Chapter 766: Arrival

Under the gaze of the crowd, Prince Shun climbed over the railing and jumped down!

This Jindinglou is seven stories high, nearly ten zhang tall; if an ordinary person were to jump down, they would certainly lose their life regardless of their landing posture!

There was no lack of low gasps among those present, but no one stepped forward to stop him; they all waited for this "sensible" Prince Shun to resolve the chaotic situation of the evening with one jump. The Emperor also walked up a few steps, holding the Heaven-Walking Seal in one hand while staring at Prince Shun.

Just as it seemed the result of Prince Shun falling from above would be determined in the blink of an eye, suddenly, a patch of green appeared before everyone's eyes, as if a green flower had bloomed. Prince Shun landed amidst the green flower and instantly vanished from sight!

The crowd was stunned. When they looked closely, it turned out to be a tree canopy. A massive locust tree had grown beneath Jindinglou at some unknown time, completely enveloping Prince Shun. Prince Shun first landed on the treetop, then rolled, and actually disappeared into the canopy, just like a fish entering the sea, no longer visible.

What is going on?

Did he escape?

This big tree is problematic; it came to receive Prince Shun!

It seems Prince Shun was quite thoughtful, having arranged accomplices below long ago.

The Emperor was furious and shouted, "How dare you, thief!" As he spoke, he raised a hand, and a Heavenly Thunder descended from the sky, crackling and popping as it struck the big tree!

This bolt of Thunder Light was neither thick nor particularly bright, but everyone was shaken by the violent aura within it, and they couldn't help but lean backward!

In an instant, a burnt smell wafted over. The lightning extinguished, and the crowd saw that the tree, which had grown suddenly to nearly three zhang tall, had completely turned into charcoal; the entire process took less than two breaths!

What powerful lightning!

The crowd recalled the State Preceptor: back then, the State Preceptor possessed such great Momentum; no matter what he was doing the moment before, with just a glance or a finger, Heavenly Thunder would instantly descend from the sky to strike people into charcoal, whether they were in houses, trees, underground, or in water—as long as the State Preceptor wanted to act, absolutely no one could escape.

Now, the Emperor also possessed this ability!

The Heaven-Walking Seal receiving the State Preceptor's power was indeed a success!

If there was a slight difference, it was that the State Preceptor might have left nothing behind even after striking, whereas this tree still had a large section of charcoal left, suggesting the power was perhaps slightly inferior to the State Preceptor's, though it could also be that the Emperor had not yet mastered it, or perhaps it was intentional—deliberately leaving the charred corpse to serve as a warning?

Although, the charcoal on the ground was just a tangled lump, and no corpse could be discerned.

The crowd couldn't help but swallow their saliva: when the State Preceptor was around, there were still rules to follow, and as long as one followed the rules, there was no fear of being struck by lightning; but now, with the Emperor, it was different—life and death were decided by the Emperor's single thought. Compared to rules, people were harder to serve.

The Emperor scanned the area, seemingly still dissatisfied with his own power, but it appeared Prince Shun was truly dead; he had failed to accept the Emperor's good intentions of allowing him to commit suicide to preserve his dignity, and had ended up dying without a complete corpse. He also saw the dumbstruck commoners on the ground and waved his hand, saying, "Commander Sun, go seal off the area and disperse the commoners. Also, there must be Prince Shun's accomplices among them; arrest them all and interrogate them one by one."

The Commander Sun he spoke of was, of course, not the Commander of the Land Inspection Division, but the Commander of the Emperor's personal Imperial Guard; this was a general the Emperor trusted, who had not come with the Empress Dowager today but had come to protect the Emperor in secret. This Commander was not big and burly like Commander Cao of the Land Inspection Division, but rather had an ordinary face, was thin and short, and usually had little presence.

Hearing the Emperor's order, he emerged from some unknown corner, replied simply, "As you command," and turned to go down.

