Page 491

"Do you know what that thing is?" Outside the Court, Wang Ye, who was helping Chen Qing prepare everything, asked curiously.

He didn’t ask out of suspicion. On the contrary, after spending time together, he didn’t doubt for a moment that Chen Qing would know all this, because numerous experiences had already told him that it was not surprising for Chen Qing to know any piece of information.

Many times, he was like a living encyclopedia. ...

"The power of Ghost Domain has gathered various negatives, because it’s a chaotic land of death without orderly management, so it’s filled with all kinds of resentments. When these resentments accumulate, they can form a terrifying force."

"Mother and Child Ghost Temples are a medium that utilizes young children to foster resentments."

"Young children? They harbor resentments too?" Wang Ye was somewhat curious, "Shouldn’t adults, who are more fixated on life and death, have resentments?"

"No... The resentments of young children are very formidable," Chen Qing sighed and shook his head. To be honest, the design of the Mother and Child Ghost Temples was never approved at the time. It wasn’t his suggestion, rather it came from someone in the team.

He somewhat forgot exactly who, but he had been against the proposal.

With his status and the standards for review back then, such a thing would, of course, not be approved for release.

Yet, it... still appeared in this world!

This made Chen Qing feel a bit inexplicably eerie. What exactly were the rules of this world? Why would things that weren’t approved for release appear?

There must be something he didn’t know.

However, he temporarily didn’t have the energy to investigate that matter. The most pressing issue was to resolve the current situation.

Chen Qing tried his best to recall information about the Mother and Child Ghost Temples.

"Young children don’t have adults’ complex emotions.

The only thing they have is a desire for survival, which is the purest. Therefore, when it’s deprived, the resentments that arise are the strongest. This causes deceased young children to go to the Path of Yin and Yang.

If they aren’t devoured by Evil Ghosts right away, they can instead grow into quite vicious entities. "

"King Xiang is the newly ascended Ghost King, with the weakest foundation. That is why his slaughter is the heaviest. He needs an army of his own, and the more he kills, the more the victims fear him, the more they ultimately have no choice but to submit to him and become part of his large force."

"And among the many Ghost Armies, those from the Mother and Child Ghost Temples have the highest potential. With a bit of cultivation, they can become an extremely terrifying new force!"

The Empress Dowager shivered at the thought, A mother-and-child ghost army? Training young children killed in slaughter into an army?

She was not a charitable person. In fact, any family that rose to power did so with blood on their hands. But she had never thought that anyone in the world would do such a thing, let alone that the person doing it now occupied the highest position in the world!

The more she thought about it, the colder she felt to the bone....

Meanwhile, Wang Ye was quite silent beside her, not knowing what to say.

To call it cruel, his own kin had done far worse.

Elder Shen had once, in order to build an army of living corpses as quickly as possible, said he would slaughter the billions of people in the countries of the Western Sea, sparing no man, woman, or child.

His other brothers never considered human life worth anything either.

But he was different.

When he escaped, he was very weak and accidentally possessed a sick child, who was treated kindly by neighbors and grew up eating food from many households.

He was also taught by a kind-hearted teacher who guided him through his studies.

He excelled academically, and wherever he went, he was a child cherished by his tutors, who provided him with care and instruction. ...

He had seen the evil in humans as well as their goodness. The more he interacted with them, the less he was able to do what his kin did.

He always thought he could hide for a lifetime; ten years of hard study, five years in the bureaucratic world. If not for the recent series of unforeseen events, he would have been content to continue on like that forever.

So... why? Why would a Demon like him want to live a life like a human, and why would an Emperor, a Supreme Level being, want to live a life like a ghost?

Chen Qing couldn’t read minds and naturally couldn’t understand the complexities in their hearts at the moment.

He continued with the information: "The Ghost Temple serves as a medium.

It can infiltrate part of the power of the Ghost Domain into the human realm, but Capital City is a place of royal destiny, extremely difficult to penetrate.

It cannot establish temples as rapidly as the Southern Barbarians.

The power that can be employed should actually be very limited. "

"How limited is ’very limited’?" the Empress frowned, "What means did he use to silently make your formidable subordinates vanish? Also, I’ve inquired about what your subordinate did in the hall. How many like that do you have?"

