The Human Emperor

Chapter 2374: A Story

“This…”

Wang Chong was hesitant. He had never imagined that all of this would be due to him. He wanted to say some comforting words, but he didn’t know what to say.

“Heh, this doesn’t have that much to do with you. Even without this matter, I would have fallen into hibernation. In one year, I am only able to be awake for that very brief period. This is the curse Heaven placed on me. When something is gained, something must be lost,” Master Guangcheng indifferently said, apparently having comprehended everything.

“Is there nothing that can be done to change it?” Wang Chong said.

Master Guangcheng merely shook his head and smiled, and Wang Chong instantly fell silent.

“There’s not much time left. Before then, do you have the time to hear an old man’s story? It’s a story from a very long time ago,” Master Guangcheng said.

Wang Chong was rather surprised, but he still nodded.

Master Guangcheng had called it a story, but Wang Chong knew that it couldn’t be that simple.

“When someone has been sealed for too long, they start to want to talk to someone. Perhaps this is just what happens when one gets old.”

Master Guangcheng mocked himself, but very quickly, a look of recollection appeared in his eyes, his mind drifting far, far away.

“I’ve basically forgotten about my origins and background, as that was truly too, too long ago, and there wasn’t anything very special about it. But there is one thing that I am sure you already know. A very long time ago, I truly was a member of the Celestial God Organization, and I followed Heaven for a very long time. Although I wasn’t a member of the Supremes, my status was even higher. At that time, my relations with him were not as tense as they are now.

“One day, Heaven suddenly came to find me, saying that a crisis was coming, that in a short while, a soul from another world would arrive. He would bring disaster upon this world that would affect everyone.”

Wang Chong was slightly shaken by this news, and he suddenly understood something.

In the Celestial Palace, Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan had left three psychic brands. One had been for him, one had been for Little Nightmare, and the other had been for Master Guangcheng. But Master Guangcheng had never mentioned what was in his psychic brand.

It was clear that what he was saying was linked to that set of memories.

“Heaven told me that he needed me to do something. Before that seed had fully developed, he wanted me to find that soul, become his teacher, and control him from the shadows.

“I quickly found the person that Heaven spoke of. I had imagined many scenarios, but what I had not imagined was that the person Heaven spoke of was only a child of eleven or twelve years old.

“He knew nothing at all and could use no abilities. Even his martial arts were taught by me.

“The matter proceeded more smoothly than I expected. That child trusted me enormously, never once suspecting me. Moreover, as I interacted with him, I found that he was truthfully just an ordinary child, little different from other people. Moreover, he had ideas that were sometimes so childish and naive that you could laugh.”

Master Guangcheng suddenly paused, a gentle smile appearing on his face. He appeared to be immersed in those beautiful memories.

Wang Chong didn’t rush him, only emotionally sighed as he looked at Master Guangcheng.

He had already guessed at the relationship between Master Guangcheng and the Yellow Emperor back in the Celestial Palace. A story that had begun with deception would not have a very good end.

Heaven and Master Guangcheng had both been outstanding talents of the world. To countless people, they were legendary existences.

Heaven had designed a plan which Master Guangcheng had executed. But Heaven had underestimated one thing: human emotion. Master Guangcheng’s current expression said everything.

As the two interacted every day, and with Xuanyuan holding nothing back from Master Guangcheng, Master Guangcheng had unwittingly begun to truly treat Xuanyuan as his disciple, casting the initial plan to the back of his mind.

And Master Guangcheng’s next words verified Wang Chong’s theory.

“I… I was with him for ten-some years, guiding him and teaching him everything I knew.

“I watched him mature from a naive boy to a steady youth of some fame. With every step he took, I felt pride and joy. At some point, I forgot what my initial goal had been.”

Master Guangcheng sighed before continuing.

“But there are some things that can never be changed. No matter how unwilling I was, once those otherworldly invaders crossed through space and came to this place, nothing could be changed… War erupted—the Battle of Zhuolu that you are familiar with.”

“What?”

Wang Chong trembled in shock, his eyes flying open.

“The Battle of Zhuolu? Wasn’t that… the war between the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou?”

The Battle of Zhuolu was an ancient war that everyone was familiar with, a struggle for power in the Central Plains, a war between humans. But Master Guangcheng had just said that Chiyou’s side was actually the otherworldly invaders. This overturned everything he knew.