The Emperor opened his mouth toward the commoners below, saying, "All..." Before the words were finished, his eyes narrowed.

He saw black mist rising at the edge of the sky, though he did not know when it had started.

It was night, and the night was deep, so blackness was not easy to see, but today was the Lantern Festival, and there was a large moon, which was brighter than usual; there were also thousands of lanterns illuminating the surroundings. By the light of the lanterns, the Emperor clearly saw clusters of black mist drifting at the distant horizon, permeating and expanding, as if they were about to pounce toward them.

"What is that?"

The Emperor had never seen this; that black mist made him feel uneasy, and he blurted it out.

At this moment, a person stepped out from among the hundred officials and said loudly, "Yin Calamity, this is a Yin Calamity! Your Majesty, please listen: for some reason, a large amount of Yin Qi has suddenly been born all around, as if there is a Demon Cave... no, one, two, three, four... at least a dozen Demon Caves are forming! They are all gathering around Jingcheng! This... this is..."

The Emperor recognized this person as Commander Cao of the Land Inspection Division. Yin Calamities had not troubled Jingcheng for a long time, so the Commander had been a transparent figure and had basically never spoken to the Emperor, but the Emperor had an outstanding memory and had remembered his name, knowing well that this person was an Expert on Yin Calamities, so his judgment was certainly credible.

At this moment, he immediately thought of the warning just given by the Gaoyuan Marquis: without the deterrence of the State Preceptor, this "safe zone" of Jingcheng would immediately collapse, and with the Heavenly Demons calculating, this place under the Emperor's feet would soon become a ghost realm!

At the time, the Emperor had chosen that it was "worth it," but he had thought it would collapse bit by bit over time, allowing for remedial measures; who knew it would be so immediate? He did not regret his choice, but he knew this had to be taken seriously, and he immediately shouted:

"Commander Cao, you immediately take men to suppress the Demon Caves! With Me here, how can these demons and monsters be allowed to run wild in Jingcheng?!"

Suppress?

Me?!

Commander Cao only felt a headache, wanting to ask if His Majesty had any misunderstandings about the Jingcheng Land Inspection Division, which hadn't seen real combat in decades? But he dared not say it, so he had to agree first.

Fortunately, the Emperor was not a completely wishful greenhorn, saying, "Besides Commander Sun's Imperial Guard, there are indeed some capable subjects present. I grant you authorization to mobilize them to suppress the chaos. Zhongmeng Zhenren, the sprouts of Yin Calamity in Jingcheng were all handled by the State Preceptor, and you have participated many times; you are just what is needed now. You will serve as Commander Cao's deputy to help him deploy the overall strategy for exterminating the Demon Caves."

Zhongmeng Zhenren had not expected to have a role, so he hurriedly lowered his head and agreed.

Commander Cao breathed a slight sigh of relief. Although the current Imperial Court was not like the former Wei, where civil officials were Spirit Officials and military officials were Sword Guests, and the army could not be called elite troops, there were still many masters among the military generals, and there were Sword Guests among the civil officials, even in the Yuan...

The Yuan should be forgotten; not to mention that it was a time of being shunned, most Yuan Sword Guests, except for the moment they picked up a sword, usually had a relationship of mutual disgust with the sword; they wouldn't be enough to add to the chaos if they went into battle!

But the group with the most good hands was actually...

Commander Cao could not mention it, but the Emperor thought of it himself, his gaze sweeping over the visiting marquises—each of these people was a powerhouse, mostly powerful Sword Heroes.

However, they were really hard to use, so the Emperor said, "My subjects, the Human World is the Human World of all people, and the Heavenly Demons are the great enemies of our Human World. No matter who it is, can one stand idly by when encountering a Yin Calamity? If the Heavenly Demons break through Jingcheng today, none of you present will have a place to stand!"

Among the marquises, there were those who were clever, and someone immediately came out and bowed, saying, "We subjects obey the decree to suppress the demons, and will not shrink even if we die!"

