Joy of Life

Chapter 568: The Way Of The Emperor

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

On Dong Mountain.

In order to ensure the integrated ruthlessness of this strike, Sigu Jian had to pour all of his spirit into it. If he wanted to deal with the Flowing Cloud Ye Liuyun sent in his direction, he had to scatter his sword. If he didn’t do so, he could only attack an enemy that had to be saved. However, he could only diverge a sliver of spirit. The only person of the five people present that could be killed with a sliver of his spirit was the Qing Emperor, who had nothing but grandeur.

It had to be said that from the beginning of Sigu Jian’s strike, he had suppressed Ye Liuyun in manner and wisdom. At this moment, he gave Ye Liuyun a difficult problem and a surprise.

What surprised and angered Sigu Jian, and had made him uneasy and helpless, was that Ye Liuyun didn’t acknowledge the empty sword in Sigu Jian’s illusory grasp. That ball of Flowing Cloud continued to surge toward his face.

After the empty sword in his illusory grasp gave a weak splutter, it pierced through the wet stone pavements on the mountaintop and landed in the air.

That smudge of bright yellow, the dim eyes on the dragon robes, disappeared abruptly and strangely in front of the empty sword.

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On top of Dong Mountain, there were four Great Grandmasters and one monarch. Everything appeared very slow. In reality, it all happened within a second. Within this second, Sigu Jian had used the sword in his hand to tease Ye Liuyun’s cloud. He used his empty sword to stab toward the Qing Emperor.

On the other side of this second, another even more astonishing story was happening.

This story happened at the beginning of the second.

When Sigu Jian’s sword flew to within inches of the Emperor’s back, the Emperor had already sighed darkly. He then let go of Eunuch Hong’s old hand, which he had been holding this entire time as if not wishing to prevent this old man from getting the most enjoyment he could out of the last battle of his life.

At the same time, Northern Qi Imperial Advisor Ku He placed his hand with unflagging effort against old Eunuch Hong’s chest. This touch and press caused his thumb and index finger to spread apart slightly. Like a cool breeze brushing against a mountain, it was extremely soft and natural. Compared to the storm and lightning around them, it was completely different. After the breeze passed by, chaos sprung up from nowhere in the mountain.

Eunuch Hong calmly watched Ku He’s face. His hands were like a pair of dragon whips, twisting and changing. They climbed onto Ku He’s right arm but did not stop his touch.

With a splutter, Eunuch Hong’s chest completely split open. As Ku He knew the way of heaven, his touch contained the power of heaven and earth. His breastbone was like a piece of delicate tofu, neatly crushed and collapsed down.

Fresh blood sprayed out quickly from Eunuch Hong’s organs. With the collapse of his breastbone, the crazy spraying of his blood and leaking of his zhenqi, his life force flowed away quickly. There was still a faint smile and mockery in his old eyes, as well as a killing intent.

A sense of emptiness like an abyss came from the palm of his hand. Imperial Advisor Ku He’s pupils quickly constricted.

The oldest Great Grandmaster present, the uncle of Northern Qi’s first Emperor, once an astonishing Ascetic Monk of the Wei Kingdom, had gone through countless events. He had visited temples to pray for guidance and discussed martial arts with the world. His temperament was steady and natural. No one was comparable to him. However, with the four Great Grandmasters meeting at Dong Mountain, he had to newly evaluate his gains and losses and take his victory and defeats back into his hands.

The Tyrannical zhenqi that emanated earlier from the eunuch, who had hidden for a number of years in Qing Kingdom, had mixed up the dry wind around them. At the same time, the realm he secretly demonstrated was, without question, that of a proper Grandmaster. Thus, Imperial Advisor did not hold back. This second touch already contained the deep and unfathomable ultimate Tianyi Dao zhenqi that flowed through his body.

In a battle between Great Grandmasters, an astonishing change could happen at any moment or anywhere. When Ku He’s touch was imprinted onto Eunuch Hong’s chest, he didn’t show a glimmer of joy.

