Tranquil Longevity Palace.
Clang!
Emperor Qian Yuan grabbed the teacup next to him and hurled it at Noble Consort Zhuang.
She dodged, and the cup smashed to pieces on the floor.
"Zhuang Wanrong, do you really want to see the Crown Prince dead?" Emperor Qian Yuan roared.
Noble Consort Zhuang trembled. "Your Majesty, I would never dare."
"The letter you gave Eunuch Li is in the Empress Dowager's hands. And you still try to deny it?" the emperor snapped.
Noble Consort Zhuang's face turned all kinds of shades, going pale one moment and flushed the next.
"Empress, how do you want to deal with Noble Consort Zhuang?" Emperor Qian Yuan asked.
Of course, Yun Liyue wanted her dead.
But she knew that was impossible.
Noble Consort Zhuang had the Zhuang clan backing her.
If Emperor Qian Yuan didn't want to go to war with them, then he couldn't touch her.
"Your Majesty, Your Highness, may I have a few days to think it over?" Yun Liyue didn't rush into a decision.
"Of course," both the Empress Dowager and Emperor Qian Yuan replied gently.
After all, from their point of view, the Splendid Radiance Hall had been deeply wronged.
Later that day, Yang Cheng was sent as usual to Autumn Water Courtyard.
Unknowingly, the afternoon had arrived.
Meanwhile—
Princess Changle had already been escorted more than 800 li from the capital.
Suddenly, black-clad riders charged out from all directions, galloping toward her carriage.
The guards meant to protect her scattered almost instantly without a fight.
An eight-year-old girl like Princess Changle stood no chance against so many killers. To anyone watching, her death was certain.
Pfft!
A long spear pierced through her belly.
She collapsed to the ground.
One of the men stepped forward and, to make sure she was really dead, chopped off her head.
No one believed she could still be alive after that.
"Let's go," one of them said.
The black-clad assassins mounted their horses and left.
Before leaving, they set the whole place on fire, wanting her corpse reduced to ash.
But not long after they left, her remains twitched.
A strange aura started to rise.
Her severed head and body reconnected.
She stood up and stumbled away from the blazing inferno.
At the same time—
Autumn Water Courtyard.
Ding!
[The host's methods are unfathomable. You've teamed up with the former emperor to slay the Divine Maiden Changle.]
[The Divine Maiden Changle has lost nearly half her source power from the Heavenly Secret Divine Stone. Her potential has been massively reduced.]
[Task rating: Glorious. Reward: Observe the Chaos God and Demon Diagram for 100 breaths.]
[Does the host wish to claim the reward?]
"Claim it."
Since the Chaos God and Demon Diagram existed only in the sea of consciousness, it wouldn't appear externally.
So Yang Cheng accepted without hesitation.
Boom!
In an instant, his awareness plunged into a void.
Endless darkness surged, as if he had returned to the chaos before the birth of all worlds.
Then suddenly, a blinding light burst from deep within that chaos.
A scroll, like ancient parchment, slowly unrolled.
In a haze, Yang Cheng saw a towering god-demon with a bull's horns and a human body on that scroll.
Its body was vast beyond reason. Its limbs were like mountains, and its markings flowed like rivers.
In that moment, Yang Cheng's consciousness trembled. His heart pounded wildly. A primal fear surged—he wanted to run.
But he knew this was a rare opportunity. There was no way he'd back down now.
As he continued watching, the full figure of the god-demon emerged.
An invisible ancient pressure surged toward him like a tidal wave.
An icy chill pierced straight into his soul.
But Yang Cheng clenched his teeth and forced his mind to stay steady. He kept staring at the chaotic god-demon's form.
Its eyes slowly opened, and within them were countless worlds, constantly birthing and collapsing.
Yang Cheng felt like his soul was being pulled into those eyes.
He saw the endless cycle of the universe—chaos to order, creation to destruction, round after round of cosmic rebirth.
Before he knew it, 100 breaths had passed.
The god-demon shut its eyes.
The scroll rolled shut once more.
The darkness vanished, and Yang Cheng jolted back to awareness.
"Chengcheng, are you okay?"
Cheng Junyi's worried voice came from beside him.
Yang Cheng opened his eyes and saw Cheng Junyi and Tang Xingyu staring at him, full of concern.
He looked down and realized he was soaked in cold sweat.
In the nearby mirror, his face was pale as paper.
Yang Cheng silently scolded himself for being careless.
He thought the vision was confined to his sea of consciousness and wouldn't cause any issues.
He hadn't expected the visualization to be so overwhelming that even his physical body would react this strongly.
Right now, he felt like he'd just been through a serious illness.
