As the Sage Emperor sternly spoke, Wang Chong saw a clear ball of light, as blue as the sky, drifting out from the Sage Emperor’s bosom.
Wang Chong had never seen such a pure light before. This tiny sliver of light seemed to contain infinity. Wang Chong could even sense some of the world’s foundation energy from it.
Even the energy of the Subtle realm seemed dim in comparison to this pure light.
“This is ‘Heaven”s energy?” Wang Chong muttered.
Wang Chong had heard the name of ‘Heaven’ before, in the Rebellion of the Three Princes, but this was his first time sensing his energy.
The gap was far too great, as vast as the ocean!
“Heaven is extremely ambitious, and he has always controlled the mortal world, even the changing of dynasties and rise and fall of civilizations.”
The Sage Emperor spoke indifferently, but the information he divulged sent shockwaves through Wang Chong’s mind.
The Sage Emperor had only revealed the tip of the iceberg, but this alone was stunning enough.
Buzz!
The Sage Emperor waved his hand, upon which the pure light slowly drifted to Wang Chong’s palm.
Even though Wang Chong now held the light in his hand, he bizarrely could not sense its existence. It was as if the Sage Emperor had sent over a ball of air.
Creating ripples in the air, the pure light flowed into Wang Chong’s body. Even at Wang Chong’s current level of strength, he could not tell where the Sage Emperor had sealed this power, and he still could not sense its existence.
“Remember, Heaven will be your greatest foe in the future. But though ‘Heaven’ is powerful, over his long life, he has been injured, and for various reasons, his true body cannot enter the Central Plains. This is why he cannot threaten you for the moment.
“This will be the case for a long period of time. You only need to concern yourself with his clones!”
Once the Sage Emperor was finished speaking, the connection between the two of them was broken. Wang Chong’s mind returned to his body, and as he returned to the hall, that sensation of looking down upon the capital from above faded away.
Wang Chong opened his eyes and looked up. The Sage Emperor, who had been standing before this, had grown much weaker, and he had seated himself back on the golden throne.
His eyes were half-closed as he leaned motionlessly against the throne, seemingly recovering his strength.
Wang Chong’s eyes flashed with worry as he gazed at this imposing figure. He could sense that the Sage Emperor was getting weaker and weaker.
His actions just now had seemingly taken all of his strength.
Deep sorrow appeared in his eyes. The flame of the Sage Emperor’s life was guttering out, but there was nothing he could do.
Just now, he had tried to use the Psychic Energy arts of the High Priest and even the Nightmare Beast’s power to secretly heal the Sage Emperor, but it had been rejected by a powerful force.
While Wang Chong possessed transcendent Psychic Energy, he could not avert the Sage Emperor’s death.
Too much death energy had accumulated in his body, and given how much there was, it had to have been accumulating for ages.
This death energy would have left any other expert, even a Subtle realm expert, dead long ago. But the Sage Emperor had been able to use his supreme power to last until now.
Although Wang Chong had comprehended many kinds of energy, he had not comprehended the energies of life and death!
This sort of power was beyond his ken!
“Your Majesty, do you require anything else of this lowly subject?”
Rather than acting like a child, he came forward and got down on one knee.
He was keenly aware that the Sage Emperor must have had a reason to summon him besides entrusting the Great Tang to him. As he could not master life and death or prevent the Sage Emperor’s fate, all Wang Chong could do was try his best to fulfill the Sage Emperor’s last wishes.
Upon the dragon throne, that divine existence slowly opened his eyes, which contained a satisfied smile.
The strong did not cry!
Because there was no time to cry!
The youth before him was only twenty years old, but he had already transformed into a true man, one who was worthy of his trust and desires!
This was precisely what he looked forward to!
With him here, he could leave behind a seed for the world, leave something behind for the countless denizens of the Central Plains!
“I leave the Crown Prince to you. Once We are gone, We trust that you will do everything in your power to support him so that he becomes a true wise sovereign! But there is one matter that We find hard to let go…”
The Sage Emperor deeply sighed, a complicated look in his eyes.
“Wang Chong, can you promise Us something?”
Wang Chong lowered his head and immediately said, “Your Majesty, please speak!”
The Sage Emperor said, “Take care of Consort Taizhen in Our place!”
Buzz!
Wang Chong’s body shuddered, and he instinctively wanted to refuse, but when he looked up and saw the Sage Emperor, he was rendered speechless.
Wang Chong’s impression of the Sage Emperor was that of a wise and heroic sovereign brimming with resolve, eternally unshakable. But Wang Chong had never seen this side of the Sage Emperor.
Emotions of nostalgia, reluctance, shame, and remorse were written all over his face…
Although it was only for a brief moment, Wang Chong was flabbergasted.
“This lowly subject obeys the decree!”
His heart trembled as he dropped his head back down.
“Wang Chong, are you interested in hearing Our story?” the Sage Emperor asked, faintly smiling.
“Mm!”
Wang Chong simply grunted and began to attentively listen.
