Chapter 228: Your Excellencies, I yield

Qing Kingdom, the capital.

As the capital of a kingdom, this place is the stabilizing needle of the entire Qing Kingdom; whether the Qing Kingdom is in chaos can be seen from the changing atmosphere within the city.

Early this morning, the city was still peaceful, but as the battle report arrived that the front-line Zhalong Pass had been breached, everyone from the hundred officials down to the common people panicked, various rumors grew more and more absurd, and some even claimed to have seen the figures of Mo Sect cultivators eight hundred li away.

"Useless! A bunch of useless people!"

Inside the Golden Hall, the King of Qing had lost much of his dignified and noble aura; his face was twisted with anger, clearly furious to the extreme.

Below the platform, a young man knelt.

The top scholar of the imperial examination, Zhong Xin.

This former top scholar was now half-covered in blood, his spiritual energy withered, yet he did not utter a single word, appearing to await the King of Qing's judgment.

"Your subject is incompetent."

"You are incompetent! I entrusted you with more than half of the 【Qing Kingdom】, ordering you to defend Zhalong Pass, and how many days has it been? The dead are dead, the fugitives have fled..."

The King of Qing directly grabbed a vase beside him and smashed it onto Zhong Xin. The vase shattered, Zhong Xin's body did not move an inch, he merely kept his head bowed in silence. Instead, after throwing that one blow, the King of Qing calmed down somewhat, hurriedly walked to Zhong Xin's side, and personally helped him to his feet:

"I was momentarily blinded by rage... Do not blame me, my dear minister!"

Hearing this, Zhong Xin shook his head: "Your subject has indeed failed to meet Your Majesty's high expectations, so no matter how Your Majesty punishes me, I am willing to accept it wholeheartedly."

"Sigh, you... are just too loyal!"

Hearing this, the King of Qing felt some emotion: "Among all the civil and military officials, not a single one treats me as you do; at this moment, I fear some are already packing their things to run!"

Having spoken, he took a large number of memorials from the nearby desk.

"Take a look."

The King of Qing looked helpless and sighed: "Since the Jiangbei troops arrived at Zhalong Pass, the entire Qing Kingdom has suddenly fallen into chaos; the rebel armies number eighty-one paths!"

"Behind these rebel armies lies the handiwork of the Mo Sect; Master Chongguang must be hiding among them!"

Speaking to this point, the King of Qing fiercely kicked over the nearby table and chairs, trembling with anger: "If this continues, they will truly invade the Imperial Palace."

Just thinking of it made the King of Qing feel a wave of fear. He was the King of the Qing Kingdom, personally appointed by the Son of Heaven of Jiangdong, a noble of heavenly destiny from birth. Thinking that those lowly mud-legs of humble origin might step into his Imperial Palace and overthrow him, he wished to grind everyone to dust and scatter their ashes.

"With matters come to this, we can wait no longer!"

Thinking thus, the King of Qing immediately looked at Zhong Xin: "My mind is made up; today I bestow upon you the Sword of the Son of Heaven, the Symbol of Authority and the Axe, to sweep away the internal and external rebel chaos on my behalf!"

All this heavy pressure was brought by the Mo Sect.

The system of the Dao Court lies in governance and stability; once chaos descends and order ceases to exist, the enhancement of cultivation realms provided by Dao Court official positions will weaken.

If this continues, the King of Qing fears that even if he enhances Zhong Xin with his own kingly position, it may not match the power of a Great True Person. At that time, it would truly be a dead end with no power to turn back the heavens, so he must, while he can still exert the power of a Great True Person, quickly let Zhong Xin fight in his place!

In this way, the situation will surely improve.

Thinking of this, the King of Qing immediately began to arrange matters, summoning eunuchs to set up a ritual, retrieving the symbol and the axe, and then drawing the ceremonial sword from his waist.

The Symbol of Authority and the Axe allow one to act on behalf of the ruler's position.

Such a great matter could naturally not be decided by a single word; it required the King of Qing to personally set the rites, and originally a grand ritual ceremony would have to be held.

However, with the current situation so urgent, everything must be simplified.

"My dear minister, henceforth I must rely on you."

The King of Qing, looking emotional, personally handed the Sword of the Son of Heaven, the Symbol of Authority, the Axe, and other items into Zhong Xin's hands, along with which was transferred an official position.

【Lingxiao Qingyun Universal Savior, King of the North】

This is the highest official position in the 【Qing Kingdom】; although within the Dao Court system it is merely a vassal king's position, it still possesses a power beyond the comprehension of gods and ghosts.

Zhong Xin said nothing and respectfully accepted it.

Seeing this, the King of Qing nodded in satisfaction, watching Zhong Xin's spiritual energy begin to surge rapidly, surpassing the limit of the mid-stage Foundation Establishment realm in the blink of an eye.

Of course, this was merely held in trust.

