Chapter 817: All-Seeing Eyes
A look of doubt colored Jiang Chen’s face for a moment, and he looked at Emperor Peafowl a little more seriously than he did before. If Emperor Peafowl really had activated the All-Seeing Eyes, then calling him a terrifying cultivator would be an understatement. A person like him shouldn’t be limited to an earthly plane like this!
Emperor Peafowl had been observing Jiang Chen all this time, and he himself was very, very surprised at the strength of the youth’s reactions. As a great emperor, he had never talked about destiny with any youngsters. In fact, most of his friends and great emperors who were close to him were skeptical when he talked about destiny. One might even say that most of them disapproved of his theory completely. Most of them saw destiny in the same way as heaven’s will. They thought that it was something that was completely unpredictable.
Emperor Peafowl might be keenly aware of the correctness of his ideas, but he wouldn’t go so far as to force his understandings down someone’s throat. However, after a thousand years of careful exploration, he had managed to summarize and create a technique that could observe destiny itself. It was true that he felt that his abilities in this regard were half-baked, but he was almost never mistaken about the people of great destiny whom he had observed in private.
Although Jiang Chen hailed from the Myriad Domain, Emperor Peafowl had secretly gathered much information on him and come to the conclusion that he was a boy of great destiny. Emperor Peafowl was tempted many times to see Jiang Chen with his own eyes, but he was worried that his visit would disrupt Jiang Chen’s fate. So he had kept his desire in check. Then, he heard that the Eternal Celestial Capital had sent out a capture order on Jiang Chen, and that the person in question was on his way to Veluriyam Capital.
This revelation gladdened Emperor Peafowl, and his belief in the will of heaven grew even stronger. As such, he had been waiting all this time. He had been waiting for a genius who shouldered the destiny of a world to show up. Finally, Jiang Chen entered Veluriyam Capital that day. His arrival happened to coincide with young lord Fan’s funeral procession.
It was yet another sign that the old was ushered out in exchange for the new. The powerful destiny Jiang Chen carried with him when he showed up in Veluriyam Capital was a ma.s.sive shock to even Emperor Peafowl. It was enough to finally convince him of his own theory. What surprised Emperor Peafowl the most at this moment was that Jiang Chen’s reaction was not one of skepticism. No, the boy asked the emperor if he could see the threads of destiny. Did Jiang Chen believe in the theory of destiny too?
Emperor Peafowl sighed, “I’ve always been cultivating eye arts. More than a thousand years ago, enlightenment suddenly dawned on me, and my arts transformed into a strange kind of observation art. At first, I didn’t know what it was, so I spent a thousand years observing everything before me. Although my observations have never coalesced into a system of their own, I was seldom wrong when I used it to observe destiny. The day you entered the city was a great shock to me. I’ve never seen someone with a destiny as great as yours, not to mention that it subtly matched the winds of destiny that had surged to the sky and shaken the clouds back in the Myriad Domain. In that moment, I had ascertained almost immediately that you were the youngster I was waiting for from the Myriad Domain. You were the Jiang Chen who the Eternal Celestial Capital wanted very badly, but couldn’t hunt down despite all their efforts.”
Eye arts? Jiang Chen couldn’t help but stare at Emperor Peafowl’s eyes. Emperor Peafowl’s eyes were like a pair of deep pools, but their depths were as unfathomable as the sky itself. His eyes would s.h.i.+ft colors between dark green and azure from time to time, and it const.i.tuted an incredibly unique visual impact.
“If I’m not mistaken, you have an eye art yourself, Jiang Chen. In fact, it is an incredibly powerful one!” Emperor Peafowl said smilingly.
Without an objection to offer, Jiang Chen nodded, “You have amazing talent, Your Majesty. There really is nothing that can be hidden from you. Now that I think back, it"s hilarious how confident I was at hiding my own abilities. Thank goodness I haven’t caused trouble within your domain, or you could’ve killed me in a single strike.”
“Hahaha,” Emperor Peafowl laughed candidly, “Your claim that you haven’t caused trouble is not entirely accurate, but it is a fact you haven’t started one of your own accord. I wouldn’t have visited you if you did, or if you’d proven yourself to be evil.”
Cold sweat silently escaped Jiang Chen’s pores. Emperor Peafowl is too amazing. I’m not even living in his house, and yet he seem to know everything that has happened around me. “Your Majesty, you haven’t imbued a consciousness around my social circle, have you?” Jiang Chen didn’t know what kind of expression he should wear.
“Haha, do I look like someone who enjoys spying on others?” Emperor Peafowl was also somewhat amused by Jiang Chen’s words.
So far, Jiang Chen’s impression of Emperor Peafowl was quite good. At the very least, Emperor Peafowl’s bearing and broadmindedness were things that no ruthless overlord could compete against. Through his conversation, Jiang Chen could deduce that the latter’s understanding of him had come from general observation, not spying. If it really was spying, Jiang Chen would’ve left Veluriyam Capital without a second thought. After all, no one wanted to be spied upon during every moment of their lives. It was practically torture of a whole different kind to live that way.
“Your Majesty, do you mean that you know everything that I did in Veluriyam Capital?”
“Not necessarily. I can more or less grasp the general aim of your actions. For example, you are the one who trashed all those pill stores at Farmer G.o.d Market, aren’t you?”
