"Therefore," Li Yao said, "you chose to sneak into the royal palace as Wang Xi."
Long Yangjun chuckled and said, "I need tremendous resources to improve my strength, special channels to recruit helpers, and the bizarre intelligence collected over the past tens of thousands of years in order to find the clues about the depths of the Land of Eternal Night. Is there any place other than the royal palace that can meet the three requirements?" "That's right. You're right.
"But your body …" Li Yao said.
"That has nothing to do with you."
Long Yangjun was immediately alarmed. Her voice turned cold again. "All in all, all you need to know is that I snuck into the royal palace successfully and became a common eunuch.
"With the help of the uncanny dreams, I boasted extraordinary analysis and planning abilities. Even the most sophisticated eunuchs were fooled by me.
"I worked as the treasurer of the royal library for decades. Naturally, it was to collect everything about the Land of Eternal Night from the files and incomplete books that were as vast as an ocean. It was during that period that some of the scraps about the Divine Palace aroused my interest. I was gradually certain that the uncanny dreams that had been haunting me must have something to do with the Divine Palace.
"However, the most recent records of these scrolls related to the Immortal Palace are from thousands of years ago. Now, no one knows where the Immortal Palace is. Most people regard it as an illusory existence, an unfathomable illusion."
"I was the only one who knew that the Divine Palace was real.
"For the next few decades, I tried to determine the exact location of the Heavenly Palace. In the end, I discovered the existence of the map core and the Thousand Stars Disk."
"It was a pity that I did not know where the map core was hidden at that time, and the Thousand Stars Tray had been divided into more than ten different parts and kept in the secret vaults of more than ten sects.
"In order to collect all the components of the Thousand Stars Tray and reassemble it, I had to conquer the sects."
"That explains a lot."
Li Yao pondered for a moment and said, "That's why you established the Ghost Character, instigated discord among the Cultivators, and helped the emperor keep the major sects in check. You even annihilated a lot of sects in person with the Ghost Character."
"That's right."
Long Yangjun said, "At that time, I had already joined an underground sect that had been secretly spreading among the eunuchs for a thousand years in the royal palace. I had grasped the Spectral Yin Arts to the highest level and was vaguely the leader of the secret force.
"The emperor wanted to balance the Cultivators, which was exactly what I wanted. Therefore, I mobilized the tremendous resources of the secret force and established Ghost Character. While I charged into the traps for the emperor, I also collected the pieces of the Thousand Stars Tray. Eventually, I found out the information about the core of the map. As it turned out, it was hidden in East Peace County."
"If I were still the dominating Wang Xi in the court, I would've been able to get the core of the map openly after a year and a half of planning. Then, I would've established an exploration team that was absolutely loyal to me and come to the Land of Eternal Night to search for the Divine Palace without alarming anyone.
"The old emperor was completely under my control. The world of Cultivators was in complete silence, too. Nobody dared to challenge me face to face.
"But never in my wildest dreams did I expect that a strange existence like Zhou Zongyou would appear out of nowhere, completely disrupting my plans and almost causing me to die a graveless death."
Zhou Zongyou was' Emperor Phoenix ', the new emperor who had just ascended to the throne last year.
Long Yangjun had called him by his name. It was obvious that she hated his guts.
Li Yao raised his eyebrow and said, "So, you are not on the same side?"
"Hehe. The old emperor had been manipulated by me obediently and became my puppet. Was it necessary for me to create a new one and ask for trouble?" Long Yangjun said coldly.
"Even if I were to establish a new puppet, I would've found a few suitable candidates a long time ago. They would never hinder my plan.
"In retrospect, the old emperor's death was definitely a scheme, and the mastermind behind this scheme was the current Emperor Fenghuang, the Thirteenth Prince Zhu Zongyou, who was hiding in the Thunder Martial Hall at that time and whom no one thought highly of and was even forgotten by most people.
"It's a pity that I was too focused on searching for the map core and the Thousand Stars Tray that I was more or less oblivious to the incident. By the time I realized what was going on, my own forces had been uprooted by Zhu Zongyou in the blink of an eye."
"Wait a moment."
Li Yao found it strange. "By logic, Emperor Phoenix should've had no influence in the Divine Capital. How could he have uprooted the forces that you had been accumulating for decades, including the enormous Ghost Character?"
"It was exactly because it was impossible that I underestimated him," Long Yangjun said bitterly.
"Zhu Zongyou is definitely not a simple man, but the forces behind him are even more dreadful. My elite assassins of Ghost Character were no match for the Fiery Phoenix Battalion that he had just established when they clashed in the darkness. Even to this day, several subordinates who had been loyal to me for decades betrayed me. I still don't understand what happened exactly."
