Chapter 354: Coronation as King

The moment those words left his mouth, not only Crown Prince Xiang Kun and the others were stunned into statue-like silence, even Chen Shi stared wide-eyed and speechless.

He had originally assumed the purpose of these ghost-tribe clan heads was to obtain the Blood Lake Sutra he had deciphered. Their invitation to come to the ruler’s palace would at most be coercion and bribery, pressuring him to hand over the Blood Lake Sutra. If he could leave alive afterwards, Chen Shi would not have minded teaching that technique.

If the Blood Lake Sutra spread, it would surely plunge the Heavenly Pool Ghost Kingdom into chaos, causing internecine slaughter and general panic, leaving them with no time to concern themselves with other matters.

But what he never expected was how quickly and bizarrely the clan heads’ minds leapt — they actually wanted him to become the next ruler of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom.

In the small temple behind his head, Peng Ju, Peng Yan’er, and Sang Xixi were closely watching the commotion outside. Hearing Lei Qu’s words, they were likewise shocked beyond belief.

Peng Ju and Peng Yan’er were easy to explain — the brother and sister already admired Chen Shi utterly. Sang Xixi was utterly bewildered: “No, no, the Top Scholar Master was a living person, right? How could he have become the ruler of the Heavenly Pool Ghost Kingdom?”

Could the selection of a ruler be this slapdash?

Beside Chen Shi, Stone Ji Your Ladyship quietly asked, “Envoy, did you kill the previous ruler?”

Chen Shi made a muffled sound. Looking at the scene before him, even he began to doubt whether he had personally killed the previous ruler and bought off the one hundred and twelve tribal clan heads of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom.

Crown Prince Xiang Kun and those ghost gods who had come to pay condolences were both astonished and furious. They had rushed here first and foremost for the ruler’s throne.

Xiang Kun had long schemed for the rulership. He had bribed many frustrated or ambitious ghost gods, accumulated forces, searched for treasures to enhance his bloodline strength, all hoping that when his father aged, he could send him off to a glorious afterlife early.

No one expected that when the old ruler left with the kingdom’s experts, misfortune would befall him and he would pass away.

Xiang Kun was the first to arrive, bringing nearly all the Eastern Palace’s top fighters. Whoever dared oppose him becoming the next ruler could be buried with the old ruler.

But who was this small skeleton that appeared from nowhere?

Why could this little skeleton gain the support of one hundred and twelve tribal clan heads?

The power structure of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom was relatively loose; it was tribal. The ruler was often the leader of the largest tribe, the most powerful tribe, or simply the person with the strongest individual might. A skeleton serving as ruler was unprecedented!

Xiang Kun gritted his teeth. With one hundred and twelve clan heads backing him, the decision was essentially nailed down. Even if he opposed it, it would accomplish nothing.

Even if he mobilized the Eastern Palace’s experts, they could not possibly defeat those old bastards.

Yet he could not tolerate watching the throne slip into someone else’s hands, especially a small skeleton!

Xiang Kun looked at the Chancellor. The Chancellor understood, stepped forward, and said in a deep voice, “Clan heads, the matter of the ruler is of grave consequence. Since ancient times, our rulers have been chosen from among our ghost tribes. Never has a skeleton cultivator been selected as ruler. Besides, skeleton cultivators are not even of the ghost tribes.”

Chi Di said, “The skeleton ghost tribe is still a ghost tribe!”

The Chancellor bristled, “Skeleton cultivators are merely cultivators from the mortal world whose primordial spirits fell to the underworld after death and attached to skeletons. How can they be called ghost tribes?”

Chi Di snapped, “Born in the womb and born of the earth — is there a difference?”

“What difference?” the Chancellor retorted angrily. “We have flesh and bodies, they do not!”

“Are bones not a body?” Chi Di sneered.

Another ghost near Xiang Kun spoke up: “Since ancient times, sons inherit their fathers’ roles…”

Clan Head Lei Qu shook his head, “There is no such rule. Step back.”

