Published: March 7, 2025
Chapter 199: The Emperor's Summons
"You are not me! You cannot understand my feelings!" Tie Butian gritted his teeth and said, "Although it is painful, as long as there is still breath, there is hope! Even if that hope is very slim and even laughable, it still exists! I believe that every day is still filled with hope!"
"Seventeen thousand years ago, during the time when people still lived like beasts, the first emperor of the first generation of the empire, your imperial majesty of the Divine Oracle Empire, was on the verge of death. All divine doctors said he was beyond saving, but at the last moment, an extraordinary person arrived. With a Ninefold Pill, that emperor was immediately restored! The injuries of that emperor were far more severe than those of my father now!" Tie Butian reached out and grabbed Chu Yang's collar, hissing, "He was the emperor, and my father is also the emperor! But why has no one come to deliver a Ninefold Pill for my father? Why?"
"The Ninefold Pill!" Chu Yang felt as if he had been struck by a heavy iron hammer in his heart!
"Exactly! It's the Ninefold Pill! This matter has always been buried in truth, and no one has dared to stand up and speak about it. Only fragments are recorded in the royal texts of generations, but precisely because of these royal records, there can be no mistake!" Tie Butian looked up to the sky and roared, "Why is it that when it comes to my father, there is none?"
Chu Yang was speechless!
He had no idea such a thing even existed!
The Ninefold Pill had actually appeared seventeen thousand years ago! This meant that there had once been a Nine Calamity Sword Master! Only a master of the Nine Calamity Sword could possess a Ninefold Pill!
"Everyone knows that my father is better off dead; but even if I don't speak from emotions, from a political standpoint, if I allow my father to die... am I still human? Who would fight for Iron Cloud if there is such a cold-hearted crown prince? Who would be willing to fight for him? A person who doesn't care even for his own father, what conscience does he have? What qualifications does he have to make others risk their lives for him?"
"I don't want to think about this; it's too cruel, but I cannot help but think! Do you think I, Tie Butian, want this position as crown prince? Do you think I really cherish this throne? Do you think... I truly don't care about the world or the lives of the soldiers?" Tie Butian glared angrily at Chu Yang, "You come from humble beginnings; how much do you understand about these political intricacies?"
"You only know what should and what shouldn't be! But do you know that there is no clear boundary between what should and shouldn't be?" Tie Butian shouted, "All those things you see as golden rules, if I were to do them, would be a grave mistake! As a king, with sixty million people watching me, what should or shouldn't I do?"
"I also want to not care about anything, to sleep soundly, but I can't! I want to rise with the sun and rest with the sunset; do you know how much I long for that kind of commoner life? But I can never have it! Even if Iron Cloud is destroyed, I still can't have it! Do you understand?"
Tie Butian said heavily, "I am very tired! I am exhausted every day! But when I think of my father lying there, my father is still here! He is still watching me, watching his... son, striving for Iron Cloud! I don't feel tired! Do you understand that feeling?"
"My father's life and death... from a small perspective, I have lost a father... but from a larger perspective, it concerns the lives of sixty million people within the entire Iron Cloud territory of thirteen million miles!"
Tie Butian's voice gradually dropped: "Now, the disappearance of Divine Doctor Du has completely robbed my father of hope!"
"I don't wish for Divine Doctor Du to be missing, nor do I wish for the emperor to have any mishaps." Chu Yang slowly and thoughtfully said, "However, as the crown prince, the actual ruler, even if it is cruel, you must see clearly... this matter is beneficial, not harmful, to Iron Cloud!"