Inside the main hall, the once solid bluestone floor had been reduced to a messy expanse of scorched earth.
Jiang Qingwan stood quietly amidst the permeating smoke and dust.
Although a tyrannical killing intent was surging madly in her heart like stormy waves.
Her reason still firmly held the upper hand, as she was deeply aware of the gravity and urgency of the matter.
She knew very well that while the main branch in the Central State was shameless, their foundation was unfathomably deep.
If she sought momentary satisfaction today and directly killed this special envoy, Jiang He, on the territory of the Profound State, the nature of this matter would completely change.
She had the protection of the Tianyuan Sect and her master, but her brother and grandfather did not.
Weighing the pros and cons, she did not immediately strike a lethal blow.
Jiang Qingwan's beautiful purple eyes revealed an eternal, unmelting icy chill as she coldly looked down at Jiang He, who was immobilized under her foot.
"Explain everything you know about this matter to me, exactly as it happened."
"If you dare to utter half a lie, I guarantee I will let you experience what a true living hell is."
Hearing this, Jiang He, who was pinned tightly under her foot, merely forced a cold snort from his nose.
As an elder of the Central State's main branch, he was used to acting high and mighty on a daily basis.
Naturally, he didn't believe that a greenhorn girl from a branch family in this remote Profound State would truly have the guts to kill him, a special envoy representing the face of the Central State's main branch.
In his eyes, her actions were nothing but empty bluster relying on a bit of natural talent.
"Arrogant!"
Jiang He mocked through gritted teeth, his voice carrying the arrogance of someone who had held a high position for years:
"You impudent, uneducated brat who knows no respect!"
"I am the special envoy appointed by the main branch. If you really have the guts, then kill me right now!"
"Otherwise, once I break free, I will definitely uproot your entire branch family!"
Accompanying this roar full of humiliation and killing intent.
The formidable strength of the peak Foundation Establishment realm within Jiang He's body erupted completely and without reservation at this moment.
He attempted to rely on his profound cultivation to forcefully break free from this humiliating suppression.
"Boom!"
Centered on his prostrate body, a visible shockwave of powerful spiritual energy blasted in all directions across the hall, sending the surrounding rubble and splintered wood flying.
However, what happened in the next second left Jiang He utterly horrified.
To his terror, he discovered that no matter how madly he pushed the spiritual energy in his dantian, even using every last ounce of his strength.
His power-filled body remained firmly glued to the ground, unable to move an inch!
Jiang Qingwan's foot, clad in an exquisite cloud boot, seemed to step lightly on his head.
But in reality, it was like an eternal primordial divine mountain, suppressing all of his resistance.
How could this be?! He was at the peak of Foundation Establishment!
Facing Jiang He's futile resistance, which was like an ant trying to shake a tree.
Jiang Qingwan's stunningly beautiful face merely let out a cold snort full of disdain.
"Courting death."
She simply increased the force under her foot sharply.
"Bang!"
This overwhelming, unstoppable brute force of her Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment violently and crudely interrupted the spell-casting route that Jiang He was frantically circulating.
Accompanied by a dull thud.
Jiang Qingwan directly stomped Jiang He's raised head fiercely into the dirt of the hall's shattered floor tiles.
Immediately after, the purple light in Jiang Qingwan's eyes flared brilliantly.
"Crackle!"
Beneath her foot, streams of purple lightning surged out like a bursting dam.
The overbearing Purple Firmament Divine Lightning traveled down Jiang He's head, violently tearing apart his protective true qi, and poured unhindered into his limbs, bones, and meridians.
"Mmph...!"
Under the baptism of the purest power of thunder in the world.
Jiang He convulsed violently from the shock, his body even bouncing uncontrollably on the ground, looking exactly like a live fish thrown onto a sizzling iron griddle.
His appearance at this moment was also miserable to the extreme.
Because his mouth and entire face were firmly stomped into the dirt of the deep pit by that cloud boot.
Even though he was suffering agony akin to ten thousand arrows piercing his heart, he couldn't let out a single clear cry for help.
He could only let out muffled whimpers in vain into the dirt, his mouth and nose filled with the earthy stench of soil and the metallic taste of blood.
Jiang Qingwan's icy voice drifted down lightly from directly above him once again:
"I am not a patient person."
"Explain the entire story of what you know about this matter."
"Otherwise, I will show mercy and grant your request to die."
The destructive lightning wandering through his meridians finally made Jiang He feel the very real shadow of death.
In the face of the immense terror of death.
Whatever glory of the Central State's main branch, whatever lofty dignity of an elder, were all thrown entirely to the wind.
He no longer cared about putting on airs and immediately waved his dirt-covered arms madly, slapping the ground beside him with all his might.
He desperately signaled his surrender to Jiang Qingwan, begging her to stop this inhumane torture at once.
Seeing that it was about enough, Jiang Qingwan expressionlessly and slowly withdrew her foot from his head.
The pressure suddenly relieved, and Jiang He felt as if he had been granted a massive pardon.
He didn't even care to fix his appearance.
He immediately used his hands and feet, scrambling and crawling up from the mud pit his own face had smashed into.
He slumped on the ground, greedily gasping for the dust-mingled air around him, his chest heaving violently.
At this moment, this Lord Envoy had disheveled hair, and his originally magnificent brocade Daoist robe was burned to tatters by the lightning.
