Chapter 954: The Imperial Way (4)
The highest heaven, the Palace of Heavenly Supervision.
These days, there has been blood and gore in the Heavenly Palace, and the already depressing and serious atmosphere has become even more suffocating to the extreme.
Many of the most powerful and influential people in the world disappeared overnight. Their families, relatives, and even their close friends went to the Heavenly Punishment Platform one by one and suffered various cruel punishments from the sky, their souls being shattered and their bodies and spirits being destroyed.
These days, Tianxingtai is doing booming business, killing nearly 10,000 men, women, young and old on average every day.
In just over a year, millions of people have met their end on the Tianxingtai.
The Jiantian Palace was not affected at all.
Thick dark iron clouds pressed down on the towering roof of the Jiantian Palace. The surrounding squares were as quiet as ever. Only a few minor officials in loose robes were walking in and out of the halls and pavilions, swinging their sleeves slowly.
The Jiantian Palace is an extremely quiet and peaceful government office.
It was not like the Patrolling Heavenly Guards, who were arresting, killing, hacking, and destroying families all day long. It was not like the Five Military Offices, who were roaming the sky with their mighty fleets, cutting down mountains and destroying temples, and killing families. It was not like the other palaces, halls, offices, and departments, who were busy with all kinds of affairs.
Although the Jiantian Palace has a very high status in the official structure of the Heavenly Court, and the status of the Palace Master is equivalent to that of Tianshu Laojun, the "Prime Minister" of the Heavenly Court, he has no actual power, so there are fewer interactions on weekdays, and naturally fewer troubles.
Because of the case of the leakage of the imperial treasures from the Tianshu Secret Pavilion, when other palaces, halls, mansions, and government offices were slaughtered, the Jiantian Palace naturally became peaceful. The petty officials performed their duties leisurely and quietly enjoyed their leisure time.
Jiantian Hall, in the main hall.
He has kind eyes and is only about four feet tall, slightly taller than Tianshu Laojun by half a head. He also has white hair and beard, and is dressed in a white robe. The Lord of Jiantian Hall, 'Dafang Laojun', is sitting cross-legged in the air in the main hall, holding a teacup the size of a human head, drinking the finest tea used by Taichu Emperor with relish.
From the outside, the main hall of the Jiantian Palace, which covers an area of only a thousand acres, has an extremely magnificent interior space, stretching for hundreds of millions of miles. Brilliant and colorful divine light and starlight are rolling and lingering, and waves of powerful Taoist rhyme are like lazy dragons, silently rolling in the hall, but without leaking out at all.
In the main hall, all the great ways and laws of the spatial dimension of the Supreme Taichu Heaven are manifested as giant dragon-shaped creatures of different sizes, thicknesses, lengths, and colors and radiances, swimming slowly in the sky full of light.
In the boundless divine light, one can see a huge star with a diameter of ten thousand miles hanging high in the center.
The star was purple-gold in color, emitting a majestic and noble Dao rhyme. Strands of Dao mysteries condensed into chains that were clearly visible to the naked eye, winding out from the star and covering the entire hall. Countless thick and thin chains turned into a terrifying net that made it impossible to breathe, tightly imprisoning the countless surging Daos in the entire hall.
Near this supreme and precious purple-gold star, at its closest mid-sky position, there are two huge stars with diameters almost as large as this star, shining brightly.
A large star was platinum in color, like a crazy volcano, emitting endless light and heat in all directions at all times. The light and heat were like molten magma, and anyone who touched it would turn into ashes. It was violent and violent, like a tsunami, constantly vibrating and impacting outwards, and even provoking the purple-gold star hanging high in the middle from time to time.
This huge platinum-colored star occasionally flickers, and at the core of the star, a very rare, dark light that makes people despair flash by.
The other big star was showing colorful phantom light, and there were countless kinds of magnificent and strange colors that could not be described by mortal words. This big star was slightly smaller than the purple gold star and the platinum star, and the colorful light it emitted was also quiet and subtle, without the domineering and resoluteness that shocked the heavens and surpassed all things.
However, the halo emitted by this colorful star was like a spring breeze, silently moistening the giant dragons in the Jiantian Palace. Basically, every giant dragon that you can see with your naked eyes has a faint ray of colorful light coming out of its body.
Three big stars are situated in the middle of the sky, brilliant, majestic and overbearing.
Below these three big stars, slightly lower than their positions, there are more than twenty big stars hanging high in the sky that are obviously much smaller in size, with diameters ranging from one thousand miles to five or six thousand miles.
