Yu Taixu was the lord of the Divine Wind Palace, the most distinguished person in the Four Eastern Regions, and an uncrowned king.
Even though the candidate for the Human Emperor had already appeared, he had little scruples about everything and simply did what he had to do as usual. The candidate for the Human Emperor was a little bit distinguished, though, in the end, he was merely a high-level puppet of the five biggest sects. The only difference was whether the Divine Wind Palace had more or less control over him.
Due to the miscalculation of the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony, the Divine Wind Palace had already lost the opportunity to completely control the candidate for the Human Emperor. However, even if the candidate for the Human Emperor wasn’t from the Divine Wind Palace, he would be bound by the five biggest sects. In particular, the Human Emperor Palace was in the Divine Wind Palace and, most of the subordinates of the candidate for the Human Emperor were from the Divine Wind Palace. Although they would obey him in ordinary times, at the most critical moment, they would take sides with the Divine Wind Palace. The Divine Wind Palace could make the candidate for the Human Emperor a mere figurehead at any time and let him become a commander of no power.
Thus, even if he himself was not the candidate for the Human Emperor, Yu Taixu had nothing to worry about.
He was still the lord of the Divine Wind Palace who could control everything.
His position was the most distinguished and terrifying one as well.
“Oh, it turns out to be the son of the lord. Haha, he’s far worse than Yu Nantian!”
“Nantian often talks to me about you. He said you’ve done him a lot of favors in the Sea Area. He’s a lot more mature after he came back from there!” When Yu Nantian was mentioned in their conversation, Yu Taixu, who was always serious, wore a smile on his face. “I heard that you have helped him a lot when he was in the Sea Area!”
“Everyone was in a precarious state in the Sea Area. We were just supporting each other, and it was far from doing anyone else a favor.”
Zhou Bao and Yu Taixu were totally unrelated to each other before. Furthermore, there was a huge gap between their positions. If it was 10 days ago, Yu Taixu would not even bother looking at Zhou Bao seriously. But now, he spoke to Zhou Bao frankly with assurance in the Human Emperor Palace, as if they were old friends. The reason was that Zhou Bao had defeated his old rival, the Family Head of the Hong Family, Hong Taihe, in one fell swoop.
No one had ever thought that Hong Taihe was actually an Eight-tribulation True Immortal and the Level Nine Senior Grand Tutor Hong, who was usually shown in front of the public, was merely a puppet.
Any practitioner who had reached the Mysterious Realm would violate the Law of Heaven if he interfered in the worldly affairs. Let alone an Eight-tribulation True Immortal who was at the Lord of Heaven Realm?
However, with hindsight, everyone thought it was just normal. If everything went well, there was no need for Senior Grand Tutor Hong to worry about the punishment of violating the Law of Heaven.
The Golden Book of Fate had always been controlled by the five biggest sects, among which the Divine Wind Palace was the most powerful one. As the second largest family of the Divine Wind Palace, the Hong Family had certain control over the Golden Book of Fate as well. Therefore, it was not difficult for it to use this control authority to conceal Hong Taihe’s true cultivation level.
On the other hand, the candidate for the Human Emperor controlled the general trend of the world and was on behalf of justice. Thus, he had the right to rule the Law of Heaven. Nominally, though, as long as he insisted on forgiving a man who had broken the Law of Heaven, it would be quite easy.
An Eight-tribulation True Immortal had already practiced the Self-world to perfection. With such a strength, Hong Taihe was absolutely able to get Emperor Yang the Human Emperor’s position. If everything went well, Emperor Yang would ascend the throne. At that time, Hong Taihe’s puppet would definitely pardon Hong Taihe for interfering in the worldly affairs earlier, in the name of the candidate for the Human Emperor. It would be done quite easily. After all, Hong Taihe had a sense of propriety and hadn’t gone too far even though he had intervened in the worldly affairs. The Li dynasty was originally a dynasty with great fate. Strengthening its position with the help of the imperial power may have exerted a lot of influence on the secular world, but it failed to affect the interest of the five biggest sects. Therefore, the other four sects would not put Hong Taihe in a pickle and they would surely turn a blind eye to this matter.
Of course, the so-called “everything went well” meant that everything would occur in accordance with Hong Taihe’s plan.
However, no one had ever expected that there would be accidents at the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony.
In the end, among the two accidents, one was evidently caused by Yu Taixu and the other was a real accident. Even if such accidents occurred, Hong Taihe’s plan had not been affected. His combat capability had suffered no damage and these two accidents had unexpectedly helped him to get rid of more of his competitors. Instead, the situation became more favorable to him. At that moment, he thought he was the strongest person among all the competitors, and that was why he required the Human Emperor-selecting Ceremony to be continued. However, to his surprise, he had suffered a setback due to carelessness and was defeated by Zhou Bao.
Zhou Bao had defeated Hong Taihe head-on. He displayed both his terrifying attack force and inscrutable hollow travel body movement.
What surprised these experts in high positions was that they could only think of Zhou Bao employing such a weird hollow-travel power to assassinate Hong Taihe rather than fighting him head-on with his own horrifying attack force. Who was able to ward off Zhou Bao’s attacks if he acted according to these experts’ thoughts?
Perhaps even a Lord of Heaven could not do that, unless he executed the World-solidifying Skill, just like Hong Taihe.
The World-solidifying Skill!
Although it could save one’s life, it would ruin the majority of one’s cultivation. Hence, no one was willing to use it except at their last gasp.
