Chapter 375: Grand Zhengzhou Assembly (3)
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“What in the world are you…….”
It was only natural that they could not understand my words. Since I had literally recited the text floating in the Martial Talent Shop as it was. They looked at me as if there were some problem with my sanity.
“To state it simply, it means I desire the Emperor’s head.”
“……His Imperial Majesty resided here solely based on trust in me. If you seek to kill His Imperial Majesty here, I will have no face to go on living.”
The Grand Chancellor wore a sorrowful gaze. I shook my head.
“No. He neither trusted the Grand Chancellor, nor did he trust me. I know the Emperor. As I said earlier, because we are understanders of each other.”
I looked at the Emperor and smiled. The Emperor was merely blinking his eyes with a stiff expression.
“The Emperor came here merely to protect his own power. Originally, is it not natural to become a coward the more one has to lose? ……I ask the Grand Chancellor: is a person who desires peace out of such ugly lust for power truly a good person? Because an unjust peace is better than a righteous war?”
“Look here. I am from the north. The Great Desert raided constantly, and each time, people died. People who were someone’s son, someone’s father……. Do you know that horror?”
“Let us suppose a tiger and a bear meet on a single-log bridge. Then the two will fight. Whoever wins, there is neither good nor evil in that.”
“We are human. Not beasts.”
“To me, that does not appear separate.”
“Did you truly come here to pursue personal greed? In that case, I have thoroughly misjudged the person you are.”
The Grand Chancellor looked at me with a resentful gaze. I shook my head.
“To be precise, I intended to test the Emperor. If he had come purely out of trust, completely believing in the Grand Chancellor, I would not have thought as far as killing him. However, right now, the Emperor trusts neither me nor the Grand Chancellor.”
“How could you know that so well? Whether His Imperial Majesty came trusting or not, that is.”
“I can know.”
“How?”
“What can I do when it is visible?”
“Crazy. A truly crazy person.”
“The Grand Chancellor cannot help but view me as crazy. Because I am claiming to see what is invisible. But to me, it is truly visible. Therefore, while we are in the same space, we live in different worlds.”
I could not persuade the Grand Chancellor. So it was understandable that the Grand Chancellor was raging like that right now. However, to me, it was something that could not be helped.
“Though I cannot prove that I see what the Grand Chancellor cannot see, I can prove that the Emperor came to this venue without harboring trust.”
“What?”
Before the Grand Chancellor’s voice could even leave the room, my sword was unleashed. The sword I drew became a streak of sword light and flew toward the Emperor’s neck.
That sword light was deflected by a release of force flying from somewhere, shattering the wall behind where the Emperor sat. Before anyone knew it, an elderly man with the demeanor of a transcendent immortal was standing before the Emperor.
I had seen him in the past. None other than during the founding ceremony of the Palace of Heavenly Worship.
He was the person who had been appointed as the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship. He was also the person who had attempted to assassinate Myeong-gyeong and me in the Great Desert. Had it been said that he served as Grand Preceptor when the current Emperor was Crown Prince?
“Pleasure to meet you.”
“Did you know I was here?”
“I was merely certain that as the Emperor, he would bring someone along.”
In truth, when an immortal who had reached the realm intentionally concealed his body, it was not easy to see even for me who possessed Heavenly Eye. In the first place, I had not even tried to look. Because I naturally thought someone would be there.
“I am not particularly disappointed. Nor is it wrong. Is it not far too natural? When meeting an enemy, one must naturally prepare safety devices. This is no one’s fault. We merely met on a single-log bridge. However……. Even so, we cannot just sit idly on a single-log bridge. Because then both will be swept away by the current. It is the principle of nature.”
“They are not wrong words. You too have reached a certain realm.”
Unexpectedly, the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship expressed agreement with me. The only person who could empathize with me now was the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship.
“However, aside from that, we are enemies.”
“I empathize with that as well.”
“You are no longer trivial, it seems.”
The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship laughed heartily. I remembered. When I first met the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship in the Great Desert.
Back then, the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship had looked upon Myeong-gyeong and me as if looking at bugs. Yet the current Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship was acknowledging me as an equal being. Whether that was good or bad was unknown.
“I might feel a bit of guilt when I kill you.”
A smile hung around the mouth of the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship. I smiled back in response.
“Not really for me.”
I swung my sword immediately. There was no need for further idle chatter. Force qi tore through the atmosphere and flew forward. As if he had already known, the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship also extended both palms.
Space twisted in front of his palms as if being sucked in. The sword force was absorbed into that distorted space and vanished.
Suddenly, I felt space tearing open behind my shoulder. From the gap in the opened space, sword force poured out. It was the sword force I had unleashed just a moment ago.
Twisting my shoulder, I dodged the sword force. The sword force shattered a pillar. As the pillar broke, the ceiling collapsed.
I extended a palm. Invisible qi surged from my palm, holding back the pillars of the ceiling. The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship showed a look of disappointment.
“Do you still possess such petty sentiments?”
“Shouldn’t your side protect the Emperor as well?”
I was scattering qi to support the collapsing ceiling. If I withdrew this qi, the Emperor and the Grand Chancellor would be crushed to death beneath the ceiling.
“Well. Why bother?”
The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship showed a cold smirk. To the people of Immortal Realm, imperial nobility held little meaning.
