I Cheated While Cultivating

This is the grandest palace of the Hongyang Empire, the core of the Imperial City, where Emperor Yang Yun holds court to meet with his officials and deal with government affairs.

It is now night, with clouds obscuring the moon and no stars shining, engulfing everything in darkness.

The darker the skies, the stricter the guard within the Imperial Palace, with swarms of forbidding guards patrolling the grounds, all masters of Inner Strength.

Especially in front of Hongyang Hall, the security is the most tight and the number of guards is the greatest, all focused and vigilant, watching every corner closely.

Contrastingly, inside Hongyang Hall it is still as bright as day with the lights burning clear and bright.

It has already reached the hour of Hai, but Emperor Yang Yun is still attending to state affairs within Hongyang Hall.

Memorials are piled up like mountains.

The current state of the Hongyang Empire is far from peaceful with rampant bandits and the major rivers and lakes sects also appearing rebellious; coupled with a year of famine, the people in the northwestern provinces are rather unsettled.

Thus, these memorials, which report the chaos from various regions and request the emperor’s decisions, are constantly being sent into Hongyang Hall like snowflakes.

Emperor Yang Yun of the Hongyang Empire has been staying up late reading memorials for half a month now.

“Phew!” Yang Yun let out a long breath, closed a memorial he was reading, pinched the bridge of his nose, and decided to take a break to relax, but he was somewhat reluctant to put down the memorial in his hands.

Afterward, his gaze fell on the national treasure, the Divine Jade Seal, at the corner of the table. He picked up the seal and carefully examined it.

Although this Divine Jade Seal had accompanied him for decades since he ascended to the throne, it had never left his side.

He was very familiar with every detail on it.

However, whenever he held the seal in his hand for more than a short while, he felt as though he possessed boundless strength, and his physical and mental fatigue would quickly subside.

It was the former emperor who had once said that the Divine Jade Seal was imbued with the fortunes of the entire Hongyang Empire.

Each time the seal exercised its effects, it was actually consuming the fortunes of the Hongyang Empire.

Therefore, it should not be used excessively.

Otherwise, the entire Hongyang Empire would gradually decline, chaos would arise everywhere, and the people would suffer.

“What a treasure,” Yang Yun murmured affectionately as he caressed the Divine Jade Seal, unable to part with it.

He was well aware of the consequences of frequently using the Divine Jade Seal to restore his spirit and strength, but he ultimately couldn’t resist and once again played with the seal for half a moment.

After this brief period, Yang Yun’s spirits immediately returned to an exceptionally full state.

He then put the Divine Jade Seal back at the corner of the table, reopened a memorial, and continued to review it, seemingly like a diligent and loving emperor.

However, in reality, Yang Yun didn’t care about the various crises reflected in these memorials. What he truly cared about was the exhilarating feeling while reviewing them, the sensation of changing countless people’s fates with a single stroke of his brush.

For him, this feeling was an incomparable pleasure.

Because of this, he was addicted to reviewing memorials, preferring to use the Divine Jade Seal to restore his spirit and strength rather than stopping.

In Yang Yun’s eyes, the common people and the nation were nothing more than ‘playthings’.

Snap!

Yang Yun had just finished reviewing another memorial, a pleased smile on his face.

But just at that moment, Yang Yun suddenly felt a blur before his eyes, as if someone had flashed past him.

At the same time, the Divine Jade Seal that was on the corner of the table had disappeared without a trace, leaving only bits of paper scattered on the ground.

“…” Rubbing his eyes, Yang Yun’s face showed an expression of disbelief and he bellowed, “Guards! There’s an assassin!”

Before the words had fully left his mouth, two middle-aged eunuchs, pale and beardless, burst forth from behind Yang Yun’s dragon throne.

Both cloaked in a faint glow, they moved at extreme speed, intending to rush out of Hongyang Hall.

They were all first-rate masters in the Gang Qi Realm from the jianghu.

But no sooner had they appeared than the six paper dolls scattered on the ground suddenly stood up and rapidly expanded until they reached adult size.

Each paper doll possessed a fifth of Zhou Heng’s strength, which amounted to less than a third of their original strength.

However, how formidable was Zhou Heng’s true strength?

Even if it wasn’t even thirty percent, it could easily crush those barely equivalent to Eighth Rank or at the Gang Qi Realm.

