Imperial God Emperor

"I'm surprised that you were so perceptive. When did you notice my plot?" A familiar voice rang out. 

Ye Qingyu was stunned when he heard this voice, for it was none other than the Ancient Ghostly Emperor, who had been dead for centuries. 

A blue splendor flickered in the tomb and the Ancient Ghostly Emperor, who should have been lying in the casket, reappeared. 

His old wounds could still be seen on his body and the sword wound inflicted by the Divine Light Emperor could still be clearly seen. He had not managed to heal himself of his wounds centuries later, but his aura was definitely not as frail as it had seemed centuries earlier. The Ancient Ghostly Emperor had merely faked his death. 

How did the Sky Emperor see through his plot? 

Ye Qingyu wondered and continued to observe the situation. 

"I didn't need to see through your plot, I just needed to think about your motivations," the Sky Emperor said calmly. "I find it hard to believe that a king of sovereigns would be so kind and generous that he would impart all his techniques unto me and treat me like a son for no reason at all. Even if I have a Ghostly physique, I don't see why you would hold me in such high regard. After giving this matter some thought, only one possibility occurred to me. You must have imparted your ghostly techniques unto me and given me all the help I needed because you wanted to groom someone with an acceptable body for you to take over. After all, your body has been slashed by the Divine Light Emperor and you're no longer able to heal yourself. As long as the Divine Light Emperor is still alive, you'd be unable to absorb the power of destiny and heal yourself. Thus, this was the only method you could have thought of." 

The Ancient Ghostly Emperor looked at the Sky Emperor admiringly and said, "I see how you had managed to pull off your betrayal of the Divine Light Emperor so perfectly. I had assumed that the Divine Light Emperor was merely a little beast that has yet to fully mature and that I could crush him easily, so I was shocked when I wasn't able to defeat him after joining forces with the Abandoned Fiendgod, and even ended up getting seriously injured. If this man wasn't impeded by his inner demons, I wouldn't have dared to underestimate him. Yet, you managed to betray him, and your plan had been almost perfect, which means that you're more frightening than the Divine Light Emperor." 

"What is the point of saying all of that now?" the Sky Emperor said with a cold laugh. "You had plotted to kill me and possess my body from the very beginning, and all the care and concern you had showered upon me in the past was just an act you were putting on. There's only one way to settle this, and that is through a battle today." 

The Ancient Ghostly Emperor chuckled loudly. "You said that I was putting on an act, but weren't you pretending to follow orders yourself? You had already detected the whereabouts of the Divine Light Emperor more than three hundred years ago, but you didn't lead your men to hunt him down. Did you really think that I wouldn't know what you were doing? I know what you're after." 

The Sky Emperor looked surprised that his plot had been discovered, but he quickly calmed down and said, "So you've known about this all along... haha. Obviously, I can't kill him now, for if I do, the destiny of the world within him would scatter and be absorbed by yourself. After you've recovered your strength, what would I do with the remnants of this destiny?" 

"I can't believe you wanted to gather the destiny of this world as well," the Ancient Ghostly Emperor said with a laugh. "You're extremely ambitious but you're definitely not worthy of this destiny." 

The Sky Emperor said with an enigmatic smile, "You don't have the final say in determining who is worthy and who isn't. I had still managed to see through your meticulously laid out plot and now that you've sustained such serious injuries, how much more of your former strength do you possess?" "Once I've gotten rid of you, I'll hunt down the Divine Light Emperor, and after both of you are dead, this world will still be intact and I will still have my Ghostly divine techniques. Who would be able to stop me then? The destiny of this world will still end up in my hands," he said. 

"I doubt you'd be able to kill me," the Ancient Ghostly Emperor said with a loud chuckle. 

They started to battle. 

This fierce battle lasted an entire year. 

The Sky Emperor had prepared for this battle well ahead of time and had installed a large number of formations all around the blessed burial mound, so it had been well nourished after absorbing a century's worth of the universe's spiritual qi. Moreover, the Ancient Ghostly Emperor was still injured, so the Sky Emperor managed to kill the Ancient Ghostly Emperor after a while and emerged as the victor of this battle. 

The Sky Emperor didn't just kill the Ancient Ghostly Emperor, he broke into his consciousness and broke into a part of the Ancient Ghostly Emperor's memories. The Ancient Ghostly Emperor had held back from imparting everything he knew unto the Sky Emperor, so he found the true essence of the ghostly techniques through these memories and used this to complete his knowledge of the ghostly techniques. 

However, all these came at a cost as well. 

The Ancient Ghostly Emperor's final attack before he died had seriously damaged his spirit and thus, fractures appeared between his spirit and body. 

After he saw this, Ye Qingyu understood why the Sky Emperor's body had transformed into Lan Tian. This was an early warning sign of a spirit separating from its body. 

Three hundred years later— 

The Sky Emperor had completely mastered the ghostly techniques, recovered from his injuries, and become even stronger. 

"It is time to end this," the Sky Emperor muttered after he emerged from self-isolation. 

Ye Qingyu could guess what the Sky Emperor was going to do. 

The Ancient Ghostly Emperor had already revealed the Sky Emperor's intentions and said that the Sky Emperor had already known where the Divine Light Emperor was, and sure enough, the Sky Emperor went to hunt down the Divine Light Emperor and the others less than a day after he emerged from self-isolation— 

Deep underneath the rubble of the Divine Light Court— 

In a tiny world that was full of light— 

After the Sky Emperor forced his way past the defensive light force and entered this small world, he saw the six divine generals who were guarding the Divine Light Emperor and the spirit monkey battle pet, Sun Wukong. 

