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The imperial palace.
Emperor Zhou stroked the cold armrests of the imperial throne as if hoping to calm the waves within his heart.
Not far away, Hong Shenshang stood there like a pine tree, just as quiet as in the past.
However, there was a lingering, overcast air about him.
“Before the duel began, I’m afraid that Lonely River, Yun Zhongqi, and the other fogies planned to seize the opportunity to seize Su Yi’s good fortune as soon as he was defeated. Who would have thought that in the end, Su Yi… actually won?” After a while, the emperor sighed.
“Furthermore, he won so beautifully, and with such ease, without suffering even the slightest injury. Those old-timers must surely be disappointed?” As he spoke, he fixed his gaze on Hong Shenshang and asked with great interest, “State Preceptor, how do you think Su Hongli feels about all this?”
Hong Shenshang shook his head. “Su Hongli is no longer the Su Hongli I once knew, and he hasn’t been for quite some time. I cannot fathom his thoughts.”
He paused, then muttered, “But there is one thing I can say for sure: the strength Su Yi revealed today at Nine Millet Mountain was surely beyond Su Hongli’s expectations. He’ll have no choice but to take Su Yi seriously now.”
The Zhou Emperor nodded, then asked another question. “When the fourth comes, and father and son clash, who do you think will smile in the end?”
Hong Shenshang’s golden eyes turned toward Emperor Zhou. “Your Majesty, whichever side you choose to support has the greatest chance of victory.”
The emperor sighed. “It would be wonderful if things really were that simple.”
“Your Majesty, the first prince requests an audience.” A high-pitched, respectful voice rang out from beyond the grand hall.
“Let him in,” said the emperor. He glanced at Hong Shenshang. “See? This matter has alerted even those old-timers.”
Hong Shenshang said nothing.
Before long, a handsome young man in gray walked into the hall and bowed. “Your son greets you, Imperial Father.”
He had the bearing of a dragon or phoenix, and he wore his hair in a Daoist topknot. He was elegantly handsome and looked above mundanity.
This was the eldest prince, Zhou Zhiqian.
If you were to describe any of the princes as “mysterious,” it would be him.
The reason for this was simple: he’d been sent to Unknown Dragon Mountain to cultivate at a young age, and in the years that followed, he seldom made an appearance or ventured into the mundane world.
“You’ve finally come to see us.” Emperor Zhou’s expression was conflicted.
When his eldest son was still just a swaddled infant, he caught the Unknown Dragons’ attention. They said his talent was exceptional, and that he was innately extraordinary, a good seedling for cultivation.
Thus, before he was even a month old, they took him to Unknown Dragon Mountain, the place where the Unknown Dragons cultivated.
In the blink of an eye, twenty-five years passed.
Although Zhou Zhiqian was his son, the emperor could count the number of times he’d seen him on his fingers.
Thus, when he saw his dignified, elegant, and aloof eldest son stand there in silence, the emperor of the Great Zhou couldn’t help but feel exasperated.
This was estrangement.
They might be father and son, but when they met, they were as distant as a lord and his minister!
“Tell us, why have you come?” asked Emperor Zhou.
Only then did Zhou Zhiqian say, “Reporting to Imperial Father, the grand elder requests that you proceed to Unknown Dragon Mountain for an audience.”
The emperor’s eyes narrowed. “Did the grand elder say why?”
Zhou Zhiqian was silent.
Emperor Zhou snorted coldly, “You are our flesh and blood, yet you dare not even tell us something like this?”
His expression was dark and seething with rage. The atmosphere within the hall was instantly oppressive.
However, it was as if Zhou Zhiqian didn’t even notice. He just said evenly, “The grand elder has given his orders. I dare not act presumptuously.”
When he saw that the emperor was about to say something, Hong Shenshang stepped in. “Your Majesty, please don’t make things difficult on the boy. Since the grand elder has extended an invitation, you’ll know once you visit.”
The emperor sighed, then waved. “Go on. Go back and tell the grand elder that we’ll be there in two hours.”
Zhou Zhiqian clasped his fist, turned, and left. From beginning to end, he rigidly adhered to a minister’s rules of etiquette. However, seeing this only made the emperor’s heart ache.
“Does cultivating in pursuit of the Dao require severing the bond between father and son? How could the Dao of this world possibly be so cruel?” he said with indignation.
“Your Majesty, please remain calm,” said Hong Shenshang softly. “Compared to Su Hongli and Su Yi, your relationship isn’t bad at all.”
The emperor was briefly stunned. Then, he said with an air of self-depreciation, “Su Hongli dares kill his wife and even his own son. I have to admit it; I might be the emperor, but he’s far colder and more callous than me.”
“Your Majesty, as your minister, I suggest your primary concern at the moment should be what the Unknown Dragons wish to discuss with you,” said Hong Shenshang.
“What else could it be?” laughed the emperor coldly. “It’s naturally about Su Yi! Unless I mistake my guess, they’ve set their sights on whatever fortune the boy is hiding too.”
“Then how do you plan to resolve this?” asked Hong Shenshang.
The emperor sat upright on his throne, his gaze heavy. “In the eyes of the populace, I am the emperor of the Great Zhou, the one who stands atop the nation. They see the throne as limitless glory. Who among them knows that, in truth, a mountain weighs down on my head at all times?”
He said with an air of resentment, “If not for that mountain, how could I possibly have remained trapped in the Xiantian Martial Ancestor Realm for over twenty years?”
He then pointed at the throne behind him, his tone icy. “They told us that sitting upon this throne meant casting aside all aspirations of pursuing the Dao.
