"I am asking you a question. Didn't you hear me?"
Lü Dandan's voice within the palace was utterly icy.
"My Queen, I know nothing. I am innocent," the steward gritted his teeth and spoke.
"Innocent of what? I haven't accused you of anything, and you're already blurting out a confession without any prompting? Speak. Confess honestly. Otherwise, you know my methods. I have countless ways to make you wish you were dead, to leave you trapped forever in a state of extreme agony."
Lü Dandan's voice grew even colder. The terrifying energy she released pressed down on the steward, forcing him to lie prostrate, completely unable to move.
"I'll talk, my Queen, I'll talk! Please don't kill me..."
Faced with Lü Dandan's dreadful authority, the steward finally could bear the immense pressure no longer. He began kowtowing repeatedly, crying out.
"Miss Lu, let me handle him," Ye Yunfei said to Lü Dandan.
"Very well. You deal with him," Lü Dandan nodded.
Ye Yunfei immediately executed his Soul Force Stars Technique. Over a dozen enormous soul force planets directly surged into the steward's sea of consciousness, beginning to forcefully devour his Soul Body.
Facing Ye Yunfei's terrifying soul force energy, the steward had no power to resist. He let out constant cries of pain and agony.
Soon, however, the sounds ceased entirely. His Soul Body had already been devoured by Ye Yunfei, leaving behind only a corpse.
With a wave of his hand, Ye Yunfei collected the corpse.
After devouring the steward's Soul Body, Ye Yunfei gained his memories. Through these memories, Ye Yunfei learned about some of his accomplices.
"As expected, quite a few traitors are still lurking within the Dark Faction headquarters," Ye Yunfei sent a sound transmission to Lü Dandan, informing her of the things he had learned from the steward's memories. "Moreover, some of these traitors have become your trusted aides. So, whenever you've made decisions or arrangements recently, after these traitors learned of them, they secretly passed the information out. Those three old traitors have also been using these infiltrators inside the headquarters to coordinate actions from within and without, interfering with and influencing various affairs within the Dark Faction."
"So that's how it is," Lü Dandan said after hearing Ye Yunfei's words. Her teeth ground together in fury, her face as cold as frost, causing the temperature within the palace to plummet instantly. "No wonder, lately, whenever I've been about to issue some decree, there have always been people jumping out to offer all sorts of suggestions. There were even a few times my original intentions were changed, and I ended up acting according to their proposals. Now, thinking back, those fellows must have been the pawns those three old men planted by my side."
Suddenly, Lü Dandan seemed to realize something. She looked at Ye Yunfei, a shocked expression on her face as she asked, "What kind of technique is that? You seem to be able to know what they're thinking in their hearts, even obtain their memories."
That steward who had just come in hadn't said anything at all, yet Ye Yunfei had known he was a traitor. And after devouring his Soul Body, he had learned even more.
Devouring a living being's Soul Body wasn't anything special to Lü Dandan; she could also easily devour others' Soul Bodies. However, actually *gaining* the memories or thoughts of another after devouring their Soul Body... that technique was a bit uncanny.
Under normal circumstances, devouring another being's Soul Body only allowed one to absorb the essence of their soul or their Soul Force energy. As for memories, thoughts, ideas, and consciousness—these were quite difficult to extract, unless one employed some highly advanced Soul Probing Art.
But when using Soul Probing Arts, one didn't devour the target's Soul Body; rather, one used sophisticated methods to forcibly peel away the relatively intangible things like memories, thoughts, and consciousness from the Soul Body.
Moreover, most Soul Probing Arts in the world could only extract some vague, incomplete, and limited fragments of memory from the target's soul.
A method like Ye Yunfei's, where he directly devoured the other's Soul Body and then immediately knew all their affairs... seemed far too bizarre.
"Because I once cultivated a special technique related to this," Ye Yunfei replied with a smile.
"Your skills are far superior to mine now," Lü Dandan couldn't help but sigh in admiration. Then, sensing the energy aura emanating from Ye Yunfei, she said in astonishment, "And I realize your current strength seems to have increased again compared to last time. You really are the same as before—the speed of your cultivation advancement leaves others in the dust."
"Miss Lu, your current strength should be greater than mine," Ye Yunfei chuckled. "You're the more impressive one, relatively speaking. No need to praise me."
"The reason I possess my current strength is because I obtained the Dark Heart. It's not something I achieved through my own cultivation. You're different. You improve continuously through your own cultivation; that is genuine talent and solid strength. My situation is a bit like cheating," Lü Dandan replied.
