The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  Buzz!

  Before Wang Chong could react, a light green finger reached out and touched the center of Wang Chong’s forehead. Despite Wang Chong’s cultivation, he was completely unable to avoid it.

  “Senior, this is…”

  Wang Chong was astonished.

  Master Guangcheng did not respond. As Wang Chong spoke, boom! The world around him seemed to collapse, and a moment later, Wang Chong realized that he was looking at the capital.

  But he was looking at the capital from what appeared to be in the air.

  “There is one thing that you’re right about. You truly do not have much time left. In truth, no matter what you do, it is already too late.”

  Master Guangcheng’s indifferent voice was like an ancient well as it rang out.

  Wang Chong’s brows locked together, but just when he was about to ask, he saw something different.

  Golden light!

  Golden light as viscous as water was flowing out from the center of the capital, spreading out like the roots of a tree to every corner of the city.

  Wang Chong was initially confused, wondering what Master Guangcheng was showing him, but a moment later, he noticed that the golden light was seeping into the countless denizens of the capital, and these people had unfocused gazes. He instantly understood what was going on.

  “This is the Celestial Palace’s power?!” Wang Chong hesitantly said, his mind shaken.

  “Mm!”

  Master Guangcheng again spoke, his voice still aloof and emotionless.

  “It is precisely because of this golden light that Heaven can so easily control the memories of others and wipe out the existence of any other person. Heaven’s power already covers seventy percent of the capital and has even crept into the rest of the Central Plains.

  “There is no changing this. The Celestial Palace has already entered its last phase and cannot be destroyed. Prepare yourself for the worst-case scenario!”

  Master Guangcheng’s words made Wang Chong’s heart sink to rock bottom.

  “Impossible! There has to be a way!”

  Wang Chong’s body trembled as he shouted in disbelief.

  “The Celestial Palace is Heaven’s personal ritual tool. There was no stopping it once he activated it. In another ten days, the entire capital will become an offering, and everyone living in the city will be absorbed to become the power of the Celestial Palace.”

  “What!?”

  Even Little Nightmare was shocked by this. The capital was the center of the continent, and it had people from other countries living in it as well. It currently had a population of several million.

  Master Guangcheng was saying that Heaven had activated the Celestial Palace in the capital not merely to deal with Wang Chong, but also to slaughter the several million inhabitants of the capital, to make them a sacrificial offering!

  “There are some things that we cannot change.”

  Master Guangcheng paused for a few moments before slowly revealing Heaven’s secrets.

  “This isn’t the first time Heaven has activated the Celestial Palace. Every few epochs, Heaven will activate the Celestial Palace. This is the sixth time.

  “The Celestial Palace provides an enormous amount of energy to Heaven, and it is one of the primary reasons he has been able to live through so many disasters and survive through the ages. No matter how severe the injuries he has sustained, Heaven can only be heavily injured or sealed, not killed.

  “If the Celestial Palace did not need to undergo an extremely long period of preparation before it could be used again, it would have been used even more frequently than now!”

  Bang!

  Wang Chong’s heart was thrown into turmoil. Not even Luo Supreme had known these things that Master Guangcheng had divulged.

  Wang Chong had never expected the truth to be like this.

  “Whether you are willing to accept it or not, Heaven has seized complete control over the situation. In ten days, this place will be rendered lifeless. It is already too late!” Master Guangcheng sternly said.

  “What if we have all of them escape before then?” Little Nightmare anxiously said.

  Even it had not expected this sort of result.

  “They can’t escape. The Celestial Palace has already locked onto their souls and partially fused with them. If they flee the capital, that will only hasten their deaths, just like with his mother!”

  Master Guangcheng glanced at Wang Chong.

  Man and beast were silent, their faces paling.

  The Wang Family Residence contained around three hundred people. They had not shown any abnormalities at first, and it was only after Wang Chong had brought them out of the capital that their conditions had begun to worsen.

