Chapter 1379: Robbing Fate, Cutting Will

“The Chief Libationist isn’t in the Jixia Academy right now. He’s currently overseas.”

Feng Qingyou’s answer was more or less what he anticipated. He added, “Emperor Jing Run’s the one who arranged it.” “Hah! Emperor Jing Run is quite the meticulous guy, isn’t he?”

Ye Qing remarked with great sarcasm. It was obviously why Emperor Jing Run sent the Chief Libationist away. It was because he was afraid that the old man would stop him.

Although the Chief Libationist wasn’t an imperial official, his renown, influence and power were, in a sense, all greater than Emperor Jing Run’s even though the latter was the regent of this nation. If the Chief Libationist truly wanted to stop him, he would have no choice but to compromise.

To prevent the Chief Libationist from stopping his grand plan, Emperor Jing Run sent the man away from the imperial capital. Not only that, he went a step further and sent him all the way to the other side of the four seas, guaranteeing that the old man would absolutely, definitely not be able to make it back in time.

Truly, Emperor Jing Run did everything he could to ensure that his grand plan would succeed!

In the end though, all his efforts merely resulted in him enmeshing himself in a trap of his own devising.

If the Chief Libationist was still in the imperial capital, then the situation would not be as dire as it currently was.

Of course, if the Chief Libationist was still in the imperial capital, then Feng Qingyou probably wouldn’t come up with the plan of stealing the Earthly Sovereign Bell and the Heavens’ Eye at all. That would be too audacious even for her.

In other words, Feng Qingyou had accounted for the Chief Libationist’s presence as well.

“Emperor Jing Run is lacking in great wisdom, but petty schemes? His brain is full of it.”

Feng Qingyou said while shaking her head, “If not for loyal, competent subjects such as Wan Bainian and Li Chengzhong, Chu would have run into problems a long time ago.”

“Unfortunately for them, Emperor Jing Run is such an incompetent emperor that they have to clean up after him even now. When all is said and done, I expect history to remember them not as loyal, competent officials, but heartless, useless failures.”

“They’re the ones who chose to walk this path. They only have themselves to blame,” Ye Qing said with a wistful sigh. A loyal minister or excellent general who was lucky enough to serve a wise ruler would naturally leave behind a compelling, positive tale that was remembered for eternity. But an incapable, tyrannical ruler? Even if things went well at the beginning, there was only one way such a tale would end: tragedy.

Was Emperor Jing Run an incapable ruler?

In the past, Ye Qing did not think so. Obviously, he was no wise and virtuous emperor whose merits were such that they were remembered even many millennia later. He wasn’t even a once-in-a-century ruler whose competency and wisdom served his country well. Still, Ye Qing used to consider him an enlightened ruler. He lacked progressiveness and was more content to benefit from his predecessors’ work and maintain the status quo, but the people of Chu still enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous life under his rule.

However, Feng Qingyou’s evaluation of Emperor Jing Run was anything but good. In fact, looking at his recent actions, Ye Qing must admit that Emperor Jing Run did not even qualify as an enlightened ruler. He was ambitious, but lacked foresight. He was intelligent and cunning, but also unbelievably narrow-minded. He was the regent of a country and the king of a people, but his motives were purely selfish, and his methods were completely unscrupulous...

Ye Qing’s opinion had changed probably because he wasn’t who he was before. In the past, he was just an insignificant Lieutenant of the Pacification Bureau. His horizons were strictly limited to one or two secluded regions of the realm, and he had basically zero contact with the true higher-ups. As a result, everything he saw and heard was just smoke and mirrors.

But today, his horizons and strength were completely different from what they used to be. He had experienced many different regions at this point. He had witnessed and fought countless warriors both young and old of the world as well. Naturally, he had accumulated enough knowledge and experience to see the essence of the world and find out the true faces hiding behind the higher-ups’ masks.

“Still nervous? Then enjoy the show. Your nervousness will melt away before you know it.”

Seeing that Ye Qing was still a little nervous, Feng Qingyou couldn't help but smile a little. “A battle between this many Sages is rare even if you wait a century. You won’t get another chance if you miss this one.”

Ye Qing shook his head wryly. “You call this a show, but they are no actors, and we are no audience either.”

“You’re half-right. They’re performing on the stage we’ve set up for them, are they not? In that case, it is perfectly fine to call them actors,” Feng Qingyou said smilingly. “You’re right that we are no audience though. We are fishermen who profit from the war between the clam and the sandpiper.”

