Murong Lian, however, was completely unconcerned. Instead, he laughed almost mockingly.
“If the Monarch truly had that ability, why would he have gone to Daze City to seize a fragment of the Blood Demon Beast’s remnant soul?”
“Besides, Liao has already bred a new Blood Demon Beast. The only things it lacks are a fragment of its soul and a source of power. If the Monarch manages to open the soul box now, he won’t gain anything himself. He’ll only cause Liao’s beast to surge in power and be reborn from the flames.”
After a pause, Murong Lian said, “You wouldn’t be foolish enough to make someone else’s wedding clothes for them, would you?”
“That depends on whose wedding clothes I am making.”
Murong Chen’s eyes were like two pools of water steeped in deadly poison, his expression vicious.
“Murong Lian, you know me. Compared to external enemies, I have always hated traitors within my own family more.”
Murong Lian’s expression shifted slightly.
Yes. Their Monarch had grown up under the shadow of a curse. He had always been wary of the people around him. More often than not, the blood on his fangs belonged to his own siblings and comrades. He had even become so mad as to want to control all the court ministers with black magic curses, making everyone bow their heads and obey his commands.
But before this, Murong Lian had never believed that Murong Chen could disregard the safety of all of Chonghua.
After all, if the skin does not exist, where will the hair grow?
Yet now, looking at Murong Chen’s expression, it seemed that hatred had completely overwhelmed reason. He had the air of someone determined to destroy everything even at the cost of his own life.
Murong Lian could not help feeling a sudden chill in his heart.
His expression, however, remained unchanged. His voice was cold and deep.
“What are you planning to do?”
“That is a question I should be asking you.”
Murong Chen’s voice was filled with hatred.
“You hid your ambitions for all these years precisely for today’s upheaval, so that you could reap the benefits while others fought. ”
He suddenly swept his sleeve and pointed toward the throne.
“To replace me and become Chonghua’s monarch?”
Murong Lian said indifferently, “I really never thought about it. I think your position is particularly foolish, like sitting on a shrine, and I have absolutely no desire to become a clay statue.”
Murong Chen said, “Who would believe that?”
As he spoke, he suddenly raised his hand, clenched it in midair, and shouted fiercely:
“Seal—formation, open!!!”
With his furious shout, a rumbling boom suddenly came from outside the main hall.
The ministers looked over in horror. Through the damaged walls and open windows, they could see the tallest structure within Chonghua’s royal palace—the Golden Terrace.
Intense golden light was exploding from it.
A gigantic sealing formation appeared at its summit, shaped like a five-pointed star. It continuously rotated as spiritual flames surged around it.
In an instant, winds and clouds erupted, sweeping through everything in their path.
The grass and trees surrounding the Golden Terrace were flattened and tossed about by the powerful wind. That lofty platform, symbolizing the boundless glory of Chonghua’s ministers, the place where worthy men were summoned and which could be seen from the entire imperial capital, was engulfed in flying sand and billowing dust.
As the golden light grew increasingly intense, the seal opened.
A box only the size of a palm, yet radiating dazzling brilliance, flew upward from a crack in the mountainside, spinning into the high heavens.
Mengze murmured, “This is…… the soul box that Marshal Gu forged from a fragment of his own soul back then……”
She had barely finished speaking when a muffled groan sounded behind her.
Then came the sound of someone dropping heavily to their knees.
Mengze turned around and saw that Gu Mang had already collapsed onto the ground, blood spilling from his mouth.
Mo Xi immediately caught him.
“What happened to you?”
“I……”
Gu Mang seemed to want to say something, but when he raised his eyes and looked toward the distant soul box in the sky, he suddenly coughed up another mouthful of stagnant blood with a violent retch.
He no longer had the strength to say anything and simply fainted in Mo Xi’s arms.
“Gu Mang!”
Mengze was an apothecary cultivator. She said, “Marshal Gu has been affected by the release of the soul box’s seal. This box contains one of the two souls he is missing. He cannot withstand its soul power all at once. It’s not serious.”
After a pause, her eyes suddenly widened.
“Ah! If we can seize the soul box and refine it back into his body, then at least part of his soul can be restored—”
Before she could finish, the Monarch’s cold voice came.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Murong Lian shouted, “Murong Chen. I have no intention of taking your throne. You had better come to your senses as well and stop doing anything insane!”
Murong Chen snorted coldly through clenched teeth.
