Imperial God Emperor

Ye Qingyu was really living it up in the relay station.

The things that he had bought during the Wanyi Bazaar Festival were comestible products, and he bought an exceptionally large amount of local produce from various states in the Dark Realm, as he could not find such food in the Vast Thousand Domains. Even though Ye Qingyu could go for a few centuries without food or drink at his current level of power, he had to eat and drink like an ordinary person to truly get a feel of civilian life. Only then would he really comprehend the taste of normal living.

He hired a chef from a renowned restaurant and set up a small mess hall within the relay station. He ate from afternoon till night.

"Is Wen Wan continuously eating noodles because he also wants to get a feel of normal civilian life and discover the wonders of it?" Ye Qingyu thought instinctively as he drank a glass of pecan wine from Shuizhou, his body feeling warm from the alcohol.

Very soon, beautiful night lights were lit up.

Central City was quiet again after a day of bustling crowds.

Once it was midnight, the streets would be on lockdown as per martial law.

As such, the restaurant chef had already left a long time ago.

Ye Qingyu had eaten and drank his fill. He was feeling pleased as he laid down on the bed in his room and snored away. It was part of his plan to experience the life of a civilian.

From the first day a martial artist stepped on the path to martial arts, he or she was going against the heavens. The more powerful they became, the more out of sync with the life of ordinary folk they became. This was especially so once they reached the Saint realm and beyond, where they would nearly become reborn as completely new people and obtain the physical attributes of primordial beings. It meant that they had been completely removed from their original selves and entered an extraordinary state.

After entering the Quasi-emperor realm, Ye Qingyu could increasingly feel that it would be hard to increase his powers just by using qi and training. The overwhelming power of a Martial Emperor came from the path he or she chose. Training in isolation would be utterly inadequate. He felt that he should go against the grain and stop trying to be extraordinary. Instead, he had to become worldly again.

This was because all living beings who came from the Divine had to involve themselves in worldly affairs.

The ancient Emperors had understood the usage of Great Dao techniques from the land during primeval times. The power of lightning, wind, heavenly fire, flowing clouds, sea, sand and formations all belonged to them and were Heavenly Dao techniques.

Ye Qingyu felt that his own Dao could be found within the mortal world.

Not a Heavenly Dao.

A Human Dao.

He increasingly felt that the power of the People was no weaker than that of the Heavens, especially after improving his mastery of the War God Sword Mantras to the Life Sword level. The true essence of a Great Dao was perhaps within the masses.

Since arriving at the Royal City of the Guardians, Ye Qingyu had given up the routine lifestyle of a Quasi-emperor and re-immersed himself in the life of a civilian. His choice to go undercover was undoubtedly a great opportunity.

It was deadly quiet in the middle of the night.

Ye Qingyu was sleeping soundly.

He even had a dream. His parents and even Yu Junhan appeared in it. He saw the legendary War God, who was notoriously difficult to catch sight of. Then, something strange happened. The image of his parents, Yu Junhan and the War God gradually began to overlap, and merged into two figures. The faces of these two people were unfamiliar to him, and he had never seen them before...

He suddenly sat up on his bed with a shout of surprise.

Then, he caught scent of something bloody.

A ray of flowing light had pierced the space between his eyebrows like a bolt of lightning.

His entire body was knocked backward and crashed through the walls of the relay station, before landing sideways on the deserted street outside.

He landed securely on his feet, however.

A trail of blood drops seeped out of the wound between his eyebrows.

He was wounded.

At the same time, dozens of figures shot out of the relay station like maggots with bones and landed on the street as well. They surrounded Ye Qingyu and each of them was producing an extremely powerful energy wave.

One of them was extremely skinny and taller than two meters. He looked like an acalypha plant, and his clothes looked like a tube that covered his body. His entire face was as elongated as the base of a shoe, and his facial features looked vague. His eyes were as thin as a line, and his nose was flat. His yellowed face had no hair, and he looked like a sack of bones. His body shape was weird; he was extremely hideous and grotesque.

This man was the most powerful among the dozen figures surrounding Ye Qingyu.

In his hand, he carried a silver dagger that shone with a strange gleam. It was him who had launched the sneak attack that pierced Ye Qingyu in the space between his eyebrows.

His slanted, long and hideous face carried an expression of surprise. He seemed to feel shocked. He had been confident in killing his target in one blow, but he had only wounded his sleeping victim superficially.

At the same time, figures clad in demonic iron armor of the residence of the King of Zhenyuan appeared in every corner and alley at the far end of the street. They looked like demonic figures that flitted in and out of the shadows, having melded into the darkness. They looked vague but covered a large area; in fact, they had most of the district around the street under control. It seemed as though they were a group of demons in black who were out to devour living souls.

Indeed, they were people from the residence of the King of Zhenyuan.

Everyone thought that the King of Zhenyuan's estate would have given up the idea of taking revenge on account of the statement released by Nie Tiankong's previous incarnation. It now seemed that most of them were too naive.

Ye Qingyu pressed the space between his eyebrows.

The drop of blood that was going to seep out had vanished.

He frowned and looked back at the relay station.

There were no signs of life coming from the station now. Evidently, the ten armoured guards and the dozens of staff working at the relay station had been slayed. Ye Qingyu rubbed the space between his eyebrows. He thought about the incident earlier on and the strange dream he had. He did not expect to be caught completely unaware by these assassins.

