Although he had reached Gantian Mountain first, Zong Shou insisted on meeting up with Kong Yao before participating in the welcome ceremony that Renbo prepared.
Compared to Zong Shou’s full entourage, Kong Yao’s was really simple. She only brought Celestial Realm helpers to protect her own safety.
Seeing Zong Shou waiting for her here, although she didn’t say anything, her eyes were filled with sweetness.
“After we return, I am prepared to cultivate for a period of time in that Universe Light Hall…”
Maybe because she had spent too much energy in the battle of the five states, her eyes were filled with exhaustion.
“Not only me, but Zong Yuan and Ren Tianxing are prepared to cultivate for a period of time. Although we can still handle it, I feel that I am lagging behind.”
Zong Shou was unsurprised. Long before the battle in the south, Kong Yao had revealed this to him.
The three of them were unparalleled Commanders but due to their work, they weren’t satisfied with their progress in the martial path and spiritual cultivation.
The three of them had enough of training in their heart and just lacked the accumulation of cultivation. The most effective method would be to make use of the Universe Light Hall that he brought from the First Dragon Hall.
However, this time period was just nice when the Night Demon Race might have a full-scale invasion.
Zong Shou looked at the few space treasures in his sleeves.
Was he going to bleed this time again?
He took down 20 Demon Path Sects in a row. Apart from the last few who knew to escape early, he collected many Mind Stones in the first few days. They were all the secret collections of those few sects and Mind Stone production had reached a high level after the spiritual wave explosion.
Among them were two of the 19 Spiritual Houses…
His income was dozens of times higher than when he wiped out more than 30 Taoist Factions and left the Cloud World. It could support the Book of Eon for some time.
The Universe Light Hall wasn’t complete, but adding in his Eon Book, it would cause the time acceleration to be much more effective.
Actually, even he required decades to digest the Demon Path techniques and to add to his number of stars and swords.
As for the Book of Eon, there was no need to keep it a secret anymore. Even if people found out, no one would dare to snatch it from him.
Since he returned to the Cloud World, he hadn’t truly used it once.
Actually, it wasn’t that he wasn’t willing but because he couldn’t. Without the support of enough spiritual energy, he would be willing to use the Mind Stones to accelerate time to increase his own strength.
In the past, he used as much as he had and only left a portion of spiritual energy to save his life at a crucial moment.
He sensed that Kong Yao was already extremely tired, so he pitied her and let her off, letting her rest.
Kong Yao herself was the one who provoked her. The two of them tangled with one another for half a night before Kong Yao fell into a deep sleep on his tail.
He hugged her body and caressed her silk-like hair and felt heart pained. Only then did he notice that this Army God, who had never lost, had so much pressure amassed in her chest.
Just now, she wanted to have fun both to vent and also to be consoled and loved by him.
“This time, I really placed Yao’er in a spot…”
Using two million troops to suppress the five states wasn’t an easy matter.
It wasn’t something that could be easily occupied once the Shang Army had backed off.
The local interests were really complicated and intersected. Due to his five decrees, those aristocratic families all fought against it.
Kong Yao needed to defend against Great Shang and also the local rebels. During that period of time, Zong Shou was attacking the Demon Faction and couldn’t help her. The situation was really risky and if she wasn’t careful the entire situation would turn on its head.
Luckily, at this moment, Great Gan’s recruitment earlier was slowly forming strength and could be utilized, such that the troops at the five states weren’t so limited anymore.
This was also why Kong Yao was willing to put down everything and focus on the Universe Light Hall cultivation.
The situation was already set and Great Gan had built a huge pass in front of Hundred Victory Pass and stationed a million troops there.
Shi Ruolan also commanded the navy to charge at the mouth of the Yangtze River and a portion of the cloud ships entered the river system.
As a result, the Great Shang army didn’t monopolize everything anymore and both sides were now at a standstill. No one could think about breaking through in a short time.
Now, both sides were competing against one another for the foundations of both countries.
Even if Kong Yao and the others weren’t there, it didn’t matter.
On the second morning, Zong Shou and Kong Yao slowly entered the city under the protection of 30,000 cavalry.
49 Dragon Horses pulling the giant carriage was too much and naturally unsuitable.
He could only switch another carriage before entering Gantian Mountain City.