"Whatever the method, as long as it enhances one's strength, that's enough," Ye Yunfei said. "No matter which path one takes to improve, it's part of your opportunities and luck. And in the end, opportunities and luck are also part of your strength."
"That's true enough. As long as you can improve, there's no need to be fixated on which method," Lü Dandan conceded. "But regardless, you're still such a monstrous talent it leaves one speechless."
"Miss Lu, you can now summon all the known traitors here," Ye Yunfei said to Lü Dandan. "Leave them to me to deal with."
Soul Bodies and physical bodies of living beings were both precious cultivation resources for Ye Yunfei and Huang Shang.
"Good. I'll summon all these fellows now," Lü Dandan nodded. She then issued a command, summoning over a hundred members of the Dark Faction at once.
Once this group of Dark Faction members entered Lü Dandan's palace, Ye Yunfei immediately began using his Mind Reading Art to read their thoughts and intentions.
The result proved that the memories Ye Yunfei had obtained earlier from that steward were correct. Every single one of these Dark Faction members before them was a trusted aide planted within the headquarters by those three traitorous elders.
Ye Yunfei, of course, showed no mercy. He directly cast his Soul Force Stars Technique and began forcefully devouring the Soul Bodies of these traitors.
Among this group of over a hundred Dark Faction members, many were Heavenly Gods, some were True Gods, and even a few Virtual Gods. There wasn't a single Sovereign God.
Under the suppression of Lü Dandan's dark energy, these members lost the ability to move as soon as they entered the palace. Ye Yunfei then dealt with them all.
Some of their Soul Bodies were devoured by Ye Yunfei himself, while others were devoured by Huang Shang.
Huang Shang had been in seclusion within the Phantom Tower recently, with Ye Yunfei constantly refining various divine pills suitable for him. Ye Yunfei's alchemy skill had increased tremendously, and the pills he refined were extremely potent.
After consuming the divine pills Ye Yunfei had refined for him, Huang Shang felt he was on the verge of a breakthrough. Thus, he had been diligently cultivating in seclusion all this time.
Ye Yunfei sent a portion of the Soul Bodies he had obtained from these Dark Faction members into the Phantom Tower, giving them to Huang Shang as cultivation resources. Fresh, living Soul Bodies had special uses for ghost cultivators like Huang Shang.
As for the corpses of those Dark Faction members, Ye Yunfei also handed them all over to Huang Shang for disposal. The corpses, freshly deceased, contained fresh Corpse Energy, a rare and valuable cultivation resource for Huang Shang.
After devouring the memories of some of these traitors, Ye Yunfei obtained some new information.
"There are also several ordinary elders who were left in the Dark Faction headquarters by those three old traitors as their trusted men," Ye Yunfei told Lü Dandan everything he had just learned.
"Truly unbelievable!" Lü Dandan said through clenched teeth. "Those three old men left behind so many pawns within the headquarters after they left. It's fortunate you helped me find them all. Otherwise, they would inevitably have acted at some point, creating a hidden danger for our faction's security."
"To be precise," Ye Yunfei said, "these traitors had already conspired with those three old men. They planned to coordinate their actions from within and without, striking together when those three old men brought the allied forces of those major powers to deal with you."
"In that case," Lü Dandan frowned upon hearing Ye Yunfei's words, "besides the traitors you've just eliminated, there should be many more. Otherwise, these few alone could hardly cause any real harm to our headquarters."
"Yes," Ye Yunfei nodded. "They definitely have more accomplices. Just relying on the ones we dealt with earlier wouldn't amount to much; they wouldn't be able to form an effective inside-outside pincer."
"No matter how many there are, we'll root them all out!" Lü Dandan's expression darkened, her words chilling to the extreme. "Even if we have to wash the entire Dark Faction headquarters in blood, I won't hesitate!"
"Good. Keep summoning people," Ye Yunfei said.
"Reporting to the Dark Queen," a voice sounded from outside the palace gates just then. "Elder Wu has arrived."
"This Elder Wu is also a traitor," Ye Yunfei said to Lü Dandan. "He has secretly colluded with those three old men. What's more, Elder Wu broke through not long ago and became a Primary Stage Sovereign God."
"A mere Primary Stage Sovereign God is nothing," Lü Dandan nodded.
At that moment, an elder shrouded entirely in a black robe had arrived outside the palace gates. He stopped before the entrance, a flicker of hesitation showing on his face.