Edited by: Juicetin
Proofreader: Arya
Gu Qing Shan’s inner sight scanned the golden scepter.
At the point where the skull used to be connected to the scepter, the metal was cut clean enough that it’s still shiny. Clearly it was carefully cut with a very sharp tool.
——-who would leave behind a pure gold scepter just to steal a dead man’s skull?
The sense of unease Gu Qing Shan had from before was becoming stronger and stronger.
Even without the Emperor as the most formidable fighting power, the palace’s tight defense still wasn’t anything to joke about.
Unless you’re a world-class powerhouse, you aren’t going to be able to sneak into the palace.
Not to mention, you would also have to know the entire layout of the palace defenses, avoid being detected by the powerful Emperor AND know where the Empress kept these items.
Of all the world-class powerhouses, who would spend so much effort specifically just to steal the Fuxi Empire’s first Emperor’s skull?
Gu Qing Shan sighed.
This is no longer a simple conflict between the Emperor and Empress.
He has decided to personally step in.
“Your Highness, the Emperor has gathered his officials and is currently in the conference room, please bring the crown to the Emperor and place it on the large table there” Gu Qing Shan told her.
“Understood, I’ll go now”
The Empress didn’t quite understand why, but replied.
She held the crown in both hands and stepped out.
“Come men, guard me” the Empress ordered.
The two royal guards outside gestured.
18 royal guards suddenly appeared without a sound from around.
A total of 20 guards followed the Empress to where the Emperor is.
The conference room.
The Fuxi Emperor was standing in the middle, talking to his close aides.
The door opened.
The Empress came in with his crown.
“What is this?” the Fuxi Emperor squinted his eyes and asked.
The Empress smiled and replied: “I was afraid you would forget, tomorrow will be your meeting with representatives from the Holy Empire and the Confederate, don’t forget to wear the crown”
The Emperor smiled back and replied: “You know me well”
The Empress placed the crown on the table behind the Emperor and spoke: “I’ll go back to my card game now”
“Go ahead”
The Empress curtsied, gracefully exiting the conference room.
The Emperor looked at her back leaving, a bit unfocused.
“Where were we?” he asked.
“Your Majesty, we were talking about summoning all the officials to the palace villa” an older official replied.
“Ah, that’s right, summon everyone, I have a need for them” the Emperor said.
The crown sat silently behind him on the table, next to a few royal stamps.
Time slowly passed.
The night deepened.
The Emperor finally finished with his matter.
His aides dismissed themselves.
The conference room door closed.
The Emperor just stood there alone, quietly thinking about something.
On the table behind him, Gu Qing Shan’s inner sight lightly passed through.
One of the stamps on the table suddenly disappeared.
Gu Qing Shan appeared where the stamp originally was.
Divine Skill, [Shadow Shift].
[Within the range of your inner sight, you can change places with anything or anyone]
Gu Qing Shan stood on the table.
He extended his hand.
The crown lightly floated up and into his hand.
His other hand grabbed the air, holding the Earth Sword.
Gu Qing Shan held a crown in one hand, a sword in another, silently standing on the table.
He didn’t make any sounds, only silently stood watching the Emperor’s back.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
The Emperor still didn’t react at all.
Gu Qing Shan’s expression changed.
Even if he’s concealing his presence, the Emperor shouldn’t be like this at all.
The Emperor emitted a powerful presence unique to 5th stage Professionists, but hadn’t managed to notice him.
A powerful person should be paying constant attention to their surroundings.
This was the most basic form of caution.
——–yet the current Emperor is acting like someone without any fighting experience at all.
Gu Qing Shan’s thoughts moved, suddenly recalling something that happened before.
Sea Emperor Li Dong Yuan was sent flying by a single sword strike.
As the Supreme General of the Confederate Navy, the Sea Emperor and the Fuxi Emperor didn’t have anything in common.
But one of them couldn’t even tell a feint from a real attack, and the other didn’t even notice that someone had approached them from behind.
Just what is going on?
This had nothing to do with any calamity or the Apocalypse.
No calamity could ever change a person like this.
