I was to be executed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and Empress Ma smashed Zhu Yuanzhang's jade seal.

See you in the picture!

Zhu Yuanzhang directly voiced his most malicious suspicions in front of everyone.

He's trying to force the emperor to abdicate!

He's forcing Zhang Sanfeng to take sides!

If you admit to being in cahoots, then fine, you are treasoners! Today, we will mobilize all the troops in the capital and raze you and this Prince Ying's mansion to the ground! We want to see if you, this so-called "land god," can withstand our million-strong army!

If you deny it, then what makes you say he's a terrestrial deity? You need to give us an explanation!

These words were full of the tyranny and irrationality of an emperor.

But none of the civil and military officials present were surprised.

Because this is the Hongwu Emperor they know!

Zhu Yuanzhang, who would rather kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free!

Everyone's hearts were in their throats once again.

They all wanted to know how Master Zhang of Wudang would respond to the Emperor's thunderous wrath and this probing question.

Would they, like ordinary officials, immediately kneel down and beg for forgiveness, claiming that they had only misspoke?

Will we still... fight to the bitter end?

After listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Zhang Sanfeng's face remained calm.

He simply shook his head slightly, and in his eyes even a hint of...pity.

"His Majesty."

He changed his form of address, no longer calling him "Zhu Chongba" or by his given name, but using the most official and distant form of address.

"I know you don't believe me."

"I know that in your eyes, everything in this world should be something you can control."

"But you're wrong."

Zhang Sanfeng's voice was distant and ethereal, as if untouched by worldly concerns.

"The sky is always higher than you can imagine."

"The Tao is always deeper than you can comprehend."

"It is ridiculous for you to use your mortal authority to speculate on the realm of immortals."

These words were extremely impolite.

It was practically like pointing a finger at Zhu Yuanzhang in front of the entire court and saying: You are nothing but a frog in a well!

Zhu Yuanzhang's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

"Fine! What a sharp-tongued old Taoist!" he laughed angrily. "You call us frogs in a well? Then show us what we're made of!"

"You say he's a terrestrial deity, where's your proof?!"

"Just because he made a little golden light last night? Let me tell you, if we wanted to, we could make this entire city of Jinling shine with golden light every night!"

"Just because of your bow? Who knows if you've taken bribes and are just here to support him!"

"Produce the evidence! If you can't produce evidence, we'll charge you today with spreading rumors and plotting treason!"

Zhu Yuanzhang completely abandoned all pretense of civility.

He started to cheat.

He was like a gambler who had lost all his chips, and he started to flip the table.

However, Zhang Sanfeng simply smiled faintly in the face of his almost unreasonable roar.

"evidence?"

He turned around and looked at Zhu Muying on the bed again. His gaze instantly changed from indifference back to the awe and piety he had shown before.

"Your Majesty, do you really want to see the evidence?"

His voice was soft, but it carried a strange magic that stirred a strong sense of unease in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

"What...what do you mean?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked, his voice stern but his tone weak.

Zhang Sanfeng did not answer him, but instead bowed again to Zhu Muying on the bed.

"This humble student, Zhang Sanfeng, humbly requests an audience with the true immortal's body to dispel worldly illusions. I humbly beseech the immortal... to grant my request!"

His voice was extremely respectful.

And just as he finished speaking...

An unexpected change occurred!

The moment Zhang Sanfeng finished speaking, the light in the entire bedchamber suddenly dimmed without warning.

It wasn't because dark clouds blocked the sun, nor because the candlelight went out.

Rather, it's a... a much stranger phenomenon.

It was as if all the light in the space had been instantly drawn away and swallowed up by some invisible force!

Inside the sleeping quarters, it was pitch black.

The sudden darkness plunged everyone into a brief period of panic.

"What happened?"

"Quick! Light the lamps!"

"Protect His Majesty! Protect His Majesty!"

A chaotic chorus of screams and the clanging of armor erupted inside the hall.

Mao Xiang and several imperial guards immediately shielded Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao in the middle, cautiously looking around.

Xu Da and Lan Yu immediately drew their swords and shielded the unarmed civil officials behind them.

Everyone assumed that an assassin had taken advantage of the situation to launch an attack.

However, amidst this extreme darkness and chaos, the only source of light appeared.

The light came from the bed of Prince Zhu Muying.

At first, it was just a faint light, like a firefly, slowly seeping out from Zhu Muying's body.

But then, the number of light spots increased and they became brighter!

Thousands upon thousands, trillions of points of light gushed forth from every pore and every inch of his skin!

Those lights were neither earthly candlelight nor heavenly sunlight.

Rather, it is a pure, warm, vibrant, and supremely majestic golden light!

