Not wanting to expose his fairy weapons and his bloodline of Zhuyan, Zhou Bao felt very constrained.
“Damn it, some day, I will definitely take out my fairy weapons in a just and honorable way and give these bastards a shock!” It was one of Zhou Bao’s heartfelt wish but he knew he was not strong enough and it was not the right time.
In addition to Emperor Yang and Ashoka, Emperor Wolf of the Wu Dynasty was another of Yan Yuntian’s strongest rival.
The Wu Dynasty did not belong to the Penglai Region, but to the Fangzhang Region. This dynasty was very similar to the Northern Yuan, both of which were grasslands territories, fierce and aggressive, and had a wolf as their totem. It had been at war with another dynasty in the Fangzhang Region, the Zhao Dynasty, for tens of thousands of years. Finally, Emperor Wolf ascended the throne and conquered the Zhao Dynasty, occupying a quarter of the Fangzhang Region and establishing a new dynasty. In Zhou Bao’s mind, they were like the savage prairie tribes who conquered the central plains dynasty in ancient Chinese history. The funny thing was that Emperor Wolf seemed to yearn for the civilization of the Zhao Dynasty. After conquering the Zhao Dynasty, he changed the rules and regulations of the Wu Dynasty so that it was similar to that of the Zhao Dynasty. But he failed in his mission. Who knew how long this dynasty would last? However, there was no doubt that the new dynasty had great power. In terms of merit, Emperor Wolf was equal to Yan Yuntian who had destroyed the Northern Yuan. In terms of ruling power, he was even more superior because there was no trouble in his domain.
On closer inspection, Zhou Bao found Emperor Wolf to be a homely man, short, about 1.6 meters tall, thin and with a few pockmarks on his face. He had the cultivation of Level Five. Thus, as far as his strength was concerned, it was nothing to worry about. However, after careful observation, Zhou Bao was surprised to find that Emperor Wolf had strayed from the Way of the Emperor.
It was true that he was the odd one among all the stronger candidates. Perhaps he was able to fight against Level Seven or Eight experts with his Level Five strength; he had a kind of Qi Power in his Internal Qi that seemed to be superior to everything. It was as if he were the ruler of heaven and earth. It was just like one had developed one’s fist intent and could use it to his advantage in a fight.
But in Zhou Bao’s opinion, Emperor Wolf was not a man who could do great things.
“Damn, he’s a psycho! If he had been born Human Emperor, he might have been able to achieve something, but now the race is for the candidate for Human Emperor. Hehe, don’t forget Divine Wind Palace. Do you think Divine Wind Palace will allow such a neurotic candidate to ascend the throne?” Zhou Bao thought sarcastically.
Beside Emperor Wolf, there stood a man. This man was shirtless, muscular, and bareheaded. His head gleamed brighter than that of Child-endowing Buddha, but there were no markings on it.
“Wow, he is at the Level of True Immortality as well. He should be King Liuli. It seems that Fangzhang Region also has many masters. The world is so big and is filled with strange people and odd events. I used to stay within Central Mainland Region and have only a very limited view of the world. It’s good to take this opportunity to observe the different types of heroes around the world.” With this thought in mind, Zhou Bao continued to observe other emperors who had come to participate in the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony. These men were Divine Sons whose every word carried weight in their own dynasty, the best emperors of their dynasty for countless years. They were imposing in their every gesture and expression. Among them was an emperor, aged only 20 years old, who caught Zhou Bao’s attention.
The young emperor was handsome with a genial smile on his face, which made people feel at ease with him. What most surprised Zhou Bao was his poise and confidence in the way he carried himself.
Yes, his confidence.
In the present situation, it could be said that no one was as confident as he, even Emperor Yang of the Li dynasty. As if aware of Zhou Bao’s gaze, the young emperor turned his eyes slightly to Zhou Bao and nodded to him. He seemed to know Zhou Bao and was showing his amity.
Zhou Bao smiled and nodded in return.
“This guy is interesting!” he thought. He then turned his eyes to watch the face of Yu Taixu who was sitting nearby.
“Eh? The two guys look quite similar. Is he Yu Taixu’s illegitimate child and secret weapon?” Zhou Bao pondered.
Generally speaking, the candidate for the Human Emperor was of great importance even to Divine Wind Palace. Now that the Hong Family had a candidate to support, the Yu Family should likely have a favorite candidate too. Out of the four most likely candidates for the throne, the Yu Family seemed to have no intention of favoring any of them. It was said that the Yu Family liked Ashoka of the Peacock Dynasty most, but after meeting him, Zhou Bao believed it was impossible because he felt they were not the same kind.
Just when Zhou Bao was pondering on this, someone came out.
