“Heaven, what in the world did you do?” Wang Chong muttered, a dim look in his eyes.
Li Xuantu was right. Whether it was the woodcutter, the scholar, or this bearded Daoist, none of them were worth Heaven’s time, and in normal circumstances, they never would have appeared here.
Because Heaven’s true goal was never the woodcutter or the scholar! It was that smiling youth with the crew cut!
This was his true target!
“This person is very strange…”
Li Xuantu and Little Nightmare had finally noticed that ‘strangely dressed’ youth.
“Such strange clothes, and this…”
Li Xuantu reached out and plucked a transparent button from the youth’s chest.
“What material is this? Not iron or gold, nor any kind of precious stone. Is this one of Heaven’s people? Or someone from another epoch that Heaven brought inside?”
As Li Xuantu spoke, he stared in surprise at this youth.
“Perhaps,” Wang Chong noncommittally said, unwilling to speak more on this matter.
To this world and people like Li Xuantu, the existence of transmigrators was still a secret.
Whoosh!
Wang Chong waved his sleeve and continued forward.
“Time is short. We need to find the Celestial Palace’s core!”
Li Xuantu hesitated a moment, but though he found the matter strange, he decided to follow Wang Chong, and the group soon passed the chessboard and ventured deeper into the sea of clouds and mist.
After passing the outermost buildings of the Celestial Palace, they soon arrived at the second large square.
This square was on a much larger scale, and the material for the flooring was even more valuable. In addition, clouds had been carved atop the paving stones, and numerous jewels and precious stones had been embedded into the ground. Besides that, even more white mist was seeping out.
A sea of mist completely engulfed the world.
“What’s this? I feel like this region’s not the same as the previous one,” Li Xuantu commented, frowning.
Wang Chong thought for a moment before saying, “It’s the power of a domain. It seems that the Celestial Palace is divided into various regions, and they’re divided from each other by barriers.”
As he spoke, he stepped forward, and it was only a few steps before his conjectures were proved true by a glassy barrier of light gold rising out of the ground to bar his path.
The moment this barrier appeared, it completely divided the two regions.
“It really is as you said. The Celestial Palace seems to have very strict divisions. For the vast majority of martial artists, it would be very difficult to break through this barrier,” Li Xuantu said.
These barriers were ‘outwardly loose and internally tight’. There didn’t seem to be anything special about them on the surface, but Li Xuantu could sense that this glassy barrier was fused with the Celestial Palace. Trying to force one’s way through would be attacking the Celestial Palace itself. Let alone breaking through, one might also face a severe backlash.
However, this barrier wasn’t enough to stop experts of Wang Chong and Li Xuantu’s level.
Buzz!
Ignoring Li Xuantu, Wang Chong strode through the barrier into the second square.
Grotto Heaven realm experts could control spacetime, so ordinary barriers naturally couldn’t stop them. There was a series of ripples as Wang Chong passed through the barrier like it was a curtain of water.
Bang!
As Wang Chong’s foot hit the ground, he sensed a gloomy energy, and a dark shadow appeared on Wang Chong’s face.
“How is it? Did you notice anything?”
A soft sound came from behind him as Li Xuantu stepped through the barrier and up to Wang Chong’s side.
Wang Chong shook his head. But just when he was about to speak, he glanced into the depths of the mist. His eyes widened as he swiftly walked over.
About a hundred feet away, a black object lay on the paving stones. Wang Chong reached out, pulling that black object from the ground and into his hand. He instantly felt the touch of cold metal.
“This is… a shard of armor!”
Li Xuantu looked around, his eyebrows creasing.
The armor shard in Wang Chong’s hand was about the size of a palm and was covered in exquisite patterns. It had clearly belonged to a very expensive suit of armor.
One was a former Crown Prince and the other was a Supreme Marshal, so they were familiar with this kind of armor. But what they cared about was not the armor shard itself.
“There was a battle here, a very intense one.”
Li Xuantu’s eyes twitched. Armor like this would not easily decay, and if it did decay, it would start to decay from the edges, not shatter into pieces. Most importantly, he could see the traces of battle on this piece of armor.
“Were they fighting over the Celestial Palace?” Li Xuantu hesitantly said.
“I don’t know, but we’re inside the Celestial Palace. Anything is possible,” Wang Chong sternly said.
The Celestial Palace had a very powerful disruptive ability, so even Wang Chong could not find out much. But at this moment, Wang Chong understood why he had sensed a gloomy energy as soon as he had stepped into the region.
As they ventured farther into the rolling mists, they found more and more signs of battle, shattered armor and scattered weapons. The paving stones which had been reinforced by many formations were scarred by weapons and explosions of Stellar Energy.
On one of these paving stones, Wang Chong even spotted a giant furrow that was sixty to seventy feet long.
Chapter 2349 - The Champion Marquis, Huo Qubing!
Chapter 2349: The Champion Marquis, Huo Qubing!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Wang Chong and Li Xuantu glanced at each other and deeply frowned.
This area appeared to be like a complex of buildings, but in reality, it was all part of a massive ritual tool. Beneath the veneer of normality were tens of thousands of formations and inscriptions.
