Hell Emperor.

Chapter 624 Ye Jie - Peacock Feather
After hearing the information from Kanishka, Ye Jie also became interested:
"Oh? The blood of the Ming King Peacock? It seems that person has indeed caused the King a lot of trouble. I will take care of him."

After receiving Ye Jie's assurance, Kanishka was overjoyed. Even the Yama Emperor had died at his hands, and no one was his match. He thought that the supervising general would soon regret his actions.

After some polite exchanges, Ye Jie learned the location of the general at the river mouth and set off.

During the journey, Ye Jie's gaze couldn't help but fall on the Book of Life and Death in his arms.

Previously in the Heavenly Court, in order to improve his cultivation, Ye Jie successively advanced to the rank of Celestial Official. Now he is a Heavenly King at the peak of the sixth rank. He missed several opportunities to obtain the power of Celestial Official. Now that he can live in peace, he naturally wants to find a way to get all the power.

The powers of celestial officials are unique strengths bestowed by the heavens, and some of their special effects can still have a good effect even in a duel between nine-turn immortals.

As Ye Jie's thoughts stirred, lines of text appeared on the Book of Life and Death:

The following are the celestial official ranks that can be promoted to:

[Peacock King: A majestic figure in the Dharma realm, revered by all directions. Minimum rank is the early stage of the seventh level of the primordial stage; advancement requires 5700 primordial stages of merit or one peacock feather.]

【True Lord Yisheng: He upholds the laws of Heaven and patrols the land to investigate faults. The minimum rank is mid-stage of the seventh rank. Advancement requires 1700 rank merits or one divine bird feather.】

[Demon-Slaying Celestial Venerable: The Nine Heavens Demons Dissipate, the Eight Desolations Calm. Minimum rank required: Late Seventh Reincarnation. Advancement requires 5,000 Seventh Reincarnation Merit Points or a Seven-Star Divine Sword.]

Seeing the impending promotion in his mind, Ye Jie couldn't help but nod secretly.

As fate would have it, Ye Jie's upcoming promotion to Peacock King required peacock feathers, so Kanishka's decision to hire him to deal with the supervising general who had Peacock King blood flowing through his veins was indeed a wise one.

What Ye Jie cared about even more was that advancing to the rank of Yisheng Zhenjun also required the use of divine bird feathers. Who said that the peacock wasn't a divine bird? If this trend continued, wouldn't Ye Jie be able to advance to two ranks in a row if he could obtain peacock feathers?

Besides the promotion to the celestial official position, Ye Jie remembered that the magic weapon Tianming wanted to forge also lacked the Mingwang Peacock Feather as a core material.

This discovery immediately piqued Ye Jie's interest. It was a win-win-win situation. Even without Kanishka's request, Ye Jie would have taken the initiative to approach the supervising general. Now that he had Kanishka's help, he had a legitimate reason to ask for it, which was perfect.

Following the directions given by Kanishka, Ye Jie traveled along the river and soon saw a great, surging river in the distance.

The river flows swiftly and endlessly, appearing magnificent and boundless from afar. The river sand shimmers with a golden light, creating a breathtaking scene.

According to Kanishka, this river is closely related to the origin of the cultivators of this continent. It can be said that without this river, there would be no such people. The river water contains vast spiritual power, and mortals who drink it can prolong their lives. Therefore, it is called the Mother River.

The supervising general that Ye Jie was going to deal with was the one who controlled the rich region of the river. With the abundant spiritual energy in the river accelerating his cultivation, he should not be easy to deal with.

In the distance, the outline of the town slowly emerged. Ye Jie entered it, and his Xuan Ying Step, a Dao-level technique, was activated at high speed. The people in the town did not even notice anything, only feeling a sudden, inexplicable breeze blowing from afar.

Inside the grand palace in the town center, many highly skilled experts gathered to drink and celebrate the progress they had made during this period.

"Emperor Yan should have abdicated long ago. Handing the Kushan Empire over to him will only lead to chaos!"

"That's right! We have defeated the other two treacherous supervisory generals and firmly occupied the Mother River basin. With the vast spiritual power in this river, complete victory is just around the corner!"

"We have made such progress thanks to the wise leadership of King Peacock. He will surely be able to carry on the legacy of the wise kings of the past and make the Kushan Kingdom great and prosperous!"

All eyes were drawn to a handsome man in a white robe in the middle of the banquet. He was none other than the Peacock King that everyone was talking about.

