Longzang

Chapter 956 Dream Play
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty, come and arrest me! I'm right here!"

"Your Majesty, look this way! Do you like my legs? If you catch me, they're yours."

……

Wei Yuan shook his head vigorously, recovering from the momentary daze. He clearly heard some sounds, very real, but he just couldn't remember where he had heard them before.

After regaining his senses, Wei Yuan reconnected his divine sense with the human world and continued searching for his inner demons.

The efficiency of the human affairs system is incredibly high. At this moment, more than 67,000 village heads have been selected to supervise nearly two million mortals. All village heads are directly connected to the celestial plants, and can report any abnormalities to them immediately.

In just a moment, more than three thousand abnormal behaviors were discovered. Upon investigation, a total of thirty-one pieces of nine different types of imperial seals, sixteen bronze figures, more than sixty stone tablets, and more than six hundred seditious poems were seized, but the authors were more than two thousand people. Many ordinary people did not know how to write poetry, so they had to copy others, change a word or two, and then claim it as their own.

Wei Yuan didn't have time to carefully distinguish them, so he simply sent them all to the Yellow Springs Cave Heaven for reincarnation. Surprisingly, the inner demon wasn't among them.

In an instant, the rebels in the human world suffered unprecedented heavy losses, and the world was cleansed, but the inner demons remained nowhere to be found. Left with no other choice, Wei Yuan decided to focus his efforts on the battle in the heavens, minimizing the damage to the human world, while continuing to investigate the inner demons.

At this moment, Wei Yuan sat cross-legged in the Immortal City Square, surrounded by a large array to prevent the inner demon from escaping. Zhang Sheng, Ji Liuli, Bao Yun, and others took turns on guard duty, discussing and devising countermeasures day and night.

Feng Chutang made a special trip back to Taichu Palace to consult the ancient texts, and found that, as expected, he had never heard of anyone encountering a tribulation of inner demons when ascending to the position of Emperor Jing.

The Heavenly Tribulation is especially important when advancing to the Imperial Realm. Generally, the greater the power, the better, as long as one can withstand it without dying. The stronger the Heavenly Tribulation, the better the body tempering effect.

Without a powerful physical body, the moment the mental world takes shape, it will crush the sea of ​​consciousness, leading to death by body explosion. This is the most common cause of death when advancing to the Imperial Realm.

It is truly unbelievable that Wei Yuan would encounter a tribulation of inner demons.

True inner demons all originate from beyond the heavens, and are generally encountered only after one ascends to immortality, during the tribulations that occur once every thousand years. Fortunately, although the Taichu Palace has only been established for a short time, it has a considerable number of immortals, possesses a wealth of insights into ascension to immortality, and has a remarkably comprehensive record of inner demons, making it comparable to any aristocratic family and firmly placing it among the top three in the world.

Feng Chutang then exchanged all the materials for a copy and transmitted them to Qingming through the Merit Hall. Zhang Sheng led the cultivators to study them separately and ponder countermeasures. Wei Yuan, on the other hand, studied the materials while resisting the erosion from the heavens.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed, and Wei Yuan had read through most of the information and memorized it all. During this month, the battle in the sky reached a stalemate, mainly because the combination of Han Li, Jun Weizhi, Fu Yao, and Lei Ling was extremely powerful. With the support of immortal plants, they were practically invincible, having killed more than ten giant beasts and countless smaller monsters.

Ji Liuli, Zhang Sheng, and others repeatedly entered the human world through dream-entry methods to observe the purple spots in the sky, and even risked entering to watch the battle, in order to verify what they had learned.

After more than a month of research, the researchers finally came up with several plans, which they prepared to test one by one. Two of the three mature plans were proposed by Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli, while the third was developed by Feng Tingyu and a group of academicians from the research institute.

Of the three options, Feng Tingyu's option was surprisingly the most feasible in terms of maturity and feasibility, which was quite unexpected for Wei Yuan.

The situation was urgent, and Wei Yuan dared not delay. He immediately set up and implemented the plan in the human world.

The human-powered organization was extremely efficient, managing to group all mortals into groups of 100,000 and isolate them in less than half a day. Each group then took turns gathering for an exam. Once gathered, each person was presented with paper and pen, along with questions to answer within fifteen minutes, with a minimum word count requirement.

The questions are very simple, there are only three in total:

I. Briefly describe the methods of invading the mental world;

II. Potential resistance methods encountered during an intrusion and corresponding countermeasures;
III. Discussing the inevitability of failing due to inner demons.

Mortals were already accustomed to obeying orders, and most of the troublemakers had already been sent to reincarnation. Therefore, everyone quietly did their homework and tried their best to answer. After finishing, the papers were automatically collected by the celestial plants. Once 100,000 people had finished, the next group of 100,000 would begin. Those who had answered and those who hadn't had absolutely no contact.

The exams were progressing rapidly; at this rate, it wouldn't even take a day for everyone to finish. Those who hadn't taken the exams were engaged in normal combat with the external enemy, while those who had finished had their own designated combat zones, ensuring no overlap between them.

The fifth group had just finished their exam when an extremely terrifying and intense divine thought swept across the entire mortal realm! Immediately afterward, the terrifying laughter of the Creator Immortal Venerable resounded throughout the heavens and earth: "Hahahaha! You finally gave yourself away, didn't you?"

