A few days later, the news spread like wildfire across the world. Martial Emperors being corrupted and on the Hunted List was nothing new. However, a Martial Emperor that was also a king of a country had been unprecedented. 

With such a matter happening, a meeting had been forcefully called upon by the members of the World Congress. Requiring at least half of the members to agree to this, it was the first meeting that had occurred in thousands of years. 

Hundreds of various leaders from sects, clans, families and countries soon arrived at the headquarters of the World Congress, which was located in the Central Union. Of those doing the majority of the work in the World Congress, it no doubt belonged to the major families of the Central Union. 

In a special booth at the conference, two men quietly stared at the hundreds of people below them.. 

“How did those from the Land of Chaos react? How many of them came?” The older man spoke up as his eyes slowly roamed across the people below him. 

“Father… our invitations weren’t able to reach the powerhouses there… I’m afraid it’ll be hard to regain a foothold in the Land of Chaos now as well,” the other man, notably younger, replied. 

“For them who are always pretty much at war and never at peace, it becomes so hard to keep track of everything,” the older man sighed.

“Yes… father… about Jia’er… I’m sure you have heard,” the young man probed. 

As the white-haired man heard that, he fell silent for a few seconds before answering, “Sigh, call her back. Tell her to return as soon as possible.”

“Yes, I will do that after the conference then,” the man nodded. 

As they finished talking, a person appeared in the center of the conference meeting. 

“I’ll be quick since everyone here likely knows what we will be discussing about,” his words silenced the arena of people.

“The Chen Empire is one of the four empires in the Southern Ice Continent. Our forces started investigating them 3 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago, corrupted cultivators were found in one of the major families of the Chen Empire,” the man began the debriefing.

“Through interrogation, we discovered that their actions were related to the royal family of the Chen Empire. After more probing, we discovered that over half of the members in the royal family were corrupted. Namely, the king and important members in charge of the country were corrupted. An extermination task force was created and then brought to the Chen Empire to completely remove the corrupted cultivators,” the man continued his brief summary.

“Were they responsible for the war in the Southern Ice Continent?” A man spoke out from the audience. 

“Xia Emperor. That is correct. The assassins taking part in that mission were discovered in the Chen Empire as well,” the man in the center replied.

“… Do you know why they did that!? They even targeted their own kin!?” The Xia Emperor furiously bit his lips. 

“Like always, those that are corrupted seek destruction. The facade in your empire was likely an excuse to start a war and cause chaos. With that excuse and revenge as a reason, the World Congress was not able to put down the war until now,” the man answered. 

“I had said over half of the royal family were deemed corrupted but some do cultivate the Immortal Soul. The prince representing their country was actually very talented in the aspect of the soul. He had long been cultivating the Immortal Soul technique and was already at the 2nd stage of the Immortal Soul cultivation technique,” the man continued.

As the Xia Emperor heard that, he furiously gripped his hands before a sigh escaped from his mouth. 

“That isn’t all though. This event has caused the World Congress to move and reorganize most of our forces in the world. Most importantly, our agents and bases in the Land of Chaos were all wiped out recently,” the man said. 

Hearing his words, the audience started murmuring. A rather large continent, the Land of Chaos was beyond chaotic and over time, it had become socially isolated from the rest of the countries. But with little known information about them, the murmurings quickly died down. 

Seeing that no more questions were raised, the man in the center continued, “In response to the events in the Chen Empire, the World Congress has decided to change its policy about the Hunted List. Any actions deemed suspicious will be immediately acted on.” 

It was a simple statement but the audience exploded as they heard that. Previously, hard evidence had been required for those to be put onto the Hunted List. A crime or event had to happen first. Now, in an attempt to prevent future tragedies, the World Congress had decided on changing their policy.

“Deemed suspicious? What is that even supposed to mean?” 

“That’s preposterous! The World Congress should not have that much power!” 

Frowns appeared on Bai Jia’s father as he watched the scene below him, “Like you said, most of everyone is not going to agree to that.” 

“Sigh, I hoped I was wrong but the people are still too afraid. For the survival of humanity, everyone needs to be willing to sacrifice something… they are not desperate enough,” Bai Jia’s grandpa stroked his beard.

“Silence!” the man in the center shouted.

“I see that many of you are against that notion. It is a large step that will be done slowly in time. For now, the World Congress will increase its regulation and manpower in search of those on the Hunted List. In time, we will increase our regulation depending on the situation,” he continued. 

Hearing his determination, the loud audience bitterly swallowed their words, becoming quieter as if a compromise had been reached.

