Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Entirely out of instinct, Tang Jie turned around and dodged while his left hand sent a punch at his assailant.
As he punched, he saw a gorgeously-dressed woman wearing a phoenix crown and palace robes throwing herself at him, a smile on her face. He urgently tried to pull back his strength, but he was a little too late, and his punch ended up striking the woman in the face.
"Eek!" the woman shrieked as she was sent flying by the punch. Thankfully, Tang Jie had pulled back more than half of his strength, or else this punch would have obliterated that woman's head. Even so, the punch managed to make half of her face swell up.
"Your Majesty!" The woman clearly hadn't expected such treatment, looking up tearfully at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie awkwardly drew back his hand. "Ah, I didn't think it was you. I thought somebody was ambushing me."
Although he didn't know who this woman was, he knew without asking that it was probably one of the concubines.
The woman wept, "This place is Your Majesty's palace, so who would be so bold as to ambush you? And who would actually succeed? With Your Majesty's power, a sweep of your Divine Will would let you know everything in the region. Your feigned ignorance is clearly because you want to bully me."
She began to cry even harder.
Tang Jie bitterly smiled. "While my Divine Will lets me know all around me, I have to release it first. I've just returned from a tough battle, and my mind is tired, so why would I release my Divine Will for no reason? Nor did I expect that you would be here."
The woman sobbed, "I don't care, I don't care. I came all the way here to give Your Majesty a surprise, but this is how I'm treated? Look! My face hurts so much."
Helpless, Tang Jie took out a bottle of medicine and threw it at the woman. "Oh, just use this and you'll be fine."
The woman cutely said, "Your Majesty, please apply it for me."
She opened her arms as if wanting Tang Jie to help her up.
Tang Jie only felt a headache from her cute mannerisms, wanting nothing more than to kick her away.
But he knew that this woman had to be one of Silver Eyes' beloved concubines that couldn't be ignored, so he stepped forward to help her apply the medicine.
Just as he gripped the bottle, the woman suddenly got up close and hooked an arm around his neck, amorously gazing at him with her large eyes. As for the bruise on her face, it turned from green to red, recovering on its own and not requiring medicine at all.
Tang Jie bitterly chuckled. "Is that really necessary?"
The woman brought her luscious red lips closer to Tang Jie.
All of this seductive behavior made Tang Jie's heart skip, but he still forcefully pushed the woman away.
The woman paled. "Your Majesty, do you not like Jiao'er anymore?"
Thank the heavens! He finally knew her name.
Tang Jie firmly said, "Jiao'er, don't misunderstand. I'm just not in the mood right now. Like I said, I just went through a big battle, and my mind is tired and needs rest. First it was that stinkbug bothering me, and now it's you getting on my case…"
He helplessly sighed.
Jiao'er covered her mouth in surprise. "Noble Spirit Cloud is just and fair, devoted to Your Majesty, and yet Your Majesty calls him a stinkbug? If he were to hear this, he might die from sorrow."
It was the same stinkbug who had come up with a fawning expression, the first thing out of his mouth being that the concubines were waiting, and such a man was called just and fair? Tang Jie inwardly chortled, but at least he had a name now. His heart lightened, and he said, "I'm just joking, so don't go spreading it around, or else I won't spare you."
It was just a casual comment, but Jiao'er's face tightened, and she immediately fell to her knees. "Jiao'er would never dare to casually spread Your Majesty's words."
Tang Jie was startled as he realized that the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor was the sort who put on a gentle face but acted with brutality, which was why Jiao'er was so nervous. Thus, rather than soothing her, he indifferently said, "So long as you know. I'm tired, so you're dismissed for now."
Not daring to linger, Jiao'er swiftly withdrew.
Once this woman was gone, Tang Jie exhaled in relief and looked around.
While the palace of the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor was majestic and opulent, it contained only ordinary objects, like gold, silver, pearls, and jade. After looking around, Tang Jie failed to find anything that could be used as a cultivation resource. Someone of the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor's status naturally couldn't be this poor, so he must have stored them away elsewhere.
But where exactly was the treasury? It wasn't like he could ask some minor fiend and say that he had forgotten where his own treasury was, right?
After thinking it over, Tang Jie decided to walk around first.
Behind the palace was the imperial garden, and Tang Jie used the chance to familiarize himself with the environment.
While the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor had fashioned his palace after human palaces, it retained some fiend attributes. For example, there weren't as many rules as humans would have. Tang Jie didn't use the royal "We", concubines could enter his bedchambers without permission, and when Tang Jie was strolling around the garden, no fiend would come to attend to him unless he called out for them. When it came to rules, the innately disorderly fiends couldn't compare to humans. Even the formation beneath the palace was simply powerful, lacking in technique, such that Tang Jie could easily undo it. Finally, the palace had buildings specifically for pill refining and tool forging.
Fiends weren't good at the auxiliary fields, and their pill refining houses and forges were run by humans that they had captured. But after seeing the formations of this place, Tang Jie lost interest in these pill refiners and tool artisans. Sure enough, when he visited the pill refining house, he found that most of the pills were rather ordinary.
But this couldn't be blamed on the workers. The people the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor had captured were figures of some repute in Fengshan. It was just that Tang Jie had only interacted with the cream of the crop and was used to seeing the best of the best resources. Those of slightly inferior make naturally could no longer meet his standards.
