Checking In for Sixty Years, From Puppet Emperor to Heavenly Emperor – Chapter 6

Ch 6: Founding Emperor

He knew about the Vast Universe Art. It was the Qianyuan Empire’s national treasure, and only the imperial family could practice it. Zhou An had also practiced the first two levels when he was young.

Unfortunately, after the Late Emperor’s death, the Empress Dowager did not give him the third level of the art and explicitly ordered the Emperor not to practice martial arts.

In the Qianyuan Empire, all martial arts are divided into four levels: Sky, Earth, Mystic, and Yellow. This Vast Universe Art belongs to the Earth level, which is already extremely rare.

The Sky-level martial arts are heard of in Jianghu, but no one has ever learned them. However, it is unknown whether those demons and Immortal Heroes practice Sky-level martial arts.

The Vast Universe Art is divided into nine levels, and only the Emperor can practice all of the Universe Art.

However, currently, only seven levels of the Universe Art remain, and the ninth level went missing with the Founding Emperor.

The eighth level went missing because the Late Emperor died suddenly. Many people guessed that it might have been hidden by the Empress Dowager, but there was no evidence, and no one investigated.

In the Imperial Family, to not delay the future Emperor from learning the Vast Universe Art, a rule was set that all Imperial Princes would start practicing at the age of six, but they could only practice the first three levels.

Only the Crown Prince can practice the fourth level, and from the fifth level onwards, only the Emperor is qualified to practice.

And what Zhou An signed in to get was the complete Vast Universe Art.

“Could this be the Qianyuan Emperor, the Founding Emperor of the Qianyuan Empire!” Zhou An was surprised and found the Hidden Dragon Sword next to him, which was the Founding Emperor’s sword, accompanying the Emperor in establishing the Qianyuan Empire.

However, at this moment, the sword had been cut off, and the cut was equally smooth.

“Historical records say that the Qianyuan Emperor was a Houtian Tenth Level expert. So he died tragically here. No wonder later generations couldn’t find him. But who killed him?” Zhou An muttered, wanting to find clues to the Qianyuan Emperor’s death.

Unfortunately, apart from the traces of battle, nothing was left. However, next to the corpse, he saw a string of small characters, carved with the broken Hidden Dragon Sword.

“The Vast Universe Art is ultimately just an Earth-level art. Even if cultivated to the extreme, it can only reach Houtian Tenth Level. This Emperor collected various Sky-level art fragments and learned from these fragments that only Sky-level arts can allow one to reach the Innate Realm.

It is hateful that those Cultivators call themselves Immortal Heroes, slaying demons and eliminating evil to uphold justice, but they tightly control these cultivation methods and never spread them, considering themselves to be outside the world and not restricted by national laws.

Unable to break through to Innate, one is ultimately just a mortal. Even the Emperor is still a mortal in the eyes of Immortal Heroes, and they can kill him at will.

The war between Immortals and Demons, wielding the power of heaven and earth, causes natural disasters, and the suffering is all borne by the common people. It is hateful that these Immortal Heroes do not care about the lives of the people, only knowing how to slay demons and eliminate evil. Hateful, sad, and laughable…”

The words behind were already unclear, and it could be seen that the Qianyuan Emperor was already unable to carve the characters and died before finishing writing.

Seeing this, Zhou An sighed and was also puzzled as to who killed the Qianyuan Emperor. Why did the Qianyuan Emperor clearly have time to carve so many characters but not mention who killed him?

Unfortunately, he currently knows too little about the outside world, let alone about what happened two hundred years ago.

Considering that he was an ancestor of his own body, he took out a large box from the System Space, took out the gold inside, and put the Qianyuan Emperor’s bones inside, along with the broken Hidden Dragon Sword.

“Qianyuan Emperor, I can only temporarily settle you like this. I am also restrained. When I regain my freedom, I will move you to the Imperial Mausoleum.”

Zhou An bowed three times to the Qianyuan Emperor’s bones, then closed the lid and placed it in the corner of the secret room.

After that, he sat on the futon in the middle, took out the book Vast Universe Art, and with a thought, this martial art turned into golden light and entered his mind, practicing this art in his mind.

After quickly mastering it, he mobilized the Internal Force in his body and began to circulate and practice it.

He practiced the first two levels after circulating his energy once, after all, the original body had already learned them, and he was just reviewing them once.

Starting from the third level, it was true cultivation. However, with his profound Internal Force, coupled with the foundation laid by the Essence Solidifying Pill, the third level was also a natural success, and he quickly practiced it, increasing his Internal Force a lot. It was estimated that he had at least 70 years of Internal Force.

In just one hour, the Vast Universe Art was cultivated to the sixth level in one breath, mastering the Universe Gang Energy, a means of defense and attack in one, which was his only attack skill at present, making him secretly happy.

