The Human Emperor

Chapter 2348: A Transmigrator from One Thousand Years Ago!

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

As Li Xuantu looked at the black and white pieces crisscrossing the board, he swallowed back his words.

“The story of the chess game and the rotted axe spoke of a woodcutter spotting two immortals playing chess and losing track of time, not even realizing when his axe rotted away. But this place… it clearly has nothing to do with any woodcutter,” Li Xuantu sternly said.

As he spoke, he glanced at the spectator of the chess match. Outwardly, this man appeared to be in his late twenties. He wore a cloth hat and a long robe, and in the right hand held behind his back was a bamboo scroll. This was clearly a delicate scholar.

He clearly didn’t have any connection to any of the characters in the story.

“I don’t know the details. In the story, it was just that woodcutter who accidentally wandered into the Celestial Domain, but it’s not like that incident could have only happened once. That woodcutter wasn’t necessarily the first to wander into this place, and there’s even less chance that he was the last,” Wang Chong grimly said.

“The others are one thing, but why would he lure in a woodcutter?” Li Xuantu said in confusion.

The ancient texts were not a complete record of history, and there were many far-fetched stories. Many people took those myths and records of the strange as the truth, but even more people regarded those stories as fantasies to chatter over during tea.

But whether it was Li Xuantu or Wang Chong, they gradually began to understand that while the myths and tales were not identical to what was said in the ancient texts, they had their basis in truth and were not complete fantasies.

“This isn’t something we can know, but we can be sure that there had to be a time that Heaven must have found difficult to endure, so he let in these ordinary people. Moreover, Heaven must have had a reason for this,” Wang Chong sternly said.

Whoosh!

There was another gust of wind, but all was silent. There was no one else here besides Wang Chong’s group.

While these ordinary people seemed bizarre, what truly drew Wang Chong’s attention was not the spectating scholar, nor was it that black-bearded Daoist, but the smiling youth seated across from him.

Wang Chong had been through many trials and had seen many things, and his mind had become extremely firm and steady, but the sight of that youth still left Wang Chong’s mind trembling in shock.

This youth was different from anyone else he had seen, because while he had lived in an era where one’s hair was required to be bound, this young man had a haircut that was completely at odds with that era: a crew cut!

And unlike the Daoist and the scholar, he wore clothes that should have never appeared in this era: a white t-shirt and jeans!

“How in the…” Wang Chong muttered so softly that only he could hear.

His expression remained calm, but a storm was rampaging through his mind.

As someone who had been born in another world, Wang Chong was extremely familiar with these clothes. These were clothes that could only have appeared in a world of steel and concrete.

For a long time, Wang Chong had believed that he had been this world’s only transmigrator, but gradually, Wang Chong had learned that he was far from the only one. The revered Sage Emperor had been one.

And this smiling youth was clearly another.

But unlike the Sage Emperor, the youth with a crew cut had clearly come from a time much closer to his own.

The universe contained countless parallel universes. Wang Chong didn’t know if he had come from the same modern society as him, or if this was just a coincidence. It had happened so long ago that there was no way of finding the true reason.

The truth would forever remain buried in the dust of history.

But Wang Chong was sure about one thing. From that content smile on the youth’s face, it was clear that he had integrated completely into this world and this life. Even that Daoist and scholar had accepted him, playing and watching chess together with him.

Alas, everything had been frozen in time.

“Heaven, what in the world did you do?” Wang Chong muttered, a dim look in his eyes.

Li Xuantu was right. Whether it was the woodcutter, the scholar, or this bearded Daoist, none of them were worth Heaven’s time, and in normal circumstances, they never would have appeared here.

Because Heaven’s true goal was never the woodcutter or the scholar! It was that smiling youth with the crew cut!

This was his true target!

“This person is very strange…”

Li Xuantu and Little Nightmare had finally noticed that ‘strangely dressed’ youth.

“Such strange clothes, and this…”

Li Xuantu reached out and plucked a transparent button from the youth’s chest.

“What material is this? Not iron or gold, nor any kind of precious stone. Is this one of Heaven’s people? Or someone from another epoch that Heaven brought inside?”