“Of course not!”

Master Guangcheng shook his head, but he was not at all surprised by Wang Chong’s reaction.

“Everything you know is just the result of our modifications of history. There are some things that ordinary people should not know. The true war was much more intense than you could imagine, on a much vaster scale than you know. Even though we controlled all the books and documents, we were still unable to completely cover up the matter.

“Moreover, many of the people who had taken part in this war were displeased by our efforts, and they attempted to use various special methods to record that war. Even within the Celestial God Organization, there were people who secretly recorded the matter. This is why you can still read a little about the war of that time,” Master Guangcheng calmly said.

“!!!”

Wang Chong’s mind was thrown into disarray by Master Guangcheng’s words. He had never imagined the truth to be this.

He had truly believed that the otherworldly invaders had not appeared in the last several thousand years. Wang Chong had never imagined that they had actually invaded more than one thousand years ago, during the era of the Yellow Emperor.

Though he felt shocked, Wang Chong knew that as an eyewitness to all of it, Master Guangcheng would not deceive him on this point.

Wang Chong also thought about many other things: Hanba, Bifang, Yinglong, Kuiniu… Chiyou’s eighty-one brothers, with bronze heads and iron bodies, who feasted on stone… Perhaps they were a reference to the otherworldly invaders?

The ‘bronze heads and iron bodies’ most likely referred to their armor, and as for eating stone, the otherworldly invaders consumed the world’s foundational energy. In areas they occupied, the earth would collapse. To the ancients, the otherworldly invaders must have seemed like they “ate stone”.

All of this had been expressed in very vague detail.

Still, Wang Chong was deeply shaken by this news.

Wang Chong also thought of something else.

Was this where the Yeluohe the Celestial God Organization used to support An Lushan came from? Wang Chong said to himself.

In the war of the northeast, An Lushan had commanded thirty thousand powerful Yeluohe. These Yeluohe had clearly been modified from the otherworldly invaders, and their bodies carried the special attributes of living otherworldly invaders.

This army had given Wang Chong a great shock, as Wang Chong had previously interacted with civilizations connected to the otherworldly invaders: the Landeshunger and Kegang. These were civilizations separated by more than ten thousand years, and the bodies of otherworldly invaders could not have remained so well-preserved for so long. But if they had been from the Yellow Emperor’s era, everything could be understood.

Master Guangcheng’s voice pulled Wang Chong’s mind back. “In that war, I accompanied him on the campaign trail, persuading one faction after another to join him. In the end, we formed a united army and defeated the otherworldly invaders. That child grew happier and happier, but I grew more and more worried.

“I knew that we wouldn’t have much time left together. One day, just when Little Grass had been revered by all the people of the world and was made Emperor, Heaven came to find me.”

A pained look appeared on Master Guangcheng’s face.

Wang Chong was silent. There was no need to speak about what had happened after this. After ten-some years of interaction, Master Guangcheng had long since begun to feel sentimental toward his would-be objective, treating him as his real disciple. He would have been incapable of executing Heaven’s plan.

“I strongly argued for Heaven to give up on his plan, but Heaven was deaf to my reasoning. According to Heaven, each Child of Destruction from another world would carry a special object. This was the first time in countless epochs that Heaven had an opportunity to seize this object for himself, so Heaven had been extremely cautious and careful. He could not allow failure, and he naturally would not permit anyone to stop him.

“By then, Heaven had already become completely obsessed.

“I finally understood that I would not be able to change his mind. After a great deal of hesitation, I finally decided to find Little Grass and tell him everything. Alas, I was too late.

“Heaven knew what I would be doing, and he was waiting for me midway.

“Heaven destroyed my physical body and sealed my soul into the mountains as a punishment for betraying him. As for Little Grass, not long afterward, he was tricked into the Celestial Palace, after which there was no longer any hope of salvaging the situation!”

Master Guangcheng painfully closed his eyes and fell silent.

Wang Chong fell silent. Even though he had already been to the Celestial Palace and knew about all that had happened, he was still greatly moved after hearing the story from Master Guangcheng’s mouth.

“In truth, Little Grass had already realized something, right?” Wang Chong suddenly said.