“Speak. What happened?”
Wang Chong softly chuckled, then he calmly said, “Is it Li Linfu?”
Old Eagle would not lightly doubt him. There had to be a reason for his questions.
“Yes!”
Old Eagle clenched his teeth and gave a reluctant nod.
He could not hide anything from Wang Chong.
“Your Highness currently controls the court and has His Majesty’s trust. While the imperial censors have remained silent, they are already beginning to privately grumble. Moreover, there are rumors spreading in the capital claiming that Your Highness’s relationships with the Sassanids, Arabia, Mengshe Zhao, and other countries is too ambiguous, that you are getting too close.
“Your subordinate investigated this, and while these rumors appeared to all be coincidences, in reality, they are all inextricably connected to the Prime Minister. Although wise people all know that this is slander, your subordinate worries that this will end up harming Your Highness!”
Old Eagle was not much of a scholar, but he had worked in the Bureau of Punishments, so he had some understanding of politics.
When it came to ‘the achievements of the subject alarming the sovereign’, enough rumors could occasionally make the truth irrelevant. The people would only believe what they wanted to hear.
There was no disputing that Wang Chong was too close to Bahram, as during the war of the northwest, he was even able to command their forces against the Arabs. ‘Colluding with outsiders’ had always been a taboo.
Li Linfu understood this, which was why he dared to start these rumors.
Old Eagle was worried that this would damage Wang Chong’s reputation, causing him to voice these questions, but alas, Old Eagle was a poor liar.
“Heh, this man… truly doesn’t rest!”
Wang Chong grinned, a mocking expression on his lips.
Li Linfu was quiet in the court, but he was getting even livelier under the surface.
Wang Chong understood what he was thinking. With the enthronement of the new Emperor, Li Linfu had fallen out of favor while Wang Chong’s portfolio had risen. Li Linfu was extremely greedy for power, and he naturally couldn’t endure this, so he naturally placed all the blame on Wang Chong.
He had been constantly engaging in small operations under the surface.
But these were just a minor itch for Wang Chong. The more Li Linfu acted like this, the more he would fall out of favor with Li Heng.
Everything he was doing was accomplishing exactly the opposite of what he wanted.
Chapter 2063 - News from the Faceless Man!
Chapter 2063: News from the Faceless Man!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Have Bahram proceed as planned. Compared to an Arabia which might possibly face unrest, the Central Plains has greater need of him and his Aswaran Cataphracts. Moreover, so long as my flag still flies, the Arabs will always be somewhat afraid.
“Let’s do this. Pass on my order to let out a rumor that if Arabia rebels again, I’ll pay another visit to Baghdad, but this time, I’ll withdraw all my mercy and massacre the entire city!”
Wang Chong’s eyes glinted with an intimidating light.
The Arabs were a pugnacious and fierce people. These people only respected absolute strength and would not take virtue and kindness seriously. They would simply regard this as the actions of a weakling.
These last words were meant to intimidate the Arabs, but if the Arabs really did try to attack the Tang garrison in Baghdad as the Central Plains fell into discord, Wang Chong would turn that threat into reality without hesitation.
Arabia no longer had a Behemoth Army, or Khatabah. There was nothing left in that entire empire that could oppose Wang Chong!
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Old Eagle bowed.
He had more respect and admiration for Wang Chong than anyone else!
“As for those rumors, ignore them for now!”
Wang Chong faintly smiled.
He was completely focused on dealing with An Yaluoshan and the coming apocalypse. Those so-called rumors weren’t even worth laughing about. Only those people anxious for fame and fortune would care about such things.
Besides, Li Heng was the Lord of Resurgence, not the Lord of Envy.
“However, we can’t just let him be! Old Eagle, find some people to spread the stories about our encounters with the honeyed words of Sage Minister Li Linfu, and the story about what happened with the Jiangxi Pei Clan! I trust that this will keep our Lord Prime Minister busy for a while,” Wang Chong said.
“Yes! This subordinate will do so!” Old Eagle energetically said.
The post of Prime Minister required both character and ability!
As the leader of all the officials, the one who presided over all court affairs, the Prime Minister was watched by all and was to serve as a model of virtue for the realm. If his character was lacking, he would lose the right to be Prime Minister!
For someone like Li Linfu, who had chased after fame and fortune for half of his life, this would be even worse than killing him.
Moreover, while Wang Chong had been rather restrained and only told him to spread some rumors, Old Eagle would not be so polite.
Since Li Linfu had started it, he couldn’t blame Wang Chong for responding in kind!
Old Eagle would not let him relax!
He would not permit anyone to harm his liege!
Now that he had Wang Chong’s permission, Old Eagle quickly departed.
Once Old Eagle was gone, Wang Chong turned grim, his smile vanishing.
“Come out!”
Wang Chong’s voice was neither too loud nor too soft as it rang out in the empty hall.
There was no response.