Gu Qing Shan stared closely at the Emperor, feeling an unseen shadow that he couldn’t get rid of no matter what he tried.
He hadn’t been through anything like this in both lives.
Most of his attention and effort was placed on the cultivation world during the past life, since he entered the game half a year later than everyone else, without desperate and mindless cultivation, he wouldn’t have managed to catch up.
Later on when he became the national guild supreme commander, he was busy with the war situation almost every day, sometimes he met a few top brass political leaders, but had very little contact with them otherwise.
One thing he’s sure of is that humanity’s top brass has never had a problem.
Even the Frost Calamity didn’t affect humanity’s top brass like this.
And the Frost Calamity was already the last Apocalypse to arrive.
Then, during this life, who or what is orchestrating all of this?
Suddenly, Gu Qing Shan’s phone vibrated very lightly.
The Emperor moved.
No matter how careless he was, as a powerful 5th stage Professionist, he would at least be able to feel that much.
But it’s too late.
Gu Qing Shan disappeared from the table, appearing behind the Emperor.
[Ground Shrink]
Gu Qing Shan docked him with the hilt of his sword.
The Earth Sword finely controlled itself to exert the least bit of force necessary.
The Emperor instantly collapsed and fell unconscious.
Gu Qing Shan took out his phone.
“What is it?” he asked.
[Tang Jun! It’s regarding Tang Jun! I feel that his death isn’t just a murder anymore, so I have to tell you] Liao Xing was breathing heavily.
“Speak” Gu Qing Shan said.
[Tang Jun had been providing the President with clones to help him survive assassination attempts, but he was once kidnapped by the Fuxi Empire!]
Gu Qing Shan’s heart jumped.
So that’s what it was!
No wonder the President managed to go through so many assassinations attempts without dying.
It was his clones that died for him!
So this is the method that the President has been using to fight against the 9 Lords’ assailants.
“What are the characteristics of clones?” Gu Qing Shan quickly asked.
[Memories! The hardest part about human cloning have always been memories, the clone’s memories will definitely have a problem!] Liao Xing answered.
Gu Qing Shan didn’t hesitate and placed his hand on the Emperor’s head.
Soul Reading!
After a while, Gu Qing Shan pulled his hand back.
He was stunned in place and didn’t even react when the Empress came in through the door.
The Empress was surprised when she saw the unconscious Emperor.
“That easily?” the Empress asked.
Gu Qing Shan nodded: “Take a careful look at him to see if he’s really the Emperor”
The Empress sat down and seriously began to check.
She muttered: “It looks exactly like him, but I feel that this isn’t really him”
Gu Qing Shan understood.
Just now when he used Soul Reading, he found the Emperor’s memories to be extremely fragile, breaking apart as soon as the spell started to work.
The Soul Reading technique has a dangerous drawback of easily causing the one being read to either lose their minds, or become retarded.
In order words, after having Soul Reading used on him, the Emperor became a literal fool.
Gu Qing Shan wasn’t able to pull any valuable intelligence from him.
The Empress carefully lifted the Emperor as a green light glowed in her hand.
She was a Medici clan woman who awakened the Wood Element.
She placed her hand softly on the Emperor’s forehead.
“Braindead, incurable” the Empress spoke.
They fell silent.
One of the strongest Professionists in the world, the monarch of the Fuxi Empire, died. Just like that.
He was easily knocked down and died in his own conference room.
“There’s a problem with the Emperor’s memories” Gu Qing Shan spoke.
“Now that you mention it, I also recall that he was a bit forgetful during the past 2 days” the Empress mumbled.
“Did you get a doctor to see him?”
The answer was already clear, but Gu Qing Shan asked anyways.
“I did, but the doctor said he was absolutely fine” the Empress answered.
“May be it’s a genetic-level problem?”
“The Fuxi Empire have basically no genetic experts, the only one I know of is your Confederate’s Professor Tang Jun”
“Tang Jun huh…”
Gu Qing Shan sighed, already arrived at his conclusion.
That is to say, the Fuxi Emperor had been using a clone to replace himself.
Then, where did his real self go?
