Zhou Wu completely changed his tone, humbly requesting the clown’s guidance.
He naturally wouldn’t give up on his dreams of transcendence, yet he was fully aware that if he couldn’t enter the Transcendent Mausoleum, his hopes of success were fleeting. Even if he seized a star, his starlight couldn’t compete with that of the Four Great Auxiliary Stars; the gap was too great to cross. If he couldn’t do that, he certainly couldn’t obscure the light of the Emperor Star.
And this clown was far too mysterious. Both his sudden appearance and everything he’d done since made it clear to Zhou Wu that he was no ordinary person. It was possible that this really was a rare opportunity.
He piously lowered his head and waited in silence for the clown’s response.
“Of course, no problem at all.” Artist Tam’s eyes flashed with pride. He puffed up his chest, but given his face, this just made him look silly. “To the Great Artist Tam, that isn’t difficult at all.”
“Then please, Great Artist Tam, help me clear up my doubts,” said Zhou Wu.
“Alright, but first, you must agree to do something for me.”
“Whatever it is, I agree.”
“Then give the Great Artist Tam your soul and become my most loyal believer!”
…..
…..
The First Era’s destruction rendered Ye Zichen memories of the place indistinct.
Zhou Wu wasn’t fated to transcend. Who exactly had said this wasn’t important to Ye Zichen. What mattered was that Zhou Wu couldn’t enter the mausoleum. This was worth celebrating.
“It seems your subordinate is ignoring you.” Yang Jian watched Kui Lin leave, then turned to Gu Li and arched his brow, looking rather inquisitive.
It didn’t matter how Gu Li tried to make himself look good or how friendly he acted. The grudge between their two sides wasn’t so easy to resolve. Even though they wouldn’t break out into violence anymore, Yang Jian was delighted to see Gu Li embarrassed.
The others noticed this too. Before, Demon Emperor Kui Lin and his group were Gu Li’s followers.
But now, the Demon Emperor saw Gu Li and didn’t so much as greet him, while the “dogs” at Kui Lin’s side didn’t even look at Gu Li.
“Is that so hard to understand? We’ve gone our separate ways,” said Gu Li with an unconcerned laugh.
“I hadn’t realized you were so pitiful. You were used until you weren’t worth using anymore, then thrown away. You really spent all that time and energy opposing us for nothing, huh?” Yang Jian snorted and held nothing back.
Gu Li was still nothing but smiles. He disregarded Yang Jian’s taunts completely.
Yang Jian loved nothing more than firing wisecracks, but he liked it even better when his target lost their temper. That was why he always went straight to the heart of the matter, targeting someone’s weak points. Watching his target go mad with fury made him feel downright blissful.
But his methods, which had always infuriated his targets in the past, didn’t work here. Gu Li reacted as if he’d been hit with cotton balls.
Yang Jian felt as if he’d exerted himself to no end. There’s no need to even describe how unpleasant that felt.
“You met your match, huh?” The Great Sage patted him on the shoulder and grinned. They were best buds, but they were always fighting, too. In terms of provoking others, the Great Sage was in no way inferior to Yang Jian. “Are you suffering? Tch, tch, tch, you wanted to provoke the other party, now look at you! What a sight!”
“Scram! Yang Jian glared in obvious irritation.
The Great Sage looked at him, then took several steps back. “Ohhh! You’re just mad ‘cuz you’re embarrassed!”
Scenes like this played out between them on a daily basis. When the great emperors saw this, they couldn’t help but shake his friends.
Ye Zichen, however, looked calmly at Gu Li instead. Gu Li sensed his gaze, then turned and smiled at him.
They’d gone their separate ways.
Gu Li sounded relaxed, but who knew how many stories were hidden within those simple words?
But from the look of things, Gu Li didn’t want to explain the details of what had happened between him and Kui Lin, so Ye Zichen didn’t linger on that topic. Instead, he looked around the secret room and frowned. “This is supposed to be a path to the inner palace, but everyone’s just gathering in here, and aside from the paths leading back to the exterior, I don’t see any other exits.”
“Right?” Pu Jingwan crossed her arms. “We got here earlier than you, and this room is completely sealed. There’s no door to the inner palace. But even we didn’t get here particularly early; there were plenty of people here when he got here. I’m sure they already investigated thoroughly, but look: there are more people in here than ever! But none of them have found a way out of this secret room. There’s just one exit, but it’s a hidden door, and no one’s figured out how to open it yet.”
It was true that this seemed like nothing but an ordinary, albeit hidden, room. It was just a rectangular space with no decorations.
There were currently quite a few experts poking and prodding the walls. It seemed they were on the hunt for some hidden mechanism.
