The fact that the imperial capital’s grand spell formation was powered up to its highest level of scanning right when Xu Qing came could either be a very big coincidence, or it was as the Captain had said, and it was all intentional.

The reality was that the Captain was right. As Xu Qing and his group stopped outside of the grand spell formation, there were people inside the imperial capital who were chuckling coldly. And there were many organizations in the capital who were watching to see what would happen.

To them, Xu Qing and these people from Sea-Sealing County were all strangers. Though they knew some of them had impressive backgrounds, all of their information came solely from intelligence reports. None had interacted with any of them personally. In the imperial capital, where relationships were extremely complicated, and it was always hard to tell what people were thinking, one had to be very careful around strangers.

Therefore, most organizations in the capital wanted to just wait to see how things played out. They were more than happy to watch the results of other people meddling. That would also give them a good idea of how they should act in the future. After all, there was no black or white in this world. Alliances and loyalties. Profits and losses. Those were the things which drove action. Friendship and hatred were like masks that could be switched on a whim.

Sometimes such changes happened in an instant, other times they took a long time. But everything was always done out of expediency. It was the same with humans and nonhumans alike. It was just the natural order of things, and also a key factor in any society.

As they became the center of attention, the Captain smiled and looked at Xu Qing.

“What do you think, little Junior Brother?”

Xu Qing’s expression remained neutral as he looked at the spell formation. “Since people want a show, let’s give it to them.”

He walked toward the spell formation. He had faith in the violet crystal. Neither Emperor Ancient Spirit nor Crimson Mother had noticed it, so he doubted this spell formation would be able to either. Other than the violet crystal, Xu Qing didn’t have anything he felt the need to hide.

As he entered the range of the spell formation, ripples flowed out, covering him. The scanning… had begun.

The moment the power of scanning was unleashed, the spell formation vibrated and sent out a stream of dazzling blue light. That blue color was the spell formation’s way of indicating the threat level of the person being scanned.

Xu Qing could sense that this development was because of his god body. Clearly, his fleshly body was provoking a reaction in the spell formation.

Inside the imperial capital, various parties looked on thoughtfully. When they saw the blue light, they were surprised. However, as Xu Qing continued walking, and the scanning power went deeper, the spell formation color changed. It went from blue to yellow. Loud rumblings sounds rose up!

Xu Qing could sense why it was happening. It was because of his god troves. In fact, the air behind him rippled as his god troves became visible.

The nobility in the capital would have been fine with such an outcome. Yellow light was acceptable. But then, in the blink of an eye, their hearts leaped into their throats as the spell formation scanned a little metal ball that Xu Qing kept at his waist. As soon as the spell formation touched that ball, it floated up and emitted blinding light!

The imperial capital’s spell formation made a loud whining noise, almost anxious. That instantly captured the attention of everyone looking on. What was more, the spell formation changed from yellow to orange!

It was a strong warning, indicating that the subject of the scan was extremely dangerous!

Princess Anhai’s expression flickered, and as she looked at Xu Qing in the spell formation, she felt deep astonishment.

He really does have a Dawning Sun!

But things were far from over yet. Xu Qing took another step forward, and Crimson Mother’s flesh in his god troves and bag of holding caused blood-colored light to glitter around him. That blood-colored light filled the surroundings with the aura of a god. In response, the spell formation erupted, and all the nearby black towers shook violently. This time, the light coming from the spell formation turned pure red! The color red was a huge warning sign!

All organizations in the imperial capital were now watching very seriously. The parties who had secretly arranged for this to play out were looking on with grave expressions.

“Crimson Mother’s flesh!”

“According to the stories, he just helped out a bit. But that’s obviously nonsense! You can tell just by looking at him right now!”

“He didn’t just participate in killing Crimson Mother. He got some actual flesh!”

Meanwhile, Xu Qing had begun the process of combining some of Crimson Mother’s flesh with the ancient sun, leading to an even more astounding result. This was not simply a matter of adding one thing to another….

In the blink of an eye, the spell formation’s color went from red to black!! All lands in the imperial capital were shaken. All of the defenses for this core area of humankind flared to life. Ancient bells and drums rang out in the capital.

Ding… dong… ding….

The ancient bells shook heaven and earth. The hearts of everyone raced. All parties in the imperial capital were visibly taken aback.

Next, a host of terrifying auras from within the imperial capital locked down the area.

The Captain was startled, and everyone from Sea-Sealing County looked around with grim expressions. Li Yunshan’s eyes shone with cold light, and Plumdark’s eyes glittered mysteriously as she looked at Planet Ancient Emperor. The cloud cover on the planet stirred imperceptibly. It seemed like a catastrophe could strike at any moment.

That was when the Captain raised his voice and said, “The region lord of our Holytide Region has come here at the behest of the emperor himself. And yet people are using this spell formation to humiliate him? To try to force him to tap into his reserve powers? What’s the meaning of this?

“Could it be that someone wants to sow discord between the Holytide and Imperial Regions? Does someone really want to fracture humankind at a time like this? How… devious and malicious!”

The people who had orchestrated this behind the scenes were stunned. The truth was that they had hoped to probe Xu Qing. However, the result was far, far beyond anything they had predicted would happen! In fact, it had reached a level they couldn’t deal with.

They had just wanted to intimidate Xu Qing a little bit, not unleash a tempest. In fact, things had already reached the point of slipping out of control, which they couldn’t let happen. The black-colored warning indicated an extremely dangerous threat. What was more, people could tell that everything was happening because of the spell formation’s reaction; Xu Qing wasn’t doing anything to make it happen.

