Chapter 684 - 685: Rout

Chapter 684: Chapter 685: Rout

This urgent report not only soured Li Qiong’s mood but also brought a sudden hush over the great hall.

All eyes turned to the new emperor.

An urgent report delivered at this time could only mean something of extreme importance.

They wondered what it could be.

Li Qiong unfolded the letter. It contained only a short sentence—

Our army has been routed. The rebels have reached Changgao Mountain.

Zuo Ji, standing nearby, glanced at the words. His heart skipped a beat. ’This is terrible,’ he thought.

Changgao Mountain was a crucial pass on the road to the Celestial Capital.

From there, it was only a day’s ride by fast horse to the Celestial Capital.

In other words, the rebel army would reach the Celestial Capital in a single day.

The defensive forces within the Celestial Capital were extremely limited. Even if every last soldier was deployed, they would be hard-pressed to stop the rebels’ advance.

Li Qiong’s face had turned ashen.

He had assumed that no matter how formidable Li Ji was, he couldn’t possibly defeat the four-hundred-thousand-strong army the court had dispatched in such a short time.

He never imagined that the moment the two sides clashed, the court’s great army would be so thoroughly crushed.

The rebels, on the other hand, had only grown fiercer with each battle, their advance unstoppable as they marched straight for the Celestial Capital.

This drove home for Li Qiong just how vast the disparity was between their forces on the battlefield.

He suddenly felt a twinge of regret. He shouldn’t have ignored Mr. Zhu’s advice.

Mr. Zhu had warned him long ago that the court was destined to lose this battle. But he had been stubborn, insisting on putting it to the test, hoping to prove to the world that the so-called Regent King was not all he was made out to be.

The outcome proved he had been far too naive.

Not only had he lost a massive number of troops, but he had also greatly bolstered the rebels’ momentum.

Now, the entire world knew that no one in the court could defeat Li Ji. He was, without a doubt, the War God!

The more Li Qiong thought about it, the angrier he grew. He was in no mood to hand out rewards now.

He crumpled the report into a ball, threw it to the floor, and rose abruptly. With a dark expression, he stormed out of the great hall.

The civil and military officials all bowed to see him off.

Once he was a good distance away, the two Prime Ministers finally dared to step forward and retrieve the crumpled paper from the floor.

They smoothed it out, their eyes falling upon the message.

The color drained from the faces of both Prime Ministers.

This was a disaster!

They hurried after him, asking what the new emperor planned to do.

The enemy would reach the Celestial Capital in one more day. They were running out of time and had to devise a plan immediately.

Li Qiong said without turning back.

"I already have a solution. You just need to wait."

Hearing this, the two Prime Ministers were taken aback.

The new emperor had already deployed all the troops at his disposal.

’What other way could he possibly have to deal with the rebels?’

The two men wanted to press for details, but Li Qiong clearly had no intention of elaborating and strode away without a backward glance.

...

The moment the Main God dissipated, the world of consciousness collapsed and vanished.

Hua Manman’s body plummeted downward.

She fell into an endless void.

An unknown amount of time passed.

She finally stopped falling, only to find herself floating in emptiness.

As far as she could see, there was nothing but void.

Behind her was an enormous, glowing sphere.

Hua Manman tried to reach out and touch the sphere, only to discover she had no hands.

To be precise, she no longer had a physical body; she was just a formless, ethereal consciousness.

Hua Manman didn’t understand what was going on.

She cautiously observed the glowing sphere before her.

As she stared, her vision pierced the outer shell of light, revealing what was inside.

It was a tiny world.

She could even see familiar faces within that world: her parents, her classmates, her former colleagues...

So, this was the world she had been born into.

To the people within, the world was vast and boundless. Yet to someone standing outside it, it was nothing more than a sphere in the immense void.

Once, she had looked up at it; now, she was looking down upon it.

This reminded Hua Manman of the Main God.

The Main God always regarded all creation from this same detached, superior perspective.

He had no regard for human life, nor did he care whether his actions caused trouble for others.

Because to him, the entire world was like a toy ball, and the humans living inside it were like specks of dust.

Who would care about the thoughts of dust?

The answer, of course, was no.

As one of those specks of dust, this realization made Hua Manman feel uneasy.

She closed her eyes, steadying her emotions.

When she opened her eyes again, she noticed a translucent blue tendril connected to the top of the glowing sphere.

The other end of the tendril stretched out into the endless void.

Hua Manman wanted to get closer to the tendril for a better look.

The instant the thought formed, she floated weightlessly toward the tendril.

As she drew near, she could see clearly that it wasn’t a tendril at all, but some kind of translucent tube.

Inside the tube, a continuous stream of energy was being siphoned away.

Hua Manman guessed that this must be the tool the Main God used to siphon energy.

If so, the other end of the tube must lead to the Main God’s true form.

An intense thought immediately struck Hua Manman—

’I have to see what’s at the other end of that tube!’

Her consciousness drifted rapidly along the tube.

The distance seemed vast, but it wasn’t long before she saw her destination.

At the end of the tube was a colossal mass of black mist.

The mist was so dense that she couldn’t see what lay within.

Its surface rose and fell slowly, like a human heart, pulsing with a slow, steady beat.

Hua Manman had a strong feeling that the Main God was hidden within that black mist.

She tried to enter the mist, but whenever she drew near, it would churn violently, shot through with flashes of lightning and peels of thunder.

It was obviously extremely dangerous.

Her intuition told her that if she entered, she would likely be consumed by the mist.

She had no choice but to abandon the idea of entering the mist.

But she didn’t give up.

She had only managed to turn the tables on the Main God before due to sheer luck.

An opportunity like that would never come again.

Once the Main God recovered, he would surely kill her.

She had to seize this golden opportunity to eliminate the Main God once and for all!

Hua Manman circled the black mist and discovered that it was pierced all over with translucent tubes.

Each tube was connected to a small world.

An endless supply of energy was being funneled through the tubes and into the black mist.

Hua Manman recalled something the system had once said: energy was crucial to the Main God, the very basis of his existence.

In that case, if she could just destroy these tubes and cut off his energy supply, the Main God would naturally cease to exist.

Then came the question.

’But right now, I’m just a wisp of consciousness with no tools. How can I possibly break those tubes?’

Hua Manman approached one of the tubes and tried to press her consciousness against it.

The tube swayed gently at her touch.

She immediately applied more force, trying to tear the tube apart.

The tube was surprisingly soft yet tough.

No matter what she did, the tube remained indestructible.

Hua Manman quickly changed her approach.

’If I can’t break it, I might as well style it.’

She enveloped a tube with her consciousness, twisting it this way and that, until she had tied it into a tight, neat bow.