Chapter 1743: Nine Realm Lord
Chapter 1743: Nine Realm Lord
"I’m finally fully healed," Emperor Kong exhaled. It only took a century to heal such a severe injury, a sign of how potent the Inner Dark Demon Bile is. Was it a waste for him to use so much to recover so quickly? It was, but Kong had no choice. Time was of the essence, and if he spent countless yuan epochs healing, he would have missed the best time to act.
He stood to stretch his body, sent an invitation talisman toward the void, and changed into a new Taoist robe before walking out of the seclusion room. With his hands behind his back, Emperor Kong slowly walked through this enormous palace. At first, he was alone in the endless corridors, but after leaving his private corridors, he saw numerous people walking and flying around.
"Greeting, Grand Elder Shen Ye," a female disciple said.
Emperor Kong gently nodded to her while keeping his stern face. The female voice disciple saw nothing wrong with this. In the Lesser Qiankun Sect, everyone knew Grand Elder Shen Ye was a handsome but strict elder. As long as the disciples showed proper respect and etiquette, he was easy to get along with.
As Emperor Kong continued his journey, most disciples would instinctively avoid him, but a few bold ones would salute, and he always replied with a gentle nod. He also had brief conversations with a few friends or acquaintances, but he never stopped for more than 30 seconds.
’Paragon Jimin’s Stealing Dao is truly wonderful,’ Emperor Kong thought as he increased his pace. ’When I return, I’ll try again to convince him to surrender; he’s worth all the trouble. And even if he still refuses, I’ll allow him to cultivate to the Paragon Peak to make better use of his Dao.’
Soon, he arrived at a balcony overlooking towering mountains with countless palaces built into their foundations. The place he was — the Prime Heaven Palace — was beautiful, but it paled in comparison to the sect master and the supreme elders; their cultivation abode was the pinnacle of Taoist Architecture. However, Emperor Kong was not here for sightseeing; his gaze focused on the cloud, directly looking at the invisible Qi Luck Dragon.
’All the black spots have been refined,’ Emperor Kong thought. This should have been a joyous occasion, but how could he be happy when an unknown black ominous aura suddenly appeared on his Qi Luck Dragon? Someone was obviously plotting against him, but what angers and terrifies Emperor Kong was that he could not find out who.
As someone with such a heavy destiny, the schemer could be anyone: from the people in his home world, to the Saints in this expedition, to even the Tribunal Lords. Although logically speaking, the Tribunal Lords wouldn’t harm them since they needed him for their secret plan, Emperor Kong would not place his safety in their hands.
’There is no point in focusing too much on this issue for now,’ Emperor Kong thought. He had many things to do, and since there was too little information to predict who was plotting against him, the only course of action remaining was to keep guard at all times and prepare to respond to any situation.
While gazing at the cloud, Emperor Kong secretly cast a spell. The last black spot on the Lesser Qiankun Sect’s Qi Luck Dragon disappeared. However, the next second, another smaller dragon flew out from its body and entered Kong’s body. No one noticed the change in the sect’s luck or Grand Elder Shen Ye’s actions.
’It’s a pity,’ Emperor Kong sighed. Although there were no longer any black spots, he could still see a black aura surrounding the entire dragon. ’The sect will not survive the backlash,’ he sighed before casting another spell to hide all signs of the black aura on the dragon. No one who can reach the pinnacle of cultivation has not left a trail of blood and bodies. Even as a Great Scholar, someone who could be called a [Sage], Emperor Kong was still a ruthless man; the best he could do was keep a bottom line.
So, he did not hesitate to fly toward the Mission Hall located in the Purple Cloud Palace. The Palace Head — Grand Elder Li Rong — was already waiting for him. Their conversation was not long. Shen Ye wanted to take an extended mission to prepare for breaking through the Paragon Realm. Usually, he could have just used his token, but since it was an extended mission, he needed to give the sect a heads-up so someone else could take on his duties.
"I hope you succeed," the elderly Grand Elder Li Rong said to Shen Ye, his voice laced with a bit of envy. His path has long been cut off. After failing the Immemorial Tribulation, he was only revived because of his merit to the sect, which forced one of the five Supreme Elders to spend an ungodly amount of time to revive him.
"I will," Emperor Kong replied, perfectly imitating Shen Ye’s personality and tone. Without hesitation, he swiftly left the Lesser Qiankun Sect for the nearest city with a Realm Transmission Array. There was a three-day waiting period, forcing Kong to wait. However, on the second day, he witnessed something that made him sigh deeply.
An enormous eye appeared between Heaven and Earth. The odd part is that no one cares about such an imposing entity or power flaunting itself; it’s as if everyone present were used to it. Even what happened next could barely be described as surprising, let alone shocking. The Eye of Heavenly Dao looked in a direction before releasing a pillar of dark thunder lightbeam,
Emperor Kong calmly watched everything, and, as he expected, a few hours later, news of the Lesser Qiankun Sect’s connection to the Primordial Demons and its subsequent extermination spread to every corner of the city. Kong could not tell whether someone else from Group A was hiding in the sect or whether his aura had leaked from the sect’s Qi Luck Dragon, but ultimately, it didn’t matter: the fault still lies with him.
So, after shaking his eyes, he changed his identity to someone else before taking the array. This world was under constant surveillance, forcing Kong to remain cautious and avoid openly using his power. Although he was no longer under a curse of bad luck, he still remained cautious; after all, it would not hurt him to do so.
The array transported him to the Martial Art Realm, where individual strength is lauded. However, he did not remain there for long before heading to his destination: the Righteous Realm. To be specific, his destination was the Enlightened Mind Domain, the most prosperous of the 3000 Domains of the Righteous Realm. It could be described as the Destiny Center of the Righteous Domain — the Destiny Center of the Literary Way.
The Precious Crane Pavilion is one of the most powerful second-class powers in the Enlightened Mind Domain. The only thing stopping them from reaching the highest echelon is the fact that they’ve never given birth to a Literary Lord. After arriving at White Crane City, Emperor Kong did not stop but headed directly to a secret room in the pavilion.
"Main body."
Kong nodded to his avatar.
"Do you want to fuse?"
"That would just complicate things," Emperor Kong shook his head. They were both using the Dao Stealing Technique, and it might complicate the situation — especially since the Avatar’s identity is so prominent as one of the Vice-Pavilion Lords. "Just give me the information."
Kong calmly caught the talisman before using his divine sense to check the content. In a few minutes, he absorbed the information about all the most prominent cultivators of the Righteous Domain. Finally, he fixed on two people that the avatar placed special emphasis on.
"Master Liang is too popular, so let’s choose Great Sage Qi."
"I figure you would choose him," the avatar nodded. "Your philosophies are similar, but are you sure? While low-level scholars love him, most of his peers found him rigid, and his approach of preaching to all classes has infringed on their benefit."
"That’s exactly what makes him perfect."
"You want to use this world to spread your philosophy?" the avatar asked with a frown.
"Back home, I will always be limited to a corner of the world," Emperor Kong nodded. "But here? I can use the world as a chess game to test and prove my ideologies. And don’t you think this is the best approach to summoning the Node Core?"
"That may be so, but don’t forget we’re on a timer," the avatar warned. "Not to mention others have already succeeded in their mission."
Emperor Kong nodded. He flickered his wrist to summon a talisman, which revealed the number [693] upon activation. There are 129,600 Core nodes, and more than two-thirds of them have to be destroyed before everybody can open a path to the formation’s core area. So far, in just 100 years, close to 700 have already been destroyed.