You don't want your secret to be revealed by others, right?

"Hum—"

Invisible spatial fluctuations enveloped the area, and just before Lin Yue was teleported by these fluctuations into Grotto Heaven, he suddenly flipped his hand and took out a small, delicate silver disc.

"Prepared in advance, there are probably quite a few people waiting for me outside..." he thought to himself.

The next moment, his vision went dark abruptly.

Then, Lin Yue found himself high above Di Hong City, cloaked in the darkness of night, and quickly activated the Wind Element Floating to stabilize himself.

Other than him, there appeared cultivators one after another who had also entered Grotto Heaven.

However, what was most surprising were the figures in the distant night sky, each radiating an overwhelming presence!

That mysterious river, imbued with a dull yellow glow, carried the aloof Princess of Eternal Silence and her children, all reflecting an equally detached and lifeless demeanor.

Not far away, an avatar that exuded a gentle and scholarly demeanor was the Twelfth Prince.

Near the Twelfth Prince, there was the Duke Heng, whose hair was turning white and whose aura was as dark as the night descending.

In the northern high skies, the middle-aged man in a black official robe and a high crown embroidered with purple lightning was none other than the Chief Punishment Officer of the Heavenly Punishment Department.

The strikingly handsome man in a red robe standing in the western skies, with a might far surpassing that of an ordinary Great Cultivator, was Wei Tianxian, the Head of the Qingtian Bureau.

To the south were Shangguan Wuxiu from the Heaven Patrol Alliance and a Left Director of the Clan Affairs Office whom Lin Yue had seen before.

These figures were at least the true power players of Di Hong City. On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month during court audiences, Lin Yue had personally seen these people, and Duke Heng had introduced them one by one, so naturally, he could clearly distinguish them.

"What a grand assembly," Lin Yue sighed inwardly, "It seems to be all because of the death of the Imperial Grandson of Netherworld Guest."

Although he had killed an heir of Duke Heng and a Purple Cloud Envoy from the Heaven Patrol Alliance, those two alone could not possibly draw so many important figures of the current era.

At that moment, he suddenly noticed the gentle gaze of the Twelfth Prince, looking at him with a semi-smiling expression.

Has he recognized me? Lin Yue speculated faintly.

Nevertheless, he was unconcerned.

As long as there was no definitive evidence proving that he, the severed mountain Yama, was the Seventeenth Prince, suspicions, no matter how many, were futile.

"Hmm?"

The eyes of the Princess of Eternal Silence swept across the cultivators who had just exited Grotto Heaven, her gaze suddenly locking onto one person.

She reached out with her slender hand and grabbed, immediately pulling a man in a grey robe from the crowd, suspended in front of her.

"Tian Li is dead, yet you live?" said the Princess of Eternal Silence in a faint voice.

"Your Highness Princess of Eternal Silence, it is my incompetence," the man in the grey robe bowed his head, "Please grant me death to atone for my sins."

"After I perform a Soul Search, I will give you a chance for reincarnation."

With a flick of the Princess of Eternal Silence's fingertip, a surge of Netherworld River water crashed into the grey-robed man's body, dissolving his physical form into nothingness. The Netherworld water continued to wash over his Divine Soul, extracting memories piece by piece.

The onlookers could not see these memories; they could only wait in silence.

After a long while.

The Princess of Eternal Silence glanced at Lin Yue amidst the crowd, and then she spoke in a faint voice, "The one who killed my child is the ringleader who had secretly schemed to destroy the National Guardian Array of Great Yong sixty-seven years ago. He is known as the Star Lord."

"The Star Lord?"

"The mastermind behind the destruction of the National Guardian Array?"

"The disturbance in the National Guardian Array that occurred years ago was actually man-made?"

"No wonder the National Guardian Array suddenly fluctuated sixty-seven years ago..."

Upon hearing her words, most of the people present, except for a very few, were gravely shocked.

Sixty-seven years ago, when the disturbance occurred in the National Guardian Array, the major demon clans of Eternal Night launched simultaneous attacks on Great Yong's numerous Heroic Passes, and the God Emperor descended to the Human World for inspection, known as the Emperor's Inspection, in order to repair the Divine Array.

Who would have thought... that the source of it all was man-made?

The Star Lord?

Who was this outrageously rebellious culprit?

Lin Yue was also taken aback; he hadn't expected the person known as the Star Lord to be so wildly audacious.

"The Star Lord is the prime source of calamity in Great Yong," continued the Princess of Eternal Silence indifferently, "Back then, Father Emperor and the Crown Prince had tasked me with investigating the matter. As I followed the trail, I identified a few individuals associated with Star Lord who had managed to destroy the Divine Array. Their remnants of Saintly Souls had reincarnated, and after being pursued and nearly destroyed by the Star Lord, they barely escaped with a wisp of soul. I used every means at my disposal to catch a hint of the Star Lord's tracks."

"However, to avoid alerting him prematurely, I did not make it public. I only informed my three children, asking them to help me trace the Star Lord."

Her gaze swept over those who had come out of Grotto Heaven, "My son, upon discovering the Star Lord, surmised that since the Star Lord dared to appear, he might have the capability to annihilate everyone within Grotto Heaven along with their Divine Souls. Therefore, he took the initiative to reveal the Star Lord's identity, but he did not anticipate that the Star Lord would still use the power of Grotto Heaven to kill him."

The crowd suspended in midair fell silent, the only sound being the whistling of the night wind.

So...

The one who killed Xiahong Tianli was the Star Lord?

"Dare I ask the Princess of Eternal Silence," interjected the Chief Punishment Officer of the Heavenly Punishment Department, "only those at the Four Symbols Level of Cultivation may enter the previous era's Middle Cave Heaven. The Star Lord, capable of annihilating a Saint to the point of leaving only a remnant soul, must at least be a Saint himself. How did he manage to enter this Grotto Heaven?"

"The specifics are unclear," replied the Princess of Eternal Silence lightly, "Based on the fragmented memories we have collected so far, the Star Lord possesses a miraculous ability to create thousands of Star God avatars. The lesser avatars are merely at the level of the Five Elements Heavenly Barrier, but the stronger ones are comparable to Saints. The one that entered the Middle Cave Heaven is an avatar at the level of the Four Symbols."

The Chief Punishment Officer of the Heavenly Punishment Department frowned and said, "The grave sin of murdering an Imperial Grandson is enough to provoke Heavenly Punishment. How is it that him remains unscathed?"