Ye Qingyu pondered upon hearing his words.

This time, after returning to Royal City, he believed that he would face huge obstacles and even took a few precautions to go against the hidden sovereigns in the city. But after circling around, what shocked him was that there was not a single sovereign-level expert left in the city.

This was extremely strange.

This was because Ye Qingyu had secretly sensed the presence of a substantial amount of terrifying auras in Royal City when he became Emperor. This told him that there were many bygone sovereigns similar to the Emperor Skyreach hiding in the city. When he returned, however, all of them had disappeared.

Ye Qingyu had tried to carefully sense for their presence and concluded that they were really not around anymore.

The sudden disappearance of so many sovereign-level experts could not be due to their deaths.

There could only be one reason.

They had left the city on their own accord.

There were a great amount of names in the divine jade given to him by the old sovereign of the Sun clan. Ye Qingyu took a brief glance at them and could roughly tell that most of the sovereign-level experts that used to be in the city were among them.

Ye Qingyu could feel his heart beat faster from shock.

What sort of mentality would cause so many sovereigns to side with the opposition? Did this mean that over the years, any person who became an Emperor chose to walk on the same path? All of them were Martial Emperors who were prodigies at the peak of the formation martial way. They were top level experts who harnessed the qi of all living beings and undeniably possessed intelligence, being exceptional individuals. Why did all of them choose such a path eventually?

The old sovereign of the Sun clan coughed, as though he had seen through Ye Qingyu's thoughts. "Cough, cough... I understand your doubts. Have you ever heard about the existence of the Sky Emperor?"

"Sky Emperor?" Ye Qingyu's heart shook as he spoke. "I battled the doppelganger of the Sky Emperor once in the Battlefield of Stars and was nearly forced to my wit's end. It was a terrifying experience. Someone who would take up the honorific t.i.tle of 'Sky'must come from a great background, right?"

"What? You fought with his doppelganger?" the old sovereign was extremely shocked to hear that. Very quickly after, however, he composed himself and continued speaking. "Yes, yes, this is his style. Your actions in Royal City are far greater in magnitude than mine in the past, and you have too many trump cards up your sleeve. He'll never allow you to grow and will definitely move against you. I didn't expect that he would hold you in such high regard and send a doppelganger... haha, luckily his plan failed this time."

Upon hearing the old sovereign, Ye Qingyu realized that he knew a lot of information.

He told the old sovereign about what happened at the Battlefield of Stars in detail.

The old sovereign of the Sun clan nodded and replied, "I understand. The Sky Emperor should not have planned to unleash his doppelganger, but your performance was too strong—you managed to defeat three Martial Emperors. This forced his hand... Come to think of it, it was really a close shave for you."

Ye Qingyu agreed with the old sovereign's comments.

If the Celestial Phoenix Maiden had not agreed to Song Xiaojun's request and allowed the ancient True Phoenix Bloodline to be completed and reappear, thereby overcoming the spirit doppelganger of the Sky Emperor, he would have been at risk of dying and not merely be in a terrifying situation.

"What sort of being is the Sky Emperor?" Ye Qingyu asked with curiosity.

Ye Qingyu had never come across any information about the Sky Emperor from all of the archived doc.u.ments in the military headquarters, and he had never heard of such a person after spending so much time in the Dark Realm. What was most surprising to him was the fact that the two great Sky-reaching and Demon Feather Martial Emperors had displayed an extremely fearful and respectful att.i.tude toward the Sky Emperor in the Battlefield of Stars. It was no simple collaboration. In fact, it was a display of absolute obedience, and both Emperors did not even dare to flee as they neared their deaths. In fact, they chose to fight to the death. The only reason being that the Sky Emperor's doppelganger was focusing on observing their actions.

Also, Song Xiaojun had mentioned something about the involvement of the Sky Emperor in the rebellion.

However, she did not seem to be very clear on this ancient matter after obtaining the power of the Phoenix Bloodline and becoming a Martial Emperor. It was very strange that she seemed to have some blank memories.

"The Sky Emperor is the most terrifying being in the world after the Divine Light Emperor and close to a Military Emperor. He can overwhelm Martial Emperors and is the second person after the Divine Light Emperor who can be considered a true ruler. Just now, you found it strange why so many sovereigns and Martial Emperors chose to fall into the dark side like the Sky-reaching and Demon Feather Emperors, right?" The sovereign of the Sun clan let out a long sigh before continuing, "This is because they are puppets being controlled by someone else."

"What?" Ye Qingyu was truly shocked at this point.

'How could Martial Emperors become someone else's puppets? What sort of person could possibly control them?'

