Chapter 1103: Turn the Nie Family Ancestor into a Human Skin Lantern

"......."My beloved, don't be afraid. Once the Astronomical Officials arrive, the curse can be broken. Then I will find the real culprit and punish them severely!!!!"

As he spoke.

The Astronomical Officials hadn't arrived, but Deputy Commander of Chiye, Ding Baiting, had come here first.

The moment he entered the courtyard, he saw this horrific tragedy.

Instantly, he thought of what Lu Ding had said earlier.

They'd already made their move this quickly!!!?

He gained a new, clear understanding of Lu Ding's decisiveness.

Ding Baiting didn't dare waste any time. He quickly stepped forward.

"Your Majesty, please stop."

As soon as those words left his mouth.

Ding Baiting immediately felt a wave of kingly pressure crashing down on him like a tsunami and an avalanche.

A king's aura—there was definitely something to it.

But Ding Baiting, who had previously experienced Lu Ding's oppressive presence, actually felt at this moment that the kingly pressure, which used to shake his heart and soul and was so hard to resist, was... was not as terrifying as Lu Ding's....

Still, Ding Baiting knelt down.

"Your Majesty, our intelligence collection is insufficient to meet Lu Ding's needs for his external pacification campaign. He requires more detailed information, or alternatively, he can gather it himself through battle, but that would require our kingdom to allocate some mineral resources to Great Han unconditionally."

"His exact words were..."

Ding Baiting recounted his conversation with Lu Ding in full detail.

But the Nanshan King, who was in no mood to listen right now, couldn't care less: "Lu Ding, Lu Ding, I don't want to hear about Lu Ding right now! Can you not see, Minister, that Consort Nie's life force is flickering like a candle in the wind!?"

Yin Aosi's words weren't flattery. The Nanshan King was truly devoted, yet equally fickle.

Whether as an emperor or a lover, he never excelled, but he was better than the worst and worse than the best.

Mediocre in comparison.

Ding Baiting sighed. "Your Majesty, Consort Nie's current condition was caused by Lu Ding."

"What!!!?"

"How dare he! This is Nanshan Kingdom! Consort Nie is my beloved concubine!!!?"

The Nanshan King was furious.

Ding Baiting continued, "To answer Your Majesty, Lu Ding possesses a secret technique called the Four Pillar Divine Calamity. It can wipe out an entire clan, leaving no descendants. Anyone with blood ties—not a single one can escape..."

Hearing this, the Nanshan King instantly calmed down.

"So, the one who received the pillar is..."

Ding Baiting lowered his head. "Nie Shen..."

"Your servant estimates that Lu Ding has already reached the Nie Family."

The Nanshan King sucked in a cold breath and slowly turned to look at Consort Nie, who was sitting cross-legged, stabilizing her last flickering life force.

At that moment.

Nie's mother, who was unaffected, crawled to the Nanshan King's feet. "Your Majesty, our Nie Family has been utterly loyal to you! Your Majesty, please, save the Nie Family!"

"You love Consort Nie the most, don't you, Your Majesty?"

"Our Nie Family, all these years, for you..."

The expression on Nie's mother's face froze forever. A hint of terror in her eyes, her head shot into the air, blood spurting everywhere.

The Nanshan King slowly crouched down. Nie's mother's head fell heavily to the ground, rolling away with a thud.

He reached out and held Nie Ping, whose life force was flickering weakly.

"My beloved... I cherish you the most. For you, I can tolerate the Nie Family, tolerate them endlessly."

"But... you also need to understand me. The situation forces my hand. Lu Ding knows this technique, and I truly don't dare to gamble. What if he... sigh..."

The threat of Lu Ding's secret art was too great. What if he used it on the royal family one day?

If the same bloodline suffered...

Then the Nanshan Kingdom's royal family would be finished!

The Nanshan King didn't dare to gamble, nor did he dare to choose to offend Lu Ding. Lu Ding was like a collection of weapons of mass destruction—the more you learned about him, the more you feared him.

So.

The Nanshan King could only abandon this beloved concubine.

His final act of tenderness was to let Nie Ping die by his own hand.

To spare her the agony of torture.

Crack...

His arms, wrapped around the woman, suddenly tightened. The Nanshan King personally ended the woman's last breath of life, letting her die in his arms.

Unnoticed.

A single, clear tear rolled down the corner of his eye.

The Nanshan King stood up, his expression reverting to that of a king—an imposing figure without needing to show anger.

"Bring them. Follow me to the Nie Family!!"

The Nanshan King never considered romantic love to be mere personal sentiment. He saw it as romance, so he would do his best to give his most beloved concubine of the moment the right to be willful. This was love.

Although his love never lasted, every single love of his was given with all he had.

But being in a high position left you with no choice.

Though he wasn't a particularly brilliant wise ruler, he understood well that his ability to pursue so-called romance was largely due to his status.

So, to be able to continue pursuing romance in the future, he had to ensure the stability of his position.

As for this terminated relationship, it would become the Nanshan King's regret, to be sentimentalized and reminisced about in the quiet of the night—commonly known as being emo.

Ding Baiting let out a long sigh. He was truly afraid His Majesty would act on impulse.

