Emperor Feng opened the sealed scrolls one by one, reading them thoroughly.
Even if he had one of the hugest cultivation bases in the Rust Sky world, he still preferred to read documents in the style of a mortal. And since he was an Emperor his people had to prepare accordingly.
Often times they needed to prepare several sets of documents for him. One was the written form that were the scrolls and the second was the jade slips that could store a lot of information at once.
And while he read through them, no one dared to disturb him. They didn't even so much as breath in his presence. Some might think that it was a little too much to not even be allowed a breath, but one must not forget that even these scholars were all immortals.
To them, going on for an entire day on just a single breath was easy.
"I see, so my son has finished his training already… He seems to be on the path of exceeding me." Emperor Feng muttered.
There were no specific emotions in his voice and it was as if he was just talking about some stranger and not his son.
"Oh? He brought back several people?" The Emperor said with a little interest this time, but then his expression turned colder. "A Princess of the Shang Dao Empire… there is now way old Rat Shang would send one of his daughters here willingly, seems like she has sneaked out here."
The Emperors words were clearly heard by the scholars and recorded in their minds.
While it might seem that the Emperor was talking to himself, he was actually giving out orders. It was up to the scholars to comprehend them and then implement them.
This was also why the Imperial scholars were often sleepless. They didn't know when the Emperor would get a series of scrolls and they would have to listen to him give his not wholly accurate orders.
The only solace they had was that the Emperor didn't really punish them if they made a mistake. Though they would never dare to slack off even if they had not faced any major punishment. Even thinking about that might lead them to their doom.
Plus being an Transcendent Immortal, Emperor Feng had a long reign ahead of him.
There was little that could truly make him furious as there were no major conflicts ongoing either.
The Imperial Scholars continued recording the Emperor's words as he moved onto the next scrolls.
"The Holy Topaz Continent's Trash Prince?" The Emperor raised a brow. 'He suddenly had a double breakthrough and rose in status, even defeating 2 fourth Tribulation Realm experts… interesting.' He pondered on it.
To Emperor Feng, a fortunate encounter like this was nothing. He had seen some wild things in his lifetime and even if this was a rapid increase, he knew of the kind of monsters there were in many worlds.
There were several that had exceeded him at a far younger age. A mere double breakthrough from a cripple was not something that would make him yearn for his fortune. But what did interest him was the fact that his first son would actually return from the Immortal Court for this.
'He worked tirelessly to get the qualifications to enter the Immortal Court. Even if he's finished his training, he still had plenty of time left to stay there. To leave it early also means giving up the high quality cultivation environment.
Hmm… is there perhaps more to this?' Emperor Feng's mind sorted through the information.
After a few minutes, he looked up from the scroll and gazed at the scholars.
"Tell me about this 'Trash Prince' of the Holy Topaz Empire." Emperor Feng questioned.
The scholars were already prepared with all the information the Emperor might ask so one of them quickly answered.
"Trash Prince is the title that has been given to the eleventh prince of the Holy Topaz Empire, Huangyu Shiyi. He was born with mutated meridians that slow down his cultivation progress to a snails pace.
He relied on the alchemical pills provided by his family to progress but got stuck at the Immortal Ascension realm for a hundred years. But a few months ago he suddenly broke through, even defeating the stronger immortals." The first scholar spoke.
"But that's not all is it?" Emperor Feng asked.
"No, my Emperor. Due to his sudden rise in strength, he has been challenging one expert after the other. His value to the Holy Topaz Empire has also risen and they might actually start promoting him more.
This gave rise to competition from his siblings. There are also rumors that the Tenth and ninth princes have already started their ploys, with the ninth prince even attempting assassination on Huangyu Shiyi." The second scholar replied.
"And he has survived I guess?" The Emperor said in an emotionless tone.
"He did… that too from a fifth Tribulation Realm Immortal's attack. Some eye witnesses state that the Eleventh prince slaughtered the assassin, exploding every inch of his body bit by bit." The scholar said. "The exact method by how the prince accomplished this is unknown. But they did find seven elemental traces on the remains of the assassin." He added.
"Seven Elemental Traces? Which ones exactly?" The Emperor asked, raising his chin.
"The five mortal and four heavenly elements, My Emperor." The scholar replied.
Hearing this the emperor went silent.
'To use the mortal and heavenly elements to that extent… this does not seem a usual mastery. It might work on a spirit cultivator, but to do the same on a fifth tribulation stage immortal while being at the second? Simply too hard to believe.' Emperor Feng thought to himself.
He pondered on the different possibilities ranging from the Holy Topaz empire actually resolving the problems of Huangyu Shiyi while disguising it as a fortunate encounter all the way to the prince hiding his cultivation base since the start.
No matter what option that the Emperor thought of, they seemed to not fit the current situation that well.
After an hour of thinking, the Emperor gave out his order.
"Let Feng Hao do as he pleases for now. Just keep tabs on him." Emperor Feng stated.
"It shall be done." The scholars replied with their heads bowed.
But then one of them spoke up, "My Emperor, are we to also let Princess Wei of Shang Dao Empire roam around?"
"She hasn't done anything and neither does she have the strength needed to meddle in our affairs. Let Feng Hao deal with any trouble that arises. She shall be his responsibility.
He won't tell me who he brings, fine. But if he brings guests, he has to bear them too." Emperor Feng stated.
"As you wish, Emperor." The scholars agreed.
"Also… what about the new travelers that arrived recently? I asked for their details." Emperor Feng asked.
"They have been sent for vetting to Master Suzi, but we do have the raw records if you desire to see them right away." The scholars said carefully.
"Just give them to me." The Emperor didn't care for it and took the jade slip from the scholar.
He scanned through the jade slip, finding detailed information in it. But while it was detailed, it didn't mean it was all relevant. Many of the parts were useless and didn't need to be known to the emperor.
"What's this deviation in the number of travelers? The array's records state 206, but the physical register states 205?" Emperor Feng quickly picked up on the irregularity.
"My Emperor, that was a normal error. The merchants have brought a lot of 'live' goods this time and one of those goods might have also been counted by the Array.
Master Suzi was present at the platform at the time of their arrival and has personally verified that there were only 205 people." The scholar explained.
The Emperor nodded his head but didn't seem to be fully satisfied. And when five minutes passed without the scholars being dismissed, they wondered if there was some issue.
"Your majesty, did we make a mistake?" The scholar standing at the front asked doubtfully.
"And what kind of mistakes can you make in this situation?" The Emperor asked in a calm tone.
"That the error in the number might not be false." The Scholar replied.
"Hmm… the day everyone arrived, I felt something. I thought it was a random flareup of qi, but I think it might be something else." Emperor Feng stated.
"This… My Emperor, you don't think someone might have sneaked into the Empire?" The scholars asked, faint sweat appearing on their brow.
"That is up to you to confirm. If not here, they might have come through another teleportation platform. I want the data from all empires." The Emperor stated firmly.
The Scholars felt relived and cupped their hands.
"It shall be done, as you desire." They replied.
"Very well, you are dismissed." With that, the scholars quickly dispersed, leaving the emperor to this thoughts.
"Just what do you want to truly do, Hao'er…"
