Chapter 11635 — Your Majesty, You Must Not
"Unforgivable! Utterly unforgivable!"
The last shred of reason left to the Zhou Son of Heaven dissolved completely, and he was on the verge of knocking his head to the ground before Wei Zhao.
"Your Majesty, you must not!"
Hou Chuang rushed in to stop him.
As the newly appointed Grand Preceptor, though at bottom he too was scheming to make use of the Zhou Son of Heaven, his interests were at least bound far more deeply to the Son of Heaven's.
If the Zhou Son of Heaven were ruined, he would suffer enormous losses as well.
By contrast, this Queen was nominally one flesh with the Son of Heaven, yet in truth, far from sharing a single heart with him, the Son of Heaven had never so much as touched her hand—he was nothing but a toy she played with between her palms.
The Zhou Son of Heaven stopped instinctively.
The Queen said in a soft, syrupy voice, "His Majesty has His Majesty's own judgment—does He need a mere servant like you to gesticulate and give orders? Or do you fancy yourself wiser than His Majesty?"
Hou Chuang did not dare talk back.
More precisely, he did not dare come into any contact with this woman at all—not even the faintest brush of eyes.
He had tasted her cruelty before.
If he wished to restrain himself and not become this woman's simpering dog like the Zhou Son of Heaven, this was the only way.
Otherwise, forget persuading the Zhou Son of Heaven—he himself would likely be kneeling and kowtowing right alongside him.
But precisely because of this, the Zhou Son of Heaven became even harder to control.
Bang!
Without another word, the Zhou Son of Heaven dropped to his knees before Wei Zhao, and the invisible imperial fortune above his head collapsed by a great margin on the spot.
Hou Chuang could not bear to watch, yet in the Queen's presence he was utterly powerless to stop it.
Cheng Shuang'er looked anxiously toward Wei Zhao.
Though the course of events was beyond her control and she too was a pawn in someone else's hands, when all was said and done, today's affair had arisen because of her, and if it truly brought harm to Wei Zhao, she would be consumed with self-reproach.
Yet Wei Zhao watched this scene with a calm face, showing no intent to forcibly step in and stop it.
The Zhou Son of Heaven kneeling to him was indeed no good thing, but fortune and misfortune lean upon each other—good fortune does not necessarily fail to turn into bad, nor does bad fortune necessarily fail to become good.
Wei Zhao's true focus at this moment lay not before his eyes, but upon the entire Imperial Palace.
At the very instant the Zhou Son of Heaven knelt, the restless old monsters suddenly fell silent as one, all of them drawing in their claws.
It was as if the birds and beasts of the mountain forest that had been clamoring noisily had all at once gone quiet.
That was certainly not because they had grown any more refined.
The only explanation was that a fierce beast was on the prowl.
Through the unfolded vision of the world, Wei Zhao could see with perfect clarity a blurred, indistinct figure—yet one of extraordinary power—rapidly drawing near.
A quasi-god expert!
Wei Zhao's heart gave a slight leap. Han Niansan had not exaggerated after all; the waters of this Son of Heaven's palace were indeed unfathomable now.
A year ago, even Heaven-Rank Venerables had been rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns; now they were everywhere, and even a lofty quasi-god expert had appeared!
At this moment, the Zhou Son of Heaven, egged on by the Queen, bowed his head toward Wei Zhao with absolute resolve.
With that one bow, the last shred of the Son of Heaven's destiny upon his head scattered utterly away.
In the unseen depths, a vast, bottomless crack opened across the whole of the Inner Royal Court.
"It's over…"
Hou Chuang murmured in despair.
Until now, however much of a puppet the Zhou Son of Heaven might be, in the name of the Son of Heaven he could still draw the blessing of the Inner Royal Court's collective destiny.
His very existence could be counted the last fig leaf by which the Inner Royal Court kept up the appearance of unity.
Now that fig leaf was gone, and the Inner Royal Court would surely tear itself apart at an ever-quickening pace; the jostling among the various factions would formally enter its most fevered stage.
As one who had staked his wager on the Zhou Son of Heaven, he had not yet begun to reap the rewards of his arrangements before being declared out of the game.
A failed wager meant that in the age to come, there would be no place left for him.
The Queen smiled a radiant smile. "Your Majesty truly does not disappoint Us."
Hearing the praise, the Zhou Son of Heaven immediately wore a look of drunken infatuation, nodding again and again like a Pekingese. "Whatever pleases the Queen, We are willing to do anything."
The Queen gave a tinkling little laugh and turned to Wei Zhao. "This is the price for defying Us. Now you may wait at your ease for the backlash from the entire Inner Royal Court—though whether you can bear it is another matter."
Cheng Shuang'er looked at Wei Zhao with concern.
Sensing the commotion on every side, Wei Zhao was in no hurry. "I am a little curious—why are you targeting me?"
The Queen's expression turned abruptly cold. "No one can resist Our charm. Since you are blind and cannot feel Our peerless allure, then you deserve to die. Is that reason enough?"
"…"
Even Wei Zhao, who had weathered many a storm, could not help but feel a black line form across his brow at these words.
With a strange look on his face, Wei Zhao said, "That's it? Aren't you afraid of setting yourself on fire?"
Though the Zhou Son of Heaven was the one knocking his head against the ground, the queen who had lured him into kneeling and kowtowing could not possibly escape the unseen backlash of karma.
No clear-headed expert would ever act rashly before fully calculating the consequences of such backlash.
After all, enormous uncertainty lay within it.
Even one of great strength would face unknowable risk—and this queen's own strength was nowhere near that level to begin with.
The queen sneered, "This Palace said it: no one can withstand This Palace's charm. People blind as you are, who cannot see it, are ultimately only a tiny minority. Other men would only kneel and grovel at the hem of This Palace's skirt."
Wei Zhao was stunned for a long while, and at last summed it up in four words.
"Utterly fucking retarded."
To be honest, having come to the Son of Heaven's palace this time, he had already steeled himself for anything.
Never mind the Zhou Son of Heaven kneeling and kowtowing to him—even if he himself had to kill the Zhou Son of Heaven with his own hands, that was not something he could not accept.
But for things to unfold in such an absurd manner still made him unable to keep from blurting out how ridiculous it was.
Just because I wasn't captivated by the beauty filter you put on, you bear a grudge against me and want us both to go down together?
Wei Zhao said darkly, "Sir, using a woman like this as a piece—are you not afraid she'll ruin your grand design?"
"What are you talking about?"
The queen's eyelid twitched.
But Wei Zhao was not looking at her; he was quietly watching an empty spot in the hall.
Two seconds later, a tall figure appeared in that empty space—a middle-aged man with a deep, inscrutable air.
"You can see me?"
A flicker of surprise showed on the middle-aged man's face.
As a near-god expert, so long as he did not deliberately reveal himself, few could detect his presence face to face—not ordinary experts, and scarcely even those old monsters who had come out of the Inner Royal Court.
Yet Wei Zhao, a fellow whose nominal cultivation was only that of a mid-stage Earth-Rank Venerable, could actually see him—there really was something to him after all.