“You indeed have no need to take the throne. If I thought that after today I could still sit securely in this monarch’s position, then I would have wasted all these years of my life.”
“……”
“Since ancient times, everyone knows what becomes of a monarch who ends up beneath the steps. I know it perfectly well myself. Rather than watch you step on my shoulders to climb to the summit and reach the pinnacle of power, I would rather destroy all of these things myself.”
Murong Lian shouted angrily, “Murong Chen! Chonghua is our motherland! How dare you, for the sake of your own personal concerns, allow Liao, which is already watching us like a tiger and wolf, to obtain the Blood Demon Beast’s military power?!
“You damn well know what the consequences will be once the Blood Demon Beast descends upon the world again! Just because you fall, you intend to have all of Chonghua—even the entire Nine Provinces—bury you?!”
Unexpectedly, Murong Chen merely gave a thin, cold laugh.
“Why not?”
“!”
Fury surged forward like a tide and an ocean.
Even those present who ordinarily did nothing but occupy their positions and muddle through their days could not help their blood boiling when they heard words so cold-blooded. Voices of condemnation rang out without end.
“Murong Chen! You beast in human form!”
“You dare call other people selfish? The most selfish and cold-blooded madman in this world is probably you!”
“Cruel and ungrateful! You have ruined countless loyal ministers!”
“If you cannot be monarch, you’ll invite wolves into the house and let the entire Nine Provinces be plunged into bloodshed?!”
Murong Chen suddenly burst into laughter.
“Hahahaha—Isn’t that exactly how it is?! The entire Nine Provinces, the entire Chonghua—if I am not the monarch, if I do not become emperor, what does any of it have to do with me?!”
“You—!”
“When I was living in the Eastern Palace and my future was uncertain, when my father intended to depose me and my position was shaken, during all those years before I ascended the throne—even after I became monarch—who ever truly stood by my side?
“Who thought for me? Who planned for me? Who cared about me and worried about what worried me?!
“You people have always regarded me as a rival in the struggle for succession. As the Crown Prince, as the monarch—who among you ever saw me as Murong Chen? Who cared about what I myself thought?!”
“Even my own father—once he heard that I had contracted an illness, he immediately wanted to depose me as Crown Prince. Did he ever think about what would happen to a deposed Crown Prince after his death?!”
Murong Lian suddenly said, “You think he never thought about it?
“He once secretly summoned me to his sickbed and told me that if he made me the heir, I had to treat you well. Because your cold illness was caused precisely by him, and he felt guilty in his heart!”
Murong Chen froze.
His eyes, threaded with blood-red veins, widened viciously.
Then he shouted angrily, “He was only putting on an act! He even told you about my cold illness. What did he regret? What did he feel guilty about?!”
He angrily swept his sleeve.
“I have stood in this world alone. From beginning to end, only this throne has supported me. The Nine Provinces, the world, the people of Chonghua—all of them are connected only to the ‘Monarch,’ and have nothing to do with ‘Murong Chen’!”
“If I am the monarch, naturally I will worry about Chonghua and plan for its future. But today you are forcing your way into the palace. I am about to become a prisoner, so I am only Murong Chen.
“And Murong Chen owes this world nothing!”
He narrowed his eyes viciously. Every word seemed to be ground between his teeth into dust.
“You’re right. I want to make myself feel better. I would rather both sides perish, harm others without benefiting myself, invite wolves into the house, and hand benefits to Liao—
“I will never let you all live freely and comfortably!”
“Murong Chen, you’re completely insane!”
Murong Chen sneered.
“Look carefully. In this lifetime, even if I die, I will only be a monarch. I will never be a prisoner or slave!”
After saying this, he brought both hands together before his chest.
Instantly, his sleeves fluttered and billowed violently.
Murong Chen formed seals with all ten fingers, raised his brows, and shouted:
“Flying Phoenix—unseal!!!”
A phoenix cry seemed to come from the very depths of the earth.
Blazing firelight erupted around Murong Chen’s entire body.
He leaped upward, soaring into the sky through the broken section of the roof. Flames wrapped around him, just like when Gu Mang’s demonic aura had gone berserk and the blood of the demon wolf had been unsealed.
Phoenix light covered Murong Chen’s entire body, and his spiritual current boiled violently.
Mengze was shocked.
“He…… how can there be demonic beast aura inside him too?”
Mo Xi shook his head.
“What he is unleashing is the aura of an immortal beast.”
