Chapter 282 The Empress’ Shock
Chapter 282 The Empress’ Shock
How to do it?
In a deserted courtyard in the lonely autumn day, on the second floor of an old building that has withstood six hundred years of wind and rain and is still mottled.
Zhao Duan and Xu Zhenguan stood opposite each other, only one step away from each other.
A beam of sunlight from a gap in the clouds hit right between the two of them.
Along the central axis of the armory, the open double wooden doors crossed the threshold and divided the stone tablet in the center of the house into two.
"Your Majesty... calm down."
Zhao Duan felt the weight of the sword gently pressing on his shoulder, his eyes sincere and serious, he did not dodge or avoid, but was calm and selfless.
At this distance, Xu Zhenguan could behead him with a simple turn of his wrist and the sharp Taia sword.
Perhaps, when the head falls to the ground, there won't be a drop of blood on the sword.
but……
As a female emperor in the "pseudo-celestial being" realm, if she really wanted to take someone's head, why would she go through the trouble of using a sword?
At this moment, Movie Emperor Zhao Duan was possessed.
He first said this respectfully while facing the empress's gaze, and then spoke his prepared speech without haste:
"Today, I have moved the sacred weapon without your Majesty's permission... This is my first crime."
"As a royal family worshiper, he broke into the arena privately, intending to imitate the previous emperor's period, but he ended up being the Heavenly Master... This is the second crime."
"I have committed the evil act of deceiving the emperor, and I have obtained a valuable treasure from the imperial court, but I have not reported it in time... This is my third crime."
Zhao Duan spoke every word clearly, and before the empress asked him to answer for his fault, he took the initiative to recite all his mistakes.
Then he slowly raised his hand and gently used two fingers to clamp the sword blade pressing on his shoulder. However, he did not push it away. Instead, he moved the sword blade closer to his neck and said bitterly:
"I know I have made a serious mistake, and I have no complaints about how Your Majesty handles it.
If it weren't for your Majesty's favor in the past, this head would have been lost long before I escaped from Zhuang Xiaocheng. My current glory is all due to your Majesty's grace. Now that your Majesty wants to take it, I will offer it to you."
As he said this, he closed his eyes, as if ready to be killed and die.
"..."
Xu Zhenguan's hand holding the sword did not move. His frosty, pretentious and stern face revealed a hint of helpless annoyance. How could he really cut him down?
After a moment of silence, Zhao Duan, who had closed his eyes and was waiting for death, felt the pressure on his shoulders suddenly eased, and the empress's voice seemed to be laughing out of anger:
"What a fool to accept death! In your eyes, am I such a tyrant who killed meritorious officials in vain?!"
Phew... I've passed the first level...
Zhao Duan breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, gave himself a thumbs up for his action, and quickly opened his eyes.
The empress turned sideways and stood facing the stacked armory buildings in the distance, leaving him with a cold and distinguished profile.
The priceless royal artifact was casually stabbed half an inch into the ground like a piece of scrap metal.
"My lord, I don't dare!"
Zhao Duan bowed deeply.
Scenes from movies and TV dramas where officials slid down on their knees and prostrated themselves on the ground flashed through his mind, but there was no rule of kneeling in the Dayu Dynasty, so he simply gave up.
"Don't dare? I see, you are quite 'daring'."
Xu Zhenguan looked unkind, with a sneer on his lips:
"I asked you a question just now, but you dared not answer it and even threatened to die. I am curious, who taught you? Was it Sun Lianying? Or Yuan Li?"
The two people who were inexplicably blamed for something suddenly shuddered in an unknown corner...
Zhao Duan knelt down:
"I just answered your majesty's question."
Xu Zhenguan was stunned for a moment, frowned and said:
"How...Are you saying that you deceived the emperor? You got a valuable treasure but didn't present it to him?"
Only then did she remember the third apology that the hateful guy had just made.
"Your Majesty is wise." Zhao Duan responded:
"Before today, I have never touched the Tai'a Sword, let alone 'come when called'? I can do this only because of a precious treasure."
Heavy treasure?
