Chapter 2044 - The Sage Emperor's Story!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The power of the formation was immense and Wang Chong had only just interacted with it, so he did not yet have full control!
“Though you have the Miniature Nine Provinces Domain, you must remember that you are no match for them at your current level of strength. The moment you leave the capital, no one will be able to protect you. You cannot get careless!” the Sage Emperor said.
He spoke in a flat and unperturbed tone, the tone of someone who had already seen through everything.
Wang Chong saw that even more white hairs had appeared on the Sage Emperor’s head, causing him even more heartache.
Wang Chong clenched his teeth and sternly said, “Your Majesty, be at ease. This subject will use his own life to protect the Great Tang!”
Though he wanted the Sage Emperor to take back his Stellar Energy from the formation, Wang Chong knew that what was done was done. The Sage Emperor had handled everything, and it was no longer his decision to stop it.
All he could do was, just as he had promised to the Sage Emperor in the rear hall of Taihe Palace, use his own life to protect the land in the Sage Emperor’s place.
“Mm!”
The Sage Emperor nodded. In these few moments, his expression had grown even more tired.
“There is nothing to fear from those of Genesis Supreme’s level. What you truly must worry about is the one hiding behind it all, ‘Heaven’. This man is sinister and cunning, and harboring grand aspirations. My failure to break into the Divine Martial realm was the result of this man’s handiwork.”
Wang Chong’s body trembled in shock. This was the first time the Sage Emperor had ever mentioned his attempt at the Divine Martial realm.
In his last life, quite a few people knew that the Sage Emperor had failed to reach the Divine Martial realm, but no one knew how he had failed. Many people believed that it was because the Sage Emperor lacked sufficient energy.
They had no idea that this failure was directly connected to the unfathomable ‘Heaven’!
“For many years, I tried to find his base and locate his real body so that I could destroy it, but there were so many other affairs troubling me that I never succeeded. Once We are gone, this man will act. You must be cautious!”
The Sage Emperor continued to speak.
“‘Heaven’ has innumerable clones, and nobody has ever found his real body. We spent many years trying to find him, but we never succeeded.
“This man is the greatest threat to both Us and the Great Tang!
“If the enemy is in the shadows while you are in the open, then your defeat at Heaven’s hands is certain. Previously, We used our own body as bait to lure him out, and though we only managed to lure one of his clones, We succeeded in obtaining a sliver of energy from his body. Take care of this energy well. If you encounter him in the future, it will be of enormous use to you!”
As the Sage Emperor sternly spoke, Wang Chong saw a clear ball of light, as blue as the sky, drifting out from the Sage Emperor’s bosom.
Wang Chong had never seen such a pure light before. This tiny sliver of light seemed to contain infinity. Wang Chong could even sense some of the world’s foundation energy from it.
Even the energy of the Subtle realm seemed dim in comparison to this pure light.
“This is ‘Heaven”s energy?” Wang Chong muttered.
Wang Chong had heard the name of ‘Heaven’ before, in the Rebellion of the Three Princes, but this was his first time sensing his energy.
The gap was far too great, as vast as the ocean!
“Heaven is extremely ambitious, and he has always controlled the mortal world, even the changing of dynasties and rise and fall of civilizations.”
The Sage Emperor spoke indifferently, but the information he divulged sent shockwaves through Wang Chong’s mind.
The Sage Emperor had only revealed the tip of the iceberg, but this alone was stunning enough.
Buzz!
The Sage Emperor waved his hand, upon which the pure light slowly drifted to Wang Chong’s palm.
Even though Wang Chong now held the light in his hand, he bizarrely could not sense its existence. It was as if the Sage Emperor had sent over a ball of air.
Creating ripples in the air, the pure light flowed into Wang Chong’s body. Even at Wang Chong’s current level of strength, he could not tell where the Sage Emperor had sealed this power, and he still could not sense its existence.
“Remember, Heaven will be your greatest foe in the future. But though ‘Heaven’ is powerful, over his long life, he has been injured, and for various reasons, his true body cannot enter the Central Plains. This is why he cannot threaten you for the moment.
“This will be the case for a long period of time. You only need to concern yourself with his clones!”
Once the Sage Emperor was finished speaking, the connection between the two of them was broken. Wang Chong’s mind returned to his body, and as he returned to the hall, that sensation of looking down upon the capital from above faded away.
