The term ‘capital city’ had yet to be created, but without a doubt, Pu Ban City was the most important core, and the power center of the alliance of human clans. Ever since the era of Emperor Fuxi, generations of human leaders had tried everything they could to protect Pu Ban City, with all kinds of powerful defenses. Not to mention the strong defensive formation of Pu Ban City, Emperor Shun’s residence was surrounded by countless layers of defensive seals.
Most importantly, Emperor Shun’s residence, the Town Hall, and the large surrounding area were under the protection of at least thirty-six ‘after-world natural reward spirit treasures, passed down from former human emperors. Those spirit treasures had the power to suppress all evils.
Ancient human emperors endured great hardships in the pioneering work, and finally led the humankind to rise. They fought natural disasters, wild beasts, and evil creatures, eventually attaining great natural reward powers. These ‘after-world natural reward spirit treasures’ were made by those ancient human emperors with their great natural reward powers and spirit blood. Emperor Xuanyuan’s Xuanyuan sword was a top-grade after-world natural reward spirit treasure.
No evil could ever survive the natural reward power. Sky devils were indeed powerful, but they shouldn’t be able to invade the area protected by after-world natural reward spirit treasures.
In Pu Ban City, Emperor Shun should never have had his body occupied by sky devils, nor be stuck in his own spiritual space.
The purple mist coiling around Ji Hao’s fingers faded gradually. Through the memories delivered by the purple mist, Ji Hao learned everything that happened to Emperor Shun days ago — Because of the flood-control mission, Emperor Shun was busy for many days. This day, he finally finished all tasks at hand and returned to his residence. An attendant served him a cup of tea. Emperor Shun picked up the cup of tea to quench his thirst, but before the defensive seals in his room were activated, Ying Zun darted out of the tea, momentarily invaded Emperor Shun’s body, and went straight to his soul.
As the current human emperor, Emperor Shun had a jade hook, belt, tablet, ring, earring and pendent; those were six powerful defensive magic treasures, which had the power to cast away evils and block magic curses.
When Ying Zun attacked, the six magic treasures worn by Emperor Shun activated themselves immediately. But once the six pieces were activated, six magic talismans flew out from Ying Zun’s hands, which blocked the dazzling light emitted from the six treasures, allowing him to drill into Emperor Shun’s body.
Only a handful of senior human ministers knew that Emperor Shun had a magic painting called ‘People and Motherland’ in his spiritual space to protect his soul.
This painting was a pre-world piece. With the efforts made by the spirit blood of Emperor Fuxi and all human emperors after him, this painting was already connected with the fortune of the entire humankind. Protected by this magic painting, Emperor Shun’s soul was also under the protection of the natural fortune of the humankind. Therefore, his soul would grow stronger and stronger, and evils from other worlds could never harm his soul.
However, once Ying Zun broke into Emperor Shun’s spiritual space, he released a glowing bead, which was made from the endless hatred and the scent of dirty blood, all from the humankind. This gray-red bead was evil and dirty; its hazy light dimmed the glow of the painting and disabled it from protecting Emperor Shun’s soul. Thus, Ying Zun reached Emperor Shun’s soul.
Sky devils were horrible beings. They fed on the souls of the other creatures. Emperor Shun’s soul was indeed strong and stable, but just like the other human Magi, he never cultivated his soul. He didn’t have any soul-based magic to cast. Therefore, once Ying Zun attacked, he fell into a disadvantage.
Fortunately, Emperor Shun had been governing the human society pretty well all these years, which allowed him to attain a great natural reward power. Protected by the natural reward power, although Emperor Shun still couldn’t defeat Ying Zun, Ying Zun couldn’t devour his soul either. Ying Zun could only continuously pollute Emperor Shun’s natural reward power with a dirty, evil magic, to slowly grind it off and destroy Emperor Shun in a long way.
Ying Zun showed up in Pu Ban City right in Emperor Shun’s residence; his magic talismans perfectly suppressed the six defensive magic treasures Emperor Shun had, added with that dirty, powerful bead, which had weakened the ‘People and Motherland’ painting. Everything he had could restrain Emperor Shun. As a result, Emperor Shun was almost defenseless!