How come I don’t know what can be done…Xu Zhenguan was filled with doubts:
"What treasure? Where is it?"
"It's inside my body." Zhao Duan pointed to his lower abdomen with his hand.
"A piece of nonsense..."
Xu Zhenguan glanced at his waist, and a moment of shame and anger appeared on his pale face. He then realized that he had misunderstood him, and said in doubt:
"You mean Dantian Qihai?"
"That's right!" Zhao Duan did not keep the secret and said:
"I beg Your Majesty to use his great power to set up a barrier to prevent outsiders from spying on what is happening here. I will present the treasure to Your Majesty right now. Once Your Majesty sees it, you will understand everything."
"……allow."
Although Xu Zhenguan felt that this sounded strange, he couldn't resist his curiosity.
With a wave of her hand, a small seal flew to the top of the building in an instant.
As it slowly rotated, it cast an invisible barrier, isolating the entire courtyard.
Make sure that no matter how loud the noise here is, it cannot be heard outside.
Seeing that the preparation was sufficient, Zhao Duan immediately slapped his dantian with his hand and exhaled deeply!
boom!
At this moment, a golden light flashed in his Qi sea, and in the "sea" of condensed liquid Qi, the sleeping dragon soul awakened and was forcibly spat out from his mouth.
As soon as the half-foot-long, illusory dragon-shaped "god" appeared, dark clouds gathered over the small courtyard, accompanied by lightning and thunder.
The illusory golden dragon let out a majestic dragon roar, suddenly jumped up, followed the pavilion, and circled in the air!
Suddenly, the wind blew violently, and the surfaces of the five stone walls on the five floors of the entire pavilion all emitted a faint glow, as if in response.
For the first time, an expression of shock and disbelief appeared on Xu Zhenguan's dignified and graceful face!
She could no longer maintain her regal dignity, and she held onto the railing with both hands, raised her slender white neck, and stared with her phoenix eyes wide open at the illusory dragon-shaped aura hovering in the air.
He lost his voice and said, "Dragon Soul?!"
According to legend, Emperor Taizu practiced cultivation throughout his life, and the dragon soul remained after his death!
It is also the dragon soul that every emperor of the Dayu royal family has sought after throughout the dynasties!
She turned the imperial palace upside down and sensed its presence time and time again, but she could never find the dragon soul!
There was no need to identify it. With her level of cultivation, she could guess the origin of this thing with just one glance based on her mysterious intuition.
"This... is the treasure you mentioned?!"
Xu Zhenguan stood in the wind, suddenly turned his head, and stared at Zhao Duan in disbelief.
Zhao looked innocent:
"Your Majesty, I don't really know what this thing is, but I think it can be considered a treasure." Barely? Haha!
Xu Zhenguan was almost laughed out of anger by him. The dragon soul itself was not that powerful, and it might not be that precious even to people outside the Xu Dynasty.
But for the royal family, how can it be described as a treasure?
In her opinion, this is a relic of Taizu that is much more important than the Taia Sword.
At this moment, she was extremely grateful that she had just set up a powerful barrier, otherwise the birth of Dragon Soul would inevitably attract the attention of Zhang Yanyi and Abbot Xuanyin.
But even so, she still urged:
“Put it away!”
Zhao Duan was stunned for a moment, then said seriously:
"I dare not. The property should be returned to its original owner. Your Majesty should keep it."
Xu Zhenguan had a stern face and a dangerous look in his eyes:
"I told you to put it away before you speak."
It seemed as if there was a little man roaring in the empress's heart.
Didn't she try? But she had secretly made several moves just now, but she couldn't make Long Po look at her.
"oh oh……"
Zhao Duan nodded obediently and opened his mouth as if swallowing something. The flying dragon soul instantly turned into golden light, drilled into his mouth, and relocated itself in his sea of qi.
At the same time, Zhao Duan's face turned pale.
Because of this appearance, 90% of the Qi recovered in Dantian was swallowed up by Longpo in one gulp. It then reluctantly coiled up again and fell into a deep sleep.
This is not a killing weapon that a little god like him can use casually.
