Chapter 635: Effortless Acquisition

The light of the morning sun flooded the palace as Tang Wanzhuang headed off to court.

The past two days had been packed with an endless stream of tasks. No one had the luxury of leisure. Even straightforward matters—like determining the fate of the imprisoned imposter—had yet to be resolved. Tang Wanzhuang’s own subordinate, Qin Dingjiang, had once raised his hand against her, and whether he deserved punishment was a question she had not yet even had time to address. The newly established dynasty, born under such exceptional circumstances, had far weightier issues to handle. These minor concerns could not even make the agenda.

If not for the urgency of Tang Wanzhuang’s treatment, yesterday would not have devolved into stolen moments of intimacy. It would have been a day filled with serious deliberations.

Zhao Changhe could not imagine what it would be like for those two to face each other in court after the intimate hours they had shared through the night. The whole dynamic seemed to be spiraling into a state of absurdity.

But the absurdity hinged on one fact: Tang Wanzhuang had given herself fully to him. She put his interests above all else. In her eyes, if the newly crowned empress served him, that was a positive outcome. By that logic, even the women of the Four Idols Cult should be “subdued” for his benefit.

Zhao Changhe shook his head. Everyone else was swamped with responsibilities, leaving him with unexpected idleness. The polite term was holding the fort, but in reality, he was just a man with no tasks left to complete. It seemed his only remaining role was to navigate the complexities of the Four Idols Cult.

This moment marked a pivotal point for the cult’s reforms. As Tang Wanzhuang had noted, their goals were not fully aligned. In the fragile unity of a fledgling regime, cooperation was necessary. But once stability took hold, those dormant differences could surface, sowing seeds of future discord.

This applied to Tang Wanzhuang as well. She aligned herself with the cult because he led it. If the roles reversed, and he was seen as merely a pawn of the cult, her loyalty would not remain the same.

The Four Idols Cult was, at its core, a demonic cult. Its doctrine declared that the Night Emperor would unite the eras. Heaven and earth alike belonged to the Night Emperor, with the cult leader merely a mouthpiece. Even if Xia Chichi ascended the throne, she was merely a steward of the human realm, much like the Azure Dragon of the previous era, a human emperor subordinate to the Night Emperor.

In essence, Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise viewed the world much like Xia Longyuan had. If Xia Longyuan regarded people as NPCs in a game, they saw anyone outside the cult as untrustworthy heretics—fit only to be converted or to perish. That was why they were labeled a demonic cult. This was not a stigma imposed by Xia Longyuan but a reality defined by their doctrine. The world saw them for what they were.

In the past, the cult’s ferocity had been tempered by weakness, by the overwhelming dominance of the world’s strongest, and by the restraints imposed by the Demon Suppressing Bureau. Now, with no one left to suppress them, what would happen?

During yesterday’s coronation, Xia Chichi’s announcement of the Four Idols Cult as the state religion had been anticipated. Everyone knew she was a member of the cult. Yet, at the moment of the declaration, a ripple of unease had spread across the court. Tang Wanzhuang’s face, too, had subtly shifted. Resistance to the cult’s ascendance ran deep.

If left unresolved, this conflict would become a ticking time bomb for the new regime—one that could shatter everything to pieces.

When it came to subduing the Four Idols Cult, Xia Chichi was not the issue and Black Tortoise was not particularly concerned with matters of doctrine. Ever since Lady Three had accepted the Soul of Water and gained a tangible connection to divinity, even her faith in the Night Emperor had begun to waver. The true point of contention was Vermillion Bird and her alone.

As Zhao Changhe wandered the palace, his thoughts preoccupied, his feet unconsciously took him to the former quarters of the imperial noble consort.

Despite Huangfu Qing’s new title of Empress Dowager, she had not moved. She remained in her original chambers. This was unsurprising for someone who cared so little for worldly rituals or material luxury. The area was bustling with activity, attendants hurrying about to execute orders. The administration of the inner palace was no less daunting than governance itself.

“Your Highness...” The palace maids bowed nervously when they saw him. “The empress dowager is not here...”

“Not here? With all this commotion, where could she possibly have gone?”

The maids exchanged uneasy glances, reluctant to speak.

Zhao Changhe tapped his temple as realization dawned. Huangfu Qing must have finished setting things in order here and then rushed off to the cult’s headquarters to handle affairs as Vermillion Bird.

He had to admit, the Four Idols Cult owed much of its current success—and its ability to seize the largest piece of Xia Longyuan’s fallen empire—to her tireless efforts. She was effectively doing the work of two people. If the entire cult was made up of people like Black Tortoise, it would have collapsed long ago.

In truth, she was the de facto cult leader.

With Huangfu Qing absent, Zhao Changhe saw no reason to linger. He waved off the attendants and strolled away aimlessly.

Before long, he found himself drawn back to a familiar place: the Imperial Ancestral Temple—the site of the previous battle.

Xia Longyuan’s body had already been prepared for burial rites, though Zhao Changhe was not sure where it was now. Guards lingered around the area, not so much to protect the temple itself, but to secure the secrets below it. The subterranean chamber Xia Longyuan had built, with its constructed sky, held immense research value. Designed to align with the heavens above and the land below, it had once been a battleground that Xia Longyuan ultimately lost due to backlash from the qi veins. Without that failure, this home turf would have been a nuclear-level secret weapon.

More importantly, Xia Longyuan had spent years here. Beneath this platform, there were undoubtedly personal treasures and records—perhaps some hidden collections of immense value. It was unlikely he would have entrusted such things to the palace treasury as that would have been unnecessary. The inner treasury would only hold mundane valuables. The real treasures had to be here.

Zhao Changhe considered this and strode directly into the temple. With no pressing matters left to occupy him, returning to cultivation seemed most prudent. He had not even studied the page of the Heavenly Tome Xia Longyuan had left him. These days, he had been far too... distracted.

The guards looked uneasy but did not stop him. Zhao Changhe occupied an ambiguous position in the palace hierarchy. Truth be told, treating him as an equal of the empress was not far off. Thus, no one dared challenge him.

He passed unimpeded into the depths, arriving at the central platform. Standing atop it, he tilted his head back to gaze at the artificial sky above. The constructed firmament still shimmered, incomprehensible in its complexity. It was different from the cyclical sunrise and moonset mechanism seen in the secret realm of the Spirit Tribe and distinct from the real sky rumored to exist in the far east. Even the principles behind it eluded explanation.

Yet, Xia Longyuan’s intentions were clear. If he believed this world was an artificial construct, this “sky” was his attempt to emulate that concept and construct a world of his own. His cultivation reaching the Profound Control Realm was not merely about ruling the world; it was one step toward something greater—controlling the heavens themselves. Only such a path could explain his terrifying two-and-a-half-layer strength of the Profound Control Realm.

On impulse, Zhao Changhe leaped upward, reaching to touch the fabricated sky.

The sensation was strange. Wherever he touched seemed to shift and flow, as though something liquid was moving beneath the surface. The darkness above felt like an ever-shifting veil of black silk.

Wait...

Zhao Changhe’s eyes widened in realization. “Blindie, isn’t this Night Flowing Sand?!”

A weary sigh echoed through his mind as the blind woman replied,

“You should have started investigating this sooner. What exactly have you been doing these past two days...?”