When he came to his senses, Wang Zhixin found that the place he was in had changed.
The view from the top of Tianjue Peak is like a dream.
In its place was a magnificent city with bright lights. Wang Zhixin, who had lived here for most of his life, would naturally recognize it.
Dayun went to the capital.
The sight swept across the city wall of Shangjing, infinitely closer, through the streets and alleys, through the inner city, and finally entered from the main gate of the imperial city, crossed the patrol line of the palace guards, and finally came to a white jade step with thousands of steps, which went straight into the sky like a road to heaven.
In the past, all officials took this route to enter the court.
Wang Zhixin was naturally familiar with it.
And above the Danbi, a magnificent golden palace seemed to stand in the sea of clouds. At first glance, a terrifying oppression arose out of nowhere. This kind of oppression could not be detected by non-grandmaster warriors, because it was not an oppression on the physical level, but an oppression on some kind of spiritual level.
In other words, it is "momentum".
The Great Yun Dynasty has been established for a hundred years. After two generations of wise emperors, and the current emperor Li Yun has worked hard for twenty years, the people of the world are all loyal to the country. How powerful is it? As the power center of this huge empire, the place where the people gather, how can the Golden Palace be so simple
Nothing else to say.
Why didn't the Jianghu dare to act recklessly in the court? Why didn't the Grand Master dare to break into the palace at night? The reason was that if these Grand Masters really came, they would be suppressed by the power of the empire on the spot, and their artistic conception would not be able to be raised to 50%, and their strength would be reduced to 10%.
Therefore, the more powerful the martial artist is, the less likely they are to come to the Golden Palace. Only those warriors who have been canonized by the imperial court can possess such an imperial power.
Of course, this is only limited to the Golden Palace.
only... .
Wang Zhixin's eyes flashed, and then he moved away from the golden throne room that looked like a heavenly palace, and turned to look at the bottom of the white jade steps. There, a young man in a five-clawed golden dragon robe was looking at him expressionlessly, and behind the young man, a trembling eunuch was kneeling.
The Imperial Household Department holds the seal and the Imperial Court Chief Manager is Tong Daofu.
After seeing this scene, Wang Zhixin took a deep breath, then walked forward and knelt on one knee.
"Your humble servant Wang Zhixin."
"Your Majesty."
"Stand up."
Li Yun spoke slowly. Unlike when he sent Wang Zhixin away before, his voice this time seemed very indifferent. This was not the attitude he should have towards Wang Zhixin.
"promise."
Wang Zhixin was not surprised. He responded respectfully and slowly stood up.
"... Congratulations, Your Majesty. It looks like the traitor has been captured by Your Majesty."
"There's nothing to congratulate."
Li Yun said calmly: "I had expected Li Yue to plant a hidden chess piece, but I didn't expect it to be hidden so deeply. I failed to discover it in advance, which was my mistake."
"Your Majesty is wise."
Wang Zhixin cupped his hands, but Li Yun did not respond.
For a moment, the atmosphere between the two began to become silent and cold. After a while, Wang Zhixin slowly said, "How did the emperor bring me here? If my guess is correct, I should be at the top of Tianjue Peak now, instead of returning to Shangjing in the blink of an eye..."
"... .Don't you know?"
Li Yun waved his hand and interrupted Wang Zhixin somewhat angrily.
"You are my Grand Commander of the Imperial City Department, a first-rank official. I am using my own artistic conception to pull you over here. Is there any problem?"
"... No."
Wang Zhixin opened his mouth, but Li Yun had a gloomy face and had no intention of continuing to speak. In the end, Wang Zhixin sighed deeply: "... Your Majesty."
"explain."
"Do you really want me to speak for myself?"
"... ..."
"In that case, I will say it."
Wang Zhixin adjusted his collar and said solemnly, "Your Majesty, your plan is close to failure. Although three master swordsmen have been sacrificed and the dragon veins of the Central Plains have risen again, the ten thousand year old black ice on the top of Tianjue Peak is too strong for the earth fire to break through, and your artistic conception cannot spread."
"... ..."
Li Yun did not respond, but just looked at Wang Zhixin steadily. Wang Zhixin paused slightly when he said this, and then he actually smiled:
"My benefactor, you know, I have always been afraid of you."
"... Why?"
"Because I don't know what you're thinking."
Wang Zhixin's eyes showed some reminiscence. "It started before you ascended the throne. The late emperor died, and you teamed up with the clan officials to capture the prince, which led to your breakup with the queen. Since then, I have always felt guilty because you knew that it was me who acted on my own initiative and colluded with some ministers and eunuchs in the palace to secretly assassinate the late emperor, but you took the initiative to take the responsibility for me and even ruined your own reputation."
“I’ve always felt guilty about it.”
