Chapter 765: Put Away

Gaoyuan Marquis was speechless.

A very "Emperor" answer.

I have received your remonstrance, and what you say makes sense; upon careful reflection, there are indeed suspicious points in my affairs, and I believe your words—however, I will not change.

If a mess is made...

If a mess is made, then it is made; if a disaster happens, then it happens; we can just deal with it after it occurs.

As long as I obtain the power and reclaim the authority, everything will get better.

For the sake of my goal, some losses and costs are worth it.

This is the Emperor's way of thinking, and the current Emperor is very much an Emperor.

Gaoyuan Marquis sighed; she had already said everything she could, and saying more would be a bit redundant. Even if her words were ironclad, the Emperor would not consider the overall situation, or rather, only he could define what is called the "overall situation."

Obey the overall situation—I am the overall situation—which means you all obey me.

Therefore, she merely confirmed once more: "If Your Majesty insists on this, and it truly causes a great calamity for the Human World, or even leads to an uncontrollable state where the nation sinks, will Your Majesty take responsibility for the consequences?"

The Emperor said without hesitation: "To bear the nation's filth is what it means to be the master of the state. If there are any calamities or consequences from the matters I have arranged, I will naturally bear them myself. It has nothing to do with others. I have noted the words Xunqing just spoke and will certainly investigate them thoroughly later, but this matter at hand cannot stop. The National Teacher's power has already been left here; if I do not inherit it, should I let it go to waste for others? Marquis Xun, just focus on helping me gather the power. Once I have the power of a Sword Immortal, the first people I will strike at are those villains who dare to use the Emperor."

He stared at Gaoyuan Marquis's snow-white hair again and said in a more formal tone, "Time is running out. I have also heard of Marquis Xun's situation—exhausting your efforts until the end—and this time, I have truly let you down. After you pass, your funeral arrangements will surely be of the utmost glory; your title and posthumous name will be greatly increased, and I permit you to be enshrined in the Tai Miao. I will also select an excellent heir to inherit your incense and grant him your title and salary. I know you cannot let go of Yunzhou; I will take good care of it as well. From now on, Yunzhou will be the auxiliary capital of the Great Jin, no different from Jingji, with five years of tax exemption. If Marquis Xun has any unfinished business, just tell me; I will certainly not let you have any regrets."

Gaoyuan Marquis could not be bothered to argue with him about how "bearing the nation's filth means you take responsibility when the nation suffers a disaster, not that the nation bears the burden when you make a mess," so she just nodded again and said: "Since that is the case, I wish Your Majesty success. I have no regrets; I just want to see if Your Majesty can truly realize your ambitions. If there is a monarch in the world capable of taking responsibility, who wouldn't be happy? Please, Your Majesty, release the spiritual light."

The Emperor breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had examined his previous experiences because he cared about what Gaoyuan Marquis said, now that he had made up his mind, he was more concerned about whether the final step of his plan would fail. To complete the plan, Gaoyuan Marquis's cooperation was very important; if she refused to cooperate, his plan would face great trouble. Fortunately, after his repeated reassurances, Gaoyuan Marquis seemed willing to cooperate. It seemed that Gaoyuan Marquis was indeed, as Zhongmeng had said, a person who prioritized the overall situation. Since he had made promises and she had agreed, he could finally proceed.

To be honest, quite a lot of time had been wasted.

Releasing the spiritual light, Gaoyuan Marquis did not look at the Emperor again, but only looked up at the sky.

"Prepare... to act!"

She closed her eyes and opened them again; it was clearly a very simple action, yet she seemed to have used all her strength. The eye in the sky followed suit, closing and then opening again.

Three clear gazes swept across the firmament.

In this instant, blood and tears flowed from Gaoyuan Marquis's eyes; her face twisted slightly, and she took a step back.

At the same time, something seemed to flow from the eye in the sky—it looked like a crack. A fine crack streaked across the sky, merging into the deep night, and no one could see it.

Likewise, no one saw that among the mass of white hair, there was a thin blue thread, finer than a hair, flickering slightly.

"Collect!"

Under the Emperor's timely and urgent shout, the massive pillar of Heavenly Thunder suddenly disintegrated, turning into a large mass of thunderclouds, then coiled up like silk, transforming into a stream of light that lunged into the Heaven-Traveling Seal!

The speed of the thunder light's fluctuation had been invisible to the naked eye before, and it was still invisible now, but it had been too slow before, and now it was too fast!

How fast can a lightning strike be?

It is exactly that saying: in the flash of a spark!

The crowd only felt that in the blink of an eye, the thunder pillar vanished, and in another blink, the Heaven-Traveling Seal was already glowing!

The Heaven-Traveling Seal had been translucent before, like a piece of jade containing chaos, but now it had turned into a ball of light, dazzling to the extreme! Even the ball lightning in the sky was not as brilliant as this mass of thunder light!

The crowd watched with their own eyes as the Heaven-Traveling Seal erupted with brilliant light. The next moment, the radiance extinguished, and the Emperor held only a wheel of light in his hands, so dazzling and blinding that even its outline could not be seen.

This should be...

Finished?

Is it that simple?

Although the Heaven-Traveling Seal had become brilliant after reclaiming the National Teacher's power, looking truly like a treasure of National Fortune, the crowd had originally expected the scene to be more grand.

Whether it was the process or the result, it should have been unprecedented, right?

The performance just now was not even enough to be the finale of this fireworks show.

However, this was a success, right? The Emperor should be satisfied, right?