  “And have you not realized it? People can only enter the capital now, not leave!” Master Guangcheng sternly said.

  Several million people lived in the capital, and they consumed an astonishing amount of resources each day. If all of them could only enter and not leave, food alone would become a huge problem. But the Great Tang had extremely well-developed infrastructure, and there was an abundant supply of food and vegetables. Moreover, there were also fruit and vegetable gardens within the city. This had somewhat concealed the problem for now.

  “No, there has to be a way. Senior was the Yellow Emperor’s teacher, a sage that all the people of the Central Plains revere. Can Senior really just watch as all of this transpires? Senior possesses prodigious strength and knows Heaven and the Celestial Palace like the back of your hand. Please, Senior, for the sake of the people of the world, assist this junior!”

  Wang Chong lowered his head and respectfully bowed.

  Although this man before him had remained in hiding all this time, and Wang Chong could tell that he was restraining his energy, the mere fact that he was the teacher of the Yellow Emperor was enough to make Wang Chong certain that he possessed astounding strength, perhaps even close to Heaven’s level.

  Moreover, he seemed to know all of Heaven’s secrets, secrets that even Luo Supreme did not know. He could not be a weakling.

  Master Guangcheng said nothing, but his eyes gleamed.

  “Teacher, Master is Little Grass’s appointed successor. He knew one thousand years ago that Master would appear. Little Grass has already passed, so you must help Master!

  “Little Nightmare doesn’t want what happened to Little Grass to repeat itself with Master!” Little Nightmare tearfully pleaded.

  “Haaah…”

  Master Guangcheng let out a long sigh. He had been radiating an unfriendly aura this entire time, but he could not harden his heart to Little Nightmare, who had lost both its master and its physical body.

  “It’s not that I’m unwilling to help, but that I cannot! Even if I wanted to help you against Heaven, I don’t have the strength.”

  “How could this be?!”

  “Senior, what do you mean by this?”

  Wang Chong was flabbergasted, sitting straight up. This was an answer he had never anticipated.

  “Teacher, you…”

  Little Nightmare was also astonished and became nervous.

  Master Guangcheng revealed the unexpected truth. “This is my curse, one that I have been under for more than one thousand years. My body is brimming with power, but there is no way of using it. For me, the mortal realm is like a passing cloud, and I am incapable of interfering with it.

  “Thus, for all these years, I have only been able to borrow the bodies of the mausoleum caretakers to walk the world for a bit and then return. And this is a freedom I may enjoy only once a year!

  “This place is my cell. Not even I imagined that you would be able to get through all the barriers and get here.”

  “！！！”

  “!!!”

  Wang Chong stared speechlessly at Master Guangcheng.

  A cell?

  Wang Chong had been under the impression that this man was in seclusion, but it turned out that he was a prisoner.

&n
bsp; “Senior, is there a way to help Senior out? If there is a way, please tell this one, and Wang Chong will do everything in his power to help Senior break out!” Wang Chong earnestly said.

  “It is no wonder you were able to break through the trial left by Kong Zhongni.”

  (TN: Kong Zhongni was the name by which Confucius was commonly known, Kong being his surname and Zhongni being his courtesy name.)

  Master Guangcheng appeared surprised by Wang Chong’s words, and his gaze was no longer as sharp and cold when he looked at Wang Chong.

  “But it is too late. When I lost my physical body more than one thousand years ago, I lost any chance of breaking out.”

  Chapter 2339 - Dragon Qi, the Only Hope!

  Chapter 2339: Dragon Qi, the Only Hope!

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  Seemingly unwilling to talk about himself, Master Guangcheng ended the topic.

  “Hurry and take Little Nightmare with you away from this place. You are not Little Yi (Li Taiyi), and even if you manage to resolve this crisis, without a Divine Martial realm cultivation, you are still no match for Heaven. In the end, all your effort will be in vain. I can help you hide from Heaven’s senses and survive through this epoch. In the end, Heaven might not pay any more attention to you, and you will be able to live freely!” Master Guangcheng sternly said.