“What is that?”
“The former Monarch once tried to cultivate an immortal beast. The immortal beast’s spiritual current lost control and, through the former Monarch, eroded into him. That gave him this power.”
After saying this, Mo Xi formed a seal and commanded sternly:
“Tun Tian, stop him!”
The giant whale spirit let out a howl high in the sky and swept its tail fin toward Murong Chen.
But Murong Chen was no easy opponent either.
His heart was filled with hatred, and his only desire was to destroy everything rather than end up humiliated as a slave.
He shouted toward Jingchen’s remnant soul, which was also circling in the night sky:
“Fight!”
Jingchen received the command. Its wings beat violently as it charged toward Tun Tian.
The two enormous creatures battled fiercely in the sky.
Their roars were powerful enough to almost shake the heart and lungs from a person’s body. The stars filling the heavens had already lost their brilliance. The spiritual currents splashed from their battle were more dazzling than daylight, while the spiritual power exploding at their points of collision was like fireworks appearing for a single instant, detonating beneath the vast sky and scattering into countless fragments.
But this time, no one hid anymore.
Whether out of anger, awakening, or because they had no other choice, the cultivators inside the Golden Hall—regardless of how weak their spiritual power was or whether they had spent their ordinary days scheming for personal gain—now unleashed their respective techniques and leaped out of the Golden Hall.
Some assisted Tun Tian in battling Jingchen.
Some shouted angrily as they pursued Murong Chen toward the Golden Terrace.
Others went to mobilize all of Chonghua’s military forces, awakening the city from its slumber.
Lord Changfeng was still trembling with rage. He sent out one voice-transmission order after another, spreading the truth into every corner and alley of Chonghua.
A young master from the Military Affairs Office who had once been arrogant and self-important had lost his father in the battle earlier. Tears still hung on his face as he arranged for the Imperial Guards to transmit the order.
“Mobilize every cultivator under our command who can be mobilized. Protect the state and defend ourselves!”
An elder from Shennong Terrace, who had been the Monarch’s lackey, saw that the situation was unfavorable and tried to sneak away.
But a bayonet was pressed against his waist.
He turned around and found himself facing Zhou He’s cold eyes.
The elder hurriedly said, “Brother Zhou, it’s—it’s me! You know this too. The two of us were both forced by the Monarch. I helped him harm Lord Wangshu, and you—you helped him refine the Blood Demon Beast.”
Zhou He grabbed him by the throat and leaned close to his ear, whispering,
“I never wholeheartedly refined Jingchen. Otherwise, do you think that as the soul of a Blood Demon Beast, it would have only this little power?
“I was never the Monarch’s man.”
“Brother Zhou……”
But there was no use saying anything more.
Zhou He had already thrust the bayonet into him with a sharp “shk,” driving it into his lung.
Blood stained all five fingers.
Zhou He licked his lips. Amid the scent of blood, he narrowed his eyes in satisfaction for a moment, then abruptly pulled the blade free.
The elder of Shennong Terrace struggled and staggered, staring wide-eyed as he collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Zhou He raised the bayonet, the Hunting Falcon, and extended his soft tongue, licking along the tip of the blade……
For a moment, the battle suddenly erupted in full force.
The firelight of the techniques was like lava erupting from a volcano, rapidly spreading from within the royal palace throughout all of Chonghua.
Amid the chaos, Mo Xi found Murong Lian and handed him the unconscious Gu Mang.
“Take good care of him. I’m going to stop Murong Chen.”
Murong Lian still looked at Gu Mang with considerable distaste and clicked his tongue.
“I really don’t want anything to do with whether he lives or dies. As a member of the Murong family, how did he manage to turn himself into such a miserable state?”
But despite saying that, he still took Gu Mang from him.
Mengze glanced at Murong Chen, who was fighting several noble elders in the sky.
After unsealing his power, Murong Chen had become extremely formidable. Even with so many people surrounding him, they could only slightly slow his advance.
She saw Murong Chen’s phoenix phantom strike once, and the cultivators who were too close to him immediately vomited blood and fell from the sky.
Mengze watched with worry.
“I’m afraid we won’t be able to catch him. He’s going to the Golden Terrace to perish together with everything else, using his life to forcibly destroy the soul box……”
Mo Xi also knew that time was running short.
He said nothing more to them, summoned Ranshe, leaped onto the roof ridge, and rapidly pursued Murong Chen.