What just happened?
Apart from the emperor, who sat on the dragon throne with a mysterious smile, no one knew what had just happened.
It was very sudden, the kind of sudden that happened. That woman, who had been so imposing and seemed ready to destroy everything at any moment, just vanished so suddenly.
Not a trace was left. If it weren't for the conspicuous mass of flesh and blood on the golden dragon pillar, one might have thought it was all an illusion!
Everyone was stunned, including A Li.
A word buried in my memory, one I haven't used in a long time, popped into my mind.
Holy crap!!!
What's going on?
In an instant, A Li was drenched in cold sweat. Are you kidding me?
What happened to the promise that I could just stand there and grin like an idiot?
Dude, is this how you play games? If you're going to disappear, at least say what happened!
What am I supposed to do now?
Or should we back down?
Inside the main hall, everyone was bewildered, including the kneeling Second Prince Wutu Gu, who was also completely astonished. How could that powerful figure, almost like an insurmountable ocean, simply disappear like that?
The only one who seems unsurprising is the emperor on the dragon throne.
What to do? What to do?
A Li's mind raced. Ao Zhen was the reason why they dared to venture into the capital with only twenty people. The fact that she could disappear so mysteriously meant that the thing in the palace was even more powerful than they had imagined!
What do we do now?
Should I signal Shen Qi to come and rescue me?
She thought it was unlikely. Although there were still two Yaksha Generals, they were worlds apart from Ao Zhen. If Ao Zhen could get into trouble, what could they possibly do if they came?
Damn it, think of something quickly! What should I do? Otherwise, I might be the next one to disappear!
Suddenly, A Li realized something was wrong.
Why didn't you make yourself disappear?
I am Chen Qing; the other party shouldn't have recognized me. If they had the ability to crush them, why didn't they just suppress them from the start? Why go through all this trouble?
Having lived through a Great Reincarnation here, A Li understood a principle long ago: if you have absolute strength, no one will resort to scheming; any scheming stems from a lack of strength!
Suddenly, her years of experience calmed her down.
"Does the King of Qin not want to say anything?" the Emperor asked, looking at A Li with a smile.
"What does Your Majesty want me to say?" A Li looked up. Having been a fox demon for so many years, although she had been reborn countless times and lost many memories, she had never lost her instinct to act. To be honest, in terms of this skill, even if Chen Qing himself came, he would have to kowtow to her.
"You don't think there's anything to say?"
"Since Your Majesty has already chosen the path, this humble subject truly has nothing more to say."
The emperor remained silent upon hearing this, quietly observing Chen Qing and noticing that the latter seemed genuinely unperturbed.
This seems different from what I imagined.
Before Jiangnan entered the capital, a true dragon from the West Sea had already joined Jiangnan. They had already devised a plan to suppress their strongest forces and then observe Chen Qing's reaction!
The plan was fairly successful; the woman was too obvious and easily fell for it. However, Chen Qing's attitude was inscrutable, as if he saw right through them.
This made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.
This guy is just like the King of Qin of Qin back then, as if he knows everything. Even when he was plotted against in his own life and death, he seemed to have foreseen it. His eyes never changed from beginning to end, always so calm, as if he could see through everything!
"Your Majesty, are you truly certain?" A Li looked at the emperor with a serious expression. "Do you know what kind of people you're cooperating with?"
"Of course I know!" In an instant, the emperor couldn't hold back anymore, his tone clearly tinged with emotion. "They're all people like you!!"
A Li's heart skipped a beat, but she remained outwardly calm, nodding slightly and saying, "Actually, they're not the same."
"It's the same!" The emperor stood up. "It's just that it's different in your eyes and in the eyes of that King of Qin. You think their rule over the world is a disaster, but in our eyes, you are the same, no different from those things!"
"Really?" A Li looked at the other person.
So that was his reason for betraying us back then?
For some reason, the emperor felt a pang of pain from A Li's gaze, and the smile on his face turned ferocious.
"You think I'm wrong?" The emperor looked at the other person. "I don't know if you were one of them back then, but if you were, you should remember some things from that time. Back then, someone kept saying that humans and demons would coexist and create a new golden age for the human race. Was that really true?"
"You all remember, don't you? When your kind couldn't resist their demonic bloodlust, they ate the hearts and livers of my human soldiers. Some soldiers even returned from battle to find their entire families quietly dead at the hands of your people, didn't you?"
A Li: "."
"What did that guy who advocated for the coexistence of humans and demons actually do?" the emperor sneered. "Did he treat them equally? Did he treat humans and demons the same? No, he did. He just gave a few weak reprimands, and then those desperate soldiers died inexplicably on the battlefield!"
A Li was stunned for a moment, almost about to say that the other party was talking nonsense, but for some reason, some sudden fragments of memory made her head throb with pain, and her whole body stiffened so that she couldn't say a word.