  It was not that he was callous. He had just seen through everything and knew that constant struggle might only make the eventual pain even worse.

  “‘Little Yi’? The Sage Emperor was here before?”

  Wang Chong’s eyes widened as he caught onto the piece of information Master Guangcheng had revealed.

  “You don’t think that you’re my only visitor, do you? If that were true, where would all those stone steles have come from?” Master Guangcheng said as if he was relating a most ordinary matter.

  “It’s truly a pity. Little Yi had the best talent I’ve ever seen, and he had the greatest chance of changing everything. When he came to me, he was only in his teens, but he had managed to sensed my existence. On his body, I felt a persistence like never before, incredible talent, unrelenting effort, and outstanding perception!

  “I taught him martial arts and watched him grow. On his body, I saw hope like never before. He was unprecedented, the one with the greatest chances of defeating Heaven. As long as he could reach the Divine Martial realm, Heaven would never be able to control the people again.

  “Alas, he failed!”

  Master Guangcheng raised his head and deeply sighed, his expression incredibly desolate and downcast.

  Bang!

  Like a boulder smashing into a lake, Wang Chong felt like massive waves were raging through his mind.

  The Sage Emperor!

  The Sage Emperor had also met with Master Guangcheng?!

  Master Guangcheng had taught the Sage Emperor martial arts!

  This news was too shocking and sudden. The Sage Emperor had never mentioned this, nor had he left behind anything bringing up this matter. For a moment after hearing this news, Wang Chong’s mind was blank.

  But now that he thought about it, the Western Mausoleum was in the Imperial Palace, and given that the Sage Emperor’s cultivation was infinitesimally close to the Divine Martial realm, it was impossible for him to have remained ignorant about someone that was so near him.

  It would have been far stranger for the Sage Emperor to not have known about Master Guangcheng.

  “I know that Little Yi chose you, and I also know you have something similar to what that boy Little Grass had, but it’s all useless. I’ve already seen blind hope like this far too many times, and all that has resulted is tragedy after tragedy.

  “Leave this place. Give up on everything. I don’t wish to see what happened to Little Yi happen to you as well,” Master Guangcheng said.

  Wang Chong said nothing, countless thoughts running through his mind.

  He suddenly felt that the cold and tough attitude put on by this teacher of Emperors was all feigned. This was the true Master Guangcheng.

  And Wang Chong sensed that he had to have many secrets. The steles set up by various dynasties in the passage served as proof.

  “Senior, I won’t leave. The people I’m closest to are here, my friends, teachers, family members, the woman I love… If I abandon them and survive alone, how would that be any different from death?”

  Wang Chong stood up straight, his face stern and determined.

  At that moment, he thought about how the Origin Immortal Lord had sacrificed his life and entrusted him with all his hopes, about the Sage Emperor who had entrusted to him the Great Tang and its millions of people, and also those hundreds of thousands of brothers from his last life had been baptized in battle together with him. All of them had trusted him without reservation and had helped him. If he fled alone, he would never be able to forgive himself.

  What was the point in a rebirth like that?

  Master Guangcheng looked at Wang Chong in a daze, unable to speak for some time. All of a sudden, he felt a familiar sensation overtake him.

  There had been someone like Wang Chong who had sat across from him and solemnly said words just like these. Not just one, or two, or three. So many, many people.

  But in the end, all of them had ‘gone’ and never returned.

  At that moment, Master Guangcheng’s heart was filled with endless sorrow.

  Why was it that no matter how much he tried to persuade these people, they never listened? Time and time again, they would repeat that same fate.

  “Senior, Senior…”

  A faint shouting could be heard in his ears, calling Master Guangcheng back to his senses.

  Master Guangcheng once more saw that young face before him.

