143: Chapter 143 I'll just laugh it off, what are you laughing at?

Xie Feng stood up, leaning on his cold crystal blind staff, and patted the dust off his robe.

The square was littered with people lying every which way, both Imperial Guards and Cultivators, but he was the only one still able to stand.

Tu Ziguan had passed out, leaning against the steps of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, a faint trace of a smile still lingering at the corner of his mouth.

Lu Mingyuan sat cross-legged in place with his eyes closed and his breathing steady, but Xie Feng knew this person had already logged off.

Xie Feng estimated that Lu Mingyuan would only log back on and reclaim his account once The King in Yellow disappeared.

Brain Matter poked half its body out from between his eyebrows, its three mouths simultaneously emitting a faint, delicate hissing sound as if clearing their throats, before it began to speak, its tone carrying an irrepressible excitement after just watching a grand drama.

Insects from Shaggai were born madmen, and it had successfully participated in this iconic scene just now.

Brain Matter was extremely excited right now.

"Xie Feng, did you know?! I just tallied it up; the Peak negative emotions of all the Cultivators present completely shattered my personal sampling record.

I just knew I didn't follow the wrong person!

The moment you shouted 'Brother Huang', the Sect Master of Taixuan Sect's fear value skyrocketed to a number I've never seen before—though I don't know how much that is—and that grey-robed Elder you turned into moss is still continuously and steadily outputting fear signals while unconscious..."

"Brain Matter," Xie Feng scratched his ear, "turn off the recording function."

"Alright, I'll shut up."

Brain Matter immediately retracted its body, leaving only its two forelegs clinging to the edge of his brow, its mouthparts still twitching ever so slightly as if suppressing its desire to express itself.

The powerful Cultivators present looked at Xie Feng as if they were looking at a ghost.

Was this what a righteous Cultivator was supposed to look like?!

Xie Feng walked over to the Sect Master of Taixuan Sect and squatted down.

The Sect Master at the Peak of the Seventh Realm was pressed face-down against the bluestone slabs, a bright yellow light membrane still lingering on his body, locking his spiritual power tightly. His lips moved, and he squeezed out a few words with extreme difficulty:

"Fiend... Exactly who are you..."

Huh? Who are you calling a fiend?

Dressed in a black robe with a bizarre insect crawling out from his forehead and its two forelegs gripping his brow, Xie Feng looked at the Sect Master with great displeasure.

Look at how righteous I look, aside from the Brain Matter on my forehead, the three shattered eyes, the mouth on my left hand, and the hollow hole in my chest.

Where does that not look like a righteous Cultivator?

Xie Feng laid the cold crystal blind staff across his knees, looking down at him from above.

"My name is Xie Feng. An Inner Sect Disciple of Qingyun Sect, holding an honorary third-rank official title personally conferred by Emperor Zhou Weixi, the sixteenth Emperor. Standing before you... No, the one who has fainted before you is The Tenth Emperor, Zhou Shudan. He is my boss's ancestor."

Xie Feng smiled slightly.

"Before you came to force the abdication, did you check what was enshrined in the imperial palace? Did you check why the Emperor's dragon robe is black? You dared to come without investigating anything at all. You're hundreds of years old, yet you do things so carelessly."

The Sect Master glanced at Xie Feng, his eyes revealing unwillingness and the look of someone gazing at an idiot.

"I, a dignified seventh-realm Cultivator, actually had my plans disrupted by a madman. What a joke."

No... You fu—

Xie Feng furrowed his brows. Who are you calling a madman? Everything I said was the truth, alright?!

He slammed his blind staff against the ground, stood up, and turned to walk toward several sixth-realm Elders still sprawled on the ground, tapping the tip of his staff against the back of each person's head with a light force—just enough to sink them another half-inch deeper into the bright yellow light membrane.

"Which of you just called me a masked freak? Which of you said my Cultivation Technique was disgusting? And who was it that drafted those fifteen new policies in the council chamber? You're all still alive, right?"

His tone was extremely casual, as if greeting old friends, but every strike of the staff landed precisely on those people's most prideful foreheads.

A sixth-realm Elder was struck three times before finally failing to hold back and bursting into curses:

"Demonic Daoist! You think you can walk out of the imperial city alive?!"

No, you bastards, I'm clearly a righteous Cultivator!!

