Master of Strange Dao

Trouble will also emerge.

When many people start having those thoughts and acting on them, no matter what, it's impossible to kill everyone.

At most, you kill a couple of outliers to warn others.

The stability of the court lies not in whether you can handle issues, because even if you can, it causes great damage; it lies in preventing problems from arising and stopping people from having improper thoughts.

The new emperor looked at the latest report. Dali had already stationed troops at the border, and he couldn't just sit idly by. He, too, could only mobilize troops to confront them at the border. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel⚑fire.net

A fight was unlikely, unfortunately, but who would dare to gamble on it? What if?

What if the situation changed? What if guns went off accidentally?

On the third day, at the grand court assembly, the new emperor was quite pleased to see an obstinate Imperial Censor finally step forward, indirectly suggesting that the Supreme Emperor was no longer responsible and should stay out of it, and now with all the maneuvers, Daqian might once again be engulfed in flames of war.

The people of Daqian had it hard; they hadn't had a few years of respite yet, and the benefits given by major factions to their disciples had been cut back.

Now, recruiting and mobilizing troops, where was the money to come from?

Burdening the people and wasting money, unnecessarily increasing warfare. Your Majesty, you shouldn't follow in the steps of the Supreme Emperor; you should be honest.

Anyway, the flowery language was essentially saying this.

The new emperor was very pleased and then completed the reputation of this Imperial Censor by killing him.

The meaning between the lines was: My father, the emperor, is wise and majestic, you shall not slander my father. Whoever speaks ill of my father, I will kill them. If Dali wants to fight, then we will teach them a lesson. After all, my father wasn't wrong.

A group of courtiers felt uncomfortable, but couldn't say openly that filial piety to the Supreme Emperor was wrong, or that standing firm against Dali now was wrong.

However, seeing the new emperor's urgent demeanor, a few exchanged unexpected glances, feeling perhaps that the Supreme Emperor, after losing the crown's blessing, was truly declining.

...

In the secluded meditation chamber, the Old Emperor Qian was digesting the benefits gained from this tribulation-crossing, his eyes deepened with confusion.

Why?

Why did this happen? It shouldn't have. Even before he felt any pressure, the tribulation was over.

He could never know why. Yu Ziqing just stood there, doing nothing, and even if Lu Bu was reborn, the Heavenly Tribulation would actively avoid Yu Ziqing, and if it couldn't, it would hastily end.

Let alone spying anything from within the tribulation clouds, any traces that might have been left were swept clean by the clouds, not even captured by the Shadow Great Mirror.

Qingping stood aside, watching Old Emperor Qian full of doubt, and spoke.

"Could it be that something I previously comprehended has mistakes?"

Old Emperor Qian remained silent. Indeed, there seemed no other possibilities.

His Refining God reconstruction borrowed from Qingping's insights.

Which means, the presence in the Void was still not honest, secretly holding back.

Causing his Refining God reconstruction not to be as strong as expected.

Originally, this tribulation should have ended, but now there must be a next one.

At first glance, it seemed passing tribulations twice would bring twice the benefits.

In reality, there was a qualitative difference.

Ten low-grade tribulations combined wouldn't yield more benefits than one high-grade tribulation.

At his Realm, such benefits are exceedingly apparent, much like increasing the upper limit.

The initial intent to raise the upper limit of a small Realm turned into something barely better than nothing—it was unacceptable.

Old Emperor Qian considered all possibilities, but given the direct correlation between the tribulation and his own power, this blame could only fall on the Cliff Divine King.

He set a trap for the Cliff Divine King, who in turn returned the favor—it was quite reasonable.

As for whether it was true or not? Was there any evidence?

For such matters, evidence wasn't required.

Just eliminate other possibilities one by one, and when only one suspect remains, that's it.

...

On the Void Cliff, the aura of the Cliff Divine King constantly changed; he was practicing the Refining God Technique, imitating the ways of the human race in cultivation.

He didn't follow any specific Dharma Method for cultivation but integrated and combined them to cultivate.

He intended to carve out his own path, then fuse it into his own Dao.

Now, this path has reached the Ninth Tier Peak; he was attempting to integrate it into his own Dao.

Using this as a fulcrum to leverage the entire Refining God Dao.

The integration began smoothly, and once fully integrated, transformations appeared.

His body began to disintegrate, and his Dao started twisting.

The traps embedded within should have surfaced long before, but the Cliff Divine King was too strong, so even the winding paths were navigated by him.

Relying purely on his own strength, it was difficult, but he still managed to traverse them.

When he truly began integrating into his own Dao, a straight avenue merged with a crooked path, causing distortions from the most fundamental level.

The Cliff Divine King lacked a physical body; his body was a True Form, and after beginning disintegration, it aligned with the Soul Refining Realm, the eighth stage of the Refining God Dao, melding the essence of the physical body into the Yang God, to accomplish a Primordial Spirit, making resurrection simple even after the destruction of the body.

Even a mere Primordial Spirit was considered a complete entity.

Unfortunately, the True Form of the Cliff Divine King was aligned with this physical essence.

And now, with the integration of the Dao, it began to disintegrate the True Form of the Cliff Divine King, using it as nourishment to grow the Primordial Spirit.

If he lost his True Form and truly cultivated a complete version of the Primordial Spirit, he might indeed become stronger.

By integrating the path he had carved into his own Dao, using it as a fulcrum to leverage the entire Refining God Dao and then completely seizing it—indeed, it would be possible.