Chapter 11671 — This Boy's Methods Grow Ever More Ruthless

Even so, the mere fact of his current state was enough to send the entire Inner Royal Court into a frenzy.

After all, that was the Godking Haotian himself!

To have even the faintest brush with him was, for every soul in the Inner Royal Court, a peerless stroke of fortune beyond all measure.

And if one were lucky enough to catch the Godking Haotian's eye—or even inherit his orthodoxy—that would be a single step into the heavens, an ascent beyond imagining!

Even the composed men of the Prince Qin household could not help but burn with eagerness and stir restlessly; the other factions need not even be mentioned.

Only Prince Qin's gaze remained fixed upon Wei Zhao.

"This boy's methods grow ever more ruthless."

The others grasped his meaning at once, and the way they looked at Wei Zhao turned even more wary.

Looking back now, the entire rhythm of today's affair had lain wholly in Wei Zhao's hands—from Yi Liuchao, a quasi-god powerhouse, and even the slumbering Godking Haotian above, down to the common folk of the Inner Royal Court below; every one of them had followed his tempo without the slightest control of their own.

Put themselves in his place—had they stood where Wei Zhao stood, even armed with his strength, they would have found it hard to handle matters with such smooth, seasoned cunning.

The more they dwelt on the details, the more their blood ran cold.

"This boy is the greatest threat my Prince Qin household will face."

Prince Qin repeated the words.

This time no one harbored a shred of doubt; all agreed wholeheartedly.

Yet the lords of the other factions saw it differently.

At this moment their attention was fixed, first and foremost, on the Godking Haotian, but in the end they had not entirely forgotten Wei Zhao—after all, he was the one who had set all of this in motion.

Their conclusion, however, was the exact opposite of Prince Qin's.

"Offending the Godking Haotian in such a fashion? The man doesn't even know how to write the word 'death,' haha."

Such was the prevailing view among the faction lords.

Whatever means Wei Zhao had used, this time he had surely offended the Godking Haotian beyond all repair.

By the reckoning of the vast majority, offending any god-level powerhouse never ended well—let alone offending the Godking Haotian himself.

Most likely, the Godking Haotian would not even need to lift a finger; his underlings alone could grind Wei Zhao into the dirt and leave him with no place even to be buried.

Nor was that view wholly mistaken; in truth, Yi Liuchao at this very moment did harbor the intention of crushing Wei Zhao's bones and scattering his ashes.

But his most pressing priority was to first stabilize the Godking Haotian's condition.

For one thing, cultivators from every faction across the Inner Royal Court were swarming hither at this very moment, racing desperately toward this place in hopes of skimming some profit off the Godking Haotian; he had to devise and lay down sufficiently powerful prohibitions to cut off these ants' harassment of the Godking.

For another, Yi Liuchao had to find some way to keep the Godking Haotian locked in his slumber.

Should the Godking Haotian awaken under such circumstances, the first to suffer would inevitably be Yi Liuchao himself.

When that time came, he would most likely be ahead of Wei Zhao on the road to ruin.

So for now he had no attention to spare for Wei Zhao at all.

And that gave Wei Zhao his chance to slip away.

While every eye was drawn elsewhere, Wei Zhao quietly departed the Son of Heaven's palace.

Two days later, someone finally realized, belatedly, that the vast Yeyang Palace had been emptied—not a soul left within!

Not only had Wei Zhao and his ten great sin-lords vanished without a trace; even the middle and lower echelons had scattered into nothing, quietly slipping underground, hiding themselves amid the markets and lanes of the Inner Royal Court, leaving behind not the slightest remnant of their former monolithic dominance.

Even the forces closely tied to Wei Zhao, such as the Prince Zhao and Prince Han households, kept only an empty shell on the surface.

Their core strength, like Wei Zhao's bloc, had vanished into thin air.

The outcome left everyone utterly dumbfounded.

The writing was plainly on the wall: Wei Zhao had turned into a shrinking turtle and gone into hiding!

"Fierce as anyone when it's time to be fierce, and more turtled-up than anyone when it's time to turtle up—what kind of freak is this?"

The ones most thoroughly miserable at this moment were the great powers, headed by the Prince Qin household.

As the receding wave of the new era, they knew well enough that their position was precarious.

Before, at least, there had been a taller Wei Zhao standing in front to shield them, and they had felt some ground beneath their feet.

Now, fine and dandy—Wei Zhao had struck a spark, set the entire Inner Royal Court ablaze, and then dusted off his hands and bolted; is that something a human being does?

For a time, every great power went mad.

They had long known a great upheaval was coming, but no one had imagined it would arrive in such a bizarre manner!

Now no one had any retreat left; they could only stake everything on a single throw, fixing their gaze on the Godking Haotian in the hope of plucking a stroke of fortune great enough to carry them through the upheaval.

The Godking Haotian might have been fished out by Wei Zhao, but who, in the hidden workings of fate, dared say this was not a heaven-sent opportunity decreed by the heavens themselves?

Thus, even knowing full well it was an open stratagem, the various factions had no choice but to focus their efforts on the Godking Haotian.

The tide of the age they formed was such that even Yi Liuchao, a quasi-god powerhouse, could not hold it back for a time; rather, he found himself stretched thin and passive on every front.

It had to be said—Wei Zhao's fire had been set with considerable success.

Meanwhile, Wei Zhao himself had returned to the Realm of Sin, and personally settled in Prince Zhao's household lands and his other allies.

His strategy this time could be summed up in a single word.

Vanishing.

Jiang Xiaoshang offered his heartfelt appraisal: "Your style, you old schemer, is starting to carry more and more of my youthful flair."

Wei Zhao's face was all righteous indignation: "Old schemer? What I call this is knowing when to act and when not to. As a member of the receding wave, I personally opened the new era and did my duty—is that wrong?"

Jiang Xiaoshang gave him a sidelong look: "Then why'd you run?"

"Only a fool wouldn't run. I've already done my duty; sticking around to be the whole Inner Royal Court's target would mean there's something wrong with my head."

Wei Zhao snorted.

Jiang Xiaoshang choked for a long while: "You make such a good point, I actually can't refute it."

Wei Zhao nodded without a shred of shame: "My part in the Inner Royal Court's drama is done for now. Stepping back of my own accord and leaving the stage to others—that's what I call self-awareness. I know exactly how much I weigh."

Jiang Xiaoshang was caught between laughter and tears: "Then when do you plan to take the stage again?"

Wei Zhao smiled: "Naturally, once the rising waves have all made their entrance, I'll pick the most suitable moment to cut back in."

That was the essence of vanishing.

Start the fight first in an unexpected way, withdraw swiftly, then wait for the right time to re-enter and reap the harvest.

It was a complete strategy.

For the receding waves of the Inner Royal Court, the hardest trial was not the power of any enemy standing in their path, but the successive tides of the age.