Zhao Duan suspected that even if he was fully prepared and summoned this thing to help in the battle, he would not be able to last more than ten seconds before he was beaten to a pulp.
This further strengthened his idea of presenting it to the Empress.
——It was because he had to give a reasonable explanation today, and also because, after being promoted to the God Chapter, he clearly sensed that although this thing was good, it also had some hidden dangers.
It’s not that Dragon Soul is harmful to him, but this thing is a "gold-eating beast" and he is not able to control it at all.
Instead, it may cause trouble.
On that day in Jizhao Temple, the snow-white Bodhisattva seemed to have seen something.
Therefore, he weighed the pros and cons again and again before deciding to offer his dragon soul in exchange for greater trust from the empress.
As Long Po fell asleep, the dark clouds on the roof also dissipated.
Silence returned to the surroundings, as if everything just now was just an illusion, only the barrier remained.
"His Majesty?"
At this moment, Zhao Duan noticed that the empress in front of him was staring at him with a look that was a bit scary.
He couldn't help but take a step back, feeling a sense of crisis like a good girl being targeted by a playboy.
The fairy-like empress took a deep breath, as if trying to calm her agitated emotions.
After a long while, Xu Zhenguan calmed down, stared deeply at the treacherous minister who was deceiving the emperor, and said:
"I need an explanation."
Zhao Duan immediately began to explain.
According to him, as his practice of the Martial God Diagram gradually deepened, the Emperor Taizu in the scroll became more and more vivid.
Especially after the last time he spent a night with the empress in the Yuanzu Temple in the palace, he noticed something different when he woke up.
But at that time I thought it was a change in my progress in spiritual practice, so I didn’t think much about it.
Until a few days ago when he was in seclusion, in the "small town under the green mountain", Emperor Taizu talked to him, showed him the dragon soul, and said that he would give him the Taia sword and teach him how to "open the sky".
After waking up, I had already entered the Divine Chapter Realm, and at the same time, this thing appeared in my Qi Sea...
Well, this statement is half true and half false, hiding the fact of the secret passage under the Yuanzu Temple.
The main thing is that this matter cannot be talked about. If it is spoken, it will mean that Zhao Duan has hidden the dragon soul and refused to hand it over, which would be really deceiving the emperor.
"So, Emperor Taizu said those words to you at the end of the Martial God Picture? And took out Tai'a?"
Xu Zhenguan listened quietly and asked expressionlessly.
"Yes," Zhao Duan nodded, and then hurriedly explained:
"However, I sternly refused at that time. The Tai'a Sword is a treasure of the royal family. How could an outsider like me get my hands on it?"
Xu Zhenguan stared at him and suddenly asked:
"When you first practiced the Martial God Diagram, how far were you from the top of the mountain? Hai Gongsheng said that you were not far from the foot of the mountain. You must have lied at that time."
The pressure from Zhao Duan staring at her was huge, so she gritted her teeth and said:
"I... did hide a lot from Eunuch Hai."
Well, he was talking about hiding it from the old eunuch, not hiding it from the empress.
Xu Zhenguan was not surprised at all and continued:
"I know that you must be extremely gifted to have such good fortune. How far were you from the top of the mountain that day? Did you reach the mountainside?"
Entering the Martial God Map, the closer the initial point is to the top of the mountain, the higher the match with the "Martial God" path.
When the empress appeared halfway up the mountain, she was already stunningly talented.
Zhao Duan hesitated for a moment and said honestly, "Almost."
Xu Zhenguan said unhappily, "How much is it approximately? I want to hear the truth!"
Zhao Duan looked embarrassed: "It's higher than halfway up the mountain."
Xu Zhenguan clenched his fists tightly in his sleeves, feeling unwilling to be outshined. Fortunately, this guy was still on par with him:
"How much higher?"
"A bit higher."
"How high is one section?"
"Probably... on the top of the mountain."
"..."
"..."
far away.
In the patio at the armory gate, an old eunuch in a python robe sat in a rocking chair, glancing into the depths, feeling the nearly invisible barrier.
Muttered softly:
"Young man, why are you hiding what you have to say from others?"
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(End of this chapter)