"Haha, stop looking, all of them are dead," the strange looking man with a sloping, elongated face laughed chillingly as he spoke, his expression filled with ridicule. "You're the only survivor. It's not because you're lucky, but rather, the Mistress has better plans for you—she wants you to die the most painful and hopeless death among everyone here tonight."

Ye Qingyu sighed.

"You're from the estate of the King of Zhenyuan?" he asked.

The man with the sloping face laughed haughtily and replied in a chilling tone. "Of course. Other than us, who else could have the capability to perform an assassination in the middle of the night and stop the guards from the various sentry camps from appearing, out of fear? No one will be here to protect you tonight. It'll be too late when Nie Tiankong receives news. Lose all hope."

"Your target is me. Why did you kill the other innocent people in the relay station?" Ye Qingyu asked.

"Haha, they can only lament their unfortunate timing. Who told them to be at the station during this time... and they even served you. Anyone who can recognize you has to die," the grotesque being said. He gripped the strange silver dagger and walked toward Ye Qingyu.

A murderous aura enveloped the vicinity and swept toward Ye Qingyu.

Ye Qingyu did not look at him, but swept his gaze around through the surrounding area, and toward the far end of the street instead.

Hundreds of elite armoured guards in Demon Dragon Armour were surrounding a black carriage which stood silently at the far end of the street. The pressure emanating from the carriage was far more terrifying than that of the grotesque man.

The triangular-faced vile slave, Wei Heng, sat quietly on the shaft of the carriage.

His vengeful eyes glinted with a chilling glint in the night and looked like a venomous snake. He stared at Ye Qingyu and waited for his opportunity.

"The person in that carriage is the 'Mistress' that you talked about, right?" Ye Qingyu asked the grotesque man.

"You're not fit to know that," replied the grotesque man proudly.

A clear icy female voice came out from within the carriage at this moment. "Offering Gu, time is precious, and we can't waste it on trivial matters like this. Please strike and kill that vile creature..."

Her tone was uppity and sounded like someone who controlled everything from above.

"Yes," the grotesque man bowed upon hearing the woman. He then strode closer to Ye Qingyu and sneered in a sinister fashion. "Zhang Longcheng, tell me, how do you wish to die?"

The strange silver dagger looked chilling as it came hurtling toward Ye Qingyu.

"Doesn't matter," Ye Qingyu replied with a faint smile.

He lifted his arm gently to stop the dagger in its tracks as it came close to him. The mysterious silver glow from the formation on the dagger began to amplify, and there was a faint rumbling of Dao sounds, but the weapon could not move an inch from the two white, pristine fingers.

"You..." Offering Gu's expression changed drastically.

He felt as though the dagger had been trapped between two divine mountains. No matter how hard he moved, it looked as though it had been welded into the mountains, and it would not budge an inch.

He lifted his head instinctively.

He saw the look of pity and chilling killing intent in Ye Qingyu's eyes.

In an instant, an overpowering fear enveloped Offering Gu.

He realized that there was something wrong with his judgement. The middle-aged man was no peak-level Great Saint. Instead, he was a terrifying expert at the apex of the martial arts world.

Damn.

He immediately let go of the dagger and retreated.

However, it was too late.

Ye Qingyu vibrated his fingers gently.

The silver dagger shot out in a reverse motion.

Poof!

The sloping faced Offering Gu fell down on his face. The silver dagger was stuck in between his eyebrows, and blood flowed along the blade and down the hilt of the weapon. The entire blade was stuck right into his flesh, and a blue icy energy emanated from the dagger, instantly freezing up his body into an ice sculpture that shattered...

The expressions of everyone around them changed instantly.

Ye Qingyu did not give them any chance to recover from the shock. He shifted, and his body flickered.

The dozens of experts surrounding him flew away and turned into ice sculptures in mid-air before crashing onto the ground and shattering into icy bits. The bits of ice clanged noisily and flew into the surroundings...

They were killed instantly.

He did not give the Demon Dragon-armored soldiers of the King of Zhenyuan's residence any time to react.

Wei Heng's face was frozen in an expression of loss as he sat on the shaft of the carriage.

His body began to tremble wildly.

It was because of fear.

"Retreat."

The uppity female voice that came from within the carriage also carried a tinge of unconcealable fear as well. She ordered all of her people to retreat immediately.

She had made her decision very quickly.

The power of Offering Gu was the strongest among all of the assassins and already close to Quasi-emperor realm. Even though he was not the strongest in the King of Zhenyuan's estate, he could hold his weight there. She thought that Zhang Longcheng would be easy pickings if she activated Offering Gu to help, but little did she expect that she had grossly underestimated her opponent. Zhang Longcheng was no sheep in wolf's clothing. Instead, he was a terrifying and ferocious beast.

However, Ye Qingyu had already appeared before the carriage just as she spoke.

An overwhelming qi emanated from Ye Qingyu's body like that of a mountain suppressing a flood. It was extremely powerful and completely suppressed the carriage, the Earth Dragon, Wei Heng, and even the hundreds of elite Demon Dragon-armored soldiers around them. They froze up and could not move.

Retreat?

Impossible.

"I don't wish to pursue the matter that happened in the bazaar yesterday. You guys are pushing it, however. Do you really believe that wealth and power can resolve everything?" Ye Qingyu said as he walked slowly up to the carriage. There was an immense pressure contained in his calm tone. "Do you really believe that I will not dare to slay the daughter of a royal?"