“I sure hope so.”

Ye Qing let out a helpless chuckle. This “fishing” was a lot more dangerous than the ones before. Not only that, the “clam” and “sandpiper” they were plotting against were basically living gods. One misstep, and the tides alone could drown them.

Still, Ye Qing took Feng Qingyou’s advice and began observing the battle happening above their heads seriously.

A battle between Sages was like a war between gods, but he was no longer the weak, ignorant fool he was either. Such a battle was no longer completely incomprehensible to him.

As Feng Qingyou said, a battle at this scale might not happen even once in a century, and he was lucky that he was already a Half-Sage. As his next step was the Sage stage, observing this fight was extremely beneficial to his ascension.

After he calmed down, Ye Qing slowly became absorbed in the battle. It wasn’t long before he completely forgot about his worries and fully focused.

“Look! Haotian Hong, Xuanyuan Wang, and Yue Hanhai are going to unleash their ultimates!”

An incense stick later, Feng Qingyou suddenly perked up and exclaimed in excitement.

Ye Qing noticed it as well. Clearly, the three sect heads were becoming impatient after besieging the Chu warriors for a prolonged period and achieving little to no results.

Emperor Jing Run’s side could afford to fight a protracted battle, but not them. In fact, Emperor Jing Run’s side did not even need to win. They simply needed to drag out the fight until the Heavens’ Eye had completely absorbed the Earthly Sovereign Bell’s power. Once done, the Heavens’ Eye would regain its former glory, and they could flip the tables against their enemies in an instant.

On the other hand, Yue Hanhai—head of the Earthly Sovereign Hall—Hao Tianhong, and Xuanyuan Wang could not reach the Earthly Sovereign Bell without overcoming Emperor Jing Run. Not only that, they were on a time limit. The longer they dragged this out, the more dire the situation would become.

The three sect heads were well aware of the constraints they were toiling under. That was why they were impatient and furious.

Of course, the situation wouldn’t improve no matter how angry and impatient they were. What could improve their situation was putting their life on the line and going all out.

So, after pushing back Emperor Jing Run with a palm strike, Haotian Hong took one step forward and summoned his yang god. It looked like the heavenly emperor had descended upon the earth.

“Jing Run is a traitor of humanity and deserves to be executed as soon as possible. In the name of the Heavenly Sovereign and his clan, I command the heavens to revoke their blessing!”

The heavens shook as Haotian Hong declared in a grandiose voice. The next moment, the Clear Sky Mirror shone purple and conjured a palm made of purple light.

The palm was brilliant and dazzling as if it carried the will of the heavens. It made a grabbing motion, and the imperial capital suddenly shook without a sound. At the same time, an unbelievable amount of purple qi poured out of Emperor Jing Run, Chu Xunxuan, Wan Bainian, Li Chengzhong, and more and flowed into the purple palm.

The next moment, Emperor Jing Run’s side suddenly became much weaker than before.

“Emperor Jing Run lacks virtue despite his position and desires to rebel against humanity. In the name of the Human Sovereign and his clan, I revoke your respect and authority over the people.”

As Xuanyuan Wang spoke, the celestial bodies on the Xuanyuan Sword, nature, the people of all occupations, and the unnamed masses transformed into four swords. The swords then split up and occupied the east, west, south, and north direction.

The next moment, all four swords swung down together and cut off the brilliant power of the Human Way flooding into the imperial capital from all directions.

Losing the power of the Human Way caused Emperor Jing Run and his forces to become weaker again.

“Emperor Jing Run is selfish and a traitor to humanity. In the name of the Earthly Sovereign and his clan, I revoke the protection you receive from your realm. May the earth no longer protect you!”

Yue Hanhai punched the Profound Yellow Bell and triggered a deafening, resounding bell chime that seemed to reverberate throughout the nine provinces.

As soon as the bell chime happened, the earthly qi of the imperial capital, no, the entire Chu suddenly collapsed into nothing. Their Will of the Empire was greatly distorted as well.

Once again, Emperor Jing Run’s side experienced a massive decline in power.

Haotian Hong had cut off Chu’s fate, Xuanyuan Wang had cut off their Will of the People, and the Profound Yellow Bell had shattered their Will of the Empire. That was why Emperor Jing Run and his men lost power again and again.

All this had happened in just the span of a few seconds, but it was enough to turn the tables against the Chu forces instantly. Emperor Jing Run and his men immediately found themselves in a much more dire situation than before.