Chapter 77#
Ascending the Throne#
Heavenly thunder falls, wind and clouds rise; ten die, none live.
Since ancient times, breaking through a realm and undergoing a tribulation has been most perilous, especially the Spirit Transformation stage tribulation.
Yin Yuheng looked up. The Star-Plucking Platform was shrouded by a great formation and did not connect with the outside world. The so-called canopy was also constructed by the formation, where only stars rotated regardless of day or night.
But at this moment, a rift was torn in the stellar trajectories above his head, revealing the heavy tribulation clouds outside the formation.
“How can there be a Spirit Transformation stage tribulation?” Xiao Bai said in a panic. “Clearly, you haven’t reached the Spirit Transformation stage yet…”
Black clouds pressed down on the city, their terrifying pressure making one tremble. Yin Yuheng only withdrew his gaze and said indifferently, “Perhaps it wants to kill me.”
“Ah?” Xiao Bai was stunned.
“Because I’m not a protagonist willing to follow the script properly? The recent plot has already veered off to who-knows-where.” Yin Yuheng smiled slightly. “It hasn’t just been a day or two; it’s finally reached its limit, I suppose.”
The expression on Yin Yuheng’s face was very calm. “But the movements of heaven are constant; even the Heavenly Dao cannot act willfully. Nine bolts of Nine-Turn Purple Lightning—I’m curious to see how many it can strike down.”
The Nine-Turn Purple Lightning crashed down, splitting the clouds and entering the Star-Plucking Platform!
Yin Yuheng did not move.
At the same time, the palace lamps on the ninety-nine steps of the Star-Plucking Platform, which had been extinguished for ages, lit up in an instant like countless points of starlight, casting a glow over the originally pitch-black heart of the formation. The entire Star-Plucking Platform formation sensed the threat from the high heavens and activated fully in an instant.
Boom—
The falling lightning struck above the Star-Plucking Platform formation. The collision of spiritual energy exploded into ripples, spreading towards all parts of Chaoge City. The spiritual energy fluctuations were quickly blocked by the activated formations of Chaoge, sparing the pedestrians on the streets.
Yin Yuheng still stood in place, his hair rising and falling in the wind, completely unharmed.
The Star-Plucking Platform formation was connected to the Li Dynasty’s earth veins, based on the Yin bloodline and sacrificed by the Human Sovereign. It was the foundation of the entire Li Dynasty; even lightning from the high heavens could not easily shake it!
Xiao Bai was startled by the thunder just now and breathed a sigh of relief: “Fortunately, it’s still safe inside the formation.”
Yin Yuheng smiled softly, then ascended the steps, standing on the highest level of the Star-Plucking Platform.
As the direct descendant of the Yin imperial family, he knew how to control the changes in the formation. With a thought, the stellar trajectories formed by the formation completely dissipated, revealing the real sky of Chaoge.
Xiao Bai immediately became nervous again, nearly crying in anxiety: “Ahhh, Brother Heng, why did you remove the formation?”
The second bolt of lightning was gathering in the sky, purple lightning surging and weaving through the clouds.
Even if Yin Yuheng was a celestial talent, he was still too young, and his cultivation was nowhere near the Spirit Transformation stage. Without the formation, how could he possibly resist a Spirit Transformation stage tribulation?
“Don’t be afraid,” Yin Yuheng comforted softly.
“I want everyone to be able to see me.”
Yin Yuheng looked up slightly. After the formation was removed, what unfolded before him was the vast Chaoge City.
Streets and alleys crisscrossed; looking down from above, this ancient city was like a giant chessboard. The towering and vast palace city, the solemn and dignified State Preceptor’s Manor… and countless people.
Yin Yuheng saw some people looking up in panic at the tribulation clouds in the sky, and others hurrying to find shelter. A book peddler on the street stuffed “Basic Cultivation” into his cart, trying to leave; a teacher explaining cultivation methods to the public stood on a high building, leaning against the railing and watching…
This was Chaoge City, the Chaoge City of countless ordinary people.
In the great reform that Yin Yuheng had exchanged his “death” for, the aristocratic families and sects that monopolized cultivation resources had completely declined. Countless new and flourishing things were budding, starting from Chaoge and spreading to every corner of the Li Dynasty.
The newly built libraries for cultivation classics in various places were thriving, and everyone could borrow books; cultivation was no longer a legendary matter. Most libraries were named with “Yu,” to remember a person who had not appeared for a long time—
Had something happened to him? Was he being retaliated against by the aristocratic families? Or was he really in seclusion? Everyone harbored worries in their hearts.
And at this moment, Yin Yuheng saw the crowd, and the crowd saw him.
First, someone saw the figure on the high platform and shouted blankly, “It’s the Crown Prince!” Then more people looked up, gazing towards the Star-Plucking Platform.
The originally scattered crowd began to gather, and the noise grew.
The Crown Prince is back!
The Crown Prince really is fine!
I heard His Highness was injured before… it’s good that he’s back.
Yin Yuheng seemed to hear some of it. He smiled indifferently, gently raised his hand, and made a downward pressing motion.
Thus, the multitude fell silent.
