Success!
Amidst the Pure Gold Magma, Wang Chong, now fused with the divine embryo, opened his eyes.
Excitement! Joy!
These emotions welled up in his heart at unprecedented levels!
This was the first time Wang Chong had ever wielded such vast and terrifying primordial energy.
Buzz!
Wang Chong had taken control of the divine embryo, and as he flexed its fingers, powerful waves of energy threw the sea of Pure Gold Magma into turmoil.
Bang!
Wang Chong shook his arm, upon which a path extending tens of thousands of feet appeared in the magma in front of the divine embryo.
So powerful! This punch is just as good as the King Ape’s!
Wang Chong looked at his fist in glee.
The divine embryo not only possessed extraordinary talent. Its strength had also reached an unimaginable level. Just moments after refining it, not converting its primal energy into any sort of martial art, it could already display the strength of a basic level Subtle realm expert.
If all of the energy in the divine embryo’s body were converted, it would certainly produce even more astonishing results.
Let’s try out more of its abilities! Wang Chong said to himself.
Buzz!
With a thought from Wang Chong, the divine embryo’s body, thirty-some feet tall, rapidly shrank to twenty feet, ten feet, and then to the size of a regular adult.
The ability to change size!
This was a natural ability of the divine embryo. Its body could instantly grow to thirty feet tall, or even larger, but it could also shrink to the size of a regular human. This ability was something that very few martial artists could replicate.
Wang Chong continued to experiment with the divine embryo’s abilities.
Chapter 2058 - Surprising Discovery! Two Deeper Divine Embryos!
Chapter 2058: Surprising Discovery! Two Deeper Divine Embryos!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The surrounding Pure Gold Magma was pushed away as the divine embryo vanished, pushing through the Pure Gold Magma toward the basalt layer.
The rock layer here was as tough as steel, and the immense pressure had made it extremely dense. Wang Chong had used the extreme sharpness of the Origin Immortal Sword to successfully bring it down.
As the divine embryo entered the basalt layer, a translucent light radiated from its body. Upon contact with this light, the tough basalt layer became soft and loose like water, allowing the divine embryo to swim through it as freely as a fish.
Earth Movement!
Or perhaps Rock Movement!
The divine embryo, nurtured by the laws of the world, possessed some incredible abilities, Earth Movement being one of them.
Truly incredible!
Wang Chong had seen a similar ability from Huang Botian, but the ability of the divine embryo was undoubtedly much stronger than Huang Botian’s!
Swoosh!
Wang Chong returned to his original position in a flash of light.
It’s even faster than I imagined. Without using any movement technique, it can already almost match the speed of the Void Movement Technique!
But this is still far from enough. Without the appropriate arts, I will only be able to utilize sixty to seventy percent of the divine embryo’s power.
After some thought, Wang Chong changed his mind and began to cultivate an art.
Let’s start with the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art!
Arts were created for martial artists to utilize their strength to the utmost, for the same reason as weapons were developed.
The surroundings fell quiet as Wang Chong closed his eyes and became motionless. But within the body, blazing red light surged around in mighty waves, rumbling and booming.
Boom! Boom!
A few moments later, the moon and sun manifested, golden and red, on his left and right shoulders, each of them brimming with power.
The manifestation of the sun and moon caused Wang Chong’s body to exert a formidable pull. In a flash, the Pure Gold Magma within several thousand feet of him began to solidify as its energy was drawn to the divine embryo.
The Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art!
In this short amount of time, the divine embryo had successfully cultivated the supreme art of the evil path to the level of major understanding.
The bottlenecks faced by martial artists seemed to not exist for the divine embryo!
Too powerful! With this ability, I’ll only need a little time to contend against Genesis Supreme!
Wang Chong’s eyes were bright. With the divine embryo, he saw limitless possibilities.
Even though the divine embryo’s strength was only at the high tier of the Subtle realm, at the same time, he had not even used ten percent of the divine embryo’s power. In the future, when he had realized all of its potential… not even he could guess as to the level the divine embryo could ultimately reach.
It’s about time to return!
With the divine embryo in hand and his objective reached, Wang Chong prepared to return to the surface.
But at this moment, he detected something strange.
“Eh?”
His brow rose in surprise. Cultivating the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art had apparently increased the divine embryo’s abilities enough so that he could sense two other strange energy signatures even deeper beneath the earth.
These two energies were extremely inconspicuous, but more importantly, those two energies shared the same origins as the divine embryo. The three of them shared some sort of connection.
Bang!
Wang Chong immediately marshaled his vast Psychic Energy and sent it toward those two energies.
After refining this clone, Wang Chong essentially had another body. He was no longer restricted to the form of the Origin Spirit.
Just a few moments later, around fifty thousand feet beneath the divine embryo, Wang Chong finally found those two mysterious energies.
“This is…”
As his Psychic Energy made contact, Wang Chong was flabbergasted.
Wang Chong vanished from his original position, and when he next appeared, he was now fifty thousand feet deeper.
A divine embryo!
Two divine embryos!
