The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 311 She Took a Real Special Interest in Him

Gracefully, Feihong Bodhisattva stood before him with a smile of teasing hanging on her mouth corners. Upon hearing such a greeting, would Li Ye answer her or not?

To others, it might be a dilemma, but Li Ye obviously had no psychological burden. Looking up at the sky, he remained silent as if he hadn’t heard Feihong Bodhisattva’s question at all. A piece of cloud happened to float there, which immediately attracted his attention.

But everyone could tell that he was obviously pretending because he exerted too much effort to act. Li Ye deliberately chose not to answer Feihong Bodhisattva’s question and didn’t feel guilty or embarrassed. The Holy Child exclaimed in his heart, “This guy is so unusually shameless that he must be capable of achieving something big.”

Li Ye turned a blind eye to Feihong Bodhisattva and ignored her question. But Feihong Bodhisattva took no offense. Watching Li Ye, she continued to tease him, “Your Highness Prince An, your great fame is widespread. You even dared to kill Immortal Realm masters at your will, don’t you even have the courage to speak to me? ”

But her words didn’t affect Li Ye at all. In case that Feihong Bodhisattva would set any trap in her words, Li Ye didn’t mean to talk to Feihong Bodhisattva at all. Now he could be described as a complete coward, but he was a coward with great confidence. Others could only blame him for being shameless. Other than that, they could do nothing to him.

There were more and more cultivators confronting with each other from the two sides. One after another, those cultivators who had initially been fighting in pairs in various places also rushed here. All of them changed the battlefield, but the tension between them did not vanish. Instead, it grew much more stressful. Though Feihong Bodhisattva and Li Ye did not look like enemies with the deadly feud, they could not change this increasingly tenser trend.

“What should we do now?” Seeing that more and more cultivators in the Ground Immortal Realm and the Spiritual Master Realm had arrived here, the Holy Child whispered his question to Li Ye. Of course, he was not worried. His shining eyes showed that he was eager to fight.

In previous, the cultivators that the Holy Child brought here were a little weaker than the cultivators of Feihong Bodhisattva, especially these Ground Immortal Realm masters who acted as the backbone power of each side. The other side had 18 arhats, but the Holy Child’s side had only seven to eight people. The number of his enemies was almost three times than him. Thus, his group certainly could not defeat their enemies on the battlefield, and they would definitely suffer great losses.

But there was nothing that the Holy Child could do. After all, Feihong Bodhisattva came from Land Buddhism. The demon clan was no match for Feihong Bodhisattva’s army, one way and another. That was why the Holy Child flinched each time and decided not to confront Feihong Bodhisattva.

But things were different now. Li Ye killed the Dragon-subduing Arhat, the Crouching-tiger Arhat, and the Deer-sitting Arhat. Then, he successfully fought back under the siege of the sever arhats and turned all of them into flying ashes. 10 of the 18 arhats had already been killed by Li Ye. Now only 8 arhats were left, the number of which was roughly the same with the number of Ground Immortal Realm masters that the Holy Child brought with them.

Now that judging merely by the number, the strength of each side was almost the same. The Red Boy was brave and combative, so he chose to go all-out to fight.

“Are you sure that you can defeat Feihong Bodhisattva?” Li Ye turned around and threw the Holy-child King a glance.

The Red Boy opened his eyes and said, “But I have you on my side, right? You could easily defeat the Ground Immortal Realm masters. I think we can beat them with your strength as long as you also come out to fight! Maybe this time, we can make Feihong Bodhisattva suffer big losses!”

Li Ye shook his head slightly. “I just finished the fight with the seven arhats. To break through the enchantment that the seven of them had arranged, I have consumed too much energy. So I’m afraid that there is nothing that I can do to help.”

“Are you going to let go of such a good chance?!” The Red Boy felt reluctant to give up.

When Li Ye and the Holy Child were having a heated discussion, Feihong Bodhisattva also quickly calculated the possible gains or losses in her mind. But no matter how she calculated, she could not gain any advantages out of the battle, which made her somewhat annoyed.

“Li Ye!” Feihong Bodhisattva quickly made up her mind. With bright and shining eyes, she gazed at Li Ye and said with a deceptive voice. “In our previous battle, I was in a bad state. You got the chance and seriously injured me. Thus, I haven’t yet recovered. Now that our two armies are in a sustained battle. Every day the battle continues, countless soldiers of us will be killed or wounded. To reduce the death of those ordinary soldiers, do you dare to fight with me alone? How about we take the result of the life and death battle between us as the outcome of this war?”

Her speech sounded fair and reasonable enough. First, she vaguely stated that Li Ye had taken advantage of her before such that he should accept her challenge today. Then she used the life and death of hundreds of thousands of soldiers as an excuse to force Li Ye to take the seemingly righteous way. Then in whichever way, Li Ye had to accept her challenge only because he was a man and also the master of the army with hundreds of thousands of troops.

