The Human Emperor

As soon as the carriage drove into the royal palace, the group felt an intangible pressure reminiscent of an indomitable mountain weighing on them. The pressure emanated from the center of the royal palace, spreading out in all directions.

All martial artists, even if one of King Song’s level, would feel a powerful pressure. In the carriage, Mister Yin Shan huddled up tightly in the corner silently.

Despite the proximity between the two, had King Song not known in advance, he wouldn’t have noticed Mister Yin Shan’s presence.

The royal palace was where the strongest experts of the Central Plains were centered, and even the phrase ‘the lair of a dragon, den of a tiger’ was far from sufficient to describe it. Clearly, Mister Yin Shan didn’t wish to attract the attention of these experts.

The interior of the carriage fell even more silent.

Hong long long!

After proceeding ahead for a period of time, the rumbling of another carriage suddenly sounded.

“Is it King Song in front?”

A sharp voice echoed from behind the carriage.

“That’s right!”

“His Majesty has said that he won’t meet anyone today. King Song, I suggest that you should return for now.”

The eunuch’s voice was calm.

“Yes! I understand. Gonggong, you should leave first, I will depart from the royal palace soon.”

After a moment of silence, King Song replied.

Hearing King Song’s words, the eunuch didn’t think much and left straight away. Hong long long, the carriage slowly disappeared into the distance.

“Hurry!”

Listening silently in the carriage, King Song ordered the coach to head to Yuzhen Palace as soon as the rumbling of the other carriage faded into nothingness.

Even kings required a reason to enter the palace, and requesting for an audience with the emperor was the most convenient one.

King Song already knew that he would be rejected, but from the very start, his purpose was something else.

“Mister Yin Shan, we can’t enter too deep or stay too long, or else the attendants of the royal family would be alarmed. I’ll have to trouble mister to take note of this.”

King Song said.

To King Song, Mister Yin Shan was an enigma. The only thing he knew about him was that he was blessed with several abilities from birth. Physiognomy, longevity divination, as well as an ability that had disappeared from the world for a very long time:

Aura peering!

Legend has it that humans would emanate different ‘aura’ from the top of their head. An emperor would exude the aura of an emperor; a minister would exude the aura of a minister; a youngster would exude the aura of liveliness; an elderly would exude the aura of decline...

These auras were invisible to the eyes of normal humans, and only seers who possessed the ability of aura peering could see them.

Mister Yin Shan was unique in the sense that he could determine one’s physiognomy just by peering into one’s aura.

The carriage rumbled on and soon, from the carriage windows, a crystal-like palace illuminated by innumerable lamps could be seen in the distance.

“Mister Yin Shan, in front of us is Yuzhen...”

Just as King Song was about to tell Mister Yin Shan that it was Yuzhen Palace right in front, he was interrupted.

“I’m done! Your Highness, we can leave now.”

From the corner of the carriage, Mister Yin Shan’s faint voice sounded.

Hearing the barely audible words, King Song was taken aback.

He wanted to tell Mister Yin Shan to hurry up since they didn’t have much time, but it seemed that Mister Yin Shan’s efficiency in aura peering was much faster than he had expected.

Just by lifting the curtain veil slightly, Mister Yin Shan was already done with it.

“Yes, mister!”

Recovering from his shock, King Song quickly replied.

Hong long long!

Soon, the carriage left the royal palace as quietly as it came, alarming no one at all.

Moving along the streets of Chang’an, the carriage stopped only after it was a long distance away from the royal palace.

(Chang’an is the capital of the Great Tang)

“Mister Yin Shan, did you manage to see anything?”

King Song glanced grimly but expectantly at Mister Yin Shan, who was still seated in the corner.

“No!”

As though a bird who had just recovered from a fright, Mister Yin Shan abruptly slackened his body and sat upright. However, despite his movements, his presence still felt as elusive as a shadow.

“... I couldn’t see anything from her aura. Having entered the royal palace, she is protected by the Son of Heaven. The purple aura of the Son of Heaven hinders me from seeing anything. However, there’s one thing that I managed to peer into.”

“What is it?”

King Song’s face tightened.

“The person who Your Highness asked me to take a look at is Consort Taizhen? And she was married to King Shou for a few years?”

Mister Yin Shan lifted his head and stared at King Song with a deep and profound gaze.

“That’s right!”

King Song couldn’t understand what Mister Yin Shan was driving at.

“Then why did I see the aura of a virgin?”

“What!! How is that possible?”

King Song was taken aback. His first reaction was that Mister Yin Shan must be mistaken. After all, Consort Taizhen and King Shou were married for a few years, so how could she still be a virgin?

“Mister, could it be possible that you’ve seen wrongly?”

King Song spoke almost instantaneously. However, as soon as those words escaped from his mouth, he realized that he had misspoken. Mister Yin Shan was skilled in aura peering, and it was impossible for him to be mistaken.

Besides, he had already said that Consort Taizhen was protected by the purple aura of the Son of Heaven. Even if Mister Yin Shan was unable to recognize Consort Taizhen, it was impossible for him to mistake the purple aura of the Son of Heaven.

“Hehe, Your Highness, do you understand now?”

Mister Yin Shan chuckled before clasping his fist.

“Your Highness has instructed me to peer into the aura of Consort Taizhen, and I have accomplished the matter asked of me. Destiny cannot be defied, so I hope the best for Your Highness!”

There seemed to be another meaning hidden in Mister Yin Shan’s final words. After which, as though a shadow, he slid out of the carriage and disappeared without a trace, just like how he appeared.

