiet so they resounded everywhere.

Xuan Su immediately snapped to the person who spoke.

It was one of the girls that arrived alongside Master Rain, no one had paid her any attention, since all eyes were focused on Master Rain, yet the moment Xuan Su saw that girl she clicked her tongue.

The woman was Yuyu, some of the people in the Wind Realm knew her since she was here several times in the past. She had been mentored by one of the Queen's personal maids and now she seemed to have come back with Master Rain.

The woman then threw a jade in the air, the jade shone bright and revealed a memory display of everything that had happened back in the Cave of Roshi Zhe at the planet Dalou.

Everyone saw a person who seemed to be having trouble even moving doing their best to assist everyone, he even took control of the situation and aided the disciples to escape from a poison cultivator that seemed to have infiltrated the cave.

He led them, saved them and even helped them escape the poison cultivator and the corpse that seemed to be a degraded King Class cultivator. Not only that even after escaping, they were surrounded by the Poison Cultivator's followers, and he still managed to turn the situation around using the abilities of the Ascendant Cultivators that trapped them in a formation, then at the same time applied a powerful poison and flames that he then used to refine that very corpse into a pill.

A young man that seemed to be clearly below the Ascendant Realm had managed to subdue a King Class corpse. If anyone were to hear of such an exploit they'll think of it as nothing but the ramblings of some crazed man, yet they saw it clearly with their eyes. Not only that, he also managed to escape the hunt of servant Mao, even if he was captured at the end he aided the rest in escaping.

Xuan Su was annoyed by the woman who revealed her 'white lie' yet everyone present seemed to realize that that person trapped in that box was the same person who had aided many of the heirs and disciples of all of the four palaces in escaping certain death from that corpse.

Still...

"So what? He is still a follower of the Poison God, no matter how skilled he is," Xuan Su said.

"Indeed," Zhang Tian said.

And these were his first words since a long while, "Indeed you're right, he is the follower of the Poison God," he said.

Only then did Xuan Su realize that something was wrong.

Why would anyone care about a follower of the Poison God? Why would Master Rain even come here, something was wrong.

Lord Zhang Tian then approached Xuan Su his hand gently rose up toward her cheek.

She seemed to be at the epitome of ecstasy as Lord Zhang Tian's blessed hand was about to touch her.

Yet his hand went closer and closer to her neck until he grabbed her.

"Of all the people in the world," he said as his hand was slowly tightening on her neck.

"You had to capture, and torture, the only person," he said.

"L-lord... it hurts," she said as she struggled.

"Who aided me in my time of need, who enlightened me to knowledge unknown, who helped redefine my Dao!," he said as his hand seemed to squeeze harder.

The woman then seemed to realize her blunder.

As soon as Lord Zhang Tian spoke those words a pressure akin to a dam bursting open shot down upon everyone in the room.

"YOU DARE! HARM MY SWORN BROTHER!" he spoke.

These words were enough to cause the entire palace to tremble and shake, even collapse if it wasn't for Master Rain's barrier everyone from cultivator to mortal that was below the ascendant stage would have perished.

"Zhang..."

The words were spoken from the voice of a person who no one seemed to even believe to be alive.

Zhang Tian's hand loosened on the neck of the nearly dead woman as his eyes snapped to the box.

Looking at the man, there was a light grin on his face. The empty dead eyes of the almost corpse-like person were no more and the eyes of a man that didn't seem to have lost a shred of hope nor had fallen to madness were there.

"Seems like you still care about ol me," that man spoke. He then, as if t was nothing shook, and all the Soul Sealing Stakes seemed to fall down from him, one by one.

"I-impossible, how can a cultivator below the Ascendant Realm even remove those?!" someone spoke.

Walking forward, the man with so many injuries took a breath.

"That was fucking annoying," he said, he then turned to Servant Mao and the woman who seemed to have seen a ghost.

The man looked down on both the servant and the woman who was shuddering and shaking from utter fright. His green luminous eyes were present for all to see, that this man had never lost an ounce of his sanity. Along with a wide grin that seemed to deride the world itself.

"Now, you didn't expect this plot twist, did you?"