"Fifth Brother! Brother Fedor! You..." Ingdra could not imagine that the Holy Consort would be so heartless, not only to kill the people in Leeyu Troupe so cruelly, but to punish Fedor, the messenger of her son Red Phoenix! His heart was broken. Finally, he could not bear it any longer and cried and begged, "Your Highness... I beg you... please let them go! I am willing to take all the punishment! If there are any grievances, let them all be paid for by me!"
The Holy Consort glanced at the last two prisoners in the square, then turned her gaze back to the white figure hanging from the Divine Tree and said with a cold snort, "Since they are all dead, why spare the remaining two." With those words, she gave the torturers the order, "Wayde to cut out the heart and Pulley to pick out the bones!"
Sixth brother Wayde was quite frail and timid. The blazing sun and the bloody torture scenes had long since caused him to faint, and the torturers had little trouble presenting a small, delicate scarlet heart to Lord Peacock.
Lord Peacock picked up the fish heart with two fingers, examined it for a moment and then, to everyone's amazement, swallowed it. "I've heard that Wayde's flesh can cure madness. Having just tried it, I believe it is indeed the most delicious thing in Roxy Heaven!"
The youngest brother Pulley was all teary and helpless. When his eldest brother Teague was killed, he was already scared out of his wits. He simply mumbled "big brother" over and over again, losing all strength to resist and completely at the mercy of the torturers. Like the others, he was struck by a thunderbolt and revealed his true form. His long, snake-like body, so soft as if it had no bones, lay on the execution platform and was dissected alive, inch by inch, in front of Ingdra. When all the bones had been separated from the flesh, he too was thrown into the Dead Sea.
"All six sinners of Leeyu Troupe have been executed. I ask Your Highness to decide what to do with this dragon, the last remaining sinner."
Seeing that the punishment of Pulley had been completed, that Herro had died after being scaled, and they had both been thrown into the River Ruo, Lord Peacock came before the Holy Consort to report on his duties.
The Holy Consort gave a slight nod to Lord Peacock, and with a flash of golden light she had disappeared from the viewing platform and reappeared beneath the Divine Tree. Her immaculate embroidered shoes stepped on the blood-soaked ground as she walked up to Ingdra, cupped his chin, scrutinised his perfect, delicate but almost transparent face and smiled smugly, "Teague was right. You are all just scapegoats. To hold you responsible for the war is a great exaggeration of your importance. The lives of a bunch of mermen are as worthless as grass seeds in my eyes, so I could have spared them. Unfortunately, they adopted you. Your masters and brothers, their greatest sin was to have been kind to you, so they must die!"
"Why? Why? What have I done to make you hate...me so much? …" Having lost his six brothers so suddenly and cruelly, Ingdra felt completely broken, both physically and emotionally. His body almost drained off all blood and the tears dried up in his eyes.
"Why? Because of your damned mother, that mermaid bitch! How dare she seduce His Majesty the Holy Emperor and give birth to a bastard like you!"
A burning red lotus appeared in the Holy Consort's eyes as she gripped Ingdra's jaw tighter and tighter, as if she wanted to crush his beautiful chin.
"You were born full of sin, the bastard son of a low caste bitch! You are destined to wreak havoc in our world! Your brothers who were down in River Ruo may still be reincarnated in the Other World, but you - I will make you disappear like ashes and smoke! I will destroy you forever!"
With these words, the Holy Consort exerted all her magical power and was about to use the forbidden art, Fire of Rolling Thunder, to destroy Ingdra's form and spirit! With the movement of her palm, a flash of lightning accompanied by a rumble of heavenly thunder, tumbled violently towards little Ingdra. At this critical moment, the Divine Tree shook up and the huge branch on which the little dragon hung blocked the forbidden spell and was cut off by the thunder, sinking into the water below along with the little dragon on the rope, disappearing without a splash.
This turn of events also surprised the Holy Consort. Have I mishandled the forbidden art? She wondered. The tree that had lost its branches had returned to normal, as if nothing had happened. After pondering for a long time at the still water, unable to understand the reason for this, she asked Lord Peacock, "Is Ingdra dead? Will he ever return to the Roxy Heaven?"
Lord Peacock pondered for a moment and responded, "Your Highness, the dragon has wings and is not an ordinary Scale clansman. Even if he is stranded in the Other World, I fear he is bound to be an extraordinary person. Given time and a few reincarnations, perhaps he will eventually ride the clouds..."
"You mean that not only did he not die, but he also went to an unknown world. What should I do...How can I eliminate the root of the problem?"
"He is bound by the dragon rope and will surely sink into the River Ruo, severing his spiritual consciousness and falling into the Other World, so he will have no memory of the Great Roxy Heaven. Your Highness, if you are so worried, you can send me across the River Ruo to look for him. I think he will be confined to the Other World as a mere mortal, so what is there to fear? When the time comes, I will use some means to keep him in constant tribulation to make him suffer endlessly outside of the Roxy Heaven!"
"That's good!" The smile returned to the eyes of the Holy Consort of the Great Roxy Heaven, "Since he has escaped the fate of being turned into ashes and smoke, let him reincarnate in the Other World for a thousand of lifetimes, preferably for all eternity, and remain the most miserable and lowest being in that world, suffering humiliation and torment, and never returning to the Great Roxy Heaven!"