King Song stretched out his hand, only to retract it eventually. Mister Yin Shan had already done all that was asked of him.

King Song couldn’t have expected that ‘Consort Taizhen’ was still a virgin. No matter how ridiculous the notion was, he knew that it was impossible for Mister Yin Shan to lie.

“What in the world is going on?”

King Song’s heart was in chaos.

“Return to the residence, summon Academic Lu!”

...

In the main hall of King Song Residence, King Song, Lu Ting, and the old butler were gathered together, but not a single person spoke.

“Your Highness, could King Shou be...”

“Impossible!”

Lu Ting was intending to say that King Shou was ‘unable to rise’, but before he could finish his words, King Song had already interjected.

“Mao-er was no longer a virgin by the time he was fourteen! Quite a few people in the King Shou Residence are aware of this matter.

“Then, could it be that His Majesty intentionally placed her with King Shou to hide her from the crowd?”

Lu Ting asked again.

The Sage Emperor had taken Li Mao’s wife for himself, but the latter didn’t seem to mind at all. On top of that, despite two years of marriage, Consort Taizhen was still a virgin. Lu Ting truly couldn’t think of any other explanation as to this bizarre turn of events.

“His Majesty is the most powerful person in the Great Tang. If he likes a woman, who would dare to oppose him? Would he need King Shou to hide her from others?”

King Song refuted the claim.

“This...”

Lu Ting was stumped as well.

If the emperor favored a lady, he could just induct her into the royal court openly. There was no need for him to use King Shou to conceal the matter. There wasn’t a single lady in the royal palace who would dare to touch a lady favored by the emperor.

“Furthermore, there’s also another doubt. It has been many days since Consort Taizhen entered Yuzhen Palace, and I heard that His Majesty has paid her several visits, even staying overnight on numerous occasions. Since His Majesty favors her so much so as to demote King Song for her, how could Consort Taizhen still be a virgin?”

The old butler also spoke up.

If King Shou being ‘unable to raise’ was a plausible hypothesis, then the matter of Consort Taizhen being a virgin was completely inconceivable. Given how the Sage Emperor had a massive back palace, it was clear that he wasn’t one to practice abstinence.

Consort Taizhen still being a virgin despite a month in the palace was something illogical.

In the hall, the trio’s eyebrows were deeply knitted together.

“Your Highness, I think that we should consult a person on this matter.”

Lu Ting suddenly chuckled.

“Who?”

King Song asked.

“Wang Chong!”

Lu Ting smiled.

Upon hearing those words, King Song and the old butler’s body jolted. Indeed! Thinking of it, the entire matter originated from Wang Chong’s words.

If not for him, King Song would have never visited King Shou and realize that Consort Taizhen was still a virgin. If there was someone who could answer their doubts, that person had to be Wang Chong.

“Seems like I have underestimated him at the Four Quarters Embassy.”

Recalling the matter back then, King Song sighed deeply.

“Lu Ting, I’ll have to trouble you to make a trip to the Wang Family Residence and invite Wang Chong over! We have no choice but to discuss this matter with him.”

Lu Ting smiled, clasped his fist, and left.

...

In the courtyard of the Wang Family Residence, a person was seated. White and dense mist congregated from the surroundings and shrouded the body of that person.

Oblivious to the ruckus in the royal court, Wang Chong was currently immersed in his cultivation of Might of the Barbaric God.

From the surroundings, endless Origin Energy gathered and seeped into Wang Chong’s body. It streamed an entire round through his entire body through his meridians before settling in his dantian, turning into a sliver of Origin Energy with bowstring-like qualities.

This was ‘Might’!

What Might of the Barbaric God cultivated wasn’t Origin Energy, but layer and layer of Might! The greater the ‘Might’, the greater one’s burst power. This was what that made it different from normal cultivation techniques.

“The sixth layer!”

After a period of time, Wang Chong finally succeeded in gathering the ‘Might’ in his body into his dantian in the shape of a sphere. Gladdened, he heaved a sigh of relief.

The 1-dan of Might of the Barbaric God mainly consisted of the cultivation of one’s Might. However, before reaching ninth layer, what one was cultivating wasn’t the complete Might of the Barbaric God but the fundamental ‘Origin Energy Might’.

Wang Chong spent several days cultivating day and night before he managed to cultivate the Origin Energy Might to the sixth layer, the level corresponding to his current cultivation realm.

“I should try out the strength of the Origin Energy Might!”

Wang Chong fixated his gaze on a certain point on the fake hill before him.

Peng!

All of a sudden, Wang Chong’s fist shot out. This fist was more than twofold faster than Wang Chong’s usual fists. Upon being struck, the fake hill suddenly burst apart. Smoke rose from the fake hill as it collapsed into a pile of dust.

“Hehe, not bad!”

Seeing the fake hill being reduced into dust before him, Wang Chong smiled.

An ordinary cultivator was only capable of crushing a fake hill into fragments, but a fist augmented by the Might of the Barbaric God could reduce a fake hill into dust.

This was the greatest difference between the Might of the Barbaric God and other techniques!

“Not only so, my strength has also increased by a fair amount!”

Walking over to a fake hill that weighed slightly more than 400 jin not too far away, he slid his palm at the bottom of the fake hill and with a burst of strength, hong long long, this fake hill, which weight should be beyond the strength of an Origin Energy Tier 6 cultivator, was lifted up.

(~200kg)

Propping it up with a single hand, Wang Chong was even able to spin it for a moment before slowly placing it back.

“Young master, Academic Lu Ting is here! ——”

Just when Wang Chong was testing out his strength, Shen Hai and Meng Long suddenly ran in.