The Emperor shook his head and said, "There is no need for you subjects to go personally. Didn't your personal guards not bring them up to the building? They are currently lined up downstairs, which is convenient; why not hand them over to Commander Cao for use?"

So this is where he was waiting!

The marquises were all unwilling in their hearts. This was not a matter of a single order, but that they had to stay on the building while letting the people below go with Commander Cao; they would certainly have to hand over the tokens for mobilizing the troops, which meant they would be sidelined, and it was uncertain whether they could get them back later.

But by this time, even if they wanted to resist, they had no way, because the Emperor's Heaven-Walking Seal was flashing with Thunder Light, and the person standing in front of them was not only the one with the highest status but also the one with the strongest power; in every respect, they could not resist.

Everyone had seen the fate of Prince Shun, who had just resisted.

This move of killing two birds with one stone could be considered as having stepped on all the marquises.

Commander Cao was also a clever person; not allowing them to think too much, he stepped forward one by one to collect the command arrows, Rune Cards, and other tokens, saying, "Your Majesty, these are enough; the civil and military Sword Guests should stay to protect Your Majesty..."

After all, if he took all these court officials away, only the marquises, the Yuan, and the weaklings would be left on the building. With only one Heaven-Walking Seal, he might not be able to look after everything.

The Emperor shouted, "You just go down and suppress the Demon Caves, the faster the better; I have my own guards by my side. Within ten steps, there must be loyalty and faith; is there no loyal minister or filial son on this building? Prince Chun!"

Prince Chun was feeling worried, and hearing the Emperor call him, he hurriedly stood up and stepped out, saying, "Your subject is here."

The Emperor said warmly, "I will be guarded by you. You are the mainstay of my Yuan; I trust you will not disappoint Me."

This was immense trust and immense honor. Prince Chun agreed and thanked him profusely. Seeing that the Emperor had already made arrangements, Commander Cao hurriedly gathered the masters among the hundred officials and went downstairs.

With this, only the Emperor, the Yuan, the empty-handed marquises, and some civil officials who truly had no power were left on the building. The most nervous among them were naturally the marquises; the etiquette of visiting the Empress Dowager had been cut off starting from Prince Shun, and now most people had not made any moves after coming up to the building, only looking at the Emperor at this moment.

The Emperor had summoned these marquises to the capital, naturally intending to perform some operations. He had originally planned to have a "dialogue" with these marquises after collecting the Sword Immortal's power, but the Demon Caves had come too urgently, and the great battle outside was imminent; things inside could not be allowed to fall into chaos. On the contrary, he had to protect these marquises from any trouble to avoid adding to the chaos.

He immediately pointed out several trusted Yuan to be responsible for guarding, protecting those civil officials who were weak, and incidentally keeping the marquises under surveillance.

Now, among those remaining, the ones the Emperor was willing to trust were still his own Yuan people, which was as it should be. In fact, the number of loyal Yuan people was passable, but there were not many who were talented; the intersection of the two did not yield many. Now he had to make do, letting them guard the civil officials was fine, but letting them monitor the marquises was completely useless, and he still had to rely on the Heaven-Walking Seal in His Majesty's hand.

Among those pointed out, there was naturally Prince Chun's son, Yuan Shengfei, because he was the son of Prince Chun, a trusted aide promoted by the Emperor himself; he was the youngest among the capable Yuan, and the Emperor valued him quite a bit, giving him a clear instruction as soon as he came up: "Shengfei, help Minister Xun over here."

Yuan Shengfei gave a nod and hurriedly helped the Marquis, who had been sitting on the ground the whole time, to her feet, discovering that the bloodstains at the corners of her eyes had not yet been wiped clean, which, paired with her aged face, looked somewhat terrifying.

The Emperor waited for the Gaoyuan Marquis to come over, and seeing her frail, bone-thin appearance, was just about to say a few words of comfort when the Gaoyuan Marquis spoke slowly first: "Emperor, do you regret it?"