“The Zhou clan was not particularly important after all.”
To them, the imperial palace was merely a puppet. Come to think of it, I understand now as well.
To us who have transcended humanity, it is like the chieftain of monkeys. I have no need to pay respect to the chieftain of monkeys, nor any need to acknowledge legitimacy, do I?
Rather, what was incomprehensible was my current action. Why was I supporting the ceiling right now? Even if the ceiling collapsed, I merely needed to wrap protective aura around my body to block the ceiling.
When I too felt neither kinship nor guilt toward the Emperor or the Grand Chancellor, why was I saving them?
“Then you have not yet completely shed your shell. Your shedding is incomplete.”
Hearing the words of the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship, I suddenly remembered what the Heavenly Demon had said. The Heavenly Demon had said that the self-proclaimed immortals currently in the Central Plains were imugis that failed to become dragons. Then I suppose I had now become a baby imugi.
However, I was merely following the voice of my heart. Setting aside the Emperor, I had not wanted to kill the Grand Chancellor as well.
“Please leave. Grand Chancellor.”
I spoke while holding my palm upward. The Grand Chancellor looked up at me with terrified eyes.
When an ordinary person saw someone unleashing superhuman power, they could not help but be in awe.
“……You.”
Backstepping, the Grand Chancellor left the house. Taking advantage of that gap, the Emperor also fled outside the house.
Once the two left, I withdrew my qi. The ceiling collapsed completely. The ceiling and ground collided, raising dust like a pillar. However, the obstruction of physical vision caused no hindrance to either the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship or me.
I shot forward toward the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship like a cannonball. My sword and the limbs of the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship wrapped in protective aura collided, producing metallic clangs.
“Seeing that you have not even let go of your sword, your shedding is certainly incomplete. We are no longer people bound by weapons.”
“Because I possess the Sword God talent, I become a bit weaker if I don’t use a sword.”
“What nonsense is that again?”
“A story your side will never know in a lifetime.”
The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship twitched his eyebrows in displeasure. He seemed unable to tolerate not knowing what I knew. In my view, that was excessive arrogance.
“You put on a strange bluff.”
The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship stamped a shock step. The ground overturned, and stone fragments laden with force qi scattered and shot toward me.
It felt like watching the Tang Clan’s Myriad Heavens Flower Rain. Though its destructive power was powerful enough to be incomparable to the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain unleashed by Tang Clan martial artists.
I flew back and landed far away. Astonishingly, the stone fragments pivoted upward and conversely soared toward me.
It was an art that could not be seen among martial artists. If the one before me were not an immortal, I would have thought it was sorcery.
However, this degree was something I had sufficiently anticipated. I swung my sword enough to envelop my body. The afterimages of sword light were drawn in lines, so from the viewpoint of the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship, it would appear as if I were spinning silk to create a cocoon.
“You perform sword dances decently well.”
The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship flipped both palms to face the sky. Then he began to float into the air.
It was the legendary realm, Void Flight. Floating high up, the murmurs of commoners outside the house could be heard.
“Noisy.”
Without the slightest hesitation, the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship detonated the protective aura enveloping his body. Force qi shot out in all directions, and the commoners watching could not possibly dodge it.
“Argh!”
“Aaaargh!”
The commoners who had been murmuring while looking around collapsed in an instant, bleeding profusely. Penetrating wounds covered their entire bodies.
“Are you a madman?”
“Why, do you feel sympathy and responsibility even for their deaths?”
“Well. I don’t quite know yet.”
“Still a baby. Even among the same humans, a baby has much it does not know. You are like me, but still young.”
“No, I think I know one thing for certain.”
“What is that?”
“I’ve come to want to kill you. Even more than before.”
I raised my sword diagonally, pointing toward the ground. The soil in the direction the sword tip pointed scattered and raised dust, and soon the earth split and overturned.
“Truly still a baby. Guiding a baby is an adult’s role, I suppose.”
The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship looked down at me and spoke in an arrogant tone.
Rumble. The sound of the ground shaking echoed. The eyes of the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship narrowed.
“What are you doing?”
I gave no answer. The situation was not leisurely enough to give an answer. I was concentrating with all my spirit.
The ground continued to shake, and a massive splitting sound echoed from deep within. Then the earth began to float up. I had lifted the cracked earth with internal energy.
The depth of the lifted earth seemed to easily reach ten fathoms. Now I truly could wield power that humans could not exert.
Since it was done purely through the gravitational pull emanating from the sword tip, it was truly worthy of being called monstrous power.
The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship seemed visibly flustered, as if he had never even conceived the idea of overturning the ground entirely and firing it.
“Let us stop there.”
Just as I was about to lift the earth in earnest and fire it toward the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship floating in the sky.
People appeared between us. There were several dozen people. Like the Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship, they were floating in the sky. The Palace Lord of Heavenly Worship’s eyes also widened slightly, as if he had not known they were there. Neither had I.
And the fact that I had not perceived them meant that the several dozen people here were none other than immortals.
“Cease, granddisciple.”
Sure enough, Grandmaster Hyeon-wol approached beside me.
The Grand Zhengzhou Assembly that the Grand Chancellor had jokingly spoken of at first was no longer a joke. If a scale of this degree had gathered, it was fully worthy of being called a Grand Assembly.