“But time has passed.”
"I have to admit that the more I know, the more I doubt what happened back then. I don't want to pursue it, but I have to think about it."
"... Was it really me who made the decision at the beginning?"
"At that time, I was raised by you, my benefactor. You taught me and nurtured me, and I have always been trying to repay you. The reason why I assassinated the late emperor was because I heard two eunuchs in the palace say that the late emperor was seriously ill and might pass the throne to the second prince, which I could not accept."
"The young me was determined not to let that happen."
"But afterwards."
"After I took over the Imperial Palace, I unexpectedly discovered in the eunuch list that the two eunuchs I saw in the past had both died unexpectedly."
"One is a sudden illness, and the other is a violation of the palace taboo."
“This is actually quite normal.”
"But... isn't that too much of a coincidence?"
As Wang Zhixin spoke, he deliberately looked away, not looking at Li Yun, and just said to himself: "I don't know what's behind this. The more I think about it, the more scared I get. In the end, I even gave up the pursuit and just pretended that this incident never happened and continued to be my Grand Commander."
"For twenty years, I have personally watched Your Majesty eliminate dissidents and rectify the government. Your success is unprecedented, but I have also seen your methods and calculations. The more I see these, the more I can't help but think, did you actually include me in your calculations?"
"Even breaking up with the queen... is that part of your plan?"
"I do not understand."
"Later, during the incident at the First Emperor's Tomb, you didn't show up, and a plot killed the Grand Master of Xiaoyao Sect. The Jianghu Sword Master Xiao Rumo died, and the Blood Demon in the Emperor's Tomb was suppressed. In the process, many Grand Masters were killed. In comparison, there were almost no casualties on the court side."
"What have you planned for this sword test?"
"At first, I thought you were planning to create a new sword and the world's number one swordsman to replace Xiao Rumo and command the world."
"Later, I realized that I was too superficial. Madam, the massacre of tens of thousands of people, the masters of various sects arrived one after another, and the mysterious Mr. Li appeared again. In addition, there was so much gunpowder. I thought you were going to let me kill the masters who had gathered and recreate the plan of the tomb of the First Emperor."
"But I was wrong."
"The Three Absolute Swords sacrificed themselves and activated the Central Plains Dragon Vein to appear."
"At that time, I thought you were planning to use the second spiritual energy rise to break through the realm, but when I got here, I found out that I was wrong again."
"My benefactor..."
At this point, Wang Zhixin finally lowered his head slowly and met Li Yun's gaze: "... When did you break through to the Grandmaster level?"
The artistic conception spans infinite regions, pulling the spirit of a great master from the top of the sky to Shangjing City
Stop kidding!
This is simply not something a great master can do!
Those who can do this...
... .Only enlightenment!
This was a realm that no one in the martial arts world had ever reached! In the imperial court, on the throne room, it was mastered by an emperor who was so busy with government affairs that he should have neglected martial arts!
"when?"
Hearing this, Li Yun finally spoke slowly: "... three months ago."
"I see."
"That's why you started planning the tomb of the First Emperor."
“That’s the premise.”
Wang Zhixin exhaled lightly, smiled bitterly and shook his head: "... I am still too stupid and can no longer keep up with my benefactor."
"Now I understand why Your Majesty sent me to the top of the sky."
"If you want to activate the dragon vein, you can just let the Three Absolute Swords do it in secret. Why do I have to make a big fuss and even hold a sword-testing competition?"
"I see... We were all deceived."
"You have tricked everyone."
At this moment, Wang Zhixin felt that his thoughts were extremely clear. As someone who had personally experienced all of this plan, he had only just now seen the true face of the plan:
"The Tomb of the First Emperor, killing Xiao Rumo and suppressing the Blood Demon, this is just the beginning."
"Is the sword test competition for the purpose of getting the prince to appear?"
"You have long anticipated that the prince's ambitions will not die. Even the sword of the princes was given to him by you... Perhaps you have long known that the sword of the princes is wrong?"
"You are deliberately stimulating his ambition."
"You deliberately let the news leak out through Tong Daofu. The prince has been depressed for so many years and has been waiting for such an opportunity to explode. So you are sure that he will come. He wants to take revenge on you, and the best way to take revenge on you is to kill me and the queen."
"So you had expected that the prince would bring the queen along."
"And Wanren Tu... came for my brother, but why did his brother go to the vicinity of Tianjue Peak? The Lion and Tiger Sect has a complex personnel structure, so it's not difficult to insert an undercover agent among them. With a little guidance, it's not difficult to get Wanlixing to the vicinity of Tianjue Peak, and the prince just happened to be there..."
"... In order to muddy the waters, there is a high probability that the prince killed Wan Lixing."
