Sovereign of the Three Realms (WN)

Chapter 816: Emperor Peafowl’s Intentions

“No need to be surprised. It’s true that I wasn’t physically present at the time, but I did imbue a trace of my consciousness onto my successor’s coffin. It is this consciousness that had scanned the entirety of Veluriyam Capital.”

“Consciousness imbuement?” Jiang Chen was shocked. It wasn’t a technique that just anyone could perform. The cultivator first had to shear off a tiny shred of their own consciousness before they could imbue it onto a lifeless object. Just how powerful a cultivator must be before they could perform such a thing?

Normally speaking, it wasn’t difficult to imbue one’s consciousness onto a living object. For example, Jiang Chen often imbued his consciousness onto the Bewitching Lotus of Fire and Ice. There were plenty of experts who knew of this technique. It wasn’t a difficult thing to perform. But the imbuement of one’s consciousness on a lifeless object was a completely different league. The cultivator literally had to tear a part of their consciousness off to perform the technique. One must understand that a consciousness separated from its host body and wasn’t supported by a living being would quickly fall apart.

Emperor Peafowl had solidified this separated piece of his consciousness, imbued it onto a lifeless object and made it scan the entire city. Jiang Chen didn’t think it was something that just any great emperor could perform. Some of the surprise unconsciously showed on Jiang Chen’s face as he stared at Emperor Peafowl. However, Emperor Peafowl looked as calm and serene as ever. It was rumored that Emperor Peafowl was unable to pull free from the pain of losing his disciple, but Jiang Chen couldn’t sense such sadness from him at all. Not now, at least. Perhaps Emperor Peafowl was just good at concealing his pain?

Emperor Peafowl smiled when he saw Jiang Chen scanning his face, “What are you looking at?”

“Your insight is profound, so why don’t you venture a guess, Your Majesty?” Jiang Chen started playing games of mystery as well.

“Hehe, I shall do just that. You must be trying to detect a hint of pain or sadness from my expression, aren’t you?”

Jiang Chen smiled wryly, “You truly are all-seeing, Your Majesty.”

Emperor Peafowl answered smilingly, “Yet you found no such emotions from my face, no?”

Jiang Chen subconsciously nodded, “No, I haven’t.”

“Do you know why that is the case then?” Emperor Peafowl asked indifferently.

“I don’t,” Jiang Chen shook his head honestly. He was going to say that Emperor Peafowl was very good at concealing his emotions, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Maybe a magnanimous person like Emperor Peafowl had achieved supreme enlightenment and simply gotten over his loss?

Emperor Peafowl sighed softly before he suddenly spoke, “I have nothing to be sad of, because I am the one who killed him. It’s just that the outside world thought that he was killed by poison due to a mistake in his cultivation.”

“What?” Jiang Chen was shocked. His words were so shocking that Jiang Chen doubted if the man before him was really Emperor Peafowl for an instant. But once he thought through everything carefully, Jiang Chen thought that this Emperor Peafowl should be real. So why had Emperor Peafowl killed his beloved disciple?

“You are the only one I’ve told about this,” Emperor Peafowl said slowly.

Jiang Chen smiled wryly, “I’m feeling the burden of the situation then.”

“What burden is that? Are you wondering if this incident has something to do with you?”

Jiang Chen shook his head, “Your disciple was already dead before I arrived, so I am sure that it has nothing to do with me.”

Emperor Peafowl nodded, “It had nothing to do with you before, but now, it does.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I say this, because I felt like I’ve found an even better successor,” Emperor Peafowl’s eyes abruptly lit up. He looked at Jiang Chen with unconcealed praise.

“You mean me, Your Majesty?” Jiang Chen looked startled.

“Is there anyone else here?” Emperor Peafowl smiled faintly, “What you said earlier with your sworn brother makes a lot of sense: There is fate in everything. I do not know if it is your acute instinct or your unique perception, but I felt like taking you in as my disciple the moment you spoke about fate.”

“You wish to take me as your disciple?”

“So? Do you think your destiny in this matter has arrived?” Emperor Peafowl asked with a smile.

Jiang Chen was silent. He had crossed arms with many experts and seniors since he had started cultivating. For example, there was Ye Chonglou of Skylaurel Kingdom, and then the sect head of Precious Tree Sect. There was also Palace Head Dan Chi and Elder Yun Nie of Regal Pill Palace. They were all his seniors, but Jiang Chen called none of them his master. This was because Jiang Chen valued the relationship between master and disciple very highly.

There was nothing he particularly sought in martial dao, so he wasn’t particularly interested in taking a master. In fact, he’d always held a certain arrogance that maintained that there was likely no one in this world who could qualify as his master. It was just a kind of pride that he held in his heart. In reality, there were still plenty of experts who were stronger than him, even though this world couldn’t compare to the great divine plane he used to inhabit during his past life. In learning, there was no first or last. When one learns and progresses fast, then the last would become the first. But even then, it didn’t mean that no one was qualified to teach him. No matter how many memories he possessed from his past life, there were certain things that he could only learn and inherit in person. That was why Jiang Chen didn’t find the idea of a master repulsive even though he wasn’t really interested in it.

Even now, Jiang Chen didn’t feel particularly much like admitting Emperor Peafowl as his master. Or rather, he felt like it wasn’t time for that fated moment yet. Emperor Peafowl seemed to have expected his reaction, and smiled faintly, “I can wait… or at least I hope that I can last until that moment of fate arrives.”

Emperor Peafowl actually sounded a little aged when he spoke those words. A thought suddenly flashed through Jiang Chen’s mind, “If I may ask, Your Majesty, young lord Fan was described to be an incredibly outstanding person by everyone. It can’t be all fake, can it?”