Just when one could have believed that Wang Chong was delusional…
“Grand Protector is in the shadows. Master, are you not worried that Genesis Supreme will attack the Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian as he heads toward the Cang Province?” An aloof voice, devoid of emotion, rang out in the hall.
There was a flash, and then a figure suddenly appeared in front of Wang Chong.
Whoosh! A gust of wind ruffled the man’s black robes, but they produced no sound.
Most striking of all was the black metal mask on the man’s face, so cold and emotionless that it seemed like there was only an empty shell beneath it.
The faceless man!
Former Governor of Jiange Zhang Qiantuo!
“Paying respects to Master!”
The faceless man bowed.
His entire body was so cold and bereft of vitality that it didn’t seem alive.
It had been a long time since the war of the southwest, and the faceless man had never taken off his mask. After nearly three years, Wang Chong didn’t even know what he looked like anymore.
This man existed purely for revenge, like a machine going through its routines. Not even Wang Chong dared to imagine what he looked like now.
“You’re here!” Wang Chong coldly said, nodding at the faceless man as if he was not at all surprised by his appearance.
In truth, Wang Chong had already sensed his energy while he was meeting with King Song and the others.
“Genesis Supreme is too proud. Those at his level regard themselves as gods and will not move lightly. He would not have chosen An Yaluoshan otherwise. In addition, I’ve already ordered Wang Zhongsi to be inconspicuous and send only his deputies first. There is no need for him to personally go just yet.”
Wang Chong was not surprised by the faceless man’s questions.
The faceless man was once the Governor of Jiange, and he belonged to the same era as Wang Zhongsi. The majority of that era’s generals revered this loyal Great General. Zhang Qiantuo had already been hurt by the men in black, and he had asked this question clearly because he did not wish for Wang Zhongsi to retrace his steps.
It was impossible to see the expression on the faceless ma
n’s face, the black mask remaining cold and chilly, but the slight nod he gave indicated that he understood Wang Chong’s plans.
Wang Chong quickly turned to inspect the faceless man.
“Not bad. You’ve gotten even stronger than our last meeting and are extremely close to the Great General level. However, you’re still too impatient. You must have absorbed the energies of quite a number of people recently!” Wang Chong suddenly said.
Although the faceless man had concealed his energy so well that it was nigh undetectable, Wang Chong, with his True World ability, could tell at a glance that his body was even more bursting with energy than before.
But these Stellar Energies were in a chaotic state, indicating that they were Stellar Energies absorbed from others.
The faceless man had learned Wang Chong’s Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art, but he was in too much of a rush, not even taking time to calm and work on his foundation. Perhaps he believed that if he could take revenge, it didn’t even matter if his body exploded in a gruesome death.
With this sort of personality, even if he practiced the most righteous of arts, he would still suffer from a cultivation defect and eventually die a most violent death.
Bang!
With a wave of his sleeve, Wang Chong sent golden Origin Immortal Stellar Energy, as dazzling as the sun, into the faceless man’s body, helping him convert the unruly energies within him.
The faceless man stood there and allowed Wang Chong to convert this energy, as if his body belonged to someone else.
“You were injured?” Wang Chong asked with a frown.
Wang Chong could sense an extremely cold and powerful energy inside the faceless man’s body. The faceless man’s organs had clearly been damaged, and very badly. Even though the faceless man had done his best to treat it, it had still left behind some hidden wounds.
But the faceless man could not hide this from Wang Chong.
“Yes. I encountered an extremely formidable opponent.
“I wanted to ambush him, but I was discovered,” the faceless man woodenly said, his voice completely flat. It seemed like he was describing a most ordinary encounter.
Wang Chong imperceptibly frowned. The faceless man cultivated the complete version of the Great Yinyang Heaven Creation Art, and his extremeness had led him to advance at a frenzied pace.
Thus, anyone who could severely injure his internal organs could not be an ordinary person!
And to escape from this sort of individual would be as difficult as ascending to the heavens. If the faceless man was standing before him now, it meant that the matter was not as simple as he made it out to be.
But as the faceless man was not willing to speak, Wang Chong did not pursue the question.
“…Compared to my injuries, there is another matter that I hope Master will take more seriously. This is the primary reason for my return!”
The faceless man broached the reason for his visit on his own.
Wang Chong’s brow rose as he asked, “You found the base of the men in black?”
“Mm!”
The faceless man firmly nodded.
“However, it is not their base, but a massive ‘teleportation gate’!”
Buzz!
Boom! Wang Chong shuddered, his face instantly turning grave.
A teleportation gate!
Wang Chong was extremely familiar with this term, even though it would draw nothing but blank expressions from the people of the Central Plains.
The otherworldly invaders had come through teleportation gates!
Wang Chong had never imagined that the faceless man would find one of them.
“Where is it?” Wang Chong sternly asked, sitting up straight on his throne.
“The northwest!” the faceless man said.
“The Western Regions?”
Wang Chong slightly frowned.
The Western Regions were not as prosperous as the Central Plains, and they were full of small kingdoms and various peoples. Had the men in black already gotten so bold?
