Zu An was now the true ruler of the human, fiend, and ocean sides. That was why it wasn’t too hard for him to guess the motives of an emperor.

Not even these supernatural entities could escape from the schemes of an emperor!

Since the Jing River Dragon King had existed in this world and its underworld, and Xuanzang had journeyed to the west, that probably meant Sun Wukong had also wreaked havoc in heaven 500 years ago. The world of Journey to the West most likely existed too.

Back then, the Celestial Emperor had found himself in quite the difficult situation because of Sun Wukong. None of his supernatural subordinates of his had been a matc for Sun Wukong, having all been beaten outside the Southern Heavenly Gate.

But later, when Sun Wukong went on the journey to fetch the scriptures, he had encountered the mounts of several celestial beings, which had descended to the mortal world and turned into demons. Each of those mounts had often ended up stealing one of their master’s treasures, and that had already been enough to leave Sun Wukong hard-pressed. Even though it was because Sun Wukong was slacking off a bit, that completely proved that those celestial beings hadn't been trying their best when he was causing trouble in heaven, either.

The Celestial Emperor had probably thus discovered that there were celestial beings who, despite saying they were his subordinates, all had their own intentions in secret. So that was why he had brought in the Buddhist forces to keep the Daoists in check. With those two powers facing each other, as the Celestial Emperor, he would have much more room to do what he wanted.

Now that Zu An thought about it, if the Celestial Emperor was the mastermind behind the scenes, the report he had written would most likely have killed him right there and then. It was likely that the giant statue had helped him to pass smoothly.

Just then, a streak of light condensed into a human figure. Then, it slowly walked toward him. The person was dressed in the black robes of a ruler. He wore a crown with tassels, and his presence was mightier than any of the Kings of Hell Zu An had met before.

“You're… the giant statue?” Zu An was still a bit unsure as he asked. He could clearly see the person's face, but he discovered that he couldn't keep the face in his mind at all. He couldn't even find any adjectives to describe the other person.

The figure said with a smile, “That’s right, I am the giant statue you speak of. But to be more precise, everyone calls me the Necropolis Emperor, the true ruler of the underworld.”

“Necropolis Emperor?” Zu An was now extremely shocked. He had naturally heard that name before. There had been legends of a netherworld sovereign who was higher than even the five ghostly emperors. Some had claimed that it was King Ksitigarbha, while others said that it was the Necropolis Emperor; but he had thought those were just myths of his previous world. Now that he had entered this world of cultivation, the names of those powerful beings held tremendous might, so he couldn't say them willfully anymore. When he realized all of that, his expression changed. If the name of such a being was spoken, then…

As if guessing his worries, the Necropolis Emperor smiled and said, “Don’t worry. In this world of mine, I can naturally protect you.”

With a wave of his hand, a stone table and two chairs suddenly appeared. On the table were a pot of wine and two wine cups. The Netherworld Emperor sat down and personally poured a cup of wine, saying, “Old friend, have a seat and drink a cup with me.”

Zu An was shocked and overjoyed at the turn of events. He wasn’t scared at all and sat down to touch cups with the Netherworld Emperor.

“It’s good wine,” he remarked. He had to admit that this wine was better than anything he had ever drunk before. Even calling it ambrosia of the immortals seemed to be a bit lacking.

“This wine was actually something that you gave me in the past.” The Necropolis Emperor chuckled. Zu An snapped out of his daze and said, “You’ve called me your old friend all this time, but I don’t even know who I am. Since you can block off the perception of others in this world, can you tell me my true identity?”

This was the first time he had seensome hope. Whenever he brought up this subject in the past, whether it was Mi Li or other profound beings, none of them had said anything. But they were in a special world now, and they had even named both the Celestial Emperor and Necropolis Emperor, so he figured that he could finally get to the bottom of many secrets.

But to his surprise, the Necropolis Emperor only shook his head and said, “I cannot. There is too much karma attached to you. I cannot tell you who you are right now.”

Zu An was speechless.

As if seeing through his dissatisfaction, the Necropolis Emperor said with a laugh, “Don’t worry. Now that I have seen you, it proves that our past decision was correct. You will become more and more powerful, and ultimately change a fate that was originally set in stone.”