“A secret door?” Ye Zichen’s eyebrows shot up.
“Look over there.” Pu Jingwan gestured to place where lots of people had gathered. Demon Emperor Kui Lin’s group was there too. “There seems to be a hidden door over there, except that no one can figure out how to get it open.”
When Ye Zichen heard that, he watched the group gathered around the door for a while. However, he made no attempt to get closer.
There were so many people gathered around the door. Even Kui Lin’s group was there. And yet, they still couldn’t figure out how to open it. Clearly, the mechanism wasn’t over there.
“Brother Monan.” Ye Zichen suddenly called out to his friend.
Remember, this was the spot closest to the palace interior, and it was entirely possible that that deviant serial killer was among those present.
Just about everyone was on high alert, yet Gou Monan was in a daze.
Clearly, he was startled. A moment later, he came to his senses. “What is it, Brother Ye?”
“You’re not in a good condition,” said Ye Zichen gently. But he didn’t discuss that any further. “How did you find this hidden room?”
“I heard about it from other people. Didn’t I tell you that on our way here?”
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” Ye Zichen smiled apologetically, but said no more. Then, the walked, hands behind his back and seemingly without destination, back and forth.
There really weren’t any places that stood out.
Neither the empty space nor the spotless walls had anything that attracted attention.
Ye Zichen couldn’t help but recall his time in that endless corridor, which was so uniform that he couldn’t find any hints at all.
Yet Ye Zichen was certain that this really was the only way into the palace interior.
“How did you guys leave that corridor?” Ye Zichen suddenly frowned.
“The corridor? Do you think this is similar?” The Ocean Emperor’s expression was suddenly grave. “I just sat and meditated for an hour. Then, I simply walked out.”
“Us too,” said the other great emperors. Yang Jian and the Great Sage nodded too.
Medication!
And here Ye Zichen had thought they’d broken some kind of formation. Thus, he’d assumed this room had some sort of spiritual formation controlling it too.
“Why did you meditate?”
“Because the room had words on it: “quiet.” So…. those were essentially instructions, telling us to calm down,” said Pu Jingwan, as if it were completely obvious.
The others nodded. Ye Zichen’s eyes suddenly lit up, but before he could speak, a young, tender voice filled the room. “Everyone, can you please quiet dow?”
Although childish, her voice had great penetrative power. Everyone inexplicably calmed down. Then, a loli walked into the center of the room, accompanied by a bulky man over two meters tall.
Never mind his cultivation; just his appearance was enough to be intimidating.
“I imagine all of you left that corridor. The way I see it, the God Emperor buried in this mausoleum likes quiet. A secret path is before us, and all of you have searched for quite some time already without finding any hints. Then… isn’t it possible that we all. need to calm down? And that if we wait long enough, the door will open on its own?”
“That loli…”
The great emperors’ expressions darkened. They didn’t know why, but they felt a sense of oppression just looking at her.
“Finally, someone who isn’t stupid.” Shortly after, a proud, sinister voice emerged from the crowd. “I’ve been saying that this whole time, yet even now, you’re chittering about like lunatics!”
The loli’s suggestion had made them frown, but now, an extremely unfamiliar old man had appeared, and his words were rude indeed. Soon, many of the experts present wore unsightly expressions.
“The Red Demon!” Someone else exclaimed.
Then, the Demon Emperor walked up to the elder. “I didn’t expect to run into you here, Senior Red Demon.”
“Hmph. What you’re really trying to say is, you didn’t realize this old man was still alive. Am I right?” The Red Demon’s gaze was sinister, and when he spoke, he emanated a terrifying, murderous aura.
“Senior Red Demon, what are you saying?” The Demon Emperor smiled meekly.
Ye Zichen furrowed his brows. “Who is the Red Demon?”
“He’s someone from the same generation as the former Demon Emperor, and he was one of the six demons serving directly under him. We all thought he’d fallen in battle alongside his master. To think he was still alive!” said Su Qingyan.
“So, he’s quite the exceptional figure,” said Ye Zichen.
“You could say that.” Even Great Emperor Bi’an couldn’t help but exclaim,” When I was little, the Red Demon was already famous. I’ll just say this: he’s likely killed more people than you’ve even seen.”
When they learned of this elder’s title, the experts gathered in the secret room went on their best behavior.
All of them knew that, back in the day, the Red Demon killed without so much as batting an eye.
“Everyone!” At that moment, Kui Lin joined in the conversation. “I think this young lady and Senior Red Demon’s words are credible. Besides, even after all this time searching, we haven’t found any clues. How about we do as they say? If we all sit quietly for a while, it might very well bring us a pleasant surprise. How about it?”
