Chapter 533 - When Ghosts Eclipse the Heaven, the Human Emperor Is Just a Piece on the Board - Part 3

Half a month later.

The vast caravan of refugees from Gemhill County finally made camp on a desolate plain south of the county. The ghost tides had mostly died down in the east, west, and north.

But the south, they couldn’t escape that one.

Once again, Li Yuan and Sheng’er transformed into a barrier, standing against the incoming tide.

Behind them, over 10,000 sixth rank cultivators from the Bladeseekerse formed a second defensive line.

Snow began to fall.

By morning, another round of the weak and frail had frozen to death in their sleep.

And this...this was only the tip of the iceberg in the chaos now spreading across the land.

In the blink of an eye, another half month passed.

At last, the southern ghost tide began to recede.

Li Yuan was utterly spent. Sheng’er, too, had experienced perhaps for the first time what it truly meant to face a natural catastrophe of apocalyptic scale.

In the face of such relentless, interlinked, and ever-escalating calamities, even as a third rank Heaven Soul cultivator, she would’ve been overwhelmed if not for Li Yuan standing in front of her.

She could flee, yes. But divert the ghost tide? Impossible.

Now, the four Tree’ers had rooted themselves at key locations, guarding the masses who had escaped from Gemhill County.

Li Yuan, meanwhile, was busy purging his body of the heavy Yin energy that had seeped deep into his very bones. Again and again, he bathed in the withered flame until he could finally shift back into the guise of Ximen Gucheng, and returned to the refugee camp.

“You’ve been gone for over a month,” Xie Yu blinked at him from inside the tent as he stepped through the flap. “Now the ghost tide’s over, you finally decide to come back?”

Li Yuan smiled faintly. “It was kind of serious, you know.”

Xie Yu tilted her head and asked, “Were you among the Bladeseeker disciples? Were you guarding the refugee convoy from the shadows too?”

Li Yuan shook his head. “No.”

She stared at him intently. “You know my brother-in-law, don’t you?”

Li Yuan let out a casual laugh and pretended to look confused. “You mean the Empress Dowager’s husband? Or Xie Wei’s?”

“Cut it out,” Xie Yu said. “I mean Li Yuan.”

Li Yuan’s throat bobbed slightly. Then, lowering his voice, he said, “I think your sister might’ve been tricked. That man...Li Yuan, he’s long dead.”

“Huh?” Xie Yu’s eyes widened in disbelief.

So Li Yuan went on to weave a story, about the famed weaponsmith faking his death to travel west, and how the old Khagan perished after failing to merge with the withered flame. He lowered his voice even further. “It’s complicated. There are deep currents under the surface.”

“But sister would never lie to me,” Xie Yu insisted.

Li Yuan had no choice now but to keep spinning the thread. “Of course your sister wouldn’t lie. But she would worry about your safety. Li Yuan and the old Khagan were the same person, and only a handful of people ever knew he died. She probably didn’t want you caught up in something too dangerous.”

“Oh...” Xie Yu nodded slowly, processing. Then she wrapped her arms around him again and whispered, “Gucheng, where did you go this past month? I kept thinking about you. I was so worried.”

“I’m sorry...” Li Yuan sighed deeply.

The tree wishes for stillness, but the wind will not cease.

He held his wife gently, but in that moment, his pupils suddenly contracted.

One of his mirage sparrows had just reached the border of Hidden River Province, now the Kingdom of Chu.

Troops were stationed there, stretching for miles. That in itself wasn’t surprising.

But then a number appeared in the sparrow’s vision, clear, bold, and unmistakable.

It was a combat power of 900k.

Li Yuan’s breath caught. He knew instantly what that number meant and whose it was.

It seemed that anyone who was widely acknowledged in the hearts of the people as a king could draw strength from the Imperial Human System.

The King of Chu, everyone in Hidden River Province knew him as their ruler. In name and in reality, he commanded the entire region. And so he reaped the reward.

It was only one of the Nine Provinces, only one king. Yet that had granted him 900,000 combat power!

Then what would it mean if someone unified the world?

What kind of terrifying strength would a true Human Emperor wield?

A heavy thought flashed through Li Yuan’s mind.