"He has never lived up to his words. Since he cannot guarantee universal harmony, what difference does it make whether he is emperor or I am emperor?" The emperor looked at Human Dao, "At least I, in this position, can guarantee that those with power and influence are my fellow human beings. What can he guarantee? The power and influence of his kind?"
At this moment, all the noble families stood silently before the emperor, and everyone looked firmly at Chen Qing.
A Li immediately understood: even if they were given countless Samsara, they would still betray the King of Qin!
Perhaps the King of Qin was right; his initial path was flawed.
This applies not only to the NPCs in this world, but also to all beings of the same kind.
He couldn't possibly be so heartless as to kill his own kind for the sake of an NPC, so he could never become the most just figure in everyone's hearts. And since he couldn't guarantee justice, humans and demons could not coexist!
So that's how it is. Oh, I see.
We, this group of people, have always been outsiders.
But what does that have to do with me? Anyway, I can never go back to that world that originally belonged to me, and I can't even remember much of the memories of that world anymore. Instead of lamenting about that, I should think about how to get out of this hall alive.
"What Your Majesty says is quite right."
"Hmm?" The emperor was taken aback. For many years, he had wanted to debate with the King of Qin like this. He didn't know if Chen Qing was the King of Qin. In the last battle in the West Sea, the black ice sealed everything in the final scene. No one knew what happened inside, but the woman told him that the power was the King of Qin's power.
Is Chen Qing the King of Qin?
He didn't know, but he knew that even if it wasn't the King of Qin, it must have been closely related to King of Qin.
But now, the other party is saying that what they said was correct?
For some reason, a huge weight that had been on my mind for twenty years has loosened a little.
"You think I'm right?" The emperor looked intently at the other person; this was the most compelling sentence he had heard all day.
"That's certainly true." A Li squinted. She knew that no matter how resolute a traitor might appear, deep down, they all longed for someone's approval.
And Chen Qing, who was suspected to King of Qin of Qin, agreed with his statement, which was more important than the agreement of anyone else.
So even this cold-blooded king has psychological weaknesses.
"Humans and demons cannot coexist!" A Li nodded in response.
"Hahahaha!" The man on the dragon throne suddenly burst into laughter. This time, his laughter was not gloomy at all, but filled with unparalleled joy.
"Don't you have the means to turn demons into gods? How dare you say such a thing? Does your god also eat people?"
"Whether or not they eat people won't change the conflict between humans and demons," A Li laughed. "Demons are gods, and humans are believers, but when humans reach the pinnacle, how can demons remain gods forever?"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The emperor laughed again, "I thought you didn't know that!"
"Your humble servant is aware of this."
So what do you plan to do?
"That is my business." A Li looked up at Wu Tu Gu, who looked completely Wutu Gu, and said, "You just said that in your Southern Barbarians, women are fought over entirely by who has the strongest fist?"
"So what?" Wutu Gu gritted his teeth and said, "Are you planning to use that woman from earlier to fight for a woman for you?"
"My wife, naturally I have to do it myself," A Li laughed.
Hearing this, Xiao Mingxue showed little emotion; her indifference was frightening.
Wutu Gu immediately became alert; at this moment, he no longer dared to underestimate the person in front of him.
"Let's set a date," A Li said calmly. "You name the number of days, that's the number of days. I'll give you time to prepare, and I'll also give that thing behind you time to prepare!"
Wutu Gu: "."
"Is the King of Qin certain?" the emperor asked, looking at the other man with a somber expression.
"A promise is a promise!" A Li said, bowed, and without saying another word, turned and left.
"Won't the King of Qin bring his own men with him?" the emperor's somber voice rang out again.
A Li's heart skipped a beat, and she forcefully suppressed the urge to run away. She knew very well that if she ran now, she would be crushed to dust, and the other party was a Ghost Domain force. She might end up like the King of Qin, with her soul sealed away!
Yes, it will.
Without turning his head, the white-robed scholar said in an utterly indifferent voice, "On the agreed-upon day, I will take my wife and my men away safely."
"Excellent!" The emperor clapped his hands and laughed, "I'm really looking forward to it!"
The officials all breathed a sigh of relief. The woman beside Chen Qing had been too frightening, and they were afraid that Chen Qing would cause an even bigger commotion. If he were to fight the emperor here, they were not even sure whether they should help him.
Fortunately, there's still time to prepare!
Wutu Gu thought so too. Now, facing this King of Qin whose strength was unknown, he was truly a little apprehensive. He needed to go to the temple to consult and obtain stronger power.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, except for Xiao Mingxue.
At that moment, her fingernails dug fiercely into her flesh from inside her wide sleeves!
Because she realized that this person wasn't Chen Qing!!!
I'm really sorry that I'm writing this second update a bit late today; I was delayed by some things.