“They told us that using the faith power of the masses to establish our Dao would affect the prosperity of the nation, and that their faith would restrict the Great Zhou’s imperial clan,” said the emperor, his gaze deep and flashing with hatred. “Yet they’ve spent years on Unknown Dragon Mountain, cultivating with the masses’ faith power day and night!”
“As if that weren’t enough, they want us to act as their puppet and gather the nation’s cultivation resources on their behalf!” The emperor’s expression was terrifyingly dark. “The nation’s wealth and the power of the people’s faith is all going to them, the Unknown Dragons, to help realize their pursuit of the Dao… Is it even possible to satisfy their greed?”
His voice shook the hall, but Hong Shenshang said nothing.
He knew that this was a sore point for the emperor. It had irked him, like a needle pricking his heart, ever since his coronation. His resentment had only built up over time.
After a while, the emperor took a deep breath, and his eyes flashed. “If they want to get involved, let them!”
It was then that a certain phrase popped into Hong Shenshang’s mind. When the snipe and the clam fight, it’s the fisherman who profits.
Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.
……
A banquet was underway at Pinewind Villa.
Mountain-Subduing King Mu Xi, Pu Yi, Jiang Tianyun, Lu Zhangfeng, and numerous others were in attendance, drinking and reveling alongside Su Yi. The atmosphere was harmonious.
Although any one of these guests could shake the Great Zhou, when they faced Su Yi, they spoke with instinctive, deep-rooted respect and awe.
Others saw the morning’s duel as an event grand enough to shake the entire nation.
However, to those who’d chosen to stand in Su Yi’s camp, this was unquestionable proof that they’d chosen correctly!
Admittedly, even now, numerous mighty existences viewed Su Yi with enmity, but Mu Xi and the others were nowhere near as worried for him as they’d been before.
During their conversation, Su Yi learned that after cultivating the Perceiving Profundity Yang Sutra, Mu Xi was already close to becoming an Earthly Immortal. He was only off by a hair.
This was naturally wonderful news.
By the time the banquet ended, it was already late at night. Su Yi’s allies bade farewell and left.
Su Yi, meanwhile, returned to his room and sat before his desk. He gripped Silversnow and sank deep into thought.
Today, atop Nine Millet Mountain, as he clashed with You Tianhong, he picked up on the strange fluctuation of a mysterious treasure.
It was just the barest trace of energy. It was subtle, but it seemed like it was trying to pry into Su Yi’s own secrets.
Fortunately, its attempt to spy ended in failure. The Sword of the Nine Hells protecting his soul quickly shattered the offending treasure into nothingness.
Although this was only a minor interlude, it put Su Yi on guard. He realized that today, on Nine Millet Mountain, someone had attempted to see through his secrets!
“Was it him…?” Su Yi thought back to several days ago, when he returned from the Green Prayer Mountains and had a brief staredown with Su Hongli.
At the time, someone else had been hiding in the darkness. Whoever they were, they’d used some secret technique in an attempt to investigate him.
It seemed something similar had happened again today!
However, this time, the power attempting to investigate him came from some utterly mysterious secret treasure. It stirred even the Sword of the Nine Hells into immediate action.
If it really was someone working for Su Hongli, I imagine Su Hongli has already started to suspect that I’m hiding a trump card? pondered Su Yi.
Everyone seemed convinced that Su Yi was hiding some stroke of fortune. They figured that there was no other way a Grandmaster could possess enough power to kill an Earthly Immortal.
This perception was, of course, laughable.
Did he have the “grand stroke of fortune” they were looking for? Yes, he did.
He’d reached his current heights through the 108,000 years of cultivation experience of his past life, as well as the countless peerless techniques and sutras stored in his memory. Pick any one of them at random and reveal it to the public, and people would go mad for it. Bloodshed would inevitably sweep the entire Azure Continent.
Alas, the wisdom, knowledge, and experience of his past life were different from other types of fortune. There was no way to seize them.
If he had to call something his trump card, it would most likely be the Sword of the Nine Hells.
The sword’s origins were extremely mysterious. Even at the pinnacle of his past life, he couldn’t discern or deduce its secrets.
At the time, his eldest disciple, Pi Mo, thought that Su Xuanjun had relied upon this sword to prove his Dao, step by step, culminating in his reign over the Wilds.
His youngest disciple, Qing Tang, thought that the sword hid some grand stroke of fortune, and that it was therefore Su Xuanjun’s most prized treasure. It was because of this “fortune” that when he reincarnated, she went so far as to open his coffin to pilfer it. All of it was for the Sword of the Nine Hells.
Alas, although they didn’t know it, not even the master they revered could unlock the sword’s secrets…
Currently, there was only one thing Su Yi dared say with certainty: both the Sword of the Nine Hells and the Nine-Layered Divine Chains had impressive origins!
When he first started cultivating the Universal Self-Embodiment Sutra, he captured a trace of each of the Divine Chains’ auras. Each was starkly different.
And the Sword of the Nine Hells existed to suppress the Nine-Layered Divine Chains!
That aside, every time Su Yi underwent a true metamorphosis in his cultivation, the Sword of the Nine Hells would resonate and surge with strange energy fluctuations.
These strange fluctuations could fuse into his cultivation, transforming his foundations to the utmost degree as he broke through.
For example, back in the Imperatorial Province, while opening his Hidden Meridian in the House of Waveswept Rocks, it was the Sword of the Nine Hell’s aura that provoked that unparalleled celestial phenomenon.
Like the light of the river of stars pouring down onto the human world!
As a result, Su Yi tempered a Hidden Meridian that transcended imagination and far surpassed his initial estimate!
From this, Su Yi reached a conclusion:
The Sword of the Nine Hells could help him refine the greatest possible foundations in the Grand Dao whenever he achieved a breakthrough in his cultivation!