Another ghost expert said, “Throughout history the ruler has been decided based on strength. This skeleton brat has not faced the tribes’ challenges; how can he become ruler?”

Other ghost experts nodded in agreement. “Without a selection, how can he command the people?”

Lei Qu said, “We one hundred and twelve clan heads endorse the new ruler, why need a selection? As for commanding the people, first get past us and then talk about whether they obey.”

Clan Head Qing Sha added, “We have our own means to make them obey.”

The elder clan heads laughed together, “We are only here to inform you that Chen Shi will assume the throne and be crowned. This is not an invitation for you little brats to challenge us.”

A heavy silence fell over the assembled ghost gods.

The clan heads are beings whose bloodlines have been developed to the extreme. Having led their tribes for many years and been frequently worshiped by their people, they possess divine strength comparable to the strongest cultivators of the mortal world. If these old warhorses choose Chen Shi, then Chen Shi becomes the new ruler.

This was a notice, not a consultation.

All the ghost gods fell silent.

Lei Qu scanned the crowd, his tone weighty: “His Majesty is the prophesied wise sovereign who can lead us to revival and restore the golden age. You must serve His Majesty diligently, understand?”

The crowd remained silent.

Chen Shi cleared his throat, intending to speak, and as eyes turned to him he said nothing.

He was still a bit dazed.

Only when Chen Shi sat on the throne, was crowned, and received the tribes’ homage — with clan heads stepping forward to kowtow and present incense offerings — did he feel slightly more lucid, though not fully awake.

The new ruler’s ascension was of course festive. Each ghost tribe decorated, celebrated loudly, and rejoiced. Yet once they learned the new ruler was a skeleton ghost, they exchanged furtive glances and much behind-the-scenes gossip ensued.

It was not until the second day after Chen Shi took the throne, when the previous day’s noise had finally faded, that he came fully to his senses. He thought, “My father and Granny Sha are still extracting the demon within me. They probably have no idea that while they were doing that, I went to the ghost tribes and became their ruler.”

The whole affair was absurd.

He still found it unbelievable.

Gathering his wits, he had Commander Peng Ju report: “Your Majesty, Clan Head Lei Qu requests an audience.”

Chen Shi rose from the ornate throne. He wore a heavy fur cloak made from a creature of the underworld between ghost and demon, luxurious and suffused with extraordinary power and strange bloodline energies, likely forged with blood offerings from many tribes.

On his skull sat a crown inlaid with various gems. He gripped the scepter beside the throne, which towered several times higher than he did.

After a moment’s thought, Chen Shi set the scepter down and said, “Show him in.”

Shortly after, Lei Qu entered the throne hall with Peng Ju. Seeing Chen Shi’s ragged attire, the exposed ribcage, pelvis, and leg bones, he hurriedly raised a hand to shield his eyes: “Your Majesty, forgive this old minister’s eyes.”

Interior Affairs Minister Sang Xixi hurried forward to help Chen Shi pull the fur cloak tighter.

Chen Shi descended the steps and walked before Lei Qu with a smile. “I am but a dry skeleton; whether clothed or not matters little. Clan Head Lei, I remain puzzled.”

Two flickering flames burned within the eye sockets of his skull as he looked at Lei Qu.

Lei Qu had the features of an old ape, his face hair long white. Clad in black and moving with human-like manner, he spoke: “Are you puzzled as to how Your Majesty came to the throne?”

Chen Shi nodded slightly but kept it modest.

He had no hair, only a bony skull. The crown might fall off.

Lei Qu chuckled, “I suspected Your Majesty might have this question, which is why the one hundred and twelve clan heads sent me to explain the matter.”

They walked and spoke until they reached the front of the royal hall.

Lei Qu said, “Our Heavenly Pool Kingdom is but one of many ghost kingdoms among the underworld.”

Chen Shi’s interest stirred. “There are other ghost kingdoms?”