The Sage Emperor did not have much time left. Wang Chong could sense him rapidly weakening, so Wang Chong did not ask why he wanted to tell his story.
Wang Chong only knew that the Sage Emperor had to have his reasons.
At the very least, this story had a very important meaning to the Sage Emperor.
“This universe contains countless dimensions. Each dimension has a different story, and for one man, it took a very, very long time to understand all of this…”
The Sage Emperor’s voice resounded through the hall, carrying a long sigh that seemed to penetrate through time and space into the infinite beyond.
Buzz!
Wang Chong’s heart trembled as he listened to the Sage Emperor’s story.
“That man had no idea about the world. He only knew that in his world, there was no Great Tang or Great Han. There were only countless Hu, and every day he woke up, he saw foreign faces. That was the darkest era for the world, but there was nothing he could do. This was because that Great Tang Empire’s era ended hundreds of years before he even existed!”
The Sage Emperor let another long sigh.
“That place called the Central Plains had begun to decline and decay several hundred years ago… There was no revival, no resplendence, and its territory grew smaller and smaller. By his time, the Central Plains had shrunk down to a small city, and even this ceased to exist by the end!
“His heart was filled with helplessness, wanting to change all this but powerless to do so. He could only watch as the Great Han and the Central Plains vanished into the river of history!
“That was the most terrifying of eras, the darkest of eras!
“Living was a fate worse than death!”
Chapter 2045 - The Truth of Consort Taizhen!
Chapter 2045: The Truth of Consort Taizhen!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“In that era, that man’s only hope was a woman as dazzling as a firework! Even in the darkest sludge, she always remained hopeful, encouraging him and telling to persist, to look toward the light!
“
The two of them were like ants, living out a meek existence, two floundering fish struggling to keep themselves alive with their spittle!”
The Sage Emperor fell into a long silence as he recalled those memories from long ago, that world and era he had been on the verge of forgetting.
“!!!”
Wang Chong carefully listened, his mind in shock. None of the history he remembered matched what the Sage Emperor said.
“All things have their beginning and end. He thought that he would die a lowly death, but in that darkest and final era, he saw the collapse of the world with his own eyes!”
The Sage Emperor took a deep breath before beginning to speak once more.
“To his even greater surprise, a coincidence allowed his and her souls to enter another world, the legendary era of the Tang Empire where all of this was said to have begun!
“He accidentally entered the body of this person and discovered that he had the power to change the world!
“At that moment, he told himself that he would change the world no matter what! That he would restore the Great Tang and the Central Plains to resplendence!”
The Sage Emperor’s eyes exploded with unprecedented light!
“He proceeded to campaign in all directions, leading this empire on the verge of decline in conquering other countries and stepping onto the path of resurgence. He knew that the Central Plains in his memories was only a small region, so he did his utmost, defeating Ü-Tsang in the west and forcing them back to the plateau, sweeping the Eastern and Western Turkic Khaganates to the north, destroying their path to prosperity and making them eternally fearful of the dynasties of the Central Plains…”
The Sage Emperor’s voice echoed endlessly through Taiji Palace.
Taiji Palace fell into a long silence.
Wang Chong continued to earnestly listen. Though the Sage Emperor had not explicitly said so, Wang Chong knew that he was the main character of this story.
The Sage Emperor’s long life had been cut down into a short sketch. But while the Sage Emperor had made his recount very understated, it still sent ripples through Wang Chong’s heart.
Many matters had begun to surface at the incident of the true and false Sage Emperors, including that the Sage Emperor might have been like him and come from another world.
However, the Sage Emperor’s tale still made Wang Chong’s heart incredibly heavy.
A Great Tang that never thrived, a Central Plains occupied by the Hu for hundreds of years, the Han eking out a meager existence on a tiny piece of land…
The Sage Emperor’s history was completely different from the history that Wang Chong knew. No point of his history matched up with it, indicating that this was a world that had gone on a completely different track.
Even though he had not experienced what the Sage Emperor had, he could still understand what it felt like through the Sage Emperor’s words.
From a certain perspective, the Sage Emperor’s story was very similar to the apocalyptic era from his last life.
That deep despair had eternally branded itself in the depths of his soul.
Moreover… Wang Chong had another strange feeling. After descending upon this world, the Sage Emperor had taken command and started a series of conquests to change the course of the world, averting the darkest era for the Central Plains. But the brand-new history that he created was exactly the same as the history of Wang Chong’s original world, perhaps the same as the history of countless other parallel universes.
This brand new history ended up being the history that everyone was familiar with!
But nobody knew about the history that the Sage Emperor spoke of.
The Sage Emperor did not know what Wang Chong was thinking, lost in his own memories.
After a long while, he broke free of his memories and softly sighed. He began to speak once more.
“But even the revered sovereign, the master of the realm, cannot change everything. In that sudden development, he and his most important woman had entered this world together. He became the world-renowned and revered sovereign, but she had disappeared, and it was not known which body her soul entered.
“Even though the flesh was destroyed, the soul still existed. It was impossible to determine what she looked like, but he could depend on the connection he had with her soul to find her!