Numerous terrifying auras rose simultaneously, rushing towards a certain place in the city. Suddenly, an ordinary middle-aged man in the city straightened his body, and his aura instantly became as majestic as famous mountains and rivers!

He sneered and said in a strange tone, "What kind of heroes are you, resorting to such underhanded tricks? I'm ashamed of you! What's the big deal if we die today?"

These words were resounding. Facing the numerous terrifying auras coming at him, he was not afraid at all. He leaped up and faced the rolling immortal light in front of him, actually going against the current!

Wei Yuan, together with the other immortal plants, unleashed a terrifying attack. The middle-aged man was instantly reduced to ashes by the immortal light. A wisp of black mist appeared, then was refined into nothingness by the immortal light amidst a scream.

In the immortal city, Wei Yuan opened his eyes, looked up at the sky and laughed three times, extremely joyful.

All the cultivators turned their heads, and Xiao Yu asked, "Have you subdued the inner demon?" "A mere inner demon is nothing to worry about! I can crush it with my bare hands!" Wei Yuan made a gesture as if he were choking someone.

Xiaoyu, however, refused to believe it and asked, "It really works?"

When Feng Tingyu proposed this idea and asked the academicians to refine it, Xiaoyu, as one of the academicians, strongly opposed it, feeling that it was simply child's play.

However, he was near the bottom among the academicians, while the two academicians who were actually at the bottom fully supported Feng Tingyu. In the end, Feng Tingyu's proposal was approved by a large majority, and it took another two days to improve it, finally resulting in the questionnaire with only three questions.

Wei Yuan conjured a scroll and handed it to Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu unfolded it and saw that under the third question, there was only one short sentence: "Bullshit!"

Xiaoyu never expected that this inner demon would actually possess such pride.

Of course, the real solution is far more complex. Ordinary people in the mundane world are not truly human; their memories and knowledge are mostly acquired from everyday life. Furthermore, they know nothing of their inner demons. No matter how well a true inner demon disguises itself, given enough writing, the answer will always be slightly different.

The human element will instantly compare all answers, analyzing them from the smallest details to filter out those that stand out. While it may not be able to pinpoint the inner demon precisely, it will greatly narrow down the possibilities. Then, it will be a face-to-face examination, and the inner demon will certainly have nowhere to hide.

Perhaps the inner demon had foreseen this, so it simply stopped pretending, overturned the table, and faced death with equanimity.

Looking at the test paper in her hand, Xiaoyu felt a strange unease in her heart.

Wei Yuan noticed Xiao Yu's awkwardness, and his mood improved a bit. He smiled and said, "Everyone has worked hard. Now that your inner demons have been removed, you can all rest!"

The cultivators were all amazed and gradually dispersed.

Wei Yuanyujing's encounter with his inner demons was unprecedented, and his method of coping was truly unique. This method seemed simple, but in reality, its difficulty had reached unprecedented heights.

To accurately distinguish between two million people, seamlessly rotate groups, complete all tests in less than a day, analyze and compare all answers in real time, and accurately identify unusual content, the sheer volume and scale of information required would be extremely challenging even for a sage.

If you slow down even a little, your inner demons will find a way to copy other people's answers or find someone else to hide from.

Having successfully overcome his inner demon, Wei Yuan was filled with pride and satisfaction. Now, all he had to do was quietly await his breakthrough to the Imperial Realm. From this point on, he could be considered to have officially stepped onto the stage of high cultivation, and ordinary cultivators in the world would all respectfully address him as "senior."

……

Great soup, the imperial palace.

The palace is as deep as the sea, and in the depths of the inner palace, laughter and joyful chatter can be heard.

Behind a cluster of blossoms, a delicate hand waved a handkerchief, which fluttered like a butterfly in the breeze, and a sweet voice called out, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty, come and get me! I'm right here!"

From within the peony blossoms, a perfectly rounded, white jade leg extends, its slender ankle delicately graspable, its smooth instep as white as porcelain, and its toes adorned with tiny dots of cardamom. At this moment, a light pink dress moves up and down, teasing between these jade-like legs, while a pair of amorous eyes occasionally peek out from behind the flowers, each glance conveying a seductive allure.

"Your Majesty, look this way! Do you like my legs? If you catch me, they're yours."

A young man was naked, with a thin veil covering his eyes. Through the veil, one could only vaguely make out the outlines of some objects, but could not make out his face or clothing.

With a loud shout, he feinted and suddenly pounced into the peony bushes, grabbing the jade-like leg. The beauty in the flower cried out in surprise, her body going limp before she was firmly held down.

The gasps of alarm quickly turned into gasps and pleas for mercy.

The man has just begun his conquest; how could he possibly spare his enemies? The more they beg for mercy, the more miserable their fate will be.

Just as he was feeling triumphant, his whole body suddenly stiffened, a strange expression appeared on his face, and he slowly collapsed.

The laughter instantly turned into screams!

In the fourteenth year of the Tianqi reign, Emperor Xuan of Tang's hidden illness recurred, and he died.

……

Suddenly, a bell rang in the azure sky, and the cultivators gathered again from all directions at the Immortal City. Once everyone was present, Wei Yuan walked into the formation and sat down, his face extremely grim. He said, "The inner demons aren't over yet, and another one has arrived!"

(End of this chapter)