His first touch had already been forcefully bounced back by the Tyrannical zhenqi in Eunuch Hong’s body. Although this technique of circulation was overly dominating and could not last for long, Ku He believed that Eunuch Hong must have had a way to deal with his second touch.

Eunuch Hong did not block this touch, and his chest split open. The Tyrannical aura on the old eunuch’s body immediately disappeared without a trace to somewhere unknown.

Perhaps Ku He wouldn’t even be surprised if Eunuch Hong’s chest suddenly turned into a metal board or sprouted a second head.

It was this sight that Ku He found unbelievable. Where had the powerfully defensive Tyrannical zhenqi gone? The Great Grandmasters were still people and not gods. Even given his and Sigu Jian’s miraculous cultivation, it was still impossible to completely dissipate in an aura that had already reached the peak of humankind.

Just like a sphere filled with energy, how could it completely discharge in an instant?

Any transfer of power needed time. The shorter the time, the more terrifying the vibration during this process.

Regardless of whether it was Ku He, Sigu Jian, or Ye Liuyun, if they completely discharged the vital energies in their bodies in such a short time like Eunuch Hong, in the next moment, they would be unable to avoid the consequence of dying through bodily dissipation.

How? How could Eunuch Hong achieve this? Why did do this?

Ku He’s pupils constricted. A drop of rain stopped half an inch from his eyes and refracted the faint black light.

Unconsciously, he felt an unfamiliar sense of danger, the sense that death had arrived. In his long and slow journey through life, the last time Imperial Advisor Ku He sank into such a state of mind had been in the fifth year of the Qing calendar when he had reunited with that blind man. The danger he sensed presently was more so than before.

When these thoughts brushed through Ku He’s mind like a sky full of raindrops, his right hand had already shattered Hong Siyang’s breastbone. Like a hot knife through butter, he broke through that thin and old body, extending his hand through his back. The heart that had been shattered into five pieces shot out an arrow of blood in a terrifying way under the quiet curtain of rain.

Hong Siyang was already dead. No one could survive after their heart was shattered. His body bent forward. Unlike Sigu Jian’s god-like and dominating look when he ascended the mountain, he was like a pitiful dwarf hanging off of Ku He’s right hand.

Hong Siyang was not yet dead. Although his heart was shattered and breath was gone, the meridians in his body maintained the state they were in a moment before his death. All of his vital energy was struggling desperately to be released from the ends of his meridians into the surrounding nature. Although there was a deathly stillness like a black hole, he relied on some mysterious order with his body as a bridge for his meridians. Emptily it emanated, absorbed, and dimmed, including the arm in his body.

Imperial Advisor Ku He put all of his power into this touch. The copious zhenqi in his body seeped out of every pore in his body and from every inch of skin. Following Hong Ziyang, it moved against the tide and endlessly drained out with the price of his life as the secret technique.

Ku He’s eyes lit up, it was not understanding but a response. The drop of rain that was less than an inch from his eye continued to hover. He understood now that he had fallen into a trap. Dong Mountain itself was a setup.

Hong Siyang was not a Great Grandmaster. The Tyrannical qi he had emitted earlier on the summit had been borrowed. His realm had also been borrowed. Because it wasn’t his, that was why he was able to dissipate it without regard to his bodily spirit and at a level that mankind shouldn’t have. That was why he had appeared particularly ruthless.

Hong Siyang had long known he would die.

Someone wanted to use his death to absorb some of his zhenqi. However, his final touch, which depended on the mountain and water, had already sent out his vital energy. Gaps had already appeared in the protection around his body.

That person wanted to use this gap.

That person was the one who had raised their cultivation to a remarkable realm and demonstrated it through Hong Siyang.

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Sensing too late the change between the sword-obsessed idiot and Flowing Cloud, Imperial Advisor Ku He’s eyes became a little brighter, like the autumn moon, and appeared without any foreshadowing in the pond of clear water.

His favorite female disciple, Haitang, had the cleanest and most beautiful pair of eyes in the world. If they were compared to Ku He’s eyes right now, it would be like comparing the light of a firefly to the moon.

