Chapter 11665 — Even We Know It's Bound to Be So

A few words from Wei Zhao were all it took to bring everyone to their senses: so this whole business had been a pit dug for him by the Zhou Son of Heaven from the start.

The entire performance was plainly an exercise in moral coercion.

Cultivators contend with heaven and strive against earth; those who are utterly selfless are vanishingly rare. What choice anyone would make in such a predicament required no guessing.

Were it any other faction's leading figure standing there, unless his brains had been waterlogged, there was no chance on earth he would agree to the Zhou Son of Heaven's demand at a moment like this.

The Zhou Son of Heaven's eyes flickered.

He knew very well that Wei Zhao was not a man so easily fooled; if a few glib words could have done the trick, Wei Zhao would long ago have been spun around his little finger. How then could he have become the mortal threat at his heart that he was today?

Still, that Wei Zhao had seen through his intent so quickly caught him somewhat off guard.

Yet the Zhou Son of Heaven was not in the least flustered.

This was an open conspiracy.

Whether Wei Zhao himself saw through it did not matter in the slightest; what mattered was that the vast populace of the Inner Royal Court stood on the side of the Zhou Son of Heaven!

With the eyes of the whole hall upon him, the Zhou Son of Heaven said earnestly, "Even We know that this matter is indeed rather difficult for you, but there is truly no need for you to deliberately belittle yourself, Wei Zhao."

"With your present strength and influence, you could wipe the Prince of Qi's Estate from the earth in a single battle."

"If you insist on claiming you cannot bear the karma of it, then that is somewhat self-deceiving."

Wei Zhao's face turned strange.

Yet everyone else present, and above all the vast populace of the Inner Royal Court watching the scene from afar, nodded along one after another.

In their simple understanding, since Wei Zhao could annihilate the Prince of Qi's Estate in a single battle, he was the strongest man in the Inner Royal Court, bar none.

If even the strongest man could not bear such karma, then who on earth could?

If Wei Zhao merely denied it, he was simply shirking responsibility on purpose.

The Zhou Son of Heaven went on, painstaking and heartfelt: "With great power comes great responsibility."

"We know that with your strength, Wei Zhao, you could indeed choose to watch the fire from the far bank and keep yourself safe and sound."

"But if it came to that, Our own suffering would be nothing; but to drag the vast populace of the Inner Royal Court into suffering alongside Us, then We would truly deserve death ten thousand times over and never atone for it."

With a few sentences, the image of a Son of Heaven whose heart was bound to the countless living souls of the realm stood there plain and unmistakable.

Especially when joined to his present demon-ridden appearance, in the eyes of the Inner Royal Court's people his sympathy score shot straight to the top.

Many of them planted themselves at his side on the spot; and in doing so, they naturally set themselves against Wei Zhao.

Feeling the surge of public sentiment, the Zhou Son of Heaven laughed inwardly, while his face remained utterly sincere.

"For you, Wei Zhao, this is no more than the lift of a finger; a single thought from you and the living souls of the realm are saved from fire and flood."

"But for the vast populace of Our Inner Royal Court, it is the difference between life and death."

"Think it over carefully: if the Inner Royal Court should fall apart and living souls be drowned in misery, then no matter how lofty you stand, what good would it do you?"

"Conversely, if you lend your hand and save them, countless people of the Inner Royal Court will be forever grateful to you; from this day forth you will be the savior of the whole Inner Royal Court. What a sight would that be?"

"We are not skilled with words; this is all We can say. Which way to go, and the fate of the Inner Royal Court hereafter, rests on your choice."

With that, he knocked his head to the ground once more.

The whole hall was struck dumb.

Never mind the ordinary folk who knew nothing of the truth; even among the assembled civil and military officials, any of the lesser ranks would have been taken in by him.

The assembled magnates exchanged glances.

It seemed the Zhou Son of Heaven had not been idle all these years; he had practiced his acting no small amount.

Otherwise, however much scheming he poured into it, to speak with such feeling and pathos before a crowd was no easy feat.

At this very moment, the sky above the Son of Heaven's palace had already congealed into a thick bank of piled clouds; what was more, from every direction still more and thicker layers were swiftly gathering.

All of it was public sentiment made substance.

It was no exaggeration to say that this was public sentiment towering to the heavens.

The magnates of every faction wore the look of spectators at a play.

Even they, mere onlookers, felt no small pressure from such public sentiment, let alone Wei Zhao, the man at the very center of it.

"Hijacking public sentiment — the Son of Heaven's methods are base enough, and yet, say what you will, they are quite effective."

Qin Siren shook his head with a smile.

Wei Zhao's star was blazing too fiercely of late; even his own Prince of Qin's Estate had been pressed down a peg by it. They might scorn the Zhou Son of Heaven's petty tricks, but to see Wei Zhao take a fall was still a sight they were glad to witness.

What Wei Zhao needed now was for someone to knock him down a notch.

Otherwise, if his momentum were allowed to keep surging unchecked, the situation would truly spiral beyond all control.

The Prince of Qin, however, said, "The Zhou Son of Heaven has set a bad precedent. He cannot be allowed to remain."

Everyone in the Prince of Qin's Estate felt a chill at heart.

Before this, though they had never much held the Zhou Son of Heaven in their eyes, the thought of taking him down had never once crossed their minds.

After all, even a puppet Son of Heaven had his uses.

But with these words from the Prince of Qin, even if the Zhou Son of Heaven succeeded today, his death was certain hereafter.

No one could save him now.

The Zhou Son of Heaven himself was utterly oblivious to this; feeling the surging public sentiment he had marshaled above his head, he was secretly gloating.

He had already won.

The reason an open conspiracy is an open conspiracy is that it admits no solution.

Whatever choice Wei Zhao made next would be wrong: either he set himself wholly against the public sentiment of the entire Inner Royal Court and became its enemy, or he took on the karma and obediently became the stepping stone for the Son of Heaven's whitewashing.

What he truly gloated over was that this move had not only trapped Wei Zhao as he wished, but, more importantly, had borrowed the momentum of that great figure behind the Queen.

Invisibly, he had as good as dragged that great figure aboard his warship.

In truth, without that great figure's tacit consent and the behind-the-scenes prodding, the Zhou Son of Heaven could never have conjured such a tremendous display by his own strength alone.

Rather than saying he was trapping Wei Zhao this time, it would be truer to say that the great figure behind the Queen was using his hand to trap Wei Zhao.

And it was precisely for this reason that he was so utterly fearless.

The Zhou Son of Heaven was utterly certain that Wei Zhao would choose to submit this time, for no one could withstand such towering public sentiment.

No one at all!

Above the clouds, a pair of deep-set eyes watched every flicker of Wei Zhao's reaction.

Had Wei Zhao seen them, he would surely have recognized them: the eyes of Yi Liuchao, a powerhouse of quasi-god rank.