  “Senior, everything has its counter, and nothing in the world is flawless. If it were, Heaven wouldn’t have been sealed. Senior, you definitely have a way, right?” Wang Chong sincerely pleaded.

  Master Guangcheng had a very deep understanding of Heaven, was perhaps even the only person in the world who truly understood Heaven’s secrets. If there was one person who knew the way to deal with the Celestial Palace, it was Master Guangcheng.

  Wang Chong believed that he knew a way!

  “Teacher, please help Master!”

  Little Nightmare also pleaded.

  “Since Master has already spoken, he will not leave!”

  Master Guangcheng sighed and closed his eyes.

  After a long while, his voice began to resound through this space.

  “There is one method that can break the Celestial Palace. You must find a way to enter the Celestial Palace and destroy it from within. But this method is extremely dangerous and has an extremely low chance of success. Even if you have a chance to get in, you might not be able to pull it off. In the end, you will just be delivering your life in vain.”

  “Senior, please instruct me!” a delighted Wang Chong hastily asked.

  His intuition was right. Master Guangcheng truly did know a way to deal with the Celestial Palace. As for danger, he didn’t care. What point in this ordeal had not been dangerous?

  Moreover, he had the Doomsday Insignias that Heaven so dearly desired. Even if he didn’t go to find Heaven, Heaven would come to find him!

  “The Celestial Palace is Heaven’s personal ritual tool, and Heaven has always placed a high value on it. Even the Supremes have never had a chance to see it. Moreover, he also placed many seals over it, making it nearly impossible to break into it from the outside,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.

  Wang Chong and the Nightmare Beast exchanged a silent glance.

  If what Master Guangcheng said was true, wasn’t getting inside the Celestial Palace impossible?

  “I wasn’t done speaking. Heaven left a path for himself, and only through that passage can one enter the Celestial Palace. Though Heaven himself set up this passage, it’s not that difficult to enter it, because there is only condition to ent
er this passage: the possession of Dragon Qi!” Master Guangcheng said.

  “Dragon Qi?”

  Wang Chong raised an eyebrow in surprise.

  “Senior, are you referring to the Qi of sovereigns?”

  Since ancient times, the only ones who possessed Dragon Qi were the Sons of Heaven and the rebellious Kings, such as An Lushan.

  “Correct. Theoretically, only one person besides Heaven is able to enter the Celestial Palace—the sovereigns of the surrounding countries cannot be considered as having Dragon Qi,” Master Guangcheng firmly said.

  Wang Chong was rendered speechless by Master Guangcheng’s firm reply.

  Though Master Guangcheng had not directly said it, his meaning was very clear. Besides Heaven, the only one who could enter the Celestial Palace was Li Heng.

  “But why?”

  Heaven had probably been the strongest person in the human world for countless epochs. Just as he had claimed, he was a ‘god’.

  Given Heaven’s cautious attitude and behavior, why would he leave this sort of flaw in his personal ritual tool? Why would he let someone else into it?

  Though Li Heng was the Son of Heaven, he was only at the Saint Martial realm. What was the connection between him and Heaven?

  “It was just an accident, because countless epochs ago, Heaven was this world’s first Emperor,” Master Guangcheng sternly said.

  “What?”

  Wang Chong trembled, shock evident in his eyes.

  Heaven’s background, which epoch he had come from, and his status had always been mysteries. Even Luo Supreme, the earliest follower of Heaven, did not know the details.

  If Luo Supreme didn’t know his background, how could anyone else?

  Wang Chong had never imagined that Heaven’s earliest status was the Son of Heaven, the sovereign of the world.

  His mind was thrown into turmoil, and he suddenly understood why Heaven referred to himself with the royal ‘We’.

  “When Heaven created this ritual tool, he believed that his dynasty would last for all time. He had never imagined that countless epochs would wax and wane, that dynasties would rise and fall. The Dragon Qi long ago ceased to be his.”