Lei Qu said, “There are several other ghost kingdoms within the Yin Mountains, and others beyond. Yet in the legends of all the ghost kingdoms, there is a shared recollection of a bygone era. Back then our ghost societies flourished. We had wondrous methods, practiced spiritual arts, and cultivated divine abilities. The heavens and earth were not as they are now. The underworld’s sky held a sun and a moon; at night one could even see the stars.”

Chen Shi stood before the palace and gazed over the many Heavenly Pools. There were hundreds of them, with tribal settlements scattered around each pool.

“Back then the sky had no breaches,” Lei Qu said, looking toward the Heavenly Cascade a hundred li away. “The heavens did not split wide open, no waterfall hung down, and there was no Fog Moon phenomenon. At that time we could cultivate and ascend to immortality. Then, suddenly and for reasons unknown, all our tribes lost literacy and no longer recognized the ancestral language or written characters. The sun and moon vanished, the stars faded, Fog Moon emerged, immortals disappeared, and the gods died, hung upon the Boundless Cliff.”

Chen Shi couldn’t help asking, “What happened?”

Lei Qu shook his head, “We do not know. Our tribes only have fragmentary records of the golden age passed down through poems. Now this is the Age of Darkness. What transpired in between is beyond our knowledge.”

Chen Shi’s gaze fell on a Heaven’s Listener perched on the palace eaves nearby. “A similar thing happened in the mortal world.”

He recalled the True King sealing off Ascension and Tribulation Crossing levels — an act that echoed the ghost tribes’ loss of language.

Lei Qu said, “But Your Majesty understands the lost language of our tribes, and even the big-headed ghost woman beside you can invoke the relics left by our ancients!”

Stone Ji Your Ladyship, furious, shot out from the small temple behind Chen Shi, grabbed Lei Qu by his collar, hoisted him up into the air, and barked, “Monkey, if you have the nerve say ‘big-headed ghost woman’ one more time! I’ll bury you with the old ruler!”

Lei Qu quickly begged for mercy, smiling awkwardly, “Great-headed madam…”

Stone Ji raised her fist, ready to finish him off.

Chen Shi intervened, “Clan Head Lei, this is Stone Ji Your Ladyship, a deity.”

Lei Qu hurriedly bowed, “This humble old man pays respects to Stone Ji Your Ladyship. If I have offended, please forgive this daughter of the hall.”

Stone Ji felt better and put him down. “The owner of that bronze coin was an acquaintance of mine. How could his bronze coin fall here?”

Lei Qu shook his head, “I do not know.”

Stone Ji asked, intrigued, “What do you know?”

“In the poems passed down by my tribes, our ancestors came from the world of the Four Great Continents and fled here after defeat to avoid total annihilation,” Lei Qu said.

He looked at Chen Shi, eyes filled with worship and adoration, and said, “I also know that in those oral poems, there is a prophecy: in the future of the Age of Darkness a wondrous man will descend from the sky, decipher our lost techniques, teach us the forgotten divine language, and lead us out of darkness into the light!”

Stone Ji looked at Chen Shi with suspicion. She thought, “A wondrous man? An envoy? He doesn’t look like that at all…”

Chen Shi smiled, “I suspect those oral poems were made so your descendants wouldn’t despair of this world — they invented a prophecy that a savior would fall from the sky. I am not wondrous at all; I was a simple Top Scholar in the mortal world.”

“Perhaps,” Lei Qu said.

He did not understand the concept of Top Scholar. His old eyes flashed with light as he smiled, “The elders might have wanted to deceive us, but how strange is this: Your Majesty cultivates the Blood Lake Sutra, has deciphered the lost script, and speaks the lost divine language. Moreover, Your Majesty came from the mortal world, just descending from the sky.”

The light in his eyes grew more fanatic, his reverence swelling to an unsettling degree.