Ku He had the most sensitive response to the environment around him in the world. He was someone with the gentlest yet strongest personality. One could sense something of this during his journey between temples many years ago.

When he realized Eunuch Hong was a trap, his reaction happened. The situation changed quickly. If he didn’t act, there was no one else.

Perhaps it was only one-hundredths of a moment that he was slightly faster than the person who set this up had expected, but it was the difference between life and death.

Ku He’s eyes were as bright as the moon and as clean as an isolated star. He took a deep breath, which seemed about to suck in all the air on the mountaintop. The old man’s chest suddenly expanded upward. It appeared to grow two inches.

Following this breath, ultimate Tianyi Dao zhenqi in his body began to flow near his right arm. Following the natural breathing between heaven and earth, gently it left the draw of the aura emanating from Hong Siyang’s body. It began to use the quickest speed to return to its own meridians. Such a quick turnaround could only be demonstrated so naturally by Tianyi Dao’s calm techniques.

There was no difference between time and stillness. It was too late to do any movement controlled by muscles. However, the zhenqi that flowed through the body like mercury or light could faintly break through the control of time and complete their task.

The zhenqi flowed back. Eunuch Hong’s weak body dissolved into a blood fog, but it did not dissipate.

No one noticed that a finger had risen naturally on Ku He’s left hand, which hung by his side, and drawn a half circle in the air. It was a hand gesture that had never before appeared in this land. Following this gesture, the sky full of converged rain drops paused once more. The light aura mixed in with the wind and rain atop Dong Mountain. It sunk into gaps between the walls of the ancient temples and poured into his body at a remarkable speed.

The aura summoned by this strange hand gesture was weak but at a critical juncture. A stick of firewood and a drop of water were al precious existences in a battle between Grandmasters.

What exactly was this hand gesture that could absorb zhenqi from the empty air and between the temple’s eaves?

Magic practiced by the wizards far away across the ocean, yet it appeared in Imperial Advisor Ku He’s hands.

Ku He had finally used the biggest trick up his sleeve. He used a trick that was usually of no help. At this moment, it could help him quickly recover his vital energy.

He had not even used this magical weapon when he fought with Wu Zhu. At this moment, he demonstrated it without hesitation.

In the split instant Eunuch Hong died and in the moment before the ball of blood fog had time to dissipate, a hand as white as jade reached out from the fog of blood.

This scene appeared unusually demonic. A jade-like pale and steady hand reached out from the bloody ball of fog. It was like a god hand had reached out from the afterlife and wanted to seek out life-forces in this world.

In the instant he sensed this hand, the light in Ku He’s eyes grew brighter. His first reaction was normal. This hand should belong to Ye Liuyun. But, Ye Liuyun’s hand could be so steady and mysterious.

Ku He was not afraid because the Tianyi Dao zhenqi in his body had already recovered. The faint vital energy from heaven and earth he had summoned through magical means had seeped into his meridians through the 36,000 pores. The zhenqi in his body had been filled to the top. He had already reached the extreme that humankind could tolerate.

If the other person wanted to use Eunuch Hong’s death to create a gap in his power, Ku He’s quick reaction and the magic hand gesture, which no one expected, should have perfectly filled in this gap.

Perhaps it was slightly overly perfect.

That pure white hand suddenly hid the light on its skin. It appeared even more terrifying as it remained absolutely unmoving in such a high-speed realm. With unbelievable steadiness and power, the hand passed with incredible speed through the fog of blood and dropped down.

In the process of passing through, the hand relaxed its four fingers, but its index finger perked up. The gentle but steadfast fingertip pricked through the drop of rain an inch in front of Ku He’s eyes and gently landed between his brows. It seemed like it would leave a bright red mark between his brows.

That drop of water shattered on impact and formed into a hollow right of water, there were beautiful ripples around the edges that were slowly expanding.

No red mark appeared between Ku He’s brows. On the contrary, it had become even brighter. The light in his eyes that Ku He was subduing was being sent to the space between his brows.

Ku He combined the ultimate Tianyi Dao zhenqi that he had exquisitely cultivated over dozens of years and the vital energy summoned through magic to converge between his brows, forcefully carrying the burden of this beautiful finger.