His old face was covered in a mixture of blood and mud, swollen like a pig's head.
Where was there even a trace of his former transcendent, lofty, and majestic appearance?
He raised his head, looking with a face full of fear and awe at the graceful purple-clad girl standing before him.
Too terrifying!
To be so young, yet able to completely suppress a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator like him, who had struggled in the cultivation world for over a hundred years, using only pure physical strength without even drawing her natal weapon!
This terrifying strength that could be called world-shocking...
Was probably already enough to rival that peerless genius of their Central State's main branch who was revered as a god, Jiang Taiqing!
Seeing Jiang Qingwan's eyes narrow slightly and her pale hand seeming to make a move to raise again.
Jiang He was scared out of his wits; he would rather die than experience that bone-deep agony a second time.
"Stop! I'll talk! Great aunt, I'll tell you everything, I beg you to show mercy!"
Under Jiang Qingwan's oppressive gaze, Jiang He didn't dare to hide the slightest thing, pouring out the entire sequence of events completely.
As it turned out, he had indeed come under the absolute orders of the main branch's patriarch to travel to the Profound State in search of a suitable young woman to take Jiang Taiqing's place in completing the marriage alliance with the Tianshu family.
But the problem was that so-called special envoys like him, operating under the banner of the main branch...
...had been sent out by the Central State's main branch to the tune of over a dozen, just to ensure that nothing went wrong!
These dozen or so envoys split into multiple groups, heading to the four domains and seventeen provinces of the cultivation world, casting a wide net among the scattered branches of the Jiang family.
They hoped to fish out a collateral branch female with decent aptitude and looks.
Meanwhile, Jiang Qingwan's rise to fame and first-place victory in the Tianyuan Sect's inner sect tournament was something that had just happened in the past few days.
The cultivation world was vast and boundless; her fame was mostly still brewing within the borders of Xuan Province and had not yet fully reached the distant Central Province.
Furthermore, the main branch in the Central Province had always prided itself as the orthodox lineage.
They had never understood the remote and desolate Xuan Province, nor had they ever paid much attention to the collateral branches here.
Therefore, they hadn't held much hope for this errand to Xuan Province in the first place.
They merely sent him, the lowest-ranking elder whose status was at the very bottom of the main branch.
Having him come over was purely to try his luck and go through the motions, to see if by some blind stroke of luck he could stumble upon a suitable candidate.
Upon hearing this absurd truth, a flash of undisguised mockery quickly crossed Jiang Qingwan's profound, deep-pool-like eyes.
She tilted her head slightly, looking down condescendingly at Jiang He, who was slumped on the ground:
"So... after all this fuss, I'm not the only candidate who absolutely has to go?"
Hearing this question, Jiang He shuddered all over and immediately squeezed out a flattering smile that looked a hundred times uglier than crying.
He nodded his head like a chicken pecking at grain, repeatedly agreeing:
"Naturally, naturally you don't have to go!"
"How could a fairy with your peerless talent be subjected to such a grievance?"
"This matter is easy to discuss, absolutely easy to discuss!"
"I just received news that a collateral branch of the Jiang family in Wu Province of the Southern Li Domain has already found a collateral female whose looks and birth chart are very suitable to be a substitute bride."
"The main branch is already preparing to finalize the candidate..."
Hearing Jiang He's spineless words.
The grandfather and grandson, Jiang Yuanshan and Jiang Qingyan, who had been standing to the side, experienced a brief moment of shock before their faces instantly turned extremely ugly, alternating between green and pale.
After all that fuss, this Jiang He didn't absolutely have to take Jiang Qingwan away at all!
His previous arrogant demeanor in this main hall, threatening to kill and beat, acting domineering, and even using the life and death of the entire Xuandu Jiang family to force them into submission...
Was completely just him throwing around fake authority!
He simply saw that the Xuandu Jiang family was weak and was deliberately throwing his weight around and acting like a tyrant here.
He was trying to find a sense of power and authority of the main branch by stepping on them, the collateral relatives!
Faced with this villainous behavior, Jiang Qingwan had no more words to waste.
Her eyes suddenly turned cold, the disgust in her gaze almost overflowing.
She sharply raised her long, slender leg in a crisp and clean motion, once again ruthlessly kicking Jiang He right on his old face that was still trying to squeeze out a flattering smile.
"Bang!"
Accompanied by a muffled thud louder than before, Jiang He's face was mercilessly and precisely stomped back into the very same deep dirt pit by this unforgiving kick.
This time, Jiang Qingwan no longer suppressed the spiritual energy in her body.
The violently raging power of the Purple Heaven Lightning, several times more potent than the previous wave, surged madly into his body.
"Ahhh!!!"
Because this time she hadn't completely blocked his mouth with dirt to stop him from making a sound.
Under this terrifying lightning strike capable of tearing apart one's soul.
Jiang He finally managed to erupt from his throat a bloodcurdling scream, much like a pig being slaughtered.
Jiang Qingwan paid no mind to his ghost-like wailing and howling.
She looked down condescendingly at the Lord Envoy beneath her foot, who was constantly twitching and foaming at the mouth.
A cold smile slowly emerged on her breathtakingly beautiful face, her voice carrying endless mockery and killing intent:
"Since it didn't have to be me, what on earth were you pretending for earlier?"
