Chapter 221 - Assuming Duties as a Celestial Emperor (2/2)
The door guard became even more pale. His legs became jelly and he started to speak, but a friendly voice came from behind him. “Pao Hui has failed to welcome the new Celestial Emperor, may the Celestial Emperor please forgive me.”
A figure suddenly flew and landed to the right of the heavenly gate. He was an Exalted Immortal and he was wearing the uniform of an immortal guard, grinning. He was apologising, but he did not sound at all sorry. He bowed slightly to Yi Qing and grinned even wider. “I thought the Celestial Emperor was only going to arrive at least a month later. I did not think that you would be here so soon. Pao Hui was not prepared at all. Apologies, apologies!”
He kept apologising as he stepped forward with a somewhat forced warmth. Acting as the host, he said, “Your servant will now bring the Celestial Emperor around the heavenly palace.”
Now, apart from Lonemoon, even Yi Qing frowned. For some reason, they could not pinpoint what exactly seemed wrong with this situation.
“You’re the managing immortal guard of the heavenly palace?”
“Yes, I am.” The man smiled brightly.
“Where are the others?”
“Well…” Pao Hui gave a pained expression, as if not knowing where to begin. A moment later, he sighed. “Hai, you have no idea. Now that the demonic realm has appeared and come so close… We have just lost our Celestial Emperor Zi Chen. All the immortal guards panicked. They do not dare to stay in the heavenly palace on ordinary days. The new Celestial Emperor also came rather early. I had no time to… gather the rest of them.”
“Is that so?” Lonemoon scanned him from head to toe. Then, his expression became cold. This reason sounded very… proper!
Pao Hui’s smile faltered, but he avoided making eye contact with Lonemoon. He continued to walk ahead of them and said, “New Celestial Emperor, this way, please!”
Lonemoon did not push any further. He nodded at Yi Qing and led the rest of the group into the heavenly palace.
They flew for less than a minute before Pao Hui suddenly stopped and pointed to an impressive palace hall sitting in the clouds in front of them. “New Celestial Emperor, this is the main hall of the palace. Celestial Emperor Zi Chen always held his meetings there.”
Once he finished speaking, he turned and flew toward another hall behind him without waiting for any of them to respond.. It seemed that he had no intention of bringing them into the palace hall. This carried on as he showed them the other halls.
“New Celestial Emperor, this is the Zi Guang Hall. The various emperors of the Bo Sea would come and gather here. It’s a pity that the various emperors could not make it down today. Please do not blame them, Celestial Emperor.”
“New Celestial Emperor, this is the Yuxian Court. This is where we plant immortal herbs,. The immortal guards taking care of this court are not here today, so we cannot go in at the moment. When the Celestial Emperor is free in the future, you can come here again.”
“New Celestial Emperor, this is…”
Pao Hui led the group a full circle around the premises and introduced them briefly to each room, but he had a reason not to allow them to enter every single place. Even the dumb would be able to tell that the immortal guard was unsatisfied with having Yi Qing as his new Celestial Emperor. Yet, he had a fake smile plastered on his face the entire time, as if he was being considerate toward them. This annoyed Lonemoon and the others extremely.
Yu Hong and the other disciples almost argued with the immortal guard a couple of times, but Lonemoon stopped them. That was until they came to the last, innermost hall.
“This is the Treasure Seeking Tower. This is the treasury of the Bo Sea – the most important place in the Bo Sea Heavenly Palace. All the immortal meridians are stored in this place. Celestial Emperor Zi Chen personally set up an array outside the tower. For the new Celestial Emperor’s safety, we had better not enter the treasury for now.”
He was just about to lead the group away when Lonemoon, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly stuck his hand out and stopped him.
“Fellow Immortal, you’re wrong there.” Lonemoon smiled. “This is such an important place – the Celestial Emperor cannot simply sit back and not enter, right?” Lonemoon turned and called, “Yi Qing!”
The next moment, a white ball of light appeared in Yi Qing’s palm. He had been waiting for a long time to do this. An immortal sword appeared in his hands.
“Wait!” Pao Hui’s expression changed. He tried to stop them but he was too late.
Yi Qing raised his hand and a strong gust of sword Qi burst forth, attacking the array that was surrounding the hall. There was a huge crash and the array fell into pieces. The gates to the immortal pavilion opened.
“You… You…” Pao Hui could not believe his eyes. He never thought that they would break the array without hesitation since they had been so cooperative the entire time.
“Immortal guard!” Lonemoon gave an even brighter smile than the immortal guard had on his face earlier. Emphasising each word carefully, he said, “This entire time, you have been telling us that the immortal guards are either busy or fired. As the managing immortal guard, you have failed to control the rest of the immortal guards. I think we should put someone else in charge.”
“…”
“Yu Hong! Send this immortal guard out of the Heavens beyond Heaven!”
“Yes!”
Hmph! He had lived for two lifetimes and it had been long since Lonemoon met a person who made him feel like he had to assert his authority. Very well! This immortal guard of the Bo Sea successfully brought out the CEO in him!