Before Consort De's Palace, the air was tense to the breaking point!
The two figures who received countless offerings on ordinary days now faced the Black-Robed Barefoot Daoist as though confronting a deadly foe. Neither dared make the first move.
Seeming to sense the tension and a faint hint that something was amiss, Consort De, as their host, spoke first. "Lord Chen, since you've returned, why act so secretly? Are you worried about drawing those who besieged you back then? In that battle in Southern Chen, neither I nor the others made a move."
"I struck down an Incarnation of the Living Buddha. You call that acting secretly?" Chen Cuo shook his head, then changed tack. "As for your claim that you didn't act back then, that's only natural. The three of you had your thoughts shattered when Jiang Taigong tried to Establish a Path. Of course you wouldn't come back looking for trouble. What I truly didn't expect was that someone like you would stoop to serving Li Yuan."
Consort De smiled faintly. "Lord Chen, that's hardly fair. After the Sui Dragon united the realm, it laid the foundations for lasting unity. Surely you can see that the Divine Land no longer has any chance of splitting apart. Destiny favors the Great Tang, and worthy men have gathered beneath its banner. Unifying the Central Plains is only a matter of time. As its founding ruler, Li Yuan will be the Great Tang's Ancestral Dragon, a figure comparable to the First Emperor and Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. A Human Lord and True Dragon with the merit of founding a Dynasty may be no weaker than an ordinary Five Steps cultivator Beyond the Mundane!"
Chen Cuo's expression turned a little strange.
If he had known nothing of what came afterward