Many people were full of praises when they spoke of young lord Fan. Wei Jie in particular was almost at the level of a mindless, diehard fan. Emperor Peafowl nodded, “It was all true -” Then, he immediately added, “- except for one thing, unfortunately.”

Jiang Chen looked startled, “What is it?”

“His identity,” Emperor Peafowl said indifferently, “He possessed the blood of the demon race in his veins. He hid it well, but for all of his brilliant schemes, I was the exception to his equation. My powers had long since exceeded his imagination.”

“The demon race?” Jiang Chen looked startled. Everyone, be it Chonglou or Palace Head Dan Chi, had more or less brought up the topic of the demon race back in the Myriad Domain. However, the demon race they described were comprised of scattered tidbits of extremely superficial information. They had nothing substantial to tell of.

Jiang Chen only knew that the demon race was part of the history of the Divine Abyss Continent, and was a powerful enemy of ancient times who’d invaded and settled the land. It was said that no peace would befall Divine Abyss Continent as long as they weren’t thoroughly exterminated.

“The demon race,” Emperor Peafowl’s voice was the same as ever. Surprisingly, the seriousness in Palace Head Dan Chi and everyone else’s voice when they talked about the demon race was absent from his tone.

“What kind of a race was the demon race?” Jiang Chen was curious.

“In the ancient times, people of foreign realms invaded the Divine Abyss Continent and started an ancient war that completely overturned its original power structure. The continent shattered, and the powers that existed was almost completely reshuffled and transformed into the way they are now. Later on, heaven’s orbit collapsed and the passage that those of foreign realms used to invade Divine Abyss Continent was closed off, but some of the foreign races had managed to take root here. Over time, they slowly became natives of the Divine Abyss Continent. The battle against the demon race continued until the last Great War of Demon Sealing. There, the demon race was defeated and the leaders of the demon races were sealed away. They had no choice but to go dark and lay low. But this didn’t mean that the demon race had accepted their fate. The demon race is born brutal, possessive and warlike. Their ultimate objective is to devour all bloodlines that exist on the Divine Abyss Continent and install the demon race as a sole ruler. If that day were to come, then the Divine Abyss Continent would lose all of its inheritances and become the Demon Abyss Continent instead.”

Jiang Chen listened quietly without interrupting Emperor Peafowl, but he inwardly felt quite surprised. If the demon race really was as brutal as they sounded, then why hadn’t the true experts of Myriad Abyss Island gotten involved? Could it be that the true heart of the Divine Abyss Continent was actually afraid of fighting against the demon race? Jiang Chen couldn’t think of anything despite mulling over the question.

Of course, Jiang Chen wasn’t particularly interested in these stories to begin with. Be it the demon race or the Divine Abyss Continent, Jiang Chen had never thought of himself as a native of the Divine Abyss Continent. What he cared for wasn’t the conflict between the demon race and the natives of the Divine Abyss Continent, but his friends and families if a demonic apocalypse were to arrive one day. His own slight indifference aside, Ye Chonglou and Palace Head Dan Chi had influenced him into paying some attention to the situation. He also understood that no one was safe if the sky was falling on everyone’s head.

“Jiang Chen, I’ve been waiting for you to ask me a question, but to my great surprise, you’ve not done so.”

“What question?”

“Your true identity. Why was I able to recognize you the moment you entered the city?”

Jiang Chen smiled wryly, “And why’s that?”

“The answer’s quite simple. A long time ago, I detected an abnormal phenomenon at the Precious Tree Sect of the Myriad Domain. Since then, I’ve begun collecting information about you and made plenty of calculations. Most others may not know that you are tied to that phenomenon, but I am well versed in the art of divination. After I tied together all the details I could gather and made my calculations, I concluded that all the evidence pointed towards you being the cause of that phenomenon.”

Jiang Chen was stunned. He was actually completely stumped for words. From the moment he’d been born, he had always thought that he was unique because he carried with him the skills of the divine plane. That was why he always thought little of the Divine Abyss Continent because he thought that the experts of this world were ultimately incomparable to the ones he’d seen in his past life. This thought had given birth to a tiny bit of contempt.

But Emperor Peafowl’s words suddenly made him realize that he was very, very wrong in his assumption. Be it the divine plane or the Divine Abyss Continent, anyone who could rise to the top possessed extraordinary talent and intelligence. For example, Emperor Peafowl might have been a ruler of a small world himself if he’d been born on the divine plane. It wasn’t that his talents were insufficient. It was just that this was as far as he could go within the confines of this world!

“The Mt. Rippling Mirage Pill Battles happened, and you were trapped in Mt. Rippling Mirage for two years. While the Great Scarlet Mid Region had invaded during the Myriad Grand Ceremony, you managed to escape safely from the invasion. When your sect was destroyed, you were able to escape the Eternal Celestial Capital’s ambush and escape confidently. You were even able to singlehandedly annihilate the Eternal Celestial Capital and the Ninesuns Sky Sect’s team… All of these events only goes to prove that you are a genius of great destiny.”

“Destiny?” A sharp gleam flashed past Jiang Chen’s eyes, “Your Majesty, can you see the threads of destiny?” Naturally, Jiang Chen wasn’t unaware of the theory of destiny. There were plenty of great people in the divine planes who knew how to observe destiny.

Destiny was supposed to be something that was indiscernible and untouchable. However, there were some people who were born with special eyes who could see views that no other could see. They could unlock the All-Seeing Eyes of the divine plane and see the threads of destiny! There were very few such people in this world, but all of them were top level geniuses.

Could this Emperor Peafowl possibly be a…