Once the Holy Child heard her words, his expression changed dramatically. Of course, he knew what Feihong Bodhisattva meant, but her perfect speech left no room for criticism. As long as Li Ye wanted a little dignity, there was no room for him to refuse. In addition, now Feihong Bodhisattva hadn’t recovered, so it was also an excellent chance for Li Ye to take advantage. In this case, if Li Ye still dared not to accept the challenge, he would be too timid.

Moreover, they were under everyone’s gaze at this moment. Especially the demon clan on Li Ye’s side, they would never follow someone who had no courage and sense of responsibility. In addition, there were hundreds of thousands of soldiers inside and outside Qinzhou City.

“Li Ye, calm down. Listen to me...” The Holy Child tried to stop Li Ye when he saw that Li Ye was going to say something.

Feeling strange, Li Ye looked at him. “What are you going to say?”

The Holy Child hurriedly grabbed him for fear he would rush out. “You need to calm down. Don’t act on impulse. Obviously, Feihong Bodhisattva said these words to irritate you. You cannot walk into her trap...”

Li Ye felt even stranger. “Why must I go into a trap?”

Even more anxiously, the Holy Child advised. “Of course, you won’t go into the trap. I know that you are a real man, the master of the Pinglu Army, and the Grand Prince of the Tang Empire. Moreover, you have just killed several arhats just now. However, please don’t take all of this as your burden...”

Speaking of this, the Holy Child seemed to remember something and stopped abruptly. He gazed at Li Ye with a weirder look and asked, “What did you just say?”

With ease, Li Ye smiled. With his usually calm face, he looked at Feihong Bodhisattva and replied clearly. “I refuse to accept your challenge.”

Feihong Bodhisattva slightly narrowed her eyes. “Did you just neatly refuse my challenge? Being such a coward, didn’t you afraid that others would laugh at you? If you don’t care about your dignity and reputation, people in the whole world will look down on you. Who is willing to follow you then?”

Li Ye still smiled. “As a Daluo Golden Immortal, you wanted to challenge me, who is only a Yang Spiritual Master. In such a case, you didn’t feel ashamed and was not afraid of losing the Land Buddhism’s dignity. So what matters if I admitted that I didn’t have the courage?”

As soon as his words came out, Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyes suddenly became sharp and fixed on Li Ye’s face like sharp pinpoints. As the previous Daluo Golden Immortal, her aura was naturally extremely powerful. She never needed to demonstrate her dignity by losing her temper. Only with a slight frown, she could make all living creatures bow their heads before her. Then, she said coldly, “Do you truly care about nothing?”

Everyone knew that Feihong Bodhisattva was very powerful. At this moment, her oppression looked as heavy as a huge mountain. One after another, cultivators in the demon clan changed their expressions. No matter it was the Spiritual Master Realm masters or the Immortal Realm masters, they all felt the heavy pressure. All of them even didn’t dare to look up at Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyes as if she were the scorching sun at noon, and every one of them was all frightened.

With a gloomy look, even the Holy Child clenched his teeth. Bodhisattva from Land Buddhism was awe-inspiring. Every single move of her was shocking enough. After all, she was definitely a nobody. Feihong Bodhisattva’s power of cultivation was greatly reduced, and her majesty was not as powerful as before. Thus, it could not directly harm others. However, her majesty still had a great impact on these people’s minds.

The question that Feihong Bodhisattva asked showed all her majesty because she wanted to tell Li Ye that even if he did not accept the challenge, he could not assure his safety. If she also went all-out to fight without any scruples, Li Ye would still be in danger. But it was not a naked threat. Feihong Bodhisattva’s words were not sharp, but they instead enhanced the deterrence.

She was Feihong Bodhisattva. As one of the few Great Power in the entire Land Buddhism, she was able to do whatever she meant!

Of course, the center of Feihong Bodhisattva’s deterrence was Li Ye. What she wanted to influence or even control was Li Ye’s mind.

However, facing the pressure of Feihong Bodhisattva’s oppression. With a smile, Li Ye still looked so delighted, just like bathing in the spring wind. He was not affected by her at all.

His smile looked natural and charming. It didn’t look like a fake one at all. In his heart, he did not affect even a little by Feihong Bodhisattva, nor did he fear her!

Feihong Bodhisattva looked very dignified. The demon clan’s cultivators felt as if they were standing upon the edge of an abyss. The feet of some demons slightly trembled. The Holy Child regarded the situation as very critical, so he was on the alert and was ready to fight at any time. On the battlefield, the atmosphere was solemn and dull, full of pressure. Everyone’s nerves were as tight as the strings that are about to break under strain.