Starting from the seventh level, it was much slower and could not be completed in a short time. He temporarily stopped practicing, picked up a mask, and went out from another stone door to continue exploring, maybe there would be more surprises.

This mask was found when sorting out the Qianyuan Emperor’s clothes. History says that the Qianyuan Emperor would wear a mask when going to the battlefield, which should be the hideous black mask in his hand.

Going out from here was the Taoist temple next to the back garden, where the Old Empress Dowager used to live. After the Old Empress Dowager passed away, it had been empty.

This place is connected to the Qianyuan Emperor’s secret room, and he felt that there must be a secret in it, suspecting that the former Old Empress Dowager might have known that the Founding Emperor died here, but he was puzzled as to why she didn’t say it.

After surveying, this was just an ordinary Taoist temple, except for a secret passage, there was nothing else.

However, at least he has now gotten rid of the Purple Guard’s surveillance. He took off the Imperial Robes on his body, found old Taoist robes in the Taoist temple, shook off the dust on them, put them on, then put on the mask and jumped towards the Eastern Palace.

Although he had not learned any lightness skill, the speed of jumping and running was still very amazing under the amplification of Internal Force. In addition, there were few people in the Eastern Palace now, with only the Tenth Princess left, so naturally there were fewer palace maids. The Empress Dowager only left two Purple Guards to watch the Tenth Princess, and all other places were empty.

Zhou An took this opportunity to sign in to all the palaces in the Eastern Palace at night, and once again harvested a bunch of strange things, including various things that the Imperial Princes used to play with, as well as some embarrassing items, of course, there were also priceless treasures.

After jumping and running for nearly an hour, he finished signing in to all the palaces in the Eastern Palace, and finally received a system prompt, completing the entire Eastern Palace sign-in, the map was all lit up, and he was rewarded with a Son of Heaven Swordplay.

He couldn’t wait to use it, and the scene of himself dancing with the sword appeared in his mind, displaying earth-shattering power with the Heavenly Sword.

Each move of the Son of Heaven Swordplay also possesses unique earth-shattering divine power, with unparalleled momentum. The last move gathers the endless spiritual energy of the universe and is fully contained in the Heavenly Sword.

However, if this set of swordplay is used with other swords, it can only exert up to 30% of its power, or even less.

Now he knows too little about other martial arts and doesn’t know if the Son of Heaven Swordplay counts as a Sky-level martial art, but at least it is much stronger than the Vast Universe Art.

After that, he returned to the underground secret room overnight, wanting to practice the nine forms of the Son of Heaven Swordplay. Although he could learn it directly, being proficient in using it was another matter.

Just after leaving the Eastern Palace, he heard a lot of noise coming from the Western Palace. Standing on the roof, he saw from afar that the Purple Guards had caught a group of people.

Because it was night and the distance was far, he couldn’t see clearly who was caught. He hadn’t learned lightness skill and didn’t dare to get close to see casually. From his memory, the Purple Guards were an invincible existence. The original owner of the body was full of fear of the Purple Guards, making Zhou An not dare to act rashly and quietly return to the underground palace.

After that, during the day, he ate, drank, and had fun with Sai Nai Mu and this group of beauties from the Western Regions, trying his best to enjoy the pleasures, learning about things outside the Imperial City from their mouths, especially things related to combat power, giving him a new understanding of martial artists.

The average strength of the Purple Guards is around Houtian Fifth Level, and the several Commanders are estimated to be above Houtian Seventh Level.

And most of the heroes in Jianghu are between Houtian Third Level and Seventh Level. Those who can reach the Fifth Level are considered experts, and most of the top experts in Jianghu Sects are Houtian Seventh Level. The powerful ones are only Houtian Eighth Level.

If calculated with Internal Force, sixty years of Internal Force is about the same as Houtian Eighth Level. However, realm does not equal combat power. The strength of combat power is mainly determined by martial arts and equipment, so the difference is not very large, and it is difficult to say who has higher combat power.

Not to mention other means in Jianghu, such as Witchcraft, poison, and Talisman, which cannot be judged by realm at all.

Understanding these things made Zhou An feel much more at ease. He felt that he had no problem protecting himself now, but with so many Purple Guards, he would not be so inflated as to kill the Empress Dowager.

Isn’t it good for him to hide in the harem and slowly sign in, enjoying the beauties sent by outsiders? Why waste time fighting with people and managing state affairs that he doesn’t understand at all.

For him, as long as his safety is not threatened, this place is his paradise.

At night, he hid in the underground palace to practice the Vast Universe Art and the Son of Heaven Swordplay. With these two martial arts, his combat power will definitely be greatly improved. As for actual combat, he will consider it later.