Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

Although most of the Taoist robes had been torn to pieces by some unknown entity, she was still able to determine their origin in a very short time thanks to her familiarity with the Northern Ice Palace.

All.

Yes, without exception—

They're all Taoist robes from the Northern Ice Palace!

In other words, all the people buried here, or those who died here, were people from the Northern Ice Palace!

“Why…why are there…” Xiaoyu was shocked. Even with the experience of the Judgment Team, she was still trembling with shock. “Why are there so many people from the Northern Ice Palace…”

Liang Jue swallowed silently, the sound of gulping coming through the gap in his helmet. "To be precise, they were all corpses."

"This is too bizarre."

The pink-haired girl stared blankly, gently shaking her head, muttering to herself, "This is so bizarre."

"Captain, you think it's weird too, right!" Xiaoyu quickly grabbed Fan Luokui's arm. "How come there are so many Northern Ice Palace artifacts here..."

No, that's not the problem.

Fan Luokui frowned, her beautiful face now completely pale.

Yes, that's not the problem.

Fan Luo Kui knew very well that she had seen too many dead people: those strangled, poisoned, stabbed, crushed, hacked to death...

There were far too many. As the captain of the trial team, she had witnessed far too many deaths. Even mountains of corpses and seas of blood were nothing more than numbers symbolizing the dead in front of her.

The situation is not just that simple.

Because the problem is just too big and too bizarre.

“Your Excellency.” She turned her head, her eyes filled with wariness as she looked at Yun Ping, her right hand unconsciously resting on the hilt of her sword. “Don’t you think you should explain this strange phenomenon?”

"Strange?" Yun Ping grinned, completely disregarding Fan Luo Kui's aggressive stance. "What do you mean by strange?"

"here."

Fan Luokui's gaze quickly swept over the blood-red pit beside her, filled with corpses.

That enormous, writhing, columnar column of blood, resembling an unknown insect, roamed freely within the pit, and no one wanted to know what it was.

Yunping looked at her strangely. "This place is indeed quite eerie. So many people have died, and there's something that looks like a caterpillar crawling inside..."

“No.” Fan Luokui’s face turned cold. “That’s not what I meant.”

"So what do you mean?"

"Too many people from the Northern Ice Palace have died here. In other words, this place, or rather, this secret realm, has been visited by many people from our Northern Ice Palace. Judging from the number of corpses, it must have been a very large-scale operation."

Yunping spread his hands. "So?"

"But I've never heard of this place before. Before coming here, I didn't even know there was a secret realm here. And I've never heard of this large-scale operation either."

"Maybe you...forgot?"

“Impossible.” Fan Luo Kui shook her head, extremely confident. “Such a momentous event would surely be recorded in our Judgment Palace, and I have read through every single one of these recorded cases!”

Ye Yuchan was completely shocked by Fan Luokui's words, "You've read them all? Although I don't know much about your Northern Ice Palace, these kinds of cases must be piled up higher than a small mountain, right?"

“I’ve read them all.” Fan Luokui’s expression looked intimidating. “As the captain of the trial team, this is a must for me.”

……

She truly lives up to her reputation as a straight-as-an-arrow woman.

No normal person would be so idle as to read through every single case that has ever occurred, right?

Not to mention the captain of the trial team, even the master of the trial palace would not do such a thing.

Yunping now had another label added to his impression of Fan Luokui: "paranoia." He then adopted an indifferent attitude and asked, "So, what are you trying to say?"

"What I want to ask is, how do you know the location of this secret realm? And why are you so familiar with its location... Did you also know about this large-scale operation? Or were you involved? If so, what is your identity?"

……

Wow, so many questions.

She's as outspoken as ever.

If it were someone else, they would probably be trying to trick Yunping into revealing information by now, right?

As a result, this girl quickly asked all the questions she wanted to ask at once.

Instead of directly answering Fan Luokui's barrage of questions, Yun Ping glanced at Xiaoyu and Liang Jue with a pained expression, "Is this how your captain interrogates prisoners?"

“Uh…” Liang Jue reached out and straightened his helmet. “It’s about right, but prisoners are usually too scared to lie by the captain, so there’s usually no problem.”

"That's great... So-called military deterrence is quite useful."

Yunping pretended to marvel at the power of martial arts.

However, despite saying that, Yunping didn't want to answer a single question from Fan Luokui's questions.

