400: Overseeing all the heavens

"Pfft—!" As the supreme treasure of Yuqing Palace was destroyed, the Palace Mistress of Yuqing Palace, whose mind and soul were deeply entangled with the Luck of Yuqing Palace, suffered an unimaginable and devastating blow. She violently spat out a large mouthful of heart's blood containing her Origin Essence!

Her aura instantly withered like a deflating balloon, her face turned ashen, and even her Realm became faintly unstable! The gaze she directed at Time Without Trace was filled with boundless fear, resentment, and... a deep sense of powerlessness.

"No! Impossible! My heavenly sound zither! The very Foundation of Yuqing Palace!" She appeared as if she had gone mad.

"Foundation?" A flicker of cold mockery flashed in Time Without Trace's silver eyes. "You lot are short-sighted, failing to recognize a true phoenix and instead slandering her as a pheasant. Furthermore, you used despicable means to frame a meritorious contributor, performing such heartless and self-destructive acts. How are you even fit to speak of a Foundation?"

With one hand, he supported Bai Li, who was protected by Time Dao Laws and had fallen into a deep sleep; with the other hand, he slowly raised his palm. In his palm, a supreme token flowed with supreme time-space dao patterns and emitted a majesty that made everyone present tremble—the First Time Hall Dao Child Token of the Time-Space Divine Temple!

On the front of the token, the four ancient Seal script divine characters for "Time Without Trace" were dazzlingly bright, as if carved from solidified stars of time! On the back, a slowly rotating phantom of a sundial, which seemed capable of fixing the Major Thousand Worlds in place, emitted a supreme aura that transcended the Heavenly Dao!

"I am the First Dao Child of the First Time Hall of the Time-Space Divine Temple." His voice remained flat, yet it was like billions of time-space thunderclaps, striking hard against the Divine Soul of every living being!

"Time-Space Divine Temple?!" "The head of the Ten Supreme Divine Temples?!" "The First Dao Child?!"

These words were like a world-ending divine punishment, shocking everyone—including those Hunyuan Realm Old Ancestors who were barely standing—to the point that their souls nearly left their bodies!

The Palace Mistress of Yuqing Palace felt as if she had been struck by ten thousand bolts of lightning. Her body shook violently, and she nearly collapsed to the ground, her eyes filled only with boundless despair and deathly stillness!

The Time-Space Divine Temple! That was a colossus that stood above countless Major Thousand Worlds, a place that even the Three Thousand Dao Provinces of a Ten-Star Great World had to look up to!

The First Dao Child was a true favored son of heaven within the Temple, holding an incomparably venerable status! Offending them meant that not only Yuqing Palace, but the entire Xuanxiao Great World could face total annihilation!

"No... impossible! How could you be..." The Palace Mistress of Yuqing Palace was lost in soul and spirit, muttering to herself.

Time Without Trace ignored her. The sundial phantom on the token lit up slightly, and a stream of information was projected directly into the Void Realm, transforming into a massive light screen.

On the light screen, it clearly replayed how Elder Xuanyin had secretly arranged the Shadow-Tracing Profound Crystal, the scenes of her own contact with the Dark Abyss forces while forging footage of Bai Li contacting the Dark Abyss, and the entire process of bribing Disciples to give false testimony! There were even her greedy self-mutterings about secretly coveting the 'Ten Thousand Tribulations Green Wood Sacred Seed' and intending to take it for herself!

The evidence was as solid as a mountain! A chorus of gasps and angry curses immediately erupted across the square! Everyone understood now—this was a complete and utter despicable frame-up orchestrated by Elder Xuanyin!

"Slandering a fellow Sect member, framing the Saintess, and coveting a sacred object; that is the first crime," Time Without Trace's voice sounded like a heavenly decree.

"Forging evidence, desecrating palace rules, and disrupting the grand ceremony; that is the second crime."

"Colluding with external enemies and destabilizing the Realm; that is the third crime."

"Punishing the three crimes together, Xuanyin has already suffered the Tribulation of Temporal Order, her form and soul annihilated. However, as the Palace Mistress, you failed to investigate the truth, listened only to one side, failed to distinguish loyalty from treachery, and abused cruel punishments. You even personally stripped the Origin of a meritorious contributor, nearly causing a catastrophic error! This is the crime of negligence and lack of virtue! The entire Yuqing Palace failed in its oversight and assisted a villain; this is the crime of condonement and shielding!"