As for the best masters… if those grandmasters were so easy to capture, Fengshan would have been doomed long ago.
Failing to see anything that caught his eyes, Tang Jie felt disappointed.
He knew that there was a treasury here, but he couldn't find it! It was a most unpleasant feeling.
As he was thinking about what to do, he arrived at a building. He raised his head and saw the words "Imperial Study" written on the signboard.
This appeared to be Silver Eyes' office.
Tang Jie impulsively stepped inside.
Several minor fiends saw Tang Jie and immediately prostrated.
Tang Jie headed straight up to the highest desk and grabbed a paper off the table.
The paper recorded some recent events.
Judging by the stack of papers, the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor clearly wasn't a diligent official. Most of the papers had been ignored.
Glancing at the paper, he had an idea, and he said, "The Black Death Fiend King has reported that there have been more and more Windcrows gathering at Sunset Rock as of late, which is affecting the growth of the Celestial Azure Grass, but the Windcrow King is interfering with attempts to move the Windcrows. Notify the Black Death Fiend King that the number of Windcrows must be stymied. Since there are obstacles when attempting to move them, then just destroy some… mm, destroy half of them."
Windcrows were kind of a savage man-eating bird that lived within fiend territory. If not for his current position, Tang Jie would have wanted to see them all destroyed.
A little fiend nervously said, "'Destroy half of the Windcrows'? Your Majesty, isn't that too many?"
"Oh?" Tang Jie pondered the question. "Then let's destroy 80%."
The little fiend was scared out of his wits and didn't dare to say any more, obediently running off to issue the order.
Tang Jie grabbed another paper. "The Scarlet Wind King reports that the Everjoy King invaded from Iron Blood territory several days ago, capturing 42 humans from my empire. Notify the Scarlet Wind King that the Everjoy King needs to be taught a lesson so that they understand that those who invade my borders will be punished no matter how far away they are… Have him summon several other fiend kings and capture the Everjoy King."
The five Fiend Emperors each had their own empire that they controlled, but unlike humans, they didn't care that much about their borders. But Tang Jie didn't mind using this matter to kill off a fiend king.
Tang Jie wanted to issue an order to kill, but killing was much more serious, and the other fiend kings might not accept it, so he changed it to a capture order. Anyway, he was the one who would decide what to do with them afterward.
The little fiend was dizzied by the order, thinking to himself, Is it really necessary to capture a fiend king over a few dozen slaves? And the Scarlet Wind King had a grudge against the Everjoy King, which was why he was always trying to find ways to denounce him. But this time, his report had finally been accepted.
Tang Jie proceeded to handle several other "national affairs". Given who he was, he naturally didn't care about the stability of fiend territory, so his orders were malicious and ruthless, bearing the demeanor of a tyrant, calling for killing fiends, exterminating clans, provoking challenges, and any other trouble he could think of. In this day and age, doing something good was very difficult, while ruining something was very easy.
Tang Jie found being an incompetent sovereign to be rather fun. In a little while, his orders had managed to doom thousands of fiends, and he had even ordered for a fiend king of another country to be captured. All of the fiends he had killed through actual fighting had been easily matched by just moving his mouth! It was a refreshing feeling.
Having authority really is important sometimes. I should more diligently attend to government matters in the future. With this thought in mind, Tang Jie was in no rush to leave.
Tang Jie needed less than half the day to dispose of the matters in the study, and he rose to leave.
A minor fiend came forward and asked, "Your Majesty, which concubine will it be today?"
Concubines again?
Tang Jie inwardly grumbled that Silver Eyes was definitely some sort of sex maniac, but he put on a serious face and said, "No need. I've gained some enlightenment in a battle a few days ago, and I need to meditate on it."
"Yes. Your Majesty, are you going to the Meditation Palace, or the meditation chamber in the back mountain?"
He had a meditation chamber in the back mountain?
Startled, Tang Jie realized that this might be the place the Silver Eyes Fiend Emperor considered as actually important.
He didn't know what the difference was between the Meditation Palace and the meditation chamber, so he waved his hand and said, "To the back mountain!"
The minor fiend led Tang Jie to the back mountain.
The back mountain of the imperial palace was a pitch-black mountain. When Tang Jie arrived, he felt an immense pressure descend upon him, as if some vicious beast ruled this place.
Tang Jie took in a deep breath, but he saw that the minor fiend was utterly unaffected. He brought Tang Jie up to the mountain gate and stopped there.
Tang Jie took a look and realized he was in trouble. The mountain gate had a formation mechanism protecting it, and only someone familiar with the mechanism could open it. And this gate had no guards, and the minor fiend wasn't coming forward, so it was clear that Silver Eyes was the only person who knew how to undo the mechanism.
The problem was that he didn't know it. While his mastery in formations was enough for him to easily solve the mechanism, that didn't mean he could do it instantly. Anyone who saw the Fiend Emperor fumbling in front of the mountain gate for some time before finally going in would probably start to get suspicious.
At this time, the little fiend saw that Tang Jie was just standing there rather than going to the gate, and he became curious.
Tang Jie hesitated, and just when he was about to make an excuse to leave, he smelled an aroma on the air, and a sweet voice called out:
"Your Majesty…"
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m