Zhang Boqian stood in the clouds, his daybreak origin shining like the rising sun.

The Radiant Emperor was surrounded in rolling black mist. Whenever the clouds began to fade, mist would surge out from the ground to supplement and reform them. The image of a soaring snake slowly appeared and spread its wings once more. Under the protection of those wings, the mountains, rivers, and states spread out like an ancient drawing.

Origin power explosions filled the area between the two combatants. The surprising thing was that the shockwaves only moved in a single plane and not even one bit of it dropped downward. That went to show how good their control was.

“Still lacking a little bit,” Zhang Boqian said slowly, the anger from before nowhere to be seen. The moment he crossed swords with the Radiant Emperor, he realized that this was a heavenly monarch challenge, one that had not been scheduled in advance.

In truth, the outcome was already evident with respect to the challenge. The Radiant Emperor had failed to cross the threshold of a heavenly monarch, but unlike most failed candidates, he had already opened up all the checkpoints—all he needed was accumulation.

The fight would turn into a stalemate if they kept on going. The entire Imperial Capital was the Emperor’s home ground—the founders of the Great Qin Empire had left countless secrets here that had been perfected with each generation. It was like a heavenly-monarch grade war machine. The only way for Zhang Boqian to win was to destroy the domain entirely, but that would leave the city in ruins.

Prince Greensun couldn’t do that even if he had the advantage. He had already sensed the Pointer and Profundity Monarchs on the ground; there was no way they would stand by and watch.

The Radiant Emperor was fairly calm. Failing to break through the threshold was within his expectations, but Zhang Boqian appearing at the Divination Pavilion was not.

He nodded, saying, “I thank Monarch Zhang for the pointers.”

Zhang Boqian said, “Since that’s the case, grant me one thing as a reward.”

The Emperor didn’t feign ignorance. “I know you and Marshal Lin are rivals, but you’re a heavenly monarch now. Why can you not let go?”

Zhang Boqian raised his brows. “Your Majesty, does your so-called ‘let go’ involve imprisoning a marshal and leader of the cabinet within the Divination Pavilion?”

The Radiant Emperor’s expression turned odd, but he didn’t reply immediately.

Zhang Boqian’s suppressive might increased, brewing a small origin tempest amidst the clouds.

At this moment, the Radiant Emperor stared at Zhang Boqian. “What else can I do? Must I drag him into my life or death battle with the Longevity Monarch?”

These words were spoken suddenly and without any form of disguise, revealing the bloody truth beneath the Imperial name.

Zhang Boqian was born to a major clan and named a duke’s heir from birth—that period was also a bloody past. After a momentary daze, he quickly realized that the Emperor’s current situation was contrary to what he had expected.

It would seem that the Pointer Monarch really had no idea about the details. There was no way to confirm whether Habsburg had misled him intentionally, whether it was just a fortunate coincidence, or if someone else was scheming behind the scenes.

It was just that the Emperor had endured for far too long. He would’ve been able to step firmly into the heavenly monarch realm next year, but something made it so that he couldn’t wait anymore.

Now that his cards were on the table, the Radiant Emperor spoke with shocking honesty, “The Longevity Monarch has been looking for ways to extend his life. He once obtained a demonkin secret art that would allow him to absorb vitality by absorbing one’s bloodline.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Boqian’s brows couldn’t help but twitch.

“He has probably tried the art on every race, both on the dead and living. That’s not a big problem, but he seems to believe that the disappointing outcome is because he hadn’t utilized the secret art to its greatest potential. The core theory of this demonkin secret art is the conservation of grand origins and keeping the apex of a bloodline constant. It states that outstanding relatives will share and thus weaken the grand origin.”

Zhang Boqian laughed. “Utter nonsense.”

The demonkin were a race that loved research. They had established various strange theories and secret arts with conflicting principles, many of which they themselves were still arguing about. This conservation of grand origin theory was fairly well known, but it was an evil doctrine even among the demonkin race. According to the hypothesis, the Demonkin Emperor would be able to level the Sacred Mountain if he were to devour all the other demonkin.

The Radiant Emperor tossed an origin array to Zhang Boqian.

The latter scanned the information at great speed. This was probably the most complete version of the war plan. Each route looked incredibly well-knit, with at least two pairs of candidates for the commander and deputy commander. The only thing that would raise eyebrows was that there were more Zhao clan members than the rest.

Zhang Boqian sneered. “Who assigned the personnel? Duke Chengen is the Emperor’s son-in-law, are they planning to have all of his wives take to the field?”

“The military suggested the list, I approved it.”

“I know that Qianye and Song Zining were selected for this route, but who’s in charge of the central route?”

“Whoever leads the army in the beginning, there will always be people asking Marshal Lin to take over after the fight breaks out.” This meant that the central route was so dangerous that only someone at Lin Xitang’s level could turn things around.

At this point, Zhang Boqian had realized that the military’s void continent attack-plan was trash. He broke into an angry laugh. “Who’s in charge of the eastern route?”

“Princess Haimi.”

“Lord Riverglance is more suited to lead the army.” Zhang Boqian offered his input.

“If something happens to me, Lord Riverglance is the best candidate to act as regent.”

Zhang Boqian looked up into the Emperor’s eyes. Only at this point did he realize that the problem with the candidate list wasn’t the Zhao clan but Imperial blood!