“But in the end, he learned that destiny had played some enormous joke on him!”
Wang Chong silently listened. This was not the first time the Sage Emperor had mentioned ‘her’, but he did not know who the Sage Emperor was referring to. However, he could see the Sage Emperor’s eyes softening with affection whenever he mentioned this woman.
That woman should be the Sage Emperor’s most beloved, but what does this have to do with Consort Taizhen? Wang Chong quietly said to himself.
Wang Chong didn’t know why the Sage Emperor was telling him this story, only that it had to be closely linked to what the Sage Emperor wanted to impart to him.
Perhaps because he was also a transmigrator, he had become the only person who could listen to the Sage Emperor’s story about this other world.
“Haaah…”
The Sage Emperor half-closed his eyes, a hint of pain appearing on his majestic face.
“He believed that he possessed everything, that he had changed the course of history. It was only later that he realized that there was a mysterious force hiding behind it all. This force was hidden in the shadows, and controlled the entire world!”
Wang Chong’s face turned grave. He knew exactly which force the Sage Emperor was talking about, even if it wasn’t explicitly named.
“These people couldn’t defeat him, so they resorted to every other method at their disposal to deal with him!
“He knew that these people were despicable, but he had never imagined how far their depravity could go.
“They had found that most important woman of his life and controlled her destiny, even used her life to threaten him…
“She died ten years ago. It was only at that time that he learned that she had started a family and left behind a child.
“On her deathbed, she entrusted her child to him.”
The Sage Emperor slowly closed his eyes, deep grief on his face.
Wang Chong was shaken by the Sage Emperor’s words.
“That child… is Consort Taizhen?” Wang Chong suddenly muttered in realization.
He had never imagined that this would be the truth the Sage Emperor would divulge!
Consort Taizhen was actually the child of the most important woman in the Sage Emperor’s life!
Many more thoughts emerged in Wang Chong’s mind…
Consort Taizhen’s background had always been out in the open.
The Yang Clan was a renowned and noble clan. Her great grandfather was Yang Wang, a supporting pillar of the Sui Dynasty who had served as Minister of Personnel. Her father, Yang Xuanyan, was a revenue official for the Shu Province. Her mother… was undoubtedly the woman the Sage Emperor regarded so highly!
The two of them had loved each other. One had become Emperor of the Great Tang, and the other had gone adrift, becoming…
Wang Chong did not know what had happened between them that had caused these two lovers to go separate ways. Moreover, from the Sage Emperor’s recount, he could tell that the fact that the Sage Emperor was not able to be together with his beloved despite his status and power was inextricably connected to the men in black.
He once more glanced at the pain on the Sage Emperor’s face, pain that came from the depths of his soul. Wang Chong suddenly understood why the Sage Emperor was so set against the men in black, and he also understood that this seemingly omnipotent sovereign, eternally resolved and determined, also had a weak and soft side.
Deep inside, he was just like any other person!
Recalling his past conversations with Yang Zhao, Wang Chong seemed to understand, and asked a probing question.
“This… Consort Taizhen does no
t know, yes?”
Around two years ago, the wise Sage Emperor had gone against the entire court to bring Consort Taizhen into the palace, with even King Song coming under fire. This was completely different from how the Sage Emperor usually acted, and the Sage Emperor had been so determined and stubborn on this matter that everyone was left confused, even Wang Chong. But with this information, everything was resolved.
Wang Chong now understood why the Sage Emperor had been willing to defy all the officials for this.
So that’s what was going on… Wang Chong inwardly muttered.
He would have never imagined that this sort of secret would be hiding behind it all.
Wang Chong also recalled King Shou…
Consort Taizhen had initially been married to King Shou, and it was rumored that even though Consort Taizhen had been King Shou’s wife for several years, King Shou never even touched her. Thus, two years ago, when Consort Taizhen married the Sage Emperor, she was still a virgin. This imperial scandal of a father stealing his son’s wife served as the greatest blemish on the Sage Emperor’s life.
But King Shou, Li Mao, had been abnormally docile throughout, not expressing the slightest dissatisfaction.
It was not feigned obedience, but true obedience!
Wang Chong had even asked King Song to pay a visit to King Shou, and the meeting had left a deep impression.
So this was actually all arranged by the Sage Emperor. Perhaps King Shou understood from the start. All of this was just a cover so that he could protect Consort Taizhen, Wang Chong quietly said to himself.
As he thought about it more and more, the many riddles around the incident were slowly resolved, the truth becoming evident.
Moreover, Consort Taizhen, after spending several years in the King Shou Residence, was suddenly summoned into the palace two years ago by the Sage Emperor. It now seemed as if the Sage Emperor had sensed some danger, forcing him to adopt this inferior plan.
The Sage Emperor didn’t care about much in this strange world, but Consort Taizhen was probably one of the few.
Moreover, Yang Zhao had once said that even though Consort Taizhen was married to the Sage Emperor and the Sage Emperor pampered her in all manner of ways, they had never had sex.
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