The reason is simple—it's troublesome.

"Even if you knew all this, it wouldn't be of any use, would it? You might as well just take us for a stroll in the secret realm. Didn't you promise to help us achieve our goal?"

Fan Luokui's expression turned pale instantly, and her tone became less forceful, "...That's right."

"That settles it then~" Yunping smiled. "You should know about the mercenary business, right? They are the kind of people who will do a job no matter who the client is after accepting a mission. Their word is their bond."

“Even mercenaries are so trustworthy. As one of the three palaces within the Northern Ice Palace, and the captain of the Judgment Brigade of the Judgment Palace, are you even less trustworthy than a mercenary?”

"Or do you think that the questions you asked will help us complete the secret realm?"

Or perhaps—

Yunping's face suddenly darkened, an endless gloom enveloping him.

Are you planning to back out?

……

The word "regret" was like a sharp sword, piercing through Fan Luokui's psychological defenses.

She's the captain of the trial team, how could she possibly break her word!

"I understand."

Under the astonished gazes of her two subordinates, Fan Luokui straightened her back and released her right hand from the hilt of the knife.

“Indeed, you are right. As the captain of the trial team, I cannot break my word.”

"As for what happened here and the existence of the secret realm, I will not get entangled in it, but I will record it when I return and send people to explore it later."

These words were utter nonsense to Yunping. He waved his hand and said, "Fine, whatever you say."

"Ah."

Fan Luokui nodded slightly, indicating that the matter was over, completely unaware of the fleeting glance from Yun Ping beside her.

However, just because she didn't notice doesn't mean Ye Yuchan didn't notice.

After all, she had been by Yunping's side for quite some time, and Ye Yuchan could still discern some subtle expressions.

She naturally pulled Yunping to her side and glanced at the three members of the trial team—Xiaoyu and Liang Jue were huddled together next to Fan Luokui, seemingly discussing what had just happened.

After confirming that they couldn't hear her, Ye Yuchan asked in a low voice, "Hey, you old rogue, tell me, what's with all these corpses here?"

Yunping gave her a strange look. "You want to know?"

"Hmm." Only then did Ye Yuchan realize that she was a little too close to Yun Ping. She took a small step back, her little face flushed. "This... I'm just curious."

"Oh~"

Yunping nodded, thinking that it made sense; it would be strange if young people weren't curious.

As for these corpses...

"Actually, it's nothing much. I was being chased around by the people from the Northern Ice Palace before, and when I had no other choice, I just killed them."

"...What? You killed all these people?!" Ye Yuchan stared at Yun Ping in horror.

Yunping, however, maintained his usual nonchalant attitude and replied, "Yes, that's right."

"You didn't start fighting over the treasures in this secret realm, did you?"

"No, no, no, what are you thinking about?"

"Then why did you kill them?"

“They broke into my house,” Yunping said helplessly, spreading his hands. “And they even tried to kill me, the owner… What could I do? I was desperate too.”

Ye Yuchan squinted, her expression strange, "What the hell is trespassing?"

“This is it.” Yunping pointed to the ground.

"Here? What's wrong with this land? It's home to countless descendants of yours?"

Yunping almost couldn't resist knocking Ye Yuchan's head off. He glared at her irritably and then said...

"Here, these ruins..."

"This used to be my house..."

77. Go forth, judges!

"What?!"

Ye Yuchan's astonishing reaction unsurprisingly caught the attention of the three members of the trial team.

According to their normal way of thinking, Ye Yuchan's surprise must be because Yun Ping revealed something extremely shocking to her.

Fortunately, Yunping's last few words were transmitted directly into Ye Yuchan's mind. Unless they had infiltrated Ye Yuchan's mind a few seconds earlier, they would have had no idea what Yunping said.

Realizing that her exclamation had drawn a suspicious look from Yun Ping, Ye Yuchan quickly hid behind him.

What were you talking about just now?

Yunping stood in front of Ye Yuchan to protect her from Fan Luokui's sharp eyes. "It's nothing, it's nothing. This girl was just frightened."

"Is it because of this..." Fan Luokui thought Ye Yuchan was frightened by the large number of corpses in the pit, and slowly breathed a sigh of relief. "Indeed, our trial team has seen such a scene many times, but we still feel a little frightened. It is only natural that she would be afraid."

Ye Yuchan nodded gently, "Mmm...Mmm."