The golden light quickly gathered together and enveloped Zhu Muying's entire body.

His entire being was like a glass figure made of pure gold, translucent and radiating a sacred glow that made people dare not look directly at him.

Under this sacred golden light, the darkness that had previously devoured everything seemed to have met its nemesis and quickly receded.

The entire sleeping quarters were transformed into a brilliant golden sea.

Everyone was completely stunned by this miraculous scene before their eyes.

They all gaped, their eyes wide, their faces showing expressions of utter disbelief.

The chaos ceased at that moment.

The panic vanished in that instant.

Everyone's mind went completely blank.

What did they see?

They saw that Zhu Mu-ying, who was lying on the bed, was slowly... floating up!

His eyes remained closed, his expression serene, as if he knew nothing of the outside world.

But his body defied the laws of physics that everyone knew, and just like that, slowly and deliberately, it floated from the bed into mid-air.

Golden light gathered beneath him, forming a golden lotus platform composed of countless mysterious runes, which steadily supported him.

"Golden... Golden Lotus Reincarnation..."

Li Shanchang, the well-read and learned prime minister, looked at the scene before him, his lips trembling, and he subconsciously uttered words that would only appear in Buddhist scriptures.

The military officers were even more dumbfounded.

They could feel that as Zhu Muying's body floated into the air, an indescribable, vast, and terrifying pressure began to emanate from him.

That's not the aura formed when a martial artist releases their internal energy.

That is a kind of... a higher level of absolute suppression, originating from the very essence of life!

Under this oppressive force, even Xu Da and Lan Yu, these peerless warriors who had fought countless battles and killed countless people, felt their legs go weak, and the hundred-refined steel swords in their hands felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, almost impossible to hold.

They felt like a small boat in a raging storm, or an ant facing a towering mountain.

Insignificant, powerless, humble.

Aside from kneeling in submission, they couldn't muster any thought of resistance.

"thump!"

"Thump thump!"

Finally, someone could not withstand the pressure emanating from the depths of their soul, their knees buckled, and they involuntarily knelt down.

The first to kneel down were the ordinary Imperial Guards and eunuchs.

Next came the officials of lower ranks.

Then there were the core of the civil service group, including Li Shanchang and Liu Sanwu.

Then came military bigwigs like Lan Yu and Mu Chun.

Finally, even Xu Da, a veteran general who had seen countless corpses and whose will was as strong as steel, felt his knees buckle and involuntarily knelt on one knee.

He wasn't acting out of fear.

It's because of... reverence!

Reverence for absolute power!

In the blink of an eye, everyone in the entire palace, except for the three members of the Zhu family and Zhang Sanfeng who had maintained a bowed posture from beginning to end, knelt down.

It was pitch black and completely silent.

Everyone lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at the godlike figure in mid-air.

Zhu Biao's face was as pale as paper.

Although he did not kneel down, his body was trembling uncontrollably.

He could feel that the oppressive aura weakened considerably as it passed by him, as if it had deliberately bypassed him.

He knew that it was his "divine younger brother" who was thinking of their brotherly bond.

Even so, he still felt like he was suffocating.

Is this... the power of gods?

The mere unconscious exertion of his aura was enough to make all the court officials and battle-hardened generals kneel in submission...

If he were truly enraged, what a cataclysmic scene it would be!

Zhu Biao dared not think any further.

He turned his head and looked at the only other person still standing in the hall with an extremely complicated expression—his father, Zhu Yuanzhang.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang was even more pathetic than he had been.

Zhu Yuanzhang was at the center of this oppressive power!

He could clearly feel the terrifying pressure, like a landslide or a tsunami, surging wildly toward him alone!

He felt like he was all alone, resisting the entire world!

His bones were creaking and cracking, as if they were about to be crushed into powder by the terrifying pressure.

His legs were trembling violently, his knees were trying uncontrollably to bend and kneel down!

"No... I won't kneel!"

"We are the Son of Heaven! We are the true dragon! We will never kneel before anyone!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were bloodshot. He gritted his teeth and used all his strength to resist the oppressive force that made his soul tremble.

He can't kneel!

If he kneels down, it's tantamount to admitting his complete defeat!

If he kneels down, he, the emperor, will truly become the biggest joke in the world!

dignity!

The last vestige of dignity belonging to an emperor and a father sustained him from falling.

But it only kept him from collapsing.

His face, contorted with anger and fear, appeared so pale and so... ridiculous in the brilliant golden light.

Just then, that calm and still voice rang out again.

It's Zhang Sanfeng.

He slowly straightened up and turned to face Zhu Yuanzhang, who was completely dumbfounded.

