Chapter 11596 — The Deed Is Done

On the contrary, the Night Central Palace's rise to its present scale was inseparable from the way his fate slips had foreseen the auspicious and averted the inauspicious.

If word of today's inauspicious omen, a lowest-grade slip, were to get out, it would set off an earthquake across the entire council.

"If you want to call that playing the rogue, then call it that. The deed is done and the wood is already a boat—think whatever you like."

Wang Lai wore the air of a dead pig that no longer feared scalding water.

Ren Xuande had served on the council longer than he had, and he did hold some fear of the man—but only some, and not much.

Ren Xuande said in a heavy voice, "Fine. I will convene a full council session for a vote at once!"

The matter was too grave; this was far more than a question of his personal ties. The fate of the entire Night Central Palace hung on it, and he truly could not stand aside.

"Go on, then."

Wang Lai was, unexpectedly, utterly unruffled.

Ren Xuande could not help but be taken aback.

Never mind that the Rule Design Institute had already been swallowed down into his belly—if the council voted it down, then whatever he had swallowed would have to come back up, not a single share less.

Wang Lai's confidence was not yet stout enough to stand toe-to-toe with the council.

Ren Xuande wasted no more words and at once set about summoning the councilors from every quarter.

Meanwhile, in a certain isolated secret realm.

Xiang Zigui, in high spirits, was about to take stock of the spoils from this latest sleeve-trick of his.

Dongfang Yan had been promised to Xiang Feng; naturally he would not touch him.

As for the others swept up along with him, none of them were simple, yet none was enough to make him regard them with special favor.

What he cared about most was Xu Anshan.

"Born of the innate emperor—tsk, tsk, this is a born emperor indeed!"

Xiang Zigui was beside himself with excitement. The higher one climbed, the more keenly one felt the limits imposed by absolute talent.

Talent determines the ceiling of one's potential; fortune determines how much of that potential is realized.

He was now a Revered One of the early Heaven rank. The fortune he ought to have had, he had by and large already obtained—in other words, his potential had very nearly been realized to its limit.

No matter how much more fortune came his way hereafter, the strength he could gain was exceedingly limited.

But if he could pull off a shell-borrowing rebirth and take Xu Anshan's innate emperor endowment for his own, then everything would be entirely different.

When he had left the Inner Royal Court this time, he had already resigned himself, believing his own limit was reached, and that his focus should turn to paving the road for the generations behind him.

He had never expected a twist like this to come his way.

Xu Anshan, born an innate emperor—it was as if heaven itself had handed him a grand gift.

Xiang Zigui rubbed his palms together and was just about to release Xu Anshan when a tall, bloated figure suddenly descended before him.

"Who goes there?"

Xiang Zigui could not help but start.

This was his own carefully prepared lair, its defenses so tight they were hardly inferior to those of a royal palace. An ordinary man could never force his way in.

Much less without giving the slightest warning along the way.

What was going on?

While Xiang Zigui stood dumbfounded, Li Qinghe was every bit as dumbfounded. He glanced at Xiang Zigui and asked, "You slovenly old man—this is the inner royal court, isn't it?"

One year outside, ten thousand years in the Land of Sin.

By now he was Wei Zhao's most loyal underling.

This time the boom period from the new world's annexation of the Land of Sin had run its course, and Wei Zhao was setting out to return to the inner royal court. He had volunteered to come along.

But along the way he got so carried away that he accidentally charged out ahead of everyone.

And then he landed here.

"Slovenly old man? You call me a slovenly old man?"

Xiang Zigui was indeed slovenly in appearance, but he hated above all else being called slovenly. He swung his hand and slapped Li Qinghe across the face.

Smack.

The slap rang out loud and clear.

Li Qinghe rubbed his stinging cheek in a daze, his face that of a man looking at a lunatic. "Are you sick in the head, old man?"

Xiang Zigui was even more dumbfounded than he was.

That slap had looked ordinary enough, but in his fury he had struck with full force. The power of law contained in that single slap alone was more than enough to effortlessly annihilate a peak Earth-Rank Venerable!

Who could have guessed that, when it reached Li Qinghe, it left nothing but five red marks.

What kind of monster had crawled out of the woodwork this time?

Looking across the whole inner royal court, in Xiang Zigui's estimation, not even an existence of the Seven Kings' caliber could possibly be this strong.

Unless...

This man, like him, had come from the Inner Court!

The thought made Xiang Zigui's expression turn grave at once.

No one knew better than he how savage those monsters of the Inner Court were. The reason he had fled was partly that he had already hit the ceiling of his innate talent, but more than that, staying on in the Inner Court had simply been too much pressure to bear.

Put plainly, to the Inner Court he was nothing but a beaten dog that had fled the field.

Xiang Zigui immediately shed his slovenly, insolent manner and made a solemn bow. "I was nervous for a moment and wounded you by mistake, my friend. I beg you will not take offense."

Li Qinghe waved a magnanimous hand. "What sort of talk is that? You didn't even scratch the skin. How is that a wound?"

"You are magnanimous indeed, my friend."

Xiang Zigui let out a breath of relief.

Li Qinghe looked at him strangely. "How am I magnanimous? You slapped me, and now I mean to beat you to death. How is that magnanimous?"

"..."

Xiang Zigui opened his mouth, and for the life of him could not think how to answer.

Then, the next second, Li Qinghe's huge, bloated form began to flicker and teleport.

Feeling the other man closing in at breakneck speed, Xiang Zigui's eyelids twitched violently, and he hurriedly put distance between them.

At the same time, A Universe in the Sleeve unfurled once more.

This was the art that had made his name, the prized move he kept closest to his chest; even against experts of his own level, A Universe in the Sleeve often won him no small advantage.

In an instant, the sky overhead went black.

Li Qinghe tilted his head up for a look and snorted. "What the hell is this?"

Seeing that he made no move for so long, Xiang Zigui's heart eased at once.

He had every confidence in his A Universe in the Sleeve, but he knew well enough that the move was not unbreakable.

In the first instant of its casting, A Universe in the Sleeve had a flaw that was not quite a flaw; if the opponent were an expert of his own level and struck at that precise moment, there was no small chance of breaking the move.

But now, A Universe in the Sleeve had fully taken shape, and he could rest easy.

"Beat me to death? And how do you mean to beat me to death?"

Xiang Zigui taunted him with a strange grin.

He did not know how the man had gotten in, but now that things had come this far, it had all been a false alarm.

As for the possibility of the other man turning the tables, he had dismissed it entirely.

The next second, Li Qinghe gave a contemptuous snort, and his form swelled abruptly, shooting up past ten thousand zhang in the blink of an eye.

"What good is it to grow your transformation any taller?"

Xiang Zigui was not flustered in the least; Xu Anshan had already served as the cautionary tale before him.

However much your form might swell, it can never outgrow the universe within his sleeve!

And that was indeed how it went. (End of this chapter)