These big stars either flash with lightning, or have rising flames, or rolling black fog, or are lush green... They also emit bright light that illuminates the entire Jiantian Palace. The light and flames they emit, and their surging Taoist rhyme, also affect the many giant dragons in the palace.
Occasionally, when these twenty or so slightly smaller stars are flashing, their frequencies will suddenly fit together into one, transforming into a vast river of Taoism, and slamming heavily into the three large stars hanging high in the sky.
The three big stars suddenly shook slightly, and in the surging light, the purple-gold, white-gold, and colorful divine lights dimmed slightly, and then it was revealed that behind the strong light of the three big stars, dozens of stars with slightly dim colors, quiet and deep, but also quite astonishing size were hidden by their brilliance, as if hidden in another dimension of space.
Among these obscure and deep stars, there is one that is surrounded by purple lightning, with a terrifying momentum; there is one that is like a black hole, swallowing everything; there is one that is sharp and looks like a sword wheel...
Whenever these obscure big stars impacted the three main stars, they would suddenly release obscure, mysterious, but equally powerful Dao rhyme fluctuations to offset the overstepping and aggression of the twenty-odd big stars, allowing the light and heat of the three big stars to dominate the entire Heavenly Monitoring Palace once again.
In the middle of the materialized giant dragons of the avenue, within the boundless divine light and starry clouds, stars of all sizes, with diameters ranging from a few miles to dozens of feet, and from several feet to the size of a thumb, are densely suspended.
These stars are like the acupoints in the bodies of giant dragons of the Great Dao. They are embedded in the bodies of the giant dragons of the Great Dao, shining brightly, echoing each other from afar, and also emitting waves of Dao rhyme fluctuations of varying strengths.
Looking carefully, about 40% of these tens of billions of small stars, large and small, are in line with the avenue chains emanating from the purple-gold star in the middle. There are also a series of avenue chains winding out from these small stars, which are closely integrated with the avenue chains that cover the entire world.
"Everything is fine!" Dafang Laojun took a sip of the fragrant tea with a 'gulp'. He reached his hand into his sleeve for a while and took out a bright red longevity peach as big as his head. He began to chew it with a 'crunch, crunch' sound.
Although it looks small in size, it eats peaches at an astonishing speed.
In just a few bites, Dafang Laojun finished eating the peach clean, and threw the fist-sized peach pit to the ground.
On the ground of the huge Jiantian Palace, there was a thick layer of peach pits, at least one foot deep.
"Which brat is on duty outside? Go to Tianxingtai and ask, the one whose fortune I read 80,000 years ago, that... the guy called 'Zeng Guang', whether his entire family was also executed?" Dafang Laojun patted his belly with satisfaction and burped, "Hey, little bastard, 80,000 years ago, I read your fortune for free and predicted that you would have your family confiscated and your entire family exterminated... 80,000 years have passed, and your entire family is still alive and well, isn't this a slap in my face?"
"I can't let you destroy my reputation as the number one fortune teller in heaven!"
"Go quickly and ask the Heavenly Punishment Platform whether the Heavenly King Zeng Guang was exterminated?"
"Go and ask quickly. I'm really worried!"
Dafang Laojun was just shouting. In the main hall, among the giant dragons of heaven that were billions of miles long, there was a one-horned dragon that was only about a million miles long. It emitted a dim five-colored halo all over its body and was as erratic as mist. Suddenly, it let out a loud dragon roar.
This one-horned dragon was petite, and it was completely incomparable to the other giant dragons of the Heavenly Dao. Correspondingly, compared to the hundreds of millions of stars of all sizes in the bodies of those giant dragons of the Heavenly Dao, this one-horned dragon had only a few dozen small stars shining brightly in its body.
Among these dozens of small stars, only two big stars shine the brightest and most vigorously.
If the light of these dozens of stars is counted as a whole, the light of one of the two big stars accounts for about 40% of the whole, the other big star accounts for 37%, and the remaining dozens of small stars account for 23%!
Moreover, none of these dozens of stars were connected to the purple-gold star in the void, and the huge net that covered the heaven and earth did not include this heavenly dragon!
Dafang Laojun suddenly turned his gaze to the Heavenly Dao dragon: "The Dao of Swamp Miasma? It's just a small path, not worth mentioning... Is this, the Dao is about to be seized successfully?"
Just as Dafang Laojun was sighing, dozens of small stars in the body of the dragon suddenly dimmed by more than half. At the same time, the two largest stars with the brightest brilliance simultaneously vibrated, and circles of bright starlight spread out in all directions, bit by bit swallowing up the starlight that flowed out from the bodies of dozens of small stars after they went out and shattered.