Not long ago, with the Yama Emperor in charge, the so-called Peacock King was just an ordinary supervising general, no different from other generals. It wasn't until he suddenly heard the news of the Yama Emperor's death that he realized the opportunity had come. He called himself the Peacock King and prepared to seize the throne.

As everyone toasted him, the Peacock King was about to speak when his gaze suddenly sharpened.

During the banquet, there seemed to be a completely unfamiliar face. No one knew when he had arrived or who he was. He stood there, yet he seemed not to be there at all. He had no aura whatsoever. If one did not observe carefully, one would not even be able to tell that there was a person standing there.

The appearance of that person made the Peacock King feel uneasy. The person who could get past the layers of guards and appear in front of him was no ordinary person, and he was afraid that the visitor had ill intentions.

"Who are you? How did you get here?"

The Peacock King's history left everyone looking at each other in bewilderment. Turning around, they saw Ye Jie standing behind them.

"So you're the one with the blood of the Myo-wang Peacock flowing through your veins? Lend me a peacock feather!"

Ye Jie spoke slowly, but his words carried an undeniable air of authority.

"You dare!"

"Who gave you permission to speak to the Peacock King like that?"

The warriors in the arena were naturally unwilling to accept this, and they were all eager to teach Ye Jie a lesson, but no one made a move immediately. They were all waiting for the Peacock King's order.

The Peacock King's expression darkened slightly. As expected, the man harbored ill intentions. He then ordered his men, "Execute him! Hang his corpse on the city gate so that the world will know the consequences of disrespecting me!" Upon receiving this order, his men no longer concealed their strength and immediately grabbed all sorts of magical treasures, determined to kill Ye Jie. However, what awaited them was only an invisible wave of energy.

The slightest activation of the Great Dao level technique stirred up thousands of layers of air waves. Everyone in the arena lost control of their bodies under the influence of those air waves. Some were even blown away far away, only landing a hundred miles away, let alone harming Ye Jie.

The only one standing still in the arena was the Peacock King at the very front. Firstly, Ye Jie still needed to question him and didn't want him to take this opportunity to escape. Secondly, he did have some strength and immediately sensed something was wrong. He immediately lowered his body and managed to withstand the blast of air.

"It seems you do have some skill," Ye Jie commented.

"A bit of strength? Who do you think you are? How dare you spout such nonsense! Watch how I deal with you!"

Upon hearing this, the Peacock King was furious. With a thought, a magnificent peacock phantom appeared behind him. The lifelike phantom exuded boundless pressure, and Ye Jie could even see its disdain and coldness in the peacock's eyes.

With a flick of its illusory form, countless feathers shot down, each feather like the sharpest blade, even more powerful than the flying sword that Shen Qingge was wielding at full strength. They drew a piercing explosion in the air, enough to completely pierce through any enemy!

Unfortunately, these feathers were no match for Ye Jie, who possessed numerous Dao-level techniques. Ye Jie activated the Divine Dragon Transformation slightly, and layers of golden light suddenly shone from his body. This was the protective dragon might of the divine dragon, which blocked all the thousands of feathers that attacked, and none of them could harm Ye Jie.

"What... he actually neutralized my Feather Storm so easily?"

Peacock King was slightly taken aback. Even if he was slow to react, he finally realized something was wrong after directly experiencing Ye Jie's terrifying strength. In the past, only the Yama Emperor could have easily blocked such an attack. That person's strength must be at the same level as the Yama Emperor!

Attacked, Ye Jie immediately retaliated. With a thought, countless small black arrows materialized behind him. Each arrow contained the power of the Great Dao that could destroy the world. When the arrows fell, not only the Peacock King, but the entire town would probably be reduced to ashes.

"Unfortunately, your strength is still far inferior to that of the Yama Emperor," Ye Jie slowly commented.

"Emperor Yama, why is he mentioning Emperor Yama at this moment? Could it be..." The Peacock King froze on the spot, a sense of horror rising in his heart, "Could it be that he is the one who killed Emperor Yama?"

Thinking of this, the Peacock King dared not hesitate for a moment, disregarding his usual dignity, and hurriedly knelt down before Ye Jie.

What a joke! Even the King of Hell died at that person's hands. Although the Peacock King is powerful, he is not as strong as the King of Hell, let alone the person in front of him, who is even stronger than the King of Hell. If you don't beg for mercy now, are you going to beg for mercy in your next life?

