"Alright, let’s focus on what’s important! He doesn’t have the right... equipment to give birth. If we delay any longer, he’s going to be permanently damaged!"

Just as the Pig Emperor was about to say something more, Mo Qi pointed at Nangong An, who was already rolling on the ground in agony, and said with a straight face.

’Tch, as if you care whether this old geezer gets crippled or not.’

The Pig Emperor pursed its lips and thought to itself, but didn’t say it out loud.

"Hey, nephew, think you can let go of me now?" Mo Qi asked with a smile, patting the shoulder of the panic-stricken Li Yuanhao.

Far from letting go, Li Yuanhao clamped onto both of Mo Qi’s legs, one with each arm, wedged his head between them, and shook it back and forth violently.

This...

Mo Qi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

’Are you still the same domineering Young Prince of the Kaosan?’

’If anyone from the Imperial City saw this, wouldn’t their eyes pop out of their sockets?’ 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Alright, alright. Go rest on that rock for a bit. You’ll be fine soon."

Mo Qi forcibly pried Li Yuanhao’s hands loose, then kicked him in the rear, sending him flying onto the large rock.

He knew Li Yuanhao was acting this way because his mind, shattered by the Pig Emperor’s voice, had yet to recover. Coupled with the turmoil in his Sea of Consciousness, his thoughts were in chaos, causing him to instinctively resort to such childish behavior.

One could only imagine how embarrassed Li Yuanhao would be when he came to his senses and remembered this.

"Aargh! This pain is killing me!"

At that moment, Nangong An’s hair was disheveled, his entire body was drenched in sweat, and his face was drained of all color.

His stomach was so swollen it nearly reached his chest, and blue veins, like writhing earthworms, covered his skin. It looked as if it could burst at any moment.

"How are you feeling?" Mo Qi asked with a wide smile, walking up to Nangong An.

Nangong An’s mouth hung open as he panted heavily, barely managing to lift his head.

"Kill... kill me!"

The plea for death escaped his lips with great difficulty.

"I can’t do that," Mo Qi said, shaking his head. "I still have a lot of things to ask you."

After speaking, he silently added, ’If you’re to be killed, I’ll let Liu Hui do it.’

"I’ll tell you everything! Everything I know! I’m begging you, just stop this, please don’t torture me anymore." Nangong An kowtowed repeatedly to Mo Qi, his forehead slamming against the ground with a series of THUDS.

Faced with a difficult labor, even a powerful expert like Nangong An, who had weathered countless storms, couldn’t help but beg for mercy.

The most crucial part was that he hadn’t heard the conversation between the Pig Emperor and Li Yuanhao, so he had absolutely no idea what was wrong with him.

Mo Qi had anticipated this outcome.

The Obsidian Kitchen Knife materialized. With a swift motion, Mo Qi brought it down.

SLOSH!

Nangong An was instantly disemboweled, and a series of fleshy, humanoid lumps tumbled out.

Blood pooled on the ground and his entrails were exposed. The scene was incredibly gruesome.

And yet, a look of relief appeared on Nangong An’s face.

’Finally, relief!’

He passed his hands over his sliced-open stomach, using what little True Essence he had left to stop the bleeding and partially close the wound.

"Speak. Tell me about all the deals and conspiracies between you and the Hall of Envoys."

Mo Qi flicked the knife. The blade hummed, its pitch-black surface gleaming, completely unstained by blood.

Leaning against a rock, Nangong An took a long look at Mo Qi, then at the little girl, Yan, and finally at the main culprit, the Pig Emperor.

He sighed and said with a self-deprecating laugh, "To call them ’deals’ is generous. It was more like I was proactively trying to curry favor, and in the end... Heh! Pathetic. Utterly pathetic!"

Mo Qi frowned. "A reminder: I’m not here to listen to you vent. Any more of this nonsense, and I have no problem putting you through a hundred times more pain than before."

’If the Nether Soul Flame hadn’t fallen into a slumber after absorbing the Secret Realm Soul, making it temporarily unusable against a Void Realm expert, I wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble.’

"Fine. It all started eleven years ago... At that time..."

As Nangong An spoke, Mo Qi gradually lost interest.

It was just as Nangong An had said at the beginning—it had been entirely one-sided, with him desperately trying to curry favor.

Not only did he not know why the people from the Hall of Envoys had appeared eleven years ago, he didn’t even have a basic understanding of the organization.

Basically, whenever the Hall of Envoys was mentioned, he was completely clueless.

And with the Hall of Envoys appearing again this time, he still had no idea what their purpose was.

In other words, after everything Nangong An had done—from offering up Nangong Yan to ordering the Wuji Sect to hunt down and capture thousands of young women—all he had gotten in return was a fragmented Yin Yang Cultivation Technique and a verbal promise.

There wasn’t a single shred of information about his mother, which was what Mo Qi truly wanted to know.

"Enough!" Mo Qi cut Nangong An off. There was no need to hear any more.

If he weren’t planning on handing Nangong An over to Liu Hui for judgment, Mo Qi would have annihilated him with a single slap right then and there.

"No, he’s lying!" the Pig Emperor suddenly interjected.

"Logically speaking, this old fool couldn’t have gotten that Yin Yang Cultivation Technique from the Hall of Envoys any earlier than eleven years ago. But he targeted Liu Hui’s mother many years before that! The timeline doesn’t add up. There’s a gap of at least twenty years!"

Mo Qi froze. That was right. Nangong An had put Liu Hui’s mother on a "maiden-grooming plan"!

That was more than thirty years ago!

But the Hall of Envoys only appeared eleven years ago. If Nangong An only got the cultivation technique then, how could he have predicted the situation in advance?

The only explanation was that Nangong An had lied!

"You dare lie to me!" Mo Qi roared.

However, Nangong An’s eyes also widened in utter disbelief.

"How could this be? Liu Hui’s mother... eleven years ago... Why? Why doesn’t the timeline match?! Wait! Why can’t I remember the specific details of when I got the cultivation technique?! No, no, no, this is all wrong!"

Nangong An suddenly clutched his head and began to pound it with his fists.

Mo Qi and the Pig Emperor exchanged a look. What kind of act was this now?

Faking amnesia?

’He wouldn’t be that childish, would he?’

"Pig Emperor, what do you think?" Mo Qi asked.

"He’s not faking it," the Pig Emperor said confidently, stroking its chin.

"What makes you say that?" Mo Qi asked.

"When I stimulated the vitality in his body just now, I vaguely sensed a hidden, obscure power in his mind. I think it’s related to his current state."

"Are you saying someone tampered with him? Altered his memory?" Mo Qi realized.

"Most likely," the Pig Emperor nodded. "Even with your Nine Transformations into Spirit and its understanding of lifeforms, you couldn’t see the problem with him. That means whoever did this is anything but simple."

Mo Qi fell into deep thought.

He had been so focused on his mother before that he had overlooked the inconsistencies in Nangong An’s story. Luckily, the Pig Emperor had found the flaw.

Now that he had calmed down to think, he quickly analyzed many things.

First, it definitely wasn’t the Hall of Envoys who tampered with Nangong An, because there was no need for them to do so.

Furthermore, considering Nangong An’s own power and his status in the Mountain and Sea Empire...

...the only ones capable of manipulating him without his knowledge would be either the Royal Li Family or some expert from one of the other Six Great Clans.