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Ye Zichen crouched in his corner, pulling back the bowstring, which was equipped with a pitch-black arrow.

Although they weren’t sure why, despite their cultivations, Yuchi Kong and Huangfu Youming shuddered. They felt that the bow before them could instantly take their lives!

The higher your cultivation and the greater your fighting experience, the keener your sense of crisis.

This was impossible!

Ye Zichen was just an ordinary ruler, an ant. As imperial lords, if they so much as released a hint of their auras, they could quite literally suffocate him.

Now that they’d entered the room, Ye Zichen was like a fish on a chopping board, with no choice but to let them cut him up as they pleased!

How could he possibly give such a sense of impending crisis?

When Yuchi Kong examined the bow more carefully, he instantly understood. This sense of crisis wasn’t because of the ruler-level Ye Zichen, but rather, because of his bow.

The weapon looked ordinary, like an ordinary ballista or seige bow.

Weapons like this were only used to protect and seige cities. They might be able to threaten supremes, but to diviners, their threat was negligible, and even ordinary rulers could ignore them outright, much less titled emperors like them. 

“Heh, it seems the tables have turned.” Ye Zichen leaned against the bow and narrowed his eyes. His gaze contained a hint of playful inquisitiveness as he stared at the two long-established experts of the god race.

“Be good and squat down in the corner. Otherwise, your tens of thousands of years of cultivation will go to waste here.”

“Old Man Yuchi, that bow is rather strange.” Temperamental as he was, this time, Huangfu Youming said nothing. Obviously, he felt a sense of impending crisis from the bow too.

“Hm.” Yuchi Kong nodded solemnly as he stared intently at Ye Zichen.

“What’re you lookin’ at me for? I told you to get in the corner.” Ye Zicehn pointed towards the corner in question.

“Alliance Head Ye, it seems you’re quite the joker. Might I ask where you got the confidence to proclaim that the tables have turned? What, is it just because of that seige bow?” Yuchi Kong laughed. “A weapon like that is at most effective against supremes. Even diviners need not fear it. Surely you don’t think it can hurt the two of us?”

Although Yuchi Kong really did sense the threat to his life, neither he nor Huangfu Youming could see through this strange situation. They were, ultimately, long-famous titled emperors. How could they crouch in a corner just because Ye Zichen told them to?

Even if there was a problem with the bow, they had to at least try it!

“Clan Head Yuchi, it seems you’re quite the joker yourself.” Ye Zichen’s lips curled, and he patted his bow. “Do you dare say you’re not not afraid? Given your ability to sense danger, I refuse to believe you haven’t noticed! If you really haven’t sensed how dangerous this thing is, all I can say is, you’re quite dense. Also, if I didn’t mishear you just now, you said this was a seige bow?”

Yuchi Kong didn’t deny it. It certainly looked like a seige weapon.

There was indeed one divine artifact that looked like a seige bow. It was called the God-Smiting Bow!

When they first saw Ye Zichen take his weapon out, Yuchi Kong considered that possibility, but he considered it far too unlikely, so he cast thoughts of the God-Smiting Bow out of his head.

“Do you think the same way, Clan Head Huangfu?” laughed Ye Zichen. 

Huangfu Youming snorted coldly. He naturally didn’t think this was just some ordinary bow. Although he was the treacherous sort, he’d always been supremely cautious. Just looking at the bow made him shudder. How could it be some ordinary siege weapon or other low-grade good? If not for the fact that the bow intimidated him, given his behavior earlier, he wouldn’t simply be snorting now. 

“Really! You’ve lived so long, yet you’re still saying this is just some ordinary siege bow?” Ye Zichen’s eyes flashed with mockery, then glinted coldly. “All I can say is, your vision is lacking. The bow before you is none other than the God-Smiting Bow, the very same weapon that strikes terror into the hearts of demons and gods alike. Are you afraid now?”

“Ludicrous!”

Against all expectations, when Ye Zichen said that, it wasn’t just Yuchi Kong; even the scrupulously cautious Huangfu Youming sneered. “Everyone knows that the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch acquired the God-Smiting Bow ten thousand years ago. The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch was a prominent figure in the Upper Three Realms even without the bow. With it, no one in the Upper Realms would dare say they could get an advantage over him; even the Yao Emperor has to be polite to him now. You’re telling me that’s the God-Smiting Bow? Don’t tel me you seized it from the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch?”

The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch!

This was Ye Zichen’s first time hearing the name, but based on Yuchi Kong’s description, he could tell the Yao Monarch wasn’t simple. 

The Eastern Monarch Taiyi was one of the three Realm Emperors, yet even he had to be deferential? The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch’s strength was obvious, then.

But if he was such an expert, why hadn’t Ye Zichen heard of him before?

Just as Ye Zichen was wondering about this, Yuchi Kong took the initiative to answer his question. “Alliance Head Ye, when you called that the God-Smiting Bow, you let the cat out of the bag. Had you called it any other divine artifact, or even if you’d just made up a name, Huangfu and I might have been cautious, but you just had to go and say it was the God-Smiting Bow…”

“The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch hasn’t left seclusion in ten thousand years, and not even we imperial lords know his location. You’re telling me that you discovered the Yao Monarch, someone not even we can locate, and stole his divine artifact? Or are you saying that he gave it to you?”