The slightly raised and steady index finger did not crash into the pure zhenqi that converged between his brows. It used a slow a gentle method to pour in. There was no ruthlessness, no killing method, and no natural aura. There were only the proper rules of humankind.

The way of the Emperor!

The tip of the finger lowered again and shot out with a whoosh, directly into Ku He’s chest. Although it was only movement from a finger, it made one faintly feel as if there were dragon and tigers walking. The one finger seemed to carry the respect of tens of thousands of generations of Emperors.

Ku He had already drawn back his right hand and stuck out his thumb with a solemn expression. Remarkably, it went forward to meet the index finger and gave out a muffled splutter. The index finger came down again and pierced right into Ku He’s abdomen.

Ku He lowered his eyes. His hemp clothing swayed slightly. Flattening his fingers into a palm, his right palm trickled down like a narrow stream following the topography of the mountain. It naturally drooped down and blocked the finger in front of his abdomen.

All this happened naturally and inevitably.

Ku He’s body began to tremble violently. A spot of red appeared in the center of his palms like a heated brand, spluttering.

The steady hand only used three fingers. These three fingers were not to kill, destroy, or resist. Rather, it was to show respect, properly and without any intention of ambush. The manner of being an Emperor was contained within these three fingers. The way of the Emperor was demonstrated with nothing remaining.

Lightning once again rang out in the sky.

Ku He’s body was like a kite with a broken string. Decrepitly and weakly, he drifted into the distance, toward the large tree beside the stone path on Dong Mountain. He sat cross-legged and sighed.

Ku He knew he had been wrong from the very beginning. His most fatal mistake had happened before the three fingers. After he sensed Hong Siyang’s trap, his reaction had been too quick and the magic too abundant. He had raised his cultivation to an overly perfect realm.

At that moment, Imperial Advisor Ku He was like a large tree that had reached through the clouds, stretching to mankind’s highest places. He was like a lake of autumn water, a majestic power.

That person had only used three fingers to pour about half of the zhenqi in his body into Ku He’s body.

Having endured the way of the Emperor by pouring Tyrannical qi into him in such a short time, it was as if another giant tree had been placed on top of the large tree that reached through the clouds. It was like the heavens had suddenly toppled over half a lake’s worth of water into the already full lake.

Water overflowed as the banks of the lake failed.

The tree branches also broke with a crack.

When compared to a mortal, a Great Grandmaster’s state of mind and power were close to a god. Ku He was known as the person closest to being a god in this world. Great Grandmasters still had their own weaknesses.

Their weakness was their own fleshy bodies. There was always a limit to the meridians inside the body and how much a body could endure.

Ku He was forced through the limits by the zhenqi poured into him by the three fingers. The meridians inside his body and his physical body had been irreparably damaged.

Sitting cross-legged below the tree and feeling the skin on his body expanding, Imperial Advisor Ku He still had an important question in his heart. How could that person, the master of that, spit out so much zhenqi in such a short time. This was a speed that one’s meridian could not endure.

However, everything should already be over.

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When Hong Siyang dissolved into a fog of blood, the empty sword Sigu Jian held in his left hand had just stabbed forward and struck empty air. Ye Liuyun had no choice but to react to his attack, but he didn’t move.

That ball of Flowing Cloud had already enveloped Sigu Jian’s face.

Sigu Jian trembled with rage and gave a ruthless roar. Lowering his head, his right wrist twisted. The sword pressed toward Ye Liuyun’s abdomen.

The illusory sword in his left hand struck empty air. He immediately lowered his head. A glimmer of weakness finally appeared in the ruthless and integrated sword power. He had no choice but to dodge because he knew that the situation had changed. He had to survive.

Sigu Jian survived, but the flesh and blood on half of his face had been shattered by Ye Liuyun’s Sanzhou slap.

Ye Liuyun also survived. He coldly lowered his head and clenched his left hand, tightly holding onto that sword. He only allowed the sword to enter an inch into his abdomen.

Things had not ended.