The Emperor also felt somewhat bewildered. He did indeed feel that the Heaven-Traveling Seal was filled with unprecedented power, and this power was under his control. It felt as if he could crush others into powder with a wave of his hand, but this power felt a bit airy and lacked a sense of reality.

Is this the power he had racked his brains to master?

It didn't seem that powerful after all.

He looked at Gaoyuan Marquis with some doubt. When he had questions in his heart, the first person he wanted to ask was actually Gaoyuan Marquis. Although there was no affection between them, and they could not even be called familiar, he felt that this person might be able to resolve his doubts.

Looking over, he saw Gaoyuan Marquis sitting on the ground, covering her eyes with her hands, looking very pained. This was exactly as Zhongmeng Zhenren had said: after last night's event, Gaoyuan Marquis's life was also coming to an end.

This old minister could not be relied upon. He looked at Zhongmeng Zhenren again; Zhongmeng was looking at him excitedly, not feeling that anything was strange at all.

He immediately understood that there was no one to ask for clarification now, and even if there were, he should not ask: asking now would mean that the plan might have flaws, which would be him showing weakness.

In the current situation, how could he show weakness? It must be a success.

Besides... who said it wasn't a success? Or perhaps this was a complete and total success?

Perhaps he had thought the Sword Immortal's power was too strong and too unattainable; in fact, the power he now possessed was already quite remarkable. He could perceive that his own Protective Aura had become more than ten times stronger.

Then, he should find someone to demonstrate this newly acquired power. Otherwise, how could he announce his powerful arrival?

As for the target, naturally it was...

The Emperor's gaze swept over the crowd, paused on Shou Wang's face for a moment, and then passed over him to fix on Shun Wang.

Shou Wang breathed a sigh of relief without a trace. Shun Wang sensed the Emperor's gaze and looked up at him; the two cousins looked at each other, each sneering in their hearts.

With the overall situation now in his grasp, the Emperor naturally would not crudely shout "Seize him." He sighed: "Master National Teacher has fallen into a deep sleep, and I do not know when he will wake up. This is truly a great loss for our dynasty..."

Speaking to this point, he felt a bit chilly, but it was only a feeling and did not hinder anything, so he continued: "I cannot wake him immediately, but those who are disrespectful to the National Teacher deserve to be punished."

The crowd felt secretly terrified one after another, and many shivered: a small portion was because this sentence meant the Emperor was about to open the curtain on some bloody prologue, but more were because: it was truly cold.

The Emperor always kept his Protective Aura fully active, so he only felt a slight chill, but everyone else sitting below felt a cold wind blow past, as if it were the biting wind of the third nine-day period that drilled into the marrow of the bones, making people tremble and shake; several of the physically weaker civil officials even had their teeth chattering.

Those who were chattering were still confused, even guessing if this was the Emperor's trick, but others became completely vigilant.

For instance, among the ministers, a middle-aged man with a large build, round eyes, and slightly visible whites of the eyes reacted the most, almost standing up to shout a warning:

"There is Yin energy! A Heavenly Demon is coming!"

This person was none other than Cao Zhixie, the Commander of the Earth District Inspection Bureau, which meant he was the nominal head of the Earth District Inspection Bureau in the world. Although the Earth District Inspection Bureau was now divided among the various provinces and had long since been operating independently, the Earth District Inspection Bureau in Jingcheng at least still managed the Yin Calamity in the Jingji region, though it rarely mobilized because Jingji had been suppressed by the National Teacher, and there had not been a Yin Calamity for many years.

But Cao Zhixie was not able to become a Commander entirely through maneuvering and networking; he possessed the basic qualities of a member of the Land Inspection Bureau and was extremely sensitive to Yin energy. Just now, as the cold air struck, he suddenly realized: this was Yin energy, a precursor to a Yin Calamity! Moreover, it was unprecedented in scale and not optimistic!

From his perspective as a member of the Land Inspection Bureau, a Yin Calamity was more important than anything else. Those present were princes and nobles, many of whom were frail and weak; let alone the impending Yin Calamity, even being exposed to the Yin energy for a few more moments could potentially kill them.

Therefore, he instinctively opened his mouth to sound the alarm, but seeing the Emperor about to thunderously deal with Prince Shun, he hesitated for a moment: which was more serious, letting the Yin Calamity harm the officials and the commoners below, or interrupting the Emperor and incurring the wrath of the Son of Heaven?

As expected, it was still... incurring the wrath of the Son of Heaven, right?

Looking at the Emperor's decisive and ruthless style of action, and seeing that he was currently in high spirits, it was better not to provoke him.

In any case, dealing with Prince Shun would only take a moment; he could report it once the Emperor finished his official business.

Thinking this, he closed his mouth. It was not just him who thought this; everyone else present who could detect the problem also kept their mouths shut. Thus, the Emperor had no idea what was happening.

The Emperor continued to say to Prince Shun: "You are also of the Yuan bloodline, the own grandson of the Shenzong Emperor. While you have indeed erred, how could I bear to use the sword against you? Why must you demean yourself by clinging to life?"

This was naturally urging him to commit suicide. Prince Shun looked at him with cold eyes, then suddenly turned his head and performed a backward roll—

Behind him was the railing!

This movement was extremely swift; in the blink of an eye, he had already flipped over the railing. The Emperor stood with his hands bound, watching him, waiting for his next move.

After flipping over, Prince Shun did not hesitate at all and jumped down from Jindinglou!