The Symbol of Authority and the Axe, the key lies in the word "temporary"; as long as the King of Qing wishes, this official position can be retracted at any time, so he was very reassured about this.

However, very soon, he discovered something was wrong.

Because Zhong Xin's spiritual energy was still rising; after reaching the late stage of Foundation Establishment, it showed no sign of stopping, and streams of divine technique brilliance surged from his body!

"So powerful?"

Until this moment, the King of Qing had not yet noticed anything amiss, merely surprised that his kingly position could allow someone to rise to such a high realm.

Only when Zhong Xin's spiritual energy had no constraints, suddenly breaking through the bottleneck of the late stage of Foundation Establishment, and the spiritual energy of his entire person manifested an aura of "perfection" and "flawlessness," did the King of Qing finally notice something slightly wrong. How could this held-in-trust position be more powerful than when he held it himself?

'Something is wrong!'

In an instant, the King of Qing's pupils shrank sharply; almost instinctively, he wanted to retract the official position he had just bestowed, but a chill suddenly struck his chest.

All words were blocked in his chest.

Because behind him, accompanied by a burst of blazing white divine technique brilliance, a figure silently appeared, and an invisible sword blade had already pierced through his chest.

【Assassinate the King】! 【Coiled Steel】!

Two profound enhancements; the blade of the invisible sword met no obstruction whatsoever!

'An assassin!? Impossible!'

The King of Qing's eyes widened; he could not believe that the heavily guarded Golden Hall could be infiltrated by an assassin. This place should have forbidden void teleportation!

Who? Why?

The King of Qing strained to look back, but saw no one who had assassinated him; he only saw a hand, and in that hand, a book of talismans.

The pages flipped rapidly, revealing the characters written upon them: 【Lu Yang kills the King of Qing before the court】

Heavenly and Earthly Killing Intent! A fated death!

With the enhancement of this Heavenly and Earthly Killing Intent, Lu Yang experienced for the first time what it meant to have divine assistance, what it meant to have the time and the heavens and the earth working together.

From beginning to end, he did only one thing.

Innate Divine Technique, 【Determine Closeness and Distance】!

Normally speaking, he and the King of Qing had not even met, there was no karma at all, making it impossible to use 【Determine Closeness and Distance】 to teleport directly to his side.

Yet, propelled by the killing intent of heaven and earth, he not only clearly sensed the karmic tie between himself and the Prince of Qing, able to teleport from ten thousand li away to behind the Prince of Qing with a single thought, but also grasped the optimal moment through intuition, slaying him without the slightest effort!

"Puchi!"

The 【Formless Sword】 flashed and vanished in an instant, drawing a streak of blood-light, splitting the Prince of Qing—who died with eyes wide open—in two; fresh blood instantly dyed more than half the golden hall red.

In a flash, heaven and earth fell utterly silent.

The surrounding eunuchs, the Prince of Qing's expression, all the sounds seemed to vanish at this very moment; above the capital of the Kingdom of Qing, dark clouds had gathered at some unknown time.

"Honglonglong!"

The entire capital trembled slightly at this moment; the howling wind sounded like someone roaring, scraping against Zhong Xin and Lu Yang's bodies like steel blades.

Yet just then, Zhong Xin also raised his head.

That face, which had always been "loyal" and "reverent," diligent for decades, never once revealing the slightest abnormality, now wore a mocking smile.

If the Prince of Qing had not died, he could naturally have taken back his authority.

Yet now, he was dead.

Not only did he die within this deep palace, but before dying he had jointly wielded the Imperial Scepter with another; back and forth, it had actually made Zhong Xin the person holding the highest authority in the current 【Kingdom of Qing】!

"My lords, thank you for yielding."

As the words fell, Zhong Xin's appearance kept changing, flesh and blood sloughing off, as if a mask had been removed, revealing a face familiar to Lu Yang.

Master Chongguang!

'Just as I expected.'

Seeing this scene, Lu Yang immediately murmured to himself.

Zhong Xin is Chongguang!

All that talk of having just reincarnated was nothing but ghost stories to fool people; with True Monarch Qingcheng Feixue's help, even the heavenly secrets and karma had been deceived along with them!

No wonder he had not chosen to go overseas back then.

What had appeared in the Sacred Flame Cliff at the very beginning was probably, from start to finish, an existence like a clone; the infants appearing in various places across the Kingdom of Qing were also all smokescreens.

He had actually reincarnated long ago!

As for what the Yinshan True Person had told Lu Yang—using an 【Uprising】 to reverse the Dao Court rules from bottom to top—that was even more something he had deliberately spread to muddle people's ears!

All for the sake of feigning one thing while doing another.

After all, to reverse the Dao Court rules of the 【Kingdom of Qing】, it didn't necessarily have to be an 【Uprising】 from bottom to top; it could also be a 【Seizure of Power】 from top to bottom!

Chongguang is about to attain the Dao!

(End of this chapter)