Ye Liuyun’s Sanshou attack had not ended. Confidently and easily, it chopped down and landed with a crash on Sigu Jian’s shoulder. The five fingers were like a dragon’s claw as they stretched out viciously from the clouds and sank their tips into flesh and bone.

It was as if Sigu Jian could not feel pain. He pulled back his left hand and, with a slapping sound, struck it on his own wrist.

The sword sank another inch into Ye Liuyun’s abdomen. Then, the tip of the sword glowed with light and was shattered into pieces by the powerful force of the sword, blooming into a beautiful flower.

This was a terrifying sword. Although it had run into many unexpected problems along the way, in the end, it still successfully heavily injured Ye Liuyun through the ruthlessness it had from the beginning.

At this time, that ball of blood fog dissipated.

A bright yellow figure appeared from behind that fog of blood. It was like it contained the countless people’s blood each Emperor had spilled to build their foundation that lasted through generations.

The bright yellow figure appeared in front of Ye Liuyun and Sigu Jian and punched out with a fist.

There weren’t any frills or tricks. It was a simple and clear punch.

There was no one in the world who was able to strike out with such a simple and clear punch, properly and openly, making it so that it was impossible for people to dodge or want to dodge.

First, there was a tearing sound. The body received a powerful zhenqi attack. Sigu Jian’s right arm, which was held in place by Ye Liuyun’s dragon claws, was torn apart.

Immediately following this was a muffled sound like that of the ancient temple’s copper bells. A complicated emotion flashed through Sigu Jian’s eyes. Looking at the bright yellow figure in front, his entire body was sent flying out.

Wearing that expression, Sigu Jian flew out with his broken arm and crashed directly into the wooden door of Qing Temple on Dong Mountain. The powerful force broke countless structures within the temple. Like a large rock, he shattered everything that came into contact with his body. In the end, he crashed into the large bell inside a little ancestral hall deep within the ancient temple, making a buzzing sound.

Right across from the ancient temple, below the large tree by the stone path, Ku He watched this sight with a perplexed expression. Sitting cross-legged, it was as if he was drawn by the sound of the clock. Something in his body suddenly exploded. He abruptly expanded and then immediately shrunk. Blood seeped out of his eyes and ears.

The large tree behind Ku He’s body fell with a boom and shattered into powder. All the stone within a 15-meter radius had been pressed and twisted into three-dimensional shapes by the zhenqi that exploded out of his body. Sinisterly or sorrowfully, they raised their pointy corners to welcome the rain that the heavens finally bestowed.

Most of the structures inside the old temple had turned into useless walls. The myths that had been painted with colorful pain had become powdered things of the past. The moss-covered pond was missing a large piece. The rainwater collected inside and flowed out, mixing into the mud. A few white cranes were scared by the sound and shrunk timidly behind the pond. A yellow cloth landed on the ground, covering Sigu Jian’s body, which lay on the ground at the end of the miserable channel. One could only hear his very weak voice coming from under the yellow cloth as he mournfully cursed at something. His weak voice was soon completely covered by the sound of the bell above him.

The buzzing of the clock rang out through the entire summit of Dong Mountain.

Hurricanes by the seaside came quickly and also left quickly, just like the changes in the world and Emperors’ joy and rage. Earlier, there was still a downpour and wild winds. Now, the wind had reduced and the rain had stopped. Suddenly, an opening appeared between the dark clouds in the sky, revealing the gentle porcelain blue behind the clouds.

A glimmer of sunlight shone through clearly and landed on the figure in bright yellow clothing standing beside the Dong Mountain precipice, lighting up his face clearly.

The Qing Emperor’s face was pale white as he stood where he was. All four of his limbs were trembling. Half of the Tyrannical zhenqi in his body had been poured into Ku He’s body. The last punch had squeezed out his last drop of energy. He was completely exhausted.

Under the faint sunlight, the most powerful monarch in the world had his dragon robe soaked by the rain. His hair was disheveled and lay weakly across his forehead. The calmness in his eyes contained countless inexplicable emotions.

He had never been so pathetic looking in his life. He had never been so powerful in his life.

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