"Wait... I was blind and ignorant. Please spare my life. If you can let me go, I will give you whatever you want!"

The Peacock King cried out for mercy, completely losing his former majesty. Seeing this, Ye Jie couldn't help but nod, it seemed he was quite pragmatic.

Ye Jie reached out and grasped, and a dull-colored peacock feather rose from the ground, eventually landing in his palm. Ye Jie examined the peacock feather for a while, then shook his head.
"This peacock feather is dull in color and its spiritual energy is mixed. It is not a high-quality peacock feather at all. If you use it to advance your celestial official position, you may be promoted, but you will definitely not be able to gain the powers of a celestial official. Give me the best peacock feather you have."

The Peacock King was startled. Although he didn't know what Ye Jie wanted the peacock feather for, he still honestly said, "Your Excellency is unaware of this... This is the best peacock feather I have."

"What?" Ye Jie frowned, a hint of disbelief in his eyes. "You're saying this is the best peacock feather? How is that possible? Don't you have the blood of the Ming King Peacock flowing through your veins? Logically speaking, how could the best feather be like this? Could it be that you can't face reality and are planning to lie to me?"

The Peacock King coughed, his face turning a deep purplish-red: "Your Excellency misunderstands... The blood of the Ming King Peacock is merely a term used to refer to his subordinates and ordinary people. I am but a supervising general, not a prince of the previous dynasty. How could I possibly possess the supremely noble blood of the Ming King Peacock? Furthermore, if this weren't the finest feathers on my body, I wouldn't have refined them for use in my cultivation techniques."

Ye Jie's eye twitched. Now he understood. After all this time, the so-called peacock blood was just a hoax. If he hadn't made that claim and had just said he was an ordinary immortal with some cultivation, why would his subordinates have followed him? He never expected that even Ye Jie would be fooled. His moves looked quite convincing, but it turned out he was a complete imposter.

Ye Jie shook his head: "Since that's the case, it seems there's no need to spare your life. Kanishka has entrusted me to kill you, so you can go in peace."

"what?"

The Peacock King's heart trembled. He cursed Kanishka in his heart for using such a shameless method to send the powerful man who killed Yama to deal with him. He must have thought too highly of himself.

Seeing Ye Jie's moves poised to strike, the Peacock King knew he couldn't continue like this. Judging from Ye Jie's stance, he was clearly not just talking, but preparing to kill. He quickly spoke up:
"Wait a minute... If you're looking for the Peacock Feather of the Bright King, perhaps I know where to look!"

Ye Jie stopped what he was doing and became interested: "Oh? Why don't you tell me? If you're lying to me, you won't have a good ending."

Seeing Ye Jie stop, the Peacock King breathed a sigh of relief and immediately seized this hard-won opportunity to reveal all the information he knew:

"You have witnessed the Feather Storm I just unleashed. Feather Storm originates from the Peacock Spreading its Tail Technique. Although I do not possess the blood of the Ming King Peacock, this Peacock Spreading its Tail Technique is a genuine technique passed down from the Peacock Dynasty. It has long been lost to history, and no one but me knows it. The reason I was able to obtain this technique is thanks to an ancient relic many years ago..."

"remains……"

Ye Jie nodded slightly, seemingly having guessed the origin of the cultivation manual. Sure enough, he heard the Peacock King say:

"That ruin is the remains of the Peacock Dynasty from hundreds of years ago. What it contains belongs to the Peacock Dynasty. The Peacock Dynasty revered Buddhism and Taoism, and even had considerable research into the methods of liberation from reincarnation. I was only fortunate enough to obtain the Peacock Spreading its Tail Technique, and dared not go any further. But with your strength, you might have a chance to reach the end of the ruin and find the rare Mingwang Peacock Feather!"

Upon learning the location of the ruins and the legends of the Mauryan Dynasty, Ye Jie became intrigued and asked, "Where are those ruins located?"

This time, the Peacock King did not answer, but said, "Does Your Excellency think I am a three-year-old child? If I tell you the whereabouts of the ruins now, I am afraid that only death awaits me. Let me lead the way."

Ye Jie stroked his chin: "That makes sense... Kanishka only sent me to deal with you, not to take your life. How about this, you dismiss your subordinates and show that you have no intention of continuing to compete for the throne and are willing to honor Kanishka as king, then I will spare your life."

(End of this chapter)