Chapter 1341: Seize the Body, Seize the Fortune!

Chapter 1341: Seize the Body, Seize the Fate!

Within and without the imperial palace of Zi Qing Upper Kingdom.

Zi Qing sat upon the Dragon Throne; Xu Qing stood in the courtyard before the great hall.

Their gazes met—locked across the expanse between them.

Xu Qing still remembered their last meeting of eyes: in the capital of the Human Race, at the very moment of his death.

And before that—the rain-drenched forest of Ying Huang Province, where Crown Prince Zi Qing had held aloft the severed head of Sixth Uncle.

Memory after memory surged through Xu Qing’s mind as their eyes converged once more.

Yet this time was different. His gaze now was calm.

He looked upon Crown Prince Zi Qing. At such close range, he could clearly sense the other’s cultivation—it had only reached the Divine Platform stage.

Back then, in the Human Capital, Crown Prince Zi Qing had used the Empress’s Ascension Ceremony as his own ritual, stepping onto the Divine Platform.

But it seemed that in all these years since, he had halted his progress.

Still at Divine Platform.

Yet Xu Qing harbored not an ounce of carelessness. He knew well—if the statue of Shang Huang’s Remnant Face stood here, then cultivation realm no longer mattered.

Moreover, Crown Prince Zi Qing’s cunning, his schemes, his layered machinations—all revealed a man whose ambitions were vast beyond measure!

Thus, in response to the prince’s words, Xu Qing spoke calmly:

“My divine body—whether fused with my true self or brought here—if it appears before you…”

“A form crafted from Shang Huang’s flesh… whether it can still belong to me is uncertain.”

Inside the hall, seated on the Dragon Throne, Crown Prince Zi Qing smiled ever more gently.

“Clever younger brother,” he said softly, “let me see if your preparations are sufficient.”

As he spoke, he raised his right hand and beckoned lightly toward the heavens.

At that gesture, the sky roared. Turbulent waves erupted across the firmament, and a colossal vortex suddenly appeared, spinning violently with thunderous force.

It devoured every wisp of black mist from the sky.

Within that vortex, a vision coalesced—

It was… Zhao Xia Mountain!

The image rendered every detail with perfect clarity. There, seated cross-legged deep within Zhao Xia Mountain, was a figure radiating potent divine aura—Xu Qing’s divine body.

Surrounding it lay dense, intricate arrays, all activated, exerting terrifying suppressive force.

Beyond the arrays, beyond the mountain itself, figures circled Zhao Xia Mountain—Zhou Zhengli, Xing Huanzi, and the others.

Each sat cross-legged, forming seals, pouring forth their full strength to reinforce the arrays within the mountain.

The suppression intensified instantly.

Yet even this was not the crux. The true anchor holding Xu Qing’s divine body in place was—Seventh Uncle!

Seventh Uncle sat cross-legged atop Zhao Xia Mountain, his power enveloping Xu Qing’s divine form.

All had been stable—until the moment Crown Prince Zi Qing raised his hand.

Then, the divine body seated at the heart of the array suddenly trembled.

Its eyes snapped open!

Golden light blazed forth—but the gaze within was twisted, sinister.

It was no longer Xu Qing!

Immediately, terrifying power erupted from the divine body, surging outward to shatter the arrays, to burst free from the mountain, racing toward the place of summoning.

The force was staggering. Upon contact with the arrays, they began to rot and collapse.

Zhou Zhengli and the others, reinforcing the arrays, convulsed violently. Zhou Zhengli spat out a mouthful of blood—so did Xing Huanzi.

Xie Lingzi, Li Mengtu, Yuan Shan Su—all felt their minds explode, blood gushing from their seven orifices.

They were on the verge of losing control.

At the critical moment, Seventh Uncle snorted coldly. Raising his right hand, he pressed it firmly against the mountain.

Earth Essence surged forth, sealing off the mountain entirely.

Then, with his left hand, he drew forth an object—

A shard of mirror!

The very gift Ming Xianzhu had given Xu Qing—a fragment imbued with her own Lawful Authority.

With this artifact and his Earth Essence, Seventh Uncle finally severed Zhao Xia Mountain from the outside world, preventing the divine body within from breaking free.

Though whether this barrier would hold long-term remained uncertain, for now—at least—it had thwarted Crown Prince Zi Qing’s first wave of summons.

This was precisely one of Xu Qing’s many preparations before coming to Zi Qing Upper Kingdom.

He had long deduced the truth:

Since Crown Prince Zi Qing maintained close ties with Shang Huang, any body forged from Shang Huang’s flesh would inevitably bear vulnerabilities before him!