So, very quickly, the brightness of the brightest star accounted for more than 49% of all the large stars, and the brightness of the other large star also rapidly increased to about 43%.
Afterwards, the two big stars began to collide violently inside the Dao Dragon's body, splashing countless colorful clouds and mists, and even shattered, tore apart, and swallowed the remaining twenty or so small stars into its body bit by bit.
A middle-aged man in a purple-green official robe quietly appeared beside Dafang Laojun.
He lightly picked up the large teapot floating beside Dafang Laojun, poured a cup of tea into his huge teacup, and asked softly, "Laojun, this... the emperor has been very angry these days."
Dafang Laojun said "Hey", and stretched out his right hand to grab the air, and a palm-sized jade plate condensed out of thin air. He flicked his finger, and the jade plate shed a bright light, projecting all the battle scenes of the stars in the dragon on the avenue into the jade plate, and then whispered a few words to the jade plate.
With a flick of his finger, the jade plate turned into a faint light and flew away into the air.
Dafang Laojun murmured, "It is because he is angry that we have to add fuel to the fire... Uh, let me say that again, have the whole family of King Zengguang been chopped off? If the emperor is extremely angry, King Zengguang is in charge of the Heavenly Palace Guards. For ordinary things, he will not kill his whole family... Only by adding fuel to the fire can we..."
The middle-aged man smiled, took two steps back, and disappeared.
The jade tablet flew out of the Jiantian Palace, flashed, broke through the void, and landed directly on the desk of Taichu Emperor in Taichu Chengyuan Palace.
The real body of Emperor Taichu sat steadily on the throne, his eyes fierce as a knife or fire, constantly sweeping over dozens of important officials who were trembling with fear in the hall.
"You guys, this is really a surprise to me... The treasures of Tianshu Secret Pavilion have been leaked, and until today, I still haven't figured out who is behind it. Haha!" Taichu Emperor said dimly, "Are you sure that the benefits he promised you are worth this... risk?"
A number of important officials of the Heavenly Court bowed their heads in silence. There were also a few who, whose cultivation had reached an incredible level, were still trembling slightly, with cold sweat oozing out of their backs, and their faces were tense and twisted, obviously they were terrified to the extreme.
With their cultivation, their lifespans, the countless years they had lived, and the experience they had gained from going through countless storms, they were actually frightened into this state by a simple sentence from the Great Emperor Taichu... This shows how strict and terrifying the rules and regulations of Heaven are.
Even so, the Great Emperor Taichu personally took charge, but he spent so much time trying to find out who was behind the leak of the imperial treasure from the Tianshu Secret Pavilion...
This, this is really hard to understand.
Is it that the people sent by Emperor Taichu to investigate the case are too incompetent... or is it that the methods of the mastermind behind the scenes are too sophisticated... or is it that Emperor Taichu simply did not put any effort into investigating the case?
God knows!
Nobody knows!
After reprimanding a group of ministers, the Great Emperor Taichu grabbed the jade tablet sent by the Great Lord Dafang. He lightly tapped the jade tablet with his finger, and a faint glow surged, revealing the changes that had taken place in the Heavenly Dao dragon in the Heavenly Monitoring Hall.
The Great Emperor Taichu smiled calmly, "Oh? It seems that there is a possibility of success? I don't know which family this child is from... The Way of Swamp Miasma? It's just a small way, insignificant to the great situation of heaven and earth... However, the Way of Swamp Miasma is just a small way, and it seems that it is not so easy to succeed in seizing it... Hehe!"
With his fingers flicking lightly on the long table, the Great Emperor Taichu said quietly, "Who can tell me where this talented person who seems to be on the verge of success comes from and what family he belongs to?"
There were dozens of important officials, but no one said a word.
The corner of Taichu Emperor's mouth curled up slightly, and he looked at the commander of the Patrol God Guards, who was standing in the front of all the ministers with lightning flashing all over his body. "My dear minister, you, the Patrol God Guards, are you also ignorant of this?"
The commander-in-chief knelt on the ground and knocked his head against the ground: "I am incompetent. I know my crime!"
The ten fingers of Emperor Taichu spasmed at the same time. He looked at the commander who was kneeling on the ground with his forehead pressed against the ground without moving. He was silent for a while, and suddenly pointed lightly at King Zengguang, one of the commanders of the Heavenly Palace Front Department, who was standing in the corner of the hall and trying his best to hide his presence.
