A Brief Return To Normality

Hu Wenxi stood in the middle of his office bewildered. He remained standing still for quite a long amount of time just digesting what he had heard. For more then a minute, the brain of a True Immortal shut down and had to reboot.

"Perfected Ani…..me?" Hu Wenxi felt dizzy. The situation was getting too ridiculous now. He moved to sit on his swivel chair and leaned back contemplating the man that had visited him.

The emperor could not see through his cultivation at all, that proved that he was an utter monster in combat. Hu Wenxi had no chance against him at all. Thankfully he did not seem to be an enemy. However Hu Wenxi would not call him a friend.

Perfected Anime had a friendly demeanour but that was likely his personality and had nothing to do with his intentions. The culture of the world was usually to be polite until the fighting gets too serious. No one will throw petty insults until they're in the comforts of their own home. This was because you never know if the person you're insulting is a supreme expert who can squash you like an ant.

At the end of the day, the Immortal Court may rule the universe but they will not go out of their way to save a small emperor in a corner of the universe. Hu Wenxi immediately wrote a file on everything he had learned about Sam and Perfected Anime.

Just from his name Hu Wenxi can gleam a connection with his home world. This sparked a curiosity in him, could he find earth again? Would he encounter another version of him on that earth?

Hu Wenxi had lived for 502 years and had never expected to encounter something connected to earth. It would seem the days of normal living is over. As the emperor he still had a duty to his people, at the same time his curiosity was sparked to insatiable levels.

Hu Wenxi stashed the file away in a nearby cabinet. He will have to wait regarding this matter, for the time being the empire needed to heal. He looked towards a report at the bottom of his drawer. It was a scouting expedition report to nearby claimable worlds. Since he did not require sleep Hu Wenxi began sorting out these reports.

…

By the end of the week many contractors were hired to repair the royal capital. Across the entire upper realm, builders were hired to rebuilt destroyed districts, palaces, and other structures of importance. The Human Immortals who were killed had their remains returned to their ancestral homes to be buried.

There wasn't much fanfare and their funeral rights were decided quickly. However Hu Wenxi appeared to pay his respects with incense to the fallen heroes. This naturally made their home sects very grateful, in fact a memorial was erected at the city square on the southern side of the royal capital in order to honour these people.

The Demon Ascendents too received the same respect, satisfied they also return to their dens. The demons in general did not suffer as much as their human counterparts. This was largely because the population of demons was much smaller then that of humans. By comparison millions of humans lost their lives while only several tens of thousand demons lost theirs.

The destroyed landscape was also restored by Hu Wenxi. As a True Immortal such a feat was trivial to him. He did however keep the already planned lake site as was since the arrangements were already made.

During this period Hu Wenxi took over the proceedings as the central governing figure leading an army of clerks to process the paperwork necessary to running the empire. The final bills to the festival had come up and the workers had to be paid. The royal treasury was hit with a sizeable dent due to the Sam incident but it wasn't something they couldn't recover from.

Sam's victims were sent to Acala Buddha temple to receive purification treatment. This was naturally done free of charge as Lao Fu so graciously offered. However the temple was only so big and only had so many personnel hence Hu Wenxi sent a royal decree for all sects, kingdoms, and clans across the lands to help out.

In his office Hu Wenxi signed another paper and handed it off to an official, "Get that to department C. Also get a report from the left wing palace department and their progress. Tell someone to check up on department R while you're at it." Hu Wenxi was engrossed in his work, his wife had taken time off to cultivate hence he returned to his true job. Hu Wenxi wrote up another decree, "Take this the spiritual gardens". The official bowed and walked out while another figure walked in.

It was Hu Jin Shen who had come to visit his father. The prince overheard the decree and commented, "Spiritual garden? Is it for doctor Chu?". Hu Wenxi nodded, "Yes, Chu was hit hard and only naturally occurring spiritual herbs can help his ghost core". The emperor dipped his pen in ink and signed another paper.

Hu Jin Shen then said, "Mother had gone into seclusion, she told me to tell you to not expect her to be out for another 10 years". Hu Wenxi chuckled, "Ten years, give her a hundred as that's a better time frame to work with. Ten years is too short". Jin Shen raised an eyebrow, "I broke through several realms in under 10".

"Sub levels, and those were lower realms the higher the realm the larger the gulf. You should know this" his father was quick to shoot him down. The prince scratched his cheek flustered. He took a position beside his father and offered to help.

By the end of the day the father son duo had sorted out many essentials and needed their supervision. At the end Hu Jin Shen decided to make small talk with his father. He could roughly deduce that his father was itching to leave soon.

"By the by, did you know Yun Xiao Che's leaving with Celestial Star King?" The prince suddenly brought that up. This instantly reminded HU Wenxi of another matter and he sat straighter. He frowned slightly, "I was too busy. Give me a sec" he pinched two fingers and placed them on the table.

