God Emperor Zhou Wu had usurped the Five Elements Great Emperor’s imperial celestial fate. To experts of the Yao Monarch’s level, this didn’t count as a secret.
Zhou Wu’s success opened a brand new door for the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch. He’d been silent for ten thousand years, waiting for this very moment.
He’d spent that time focused on gathering any and all information about the Emperor Star. When he ascertained Ye Zichen’s status, he deliberately drew closer to him. It didn’t matter that he’d let some hints of his true nature slip; Ye Zichen had still brought him to the palace’s final room, hadn’t he?
This place held transcendent fortune, an ultimate treasure countless cultivators would go mad with greed over. Before entering, the Yao Monarch read countless ancient records of this place, so he knew in advance: to obtain this place’s fortune, you need imperial celestial fate.
That meant that he was only one step away from transcendence: the final step was killing Ye Zichen and seizing his destiny.
Once Ye Zichen was dead, he could take on Ye Zichen’s appearance, and appear before the masses under his identity. In doing so, he’d be able to command Ye Zichen’s allies, long-famous great emperors, freely.
Of course, the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch knew full well that, as the Emperor Star, Ye Zichen was undoubtedly exceptional, and that he might very well have trump cards too powerful for him to counter. If not, Ye Zichen might have died already, at the hands of Yuchi Kong and Huangfu Youming, instead of leisurely making his way down the tunnel.
But even so, he had to make a gamble.
He’d already come this far. Whether it was the temptation of transcendence or the possibility of commanding so many imperial lords, this risk seemed worth taking. Besides, the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch had absolute confidence in his cultivation.
Rumble!
The staircase suddenly let out a mighty rumble. When they looked, they saw that the entrance had sealed itself.
The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch’s smile broadened. And here he’d been worried that the Ocean Emperor and the others would show up and cause trouble. Anyone capable of ruling their own Divine Mountain was naturally a rare expert even among imperial lords, and such experts had countless tricks up their sleeves.
Two against one, the Yao Monarch could likely take them.
But earlier, he’d seen that several such great emperors had followed Ye Zichen into the mausoleum.
Bi’an was of particular note; he was a battle maniac. The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch didn’t want to fight with him most of all.
But when the entrance to the stairs sealed itself, his last concerns went up in a puff of smoke.
Only Ye Zichen was proficient in the Grand Dao of the Five Elements. The others wouldn’t use it at a high enough level to open the passage; even if they found the right room, it was useless.
Ye Zichen was already a cornered beast, while the Yao Monarch was the tamer in charge of the whole spectacle.
“Star Master Ye, they all say the Emperor Star is blessed by fate, it seems to me your luck is rather poor.” The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch’s eyes glinted and narrowed into slits.
“Perhaps.” Ye Zichen showed no sign of emotion. Even when the staircase closed, he didn’t seem at all troubled. From beginning to end, he maintained his aloof, indifferent attitude. When he looked at the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch, his gaze even carried a hint of lamentation.
“What kind of expression is that?” The Yao Monarch suddenly noticed Ye Zichen’s expression. If he weren’t mistaken, Ye Zichen seemed to be pitying him?
Pitying him?
Don’t even joke! If anything, he ought to be pitying Ye Zichen!
The entrance to the stairway had closed, so Ye Zichen’s final support would never make it here. The Ocean Emperor and the others couldn’t possibly make it in here. It was as if the tiger’s pelt Ye Zichen had been wearing to scare people all this time had been removed, leaving behind the not-even-a-little-intimidating lamb below.
He was barely a ruler. If the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch so much as sneezed, it would leave Ye Zichen covered in wounds.
So why was Ye Zichen looking at him with such a pitying gaze?
Just where did he get the confidence?
Could it be because he had Gu Luolin beside him?
Speaking of Gu Luolin, even the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch had to admit that she was a shocking talent, a genius so radiant, others paled by comparison. At just sixteen years of age, she’d already condensed the Dao Heart of Wind and become an imperial king. She was but a step away from becoming an imperial lord.
Add that to the way her seniors doted on her, a set of extraordinary divine artifacts, and she was like a false imperial lord.
Even if she faced a real imperial lord, she could give them a real headache. The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch admitted to himself that even now, she’d be a troublesome opponent. But at the end of the day, treasures were external; the help they provided paled in the face of his true imperial lord-level strength.
She couldn’t possibly be Ye Zichen’s trump card, not if he was to turn this around!
So what else did Ye Zichen have up his sleeves?
The Yao-Sealing Pagoda?
The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch didn’t particularly understand the pagoda. He’d researched everything there was to know about Ye Zichen, but he hadn’t investigated the pagoda.
He’d never factored it into his plans from the start.
From his perspective, how strong could a beast weak enough to let the Five Elements Great Emperor catch it be?
If they were really that strong, how could they possibly have become yao servants?
“Star Master Ye, is that self pity? Are you lamenting your current position?” The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch snorted. “Are you lamenting the loss of your glorious future? You just had to enter this perilous place and throw it all away! Or are you lamenting entering the mausoleum in the first place?”
“You’re right about that last part. I do regret entering the mausoleum,” said Ye Zichen, his eyes still full of lamentation. He fixed his gaze on the monarch’s face. “I regret that after entering the mausoleum, I encountered a cruel, crafty murderer like you. But you said I pitied myself? That, I can’t agree with!”
“Don’t tell me you pity me?” The Thousand-Faced Monarch sneered.
“If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that villains die because they talk too much. In the past, I’ve liked firing off wisecracks, but I never say too much. I’m well aware of one thing, and that’s that the more time you spend talking, the greater the odds something unexpected will happen.”
The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch actually agreed with this conclusion. After giving up all pretenses of cordiality, the more you spoke, the more unpredictable variables would get in your way. That was why he rarely spoke, and why he usually killed so decisively.
He’d said all that to Ye Zichen purely because he didn’t think Ye Zichen posed any threat at all.
Even if something unexpected happened, he had absolute confidence in overcoming it. Furthermore, since Ye Zichen was the Emperor Star, the Yao Monarch was willing to treat him with respect.
“The one I really pity is that skin you’re wearing,” said Ye Zichen, looking at the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch’s current appearance. “If I’m not mistaken, Gou Monan was a good-hearted sort in life. I see no trace of craftiness or deception in his face, yet you had to go and kill him, and now someone like you is wearing his skin.”
“You’re right. In life, he was indeed kind, foolishly so!” When the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch thought back to his encounter with Gou Monan, his simple, sincere smile immediately attracted his attention.
It was then that he’d decided to seize that particular skin for his own use.
The poor little yao didn’t know what hit him! Even in the moments before his death, he had no idea why the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch wanted him dead!
The Yao Monarch couldn’t help but sneer. Of all the skins he’d collected, he was most pleased with Gou Monan’s. “But what of it? Star Master Ye, don’t tell me you want to avenge him?”
Ye Zichen wasn’t moved in the slightest. He grimaced and muttered to himself as if he hadn’t heard the question. “I pity the experts you slaughtered. Practically everyone who entered the mausoleum was an imperial lord. Had they lived, then the era-ending giant beasts invaded the Third Era, they would have been elite forces in our fight to protect our homeland, yet you had to go and kill so many of them.”
“But actually, I pity you even more…”