12 bells sounded 100 miles around the city. The sides of the streets were filled with Gantian Mountain people and they all looked on solemnly.
Zong Shou was slightly shocked. He thought that when he entered, he would be welcomed with cheers.
However, the city was extremely solemn.
Until a portion of people started to kneel by themselves.
“Long live the Saint King!”
Tens of millions of voices gathered, like they were in unison as it rang about the clouds. Then, it became a little chaotic.
“The Heavens bless Great Gan which is why we have a Saint Ruler!”
“Great Gan has prosperous people, the ancient three emperor rule had appeared all because of the Saint King!”
“Bless our King for winning all wars!”
Zong Shou sat in the carriage and his lips twitched.
In comparison to the first time that he entered the city, the words people said felt closer the last time.
Now they were more respectful, but instead, their words made him feel a little weird…
Kong Yao was happy when she heard this and she had a joyous expression.
In the past, her goal was to support a wise ruler and command huge troops to sweep the battlefield to leave her name in history, so that her father’s divination would come true.
Although she had joined Great Gan and for some reason had became Zong Shou’s concubine, her wish had never changed.
Now, her husband was recognized by all the people, which made her feel much happier than others praising her.
However, she noticed the weird look that Zong Shou had and looked over curiously, “Husband, you are respected by all because of your morals and ruling ability. Why does Ruler not look happy?”
Zong Shou shook his head and he didn’t know how to explain.
“Too much respect is not a good thing. If there is only one voice among tens of millions it will cause problems.”
He didn’t dare to say that at that moment when everyone cheered, he had a drunk feeling.
He also knew that his prestige in Gantian Mountain had reached its peak now.
No matter what he wanted to do, people would listen to him and no one would go against him.
Luckily, he wasn’t someone who craved power. However, due to special reasons, he took over to be the Ruler. What he searched for was still the peak of the sword.
This was why after a moment he came to his senses.
However, he also felt that he and the entire Great Gan was in a really dangerous state.
Each word and action could influence the direction of Great Gan. The problem was he himself wasn’t sure which things were good for Great Gan and which policies would harm it.
He sighed and had made his mind up. From now on, he couldn’t say anything about governance, otherwise, he might cause huge problems.
Maybe he should listen to what Zhang Huai said and move the capital. The people in Gantian Mountain City really respected him too much.
If it was in the Central Cloud Continent, the unstable five states would make him more awake.
“Only one voice?”
Kong Yao muttered and then she said doubtfully, “I don’t get it! What is bad about that? Like the Great Shang Emperor, isn’t he restricted by all the aristocrats? He could only use a tenth of the power of his country and actually couldn’t beat Great Gan which only had seven barbaric states with little population…”
Her husband really was weird.
Zong Shou burst out laughing. As expected, even if he said it, Kong Yao wouldn’t understand the pros and cons.
He didn’t continue to explain and just kept silent.
This ceremony was much bigger than the last time. The carriage made one large round before heading back to the mountain.
At this moment, a huge number of people gathered in the square. From a rough estimate, there were hundreds of thousands of them.
The people with the rights to stand there were either officials or really rich people.
Based on rites, Zong Shou was led to a high platform.
He just needed to receive their respect and hand out the war rewards before all this was over.
The moment Zong Shou sat still on the throne, he saw Renbo and the officials bow toward him.
Even the Department of Rites secretary in charge of the whole ceremony did the same.
“Great Gan has spread far and wide, please Your Majesty, please change the system to call you an Emperor!”
Zong Shou was stunned and looked down at the black suppressive bunch.
This didn’t fit the ritual, there wasn’t this part of what was planned.
He came to his senses, it was probably planned out and it was a sudden strike on him?
Hundreds of thousands of people knelt on the ground and he had no chance to reject at all.
He wanted to scold them but the words were at the corner of his mouth before he swallowed it down. At this time, he knew that it was useless if he said all this and would only make them feel awkward.
He looked around at Xuanyuan Yiren and she was also shocked.
He laughed bitterly, his wife was devoted to refining pills, so why would she bother about all of this?
“I approve! Like what you all said, we will change the reign title to Shenwu…”
