Prior to this, Nine-linked Mountains was very lively with busy young cultivators looking around.

However, the battle at the stone forest silenced the entire place. The once excited and confident youths immediately stagnated without making a sound, nearly shrinking their heads down their necks.

It didn’t take long for the king to kill Jinming and Bofan on top of another dozen or so geniuses. He also forced several hundred geniuses and ancestors to kneel before him.

The lucky ones who survived the ordeal found this humiliating. It had engraved deep in their mind for their entire life.

Just imagine, these geniuses and experts have always been arrogant and proud. They always held their head high and even looked down on others. Unfortunately for them, Li Qiye ruthlessly shattered their pride and stomped on their stretching neck, forcing them to lower their head.

This wasn’t easy for them but if they didn’t comply, they would have suffered the same fate as their fallen friends - being cold corpses at the stone forest.

It didn’t matter how strong and arrogant one might be, all were corpses after death, so insignificant and lowly. That’s why they had to lower their head and kneeled before Li Qiye.

This cruel method of his had indeed terrorized everyone. He was a true tyrant this time around, not afraid of murders and brutality.

One question sprung up in everyone’s mind - what the hell happened to the king? How did he become so horrifying overnight?

No one could come up with an answer. Turning from a useless king to a tyrant - he successfully wiped his previous image clean.

“Was he hiding his abilities from the start?” One older expert said.

But upon careful rumination, this didn’t feel right. If he was hiding his skills, it meant that he was immensely powerful and wouldn’t have lost his kingdom without a fight.

Remember, even though Silver Secret and Sun Lengying were gone, he still had the six legions and the general support of War Saint. The five great powers wouldn’t have dared to rebel.

At that particular juncture, he was indeed at the top of authority and had military power. There was no need to hide his abilities at this point. He should have shown them off in order to stabilize his throne.

Instead of this, his actions led to a rebellion and the loss of his throne. There was no way this could have happened if he was actually a master.

One explanation for this was that the guy was insane from start to finish. Instead of seizing the throne with his own abilities, he just let others pushed him off the throne. Who else would do this if they weren’t crazy?

Thus, people found this to be impossible. When someone was at the very top, they would never let others bully them and take over.

But then why did he suddenly become so strong and brutal? No one understood what the hell he was doing or what had transpired.

Nevertheless, the event at the stone forest changed everyone’s perception of him. He became the biggest mystery and wild card.

“This king was really hiding his abilities?” Jianyao back at Xiang was the first to hear this news from her fellow sect members.

Her expression changed after getting the full picture and felt that they might have made a wrong move.

“Just who the hell is he?” She saw a fog shrouding her vision.

Prior to this, she thought she had figured out what kind of man he was but now, only a blur remained.

“Did I make a mistake?” She murmured in a daze.

She had a marriage pact with him. Their sect didn’t resort to switching the bride like the Bingchi nor aggressively demanded an annulment.

They chose to just ignore and forget the marriage pact instead. This would allow both sides to back off without any awkwardness.

She wasn’t the only one who chose this plan since the ancestors supported it as well.

Say, if the king was indeed useless, then the plan would be great for them. They didn’t wish to marry a promising disciple to someone like that and especially didn’t want to bet on him since they would lose everything.

But what if the king turned out to be unfathomable? He would become an uncertainty, a wrench in their plan.

“Miss, what should we do now?” The old servant asked for her opinion.

“Return to the sect and ask what the ancestors want to do.” She pondered before giving an order.

The old servant affirmed and quickly ran back to Calm Lotus Monastery. She then stared outside the window to look at the lake.

Lucidity King’s era has ended so it was time for their sect to move in. Perhaps it would be just like the past where they exerted great influence into the royal reign.

The best way to obtain this was to support a new king since they have never directly seized the throne. Because of this particular choice, they have remained standing for so long. Dynasties have risen and fallen while they would always be around.

At this moment, the most promising candidates were Tang Hexiang and Eight Formation True Emperor. Calm Lotus would pick one of these two.

However, the current king came out of nowhere and showed his might. Jianyao was in disarray because they were not in control of Li Qiye.

The worst thing about it was that the king didn’t like her at all in spite of her beautiful face and transcending temperament.

So many men would fall in love with her at first sight but he had only disdain for her.

“Too smart for one’s own good… Jianyao… Jianyao, you still think too highly of yourself.” She sighed with disappointment.

Although the curtains have yet to close, she felt as if she could already guess the final victor in this contest. She realized that she had miscalculated and made a foolish choice despite being wise all her life.

***

“What?! Bofan was killed?!” Bingchi Hanyu was shocked to hear this.

She had a very good idea of Bofan’s power - a third-level True God that could challenge a fourth-level one through the use of sword formations.

One would be hard-pressed to find a match for him among the young generation outside of Eight Formation True Emperor and his peers.

However, the guy was high-spirited not long ago but now, he was killed by the king back in the stone forest?

“Just how strong is this king?” Her expression became serious.

Her follower began telling her about what had transpired at the party.