As Li Xuantu spoke, he stared in surprise at this youth.

“Perhaps,” Wang Chong noncommittally said, unwilling to speak more on this matter.

To this world and people like Li Xuantu, the existence of transmigrators was still a secret.

Whoosh!

Wang Chong waved his sleeve and continued forward.

“Time is short. We need to find the Celestial Palace’s core!”

Li Xuantu hesitated a moment, but though he found the matter strange, he decided to follow Wang Chong, and the group soon passed the chessboard and ventured deeper into the sea of clouds and mist.

After passing the outermost buildings of the Celestial Palace, they soon arrived at the second large square.

This square was on a much larger scale, and the material for the flooring was even more valuable. In addition, clouds had been carved atop the paving stones, and numerous jewels and precious stones had been embedded into the ground. Besides that, even more white mist was seeping out.

A sea of mist completely engulfed the world.

“What’s this? I feel like this region’s not the same as the previous one,” Li Xuantu commented, frowning.

Wang Chong thought for a moment before saying, “It’s the power of a domain. It seems that the Celestial Palace is divided into various regions, and they’re divided from each other by barriers.”

As he spoke, he stepped forward, and it was only a few steps before his conjectures were proved true by a glassy barrier of light gold rising out of the ground to bar his path.

The moment this barrier appeared, it completely divided the two regions.

“It really is as you said. The Celestial Palace seems to have very strict divisions. For the vast majority of martial artists, it would be very difficult to break through this barrier,” Li Xuantu said.

These barriers were ‘outwardly loose and internally tight’. There didn’t seem to be anything special about them on the surface, but Li Xuantu could sense that this glassy barrier was fused with the Celestial Palace. Trying to force one’s way through would be attacking the Celestial Palace itself. Let alone breaking through, one might also face a severe backlash.

However, this barrier wasn’t enough to stop experts of Wang Chong and Li Xuantu’s level.

Buzz!

Ignoring Li Xuantu, Wang Chong strode through the barrier into the second square.

Grotto Heaven realm experts could control spacetime, so ordinary barriers naturally couldn’t stop them. There was a series of ripples as Wang Chong passed through the barrier like it was a curtain of water.

Bang!

As Wang Chong’s foot hit the ground, he sensed a gloomy energy, and a dark shadow appeared on Wang Chong’s face.

“How is it? Did you notice anything?”

A soft sound came from behind him as Li Xuantu stepped through the barrier and up to Wang Chong’s side.

Wang Chong shook his head. But just when he was about to speak, he glanced into the depths of the mist. His eyes widened as he swiftly walked over.

About a hundred feet away, a black object lay on the paving stones. Wang Chong reached out, pulling that black object from the ground and into his hand. He instantly felt the touch of cold metal.

“This is… a shard of armor!”

Li Xuantu looked around, his eyebrows creasing.

The armor shard in Wang Chong’s hand was about the size of a palm and was covered in exquisite patterns. It had clearly belonged to a very expensive suit of armor.

One was a former Crown Prince and the other was a Supreme Marshal, so they were familiar with this kind of armor. But what they cared about was not the armor shard itself.

“There was a battle here, a very intense one.”

Li Xuantu’s eyes twitched. Armor like this would not easily decay, and if it did decay, it would start to decay from the edges, not shatter into pieces. Most importantly, he could see the traces of battle on this piece of armor.

“Were they fighting over the Celestial Palace?” Li Xuantu hesitantly said.

“I don’t know, but we’re inside the Celestial Palace. Anything is possible,” Wang Chong sternly said.

The Celestial Palace had a very powerful disruptive ability, so even Wang Chong could not find out much. But at this moment, Wang Chong understood why he had sensed a gloomy energy as soon as he had stepped into the region.

As they ventured farther into the rolling mists, they found more and more signs of battle, shattered armor and scattered weapons. The paving stones which had been reinforced by many formations were scarred by weapons and explosions of Stellar Energy.

On one of these paving stones, Wang Chong even spotted a giant furrow that was sixty to seventy feet long.