Chapter 1728: Great Formation

All the women present were intelligent. They immediately noticed something unusual from the conversation between the two men: the Grand Tutor seemed not to be there to help the emperor, but rather... to confront him?

Younger individuals like Xie Daoyun and Qiu Honglei were bewildered, but only Yan Xuehen appeared lost in thought.

Zhao Hao frowned and looked at the Grand Tutor. "Is this still about the previous dynasty?"

Zu An's heart stirred. So it was.

The Grand Tutor remained silent. Zhao Hao couldn't help but say, "During the Meng Dynasty, you were also suppressed and marginalized, just an idle, peripheral prince. Your treatment back then wasn't even as good as it is now. Today, you are respected by thousands; isn't that much better than your time in the Meng Dynasty?"

Apart from a few, all the women present widened their eyes. The Grand Tutor was actually a prince from the previous dynasty? They had never heard of it before, and there were no related records. If this news got out, it would undoubtedly cause a massive stir.

The Grand Tutor shook his head slightly. "Do you think I'm someone who cares about such things?"

"So it seems you're still unwilling to accept that your Chen family's empire was replaced by this dynasty," Zhao Hao sneered. "Truly an ungrateful wretch; no matter how well I treat you, it's useless."

"But I'm very curious: you're already old and have no descendants. Why risk engaging in rebellion? What do you gain?" This was what puzzled Zhao Hao the most. He wasn't a fool; knowing the Grand Tutor's sensitive identity, he still granted him a respected position. Besides his genuinely profound cultivation, it was also due to the fact that he had never married and had no descendants, making such a person less of a concern.

The Grand Tutor's expression was calm. "A mere empire, why would I care? However, you should never, ever have laid hands on her descendants."

"Her?" Zhao Hao was startled but quickly understood whom he meant. He couldn't help but burst into laughter. "I heard rumors about you two years ago. I never imagined you were such a romantic."

"Romantic?" The women couldn't help but glance at the Grand Tutor, finding it impossible to associate the venerable old man before them with those two words.

Zu An's heart stirred as he recalled the time he went to the back of the academy and saw a painting of a lady hanging in the Grand Tutor's room, depicting a woman's figure. Could it be her he was talking about?

"What is love in this world..." The Grand Tutor did not deny it; instead, he let out a long sigh, his expression full of regret.

Zu An's expression was peculiar, fearing he would utter a line like Li Mochou's, which directly teaches people to live and die for love...

"That sounds poetic," Zhao Hao sneered. "Too bad the one you love is your sister-in-law!"

Hearing this shocking revelation, the few people nearby all widened their eyes. Although they knew it was not the time for gossip, the Grand Tutor's transcendent status made his scandal irresistibly captivating.

"It stemmed from emotion but stopped at propriety. I don't see anything wrong with it. I only regret not meeting her a step sooner back then." Perhaps due to his age or the passage of many years, the Grand Tutor had come to terms with this aspect. Although the other person's words were sharp, he remained emotionally undisturbed.

"You didn't even get into bed with her?" Zhao Hao frowned, his tone quite sarcastic. "If you like a woman, you naturally have to possess her. Your kind of talk is just bitter self-consolation for a loser."

The Grand Tutor frowned slightly, clearly finding the other's words too offensive. "Someone like you naturally wouldn't know what love truly is."

Zhao Hao looked at him with disdain. "I think it's you who doesn't know what love truly is."

The Grand Tutor was speechless. Zu An almost burst out laughing. Several women nearby blushed crimson, never expecting the two most powerful and high-ranking individuals in the world to bicker like street ruffians. However, it currently seemed that the Grand Tutor was at a disadvantage.

The Grand Tutor took a deep breath. "It was bad enough that your father and grandfather usurped the Chen family's empire, but they also employed vicious schemes, causing the Chen imperial descendants to die mysteriously one after another, and even infant princes to perish successively. At first, I thought it was due to the Chen family's moral failings, divine will, but later I learned that all of it was your Zhao family's doing."

"I am a lazy person by nature and was considered a good-for-nothing back then. But I am still a Chen, and now that I know the truth, this score naturally needs to be settled."