A faint smile played on his face, a smile that contained mockery, pity, but more than anything, a sense of... profound enlightenment.

He pointed to the figure in mid-air, supported by a golden lotus and surrounded by divine light, and spoke in an ode-like tone to Zhu Yuanzhang, and also to all those kneeling on the ground:

"Your Majesty, did you see that?"

"The mortal body, made of flesh and blood, with internal energy flowing through the meridians, will eventually run out."

"The body of an immortal is transformed, becoming a world unto itself. Within its body, there are no longer ordinary meridians, but a vast and boundless immortal abode of qi, a universe in itself!"

"What he exudes is not merely an ordinary human aura, but... a primordial divine might that commands all things to submit and resonates with the heavens and earth!"

Zhang Sanfeng's voice, like a morning bell and evening drum, resonated clearly in everyone's heart.

None of the civil and military officials present could understand a single word he uttered.

What are these terms: Immortal Abode Qi Sea, Golden Divine Dawn, Primordial Immortal Might... These terms are completely beyond their comprehension.

However, they don't need to understand.

Because they saw and felt it with their own eyes and their own bodies!

Zhang Sanfeng turned around and took one last look at Zhu Yuanzhang, his gaze as if he were looking at a dead man.

He spoke slowly, enunciating each word clearly:

"Your Majesty, this is the evidence you sought."

"A... a genuine, living, breathing, earth god."

Zhang Sanfeng's words were like the last straw, completely breaking Zhu Yuanzhang's nerve of "dignity".

"puff--"

A mouthful of blood suddenly spurted from Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth, splashing onto the cold floor tiles in front of him, appearing so glaringly obvious.

His tall and robust body could no longer support him; his legs buckled, and with a thud, he knelt down.

He wasn't crushed by that oppressive force.

Rather, he was defeated by his own completely broken heart.

Lost.

A crushing defeat.

They lost miserably.

They lost so badly that even their last shred of hope and chance was mercilessly crushed.

Zhu Yuanzhang knelt there, his eyes glazed over, staring blankly at his son, who was enveloped in golden light in mid-air, his mind a complete blank.

He didn't understand.

He really couldn't understand it.

Why?

Why is this happening?

This is clearly his son, a descendant of the Zhu family, a piece of his own flesh!

Why did he transform into a "god" whom he neither recognized nor could control?

Is it simply because he performed better than his other sons from a young age?

Is it because he did not have the same reverence and obedience for his father as his other sons?

Could it be that I accidentally injured him because I was angry?

So, he "awakened"? He "became an immortal"?

What is this?

Was Heaven playing a joke on Zhu Yuanzhang?

Or is this the greatest irony and punishment for him, a ruthless emperor who kills without hesitation?

Zhu Yuanzhang's heart was filled with endless absurdity and resentment.

He felt like an old farmer who had painstakingly raised a flock of chicks, constantly on guard against weasels and eagles in the sky.

Then one day, he discovered that the little chick he disliked the most had transformed into a divine dragon soaring through the heavens!

How ridiculous and insignificant this old farmer appeared before this divine dragon!

"Father!"

A shout filled with worry and anxiety pulled Zhu Yuanzhang back from his reverie.

It was Crown Prince Zhu Biao.

Seeing his father cough up blood and kneel down, he didn't even bother to feel the oppressive aura around him. He rushed over and caught the swaying Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Father, how are you? Don't frighten your son!" Zhu Biao's voice was trembling with tears.

Zhu Yuanzhang ignored him.

His eyes remained fixed on Zhu Muying in mid-air, but the anger and scheming from before were gone, replaced by a pure, ashen despair.

Just then, the figure in mid-air with its eyes tightly closed seemed to hear Zhu Biao's shout, or perhaps it felt that this farce should end.

His long eyelashes trembled slightly.

Then, under the tense gaze of everyone, who were almost holding their breath...

Slowly... he opened his eyes.

What kind of eyes were those!

Brilliant as a galaxy, profound as the universe.

There was no anger, no resentment, no joy, and no sorrow in those eyes.

Yes, it is only a kind of... absolute peace and indifference that comes from seeing through all the vicissitudes of the world and understanding the cycle of birth and death of all things.

That was... the gaze of a god!

When Zhu Muying's gaze swept across the hall, everyone kneeling on the ground felt as if their souls had been instantly seen through.

They had nowhere to hide under his gaze.

All the petty schemes, those dark, sordid, and despicable thoughts in everyone's hearts seemed so ridiculous and ugly under this gaze.

Everyone instinctively lowered their heads further, not daring to meet that gaze.

The golden light began to slowly recede.

The terrifying pressure that had made everyone breathless receded like the tide.

Zhu Muying, who was in mid-air, slowly and steadily landed back on the bed.