They had set up a teleportation gate in the northwest!
“No, even farther northwest!”
The faceless man shook his head.
“Following the response from the metal sphere, I left from Suiye and traveled northwest. After fifteen days and nights of travel, I was in a place devoid of human habitation, extremely far from the capital. But there, I saw a ‘sea on the land’!”
“A sea on the land?”
Wang Chong was taken aback.
The sea was the sea!
The land was the land!
The land had lakes and rivers, not seas!
This was a fact that everyone knew.
For the faceless man to say that he found a ‘sea on the land’ in the northwest was incredibly bizarre. It was a description that didn’t make sense.
“The northwest… fifteen days and nights… a sea on the land…”
Wang Chong recalled the region of the continent that the faceless man had described, estimating the general location from the directions given…
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind, and his body shuddered in understanding!
Chapter 2064 - A Sea on the Land? The Caspian Sea!
Chapter 2064: A Sea on the Land? The Caspian Sea!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Could it be the Caspian Sea? Wang Chong somberly wondered.
The Caspian Sea was not a sea, but it was truly different from ordinary lakes. Its water was salty like the sea, and its size was truly vast.
For the faceless man to call it a sea on the land was not necessarily wrong.
Is it that far?
Wang Chong narrowed his eyes.
This world was very different from the one Wang Chong remembered, but the general topography was not that different. If it was the Caspian Sea, then it was extremely far from the Great Tang.
And based on the current state of the world, that area should have been a desolate and sparsely inhabited place.
Wang Chong quickly got ahold of himself and asked, “The teleportation gate you spoke of is near this sea?”
“Mm!”
The faceless man nodded.
“There were many men in black gathered there, some of them so powerful as to have already reached the Subtle realm. I killed one of them and infiltrated the group, and then I watched as they opened a spacetime tunnel.
“This spacetime tunnel seemed to lead to some mysterious world!
“I wanted to find a chance to destroy that teleportation gate, but the enemy’s strength was too high, and the gate was too heavily guarded. I simply didn’t have the strength to even get close to the core. In addition, although I wasn’t able to enter, I heard a certain name from those people: Firmament Supreme!”
“What?!”
This name made Wang Chong tremble all over, his face paling.
This was the first mention of another expert carrying the ‘Supreme’ title besides Genesis Supreme. The Sage Emperor’s notebook had mentioned that ‘Heaven’ had twelve powerful ‘Supremes’ under his command. Each one possessed astonishing cultivation and served as one of Heaven’s most powerful fighting forces!
Each one had lived for an incredibly long time.
Genesis Supreme was only one of them!
The teleportation gate the faceless man spoke of was clearly guarded by one of those terrifying Supremes!
This was certainly not good news for Wang Chong.
Genesis Supreme alone was already hard enough to deal with, where encountering him would mean certain death, and now, another Supreme had appeared!
The hall became deathly still as Wang Chong grimly pondered this new development.
With his current level of strength, going there would mean certain death, but he also could not allow the teleportation gate to remain unattended. This would be the same as raising a tiger in his home.
By the time the army of otherworldly invaders arrived,
everything would be too late.
After some thought, Wang Chong finally made his decision.
“Give me a detailed account of the situation there!”
The Caspian Sea was extremely far from the Central Plains, and this Firmament Supreme had never appeared before, so there was no guarantee that he would recognize Wang Chong.
Moreover, if the faceless man could go in and come back out, there was no reason he couldn’t. As long as he was careful, he might be able to find some flaw and destroy the teleportation gate.
Even if he couldn’t find one, he could just come back and think of another plan.
No matter what, he could not ignore this teleportation gate connected to the world of the otherworldly invaders.
Once the faceless man had turned over the information he had gathered, he departed in the same way he had come, without alarming a single person, his destination unknown.
Wang Chong had never asked him about it.
As for Wang Chong, he began to deeply contemplate his next move.
It’s still too risky. It seems I can only send one of my clones! Wang Chong quietly said to himself.
It was still unknown if Firmament Supreme could recognize his energy.
That he wouldn’t recognize him was only speculation on his part. If Genesis Supreme and Firmament Supreme shared some secret communication method, he would essentially be throwing himself into a net if he went personally.
But the three divine embryos had different energies, and not even Genesis Supreme might be able to recognize them.
With this thought, Wang Chong communicated with one of the divine embryos down below.
Buzz!
The sturdy floor in Wang Chong’s main hall rippled like water, and a green-black divine embryo slowly emerged from the ground.
A stalwart body, tough armor, immense energy, terrifying aura… and a face similar to Wang Chong’s—this black-armored divine embryo was the first divine embryo Wang Chong had obtained from beneath the Black Flame Mountains, and it was also the strongest and the one he was most proficient with.
Wang Chong had given it the name ‘Divine Embryo 1’!
Divine Embryo 1 was already at the apex of the Subtle realm, just one step away from the Grotto Heaven realm.
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