Wang Chong stared in disbelief at the two divine embryos.
Lying deep beneath the earth were clearly two additional divine embryos, one gold and one red.
“How could this be?!”
Wang Chong’s mind was immediately thrown into turmoil.
He had never heard of there being three divine embryos hidden under the Black Flame Mountains. Even when the Central Plains were being obliterated during the most intense parts of that war, two more divine embryos had never been mentioned.
Wang Chong’s mind was reeling from this new knowledge!
Could it that when the otherworldly invaders shattered the foundations of the world, causing the Pure Gold Magma to bring out one divine embryo by coincidence, these two other divine embryos remained hidden underground? Wang Chong mused.
Though it seemed rather unbelievable, this was the most likely answer.
The divine embryos had seals protecting them, and these two divine embryos clearly had the ability to conceal their energies. If Wang Chong had not refined one divine embryo and used its connection with the others to find them, these two divine embryos would probably have remained concealed until the end of time.
Ha, that’s perfect! This makes my chances even better!
Wang Chong was surprised, but without hesitation, he successfully refined these two divine embryos.
Bang!
Once he was done, Wang Chong shot back to the surface with the three divine embryos.
With Wang Chong’s current cultivation level, he could conceal these three divine embryos at will.
Though these three divine embryos possessed immense power and unleashed so much spiritual
energy that they could be sensed from one hundred li away, after refining them, Wang Chong could use his cultivation to ensure that no energy leaked out. Besides that, two of the divine embryos had the ability to conceal their energy.
Several days later…
Bang!
In the middle of the night, Wang Chong, while controlling the three divine embryos, opened up a small hole in the capital’s formation and entered. With this, he had successfully returned to the capital before the Qi Blood Darkening ability reached its time limit, and without attracting anyone’s attention.
Buzz!
On the other side, Genesis Supreme sensed something and shot a glance in Wang Chong’s direction, but in the end, he could make nothing of it.
His body vanished into the darkness.
The matter of the three divine embryos was top secret, and Wang Chong did not plan to let anyone know about them until he broke into the Grotto Heaven realm.
Using the Earth Movement ability of the first divine embryo, Wang Chong hid the three divine embryos deep beneath the King of Foreign Lands Residence where he could quietly cultivate.
The three divine embryos still had massive amounts of higher-universal energy to refine. Thus, there was no problem with them being underground while this energy was refined.
As time passed, Wang Chong’s journey to the Black Flame Mountains to find the divine embryos remained completely unknown.
But as Wang Chong immersed himself in cultivation and breaking into the Grotto Heaven realm, strange shifts began to take place in the Great Tang Imperial Court.
Several days later, the new Emperor of the Great Tang, Li Heng, summoned Wang Chong for the first time since his coronation.
In a palace within the Imperial Palace, Li Heng was seated on his throne, wearing his crown and robes.
It had taken very little time for Li Heng to completely adapt to his new role, his young face now showing the mature, steady, and domineering aura of an Emperor, together with an ambitious and proactive energy. There was nothing left of the young and immature Crown Prince Li Heng.
On the sides of the hall were Zhangchou Jianqiong, King Song, the Grand Preceptor, the Grand Tutor, Beacon General Jiang Yunrang, Tongluo Great General Abusi, Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian Wang Zhongsi, Wang Chong’s big uncle Wang Gen, and Yao Guangyi. The only person not present was Prime Minister Li Linfu.
The man who had served as Prime Minister for so long under the Sage Emperor, the extremely shrewd Li Linfu, had finally fallen out of favor with the reign of Li Heng.
Li Linfu had deceived all the people in the world, but after several decades and the death of the Sage Emperor, he could hide no longer.
Li Heng had not removed him only out of respect for the previous Emperor, and because he was only recently enthroned.
As for Li Linfu, he understood that his time had passed and that Li Heng would not place him in any important position. All he could do was remain silent and do his best to not make mistakes so that he could doggedly cling to his empty title of Prime Minister.
He had spent more than half his life plotting ways to keep his post and remove those who threatened his position. This had essentially become his entire reason for existing.
Li Heng began to speak in a dignified tone. “Everyone, you have all seen the information brought by the Imperial Guard!”
His eyes exuded awe and majesty.
“An Yaluoshan harbors evil ambitions! During the feast of all countries, he audaciously set up a wicked formation to steal Dragon Qi right in front of the previous Emperor and all the other officials! There is no punishment sufficient for this crime! We currently have no other worries about the realm. Our sole concern is this An Yaluoshan. No matter what, We must have this treasonous scoundrel killed!” Li Heng sternly said.
King Song and Zhangchou Jianqiong already knew what was going on due to their connection to Wang Chong, but when the others in the hall looked at the secret dossiers prepared by the Imperial Guard, they all frowned.
For his two major victories in the northeast, An Yaluoshan had become the most dazzling star of the feast of all countries, and his fat and foolish appearance caused many major officials to regard him as an amusing clown, a special foreigner.
Regardless, no one took An Yaluoshan as a threat.
But the information presented by the Imperial Guard gave an entirely different story.
