Chapter 2330: Sovereign and Subject!
“Heaven has already wiped away all traces of your existence. Right now, it’s no longer a question in the capital of whether or not you are the King of Foreign Lands, but if the King of Foreign Lands even exists. Everyone seems to have forgotten.”
Li Xuantu, dressed as a middle-aged scholar, scanned the area with a worried gaze.
The capital seemed calm and unperturbed, but concealed beneath this calm lurked a disconcerting danger.
A valued vassal of the Great Tang who had conquered so many other countries had been wiped from everyone’s memories. This seemed utterly absurd, but Heaven had truly done it.
Even more disconcerting was that from the information he had gathered, it seemed this effect was beginning to spread out from the capital and affect the rest of the realm. Even the common folk in other provinces had begun to forget about the King of Foreign Lands of the Great Tang.
“This isn’t important,” Wang Chong calmly said.
“Is that so?”
Li Xuantu frowned. From his perspective, he found it very hard to understand how an important vassal of the empire like Wang Chong could be so calm after having all his achievements wiped away.
Truly a strange fellow, Li Xuantu mentally remarked, keeping this thought to himself.
“I’m worried about something else. Can you sense Heaven’s aura?” Wang Chong said.
Seeing Wang Chong turn to business, Li Xuantu became stern. His brow frowned as he reached out with his senses, attempting to seek out any information in the air.
“This is the third day now, but I still can’t sense any traces of their energies. On the steppe, Essence Supreme’s physical body was destroyed, and Grand Supreme and Radiance Supreme were both badly injured. They shouldn’t be able to recover that quickly.
“But Heaven should still be in the capital,” Li Xuantu sternly added.
The Celestial Palace’s power was still in the capital, so Heaven could not leave. But that was exactly what was so bizarre. The two of them had infiltrated the capital several days ago, but there had been no response from Heaven or the Celestial God Organization. Wang Chong and Li Xuantu had tried many methods, but they had failed to detect their existence.
Wang Chong silently frowned.
Since their return from the steppe, the two sides had been in a strange equilibrium. Essence Supreme’s perfect body had been killed, and creating another would take a significant amount of time. As for Heaven, while Grand Supreme and Radiance Supreme could also serve as vessels for his soul, they would not be able to reach Essence Supreme’s level, and they would end up badly injured for it.
Not everyone was a purely psychic existence like Essence Supreme, able to completely disregard a physical body.
And without the Pantheon Pearl avatar, Heaven’s other avatar only had the strength of three to four Grotto Heaven realm experts, which was not completely impossible to fight against.
However, Heaven was perhaps the most ancient existence in the world. Until they were absolutely sure, the two of them could not recklessly take action.
Buzz!
Time slowly passed, and then Wang Chong suddenly looked up at the sky.
A moment later, Wang Chong shot into the air.
“Wang Chong, you!”
Li Xuantu was aghast. Wang Chong’s actions were equivalent to exposing himself to Heaven. With no time to think, Li Xuantu jumped up, joining Wang Chong in leaping into the void.
Whoosh!
A moment later, Wang Chong appeared high in the sky amidst howling winds.
True World!
Archon of Destiny’s Power!
Wang Chong’s eyes flashed, and a moment later, invisible law energy spread out from Wang Chong. At the same time, Wang Chong also sent out a sea of Psychic Energy to engulf the world below.
After a period of silence, Li Xuantu came forward and asked, “How was it?”
Wang Chong had something special on him. It was in no way connected to the Grotto Heaven realm, but it was an extremely mysterious power. Wang Chong had never mentioned it, but Li Xuantu had managed to sense it.
“Nothing. There’s no trace of the Celestial Palace.” Wang Chong shook his head, his brow furrowing even more.
Even after using the True World ability and the power of the Archon of Destiny, Wang Chong had been able to find no sign of the Celestial Palace.
Even so, Heaven’s power had spread like a plague through the capital and was still spreading. From his vantage point in the sky, Wang Chong could sense that many people had slack faces and movements, though they themselves did not notice. This meant that the Celestial Palace was here. There was no reason for him to not be able to sense it!
“We have to leave. Heaven has probably already noticed us. This is far too risky.”
Li Xuantu slapped Wang Chong on the shoulder, concern in his voice.
“The capital is already their territory. It’s nearly impossible to hide from them.”
Wang Chong’s face was calm as he spoke, and he thought back to his first encounter to Heaven.