Someone who could leave such a long and deep furrow within the Celestial Palace had to at least be at the Subtle realm.
“It seems like it’s the work of those people who entered the Celestial Palace before, but these marks… Were they ambushed by Heaven?”
Li Xuantu lowered his head and pondered.
“It’s hard to say. After all, this is the heart of the Celestial Palace, and everything they knew was a lie.”
There was a flash of pity in Wang Chong’s eyes.
They two of them had seen many bloodstains on the paving stones, blackened and dried by the passage of time. Regardless of what had happened here, it was clear that these people were long dead.
Wang Chong and Li Xuantu raised their vigilance and continued to follow the trail of battle scars. About ten seconds later, the two of them found something new.
Several thousand feet away from the barrier, they saw an armored figure on the ground, someone who appeared to be a general. There was a black stain of blood originating from his mouth and his expression was twisted in pain. His hands were covering his chest and his body was curled up as he looked up in pain at the sky. But his body was cold, and he had clearly been dead for some time.
The extremely long passage of time had turned this general’s body into a mummy, just like the other ancient people on the Heaven-Reaching Path.
“It’s a general of the Han Dynasty. He was in immense pain before his death, and he received a fatal wound at his heart! He was ambushed!”
Li Xuantu bent down and glanced around.
The sharp tip of the sword protruded from between the general’s hands. He had clearly been attacked from behind, pierced through the heart.
“Bastard! This had to be the doing of the Celestial God Organization!” Little Nightmare suddenly said.
“There’s no other possibility. Heaven used the legends of the Celestial
Court and the Celestial Domain to lure these people inside, and then he struck here, sweeping them all up in one fell swoop,” Li Xuantu sternly said.
Li Xuantu wasn’t at all surprised by their deaths. After all, how could someone who would sacrifice an entire city care about a few lives? But even now, he still did not have an answer to that riddle.
Why had Heaven lured so many people in here?
Wang Chong examined the general’s corpse. For some reason, Wang Chong felt that something wasn’t right, that the situation wasn’t as simple as Li Xuantu said.
They found more and more traces of battle as they ventured farther, with even more bodies on the ground. Some of them were even beheaded or dismembered, their body parts scattered across the ground in a horrifying spectacle.
All of them had been in incredible pain before their deaths. The surrounding mood grew heavier and heavier.
A few moments later, as they reached the deepest part of the square, Wang Chong, Li Xuantu, and Little Nightmare were all left dumbfounded.
There were piles of corpses fallen on the ground, all of them wearing armor. Many of them were generals, but not all of them. There were also corpses dressed as alchemists or martial artists, and there were even fallen banners all over the place.
But this was not what truly shocked Wang Chong’s group.
Whether it was the generals, alchemists, or martial artists, they had all been fighting each other. General versus general, alchemist versus alchemist, alchemist versus general… all of them were using all their strength to battle each other.
All of their expressions were twisted in immense pain.
This entire time, Wang Chong’s group had believed that this group had been ambushed by Heaven and the Celestial God Organization, but to their consternation, they had all died at each other’s hands.
There were no particular factions. Each person attacked anyone around them that they could attack.
This was a frenzied slaughter, and in the end, no one had survived.
Even though Wang Chong had been baptized through battle and seen countless cruel sights, this hellish battlefield still struck him as extremely gruesome.
Even after more than one thousand years, they could still see that frenzied and insane battle.
“Their minds became confused, and they were unable to differentiate between friend and foe. Heaven controlled them and had them kill each other!”
Li Xuantu sighed with pity and compassion in his eyes.
It would have been understandable if they had divided into their own camps, but general had gone against general, alchemist against alchemist, martial artist against martial artist, none showing any mercy. Even though it seemed difficult to believe, the two of them were no stranger to this situation.
Outside, the millions of people in the capital were being influenced by the power of the Celestial Palace.
While these people seemed to have killed each other, in reality, Heaven had killed them.
Wang Chong looked at these bodies with pity and began to carefully search through them. About seventy feet away from the pile of corpses, the three of them spotted a unique figure.
A man was seated cross-legged on the ground, his hair unbound and disheveled, his helmet held in his hand. His eyes were focused on the crowd of fighting people, his expression stricken with sorrow and misery. His armor was in tatters, scarred by slashes from swords and sabers. It was clear that he had been ambushed before his death.
This man clearly had impressive status. His armor was much more grandiose and exquisite than the others’, but it had not been able to save him.
At his side, they saw that several words had been carved into the ground.
‘A trap, a trap! It was all a scheme…’
It seemed that he had used all his strength to write these words, and they still radiated anger and sorrow.
Wang Chong couldn’t help but deeply sigh at these words.
“It seems that he was the only sober one amongst these people.”
This person had clearly been able to tell that something was wrong, but all he could do was watch as his subordinates killed each other.
This sort of sorrow and deep sense of helplessness were even more painful than dying unaware.
“Haaah…”
Wang Chong sighed one more time before walking past the general with Li Xuantu. As he passed, Wang Chong reached out and closed the general’s eyes.