"Teacher, I'm fine," Yang Cheng said quickly.
"How can you be fine? Chengcheng, if you're feeling sick, you must say so," Tang Xingyu insisted.
At that moment, Cheng Junyi seemed to notice something. Her eyes widened. "You had a breakthrough?"
She could sense that although Yang Cheng looked weak, something in his spirit had undergone a transformation.
"During cultivation just now, I seemed to glimpse a mysterious ancient diagram," Yang Cheng said.
Cheng Junyi nodded. "Yesterday, the Dark Bird descended upon Splendid Radiance Hall. Your mother broke through to Martial Emperor. Looks like you also received great benefits—just with a delayed reaction."
That explanation made perfect sense. Yang Cheng followed along smoothly. "Seems like it."
"That's good news. Keep at it and absorb everything you've gained," Cheng Junyi said. "I'll use true qi to help restore your vitality."
"Yes, Teacher."
Yang Cheng closed his eyes again.
Then he discovered—he could look inward now.
That realization made his heart tremble with excitement.
Being able to look inward meant he had developed divine sense.
Normally, only Martial Lords could condense their spiritual power into divine sense.
This was a huge leap forward for him spiritually.
Half an hour later, when Yang Cheng opened his eyes again, he found his energy fully restored.
No doubt that was due to Cheng Junyi's help.
After that, Yang Cheng returned to the palace.
On the way, he couldn't help but think about Yang Xiu and the Zhuang clan.
The Zhuang family was massive in influence.
Even though Noble Consort Zhuang had been caught red-handed, neither his father nor the Empress Dowager could touch her.
His mother clearly understood this too. That's why she hadn't pressed the issue.
For both his mother and himself, the best move now was to use this chance to extract something valuable from the Zhuang clan.
Yang Cheng immediately thought of one particular treasure they had.
"The Sacred Dao Sword."
His eyes lit up.
The Zhuang clan possessed the Sacred Dao Sword—that was a secret.
In his previous life, the Zhuang clan had only handed it over to Yang Xiu shortly before he ascended the throne.
With the Sacred Dao Sword in hand, Yang Xiu had crushed all opposition and secured the throne of the Great Zhou.
But there was more to the secret.
After becoming emperor, Yang Xiu was told by the Divine Maiden Changle that the Sacred Dao Sword was actually the Human Emperor Sword.
Because it had suffered serious damage, it had degraded into its current form.
For the next 300 years, Yang Xiu worked on restoring it.
A century before Yang Cheng's rebirth, Yang Xiu had finally repaired it, restoring its full form as the Human Emperor Sword.
'Now's the perfect chance,' Yang Cheng thought. 'The Zhuang clan doesn't yet know what the Sacred Dao Sword truly is. I have a great shot at getting it from them.'
The Divine Maiden Changle most likely knew the sword's real identity.
But she had kept that knowledge to herself, probably as a trump card for the future. She hadn't shared it with the Zhuang clan.
Which worked out in Yang Cheng's favor.
[The Human Emperor Sword is the personal divine weapon of Heaven's Mandate Emperor Yang Xiu, vastly enhancing his power and destiny.]
[The host must obtain the Human Emperor Sword by any means necessary, no matter the cost.]
[The Heaven's Mandate Emperor is a powerful Yin God cultivator, surrounded by elite experts. Mission difficulty: Epic. Deadline: 7 years.]
[Reward: One drop of Sui Emperor's blood.]
Thump, thump, thump...
Yang Cheng's heart pounded.
Sui Emperor's blood!
This reward was enough to make anyone lose their mind.
The Sui Emperor was the first Human Emperor and progenitor of the human race.
His blood was beyond priceless.
Yang Cheng had already wanted the Sacred Dao Sword. Now with this mission, he was determined to claim it.
Back at Splendid Radiance Hall—
"Mother, I know the Zhuang clan has something good," Yang Cheng said.
"What is it?" Yun Liyue asked with a smile.
"The Sacred Dao Sword."
Her smile vanished instantly. Her face turned serious. "How do you know about that?"
"One time, Sixth Brother bragged about it in front of me," Yang Cheng casually made up a lie.
Yun Liyue didn't suspect a thing.
That explanation made enough sense. She couldn't imagine how else Yang Cheng could've learned such a top-secret matter.
"I understand," Yun Liyue said, her gaze turning firm.
The Sacred Dao Sword!
That was the peerless weapon of the Great Ancestor—a true divine blade.
Without delay, Yun Liyue went straight to Emperor Qian Yuan. "Your Majesty, I've heard the Zhuang clan possesses the Sacred Dao Sword. If Noble Consort Zhuang wants to offer an apology, let her hand it over."