The Divine Light Emperor was in a strange state. His expression was calm while his body floated in midair in the middle of this world in a cross-legged position. It seemed like he was in a death-like state, as though he was sound asleep. However, his body still exuded a terrifyingly powerful energy, and this energy had sustained this world and prevented it from collapsing. 

The six divine generals and the battle pet, Sun Wukong, had recovered from their injuries, including the divine general who had been attacked and lost half his body. They had completely recovered their cultivations. It was clear that the light energy from this small world was highly effective in aiding their recovery. 

"Bastard, how dare you appear?" 

The six divine generals glared angrily at the Sky Emperor and immediately surrounded him. 

The Sky Emperor used to be their comrade, but now, they hated him to the core and would have torn him to pieces if they could. However, the ghostly power that the Sky Emperor exuded was incredibly powerful, so they were very wary of him. They were also afraid of harming the Divine Light Emperor's body if they battled in this place, so they were forced to tamp down their violent urges. 

"I knew it," the Sky Emperor said. Although he was not as powerful as the Divine Light Emperor in his prime, his strength had soared so much that he was probably the most powerful man in the world right now. Thus, he completely ignored the six divine generals. His gaze fell onto the Divine Light Emperor, who looked like he was sleeping soundly, and he looked at him with a complicated expression before saying, "I guess I have lived up to the bond we used to share by preventing you from being slain and preventing your destiny from falling into the hands of a fiendgod from an alternate timeline." 

"Bastard, what are you trying to do?" 

"Stop him. We mustn't let him approach His Highness." 

The six divine generals spoke anxiously as they quickly took their places in a formation that encircled the Sky Emperor. 

The spirit-monkey battle pet growled loudly and its hair stood on end like divine needles. 

However, they were far too weak compared to the Sky Emperor and he easily overpowered them. The Sky Emperor pressed down gently and the spirit monkey battle pet was sent flying with blood gushing out of its mouth, feeling that its body was about to break apart. It couldn't even handle one move from the Sky Emperor. 

"The Sky Emperor is now so powerful that it is frightening. Although he is still not as powerful as the Divine Light Emperor at his peak, he's probably just a whisker away from being as powerful as the Divine Light Emperor was then. This man is truly an unparalleled genius who is second only to the Divine Light Emperor..." Ye Qingyu couldn't help but exclaim in wonder as he watched the battle unfold. 

The six divine generals and the spirit monkey battle pet were extremely talented. This was why the Divine Light Emperor had taken them under his wing and groomed them to be the men they were today. However, the Sky Emperor's talent and aptitude far surpassed any of theirs, so it was no wonder that the Divine Light Emperor had singled him out and spent more effort on grooming him than the others. 

If he had encountered the Sky Emperor in his prime during the battle in the torrent of space, both Yu Xiaoxing and himself would have probably been reduced to ashes. 

The six divine generals and the spirit monkey fought with all their might but they were still no match for the Sky Emperor. They were all critically injured and sent flying with their bodies bathed in blood. 

Ultimately, the six divine generals and the spirit monkey could not even get near the Sky Emperor. 

The Sky Emperor walked up to the Divine Light Emperor and let out another sigh as he looked at the Divine Light Emperor in this state. 

There was a faraway look in his eyes, but in the end, he raised his hand and pushed back a stray strand of hair from the Divine Light Emperor's face tenderly. He seemed strangely calm and there was a tenderness in his eyes as he performed this action. This was at complete odds with his behavior at the Divine Light Court, when he seemed to have yearned madly for the Divine Light Emperor's death. Instead, he looked like a gentle wife straightening her husband's armor. 

The six divine generals yelled and struggled with all their might but they were unable to approach the Sky Emperor. 

"We weren't able to share the same bed in life nor share the same tomb in death... You look like the living dead in this state and I'm sure this is also a form of suffering to you. I shall release you from your suffering... and kill you today," the Sky Emperor said as the tenderness gradually disappeared from his face. 

He suddenly pointed to the area between the Divine Light Emperor's eyebrows. 

The six divine generals were livid and gnashed their teeth in anger when they saw this. 

However, an unexpected change occurred. 

The Divine Light Emperor, who looked like he was sleeping soundly and who didn't even react when the spirit monkey battle pet and the six divine generals were critically injured by the Sky Emperor, suddenly opened his eyes and raised his hand to shoot out a ray of flowing light from his finger. 

He had pointed in the direction of the Sky Emperor's finger. 

Boom!

The Sky Emperor swayed slightly and a look of terror was written all over his face, as though he had just seen a ghost. He was extremely shocked and frightened. 

He would never have imagined that the Divine Light Emperor would awaken from his death-like state at this crucial moment. 

He suddenly felt like he was in an extremely dangerous situation. The situation that he had been most worried about had happened. Was this a trap that had been laid by the Divine Light Emperor? Had the Divine Light Emperor been completely unharmed the entire time and had only wanted to use him to wipe out the Bloodied-Spear Daoist Grandmaster, the Ancient Ghostly Emperor, and the others before walking into the trap that he had laid? 

Although the Sky Emperor was extremely cunning, he had always feared and admired the Divine Light Emperor, so his mind was completely blank at that moment. 

This moment of complete shock caused him to lose his chance of attacking first. 

An indescribable energy flowed from the Divine Light Emperor's finger into his body. 

"Ah..." the Sky Emperor yelled.