“Besides that, we also want to encourage everyone to be more considerate and start practicing the Immortal Soul. Yes, it will take a long time and some may never be able to master the 3rd layer within their lifetime but nonetheless, try it and put more time into it,” the man said as he concluded the meeting.

“We’ve always advocated for this but people never care. Hopefully, they start putting more time into it. When Jia’er returns, make sure she starts practicing the Immortal Soul as well,” Bai Jia’s grandpa said.

The sudden fall of the Chen Empire had no doubt put the war in the Southern Ice Continent to a hold. As the battles came to a pause, rebuilding of the countries quickly began while the leaders began to discuss what to do about the Chen Empire. 

Unbeknownst to all of this, Qian Yu continued to be imprisoned under Tiger’s Den as the days passed, almost as if he had been forgotten. 

*Click!* Finally, Qian Yu heard a noise after a week of isolation.

“Give me the information on the guy?” A somewhat tired voice entered Qian Yu’s ears. 

“Commander, his name is Qian Yu. From the Ice Arts sect. He has some merits in our system from the spiritual beast horde in the Soba Empire and has talked with General Qiu before. More importantly, he was attacked by-,” Qian Yu recognized the familiar voice belonging to the female Martial Saint. 

“Yes, I know that part,” the man stopped her.

‘Commander? That is one rank below the general rank. That is pretty high,’ Qian Yu thought as he heard her. At the same time, a young man appeared in front of Qian Yu. 

‘He’s a Martial Lord!’ Tian Xinyi warned Qian Yu. 

Qian Yu held a static face as he watched the two. He had remembered the woman to be pretty cocky by nature but now, she was politely standing behind him with her head lowered. She was even stronger than him but it seemed status and ranking in the Order was pretty strict. 

“Well, I’ll get started now,” the man approached Qian Yu as he released his terrifying aura, suppressing Qian Yu.

Frozen in place, Qian Yu could only watch the man’s hand crept towards his forehead. As he touched it, an unpleasant but familiar feeling assaulted him. 

Almost immediately after, Tian Xinyi quickly said, ‘Master! He entered your soul world! What should I do!?’

‘Qian Yu gritted his teeth from the excruciating pain. ‘Did he forcefully enter using the Soul Exploration!?’ It was the only reason Qian Yu could think of. 

‘D-don’t do anything. Can you hide! I’ll handle it,’ Qian Yu replied to Tian Xinyi before doing his best to calm his mind. 

‘Yes! I know your soul world well! I know plenty of places to hide!’ Tian Xinyi shouted.

With that settled, Qian Yu didn’t wait any longer. Soul Exploration! 

*Thump!* Like the last time, Qian Yu fell to the ground as he appeared in his soul world. 

“Oh? Not bad,” Qian Yu looked up to see the man staring at him.

“Y-you!” Qian Yu punched the ground as he pulled himself up. 

“Hmm… it’s amazing. Your soul world is as large as a Martial Fighter’s soul world. Your mastery must have already surpassed that of the first layer,” the man turned his gaze away from Qian Yu.

Indeed, over the past weeks, Qian Yu had spent all his time in his soul world. With nothing else to do, he had put more time into controlling the lighting laws and his own soul world. In the end, he actually felt a subtle increase in his understanding of the laws and had also reached the first layer of the technique. That said, he still didn’t have a clear understanding of how advancing in this technique worked. 

“There are no traces of corruption too,” he looked around in a complete circle.

Then, he turned his attention upwards from the sky as he put out his hands, “The laws of lightning are potent for sure…”

“But, I feel a trace of the laws of water,” his voice suddenly turned deadly and murderous killing intent filled the air. 

Qian Yu felt suffocated yet his eyes widened as he saw two water serpents start to form around the man. 

“I’m sure you know where I come from,” he coldly said.

In the next second, the pressure disappeared and an amiable smile appeared on his face, “That said, it is not complete proof you are practicing our technique. Hmm… maybe you just have quite the affinity for water based cultivation techniques then… I am not quite sure.”

“Anyways, what happened after you got attacked by the red colored cloud?” The man continued his interrogation. 

Gritting his teeth a little, Qian Yu took a few seconds to answer, “I saw the red colored figure here. He was badly injured or unconscious. Red aura was sprouting from him so I just attacked and killed him.” It was the answer he had come up with over his time here. From his understanding, they had never seen this before and as such, he didn’t have to reveal what actually happened and risk endangering Tian Xinyi.

Like he expected, the man furrowed his brows for a quick second before saying, “Very well. I will take note of that then. That will be all for now.” As he said that, he quickly disappeared from Qian Yu’s soul world. 

“No way… he’s from the Bai Family. Is it just a coincidence he’s here?” Qian Yu sighed and prepared to leave his soul world.