Only Li Ye was relaxed and easy. Smiling, he said lightly as if he were having a casual conversation with Feihong Bodhisattva. “Feihong Bodhisattva, you may have forgotten that this place is not the Buddhism of Land Buddhism but the Tang Empire’s Qinzhou City. I am Tang Empire’s Grand Prince, not a monk from Buddhism or a follower of the Buddha. So your majesty as a Bodhisattva from the Land Buddhism was no use to me! If you truly want to start a life-and-death battle, then just go ahead to fight with me. Why did you keep challenging me but never went ahead to fight?”

In an unhurried and calm manner, Li Ye said these words with a stable tone, never rising and falling in cadence. But as he spoke out, the words he said sounded like the collisions between metal and stones, bursting out in the ears of all cultivators. Just like the mighty waves beating the shore, his voice made these cultivators come to their senses one by one from the shocking state of being deterred by Feihong.

After regaining consciousness, these cultivators from the demon clan didn’t feel embarrassed or feel too ashamed to show their faces because they had lost their composures just now. She was Feihong Bodhisattva, so it was not embarrassed at all to be frightened by her. But they looked at Li Ye with great surprises and doubts which only lasted for a short time. Then the surprises and doubts of them became fear and awe which were getting deeper and deeper.

Li Ye could completely deactivate Feihong Bodhisattva’s majestic, how strong could Li Ye’s strength and state of mind be? Facing Feihong Bodhisattva, Li Ye dared to say such a speech, then how much confidence and courage did he have?

These arrogant and unyielding cultivators from the demon clan usually had no respect for anyone and considered the mortals as ants. But now, they looked at Li Ye’s back in awe and fear of the strong.

Awe and fear were the most fundamental conditions for absolute obedience.

Looking at Feihong Bodhisattva, Li Ye finished his calm speech. With no change on his face, he quietly waited for her to reply.

Feihong Bodhisattva was very angry, but her anger just flashed away. Immediately after that, brighter colors unexpectedly appeared in her eyes. She stared at Li Ye as if he were a rare treasure of the world. Slightly moving her lips, she said with a gentle smile, “I’m curious about what was in your mind that gave you the courage to talk to me like this. Is it because of your ignorance that you are fearless without knowing you are going to die? Or do you truly have no fear?”

After speaking, Feihong Bodhisattva did not wait for Li Ye to answer and continued, “If the living beings in the world want to be truly fearless, they must first experience great terrors, great majesty, and great despairs. Only after all of this can they get in-depth understandings of the world’s joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness as well as the sorrows and joys of partings and meetings. In this process, their mind could not be collapsed, and they should always stay true to the original selves at the same time. In this way, they can add a little fearless power to their hearts of Tao.”

Speaking of this, Feihong Bodhisattva closely stared at Li Ye, her eyes sparkling. “But you are just a mortal cultivator who has only lived for more than 20 years. Even if you have rich experience, how can you experience all of this? Even if you can, since you’re so young, how can you have enough time to understand the Great Tao?”

Li Ye did not expect that Feihong Bodhisattva would make such a remark, and he could not offer her any explanation. Before the transmigration, he had lived for a long time and went through many ups and downs in the world. After the transmigration, he encountered a reborn soul that deeply knew the different feelings of the world. Although he did not really understand the truth of the Great Tao and see through the laws of the universe, it was not difficult for him to know some.

Seeing that Li Ye gave her no answer, Feihong Bodhisattva didn’t urge him, nor did she show any strange looks on her flawless face. Instead, she was immersed in thought, constantly moving her fingers as if she was calculating something. It didn’t take long for her to open her eyes. When she looked at Li Ye again, her eyes showed a strong interest. “Have you already awakened your memories of your Last Life?”

She talked in a cool way at this moment. It seemed that she had forgotten their hostile stands and Li Ye’s words had just offended her. Now she looked like a curious girl who concentrated all her attention on simply explaining the doubts in her heart. She seemed to have lost in contemplation.

Li Ye’s so-called memories in Last Life were the memories of Fu Su and Liu Xie. Li Ye had known all of these things after he saw the Yin Spirit of Wu You and that monkey. But he got the memories by listening to stories, which were no awakened memories. So he didn’t have any intense feelings about it.

“Sort of.” Facing Feihong Bodhisattva’s hopeful eyes, Li Ye replied to her casually. Given his current age and cultivation level, he was indeed rare in the world. If a convincing explanation was needed, then awakened memories of his Last Life sounded more authentic than the transmigration and rebirth.

Feihong Bodhisattva glanced at Li Ye with a complicated look. Li Ye admitted the explain without due care. Thus, she didn’t totally believe it was the truth. But except for this explanation, it was hard to find any other possibilities.

Feihong Bodhisattva no longer wanted to get entangled with him. She turned around and left.

With a group of cultivators from the Land Buddhism in the Spiritual Master Realm and the Immortal Realm, she returned to the Qinzhou City from the midair.