Zu An sighed. “You all love to talk in riddles and I still don’t know what I should even be doing. How will I be able to change any fate then?”

“The only thing you need to know is that you need to become stronger,” said the Necropolis Emperor. “That keyboard should still be with you, right? As long as you have her, it will always lead you out of the mist and to the other shore of success.”

Zu An was now really shocked. “You know about the Keyboard System?”

All this time, the keyboard had always been his biggest trump card, and yet someone actually saw through it!

“You call it a system?” The Necropolis Emperor laughed loudly and replied, “How could I not know about it? I was one of the ones who was involved in building it. I even contributed a small gadget to it.”

After saying that, he waved his hand and a pitch-black dagger flew out from Zu An’s chest. It flew into the air and trembled a bit, as if it was really excited.

Zu An was startled. He asked, “The Poisonous Prick is yours?”

“Poisonous Prick?” The Necropolis Emperor frowned slightly. “Your naming sense really is as bad as before. This is… Forget it, you can call it whatever you want.”

He gently caressed the blade of the Poisonous Prick and said, “Across the endless realms, as long as something is alive, no matter what it is... If it is injured by this dagger, death is its only end. But right now, the dagger has not been completely unsealed yet and cannot display its full power.”

After saying that, he gave it a light tap. The Poisonous Prick quickly returned into Zu An’s arms.

“How can I completely remove the seal?” Zu An asked curiously. No wonder the Poisonous Prick had such a powerful death curse! So it was the weapon of the Necropolis Emperor, the one who controlled death.

“Let nature take its course; you will know in the future. If I completely unseal it now, it will only draw enemies you cannot defeat at all to you. It will only be unfavorable to you,” said the Necropolis Emperor. “By now, you should know that even if you have it, that does not mean you are completely invincible, right?” Zu An nodded. Even though the Poisonous Prick’s ability was incredibly powerful, it had its flaws. One of the biggest ones was that he had to be able to injure his opponent first. If the difference was too great, its ability wouldn’t have a chance to activate at all.

He wanted to ask a bit about the keyboard, but the Necropolis Emperor shook his head. “That object has too much karma attached to it. What I have said about my involvement with it is already the limit. There is no need for you to ask anymore.”

Zu An asked impatiently, “Then what can you talk about?”

The Necropolis Emperor replied, “This trial, for one thing.”

“It seems I’ve passed the three phases, then?” Zu An couldn't help but sigh.

“You are very smart, as expected of my friend,” said the Necropolis Emperor with a smile.

Zu An was speechless.

Why does it feel as if, even though he’s praising me, he’s actually exaggerating?

“If the others who took the trial could deduce that it was the Buddhists that were working behind the scenes, that was already quite amazing. Only someone like you could uncover the shadow of the Celestial Emperor behind it all,” said the Necropolis Emperor with a sigh of admiration. After all these years, this trial had tested all sorts of brilliant geniuses. And yet in the end, they could only deduce that the Buddhists were behind it at best.

“I only managed to guess that through a coincidence,” Zu An said.

He wasn’t just being humble. At first, he had also thought that it was the Buddhists’ scheme, but he had suddenly gained a burst of insight and recalled all kinds of details that didn’t make sense. Additionally, he had held similar status to an emperor for the past few years, allowing him to guess the truth. But if he hadn’t watched Journey to the West before, he wouldn’t have thought of any of that at all.

When he realized that, he couldn't hold back his doubts anymore. “Why do I feel as if the trial was made just for me?”

“You cannot speak so carelessly,” the Necropolis Emperorsaid as he stroked his beard. “I was very fair from the very start. The reason you feel this way only proves that it was your fate.”

Zu An became quiet.

Fate… If it had been the past, he would have just thought of the concept as some kind of superstition, but after reaching his current level of cultivation, he had begun to feel more and more as if there was some kind of fate at work.

He quickly snapped out of his daze and asked, “By the way, why would the Three Pure Ones allow all of this to happen? Laozi is the ancestor of the Tang Emperor’s Li clan. Why would he allow the Buddhists to contaminate his own property?”