Jiang Chen knew that anyone with a discerning eye could figure that out. He smiled, “It was a choice I was forced to make. They had to pay for their intolerable acts of bullying. In fact, I’m actually relieving you of some burdens, Your Majesty.”
House Wei belonged to the Coiling Dragon Clan, and the Coiling Dragon Clan belonged to Emperor Peafowl. Indirectly speaking, he was indeed helping out Emperor Peafowl.
However, Emperor Peafowl returned a noncommittal smile. After a moment of silence, he said slowly, “I know everything that happens in Veluriyam Capital. The Majestic Clan’s provocations, the feathery probes of Emperor Shura, their hopes towards Veluriyam PaG.o.da and their desire for my seat as the number one great emperor of Veluriyam Capital… if even my subordinates know about this, how could I not know about them as well?”
Jiang Chen was surprised, “You knew it all from the very beginning, Your Majesty?”
“That’s right,” Emperor Peafowl revealed the ghost of a smile, “In other words, even Emperor Shura’s tremendous success and growth, so much so that even the outside world think that he was now capable of replacing me, was within my predictions. In fact, you might even say that I’m the one who pushed for his growth in secret.”
“What?” Jiang Chen’s mind couldn’t quite catch up to the topic, “You mean you were purposely nurturing a threat?”
“The nurturing part is true, but a threat? Not necessarily so.” Emperor Peafowl’s smile was deep, “My only fear is that he grows too slowly.”
“What do you mean?” Jiang Chen frowned. He suddenly felt like his brain was a little lacking.
“More than a thousand years ago, I vaguely activated the All-Seeing Eye and felt the call of heaven’s dao. There, I was able to capture tiny glimpses of the laws of the world.”
“You’re about to achieve a breakthrough?” A thought abruptly flashed across Jiang Chen’s mind.
“I am. I’ve been suppressing it for more than a thousand years, holding myself back from mastering the laws, but I feel that I can’t do so for much longer. I am afraid that I am fated to leave Veluriyam Capital in less than a hundred years. Therefore, someone capable enough must succeed my seat. An ordinary person would be unable to quell the internal and external threats of Veluriyam Capital.” Emperor Peafowl sighed softly with a hint of melancholy.
“Forgive my rudeness, Your Majesty, but there are countless people out there who is incapable of learning heaven’s dao or win its acknowledgement. If you have sensed it, then why on earth would you suppress it on purpose?” Jiang Chen seriously couldn’t understand Emperor Peafowl’s thoughts.
“Would you believe me if I told you that it was all to keep a close watch on the demon race?” Emperor Peafowl suddenly revealed a self deprecating smile. Jiang Chen s.h.i.+vered as he stared at Emperor Peafowl in disbelief. He actually doubted his own eyes for a second, for he saw a hint of true worry leaking from Emperor Peafowl’s expression. It was both great mercy and great wisdom that had been born of a compa.s.sion that encompa.s.sed the world. Jiang Chen had seen a very similar expression from Ye Chonglou and Palace Head Dan Chi’s faces before. It was just that Ye Chonglou only had the worry, but not the in-depth knowledge of the bigger picture. He didn’t know just how deadly the demon race was. Palace Head Dan Chi possessed greater understanding than Ye Chonglou, but he thought more from his sect’s point of view.
Emperor Peafowl was the only one who Jiang Chen’d seen so far to possess both mercy and wisdom. An erudite wisdom and true worry for the world that was untainted by even a speck of selfishness. A moment of puzzlement later, Jiang Chen came to understand why. Emperor Peafowl’s cultivation was so great that he could sense the laws of the world already. Therefore, what meaning did worldly power conflicts mean to him? His viewpoint and insight of the world had long since exceeded the viewpoint of Veluriyam Capital. Unfortunately for him, his viewpoint was too high and too far out of reach. It was so high that no one could catch up to him. As a result, not many people could understand his feelings at all.
The demon race? Why on earth would normal cultivators bother to think about the demon race unless a demonic calamity actually happened? There could be countless calamities in the world, but none were as important as their own cultivation. It was exactly because most people were this numb, selfish, and easily satisfied by low ambitions that no one paid attention to the bigger picture.
It was why Emperor Peafowl was alone in his wisdom. It was to the point where one might even say that the timing of his worries and compa.s.sion was a little off. Suddenly, Jiang Chen felt a little stifled. For whatever reason, he suddenly recalled his father from his past life. His father had exactly been such a person himself. Despite holding the post of a celestial emperor, he was troubled by a lack of people who could understand him. He was worried to death for the fate of the great Taiyuan world, but still failed to prevent the calamity that destroyed the heavenly plane in the end. A person like him might be called a hero or a pioneer in books’ written pages. However, most of them didn’t have a good ending.
In comparison to his father, Jiang Chen felt that he had lived his life too lowly during this lifetime. His father would likely be unhappy if he learned of his current appearance, wouldn’t he? Pa.s.sion mixed with shame rose within Jiang Chen’s heart, “Jiang Chen is most impressed by the height of your insight, Your Majesty. I may not be able to become someone as great as you, but I will contribute my strength to the Divine Abyss Continent to the limit of my capabilities.”
Despite not having promised anything in stone, Jiang Chen had made up his mind. He had lived so very cautiously so far, but what had befallen him after all his efforts? A destroyed sect, and no home to go back to. If that was the case, then why should he live so suffocatingly anymore? Why should he not do all he could and live to his heart’s content instead?