"Just one!" Chen Qing admitted truthfully.

Far from displeased, the Empress Dowager nodded in satisfaction.

She had guessed as much. The reports indicated that the woman, with sheer presence alone, had made all the civil and military officials in the hall bow down and with a wave of her hand, could kill the extraordinary subordinates of the Southern Barbarians.

If Chen Qing had many such capable people, she would have immediately terminated the cooperation.

"So that means she should be your most formidable subordinate, right? How does she compare to you?"

"I am far from her equal..." Chen Qing answered honestly.

It was a fact, Ao Zhen had joined his Shen Dao flow, and while he could temporarily borrow her attributes and abilities, in a real fight, he feared he would not even be able to withstand one move from her.

One had centuries of strength built through hard work, the other was akin to temporarily cheating, how could their value be compared?

"How will you deal with the Emperor’s tactic?" the Empress Dowager frowned.

"He should not be able to use this tactic frequently," Chen Qing surmised. "If I’m not mistaken, his ability relies on using the resentment of the Wailing Children in the Ghost Temples to open a space belonging to the Ghost Domain, dragging my subordinate into it."

"Such forcefully created spaces are actually very fragile. My subordinate has an extraordinary background, and there aren’t many places in this world that can hold her, even if it’s a space of the Ghost Domain.

I believe that the space itself is not enough to confine her, someone must continuously interfere. .."

Chen Qing turned to the Empress Dowager: "Has the Empress Dowager ever seen the Empress who rose from the dead?"

At the mention of this person, the Empress Dowager’s expression turned unsightly. She had always been displeased with the Emperor, but truth be told, she could not fault the wife he chose back in the day— a woman of both beauty and intelligence, gracious and proper, capable and tactful.

For the past twenty years, this Empress was absolutely competent.

How could that wretched beast tolerate a demon taking her form and still engage in nightly revelries with it?

Just the thought made the Empress Dowager feel nauseous!

Suppressing the disgust, the Empress Dowager spoke in a low voice, "That woman moves unpredictably, capable of any deed within the Imperial Palace, even occasionally harming the young Princesses, utterly despicable!"

Chen Qing nodded upon hearing this. That woman, also a senior figure in her own right, was actually willing to harm defenseless people, especially young Princes and Princesses. Apart from being twisted and deranged, Chen Qing could find no other reason for her actions.

"But she never comes near me, probably because the Emperor warned her. I can’t save the concubines outside, so I can only protect the young Princes and grandsons as much as possible.

For these past years, it’s been like a cat chasing mice; any child left alone would inevitably meet with trouble.

The entire Imperial Palace is in a state of panic because of her. "

"However... I have clearly felt that this past month, she has been much quieter!"

Chen Qing nodded, his mind forming a judgment.

If he was not mistaken, the one impersonating the Empress and interacting with the Emperor all these years was the Serpent Mother, who had allied with the Ghost Domain. That was why her subordinates, with the Dragon Maiden’s eyes, went to the West Sea to seek the heritage.

The Empress Dowager said she had been quieter this month, probably because she had been preparing that spatial trap this month.

The opposing side knew of Ao Zhen’s existence and anticipated that Ao Zhen might come, so they had made preparations in advance.

But who was Ao Zhen?

The Western Sea War God, the highest combat strength under the Dragon King among the four seas, a being of the second version’s ceiling level. With the Ghost Domain still undeveloped and King Xiang not yet matured, even ten of that Serpent Mother would be no match for Ao Zhen!

But the abilities of the Ghost Domain are strange. If they had calculated in advance and used the Serpent Mother’s energy to design a trap to momentarily confine Ao Zhen, it wasn’t impossible.

So the situation was not as bad as it seemed.

The opposition had merely managed to seal Ao Zhen temporarily, and as long as he could locate the space where Ao Zhen was sealed and rescue her, then the entire situation... would turn around!

However, he was very worried about one thing...

That was the sudden appearance of King Chu Jiang during the opening of Destiny Hole.

What was his relationship with that Serpent Mother?

Enemies or allies?

This was crucial because if they had an alliance, this could possibly be the second trap aimed at him!