But almost immediately, he began calculating.

A single-entity ghost might register anywhere from 1k to 10k combat power.

Multi-entity ghosts could reach from 10k to 100k combat power.

Places like Happyland Zoo could range from 100k to 1 million combat power.

Then the Dragon Vein, which had suppressed the Nine Provinces since ancient times, had to range between 1 million to 10 million combat power.

And when the Dragon Vein was shattered, its energy scattered back into the world, returned to the people, so that a Human Emperor might rise.

So for a single province ruler to gain 900k combat power wasn’t strange at all.

“What’s wrong?” Xie Yu asked, noticing his silence.

Li Yuan came back to himself and murmured, “The world is changing... The future is uncertain.”

Xie Yu leaned her head on his chest. “No matter what happens, as long as we’re together, and with the child growing inside me, let the world change however it wants.”

“Mhm...” Li Yuan nodded gently. He suddenly thought of that child far away in the Jade Capital, sitting alone upon the dragon throne.

A sigh stirred in his heart.

Fate is a strange thing... That boy...may very well have become the strongest person on this land.

Destiny, luck, fate—it was all so nebulous. So impossible to grasp.

And yet, Li Yuan wasn’t discouraged.

Because everything was just beginning.

If his calculations were correct, the Imperial Human System was a power uniquely tied to the land itself. In other words, the title of Human Emperor only held weight within the territory of the Great Zhou. Step beyond those borders, and that power would vanish into smoke.

More importantly, if he were the Dragon Vein, he certainly wouldn’t want a single person living for ten thousand years sitting eternally atop the throne. No, he’d design the system to push all of humanity forward, to ignite ambition and competition. To force them to strive for the throne.

So yes, the Human Emperor was powerful.

But his lifespan? Most likely locked to a mere hundred years.

In the end, the Human Emperor was no different from the Khagan, just another piece on the board. A pawn in the hand of the one behind the Dragon Vein.

No matter how powerful the piece, it still belonged to the game.

The people on the board might look up in awe. But the one holding the pieces...never would.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

In the days that followed, Li Yuan didn’t go roaming.

Without the Nine Provinces Provisional Patrol Token, he was effectively confined here. Even if he wanted to leave, he couldn’t.

The snow around the camp slowly melted. Streams gurgled to life.

After more than a month of endless gloom, the skies finally cleared.

Wild peach blossoms burst into bloom, and colorful flowers spread across the hills.

It was as if the sunshine had swept away some of the heaviness weighing on people’s hearts.

Xie Yu, now visibly pregnant, walked through the grass with Li Yuan supporting her gently.

Just then, a small black crow swooped down from the sky and landed beside her.

“I’ve got some news,” it said softly.

“What news?” Xie Yu asked, curious as always.

The crow replied, “The Emperor, Ji Hu, has already swallowed up the Kingdom of Yan and Zhao. The Khagan is marching north, trying to take the Kingdom of Han... but it’s not going well.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because the King of Han and the former King of Wei suddenly got very powerful,” the crow explained. “The Khagan’s twin-headed direwolf cavalry are strong, no doubt, but they’re big and clumsy. They can’t maneuver like individual top-tier cultivators.”

Li Yuan asked, “Even the King of Wei’s gotten stronger? What about the Khagan?”

In his mind, Naran had clearly taken over Cloudpeak Province. So by all logic, he should’ve been the one benefiting from the Imperial Human System.

But the crow shook its head. “No change. He’s the same as before. No boost in strength.”

Li Yuan’s eyes narrowed in thought.

So the Imperial Human System

chose

who to empower? His son, Naran...was he excluded entirely?

What kind of system was this?

Whatever the reason, one thing was clear. The young Emperor in the Jade Capital was likely on the path to unifying the entire realm.

Truly the chosen one of fate...

Li Yuan thought.

Xie Yu blinked at the little crow and smiled. “Lady Divine Crow, you know so much. Why come all the way out here to tell us?”

The little crow let out a few smug caws. “Just felt like chatting.”

“But isn’t this a really important message?” she asked sweetly. “Shouldn’t something like this be...I don’t know,

not

said casually?”

“...” Li Yuan averted his gaze.