It was for this reason that Yu Taixu would be so polite to Zhou Bao. The assassination executed by Zhou Bao’s was also a big headache for Yu Taixu. Not to mention that the five biggest sects had previously reached an agreement to kill Zhou Bao, the shit stirrer, in the Infinite Star Sea secretly.
All the people present were cunning old foxes. After they had witnessed that Zhou Bao had shown such a horrifying strength and talked to Yu Taixu happily, the four suzerains winked at each other in secret and tacitly removed Zhou Bao’s name from the list on which were people who would go explore the Infinite Star Sea this time.
It didn’t take too much time to repair the Human Emperor Palace. Everyone present possessed many Divine Senses and even the maids and servants who waited upon them were experts at Level Seven, at least. Therefore, within a few seconds, the Human Emperor Palace, which had appeared somewhat disorderly, was cleaned up, and the big hole in its roof was fixed up in the shortest time. Zhou Bao returned to his seat which was a little bit behind those of the suzerains of the five biggest sects and was in the same row with that of Elder Qing. In fact, he was sitting next to White Tiger.
“King Wuyang, you’ve shown us your invincible power this time and have greatly widened our horizons!” As soon as Zhou Bao seated himself, White Tiger took up a glass of wine and asked, “I wonder whether you are interested in joining the Immortal Palace or not?”
There was another interval of silence in the Human Emperor Palace.
Except for the members of the Immortal Palace, all the people present glared at White Tiger. How could he do so? He was so bold to think nothing of the other sects by drawing Zhou Bao to his side blatantly. Zhou Bao’s combat capability was universally recognized. If he joined the Immortal Palace, the Immortal Palace’s strength would certainly surpass the other sects even though it was no match for the Divine Wind Palace. This was far from a good thing for others.
“The Immortal Palace!” Zhou Bao put on an appearance of hesitation by touching his nose. “Haha, I really admire the Immortal Palace. I’m especially interested in the way it employs in handling matters. But among the 28 constellations, which constellation will I be once I join in it?”
“Haha, in the Immortal Palace, there are also Four Signs except for the 28 constellations. Both Elder Qing and I belong to the Four Signs. You are much stronger than us now. I guess you should be at least one of the Four Signs!”
“One of the Four Signs? What, are you going to give me your position?” Zhou Bao said jokingly.
“Haha, there are many vacant positions among the 28 constellations and Four Signs over the years. Thus, there is no need for me to give you my position. You can choose to be the Scarlet Rosefinch of the South or the Spirit Tortoise of the North at will!”
“Forget it. The 28 constellations don’t need to run the affairs of the Immortal Palace, but the Four Signs do. Do I look like a person who can handle these affairs?” Zhou Bao shook his head and continued, “I cannot even handle my own business well, so naturally, I’m unable to handle the affairs of the Immortal Palace. How about you find me a position from the 28 constellations?”
“The 28 constellations?” White Tiger thought for a while and added, “Fine. There is a vacant position in the 28 constellations—Water Leopard of Winnowing Basket. Your name happens to be Zhou Bao(Bao is a Pinyin which means leopard.) How about this position? Meanwhile, you shall temporarily replace the position of the Spirit Tortoise of the North. Your status will be equal to that of the Four Signs and ranks only second to our Star Master in the Immortal Palace. What do you think?”
“That’s nice. I like this proposal!” Zhou Bao nodded his head in agreement and smiled. He drank all the wine in the glass in one go and added, “Well, we’ll be members of the same sect then!”
“Yeah, we’ll be members of the same sect then!” White Tiger let out roars of laughter, while the other people present all froze there and did not know what they should say.
It had never occurred to them that such a show would be put on in the Human Emperor Palace after the coronation. This show, at any rate, seemed to be scheduled by these two men. They echoed each other as if they were acting in an opera. No one had ever thought of such a result.
A bright light flashed through Yu Taixu’s eyes, as if he had suddenly realized something. He laughed for a good while, took his wine glass, and held it up in front of the Star Master of the Immortal Palace next to him. He said, “Haha, good. Really good. Star Master Mo, you really are a scheming man. I’m far from being your match!”
Star Master Mo smiled and held his wine glass up, saying, “Lord of the Divine Wind Palace, you’re too modest. The Four Signs and the 28 constellations have already made me a mere figurehead. Although nominally, I’m still the master of the Immortal Palace, I cannot control them at all. You see, in a few words, they’ve settled the position of the 28 constellations and Four Signs at one go. Furthermore, that guy shall hold a concurrent position. But they don’t even bother to ask me for advice. I really ashamed of this!”
“What a cunning bastard he is!”
Upon hearing Star Master Mo’s words, everyone present began to curse him secretly. It was only by then that all of them began to realize that Zhou Bao was actually a hidden secret weapon of the Immortal Palace!
Having thought about it carefully, however, this result was quite reasonable. If it wasn’t for having powerful influences, just like the Immortal Palace, to back him up, how would Zhou Bao be so arrogant? How could he rise in such a short time and how could his strength be so terrifying?
The reason why Zhou Bao would have such a horrifying strength had always been the biggest question in people’s minds. Was it really because he was so lucky? Now they finally understood that it was because he had the Immortal Palace to back him up. Perhaps, only with powerful influences such as the Immortal Palace sparing no effort in supporting and cultivating Zhou Bao would he be a young man who had such a mighty power in such a short time.