The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  It was said that Master Yinshan’s mastery of divination allowed him to communicate with ghosts and gods.

  However, Master Yinshan had his own eccentricities when it came to divining and viewing auras for others. He would only perform three divinations a year, and if he refused a request, no one could force his hand.

  The First Prince’s intent in finding Master Yinshan was obvious!

  There were some matters in which a subordinate should not involve themselves.

  The First Prince did not care. After returning to his room to change his clothes, he had a bookshelf pushed aside, revealing a secret passage. The First Prince made his way down a spiraling staircase, deep into the earth.

  Blazing torches lit the walls, but the surroundings were still dark and gloomy.

  Very few people knew that there was a prison deep under the Eastern Palace. This was a secret chamber of the previous Crown Prince that Li Ying had inadvertently discovered and turned into a prison cell.

  This place was thirty-some meters beneath the surface. Two Golden Guards flanked Li Ying with torches as he walked up to the cell. The cell’s sole inhabitant was a white-haired elder wearing a black robe with the Yin Yang symbol on its back and front. His hair was disheveled and he was seated cross-legged on the floor. There were two rhino horns and several elephant teeth in his hands, and he was apparently divining something.

  If other people were here, they would certainly be stunned, because this was none other than the renowned Master Yinshan. But this was no otherworldly figure. From Master Yinshan’s haggard face, it was apparent that he had been tortured.

  “You’re all dismissed!”

  With the Golden Guards dismissed, the only ones left were Li Ying and Master Yinshan. It was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

  “Heh, Master Yinshan, we meet again.”

  The First Prince walked over and smiled through the bars, exuding politeness.

  “I asked you before, but you refused me, and then you left the capital. Now, let me ask you again: do you think that this prince has the Manifestation of the True Dragon?”

  The mood in the cell instantly became tense.

  Any outsider would have been stunned by these words.

  The Manifestation of the True Dragon!

  Only the Emperor could be called the True Dragon, and the First Prince was still far from Emperor!

  Chapter 1629 - Yinshan Tells a Fortune!

  Chapter 1629: Yinshan Tells a Fortune!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Your Highness, I told you long ago that the secrets of the heavens cannot be divulged. Destiny’s hand cannot be forced, and Yinshan only divines three times a year and will never divine for a sovereign. Your Highness, it is best that you give up. Even though you have captured me, it is still pointless.”

  Master Yinshan shook his head and sighed.

  “Hmph, you don’t divine for sovereigns? Did your group not divine for the sovereign in Taizong’s era?”

  The First Prince derisively sneered.

  Master Yinshan’s face went stiff. After a long while, he finally sighed.

  “It is precisely because we divined for the sovereign that the Heavenly Spirit Sect has declined so much, and it is precisely because of that time that the sect instituted a rule that sovereigns are temperamental, so their fortunes cannot be divined!”

  The First Prince’s eyes flashed with anger.

  “In other words, you’ve resolved yourself to make trouble for this prince? This prince only wishes for you to divine my fortune, but you delayed for half a year. Since this is the case, do not blame me.”

  “First Prince, do not waste your time. Even if you kill me, I still will not agree!” Master Yinshan indifferently said.

  “Hmph, is that so? I happened to hear that you picked up a small child while you were in Lingnan and have kept her at your side ever since. You’ve even given her a name, Little Xian. What a pity! This child was only about seven, right?” the First Prince coldly said.

  Master Yinshan instantly paled.

  “What? You think that this prince can’t find the friend you entrusted her to?” the First Prince said.

  “Your Highness, she is just an innocent child. As a member of the Sage Emperor’s bloodline and the heir apparent of the Great Tang, you should be benevolent and kind to the people. Would you truly harm an innocent merely to force me to divine for you?”

  Master Yinshan found it hard to remain calm.

  “Heh, aren’t you a master of divination? You can’t even calculate something like this? Why don’t you go and divine to see if I won’t kill her.”

  The First Prince’s face was calm, but his eyes contained an extremely cruel light.

  “Your Highness, divination cannot solve your problems, and the secrets of heaven are unfathomable and must always be pondered with deep respect. Divination is not omnipotent,” Master Yinshan anxiously said.

  “This prince has already spoken. The life of that girl rests entirely in your hands.”

  The First Prince acted like he hadn’t heard, and repeated his threat.

  Master Yinshan’s eyes were flickering and uncertain. After a long time, he sighed, his body seeming to greatly age.

  “Your Highness, I can accept your request. But before I perform the divination, I must tell you again: the True Dragon is connected to the circulation of all the Qi in the realm. Carelessly attempting to glimpse its secrets might result in unpredictable consequences and mishaps. Your Highness, please reconsider!” Master Yinshan said.

  “Just hurry and get on with it!”

  The First Prince’s resolved face showed no signs of backing down.

  Master Yinshan once more sighed, but he argued no more. Gathering up the ivory pieces in his right hand, he began to form hand spells with his left. He sat up straight, his eyes closed.

  This cell was hidden away from the outside world, but a faint breeze began to stir around Master Yinshan.

