The night sky was calm.
Clad in black imperial robes, Bi"an stood before a waterfall and gazed into the starlight sky.
He liked nighttime best of all since, at night, he could see the star he most longed for:
The North Star, the Emperor Star.
“In a hundred thousand years, you’ve yet to give a single sign. I overcame eighty-one bolts of heavenly lightning, yet you didn"t react at all. Could it be that I’m not the true emperor in your eyes? Or is it just that I still need more time to develop?" Bi"an sighed as he gazed at the distant North Star, eyes filled with obsessive longing.
He wanted to take the throne. Within his own territory, he was called “His Majesty", but that didn"t matter. The G.o.d Emperor still stood above him, pressuring him from above and holding him back.
He was still just a subordinate.
In his heart, he longed to rebel and take power for himself, yet he needed a good and just reason to take action.
The Emperor Star.
That was the opportunity he’d been bitterly longing for.
The G.o.d Emperor had been in power since the Heavens and Earth were first formed. He hadn"t received any divine mandate from the Emperor Star. In the Upper Three Realms, no one had ever obtained its recognition. The person considered most likely to receive its divine mandate.....
Was him, Bi’an.
“How much longer are you planning to make me wait?" Bi"an muttered ceaselessly to himself. "You know that the Lord of Seven Stars has appeared; I didn’t send anyone at all to rope them in because I know full well: as long as I become emperor, they will inevitably stand by my side.”
Bi’an muttered to himself. In truth, he wasn’t like this all the time. It was just that the uproar resulting from the Lord of Seven Star’s appearance had sent ripples through his heart.
“Fine, I’ll just go on waiting, then.”
With that, he prepared to depart. However, just as he was about to leave, the North Pole Star, the Emperor Star, lit up.
The Emperor Star had chosen someone.
Major figures of every race within the Upper Three Realms sensed the change, and the first thought that popped into their heads was....
“Is it Bi’an?”
Many experts who hadn’t left seclusion in ages used their natal blood to perform divinations, but who would have thought....
Whoever the Emperor star had chosen, their ident.i.ty was obscured.
They failed to divine who exactly had won the Emperor Star’s approval, but at the very least they knew one thing for sure: it wasn’t Bi’an.
Many of them couldn"t help but laugh in contempt. They didn’t really care who it was, just so long as it wasn’t Bi’an.
And furthermore, they all knew Bi’an had always considered himself destined to receive the mandate of heaven, yet even after all this time, the Emperor Star had never lit for him….
Looking at it now, the whole thing was a joke, and in the future would absolutely be used to mock him.
“Who the h.e.l.l is it?!”
The instant the Emperor Star illuminated, Bi’an immediately performed his own divinations, but found that the person’s ident.i.ty had been obscured.
“Who the h.e.l.l is it?”
Black-robed Bi’an roared in maddened fury. At the same time, each one of the stars surrounding the Emperor Star illuminated as well.
“I failed to receive the mandate of heaven, I don’t believe it.”
After a long while, he finally managed to calm down. Expression grim, a sinister light flashed through his eyes.
"Chancellor."
“Your subordinate is here."
Before long, the Turtle Chancellor hobbled over to Bi"an"s waterfall.
“The North Star has made its choice. You’ve seen it too, I a.s.sume. ”
“Your subordinate indeed saw it," replied the Turtle Chancellor. "However, in my eyes, Your Majesty is the only G.o.d truly worthy of the mandate of heaven."
“That’s right, well said. I am the only one worthy of the mandate of heaven," said Bi"an. "I command you to immediately go seek out whoever it is that illuminated the Emperor Star. Once you’ve found them, there’s no need to report back. Just go ahead and….. kill them.”
“Understood.”
The Turtle Chancellor was on the verge of departure, but before he’d taken more than a few steps, Bi’an called out, “We can start preparing. Since the Emperor star hasn’t chosen me, I won"t believe in it any longer.”
In response, the Turtle Chancellor shook imperceptibly, then nodded, “Your subordinate shall go make arrangements."
……
The Emperor Star had illuminated.
The surrounding stars fell to Earth.
Within the hidden land, Fatty Yin reached out and pulled Xia Keke towards him, then stared warily at the others.
The atmosphere had suddenly grown tense.
Or you could say, Fatty Yin himself had grown tense.
Now, he suddenly recalled what Gu Zichen had said to him earlier.
Get closer to Ye Zichen.
In truth, Fatty wasn’t too keen on making friends. At first, he’d only helped out because Gu Zichen had asked him to look out for Ye Zichen.
As time pa.s.sed, he’d found that Ye Zichen was quite likable, so they"d grown a little closer.
But Gu Zichen had told him not to forget his place.
What sort of “place” was there to forget between friends? Fatty Yin hadn’t understood, but now.....
Ye Zichen had won the approval of the Emperor Star, and he himself had received an Auxiliary Star.
“No wonder, no wonder….”
Fatty couldn"t help but shake his head; now, he finally understood everything Gu Zichen had said to him back then.
Gu Zichen had already known this would happen.
To tell the truth, this was normally the sort of thing one ought to be excited about.
Ye Zichen had illuminated the Emperor Star, making him an absolute chosen of heaven, recipient of a divine mandate. In the future, he would absolutely become the one true Sovereign of the Upper Three Realms. As his minister and auxiliary star, he would be second only to the emperor and would stand above all others.
But…..
It had happened now, under these circ.u.mstances.
The current G.o.d Emperor maintained an iron grip on the throne. Besides him, Bi’an and countless other ambitious experts longed to claim power for themselves.
Since Ye Zichen had illuminated the Emperor Star, he would become the center of attention, and countless people would inevitably target him.
And now that Fatty had received an auxiliary star, he was doomed to get dragged into the fray.
He mourned this fate. The way he saw it, nothing mattered more than his life.
And now, there were so many witnesses…. More mouths meant more trouble; any one of them could potentially spread what had happened here. If that happened, his future was bleak....
The only one he considered a potentially trustworthy ally was Xia Keke, who had also received an auxiliary star.
“Don’t accuse me of not warning you. I’m absolutely not joking around here,” said Fatty, frowning intently at the others. “Of course, the way I see it, the safest thing to do is wipe all your memories of what just happened.”
Face grim, he reached out his hand.
Woosh.
A gentle wind pushed it back down.
“Fatty, what are you doing? All of them are trustworthy; even if they saw something, they definitely won’t say anything.”
A somewhat authoritative voice rung out, drawing everyone"s attention....
“Big Brother Zichen.”
“Zichen.”
“Lil’ Yan.”
That’s right, Ye Zichen and Su Yan had woken up, and at the exact time specified by Lady Providence; she hadn"t been even a second off.
“How strange! Don"t you guys think Big Brother Zichen has changed somehow?”
After the pleasant surprise war off, Xia Keke came to a sudden stop, then pressed her finger to her lips thoughtfully. In response, the others nodded lightly.
Ye Zichen smiled confidently, nodded to Su Yan, and the two of them descended from the skies. Now, even though he was smiling, he radiated might.
Imperial Authority.
“Kid, you… No, I can’t call you that anymore.”
Fatty Yin licked his lips, and after a moment’s hesitation, ceremonially rolled down his sleeves and knelt to the ground.
“Emperor Ye.”
Having illuminated the Emperor Star, Ye Zichen was now the Chosen of Heaven. Amongst countless rulers, he alone was destined to be the one true sovereign.
As for Fatty Yin, who’d received an auxiliary star, in the future he could only serve his lord....
Even if it meant soaking battlefields with blood, and even if it meant dying in combat.