The Qualifications to Become a Human Emperor

Chaoge City.

Deep within the palace, inside the sleeping chambers.

The candlelight flickered, stretching the shadows across the hall into long, slanted, and distorted shapes.

The curtains hung low, shutting out all light from the outside.

Emperor Yi lay on the broad bed.

The once-astonishingly dignified face was now haggard and withered, deep wrinkles filled with exhaustion and unwillingness to accept defeat.

His aptitude was too poor. In the end, his Martial Dao cultivation had failed to cross into the Immortal Realm.

The Immortal Realm was too far away—so far that even after exhausting all the strength of his life, he had still failed to touch its threshold.

Emperor Yi was now barely breathing, his life like a guttering candle in the wind, liable to go out at any moment.

He looked at Zi Shou, who stood by the bed. Yet those murky eyes that had once looked down upon all beneath Heaven now burst with an unusual radiance.

"Zi Shou."

Emperor Yi struggled to raise his hand, his thin, withered fingers grasping feebly at the air twice.

Zi Shou seized his father's icy palm. His eyes were slightly red, but his voice remained steady.

"Father, your son is here."

"Today, I shall entrust Great Shang's realm to you."

"These mountains and rivers of the Nine Provinces and the countless commoners shall, from this day forth, rest upon your shoulders alone."

"Do not... let me down."

That sentence was spoken with tremendous weight.

Every word seemed to have exhausted all the strength in his body.

Zi Shou felt both his shoulders sink.

It was more than a simple instruction. It was the lives and livelihoods of countless people, and the immense burden of this mighty dynasty.

He drew a deep breath and nodded heavily, his voice ringing with power.

"Father,