  The First Prince began to focus, a hint of tension in his eyes. He had waited for this moment for far too long, but things were finally taking a turn for the better. That unexpected discovery had left him with unprecedented hope.

  But before he acted on that opportunity, he needed to know if it was his destiny to be the Sovereign of Nine and Five, if he was truly capable of ascending to the throne.

  Buzz!

  As if in response to the First Prince’s thoughts, strange phenomena began to appear around Master Yinshan.

  In a flash of light, a Yin Yang symbol appeared and began to rapidly revolve, with Master Yinshan at its center. A few seconds later, space trembled and the Yin Yang symbol began to transform.

  Mountains began to rise from the floor of the cell, and then two rivers flowing west to east appeared.

  It’s the Central Plains!

  The First Prince immediately recognized the terrain. The divination arts of the Heavenly Spirit Sect were unfathomable, and it was said that they encompassed all the changes of the Central Plains.

  For important divinations, they could use Stellar Energy to simulate the sun, moon, earth, and rivers, divining a sliver of the vast and innumerable secrets of the heavens. This was a method unique to the Heavenly Spirit Sect.

  As expected, the Yin and Yang energies around Master Yinshan transformed into the sun, moon, and stars.

  It was a breathtakingly beautiful sight that even entranced the First Prince.

  But his eyes were not simply admiring these illusions. They were searching the vast sky of stars.

  “Found it!” A few moments later, the First Prince found that star, the most dazzling, noble and divine, the hegemon over all other stars.

  The Zi Wei, the Emperor Star!

  Amongst the countless stars, this was the only star that symbolized the sovereign of humanity, that resonated with the Emperors. It was the true lord of the myriad stars, and it had a very special meaning when it came to divination.

/>   As the First Prince watched, this star became brighter and brighter until it completely drowned out the light of the other stars.

  “Your Highness, please spread a drop of your essence blood on this star.”

  Master Yinshan finally raised his head and looked at the First Prince.

  There was a deep helplessness in his eyes.

  The Zi Wei Divination!

  This was what the First Prince had sought, a forbidden art of the Heavenly Spirit Sect.

  Through this forbidden art, those ambitious and greedy Princes could see whether or not they had the destiny of the True Dragon.

  This was a forbidden art because it had led to all kinds of struggles, in the open and in the shadows, causing tragedy in countless people’s lives. Some people would firmly believe in the result of this art, while others would completely deny it.

  But regardless, once the Zi Wei Divination was performed, it would always lead to a bloody storm.

  The First Prince was completely focused on the Zi Wei Star. He pricked his finger and immediately placed a drop of crimson blood on this star formed from Stellar Energy.

  Roooar!

  The blood rapidly turned into a spiraling dragon that vanished into the Emperor Star, and the milky-white star soon turned crimson.

  The First Prince’s eyes were wide open as he waited with bated breath.

  Bang!

  As if it had a life of its own, the drop of blood began to spread across the entire sky of stars.

  Between the stars, on the sky created by Stellar Energy, countless ancient words began to appear. These tiny words were bursting with mysterious violet energy as if they contained the mysteries of the heavens.

  In the blink of an eye, a stream of Dragon Qi soared out of the mountains down below and charged into the Zi Wei Star, which unleashed a violet beam of energy.

  The cell was instantly engulfed in darkness, as were the torches on the wall. It was like all light was being absorbed into another dimension.

  Above the Emperor Star, countless blurry words that did not seem to be written by any mortal hand had appeared amidst the violet energy.

  “What does it say?!” the First Prince suddenly cried out in a trembling voice.

  The air was tense in the cell. Master Yinshan hesitated for a moment, but he finally looked up and began to read the secrets divulged by the heavens.

  “The mountains and rivers destroyed in a single morning, the eternal True Dragon returned in a single night!

  “The dragon has nine sons, but only one controls the floods. The tiger has three cubs, but only one gains its stripes.

  “The Dragon Gate in front and the abyss behind, life and death are decided in a single moment of thought.

  “A hundred phoenixes bathe in fire, but only one is reborn. One thousand flood dragons fall, and only one True Dragon emerges!”

  As the First Prince listened to Master Yinshan read out the twisted characters that represented the will of the heavens, his eyes became flickering and uncertain.

  “The mountains and rivers destroyed in a single morning, the eternal True Dragon returned in a single night! Returned in a single night… Hahaha, Master Yinshan, many thanks!”

  The First Prince seemed to have realized something and loudly laughed.

  “Relax! Once this prince succeeds, your Heavenly Spirit Sect will flourish once more and will not blame you for making a divination for this prince!”

  The First Prince seemed refreshed, all his worries and depression swept away.

  He quickly turned and began to walk away.

  In the cell, Master Yinshan seemed to have not heard the First Prince’s words. Using the Zi Wei Divination had expended much of his essence blood, and his body sagged.

  But at this moment, Master Yinshan cared little about his body’s condition. His mind was completely focused on something else.

  “Right!”

  The First Prince suddenly stopped at the stairs, his back to Master Yinshan.

