Chapter 278 – Exposed

This was… the power of a Demigod!

Rong Yuan heaved underneath the pressure that pressed down on his body and held onto Gu Lingzhi underneath his body. He gathered all the spiritual energy in his body, ready to escape at any moment with Gu Lingzhi if he felt that things would become life-threatening.

“Grand…grandfather…” the King of the Fengyang Kingdom was extremely shocked to see the old man that had just arrived. He immediately knelt to greet him. Xie Jianyu did the same.

From how both of them had addressed this old man, Rong Yuan could guess that this was the Demigod Xie Yuan.

Xie Yuan looked at the two people who knelt in front of him coldly before looking at the three realms that had superimposed on each other in the Taihe Palace. He scoffed, “Was this what your father had taught you? Fratricide?”

With a wave of his hand, he destroyed the realms that Sun Wu, Yu Yuan and Feng Yi had created and restored the Taihe Palace to its original state.

Without waiting for Xie Jianyu to explain himself, the King snatched the opportunity to speak up first, “Grandfather, this is all Jianyu’s fault. He wants to usurp the throne! I had no choice but to retaliate.”

Ba He, who was standing behind Xie Jianyu, immediately spat, “You were the one who wanted to kill His Highness first, he was the one who had no choice but to retaliate!”

Ba He then quickly explained everything that had happened from how the King had dispatched Xie Jianyu to the Xia Kingdom. As Xie Yuan listened, his brows knitted together as he looked at the King with increasing disapproval. The King’s face paled immediately. He did not think that his grandfather, who had never cared about the disputes between him and Xie Jianyu, had now been summoned here. The worst part was that Xie Jianyu had another important witness – Hu Lie. His grandfather was not one to be fooled, it was easy for him to know if Hu Lie’s words were the truth or a lie. If the King had known that this would happen, he would have killed off Hu Lie from the beginning. Perhaps, it would not be too late to get rid of Hu Lie now.

The King glanced at Sun Wu, wanting him to kill off Hu Lie.

Even though his actions were discreet, Xie Yuan caught it. With a huff, Sun Wu exerted even more pressure on Sun Wu, causing him to cough up blood and curl into a ball from the pain.

This was the power of a Demigod – Martial Sages stood no chance against them.

From this scene alone, Gu Lingzhi could finally see the clear gap between Martial Sages and Demigods.

When she was in the Sacred Lands, there had been no conflict between Demigods and the Martial Sages, thus she could never truly understand the difference in power between both these ranks. When a group of Martial Sages and Demigods had gotten together to kill Pan Wuyue, they had also confined their spiritual energy as they did not want to implicate innocent bystanders.

Of course, Sun Wu had used a lot of spiritual energy in combat earlier, thus he was already weaker. Yet, the difference in power between Sun Wu and Xie Yuan was shockingly huge. When she thought of how Mei Ying had once beaten a Demigod when he was only a Martial Sage, she looked at Rong Yuan, full of hope.

If others could do it, so could she and Rong Yuan!

Xie Yuan subdued Sun Wu so easily that others did not dare to move. Xie Yuan looked at the King strictly, “You fool! Do you seriously think that I would not have found out about something like this? The future of the Fengyang Kingdom is not up to you to decide. I was hoping that what happened at the North Qiu Kingdom’s Secret Territory would be enough to wake you up. Yet, you are still such a fool. Since it has come to this, maybe it’s better if you give your throne to someone else.”

“Grandfather…?” the King was speechless. “Grandfather, you can’t do this, the throne was given to me by my father!”

Xie Yuan looked at him coldly, “Are you saying that I lack the ability to be the King?”

The King was rendered speechless once again. Xie Yuan was right. The King would have to listen to Xie Yuan no matter what because his cultivation was nowhere as high as his grandfather’s. This was how the Tianyuan Continent operated. The strong were always respected.

It was at this moment when Rong Yuan and Gu Lingzhi realized that they could no longer interfere.

Though the King of the Fengyang Kingdom had been brainwashed by the North Qiu Kingdom, it was not the case for Xie Yuan. Just as Rong Yuan and Gu Lingzhi felt relieved, they suddenly heard Xie Yuan’s laughter from the side. “The Third Prince of the Xia Kingdom, the Third Prince’s Consort and Hua Qingcheng, you’ve come such a long way to the Fengyang Kingdom, let us be your hosts!”

Rong Yuan pinched Gu Lingzhi’s hand gently so that she would not worry. He smiled and responded, “It’s nice to meet you, Elder Xie Yuan. We apologize for coming here uninvited, I hope you do not take it to heart.”