Thus, Xu Qing knew—he must thoroughly suppress his divine body before setting foot in Zi Qing Upper Kingdom, lest disaster strike.

And because the divine body could not appear, fusion with his true self was impossible—leaving him unable to attain that ultimate, peerless state of Celestial-Divine might.

All he could rely on, then, was his Celestial Body alone.

That was why he had secluded himself in closed-door cultivation all this time!

He sought to break through his cultivation!

Yet decades of seclusion—even absorbing with all his might the mysterious light offered by the Huang Tian Divine Clan—had still fallen short of truly elevating him to the rank of Celestial Sovereign!

Though his grasp of Lawful Authority was sufficient, ascending from Late-stage Summer Immortal to Celestial Sovereign demanded far too much Source Essence.

As for that enigmatic light from the Huang Tian Divine Clan—he had absorbed it for decades until reaching its absolute limit.

Though residual Source Essence remained within the light, Xu Qing could absorb no more. What lingered was the core essence that served as the key itself—

Impossible for any external force to plunder.

Thus, Xu Qing emerged from seclusion—and chose to come to Zi Qing Upper Kingdom.

Now, as the vortex summoned by Crown Prince Zi Qing stabilized above the heavens, Xu Qing—who stood in the palace courtyard—suddenly lifted his head.

Fierce radiance blazed in his eyes. He raised his hand and swept it toward the sky.

Instantly, the vortex in the heavens roared anew, its thunderous clamor intensifying.

The entire vortex trembled—then began to spin backward.

At that very instant, Xu Qing’s cultivation erupted skyward, shaking heaven and earth.

The aura of a Late-stage Summer Immortal flooded the eight directions, blanketing the entire Tun Tuan Great Domain, becoming an external force that completed the vortex’s reversal in one decisive motion.

At the same moment, Xu Qing gazed at Prince Ziqing within the grand hall, his voice resonating with Daoist tones.

“Seize!”

The instant this utterance rang out, across Wanggu Continent, in the imperial capital of the Human Race, a grand ritual had already been fully prepared.

This ceremony gathered every formidable cultivator of the Human Race, drawing upon their collective fortune as its catalyst and enacted by imperial decree from the Empress. It surged forth abruptly.

As the ritual ascended, a brilliant beam of light erupted from the Human capital, streaking straight toward—Tiantian Great Domain.

Simultaneously sensing the activation of the Human Race’s ritual, all the great domains across Wanggu Continent stirred. Every race within them, without exception, commenced their own long-prepared ceremonies one after another.

Each was powered by the full strength of an entire race.

Beams of intense radiance shot skyward from every corner, roaring through the heavens toward Tiantian Great Domain, where Xu Qing stood.

Though this account seems lengthy, in truth it unfolded within a single breath.

These countless rays—from myriad races alongside the Human Race’s own—shattered the void together, appearing like meteors directly above the skies of Tiantian Great Domain.

There, they merged into one.

Within that confluence, the figure of Wanggu’s Heavenly Dao manifested.

Visible within were the Ancient Spirit Sovereign and Xu Qing himself—the Son of Heaven.

The moment they appeared, interwoven with the light, they unfurled across the sky of Tiantian Great Domain into a colossal mirror, vast enough to encompass the entire domain!

Its reflective surface faced downward upon Tiantian Great Domain, instantly capturing within it every mountain, river, and all things therein—

Including, naturally, the Ziqing Nation and its imperial palace!

Under this reflection—and amid the vortex’s reversed suction—the whole of Tiantian Great Domain began to blur immediately. Strands of national fortune, rendered tangible as wisps of gray vapor, rose into the air, drawn into the mirror!

And as Tiantian Great Domain grew indistinct, everything within the mirror sharpened with startling clarity!

This was precisely the manifestation of Heavenly Dao—seizing a nation’s fortune!

Xu Qing, channeling the combined might of ten thousand races, had forged above Tiantian Great Domain a Wanggu Mirror designed to plunder national destiny.

This was one facet of Xu Qing’s plan.

Prince Ziqing sought to seize his divine body—but Xu Qing’s countermove was to use half the fortune of the Ziqing Upper Kingdom as bait, to wrest away the other half.

Inside the imperial palace’s main hall, seated upon the dragon throne, Prince Ziqing watched this spectacle unfold beyond the walls. His smile deepened, and he gave Xu Qing a slight nod.

“How intriguing,” he murmured.

“You’ve truly grown up, little brother.”

“You’ve even learned to snatch our family inheritance right from your elder brother.”

“But tell me… do you even know how much our family inheritance is worth?”

Prince Ziqing smiled gently.