Not to mention, there were six paper dolls here now!

The two Purple Robe eunuchs had never seen such a bizarre scene and were immediately stunned on the spot, but they quickly regained their composure and intended to attack these paper dolls.

Unfortunately, the strength of a single paper doll far exceeded their own, and now there were six.

Before the two skilled eunuchs could act, the attacks of two paper dolls had already landed on them.

They were struck to the ground and knocked unconscious on the spot.

The remaining four paper dolls also surrounded Emperor Yang Yun, preventing him from moving.

“What do you want to do?!” Yang Yun, trembling with rage, glared fiercely at the four paper dolls.

In the face of such a bizarre sight, he showed no fear at all.

Paper dolls can’t speak, so naturally, Yang Yun wouldn’t get a response, and his heart swelled with even greater anger.

But he didn’t dare to act rashly.

He had seen with his own eyes how these paper dolls had easily knocked out two high-ranking eunuchs.

Both eunuchs were at the pinnacle of the Gang Qi Realm, the strongest below a Great Grandmaster, yet they were no match for these eerie paper dolls.

Yang Yun had only just entered the Gang Qi Realm and neglected his training on ordinary days, not being skilled in combat; he was very clear that he was no match for these paper dolls.

To rashly make a move would be tantamount to seeking death.

However, he still had one last trump card, and he had not yet decided whether to use it.

After all, the truly powerful guards of the Imperial City were actually outside this Hongyang Hall.

The brazen thief who dared to steal the Town-Nation Seal, even if he could escape the Hongyang Hall using such inconceivable methods as before, might not necessarily flee the Imperial City!

…

At this very moment, Zhou Heng was swiftly crossing over the rooftops of the grand halls in the Hongyang Imperial City, holding the Town-Nation Seal in his hand.

Previously, he had quietly infiltrated the rooftop of the Hongyang Hall, then used the wood technique of the Five Elements Escape Technique, with the paper doll as a spirit guide, to instantly teleport through the roof and continued to use the technique three times in succession to appear before Emperor Yang Yun’s desk and take the Town-Nation Seal, followed by three more uses of the technique to leave the Hongyang Hall.

And applying the wood technique of the Five Elements Escape Technique did not affect the paper dolls themselves, so they could still be used for the Paper Dolls into Soldiers technique.

After taking the Town-Nation Seal, Zhou Heng then used the Paper Dolls into Soldiers technique to turn the six paper dolls inside the Hongyang Hall into “Taoist Soldiers.”

He did this to confuse the eyes and attention of the palace guards, allowing him to escape smoothly and leave this Cave Sky world.

— After obtaining the Town-Nation Seal, Zhou Heng was certain that it was the most fortune-dense artifact inside this Cave Sky world.

Next, he knew that taking the seal out of this Cave Sky would be fulfilling his mission, with Yan Shouyi’s assistance, to gain this Celestial Man Cave Sky.

However, since the Cave Sky rules were forcibly changed by Taoist Sovereign God Soldier used by Yan Shouyi, there were certain restrictions on Zhou Heng’s departure; he had to reach the feng shui focal point of the Imperial Palace, that is, the center of Tai Chi Lake located in the southeastern part of the palace.

Only there could Yan Shouyi mobilize the power of the Taoist Sovereign God Soldier to lead him out of this Cave Sky world.

And at the moment of the transfer of ownership of the Cave Sky, everything in this world would come to a complete halt, time itself would stop, no longer moving forward.

This was the reason why Zhou Heng was not at all worried about Jiang Yuying’s safety, nor did he care about the severe consequences that the loss of the Town-Nation Seal might cause.

Because, as soon as he left this world, everything would stop.

However, while Zhou Heng was on his way to Tai Chi Lake, he suddenly felt a violent change in the natural energy around him, as if an invisible giant hand had stirred the weather.

In an instant, the dark clouds in the sky parted, and the bright moonlight pierced through the night, shining directly upon Zhou Heng without error.

All the guards in the Imperial Palace seemed guided by something, running towards Zhou Heng’s location.

At the same time, a figure rushed over from the direction of Tai Chi Lake, bringing with him a momentum that changed the color of heaven and earth, and shouted:

“Die, thief!!”