Li Yao sighed and said, "Therefore, you could only choose the worst option and cooperate with Han Baling, Wan Mingzhu, and Qi Changsheng."
"Yes."
Long Yangjun gnashed her teeth and said, "I don't care about being the public enemy of the entire world. The useless Cultivators won't be able to catch me even if they have a hundred years to do so."
"But Zhu Zongyou's secret forces were hunting me in the darkness nonstop, as if they would not stop until they had burnt me into ashes and exploited all my secrets.
"With each passing day, my forces were weakened. After only half a year, most of the subordinates of Ghost Character had been killed. The rest of them were all panicking and living in fear all day long.
"I knew very well that if I didn't launch the expedition to the Divine Palace and make the last gamble, I might not have another chance.
"Having no other choice, I could only tell the secret to Han Baling, Qi Changsheng, and Wan Mingzhu. The four rapscallions formed an expedition team to search for the Divine Palace."
Li Yao rolled his eyes and suddenly said, "I assume that you intentionally exposed your weakness during the siege of East Peace County so that I could track you down and tell part of the truth to attract more forces to join the expedition to Kunlun, right?"
"You are not an idiot."
Long Yangjun was rather surprised. She observed Li Yao carefully again and said, "Yes. I hope that more forces will join the competition for the Divine Palace.
"The reason is simple. Under Emperor Phoenix's continuous strikes, Ghost Character's forces have shrunk significantly. It is no longer as glorious as it appeared to be. It is probably the weakest of the four forces right now.
"Also, I was the one who initiated the operation. From the perspective of Han Baling, Qi Changsheng, and Wan Mingzhu, it is easy to conclude that I must've kept the critical information to myself.
"Then, it is very likely that the three forces will stand on the same side and work together to exploit all my secrets.
"Also, as long as they show the slightest hostility, my feeble disguise will be seen through, and I will be caught in the awkward situation of being attacked passively. That is absolutely unacceptable to me.
"Didn't you say it on the deserted island in the Eastern Sea? You're all alone and have no one to rely on. If you want to fish in troubled waters in such a large-scale exploration operation, you can only draw in more forces and make the waters as chaotic as possible."
"For me, the logic is the same. The more forces that participate in the exploration while they are ignorant, the more they will restrain and attack each other, which will buy precious opportunities for me because I have the critical information.
"After all, everybody has different purposes. Other people's target is the Cloud Qin Gold Statues, but my original purpose is to figure out the ins and outs of everything and find out who I am exactly. Therefore, I will not fight a life-and-death battle in front of the Cloud Qin Gold Statues like they do, at least not at the beginning."
Li Yao nodded slowly.
After hearing that, some of the puzzles in his mind were finally resolved.
"There's one more thing."
With hesitation on her face, Long Yangjun said, "I don't have any proof, but my intuition tells me that Zhu Zongyou seems to know something about the Divine Palace. Even if I didn't reveal the secret, it is very possible that he would've established an exploration team in secret and come to this place. Judging from his thunderous approach to Ghost Character, chances are that the exploration team is too strong for Han Baling and the rest of them to deal with.
"Since I can't stop him, I might as well make a big deal out of it and attract more forces. The messier the situation, the better."
"What?"
Li Yao was slightly dazed. On second thought, it was indeed very likely.
By logic, the news about the Divine Palace was spread out after the battle of East Peace County. But in only one month, Emperor Phoenix had launched an unstoppable attack in the four states and established an exploration team that was well-equipped and had sufficient assets. There was not enough time for that.
The only explanation was that he had been planning everything since before the battle of East Peace County, before the core of the map fell into Wang Xi's hands.
The riddle was too complicated to be solved quickly. Calming himself down, Li Yao gathered his thoughts and said, "Therefore, it was the uncanny dreams in your head that told you how to pass through the labyrinthine pathways inside the warship and how to open the bridge. You were able to do so.
"It was an intuition."
Looking at the crystal pillars that looked like towering trees around, Long Yangjun mumbled, "I didn't know those things before. But the moment I entered the Nuwa warship, I had the feeling that I was home. I seemed to know the distribution and direction of every pathway, and I wouldn't go wrong even if I closed my eyes. I reached this place purely based on my body's instincts.
"It was the same for the three secret stripes. I didn't know how to crack them before. As long as I emptied my mind and relaxed my body, my fingers bounced as naturally as breathing and heartbeat …"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
