Chapter 520 — A Forceful Coercion
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Xing An said calmly, "Your Majesty had best stay and sit a while. Otherwise your Grand Libationer and your family's princess will both breathe their last."
Wine jar in hand, Emperor Yanfeng steeled himself and turned back, sitting down by the campfire with a smile that was not a smile. "Brother Xing An, since our hasty parting last time, I lay on a sickbed for nearly twenty days."
Xing An's face was placid. "I lay there for more than four months."
Emperor Yanfeng handed him the wine jar, his eyes flickering. "Yet in these days apart, I have crossed the Spirit Bridge and become a deity. Brother Xing An has surely not yet taken that step?"
Xing An took the jar. "These past days I have been hiding in the Tower of Heavenly Records of the Grand Academy, reading through the various texts and studying Shen the Great Divine Physician's Spirit Bridge space-divination model over and over. To cultivate the divine realm is not difficult for me, but it will take a year."
He tipped his head back and drank. Emperor Yanfeng stared at his throat, wanting to strike, yet never finding the opening.
Shen Mu and the others were startled inwardly: Xing An had been hiding in the Grand Academy's Tower of Heavenly Records all these days, and no one had noticed. Cold sweat rolled down their foreheads.
Xing An set down the jar. "Whether Your Majesty has attained the divine realm makes no difference to me. Attain it, and you are still no match for me — merely a false god, at most a little deeper in cultivation than before. In Daoist arts and divine powers you have made no great advance. Summon your civil and military ministers — the Duke of Wei, the Heavenly Strategist General; those two are deities, and with you, they would have the strength to fight me. But the Grand Academy, and your capital with it, would be utterly destroyed."
Veins stood out on Emperor Yanfeng's forehead; then he suddenly relaxed and laughed. "What were you speaking of just now?"
"The Heaven Alliance."
Xing An said, "They have discovered that the sky is a hundred thousand li high and three hundred zhang thick. So they formed the Heaven Alliance, intending to probe its mysteries and pierce through this false firmament."
Emperor Yanfeng laughed and cursed, "Nonsense — they are only children making mischief. I know of this matter too; the Fire Mountain Magistrate reported it to me. When I heard the words 'Heaven Alliance,' it gave me such a fright — I thought you few meant to overthrow me!" And he burst into loud laughter.
His laughter, however, did not carry. It reverberated back and forth within the space around him, shaking everyone by the campfire until their blood and qi churned.
Startled, Emperor Yanfeng hastily stopped. He had meant to use his laughter to draw the Heavenly Strategist General and the others over; but though he had attained the divine realm, Xing An's dharma power was still far deeper than his. With his own dharma power Xing An had formed a strange force field, wrapping his laughter inside a tiny space so that he could not send word.
His cultivation was, after all, immensely powerful; mere laughter had nearly shaken Shen Mu, Ling Yuxiu, and the rest to the point of vomiting blood, and so he had no choice but to stop.
Xing An glanced at Ling Yuxiu. "Your Majesty rejoices too soon. There is a darkness under the lamp. Your princess has befriended heroes far and wide; the young people here are all leaders of their various sects and schools, and in the future they will all be figures who dominate a region. The Hierarch of the Nether Demon Cult, the Dao Lord, Shang Cang, Little Jade Capital, the Buddhist sect — all these future leaders are on good terms with her. When her momentum is complete, you will have no choice but to abdicate in her favor. It is only that you keep your eyes on the world and never see her beside you."