Zhao Hao smiled. "In the end, isn't it because something happened to that woman's descendants? But I don't understand, they aren't your descendants, but rather the descendants of your enemies. And you still want to stand up for them?"

"The grievances between my elder brother and I are from the previous generation; the children are innocent." The Grand Tutor adjusted his composure. Although he claimed it was only for his beloved from back then, in reality, as a member of the former imperial family, how could he possibly let go of the empire's vile usurpation?

Zhao Hao scoffed, "You were a loser back then, and you are destined to be a loser now. I stand right here; what can you do to me?"

The Grand Tutor frowned. "Indeed, I didn't expect Prince Qi and the others to have hardly weakened your power. In terms of cultivation, in a one-on-one fight, I am still a notch below you."

"If that's the case, why force it?" Zhao Hao said. "So much time has passed. You now hold a respected position in our Great Zhou Dynasty, something you couldn't even dream of in the Meng Dynasty. It is our Great Zhou Dynasty that gave you the opportunity to display your talents and have disciples everywhere. Why cling to the past? I am not a petty person. I can pretend today's events never happened. You can continue to be the Grand Tutor of the Imperial Academy, an object of admiration for cultivators across the land. If you still feel unwilling, I can bestow concubines and beautiful maidservants upon you and allow you to continue the Chen family bloodline. How about that?"

Zu An was somewhat surprised. When did Zhao Hao become so amenable? However, he quickly realized that the Grand Tutor must be extremely powerful. Even if slightly inferior to Zhao Hao, the difference couldn't be too great. After a real battle, Zhao Hao would certainly pay a huge price. And now, with Zhao Hao's Five Declines of Heavenly Beings approaching, paying a huge price might hasten his death. Naturally, he didn't want to take that risk. Moreover, the Imperial Academy was truly too important. The imperial court, the army, even local governments and the populace all needed the Imperial Academy's research and technology.

The Grand Tutor sighed. "I must admit your terms are indeed generous, and you are a formidable emperor. It's just a pity that our positions are fundamentally different and cannot be altered."

Zhao Hao's gaze narrowed. Knowing that the other party had made up his mind and further persuasion was pointless, he abandoned the thought of convincing him to surrender. "Then I'd like to see what ability you have to exact your revenge!" After all, he was a formidable figure. Although he worried about paying a significant price in a fight with the Grand Tutor, if a fight was inevitable, he couldn't hesitate and allow the opponent to exploit any weakness.

The Grand Tutor smiled faintly. "Then, Imperial Majesty, please observe."

As he spoke, he spread his hands, and his entire body suddenly floated into mid-air. An invisible aura diffused from all around him. Immediately afterward, the main peak where the Golden Summit was located suddenly shimmered with a brilliant blue light—the characteristic glow of activated runes.

Not only the Golden Summit, but all other peaks throughout the entire Purple Mountain Range glowed blue almost simultaneously. The ground shook and rumbled, laws circulated between heaven and earth, and an ancient, desolate aura permeated everywhere.

If anyone were to look from above at this moment, they would notice that the entire Purple Mountain Range collectively formed a colossal formation. Compared to this grand formation, the might of the Zhengyang Sect's mountain-protecting formation from earlier was like a child next to a strong man, utterly insignificant.

The civil and military officials, who were bombarding the Zhengyang Sect's mountain-protecting formation with siege cannons halfway up the mountain and seeing it on the verge of breaking, turned pale with shock. Was this a cataclysmic change in the heavens and earth? Could it be that the Zhengyang Sect was so powerful that their mountain-protecting formation, when attacked, actually activated a true grand formation behind it?

Zu An, who had previously studied "Di Tian Sui Chan Wei" and was quite familiar with Feng Shui, keenly sensed at this moment that the power of the entire Purple Mountain Range seemed to have been mobilized by this mysterious grand formation. It bore some resemblance to how he had once mobilized the power of the dragon veins in a secret realm, yet upon closer distinction, there were significant differences.

Yan Xuehen's eyes shone with wonder. As an expert in formations, she was utterly astonished by this incredibly profound formation. So formations could be designed like this! It was truly ingenious to the extreme, something she had never dared to imagine before.

A trace of doubt flashed in Xie Daoyun's eyes, and then her expression subtly changed. "How... how is this somewhat similar to some things I set up a few days ago?"