"Zeng Guang, do you know your crime?" Shaking his head, the Great Emperor Taichu sighed, "You are so shameless that you don't even know where you are wrong. Come, arrest Zeng Guang and punish him according to the law!"
A team of heavenly guards wearing golden armor and surrounded by rosy clouds rushed in, knocked King Zang Guang to the ground in a few moves, tied him up like a dumpling, and dragged him out of the hall very swiftly. During the whole process, King Zang Guang, who had the peak cultivation of a great celestial monarch and had nearly 100 million acupoints in his body, did not even have the strength to resist, and was easily dragged out by these guards.
In the blink of an eye, a burly man in heavy armor quietly walked into the Taichu Chengyuan Hall and stood upright where the Zengguang Tianwang had been before.
The armor he wore was the same top-level Great Heavenly Monarch-level armor that the Censored Heavenly King had worn before, and the token and seal on his waist were also the same official tokens and seals that the Censored Heavenly King had worn before. His aura was even three times stronger than that of the Censored Heavenly King.
He casually sent an important official who had reached the peak of the Great Heavenly Sovereign's cultivation level to a new post, and in a moment a new person would take his place.
The background of Heaven is truly unfathomable and terrifying to the extreme.
It seemed that he had used the King of Resentment as an outlet to vent his anger. The expression of the Great Emperor Taichu was obviously much more relaxed. He tapped the long table in front of him with his fingers and chuckled, "My dear minister, please stand up... That's it, I understand, I know... The Heavenly Court seems to encompass the heaven and earth and govern the whole universe, but in fact, we know the warmth and coldness of it in our hearts!"
"The investigation into the leakage of the Tianshu Secret Pavilion's treasure will end today."
"Secretly, the Patrolling Forbidden Divine Guards must not relax and continue to investigate. I really want to know which of my beloved sons... or... beloved daughters was able to cut off all the clues, both overt and covert, under my pressure and get rid of himself so cleanly?"
The important officials looked at each other, feeling extremely embarrassed, and dared not say a word!
The Great Emperor Taichu said quietly, "He is quite resourceful. I personally supervised this case, but he fooled me and concealed the truth... He is really resourceful... Tsk tsk, he cut off the clues, he is really ruthless and decisive... Tsk tsk, he is quite like me when I was young. Perhaps, it would not be a bad idea to give him the throne of Heaven in the future!"
With a light sigh, the Great Emperor Taichu said calmly: "I will increase the number of eyes and ears around all my children tenfold. It's not that I must find out who this child with such powerful skills is. I am very happy that he has such skills, and I will not deliberately make things difficult for him."
A group of important officials greeted the mother of Emperor Taichu in their hearts!
You don't deliberately make things difficult for your precious son? You even admire what he does? Why didn't you say so earlier?
How many officials have been executed in the past year? How many relatives and friends of those officials have been implicated? You are just having fun with your son? Millions of people were amused by your father and son?
The Great Emperor Taichu chuckled and said, "Send more people to keep an eye on them. Remember, it's not to catch him, but to prevent this little bastard from attacking his brothers and sisters... Hehe, he has stretched his claws into the Taishu Secret Pavilion, and even I couldn't catch him easily. With this kind of mentality and this kind of means... If he kills a few brothers and sisters in order to fight for power and profit, it will be easy and natural!"
"It's not easy for us to have children after reaching this level of cultivation! If one son or daughter dies, it will be a pain. So, keep a close eye on them and prevent them from doing anything stupid with each other!"
With a deep sigh, the Great Emperor Taichu murmured, "Speaking of this, I envy Taiyu... He, on the other hand, does not have this worry... Hey!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a celestial official wearing a purple robe, who trembled with every step he took, walked into the hall. As soon as he entered the door, he knelt at the threshold farthest from the throne of Emperor Taichu with a "thump", and kowtowed to the ground with a "bang".
The face of the Great Emperor Taichu twitched violently. He smiled dryly and said, "Don't tell me, what mess have you discovered?"
The official knelt on the ground, not daring to raise his head, and muttered: "Your Majesty, we have discovered, discovered..."
The Great Emperor Taichu said quietly, "Tell me, I don't blame you. What earth-shattering event has happened?"
The official tensed up all over, slowly raised his head, and put on a pale and twisted expression as if he had considered himself dead, and murmured, "A secret room was found under the Ninth Prince's bedroom. Inside is, inside is..."
The Great Emperor Taichu looked at the Heavenly Official curiously: "Don't be nervous, I will forgive you. Well, what did you find under the bedroom of Old Nine?"