Xie Feng was genuinely pissed off.

This group of Cultivators went around kicking down widows' doors and digging up childless graves every single day.

Just because he looked like a person, they could curse him as a demonic daoist?!

I might just look a little terrifying, but I'm beast-faced and kind-hearted, alright?!

Xie Feng turned back, bending over to lean in close to him.

"What can you do to me?"

Xie Feng slammed his blind staff against the golden brick beside the Elder's head, sinking the tip half an inch into it.

The Elder's lips were still trembling, but all his curses were stuck in his throat.

He walked to the back row, standing before the grey-robed Elder who had been driven mad by the manifestation of fear.

Xie Feng squatted down to look at him for a moment, and told Brain Matter to wash away his memories of tonight—not too much, just wash away the specific scenes of The King in Yellow's descent, making him only remember that he was given a beating without remembering who beat him.

Xie Feng was by no means a bleeding-heart do-gooder; it was just that madmen couldn't undergo punishment, and subsequent interrogations had to be handled by the emperor's professionals. If this old bastard had also committed any heinous deeds, he would still suffer terribly.

Brain Matter acknowledged with a sound, silently sliding out from between his eyebrows to tunnel into the Elder's ear, burrowing back out after a few breaths and shaking its head.

"Done. He now only remembers being sent flying by a pack of wild boars."

Xie Feng was momentarily stunned.

"I told you to make it so he was beaten up, what did you turn it into wild boars for?"

"Wild boars also count as beating someone up, and being beaten up by wild boars is even more humiliating, generating higher negative emotions."

Xie Feng fell silent for a moment.

"Brain Matter, you truly are a Genius. We'll slowly analyze those recorded fear Peaks when we get back. Thank you for your hard work today."

Brain Matter contentedly rolled over inside his brain, comfortably rubbing its chitinous shell against the floor of the lateral ventricle, and let out a deeply satisfied, lazy purr.

"Not hard at all, not hard at all! It felt so good, it was basically like an all-you-can-eat buffet."

In the square, the light membrane of The King in Yellow was slowly dissipating, and the bright yellow crack across the firmament was now reduced to an extremely thin and faint line.

On the distant palace walls, Imperial Guards and remaining imperial retainers were helping their own people who could still stand onto stretchers. Several white-haired old retainers sat down against the stone pillars of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the dust whisks in their hands still trembling slightly.

The Sect Master of Taixuan Sect lay flat on the ground, his cheek pressed against the bluestone slab, his voice finally growing hoarse and exhausted.

"What on earth do you want..."

"I want you to remember one thing." Xie Feng stood up, his blind staff tapping against the bluestone floor, and turned around to face all the Cultivators still sprawled across the square.

The hem of his robe swayed slightly in the night wind, and while his veil hid his face, it could not hide the undisguised smugness and exhilaration in his voice.

"This imperial city—was built by the Old Ancestor of Your Majesty, our family's boss.

Having only been on the throne for a short time, he can already make the Imperial Guards and retainers shield him in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, make the commoners wait for his return at the resettlement camps outside the city, and make an honorary third-rank Inner Sect Disciple of the Qingyun Sect from hundreds of years in the future fight battles for him.

That Qi of his is something you couldn't cultivate even after practicing for hundreds of years.

In the hundreds of years to come, when the sixteenth emperor ascends the throne, he will be even stronger than Zhou Shudan.

Because he is my boss."

Xie Feng slammed his blind staff against the ground and turned to walk toward the Hall of Supreme Harmony. After taking a few steps, he stopped, tilted his head, and spoke in a tone that was extremely calm yet extremely resolute.

"If you don't want to get beaten up again in the future, remember one thing well.

The Emperor is a Mortal.

A Mortal sitting on the dragon throne does not owe you anything.

The offerings you eat every year allocated by the imperial court—it's not the Mortals supporting the Cultivators; it's the Cultivators relying on the Mortals to survive.

Did you remember that?"

As Xie Feng spoke, he completely destroyed the Meridians of all the powerful Cultivators present, leaving them unable to repair them in the short term or circulate their spiritual power.

"Hahaha hahahaha hahaha."

"Hahaha."

Xie Feng laughed wildly and arrogantly, the laughter of Nyarlathotep in his ears intertwining with his own.

Wait a minute... That's not right!