There was a mole among the senior human leaders in Pu Ban City. Otherwise, this could never be explained. Especially that dirty bead released by Ying Zun, which even managed to disable the ‘People and Motherland’ painting; one had to collect a giant amount of hatred, which could only be generated by the greatest sorrows before human beings died, and the dirty blood from corpses. Making such a bead required great efforts, incalculable manpower, and resources. Therefore, no ordinary person could never make something as evil and powerful as this.
Besides, weakening the ‘People and Motherland’ painting was the only function of this bead!
No more than a hundred people in the world knew about the existence of this painting, but Ying Zun managed to launch such an accurate strike at Emperor Shun. How could he possible do that without the help of a mole? For sure, there was a mole in Pu Ban City, and this mole had a high social status, and an unknown purpose.
"You know there is a mole in Pu Ban City, so what?" Emperor Shun sat in front of Ji Hao, staring at him with a dark look. He laughed in a twisted voice and taunted, "What can you do in Pu Ban City? Give the order to capture all human leaders and torture the answer out of them one by one?"
Emperor Shun shook his head and continued in that weird tone, "You don’t have the power! Marquis Yao Ji Hao, if you dare to do anything that I don’t want you to do, I can order my people to arrest you…Then, I will take my time to make you suffer!"
Before Ji Hao responded, he laughed, "I am the emperor, while you are a vassal!"
Slowly standing up, Emperor Shun slapped his own chest while his eyes sparkled with that five-colored light, as he yelled at Ji Hao, "What do you have to fight against me?"
Ji Hao gritted his teeth and looked at Emperor Shun right in the eyes.
Indeed, how was Ji Hao supposed to fight him? Emperor Shun’s soul was in his hands, and if Ji Hao attacked Ying Zun without considering the consequences, using Emperor Shun’s spirit space as a battlefield, Emperor Shun could be harmed easily. But, if Ji Hao gave up on fighting, Ying Zun would still have Emperor Shun’s body occupied. This meant that every order he gave with that body would be an order from the human emperor. As he said, he could give the order to arrest Ji Hao, and facing an order like that, Ji Hao would have no choice but to run away with Man Man and his other friends. Not to mention the fact that Ying Zun was being helped by an unknown mole, who probably knew everything about the human society. Possibly, this mole could make Ji Hao take the blame for tons of things, and make him an enemy of the entire humankind.
"In fact, I’m more curious about how you killed Xia Zun and Yu Zun." Ying Zun narrowed his eyes, looking at Ji Hao as he said slowly, "They were indeed not as powerful as me, but they shouldn’t have died in your hands."
Soft footsteps could be heard as two attendants in long black robes walked over from behind the great hall. They came to Emperor Shun, said with gentle voices, "Shun, Si Wen Ming sent a message back. It’s urgent."
Ji Hao instantly raised his head. An urgent message from Si Wen Ming? It must be about the flood-control mission. How could such an important message fall in Ying Zun’s hands?
"Ying Zun…" Ji Hao gave a deep growl while reaching out his right hand at lightning speed, towards the bamboo tube in an attendant’s hand. The letter from Si Wen Ming was in that bamboo tube.
Ji Hao was swift; he flashed to the two attendant in no time.
The two attendants raised their heads, their eyes dazzling with a five-colored light. Two colorfully glowing man-shaped silhouettes dashed out of their bodies and pounced on Ji Hao.
"Hehe, it’s mine!"
"Nonsense! It belongs to whoever had it first!"
The two silhouettes chuckled with silvery voices. Meanwhile, a tsunami-like overwhelming wave of evil power struck into Ji Hao’s head. Illusions emerged before Ji Hao’s eyes layer by layer; and at the moment, Ji Hao saw countless naked beautiful women jumping into his arms.
"I am Se Zun, remember my name."
"And me, I am Yuu Zun. You and I will be together after I eat your soul."