She left quickly and neatly without saying a word. Unexpectedly, she left before others realized what had happened.

However, her choice was reasonable. If Feihong Bodhisattva did not plan to fight a life-and-death battle today, there was no need for her to continue confronting Li Ye with her unhealed body because her majesty was no deterrent to Li Ye. Thus, there was no opportunity for her to take advantage of.

Of course, Feihong Bodhisattva didn’t need to tell Li Ye and others beforehand that she would bring her people back to Qinzhou City. They were enemies. No rivals on a battlefield would tell the other side their next plans. Otherwise, did they want their enemies to wait and fight with them on the half-way?

The Holy Child walked up to Li Ye, excited. With curious, he asked Li Ye, “How did it feel when you got your awakened memories of your Last Life?” “Was it very thrilling, exciting, and mysterious? Did you feel like you had lived for a few more lives?”

After giving him a cold stare, Li Ye went straight back to his camp because he was not in the mood to talk about this nonsense topic.

After going through a great battle, Li Ye got lots of comprehension, and it was time for him to digest that. In particular, he just touched the threshold of the Way of Emperor and initially formed his heart of Tao. The fact that he had upgraded the Dragon Qi made him feel very mysterious, and the Dragon Qi needed to be stabilized in time.

As soon as he returned to the military camp, Li Ye locked himself in his big tent and began to deal with these issues one by one.

For Li Ye, the greatest gain of this war was that he had understood the Way of Emperor. Before this, he only knew that he was demanded to accomplish the work of a True Dragon. But he didn’t have a clear understanding of how he should shape himself subjectively.

He only knew that if he wanted to reign over the world, he would have to sweep away the other forces and win the hearts of the people of the world.

However, any king in previous, including those founding emperors of a new dynasty, could not get the support of all. More often, after they defeated each of the opponents with their own force, only his force was left in the end. Then, he became the emperor. Therefore, it was said that the leader with best-equipped and best-trained troops with the highest morale would be the emperor.

Li Ye felt that he could not easily accomplish the work of a True Dragon merely by defeating all his opponents. It certainly was not that easy, or he could not improve his cultivation level by getting people’s support and the Luck. Since ancient times, those people who could get people’s support and the Luck could and only could be emperors.

Originally, Li Ye’s present body didn’t have Spiritual Roots and was not qualified to cultivate. After a strange combination of circumstances, the Dragon Qi appeared in this body, which could turn the favor of the people and the Luck into cultivation. At first glance, the Dragon Qi replaced the role of the Spiritual Roots. But after thinking carefully, he found that things were obviously not that simple.

The accumulation of the support of the people could improve Li Ye’s cultivation level, which was Li Ye’s way of cultivation. But where was the end of this road? At the end, when Li Ye won the full support of all the living beings in the world, what kind of cultivation realm could he achieve? Would he become a Daluo Golden Immortal or reached the Pre-sage Realm? He was on the opposite side of the Immortal Court Taoist sect. If he came to an end and entered the Pre-sage Realm eventually, what would it mean?

Secondly, he couldn’t win the support of all the people in the world.

The world was so big, which was much bigger than the Tang Empire. Outside the empire, various clans had their own beings. They were the enemies that had been fighting with the Tang Empire. How could the people there give allegiance to Li Ye? Or could Li Ye reach the terminal point and accomplish the work of the True Dragon only by the support of the Tang Empire’s people? What would happen to him after that?

Also, how exactly had the Dragon Qi formed?

These questions were too complicated. For the time being, Li Ye could not figure them out. He could only first put down these questions about “Tao” and temporarily focus on the problem about the “force.”

After he got the initial understanding of the Way of Emperor, the Dragon Qi became purple and completed its first transformation. Then, with the greatly increased strength, Li Ye defeated the seven Ground Immortal Realm arhats.

The Way of Emperor, which was the way for Li Ye, and his heart of Tao also lay there. From the perspective of cultivation, to achieve the Ground Immortal Realm, he should comprehend the Great Tao first and then understood his own Tao. After that, he could form his own Tao thoughts and the heart of Tao. Otherwise, he could not be able to survive the Kalpa before reaching the Ground Immortal Realm.

At present, Li Ye had only touched the Way of Emperor first and had not yet gotten a deeper understanding. Thus, his understanding was far from enough to reach the Ground Immortal Realm. Of course, the people’s support and the Luck that he gathered were far from enough for him to achieve the Ground Immortal Realm, and Li Ye could not accomplish these things in a short time.

Thinking of this, Li Ye decided to try to communicate with the Dragon Qi.

After the Dragon Qi turned purple, part of the Dragon Qi’s consciousness awakened. Li Ye had a lot of puzzles about the Dragon Qi and the Way of Emperor. With awakened consciousness, the Dragon Qi might answer some of Li Ye’s doubts. For example, it could tell Li Ye how the Dragon Qi was generated.