Chapter 2059 - A Plan to Deal with An Yaluoshan!
Chapter 2059: A Plan to Deal with An Yaluoshan!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Under Zhang Shougui, the Youzhou army might have ignored the laws and minted its own currency, but it still felt some apprehension and kept its head down. Moreover, there was always the means of imperial censure to restrain it.
But under An Yaluoshan, it seemed to cast aside all apprehensions.
Not only that, the Imperial Guard said that the Youzhou army was recruiting soldiers on a large scale in the northeast, not just from Youzhou, but also from the Hu on the borders, the Turks, Khitans, and Xi.
An Yaluoshan had already gathered four hundred thousand soldiers in Youzhou, but he continued to report the same number of several tens of thousands to the Imperial Court.
In addition, An Yaluoshan was also producing his own weapons. At this time, twelve large armories had already been discovered, and each one was heavily guarded, with outsiders forbidden from approaching.
Many Imperial Guards had sacrificed their lives to gather this information.
In addition, An Yaluoshan was going on a spending spree to acquire steel from both the interior and the neighboring countries, buying up several dozen times more than was usually required.
These various signs added together equaled clear signs of rebellion!
“Your Majesty, is An Yaluoshan still not willing to enter the capital?” the Grand Preceptor suddenly asked.
His brow was slightly furrowed in thought. An Yaluoshan was the Protector-General of the northeast, an important official of the empire who had rendered two great achievements. Until the matter was settled and they had more evidence, the Grand Preceptor was still in favor of an extremely cautious approach.
“Mm!”
Li Heng’s expression chilled, a dark cloud appearing on his brow.
“This treasonous scoundrel has used the excuse of Goguryeo to refuse to visit the capital. And with his ‘major achievement’ from before, We can do nothing about it!”
Li Heng’s eyes flashed with anger.
On the day of Li Heng’s coronation, almost all the important officials of the empire had gathered in the capital to congratulate him. Only An Yaluoshan, after much beating around the bush, refused to enter the capital, citing the necessity of defending against Goguryeo to the east.
Even if Li Heng knew that An Yaluoshan was plotting rebellion and had framed Zhang Shougui, so long as An Yaluoshan remained in Youzhou and used the excuse of Yeon Gaesomun and Goguryeo, Li Heng could do nothing about him.
“Your Majesty, this lowly subject believes that there is no need to be polite with An Yaluoshan.” Speaking in a vigorous voice, Minister of War Zhangchou Jianqiong stepped forward, first bowing to Li Heng before scanning the crowd.
“His post as Andong Protector-General was not obtained through honest means, and rather than let him get stronger in Youzhou until he threatens the empire, it would be far better to strike now while his wings have yet to fully grow in. We must strike and destroy him now to prevent us from nurturing a tiger in our home!”
Zhangchou Jianqiong was known as the Tiger of the Empire. Although he was now a member of the court and was always cautious when it came to political and court affairs, never daring to say too much so as to avoid disputes, when it came to military affairs, the Tiger of the Empire always advocated for going on the offensive and crushing the enemy in a direct confrontation.
Offense was the best defense!
This was the conviction held by all the
generals of the Sage Emperor’s era!
And it was even more true for Zhangchou Jianqiong!
“No! An Yaluoshan needs to be removed, but not through this method!” At this moment, an elderly and mellow voice, bursting with knowledge, came from nearby. The graying Grand Tutor’s brow was furrowed as he spoke.
“An Yaluoshan is a treasonous scoundrel who harbors evil intentions, so he can act so recklessly. But His Majesty is a kind sovereign, a sage sovereign, so he cannot act this way. As they say, an army must have a reason for setting out. Even if His Majesty wishes to deal with An Yaluoshan, we must not make some reckless assault.
“Regardless of what sort of person An Yaluoshan is, do not forget that to the people of the realm, he is a rising Great General of the Great Tang, the guardian of the northeast who has rendered great service. Moreover, his title of Andong Protector-General was granted personally by the previous Emperor. To carelessly attack Youzhou and kill this ‘meritorious subject of the empire’ will chill the hearts of the people!
“We must have a farsighted approach to this!”
The Grand Tutor’s words instantly silenced the hall.
Both the Grand Preceptor and Grand Tutor were virtuous and prestigious individuals who wielded great influence amongst the officials. More importantly, these words were just and sound, not simply speaking up for An Yaluoshan.
Zhangchou Jianqiong couldn’t help but freeze at the Grand Tutor’s last words, a hint of hesitation on his face.
An Yaluoshan was sinister and crafty, but it was the Sage Emperor who had granted him the post of Andong Protector-General. This was a fact that everyone in the realm knew!
Li Heng had just taken the throne. If he acted against a Great General appointed by the Sage Emperor, the entire realm would probably criticize him as being unfilial and disrespecting the Sage Emperor.
The Great Tang was a country founded on martial might, but it was also one founded on benevolence and filial piety. If benevolence and filial piety were lost, one lost the legitimacy to take the throne!
Li Heng was forced to take this factor into account.
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