Yin Yuheng stood on the high platform. At this moment, the heavy black tribulation clouds in the sky became his backdrop. Some people easily become the focus of thousands; countless eyes converged, filled with reverence, expectation, and joy.
Standing at the center of these gazes, at the center of the Star-Plucking Platform formation, Yin Yuheng suddenly felt something.
In this instant, he seemed to resonate with the Star-Plucking Platform formation that connected the spiritual veins of the world. It was a wonderful feeling, inexpressible and inscrutable.
He felt a strange power surging towards him, washing through his spiritual veins, cleansing away the old injuries and hidden pains on his body. He felt the vastness of the land, the power to turn clouds into rain at the pinnacle of authority, and he also felt a heavy weight—
It was the weight of the land, the weight of responsibility.
But Yin Yuheng did not flinch. His back was straight, his demeanor steady and calm, like an unstoppable unsheathed sword.
Yin Yuheng took out the item he had brought when he left home today: the succession edict of the Li Dynasty Emperor. His father hadn’t taken it when he went into seclusion, leaving it to him along with the Imperial Seal. All this time, Yin Yuheng hadn’t touched the succession edict, and he kept the Imperial Seal by his side as proof of the Crown Prince’s regency.
But today, perhaps it was time for this edict to be opened.
Whether it was Li Guanghan or Lu Yan, they both sensed the coming changes in the world. The Li Dynasty needed someone to stand up and lead this newly reformed dynasty forward.
Coincidentally, someone was the focus of everyone’s hopes.
The tribulation clouds in the sky continued to churn, yet they hesitated to fall.
————
Li Guanghan hurried to the bottom of the Star-Plucking Platform but gradually slowed his pace.
As a Spirit Transformation stage cultivator, he could sensitively feel the changes and flow of spiritual energy, and even the changes in heavenly fortune.
At this moment, he stared blankly at the figure on the Star-Plucking Platform that had appeared in his dreams countless times. Suddenly, he felt as he did years ago in the palace city when he saw the Emperor of the Li Dynasty.
Distant, vast, and unfathomable.
Yin Yuheng was not old, and his cultivation naturally couldn’t be deep enough to make a Spirit Transformation stage cultivator feel he was unfathomable. What gave Li Guanghan this feeling was the Human Race Fortune upon Yin Yuheng.
The Sovereign of the Li Dynasty was also the Emperor of the Human Race, a ruler in whom the fortune of the human race converged. Since the last Sovereign went into seclusion, no figure who could gather the hearts of the people had appeared, until today.
The tribulation clouds and purple lightning in the sky were still roaring, yet they hesitated, not daring to strike. The lightning tribulation that had come with such aggressive momentum now showed signs of a hasty retreat.
Perhaps the Heavenly Dao was also wary—
A single person’s strength might be small, but what if the fortune of the entire world was added to that one person?
Entering the Dao through the human way, taking the world as one’s heart.
The fortune of the world converged, washing and reshaping Yin Yuheng’s spiritual veins, and tempering his Dao heart. From then on, as long as the human race did not perish, his path would not be destroyed, because he carried the will of the entire Li Dynasty.
Li Guanghan stood below, maintaining a posture of looking up, his hands suddenly trembling slightly.
The youth who had once pulled him back to the human world from hell, the child who had been hurt by him and fallen in a pool of blood… he didn’t know when, but the youth had stepped by step walked so high and so far.
So far that he could not touch him.
He had once ignored him and hurt him, and later wishfully wanted to make amends. But in reality, Yin Yuheng never needed anyone’s pity or repentance.
One born brilliant would not fear temporary hardships, nor would they deign to care for belated regret.
Li Guanghan felt a sour mixture of emotions in his heart. Looking up at Yin Yuheng from a new perspective, a tear suddenly fell.
He felt he had truly done many things wrong.
Extracting blood, digging out spiritual roots… he seemed to have been using wrong methods to defile a person as proud as the sun and moon.
Li Guanghan saw the young man on the high platform unfolding the golden edict.
Li Guanghan knew what that was. When the old Emperor went into seclusion, he had solemnly entrusted the young Crown Prince to him, asking him to safeguard the Li Dynasty’s stability and protect the young Crown Prince as he grew up. The succession edict had been written long ago, as the old Emperor had already sensed he would not return.
But Li Guanghan himself, entrusted with this task, had failed to fulfill his duty.
The golden edict contained the pressure and spiritual power left by the old Emperor. Following Yin Yuheng’s movements, everyone around trembled slightly.
Standing below the Star-Plucking Platform, Li Guanghan knew that from now on, the young man in the distance would be the supreme existence of the Li Dynasty.
But even with the blessing of the Human Race Fortune, Yin Yuheng was still young and would ultimately need some help and support.
Li Guanghan bowed low and, in front of the public, finally knelt on one knee.
Some people looked at him in surprise, but Li Guanghan slowly said in a clear voice, “The Crown Prince has returned, and the succession edict is out. He shall ascend the throne as Emperor! I am willing to be at His Majesty’s disposal.”
Li Guanghan suddenly felt that if they could be monarch and subject, and he could be the sharpest sword in Yuheng’s hand whenever Yuheng needed, it might not be a bad ending.