When the official heard the words "forgive you" his face, which was as pale as a dead man, suddenly turned red. He took a breath and spoke more fluently. He said hurriedly: "We have discovered the altar of witchcraft and curse that is disrespectful to Your Majesty... The Ninth Prince, you are trying... trying... to harm Your Majesty!"
There was a dead silence in the Taichu Chengyuan Hall. The commander-in-chief and other trusted ministers stared blankly at this 'lucky' celestial official with their eyes wide open.
The Great Emperor Taichu was also silent for a long time, and suddenly he burst into laughter: "What did I say? The unlucky child, Lao Jiu... Haha, that bastard, I'm afraid he feels the pressure and wants to use Lao Jiu to divert attention? Well, the previous operations were sophisticated... This time, the method is a bit immature!"
After a moment's silence, the Great Emperor Taichu said quietly, "Go, arrest Lao Jiu, punish him with three thousand hammer strikes, and let him lie on his bed and reflect on his mistakes for a while... Tell him that I don't suspect him of anything, but I am angry that his bedroom was tampered with and he didn't even know it... He is truly a useless child. Is he still my biological son?"
Emperor Taichu waved his hand, and the celestial official who had come to report felt as if he had been pardoned. He kowtowed and saluted quickly, then fled out of the hall in a flash.
The commander of the Patrol God Guards coughed dryly and murmured calmly, "The Ninth Prince may have been tricked... But what if he really got some clues and deliberately used this method to exonerate himself? No one can tell, right? We dare not disrespect the Ninth Prince, and we can't use him to search his soul, right?"
Emperor Taichu’s face froze.
He stared at the commander-in-chief for a while, then suddenly picked up a purple jade paperweight in the shape of a thousand mountains from the long table and smashed it on the forehead of the commander-in-chief who was covered in heavy armor. "Get lost! Are you trying to show off your ability? Get lost! Who is that kid who is trying to seize power? You have three months to investigate... If you can't find any results... Hehe!"
The purple jade paperweight hit the commander-in-chief's forehead and broke into pieces. The commander-in-chief turned around and left without saying a word.
Outside the Kurosawa star.
Mr. Peony and Mr. Rose mobilized their armies and launched a frenzied attack.
Lu Yu stood at the bow, his Dharma eye between his eyebrows opened, and faint wisps of light flickered.
Near Heize Star, the road is turbulent.
Because of some principle of the operation of heaven and earth that Lu Yi could not understand yet, the void around Hei Ze Star and other avenues were temporarily excluded. A colorful, erratic, thin but timeless avenue law was gradually becoming thicker and thicker.
This set of great laws slowly condensed and gradually transformed into a dragon with distinct scales, roaring and screaming beside Lu Yi.
Two hazy figures, one sitting cross-legged on the top of the dragon, and the other sitting cross-legged on the tail of the dragon. They emitted the same colorful mist as the dragon, and were strangling each other in the void in a way that Lu Yi could not understand.
Lu Yi could feel that the two figures were losing a huge amount of blood, essence and soul every moment.
But both of them seemed to have extremely huge reserves of resources. They kept consuming themselves, but recovered to their peak state in a breath. Lu Yi could sense that their souls, their consciousness, and their life imprints were integrating into the dragon body that was embodied by the laws of the avenue in some strange way.
It was obvious that the figure sitting cross-legged on the dragon's head had a slight advantage.
But the figure sitting at the tail of the dragon was assisted by dozens of dim figures... Although those dozens of dim figures were far less powerful than the two figures with colorful bodies, after they joined forces with the figure sitting at the tail of the dragon, they were able to fight on par with the figure at the head of the dragon.
The big parrot lying on top of Lu Yi's head also raised its head, with red light flashing in its eyes, and it was obvious that it had also seen the strange scene in the void.
The big parrot flapped its wings in surprise: "Huh? A fight between ghosts?"
Shaoyao Jun turned around and glanced at the big parrot: "Master Xuanzang, you are a good monk, but your bird... is really ignorant... This is a battle to seize the road. My father is fighting with the old ghost in Hei Ze Star for the absolute control of this road!"
Shaoyao Jun's face turned red, and he murmured, "My father's cultivation has reached the final stage. As long as he can completely control a great way, then... he will be a true emperor-level existence!"
"From now on, the Great Dao will not be extinguished, and it will be immortal for all eternity!" Shaoyao Jun swallowed hard, "You know what? The Great Dao will not be extinguished, and it will be immortal for all eternity. This is the true way of the Great Emperor!"