"Your expression tells me that you're very shocked. What if I tell you, however, that someone is indeed powerful enough to control Martial Emperors and is able to dictate the course of history? Would you be even more shocked if I told you that such a person has been pulling the strings from the darkness?" A faint smile appeared on the lips of the sovereign.

Evidently, he took simple mischievous delight in seeing the uncontrolled shock in Ye Qingyu's face. After all, Ye Qingyu had displayed maturity far beyond his years in terms of cultivation and tactics since the time they had met. He did not seem to behave like a young man and even seemed a little calculative.

Indeed, Ye Qingyu was once more shocked.

This piece of information completely shattered his understanding of the world.

To him, Martial Emperors were head and shoulders above everyone else and executed the will of the heavens. They were nature's favored children; how could they possibly be puppets?

However, the power displayed by the Sky Emperor that day was truly startling. It was just a doppelganger of his, and still, Ye Qingyu had been forced to the brink of death. Ye Qingyu thought about how terrifying it would be if the Sky Emperor's true self had turned up that day. If somebody really possessed the ability to control Martial Emperors and all of the happenings in this world, then the Sky Emperor truly had such right to do so.

"The reason why those Martial Emperors chose to turn to the dark side is very simple. The Sky Emperor had a hand in their successful conversion into Emperors. He held some of them in high regard and trained them, while some of them were forced and seduced by various methods into obeying him after he realized that they were talented. Those true geniuses that really stood firm in their beliefs and morals as martial artists were killed personally by him, even though some of them had the chance to become Martial Emperors." The old sovereign sighed before continuing, "Since the battle after the betrayal eons ago, the fate of the martial way in this land has been controlled by the Sky Emperor. Up till now, nearly all of the sovereign-level beings in the world are being controlled by him. Even though he doesn't have the capability to turn anyone who wishes to become an Emperor into one, he can stop anyone from becoming an Emperor if he wants to. This is how he controls the entire world."

The information from the old sovereign of the Sun clan was extremely shocking and explosive.

By now, Ye Qingyu already did not know what to say.

If what the old sovereign had just told him was true, then it was not hard to guess the origin of the Guardians at all.

The so-called Guardian camp was actually a group set up and supported by the Sky Emperor. It was an immensely terrifying presence that appeared just, fair and democratic on the surface—but in reality, it was controlled by a dictatorial schemer like the Sky Emperor.

This truth was far too scary.

So scary that even Ye Qingyu did not dare to believe it.

However, he quickly thought about something else—

The Expansion Way of the Universe in the Fire Province.

According to Marquis Tingtao Lin Xuan, the main idea of the Expansion Way of the Universe was that it was linked to a great battle, which created the theory that "The Sinners have not sinned, it was the Guardians who are the real Sinners". It matched with the old sovereign's words. If the Guardian camp was created by the Sky Emperor, the Sinners should have been innocent. "Are they the descendants or loyal subjects of the Divine Light Emperor?" he thought.

What was the real truth behind the "Battle of the Traitors"?

Did the Sky Emperor betray the Divine Light Emperor?

Ye Qingyu's mind was in a state of chaos. Sometimes, he seemed to have caught on to something promising that would lead him out of the fog, but he could still not maintain a grasp on the truth.

"According to what you've told me, senior, everything is within the Sky Emperor's grasp. Why didn't he stop me from becoming an Emperor then? He could have killed me before I became one," Ye Qingyu asked, having grasped the illogical points of the events that had transpired. "Furthermore, you're not part of the Sky Emperor's camp, so how did you manage to become an Emperor?"

The old sovereign of the Sun clan smiled before replying, "Good questions. Let me first answer the first one. The reason is very simple: you managed to successfully become an Emperor because of a very important reason, aside from the fact that I concealed a few clues for you..." He paused before continuing, "You should have heard of the term 'fate'."

"Fate?" Ye Qingyu was stunned as he was immediately enlightened. "Could it be the lack of fate?"

"Seems like you're already aware that your fate is a blank slate," the old sovereign nodded. "That's right. Even though the Sky Emperor has controlled the course of history since millennia ago, he's not a true G.o.d after all. Even if he were, there is no way he could have calculated how every event would turn out without failure. There is bound to be a time where he misses out something, and some people who are beyond his scope. The first of these people are those who have undefined fates. It was for this reason that he did not take a real interest in you. To him, there was no way you could have become Emperor. He did not expect that things would turn out exactly opposite from his prediction, and that you would rise out of nowhere. In his shock, he drew the Invaders to the border and used the Unmoving City of Darkness as bait to draw you over, in the hopes of killing you. Who knew... this was fate. Eventually, he kept making mistake after mistake when trying to predict your actions."