Emperor’s Domination

Wind God showed his generosity once more by preparing a place on a mountain next to the depository for Li Qiye. Only the top-ranking ancestors could stay in this place.

He did so for both Li Qiye's safety and to keep this whole thing a secret.

So many were searching for this fallen king, including War Saint Dynasty, the Bingchi, and Myriad Formation. His very existence was a thorn in their side.

Moreover, other powerful sects and even systems were secretly looking for him. They didn't wish to kill him but thought that he could be used as a bargaining chip.

Controlling this king meant that they controlled the orthodox symbol and royal rule of Nine Secrets, to a certain extent.

Fortunately for him, Godstep Sect resided in the sky and rarely associated with outsiders. It was extremely difficult for someone to come in and search for news of him.

Zhang Jianchuan did an amazing job serving Li Qiye, allowing him to spend his days in comfort and leisure.

He focused on reading the mysteries and historical events recorded here. These texts were considered to be entertainment at best by the disciples, but he considered them to be precious. By using the content, he could put one and one together for useful information, or to find certain things he was looking for.

Outside of cultivation, it was just reading and reading, flipping through the pages among the ocean of text. He found valuable information and eventually obtained a thorough understanding of Nine Secrets System.

At this moment, no one understood Nine Secrets better than him, not even Lucidity king. The nine words were within his grasp as well.

As they spent more time together, Jianchuan found all of the previous rumors about Li Qiye to be false.

The guy has been meditating and researching the ancient texts. Some were too old for their sect to decipher yet Li Qiye could read them without any difficulty to Jianchuan's astonishment.

This was the infamous perverted king? No, he looked like a scholar, hard at work.

'Could it be that the king had changed after the fall of his kingdom?' Jianchuan thought.

But he found this to be incorrect. If the king were to be devastated by the loss of the kingdom, he would be cultivating hard in order to become stronger so that he could take it back in the future.

The guy didn't give a damn about merit laws and techniques right now. In fact, he seemed to not care about growing stronger and drowned himself in reading these "entertaining" texts.

No disciples would want to waste their time doing so.

"Your Majesty, may I ask why you are interested in them?" Jianchuan's curiosity eventually got the best of him.

"Golden pavilions and colorful jades exist in these words." Li Qiye said with a smile.

Jianchuan didn't believe in this common phrase in the mortal world about the benefits of reading. He thought that mortal scholars only said this line for motivation.

"To understand the present, one must know the past." Li Qiye glanced at the youth and said.

"I see…" Jianchuan carefully absorbed the meaning of this phrase.

"If one has no way of reaching the apex to have a clear perspective on the world below, what should they do instead? The answer is to read extensively, then everything will be clear. The answers are hidden behind the fog of history; some are purposely erased."

Jianchuan still thought that it was pointless for cultivators to do so.

"Let's talk about your Godstep True Emperor then. Was it only because of having great talents that he understood the word, Xing?" Li Qiye asked.

"Isn't that the case?" Jianchuan said.

Godstep True Emperor was also the progenitor of their sect. He came from Nine Secrets and was able to start a sect not just because he was strong, but also because he found the mysteries of one of the nine words. This allowed him to establish a firm foundation for his heritage, and this eventually helped them become one of the five great powers.

No sect had a full grasp of all nine. Moreover, the word, Qian, has been lost for a long time.

There was a period where Xing was missing as well until Godstep True Emperor. He was able to understand it enough so that it could return to see the light of day.

Li Qiye smiled: "Godstep True Emperor was certainly talented, that's a given. However, among the emperors, he's not that exceptional. In the history of Nine Secrets, there have been plenty of brilliant emperors, but why was it that your emperor was able to find the mysteries of Xing and not the others?"

Jianchuan had never thought about this question before so he didn't have a response.

Nine Secrets was the oldest system in Imperial. Their progenitor was a disciple of Bao Pu who was recorded down as the very first progenitor in Three Immortals. From that, one could see just how old Nine Secrets was.

Since its inception, numerous emperors have come out. It had experienced prosperity and decline. All in all, this was a land that had produced countless geniuses.

These geniuses eventually became emperors or invincible Eternals or went on to do other great things.

When talking about the best of the emperors, one must bring up Emperor Zheng and True Emperor Jiu Ning. These two were incredible and matchless, especially Emperor Zheng. He was the one who revitalized the system; some even placed him on the same level as Nine Secrets Ancestor.

Among these brilliant characters in history, very few have been able to understand the nine secrets.

Understanding was different from cultivating. The former meant searching for the lost words within the dao land of Nine Secrets.

Godstep True Emperor was one of the few capable of this task.

"I don't know…" Jianchuan has always assumed that his emperor's success was due to the emperor's great talents.

But after thinking about it, it seemed that their emperor wasn't superior to his peers. In fact, he wasn't on the same level as Emperor Zheng and True Emperor Jiu Ning. No, he seemed to be inferior to Weaponbreak True Emperor and Myriad Formation True Emperor as well.

Both Weaponbreak and Myriad Formation had tangible achievements. For example, Weaponbreak created a weapon on the same level as those created by progenitors. That's a heaven-defying deed.

As for Myriad Formation? According to the legends, he used his formation mastery to kill two emperors of a similar power level as him.

Godstep True Emperor didn't have anything like that. Nevertheless, he comprehended Xing, something Weaponbreak and Myriad Formation couldn't do.

Li Qiye said: "I'm not saying your emperor lacks talents and comprehension. It's not bad, but the real reason is that he found a few things that allowed him to understand the mysteries of Nine Secrets. This aided him in finding Xing."

"What things?" The youth asked.

Li Qiye smiled and rubbed his chin before pointing at the ocean of scrolls: "Knowledge. Only knowledge can take you further where talents fail. With sufficient knowledge, you will be wise and discerning. It will also polish your dao heart."