It was a thin old man. Zhou Bao suspected that he was an Elder of the Chen’s ancestral temple and might even be the power holder. Like the reports Zhou Bao had heard about in his previous life, the old man introduced all the guests and candidates in a formal manner and explained to all the people the importance of the candidate for the Human Emperor. He asked all the sects and influences to choose carefully. Then he laid out the rules and regulations of the competition in detail. These were the requirements of the competition, so Zhou Bao did not register the information.
Once the Elder finished his speech, the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony began. The first game, of course, was for the competing emperors to speak to the public about their achievements, just like the work reports in Zhou Bao’s previous life. Everyone, including Yan Yuntian and Emperor Yang, were satisfied with what they had done during their reign. They exaggerated quite a number of points, almost claiming that they were the First Sage-Emperor of all times. It was extremely boring. Zhou Bao did not listen at all, but closed his eyes to relax, wholeheartedly preparing for the second contest.
The second contest was the key factor. He must defeat everyone and show that he had the strength to help Yan Yuntian suppress the experts in the Four Eastern Regions. This was to ensure that Yan Yuntian would not fail. As for all the empty talk now, who could not help but brag? Even the young emperor who had been noticed by Zhou Bao was giving a very flowery speech. Could he even achieve all that at his age?
Therefore, Zhou Bao showed his disapproval.
Zhou Bao did not know the order of the report. The people who described their personal accomplishments were afraid that they would appear inferior to others. Hence, their words were like an old woman’s foot-binding cloth, long and winding and full of crap, making listeners drowsy. After eight or ten hours, it was the turn of the seventh emperor.
It was Emperor Yang.
Emperor Yang himself had neither talent nor strength, and he depended entirely on Senior Grand Tutor Hong for his present position. However, due to his long reign as emperor, he had cultivated a sense of dignity and spoke in an impassioned tone. Although restricted by his physical condition, he was breathless with excitement; his speech had both emotion and humor from time to time, which gave Zhou Bao a better impression of him.
Just as he came to the exciting part of his story which caught Zhou Bao’s interest, Zhou Bao suddenly heard a faint rustling sound, like some cloth that was moving. The sound was so faint that it would have been impossible for Zhou Bao to feel it if his spiritual mind had not reached the extreme level. To Zhou Bao’s greatest surprise, there was a familiar spirit in the sound.
“Snake-like Breath Holding Skill!”
It was the spirit of the Snake-like Breath Holding Skill. Its origin was mysterious, and it was one of the Seven Wonderful Techniques. When launching it, the user’s spirit was gone. No matter how powerful your spiritual mind was, it was impossible to find the user. However, this user was far less proficient in using Snake-like Breath Holding Skill than Zhou Bao, nor was he as powerful as Zhou Bao, so Zhou Bao was keenly aware of his spirit.
Zhou Bao smiled when he noticed it.
It seemed that the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony would not be a smooth sailing affair.
As Zhou Bao had expected, almost as soon as he sensed it, a dark beam burst from the hollow, aiming straight at Emperor Yang.
“Ahh—!” As an ordinary man who did not have any martial arts skill, Emperor Yang’s only response to the sudden attack was to scream.
At the crucial moment, a hand appeared in front of Emperor Yang and blocked the dark beam.
“Interesting!” Zhou Bao clearly saw the hand which appeared out of thin air next to Emperor Yang. The space rippled like a wave for a short while, and a person with a deadpan expression appeared in front of Emperor Yang. He was the owner of that hand.
“Isn’t it a rule to bring only one person? How come these two guys came out at the same time?” Zhou Bao frowned, but soon found out that something was very wrong. Not only was the strange man expressionless, but he had no breath at all. It was a corpse.
Soon, Zhou Bao’s attention was diverted from the strange guy because something bigger had happened.
12 dark beams appeared at the same time, shooting at the other 12 emperors.
“Poof, poof, poof—!”
After hearing several muffled sounds, six emperors were hit by the dark beams and died instantly. The other two were blocked by people close to them, but they suffered serious injuries. Only Emperor Yang, Yan Yuntian, Ashoka, Emperor Wolf and that young emperor, who had caught Zhou Bao’s eye, were not injured.
“This is interesting, but you’re courting death when you do this in my presence!”Zhou Bao caught the dart, which was targeted at Yan Yuntian a few seconds earlier, in his fingertips and shot back. Then he heard a muffled groan. The stealthy assailant had been stabbed to death by him.
Zhou Bao had no intention of leaving them alive, nor of tracking them down. It was not his business, but Divine Wind Palace’s.
He was not the only one who had this idea. The rest of the attackers were killed on the spot, leaving no survivors.