"In this way, the massacre of tens of thousands of people will come."
"As for the other Grandmaster Swordsmen, it doesn't matter whether they come or not."
"On the other hand, since the prince dared to come, he must have the confidence. You must have received intelligence a long time ago that he has won over the grandmasters of the eight major sects, the Dharma Temple and the Exiled Immortal Villa, right? You have made several calculations and gathered four grandmasters with the prince as the core!"
"In addition, you have also gathered together the swords of the common people, the swords of the princes, and the ancient demon soldiers hidden in them."
"Most of the power in the martial arts world is here."
"On this basis, you activated the Central Plains Dragon Vein."
"... ..You have planned everything."
"Tong Daofu, the Prince of the Relatives, the Sword of the Princes, the Sword of the Common People, the Empress, the Massacre of Ten Thousand People, the Grand Masters of the Exiled Immortal Villa and the Dharma Temple, and some of the Grand Master Swordsmen in the Jianghu, all of them were calculated by you and acted according to your ideas, but even so, there are still some people you didn't calculate."
"Mr. Li and his companions, you didn't count them as troublemakers."
"There is another person..."
"... .It's me."
Having said that, Wang Zhixin paused for the second time, and this time it was Li Yun who looked away.
"You didn't plot against me?"
"wrong."
"You even plotted against the Three Absolute Swords, so why wouldn't you plot against me?"
"I'm insurance, right?"
"The dragon veins of the Central Plains have revived, but the underground fire has not broken through the Xuanbing Platform. Your state of mind has also been locked by the ten thousand year old Xuanbing, and there is no way for it to really spread over. You need someone to break the Xuanbing Platform, but once the Xuanbing Platform breaks, the person who breaks it will be the first to bear the brunt and will definitely be completely swallowed by the underground fire..."
"... So you didn't tell me."
"If the underground fire successfully breaks through the Xuanbing Platform, everything will be treated as if nothing happened. But if the underground fire fails to break through the Xuanbing Platform, it will be my turn."
"Your Excellency... Your Majesty."
"Is that so?"
Wang Zhixin spoke word by word, but a conversation flashed through his mind involuntarily. At that time, he had just been adopted by Li Yun and was only about ten years old.
"Zhi Xin, do you know what the Emperor's Art is?"
"The Emperor's Technique...?"
"good."
"The so-called art of being an emperor is actually the art of employing people. There is no one in the world who cannot be employed, and there is nothing in the world that cannot be employed. Since you want to employ people, you cannot be trapped by emotions, otherwise you will fail. If you become my right-hand man in the future, you must learn the art of employing people."
"But isn't this the Emperor's Technique? Will it be taboo if I learn it?"
"Hahaha, I will be the emperor in the future. If I say you are not breaking any taboos, who can say you are? You are still young. If I die in the future, I will still wait for you to be my minister to take care of my son!"
... ... ... ...
"Your Majesty, I have violated a taboo."
"Stand up." Li Yun's voice was still flat, without any emotion.
"... I am guilty of a thousand crimes and I will resign from my position as the Grand Commander of the Imperial City today. Your Majesty, please seek another wise man."
"... I grant you peace."
"Your Majesty is wise and powerful. I will take my leave now."
"I'll let you get up!"
Li Yun's voice finally had a hint of emotion, and Wang Zhixin, who was keenly aware of this, smiled rarely: "Your Majesty... Benefactor, Zhixin has roughly guessed what you are going to do, but I'm sorry that I am stupid. Zhixin doesn't know whether what you did is right or wrong."
"But Zhixin believes in you."
"It's just that Zhixin may not be able to witness this grand occasion with you again."
"In the past, you, my benefactor, gave Zhixin this name, saying that life is nothing more than the three words of loyalty, faith and righteousness. But you don't like loyalty, and righteousness doesn't suit me, so you left the word faith. At that time, Zhixin said frankly that he would definitely repay your kindness. Now he is considered to have kept his promise, right?"
"... ... ... "
After he finished speaking, Wang Zhixin slowly stood up, took a step back, and straightened his back.
"Your Majesty, I will go now. I am ashamed of not being able to serve as your trusted minister. If there is an afterlife, I will serve you with all my heart and soul until my death."
"... .You don't need to blame yourself, benefactor. This is what Zhixin should do."
"... ... ... "
Emperor Dayun stood there quietly, without tears or words, his expression remained majestic and solemn, unwavering, like a stone statue that had existed since ancient times.
But from then on, yin and yang were separated, and heaven and man were separated.
How noble is the majestic emperor, the heroic young man, and the five-clawed golden dragon robe? How supreme is the Great Emperor? How clever is the myriad calculations? How powerful is the enlightened cultivator
But at this glance... .
... ..but he is a lonely man.