“Why waste time talking ot him?” Huangfu Youming recovered his early domineering tone. “If you don’t want to die, hurry up and tell us how to open the secret passage! My patience is limited. If it runs out, even if you beg to tell us, I’ll still send you on to the nine springs, your secret be damned!”

“I dislike being threatened,” said Ye Zichen, his expression darkening. The God-Smiting Bow shrunk to the size of an ordinary bow, and quick as lightning, he had it right up against the crown of Huangfu Youming’s head. “I have no time to waste arguing about whether it really is the God-Smiting Bow or now. How about we test it?”

….

….

The fragrance of flowers, gentle birdsong, humming insects, and frolicking fish.

A paradise like the legendary Peach Blossom Springs. There was no trace of human settlements, but there were countless frantic-looking people hovering in the sky.

Were you to survey their auras, you’d discover that not one of them was beneath the ruler level.

Or rather, that they were all at least titled emperors!

From their expressions, it was clear they were all frantic. Their lips were tightly pursed, and in their sleeves, their fists were tightly clenched.

Why were they so frantic? There was just one reason…

Their family’s young miss had gone missing!

In the center of this otherworldly paradise was a spire, so tall, it pierced the clouds. Looking up from the ground, there was no end to it in sight. The tower stood at the center of the flying imperial experts, and their divine senses intercrossed, covering the entire space with a fine net.

“Gu Xuande, how exactly were you watching over Luolin?” At the top of the tower was a hall so resplendent, “lavish” and “luxurious’ were insufficient to describe it.

There were several chairs inside, and they seemed as if they’d been formed entirely out of crystal. No, they looked even more lustrous and transparent than that.

A slender but well-developed, peerless beauty sat in one of the chairs.

Her face was filled with frantic fury, her beautiful eyes fixed at the handsome middle-aged man proffering a cup of tea.

Just looking at him, it was clear he’d held a position of power for a long time. His bearing was regal, and his emotions didn’t show on the surface.

But when he faced the beautiful woman, his gaze was utterly doting.

“Don’t be so angry! Although your anger is breathtakingly beautiful too, when I see you scrunch up your brow, my heart aches! You’ve been outside for so long, and you only just got back. You might be exhausted! While you were away, I personally researched and developed this milk tea for you. Go on and try it!”

“You sure know how to talk!” The woman’s anger didn’t disappear, but it decreased a little. She accepted the tea the man offered her and took a sip. A look of satisfaction appeared on her face, but in a flash, it disappeared.

She set the milk tea on the crystal table, then said, “I just went out for a little while, and now Luolin’s missing. I asked you when she disappeared, and you actually told me you didn’t know either?!”

“I really don’t know.” The middle-aged man shrugged. “Luolin has always loved running off and playing hide-and-seek. When she went missing, I assumed she’d just run off somewhere as usual. How was I supposed to know she’d really run away this time?”

“Why weren’t you watching her?”

“Luolin’s already an adult! I’m her father, not her maidservant. How could I possibly follow her every minute of every day? Besides, as you know full well, our daughter doesn’t like it when we follow her around.”

“It’s still your fault!” The woman’s eyes suddenly misted over. “Luolin has never left the clan before, and she has no idea how dangerous it is out there. Worse, she went to the Transcendent Mausoleum. Everyone there is bad news! In their eyes, our Luolin will be like a lost little lamb. If something happens… No! I’m going to go destroy the mausoleum and save her right now!”

“Aiyo, my beloved wife, your excellency, please don’t be so childish! You’re a mother now!” The man pulled the woman back, then furrowed his brows. “The Laws have never looked kindly upon our Gu Family. If you go out and destroy the Transcendent Mausoleum, the people watching outside will attack. Can you let me go even a day or two in peace?”

“Aren’t you afraid Luolin’s in danger?”

“I’m not afraid. As I’m sure you know, Luolin is the apple of her grandfather’s eye. As soon as he discovered she’d left, he started watching over her. Nothing will go wrong! And you remember Little Rong, right…?”

“That Lord of Seven Stars? I remember her!”

“Luolin is with her son, and her son is the Master of the Emperor Star. The Emperor Star! He has incredible good fortune. If our daughter sticks with him, there’s no way things’ll go wrong!”

“Alright then!” No one would have guessed it, but the woman, who a moment ago was the very picture of a mother worrying about her daughter, suddenly seemed perfectly calm. It was as if her earlier concern vanished in a puff of smoke. 

Pleased, she sat back in her chair, raised her milk tea to her lips, and took a sip. “Just now, I sure seemed like a mother worried about her daughter, didn’t I?”

“You did! You sure did!” The middle-aged man gave her a thumbs up.

The pretty woman rested her head in her hands, then said, “It’s been over a decade since we had our daughter, but I’ve never quite felt like a mother. It’s really difficult! Sigh. Xuande, when you have time, you ought to have Little Rong bring her son over to see us!”