Haimi and Gaoyi were the previous emperor’s daughters, while Lord Riverglance was the previous emperor’s younger brother. Numerous princes were listed as deputy commanders, even the fourteenth prince, wielder of the Mortal Emperor. The second-choice candidates actually had no choice at all. This was no centralization! The reason the Zhao clan was drawn into this mess was because of their Imperial blood!

Thinking about the Longevity Monarch’s demonkin secret art, even Zhang Boqian didn’t know what to say. After a moment of silence, he said, “He’s crazy.”

“The fear of death will slowly drive one crazy.” The Radiant Emperor gave it some thought before adding, “As for those helping him, it’s hard to say if they’re dumb or bad.”

As it turned out, the war on the void continent was the Longevity Monarch’s death trap, and the changes in the palace was the Emperor’s desperate counterattack. No one knew how much effort Evernight had put in behind the scenes, or how many clans had been swept into this conflict.

This wasn’t just another internal conflict but a calamity at the heavenly monarch level! This was comparable to the incident thirty years ago when the Solemn Emperor had sealed the palace for ten days and buried all blood and tears under the ground. The Emperor couldn’t just announce what was happening today because, if a heavenly monarch would defect just to extend his life, that would signal the collapse of the human race’s faith.

The Evernight faction might already be getting ready to pounce!

“I met the Spider Queen’s projection at the border of the middle continents.”

“Evernight has never given up on scheming against my life. The movement this time was too big, so it’s not strange that it would attract the attention of the Sacred Mountain.” The Radiant Emperor was especially calm.

He had quietly taken control of the Emperor Domain under these perilous circumstances and commenced a heavenly monarch challenge before the time was right. His mention of a regent candidate also sounded like a dying wish. All of this went to show the severity of the conflicts that had taken place away from public eyes. It almost felt as though the smell of blood had filled the entire city.

It was a miracle that the Imperial Capital could keep things normal on the surface.

Zhang Boqian was astonished. “Is this the only reason?”

“Whether or not he has other aspirations, we’ll just have to ask him about it.”

“What is he planning on the void continent?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t have time to care.” The Radiant Emperor was fairly calm. “I’ve made every arrangement I can, but there is no way I will let Marshal Lin go into battle. So what you have in your hands is the upper limit of our losses.”

The void continent was a chess piece that no one could stop from being played. Even if the Empire didn’t mobilize, the Evernight faction would keep on fighting. Hence, all they could do now was to observe the outcome. Who was the victim and who was the schemer?

To be perfectly blunt, the casualties on the void continent were constant, and it was all in that list. Whoever survived would be a win for the Emperor and the Empire. The deaths at the capital, however, couldn’t even be estimated.

Zhang Boqian frowned. “What's wrong with Lin Xitang?”

“Drug withdrawal,” the Radiant Emperor replied. “Marshal Lin’s injury from the dark origin flames would affect him for up to three days at a time. The chill would invade his entire body, leaving him unable to move. He has been taking the Tigerwolf Pill to suppress these episodes for many years. Recently, he has reached a stage where he needs to take the medicine with extremely powerful fire poison for it to be effective. He’ll be in this state once he stops taking the medicine, unable to even stand up.”

Zhang Boqian secretly threw a torrent of insults at Gu Tuohai. “This can’t go on."

“The Imperial Doctor has already tried the best medicines we have. Actually, the dark origin flames are only a bit troublesome when they flare up, and the damage to his body is within an acceptable range. The actual trouble is the fire-poison remnants in his body, they’ve accumulated to a point where they can erupt any moment and need to be eliminated little by little. Marshal Lin will be able to stand up once the poison disperses over the next four days or so.”

Zhang Boqian said, “Treatment can be done anywhere. Staying in the Divination Pavilion wasn’t his choice, was it?”

“Then should I let him join the void continent war or the palace conflicts? Must I have him divine the new world or about the return of that Sacred Mountain character? Marshal Lin only has sixty years to live…” The Radiant Emperor stopped here and closed his eyes to hide the pain.

“Chronicle of Glory!” In the blink of an eye, an answer that had been shrouded in mystery cried out to him. Zhang Boqian’s expression shifted drastically. That was the reason Lin Xitang had gone against the heaven’s mysteries. How could ordinary divinations and strategy be worthy of that title? Forcibly inverting the Daybreak and Evernight system was the only heaven-defying way to touch the grand origins of this world.

Zhang Boqian’s phoenician eyes filled the sky with flashes of lightning. He had learned various secrets of the Empire after breaking through to the heavenly monarch realm, and the Chronicle of Glory was one of them. However, he never bothered with the details before. That name had become incomparably serious now that it was related to the actual operator, so much so that it was difficult to bear.

“All the divination sects were gravely injured after the war of the orthodoxies. The Chronicle of Glory was a heaven-defying move, to begin with. Lin Xitang had miraculously stabilized the star-trajectories on his own, but he paid for it with his own life-span and future. Even without his old injuries and external factors, he only has a few years to live.”

Zhang Boqian finally understood why Lin Xitang had never progressed past the celestial splendor stage. Since he was destined to live only sixty years, how was he to break through to the highest realm of the Art of Heaven’s Mystery, the “Four Pillars of Time”? The pain from the darkness origin flame was nothing compared to the collision of one’s life path and heavenly fate.