“The moment you descended, the old ruler died — clearly he yielded the throne to you!” Lei Qu exclaimed quickly. “You can command — Stone Ji Your Ladyship — to wield the relics left by the ancestors, making our tribes’ treasures unusable! What else could this be but heaven’s will? This is the arrangement of fate! The Age of Darkness is finally ending!”

Chen Shi felt a headache coming. Listening to Lei Qu, he realized this explanation could indeed be made to fit the facts.

“Think whatever you like,” he muttered inwardly.

The ruler of the Heavenly Pool was largely ceremonial. Each tribe handled its own affairs and only called on the ruler when they could not manage a problem. The ruler didn’t need to attend court daily or handle every matter; internal affairs were left to Sang Xixi and Peng Yan’er, while external matters were handled by the Chancellor.

After a moment’s thought, Chen Shi said honestly, “Clan Head Lei, I cannot stay in the underworld forever. Once my matters are settled I will return to the mortal world. I can teach you the Blood Lake Sutra and help decode your tribes’ techniques, even teach you the divine language. Then you can choose a ruler yourselves.”

Lei Qu’s expression changed and he hurriedly said, “Your Majesty, please do not rush to teach the Blood Lake Sutra! If the Blood Lake Sutra spreads, the Heavenly Pool Kingdom would be ruined! Other tribes’ techniques must not be hastily deciphered and disseminated either — that would also bring disaster! Your Majesty needs overwhelming power to suppress the tribes’ top experts. Only then can transmission be done without causing upheaval!”

Chen Shi considered that if the Blood Lake Sutra spread, those who practiced it would create great killings. If other tribes’ techniques spread, the harm could be even greater. Immense power breeds political ambition; the Heavenly Pool Kingdom would inevitably fracture and ignite into war.

“But after my demon is extracted, I must return to the mortal world,” Chen Shi thought.

Lei Qu did not know Chen Shi’s thoughts and continued, smiling, “Your Majesty has just ascended. One more thing I have not reported: Your Majesty’s harem is empty. Our tribes will select from among our women those with graceful faces, gentle temperaments, and elegant bearing, and send them to fill the palace harem…”

Chen Shi carefully studied Lei Qu’s features and the looks of clans like the Big-Bellied and Qing Sha tribes. He shivered involuntarily at the thought.

“Look, Clan Head.”

Chen Shi loosened his cloak and revealed his entire skeletal frame. “Do you think I still need palace beauties?”

Lei Qu’s face clouded as realization dawned. He thought, “In the past, tribes used such things to maintain ties with the ruler. But the skeleton ghost tribe truly seems to need no harem…”

After Lei Qu left, Chen Shi continued cultivating the Blood Lake Sutra while seated on the throne, refining drops of divine blood.

His Blood Lake Hell grew increasingly vast, and his primordial spirit grew ever stronger. Within a few days the lake’s surface reached over ten li, though he still remained far from the Blood Sea realm.

This skeletal body grew ever stronger, its aura more astonishing, even imparting a strong sense of oppression to others.

Even Chen Shi did not truly know how powerful this skeletal body had become.

The Blood Lake Sutra’s progress was so rapid it was hard to measure using the mortal world’s cultivation tiers.

One day Chen Shi lay with his head on the lap of the white-clad fairy. She stroked his skull and Chen Shi felt supremely at ease, nearly drowsy.

Since possessing the skeleton, he had not been affected by Peng Qiao’s influences. His heart felt pure; even though his head rested on this girl’s leg, he felt no improper impulses.

At that moment, a powerful summons force struck him and Chen Shi’s heart moved: “Grandma summons me back!”

He hurriedly rose, leaving Stone Ji Your Ladyship in the palace, and said, “Stone Ji, remain here and guard my realm! I will be back soon!”

His primordial spirit surged forth and vanished without a trace.

Stone Ji looked on and saw Chen Shi’s skeleton sitting in place, mechanically guiding the Blood Lake Sutra and continuing to cultivate, the Blood Lake Hell behind the skull growing ever larger.