An instant later, various people took steps to end the interference with the spell formation. Tongue-lashings were given. And the Administration Division, which was responsible for maintaining the spell formation, stepped in. Almost instantly, the fluctuations coming off the grand spell formation died down. After only a few breaths of time, the spell formation was back to normal, and was no longer scanning anyone.

The Captain, Li Yunshan, and Plumdark rushed over to Xu Qing, who stood there with his eyes closed. There, they performed incantation gestures to keep the surroundings under control.

As all parties were closely watching Xu Qing, his eyes opened. He had ceased combining Crimson Mother’s flesh and the ancient sun.

The Captain took a deep breath, looked at Xu Qing, and smiled wryly. He wasn’t completely sure what Xu Qing had been planning to do, but the thought scared him. Regardless, he had been able to sense that Xu Qing was about to do something crazy. As for the various groups in the Imperial Region… they sensed it too.

Plumdark didn’t say anything. She helped Xu Qing straighten out his garments. Her gaze was soft but determined as she looked into his eyes. He smiled and nodded at her. Then he looked at the Captain, blinked a few times, and finally turned his attention to the path ahead. The now-calm spell formation opened up for him, allowing him and the others from Sea-Sealing County to enter without hindrance.

Once inside the imperial capital, Xu Qing looked ahead and saw a roadway of white jade stretching out in front of him. There were actually over a thousand such roadways in the inner ring. They shone like suns, casting out dazzling light as they linked together the urban areas with everything else.

That distant urban area was made of countless buildings. They had roofs with white tiles, and came in all sizes. Though they seemed ancient, they were also grand and magnificent. The architectural style alone was impressive. Scattered randomly were five-sided, three-story buildings that seemed especially unique. Everything was beautiful and refined, and when combined with the amazing architecture, it was no wonder this was the most imposing city that humans controlled.

There was one particular building that stood out among all the others. Though it was very far away, it was possible to see that it was an eight-sided tower, pure white, like a temple of heaven amongst the clouds. It was even taller than all of the statues.

With its peak among the clouds, and surrounded by swirling mists, it was just barely possible to see that the huge building was surrounded by flying animals. It looked very auspicious.

Princess Anhai took a deep breath, regained her composure, and walked over to Xu Qing. Noticing what he was looking at, she quietly said, “That’s the residence of the imperial preceptor. It’s called Star-Plucking Tower. The imperial preceptor is very mysterious, and generally refuses audiences except when summoned by my father, the emperor. In fact, I myself have only laid eyes on him once from behind.”

Xu Qing looked at Star-Plucking Tower and nodded.

“The imperial capital has the imperial palace, of course. But there are also the ten divisions, specifically, the Five Greater Celestial Divisions and the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions. 1

“It’s a very ancient system. Most of the other administrative districts have palaces associated with the Five Greater Celestial Divisions. Specifically those are: Swordsage, Justice, and Administration. But there’s also Special Operations, which handles foreign affairs and other special circumstances. Last is the division responsible for immortal skills and gods. The Creation Division. The Five Greater Celestial Divisions wield immense authority over humans, and also protect us against threats from the outside.

“As for the Five Lesser Celestial Divisions, they primarily focus on internal affairs. They include the Spiritual Governance Division, the Public Safety Division, the Official Affairs Division, the Education Division, and the People’s Division.”

Xu Qing’s gaze shifted from the Star-Plucking Tower to somewhere else off in the distance.

At the very far side of the urban area up ahead, he saw a road made of a rainbow. It was massive and shocking, and it rose off of the inner ring, through the void, and onto Planet Ancient Emperor.

Located at the end of that road, right where it met Planet Ancient Emperor, there was a massive, shocking imperial palace. The palace floated in the void, incredibly awe-inspiring as it glittered with golden light. It was filled with beautiful statues and paintings, bejeweled jade palaces, and intricate building complexes. It almost looked like a huge spell formation, and at the same time, served as the main entrance to Planet Ancient Emperor!

Even from a distance, it was possible to sense the boundless aura of Planet Ancient Emperor. And the imperial palace was part of that, making it very eye-catching.

As Princess Anhai continued with her introductions, and Xu Qing looked at the imperial palace, there was a gaze that originated in that very palace and landed on Xu Qing. That gaze then swiveled to Plumdark. After a time, it retracted.

***

In the looming Star-Plucking Tower stood the imperial preceptor, clad in a long, violet robe, his violet hair cascading down his back. His gaze was soft and warm as he looked down at the lands below. He smiled.

“You’re finally here, lil’ bro.”

***

Somewhere else in the city was a very busy, very loud, and very extravagant brothel that featured extraordinary architecture and fantastic building materials. Deep in the shrine hall of that brothel was a household shrine. Inside of it was a clay fox…. The clay fox stirred. Hēr nose twitched.

I smell your primal yang, you naughty little boy….

1. There are two bits of editing being done here that bear mentioning. First of all, the author did establish several hundred chapters ago that the imperial capital had “divisions” that oversaw the “palaces.” In this chapter, he seems to forget that, and just calls the imperial-level organizations “palaces.” Given that this was brought up several times previously, and also to make things crystal clear, I’m going to refer to the versions in the capital as “divisions.” The second thing is that, in a past chapter, the author had a different number of the “lesser” divisions, and also called them by a different name. For whatever reason, that changed as of this chapter, so that there are five “greater” and five “lesser” divisions. Since this particular point was only mentioned once before, I went back and changed the previous chapter for continuity’s sake. ☜