Wang Chong opened his eyes and looked up. The Sage Emperor, who had been standing before this, had grown much weaker, and he had seated himself back on the golden throne.
His eyes were half-closed as he leaned motionlessly against the throne, seemingly recovering his strength.
Wang Chong’s eyes flashed with worry as he gazed at this imposing figure. He could sense that the Sage Emperor was getting weaker and weaker.
His actions just now had seemingly taken all of his strength.
Deep sorrow appeared in his eyes. The flame of the Sage Emperor’s life was guttering out, but there was nothing he could do.
Just now, he had tried to use the Psychic Energy arts of the High Priest and even the Nightmare Beast’s power to secretly heal the Sage Emperor, but it had been rejected by a powerful force.
While Wang Chong possessed transcendent Psychic Energy, he could not avert the Sage Emperor’s death.
Too much death energy had accumulated in his body, and given how much there was, it had to have been accumulating for ages.
This death energy would have left any other expert, even a Subtle realm expert, dead long ago. But the Sage Emperor had been able to use his supreme power to last until now.
Although Wang Chong had comprehended many kinds of energy, he had not comprehended the energies of life and death!
This sort of power was beyond his ken!
“Your Majesty, do you require anything else of this lowly subject?”
Rather than acting like a child, he came forward and got down on one knee.
He was keenly aware that the Sage Emperor must have had a reason to summon him besides entrusting the Great Tang to him. As he could not master life and death or prevent the Sage Emperor’s fate, all Wang Chong could do was try his best to fulfill the Sage Emperor’s last wishes.
Upon the dragon throne, that divine existence slowly opened his eyes, which contained a satisfied smile.
The strong did not cry!
Because there was no time to cry!
The youth before him was only twenty years old, but he had already transformed into a true man, one who was worthy of his trust and desires!
This was precisely what he looked forward to!
With him here, he could leave behind a seed for the world, leave something behind for the countless denizens of the Central Plains!
“I leave the Crown Prince to you. Once We are gone, We trust that you will do everything in your power to support him so that he becomes a true wise sovereign! But there is one matter that We find hard to let go…”
The Sage Emperor deeply sighed, a complicated look in his eyes.
“Wang Chong, can you promise Us something?”
Wang Chong lowered his head and immediately said, “Your Majesty, please speak!”
The Sage Emperor said, “Take care of Consort Taizhen in Our place!”
Buzz!
Wang Chong’s body shuddered, and he instinctively wanted to refuse, but when he looked up and saw the Sage Emperor, he was rendered speechless.
Wang Chong’s impression of the Sage Emperor was that of a wise and heroic sovereign brimming with resolve, eternally unshakable. But Wang Chong had never seen this side of the Sage Emperor.
Emotions of nostalgia, reluctance, shame, and remorse were written all over his face…
Although it was only for a brief moment, Wang Chong was flabbergasted.
“This lowly subject obeys the decree!”
His heart trembled as he dropped his head back down.
“Wang Chong, are you interested in hearing Our story?” the Sage Emperor asked, faintly smiling.
“Mm!”
Wang Chong simply grunted and began to attentively listen.
The Sage Emperor did not have much time left. Wang Chong could sense him rapidly weakening, so Wang Chong did not ask why he wanted to tell his story.
Wang Chong only knew that the Sage Emperor had to have his reasons.
At the very least, this story had a very important meaning to the Sage Emperor.
“This universe contains countless dimensions. Each dimension has a different story, and for one man, it took a very, very long time to understand all of this…”
The Sage Emperor’s voice resounded through the hall, carrying a long sigh that seemed to penetrate through time and space into the infinite beyond.
Buzz!
Wang Chong’s heart trembled as he listened to the Sage Emperor’s story.
“That man had no idea about the world. He only knew that in his world, there was no Great Tang or Great Han. There were only countless Hu, and every day he woke up, he saw foreign faces. That was the darkest era for the world, but there was nothing he could do. This was because that Great Tang Empire’s era ended hundreds of years before he even existed!”
The Sage Emperor let another long sigh.
“That place called the Central Plains had begun to decline and decay several hundred years ago… There was no revival, no resplendence, and its territory grew smaller and smaller. By his time, the Central Plains had shrunk down to a small city, and even this ceased to exist by the end!
“His heart was filled with helplessness, wanting to change all this but powerless to do so. He could only watch as the Great Han and the Central Plains vanished into the river of history!
“That was the most terrifying of eras, the darkest of eras!
“Living was a fate worse than death!”