He didn't lie down, but sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed with his feet dangling in the air, not touching the ground.

The golden light around him had completely dissipated, and he had returned to his previous appearance as a handsome young man dressed in white.

If one hadn't seen it with their own eyes, no one would have been able to connect this seemingly harmless young man with the figure who had just appeared as if a god had descended to earth.

The entire sleeping quarters were once again illuminated.

It was as if everything that had just happened was just a collective hallucination.

However, the officials kneeling haphazardly on the ground, and the still-wet bloodstains at the corner of Zhu Yuanzhang's mouth, silently reminded everyone of this.

Everything that just happened was real!

"Get up, everyone."

A calm voice, devoid of any emotion, rang out in the bedchamber.

It is Zhu Muying.

The first thing he said after he woke up.

The people kneeling on the ground felt as if they had been granted a pardon, and they quickly got up.

After they stood up, they still didn't dare to raise their heads. They hunched over, shrinking there like quails, not daring to even breathe.

The entire bedchamber was eerily quiet.

Zhu Muying's gaze swept lightly over everyone in the hall.

He glanced at Xu Da and Lan Yu, whose faces were filled with ecstasy and admiration.

He glanced at Li Shanchang and Liu Sanwu, whose faces were filled with awe and fear.

He glanced at his brother Zhu Biao, whose face was filled with worry and complex emotions.

He glanced at Zhang Sanfeng of Wudang, who stood to the side, maintaining absolute respect for him from beginning to end.

Finally, his gaze fell on his father, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was being helped up by Zhu Biao, kneeling on the ground with vacant eyes, looking like a defeated rooster.

Zhu Muying looked at him, her face still showing that calm expression.

He just watched quietly for a long time.

So long that Zhu Yuanzhang began to feel uneasy; his once-dead heart began to pound again because of the fear of the unknown.

What...what does he want to do?

Is he going to kill us?

Will he murder his father and seize the throne in front of the entire court?

Countless bloody thoughts flashed through Zhu Yuanzhang's mind in an instant.

Based on his understanding of his son's "unruly" nature, and considering his own actions just now, he felt that the other party was entirely capable of doing such a rebellious thing.

However, Zhu Muying's next move once again surprised him.

Zhu Muying looked at him, the corners of her mouth slightly upturned, revealing a faint smile that seemed to carry a hint of mockery, or perhaps a hint of pity...

Then, in a tone calmer and more indifferent than before, he slowly asked:

"Father."

He paused, seemingly considering his words.

"You just said you wanted evidence."

"Now, I give it to you."

"So..."

His gaze became somewhat playful.

"Do you... want more?"

This seemingly casual remark struck Zhu Yuanzhang like a thunderbolt.

Every word was like a resounding slap across his face.

It's burning hot!

anything else?

What the hell are you expecting us to do?!

We've all knelt before you! We've vomited blood for you! The entire court has knelt before you!

You've made such a grand spectacle, with golden light, oppressive aura, and levitation—it's practically like you've had "I am a god" etched on your forehead!

Now you're asking us if we still need evidence?

You're attacking my spirit!

You're slapping the face of the emperor to the ground and trampling it underfoot in front of everyone!

Zhu Yuanzhang's body trembled violently again due to extreme humiliation and anger.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms, and blood dripped from between his fingers, but he was completely unaware.

He wanted to argue, to roar, to tell this rebellious son, "I am the emperor! You just wait!"

However, when he opened his mouth, he couldn't utter a single word.

Because he knew that in the face of absolute power, any threat or harsh words seemed so pale and powerless.

He has no more cards to play.

When Zhu Muying casually asked, "Do you want more?" the atmosphere in the entire bedchamber instantly plummeted to freezing point.

Everyone held their breath, watching the father and son, who had completely broken off all pretense of civility, with trepidation.

They all wanted to know how the Hongwu Emperor, known for his iron-fisted and domineering nature, would react to his son's almost humiliating question.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang simply knelt there, trembling all over, his face turning from red to white, then from white to green, unable to utter a single word.

His eyes, which once seemed to see into people's hearts, were now bloodshot, staring intently at the ground as if trying to bore two holes through the hard floor tiles.

It's not that he doesn't want to speak, it's that he's afraid to.

He feared that if he opened his mouth, he wouldn't beg for mercy, but would instead unleash even more vicious curses, which would only make the already unmanageable situation even worse.

He has no choice but to remain silent now.

He used silence to maintain the last shred of dignity, and the most pathetic one, of his status as emperor.

The silence inside the bedchamber was so oppressive it was maddening.

In this suffocating atmosphere, an aged voice broke the silence.

"Please calm your anger, immortal."