“Why would I?” Xie Yuan laughed, “It is all because of you that we’ve found out about the North Qiu Kingdom’s schemes. You’re extremely welcome here.”

Though it was a polite greeting, Gu Lingzhi could clearly see the dissatisfaction in Xie Yuan’s eyes. When she thought about it, it was not surprising after all, because no elder would wish for outsiders to witness their internal family struggles.

When others had heard what Xie Yuan had said, they looked at Rong Yuan and Gu Lingzhi in shock. Previously, they had already felt that they looked familiar, they did not think that it would be the Xia Kingdom’s Third Prince and Hua Qingcheng. The other two people would be Imperial Consort Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan’s bodyguard, Rong Yuan.

Then, the King of the Fengyang Kingdom made use of this opportunity to feign anger, “You bastard! How dare you collude with outsiders to usurp the throne? Aren’t you scared that they might betray you?”

“You’re the traitor!” Gu Lingzhi retorted, “You were the one who wanted full control of the Fengyang Kingdom, so you sent the Prince Yi to the Xia Kingdom to die. He had no choice but to retaliate!”

“That’s right, our master is nowhere as cunning as you!” Ba He added on. Ba He was curious about Gu Lingzhi, who had managed to get to the seventh level of the Spirit Tribe’s main palace.

Rong Yuan was rumored to be the most likely Martial Artist to become a True God, so it was not surprising that he was able to get to the seventh level of the main palace. However, Gu Lingzhi had done the same, and she had even managed to get into the fifth and sixth level multiple times which was unbelievable to him. If it was not for the fact that he was busy fighting alongside Xie Jianyu in getting rid of the gangs, he would have liked to go to the main palace to try the challenge for himself.

Whilst everyone on Xie Jianyu’s side was curious about Gu Lingzhi, everyone on the King’s side was the complete opposite. They looked at her with hatred.

“Grandfather, I’m the one who brought the Third Prince and his friends here today. Please do not blame them,” Xie Jianyu spoke up for Rong Yuan before the King could say anything. Although it seemed unwise of him to do so in a situation like this, anyone could tell that Xie Jianyu was someone that held his relationships with people in high regard. After all, when they were in the Fenlan Painting, he had thought of letting the King go after all.

“Do you think I’m stupid like him?” Xie Yuan looked at the King. Suddenly, the King, Xie Jianyu, Rong Yuan, Gu Lingzhi, Hua Qingcheng and Yuan Zheng felt a surge of energy and in the next second, they reappeared in a place that looked like someone’s study.

Before they had time to react, Xie Yuan said, “Jianyuan, when your father passed the throne to you, I felt that something was off. I did not think that you were more foolish than I had expected. How dare you make the foolish decision of working together with the North Qiu Kingdom, do you know what the consequences of your decision are?”

“I… I…” Xie Jianyuan panicked from Xie Yuan’s scolding and was momentarily unable to reply. At long last, he clenched his teeth together before retorting, “Grandfather, how do you know that I’ve made the wrong decision when we don’t even know what’s going to happen yet? The North Qiu Kingdom has lots of insider information, I had no other choice but to swear allegiance to them!”

Xie Yuan laughed coldly in response, “Even if you had no choice, couldn’t you come up with other ways to deal with such a situation?”

Xie Jianyuan no longer knew what to say. Xie Yuan was right. It seemed to Xie Jianyuan that the North Qiu Kingdom did not have an absolute chance of winning if the other countries had formed up an alliance against them. However, despite this, he had still agreed to work with them. Xie Jianyuan could only give a pathetic laugh, “Grandfather, in your heart, I was never the right person to be the King. In order to prove to you that I have the ability to bring the Fengyang Kingdom to greater heights, I had no choice but to collude with the North Qiu Kingdom.”

A look of sadness flashed across Xie Jianyu’s eyes. “Since Father has passed the throne to you, you should prove that you are worthy of it. I never wanted to take the position away from you, the only reason why I decided to rid the country of gangs was because I did not want to let Father down, since he passed the Fengyang Badge to me. I did not have the intention of gaining favor from the people by doing that.”

“But you still did it!” Xie Jianyuan bellowed, “If you don’t believe me, why don’t you go outside and ask them? They wish for you to be the King more than I do. You’re the reason why things have come to this!”

At this point, Gu Lingzhi could no longer keep silent, so she decided to voice out. “You’re not as popular amongst the people compared to Prince Yi because you have not done anything worthy of their praise. You can only blame yourself for that!”

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