This was the emperor reaching out to the Tao to divine past events. This was easy to do now that he had reached an unprecedented height in cultivation. From his deduction Yun Xiao Che left 4 days ago and had definitely arrived at the Star kingdom by now.

Hu Jin Shen continued on from the side, "He was insistent to learn the shadow star movement technique. I don't know why, there are several better techniques I know from our own martial repertoire." Hu Wenxi sighed softly, this was too close to ATG for comfort. The emperor saw many differences from that book and real life but he also knew a similar general trend of events. He was not worried about the Star kingdom in general.

The Celestial Star king was no threat, but he was very ambitious. Hu Wenxi could see him selling out his own home for power. Hu Wenxi began deducing the future of the kingdom. Reading the future was very difficult to do. It was also often inaccurate as the future is always in flux.

This was why prophecies are never accurate and often self fulfilling. Even the much more accurate future sight cannot account for all possibilities. Hu Wenxi could see many scenarios of the kingdom, however they were all unclear. This could mean that something big was happening and the Heavenly Tao didn't want him knowing or that a powerful expert was purposefully blocking him.

Hu Wenxi was more leaning to the latter. Heavenly Tao induced events are separated very far apart. In the long history of the three realms spanning nearly a trillion of years, these massive events had only occurred around a dozen times. The last major event resulted in the death of the Jade emperor 3.4 million years ago at the end of the Resurgent Tao era.

Hu Wenxi didn't know much details but he did know that currently a new celestial emperor sat the throne in heaven. For the most part the three realms was stable so the first option was a near impossibility. After all he was also a small fry in the totality of the three realms.

Hu Wenxi instructed Jin Shen to take over for him for the foreseeable future and exited the room. He walked along into the gardens accompanied by several guards whom he dismissed when he arrived. He also set up anti-scrying fields and extra defence mechanisms. He contacted the remaining Blades to appear before him. Before long many black figures wearing blank masks appeared and kneeled to the emperor.

A see through hologram with a blank masked also appeared. This was Blade 1 who answered the call from a distance, "Your majesty, your servant is here". Hu Wenxi nodded and instructed the man to give him everything he had collected on the Celestial Star kingdom. Blade 1 was currently within the kingdom's territory and had been observing their going ons.

He gave the emperor an account of the kingdom thoroughly. For the most part the ministers and civilians were behaving normally with no suspicious activity. However Blade 1 had reported the king inviting several guests into his halls. However this was from afar so he could not get a good look.

From the Blade's report these people were performers and courtesans who entered to perform for the king. Blade 1 however sensed some fluctuations in the air but could not pinpoint it. Hu Wenxi was not surprised, this rogue element had blind sighted his Blades and his empress already. There was definitely True Immortals involved.

Hu Wenxi ordered the Blade to keep vigil and sent dozens more towards the kingdom. He also instructed them to wait in secure places and gather more intel and prepare for his own arrival. The matter with the Celestial Star kingdom reeked of conspiracy, Hu Wenxi was tempted to barge in but was suspicious of traps.

True Immortals were involved and this made him hesitant. Still he came to a decision soon enough. Soon the figure of the emperor can be seen shooting off into the night sky.

…

"Hey have you heard?" Yun Xiao Che turned to look at his friend and mentor, the Crimson Star princess Muo Li Hua. The young man turned to her, "What is it?". The princess responded, "Prince Hu Jin Shen is paying a visit to our kingdom in 3 days. Apparently he is going through his rounds as the acting emperor".

Yun Xiao Che grumbled, his peaceful stay with his master was about to come to an end. He had a positive opinion about the prince but he was sure of his own power. He was definitely stronger then the so called genius. Yun Xiao Che had bested the best the realm had to offer, he had even overcome the legendary Li Changsou.

Yun Xiao Che got up from their shared bed and put his robes back on. He put on his shoes before turning back to the princess naked in all her red glory. She once again said not bothering to hide anything "It's strange, it's almost like he's making a beeline to us".

The Celestial Star Kingdom was located quite far from the capital through several mountains and kingdoms. Hu Jin Shen was making a tour in place of his father who had left for space 1 year ago around two weeks after the Sam incident. He had deemed it right for him to see the repairs of the realm himself.

But strangely enough he was coming in a straight line towards them. What's more was that he had remained largely unanimous and didn't discuss his route. He had only announced his presence less then a week ago and this caught Muo Li Hua's father off guard. Seeing the old dog like that brought a smile to her face.

She got up and massaged Yun Xiao Che's shoulders, "It shouldn't be anything too major, just rest up and cultivate the evil god powers you've inherited". Yun Xiao Che smiled in turn, life was great for him.