……
Not long after leaving that chaotic battlefield, they came upon something new.
This was the body of a giant bird that seemed like a mixture of peacock and phoenix.
It was two hundred feet tall with a wingspan of three hundred feet. Wang Chong’s group stood at its feet, even one of its claws standing taller than them.
This bird’s body was cold and had clearly been dead for ages.
“What is this?”
Li Xuantu stopped in front of this giant bird corpse, his face in shock.
“I don’t know, but it truly is bizarre.”
Wang Chong also frowned.
They had seen the bodies of people who had accidentally wandered into this place, but the body of this giant bird undoubtedly stood out.
They quickly spotted something else.
“There’s another body over there.”
A corpse was standing on the other side of the bird’s corpse.
This man wore white clothes and appeared extremely young, in his twenties, very close to Wang Chong. But unlike the other corpses, this young man’s body showed no sign of pain. On the contrary, he was smiling and seemed to be brimming with energy and confidence.
This sort of smile could be described as…
Proud!
It was like nothing in the world could defeat him or bind him.
In front of them, a line of words had been carved several inches deep into the ground.
‘Han Great General of the Flying Cavalry and the Champion Marquis, Huo Qubing, executed the Green Bird at this place!’
Bang!
The energetic and vigorous words made Wang Chong and Li Xuantu tremble in shock.
The Flying Cavalry Great General?
The Champion Marquis?
Huo Qubing!
Wang Chong found it hard to remain composed.
‘Champion Marquis Huo Qubing’ was a name that would always have a thunderous reputation, regardless of dynasty, a name that would leave anyone shaken.
At a young age, he was made a Marquis and given authority over the entire army. There was no more renowned existence than him.
If the ambitious and expansionist Emperor Wu of Han were regarded as the Sage Emperor while the illustrious Wei Qing was considered Crown Prince’s Junior Guardian Wang Zhongsi, then Huo Qubing would have been Wang Chong, the Wang Chong who had defeated all the other countries and united the world under the rule of the Great Tang.
The Great Han had been a time of countless general stars, and Huo Qubing had undoubtedly been the most dazzling of all the stars under Emperor Wu’s command.
His light had even penetrated through spacetime to cast countless capable and renowned generals of other dynasties into the shadow. A thousand years into the past and a thousand years into the future, it would be difficult for someone to outshine him.
More importantly, he had been made commander of the army at the age of only nineteen. He was very similar to Wang Chong in many aspects.
At this moment, Wang Chong recalled that peculiarity he had felt on the Heaven-Reaching Path.
‘On decree of Emperor Wu of the Great Han, General of the Adjunct Guard Zuo Qing accompanied Great General Huo to the Kunlun paradise, coming here in search of the Queen Mother of the West and the green bird!’
The line of words he had seen on that wall appeared in his mind.
Great General Huo… So that General of the Adjunct Guard had been referring to Huo Qubing in his message. Wang Chong had just been too hurried and those words written too ambiguously for
Wang Chong to make the connection.
But if this young man was Huo Qubing, the general they had just passed had probably been that Zuo Qing.
“But, how could it be…” Li Xuantu’s shocked voice rang out. “The historical records said that in the sixth year of the Yuanshou Era of Emperor Wu, he was ordered to pacify the Xiongnu one last time, but he died at an early age of an illness. This is a matter of public record. How could he have died here?”
Li Xuantu was stunned. When he was young, the first lesson his father had given him was about this dazzling Flying Cavalry Great General of the Han Empire.
In fact, all of the Princes had to take this first lesson. From this, one could see the considerable weight that Huo Qubing’s name had.
Li Xuantu had never imagined that this talented Great General, the Champion Marquis, had not died from illness as the historical record claimed.
Chapter 2350 - Emperor Wu Welcomes the Green Bird!
Chapter 2350: Emperor Wu Welcomes the Green Bird!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Wang Chong was silent, but his mind was in turmoil.
He naturally understood what Li Xuantu was talking about. The historical records also said that when Huo Qubing died, Emperor Wu had been overcome with grief and served as one of his pallbearers.
In the Central Plains, the Yan Clan, which had served as Grand Scribes for generations, had always been extremely rigorous when it came to history. If this was what the records said, then it had to have occurred. This was precisely why Wang Chong and Li Xuantu were so shocked.
After some thought, Wang Chong said, “We can’t be sure. Think carefully. According to the historical records, how did Huo Qubing die?”
“It had to be because of illness…” Li Xuantu blurted out, but he almost instantly froze. It was clear that he had also noticed something strange.
The records stated that Huo Qubing had died in his prime from illness. This would be believable if the Flying Cavalry Great General had been an ordinary person, but…
Li Xuantu glanced at that young figure. Whether it was from the meridians in his body or his shattered Grotto Heaven Core, it was obvious that this man who had singlehandedly changed the positions of the Great Han and the Xiongnu, the Champion Marquis who had wiped out the greatest foe of the Central Plains, had a divine cultivation that even surpassed his and Wang Chong’s in some aspects.
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