Bai Qingyue's thoughts returned to the present predicament.

Forcing himself to remain conscious, he could feel his spine cracking under the harsh repeated impact of his mother's whip.

As the torture of his physical form persisted, he guided his soul inside his pocket dimension.

Although he still felt the pain of each strike, he was capable of separating between his physical shell and ethereal spirit.

A pocket dimension was the physical manifestation of a space a cultivator's soul is capable of creating. Naturally, it was a rarity among cultivators to possess a pocket dimension. One would have to own a very special soul in order to manifest their own private dimension. The higher one's cultivation was, the larger the dimension.

Bai Qingyue's pocket dimension used to be a vast, nearly endless space, though currently, it had shrunk down to about a yard in diameter. Inside the small space was an ancient temple decorated with fox guardian statues, surrounded by greenery and herbs so rare that even the dragon royal family frequently requested exchanges with the clan for them.

The fox lord's ethereal spirit brushed past the statues and entered the temple.

Dusty wooden walls greeted him. It had been a very long time since he last ventured into his dimension. Without his inner energy, the brilliant glory of his space had turned into a dirty and dishevelled mess, yet all of the objects he and his ancestors had both obtained over the centuries remained. Countless treasures accumulated throughout the generations of Huli Jing's sovereign rulers were displayed before him. The temple was completely neglected, filled to the brim with priceless materials scattered this way and that on the floor.

He made his way to a pile of rusty ancient trinkets and armaments, shoving his hand inside the stack of items and fishing out a kerosene lamp.

The lamp was old and lacklustre in its condition. Age hadn't preserved it well, yet this lamp's potential made it a highly sought after item, cherished beyond compare.

Bai Qingyue shut his eyes and syphoned his consciousness into his body.

He brought the kerosene lamp with him into the physical plane of existence. The rusty old lamp materialized in his hand.

Hong Meigui might have been capable of preventing the following from taking place, had she not been too far gone in her bout of madness to notice Bai Qingye's subtle movements.

"You're just like your father! All I wanted was the best for him and look what happened!" Her amber eyes flared, her shoulders shaking with the effort of the brutal lashing.

Bai Qingyue lit the lamp with his fox fire and cast the object in his mother's direction.

Hong Meigui paused, bewildered, but she had no time to react before bone cracking pain consumed her body. Her back felt as though a horde of racing horses was stampeding across it.

The rusty lamp Bai Qingyue delivered from his pocket dimension was known as the Agony Reversal Lamp. The worse the damage inflicted on the holder of the lamp, the stronger the lamp was at transferring the pain to the inflictor.

As dangerous as the lamp was, it was but a play on the mind and only a temporary solution. The damage wasn't real, and no actual physical harm was caused to the aggressor, but the mind was easily tricked into delivering signals to the rest of the body as though it was.

Hong Meigui's yells shifted into shrieking howls of pain. The torture was so sudden, her consciousness was unable to handle it. Her body toppled to the ground as she fainted at the foot of the golden throne.

Bai Qingyue struggled to hoist himself to his feet. He wiped the blood off his face. With a signal of his hand, Bai Yu was summoned, his most trusted second in command, the captain of the guard.

Waiting for his lord to call upon him, Bai Yu had been counting the seconds outside the palace halls. He could sense malicious energy saturating the air. His white and black fox ears drooped, unnerved by the unintelligible screams coming from the throne room. For such an intense negative force to accumulate, a lot of blood must have shed. His lord demanded that he not interrupt until he was called upon, and to keep the servants at bay.

As soon as he felt His Lordship's signal, Bai Yu bolted into the throne room.

The regal and loyal captain of the guard, who had lived for aeons and witnessed countless battles, gaped in horror at the sight of his master.

If not for the rivers of silver hair spilling to the floor around him, Bai Yu would not have been able to recognize the mangled mass of butchered flesh as his Sovereign Lord. Staring at it long enough, he finally recognized a white object in the deep crimson as part of his lord's spine exposed to the open air. His back had been completely torn apart.

"S-si… sire!" Terrified, Bai Yu knelt down in front of his lord, his face white as a sheet.

Bai Qingyue spat a mouthful of blood and sighed.

"It is not as bad as it appears." His voice gave no indication that he'd just been tortured to the brink of death. He stood with a ramrod back.

'Sire, you are a really bad liar.' Bai Yu wordlessly observed, awaiting orders.

His Lordship's royal countenance seemed lonelier than ever.

"Have you prepared the prison hold for my mother as I requested?" Bai Qingyue could no longer let his mother run amok. It would now be a tediously long time to arrange the clan's business and recuperate before returning to the mortal world.

"Yes, sire!" Bai Yu bowed again. His normally clear and bold voice sounded rough.

To go to this extent and butcher your own son… The matron had lost all sense of reason!

The handsome captain of the guard was fiercely loyal to his Sovereign Lord. Although Bai Yu was older than Bai Qingyue and had also served under his father's reign, Bai Yu had nothing short of utmost respect for His Lordship.

Under Bai Qingyue's reign, the clan only prospered. As for Bai Yu, despite not being a full fox and having been raised in a third extended branch of the Bai clan, the Sovereign God never belittled his merit and even went as far as to ordain him second in command.

Bai Yu's mixed heritage was visible through his full-on pitch black eyes, originally belonging to the Demon Realm. His hair was like all the other pure blooded clan members'. A shining silver colour, neatly tied back with a single braid. His stature taller than the other celestial foxes.

Numerous gods assumed Bai Yu's lineage was tainted with a large bestial entity due to his burly physique. In the heavenly realm filled with lean and dainty deities, he was often mocked for his "vulgar" build.

Bai Yu always thought his lord's only misjudgement was handing the reins to his mother in ruling the Huli Jing.

Bai Qingyue glanced back at his shaking subordinate as he kneeled on the ground before him. He couldn't very well tell the man to carry his mother himself, it was too improper.

"Bring forth the ladies in waiting for the matron who remained on standby. Monitor their every move, I want your eyes on the matron at all times. Ensure she is properly locked within the force field with no means of escape." Bai Qingyue paused a moment before concluding, "The ladies in waiting who participated in my ambush on earth… eliminate them."

It was rare for Bai Qingyue to speak in such detail. It emphasized to Bai Yu how important this mission was to him. It must be done perfectly.

"Right away, sire!" Bai Yu followed the Sovereign Lord's commands and vanished out of the throne room.

It was only when Bai Qingyue was left alone with only his unconscious mother sprawled upon the floor that he allowed his body to show a sign of weakness.

He needed to recover and fast. Inside the palace was a wooden lodge leading to an indoor hot spring, perfect for mending and assisting cultivators in restoring their vitality, healing their injuries.

The heavily bleeding fox staggered towards the palace's hot springs, leaving a trail of ruby drops in his wake. He removed whatever shreds were left of his robe and fell into the spring. Bai Qingyue slipped his nude mutilated body into the warm liquid and shifted himself to a lotus position in preparation to meditate.

He swiftly entered a meditative state and circulated the qi coursing through his body.

The spring water stung the exposed wounds. Mending his battered body was a process so excruciating, it caused a cold sweat to spread across his forehead.

Meanwhile, his practised cultivation technique was interrupted by his distressed thoughts.

Knowing that time moved differently in the Godly Realm than on Earth filled him with endless worry. How long had his woman been without him? For Bai Qingyue, it was a moon's cycle, but for her, it could have been years.

His only comfort was the knowledge that she had acquired his powers to protect herself. With his godly cultivation, surely, she should have experienced no further struggles in the mortal realm.

He let out a stifled groan, suppressing himself from voicing out his pains, and let the healing spring's liquid substance work its magic.