The first time, he had changed his appearance and infiltrated the Wang Family Residence, believing that he was very secretive. But it turned out that Heaven and Essence Supreme had already noticed him. In these circumstances, being discovered was inevitable, and to not be discovered was purely a fluke.
“From what I can see, they’ve already noticed us. The fact that they haven’t moved means that they have something even more important to do or have many apprehensions that prevent them from taking action.
“Regardless, no matter what we do, it probably won’t have any effect. They won’t be showing up at a time like this,” Wang Chong sternly said.
Li Xuantu was taken aback. He wanted to say more, but he realized that he had nothing to say.
Indeed, if what Wang Chong said was true and they had already been exposed, since Heaven had not taken action before, he wouldn’t take action now. If they hadn’t been discovered, then it meant that something absurd had taken place and they could freely move around the capital.
“It’s about time. You leave first. I need to see someone. I’ll meet up with you later.”
As Wang Chong spoke, he passed the Xuanyuan Sword to Li Xuantu.
“I’ve stored my strongest attack into the Xuanyuan Sword. It should be enough to protect you. In addition, the sword’s energy is linked to mine, so if something happens to you, I can immediately return to you.”
“Mm.”
Li Xuantu took the Xuanyuan Sword from Wang Chong. Wang Chong didn’t mention who he was going to see, and Li Xuantu didn’t ask. Besides, Grotto Heaven realm experts could control spacetime, so Wang Chong would not die easily.
“You’re Heaven’s main target. Be careful!”
Li Xuantu quickly vanished.
Wang Chong floated in the air, his eyes quickly locking onto the Imperial Palace to the north.
Swoosh!
Wang Chong soon vanished like a ghost.
……
Late in the night, the capital was silent, the streets that had been bustling in the day now still. Only the Imperial Palace remained brightly lit.
In the depths of the palace, within the imperial study, a youthful figure wearing a dragon robe was reading memorials by the candle light.
It was now the third quarter of the Zi Period (11pm – 1am), and the majority of people were asleep. Outsiders would find it very hard to believe that this young figure was the supreme Emperor of the Great Tang, Li Heng.
Despite his illustrious status, the figure in the dragon robe was young and inexperienced.
Li Heng was even thinner and more tired than when he had first taken the throne.
“Haaah…” After some time, Li Heng put down his cinnabar brush and let out a long sigh.
Government affairs were proceeding as usual in the court, but for some reason, he felt like he was missing something, like his heart was empty.
Bong!
At this time, a soft chime rang, and a palace attendant’s voice came from outside.
“Your Majesty, it’s late. Eunuch Li had the kitchen prepare a tremella and lotus seed soup for Your Majesty.”
Li Heng frowned and almost instinctively wanted to refuse, but a moment later, he changed his mind.
These palace maids and eunuchs meant well, so there was no need to cause them trouble.
“Enter,” Li Heng said with a wave of his sleeve.
Creeeak!
The door opened, and a palace attendant that Li Heng had seen before came in, their body bowed and a silver tray in hand. Upon the tray was a bowl of soup contained in a jade bowl.
The palace attendant took the soup with both hands and respectfully walked over, not even daring to breathe too loudly.
“Place it on the table…”
Just like before, Li Heng didn’t pay much attention, planning to have the attendant leave after dropping off the soup.
In truth, he didn’t even touch the majority of these midnight snacks, and they were usually sent back in the same way they had been left.
For Li Heng, his loss of weight had nothing to do with this.
At this moment, as Li Heng glanced outside, he saw one of the generals responsible for guarding the kitchen, and his eyes widened.
But a moment later, Li Heng returned to normal, his shift in expression seeming like an illusion.
“You’re dismissed!”
Li Heng waved his hand, but his eyes were still locked onto that general.
“Come in. We have something to ask you.”
Li Heng’s request came so suddenly that both the palace attendant and the young general were shaken.
“This lowly subject obeys the decree!”
The general quickly lowered his head.
Boom!
The door was closed, and the study fell silent, the tremella and lotus seed soup still steaming on the desk.
That general seemed particularly young, yet his eyes seemed to have experienced a lifetime. He did not panic after being called in by Li Heng, simply bowed and prepared to answer whatever Li Heng asked.
“What does Your Majesty…”
But before he could finish, he was interrupted by Li Heng.
“King of Foreign Lands, is it really you?!”