  “Master Yinshan, you said that you only tell fortunes three times a year, yes? So what were you doing when this prince came in? If you want to fool this prince, this excuse is too poor. Once this prince inherits the throne, this prince does not wish to see this happen again. In the future, you should support this prince properly.”

  His voice continued to echo in the air as the First Prince climbed up the stairs, and then there was the clanking of gears as the passage was closed once more.

  “Haaah…”

  A long sigh could be heard in the cell. Master Yinshan looked at the stairs and shook his head.

  Regardless of the era, anyone who wanted to use a diviner to predict the future, whether they were the wisest monarch or the cruelest tyrant, the most worthy successor or the most ignorant of Princes or Kings, would only hear what they wanted to hear.

  As for the actual meaning of the prediction, just how many people would actually carefully ponder it?

  Chapter 1630 - The Hidden Mysterious Figure!

  Chapter 1630: The Hidden Mysterious Figure!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  A few moments later, Master Yinshan lowered his head and took up the rhino horn and elephant teeth pieces that had fallen to the ground.

  The First Prince had no idea that Master Yinshan was not divining the fortune of a person.

  The Heavenly Spirit Sect had a law that fortunes targeted on people could only be done three times per year, or else there would be unfathomable consequences. But there was no such restriction on objects.

  He had been divining the fortune of the Central Plains. As a successor of the Heavenly Spirit Sect, a little more than a year ago, he had sensed that the Central Plains was facing an unprecedented calamity, but at that time, it had still not been obvious.

  Around half a year ago, that sensation had intensified, so he had left the capital to focus on his divining, but his harvest had been poor.

  But just now, when he had been divining for the First Prince, Master Yinshan had made a surprising discovery.

  “The mountains and rivers destroyed in a single morning!” Master Yinshan muttered. The First Prince had no idea of what Master Yinshan’s attention had been on.

  In the middle of his thought, Master Yinshan suddenly trembled, his face turning red. Plush! A great mouthful of blood ejected from his mouth, and then his entire body seemed to drain of blood. He swayed for a few moments before falling unconscious.

  A mortal attempting to glimpse the destiny of the world would have to pay a price.

  ……

  After the meeting with Master Yinshan, a small sedan chair surreptitiously left the Eastern Palace and headed toward the northwest corner of the capital.

  There was a deserted compound here, the perimeter walls overgrown with green bamboo. When it came to size, the compound was larger than the residences of most high nobles, but there was not a single person inside.

  This was the capital’s illustrious Ghost House.

  Many years ago, a merchant bought this large compound with the intent of making it his residence, but not long afterward, the merchant died a bizarre death, and his maids and servants eventually scattered.

  After that, some people ventured into this building and all died bizarre deaths, and the legend of the Ghost House began to take form.

  There were many people in an important place like the capital who did not believe in superstitions. Wanting to know the truth, they investigated the residence. Some people found nothing and left unharmed.

  But others remained within for eternity.

  As more and more people began to die, the people finally began to grow afraid, and even those who did not believe in superstitions began to avoid the place, until, at last, the place became completely deserted. Even during the day, the place gave off a sinister aura.

  The capital’s City Guard had once sent a large force of cavalry to this place and turned it inside out. But in the end, they concluded that this
was an ordinary, if uninhabited, compound.

  There had been nothing special about the place.

  As for why people had died, the City Guard had found no reason. Given that the master of the home was dead, the compound was ownerless, so to prevent anyone from mistakenly getting inside, the gates were locked and warning signs were posted forbidding approach.

  This only made the Ghost House even more sinister, and no one dared to go inside.

  “Stop here!”

  The sedan chair stopped, and the First Prince, wearing leisure clothes and a large fur cap, stepped down and walked past the City Guard’s warning sign.

  The guards behind remained motionless. It was clear that this was not their first time here.

  The First Prince passed through the gate and traversed the corridors, going past the abandoned gardens and ponds and entering the main hall.

  The room was dark, but the First Prince seemed to know the layout like the back of his thumb.

  He took three steps forward and extended his palm. Clack! The sound of flint being struck rang out, and a candle on a table suddenly blazed to life. In this dim light, several objects became visible in the pitch-black room. There was a decaying table and several groaning wooden chairs on the verge of collapse.

  The light of the candle failed to brighten the place. It only made the place seem even darker.

  There was no one in the room besides the First Prince, and the First Prince was unsurprised. After placing the flint on the table, he stood to the side and closed his eyes.

  No one knew why the First Prince had sneaked out of the Imperial Palace to wait in the Ghost House, nor why the First Prince had closed his eyes after lighting the candle. All of this was extremely bizarre, brimming with the air of a mysterious ceremony.

  “You’re here!” After some time, there was another voice, hoarse and scratchy, like the buzzing of a zither string. It was difficult to tell purely from this voice whether the owner was a man or woman, old or young.

  And the softness of the voice made it seem even more bizarre within the Ghost House.

  But when the First Prince opened his eyes, there was happiness within them.

  “Senior, you’ve finally appeared!”