But fortunately, when faced with major principles, His Majesty was still wise.

Meanwhile.

On the other side.

The Nie Family. Dark clouds hung overhead.

Nie Shen, half-dead, was held in Gongyang Qingrou's grasp, three black pillars piercing his body.

The once-glorious Nie Family was now a scene of rubble and ruin everywhere, the battle devastating.

Even the ancestral shrine had been flattened.

On the old master's chair, once exclusive to the Nie Family ancestor, Lu Ding now sat.

And the Nie Family's God Ascension ancestor lay like a dead dog, pinned to the ground by a war spear, forced to watch as Qin Jinghao raised his butcher's knife, carrying out humiliating executions on one Nie Family member after another.

Lu Ding's oppressive presence blanketed the entire scene, rendering everyone immobile.

Only the endless screams, cries, and curses echoed.

"Stop it!!!! Stop it now!!!! Enough!!! Enough!!! No more killing!!!"

"Big Brother!!!"

"Dad..."

"Mom!!!!!"

"Lu Ding, you'll die a horrible death!!!!"

The Nie Family ancestor's face was streaked with tears of old age. "Lu Ding!!!! You've gone far enough!!! Death is just a matter of a single cut! I killed the Miaodao Sect's leader! I tore down the Miaodao Sect's protective mountain formation! If you have any guts, kill me first!!!"

As he shouted, he saw the Nanshan King and his entourage flying swiftly toward them from the horizon.

A mournful cry, as if pouring out endless grievances: "Your Majesty!!!!"

The Nanshan King's heart tightened at the sight of the Nie Family's tragic scene.

He landed. Before he could speak.

Lu Ding, seated on the old master's chair, put down his crossed legs and stepped on the Nie Family ancestor's head. "You old fossil who refuses to die, still have so much energy?"

"Don't worry, your turn will come. See that over there?"

Lu Ding pointed at the small wooden sign where Wang Qingge was absorbing the souls of the dead. "Your clansmen are all inside."

"A while back, I learned a secret technique in the Baoji Kingdom called the Human Skin Lantern. I'll be using it on you soon."

It was a Minor Spell that had dropped when Lu Ding used Golden Ao Island's area attack on the Baoji Kingdom's Royal Capital.

"Once Qin Jinghao has finished killing all your clansmen one by one, I'll keep your life force source alive and have him hollow out your internal organs, flesh, and bones. Then, with green bamboo as the skeleton, I'll prop up your skin."

"I'll shape it into a lantern, stuff all your clansmen inside, leave a wick of True Samadhi Fire, and burn you day and night, letting you all feel the agony."

The Nanshan King, hearing this, called out, "Lu Ding."

Lu Ding waved his hand. "I'm not done yet. Don't interrupt."

An emperor?

Even an emperor has to wait his turn here!!

Lu Ding spoke with enthusiasm. "The burning pain from this fire will gradually weaken, but after a certain point, you'll have to pick another clansman to become fuel for the wick fire. With new fuel added, the fire will burn fiercely, making you feel intense burning pain. Then I'll set a program for it."

"If you pick the fuel yourselves, it'll last a bit longer. But if you don't pick in time, it'll grab one on its own, but that fuel will burn quickly, the fire will be huge, and the pain will be excruciating—several times more intense than if you'd picked the fuel yourselves."

Lu Ding laughed. "Then you'll not only have to endure the physical pain of your souls being roasted day and night, but also the psychological torment of personally choosing clansmen to send to their deaths."

"Until their living souls are all burned up as fuel, and you watch them suffer through every torment, never to be reborn. Only then will it be your turn, hahahahahaha..."

"Qin Jinghao, what do you think of my idea!?"

"We can even use the Human Skin Lantern as an artifact for you later. You can carry it and unleash flames to burn others. It'll just speed up the consumption of their living souls and make them feel even more pain."

Qin Jinghao, his face stained with blood, turned around, grinning like a demon crawling out of hell.

He lifted his blade. "I'm so conflicted, Grand Guardian. Do I use it or not? I want them to feel more pain, but I don't want them to disappear inside too soon."

Lu Ding thought about it for a moment. "Well, that's your problem."

The Nie Family ancestor roared, "You beast, Lu Ding, you absolute beast!!!! Using such a cruel and inhuman method, you'll be punished for this!!!!"

Lu Ding laughed wildly and arrogantly. The mere sound of his laughter made the earth tremble and the ground crack open. "Hahahahahaha... So you do know there's such a thing as retribution in this world."

"Well, isn't that perfect? This is exactly the retribution for you senselessly annihilating the Miaodao Sect. You'd better take it well."

The Nie Family ancestor, half-crazed with rage, blurted out, "But my Nie Family only destroyed the Miaodao Sect! We didn't torture them!!!!"

So righteous-sounding—it left people speechless.

Should we thank you for that?

Lu Ding leaned down slightly. "When you loan something out, you have to collect interest. You can't expect me to come all the way here just to settle scores like a child, can you?"

He turned his head to look at the Nanshan King. "Don't you agree, Your Majesty, the venerable Emperor of Nanshan?"

...

I'll write an extra thousand words. Once I finish up the physical book matters, I'll add more chapters. Thank you all, my dear readers, for your support.