His words were like a cold gavel, striking the heart of everyone present.

"The Time-Space Divine Temple oversees the heavens and maintains order. Such a filthy place deserves divine punishment!" Time Without Trace's voice suddenly rose, carrying an unquestionable tone of judgment.

The moment his voice fell!

Rumble—!

The sky of the Piaomiao Realm was torn open without warning by an indescribable power, creating a massive rift that spanned the galaxy! Within the rift was not chaotic turbulence, but a brilliant sea of stars flowing with the endless River of Time!

A figure clad in a Star-Time Robe, with a blurred face and an aura more than a hundred times stronger than the Palace Mistress of Yuqing Palace, stepped out from the Sea of Time-Stars! The token hanging at his waist had the same patterns as the Dao Child Token in Trace-less's hand but was even more ancient and majestic, clearly inscribed with the two characters for 'Inspector'!

An Inspector of the Time-Space Divine Temple! He had descended!

The terrifying pressure was more vast, more orthodox, and more despair-inducing than the pressure from Time Without Trace just now! This was a powerful being who truly represented the will of the Time-Space Divine Temple!

The Inspector's gaze was like a physical sword of time, sweeping over the messy square, the ashen-faced Palace Mistress, and the trembling Elders and Disciples of Yuqing Palace kneeling on the ground. Finally, it landed on Time Without Trace. He bowed slightly, his voice as grand as a flood of time: "By the decree of the Time-Space Divine Temple, I inspect the myriad worlds. Dao Child Time, I am already fully aware of the matters here."

He turned to the Palace Mistress of Yuqing Palace, his voice cold and heartless: "Palace Mistress of Yuqing Palace, you lot framed an old friend of our Time-Space Divine Temple's First Dao Child and desecrated the dignity of the Temple, nearly causing an irreversible disaster! According to the 'Time-Space Divine Temple Overseeing Heavens Decree, Volume 7, Article 324', the Yuqing Palace of the Xuanxiao Great World is hereby stripped of its 'Holy Land Candidate' status and demoted to a Five-Star Sect! Eighty percent of the Sect's treasury resources are confiscated and turned over to the Time-Space Divine Temple! The involved Elders and Disciples, whose names shall be listed by Dao Child Time, will have their cultivation bases crippled and be cast into the 'Time Prison' to serve for ten thousand years! Palace Mistress Mo Yunxin is removed from her position, her cultivation base is sealed, and she shall serve in the military for one hundred thousand years! Let this be a warning to others!"

The ultimate judgment! Stripping of Holy Land status! The Palace Mistress deposed! Resources confiscated! Core Disciples cast into the Time Prison!

This verdict was like the final death knell, completely shattering the last mental defenses of the Palace Mistress, Mo Yunxin!

She collapsed to the ground with a thud, her face ashen. No longer possessing any of the majesty of a Peak Hunyuan Realm expert, she was left with only endless regret and despair.

The accumulation of millions of years of Yuqing Palace and the hope of ascending to a Seven-Star Sect were completely destroyed by a single wrong thought! She herself had become a prisoner!

"No... Lord Envoy! I am wronged! I..." She still wanted to struggle.

"Noisy." The Inspector pointed indifferently, and a chain of time instantly wrapped around Mo Yunxin, completely sealing all her cultivation and binding her in place like a marionette.

"Dao Child Time, this woman's Origin is damaged and her Divine Soul is unstable. You may take her back to the Temple's 'Time Origin Pool' for recuperation." The Inspector looked at Bai Li in Time Without Trace's arms.

"My thanks, Inspector."

The Inspector said no more, taking the bound Mo Yunxin and stepping into the void rift, disappearing from sight.

Time Without Trace watched the Inspector leave, his silver eyes once again sweeping over the silent crowd below, who were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Those representatives of forces who had previously shouted to "slay the traitor" now wished they could bury their heads in the ground.

"The crimes of Yuqing Palace have been adjudicated by the Temple. As for the rest of you..." His gaze was like a cold bone-scraping knife, "fend for yourselves."

Without another word, he stepped out with Bai Li.

Swoosh—!

Time and space rippled like a water curtain, and his figure instantly vanished from the spot as if he had never appeared.

All that remained was the shattered altar, solidified bloodstains, the ashes of Xuanyin, the crippled Disciples of Yuqing Palace, the fragments of the heavenly sound zither that had become complete trash, and the countless people on the square kneeling and trembling in absolute terror.