Top-Tier Perception Starts From Basic Fist Techniques

He had taken control! He had been controlled just a moment ago, and it was the kind of force that defied all reason. His body and even his voice had been taken from him.

Inviting Lu Changsheng into the carriage had been no wish of his. He had been used, and the invitation had come out of him. An ability like that was both uncanny and frightening, and it was unlikely that any demon outside could do something similar.

Lu Changsheng gave a slight smile. "My lord, since you became a blood descendant, your energy has been boundless, and the old injuries you carried for years have not come back once. Barring any accidents, living out a full hundred years will cost you nothing at all.

"It is a fine thing being a blood descendant, is it not? The world outside calls me the Flesh and Blood Progenitor, by the way."

The marquis's face changed in an instant upon hearing Lu Changsheng's words. The Flesh and Blood Progenitor! The man in front of him was the Flesh and Blood Progenitor himself, shrouded in all that mystery. He understood at last where the mixture of closeness and dread in his own chest had been coming from. It came from the man sitting in front of him!

He had looked into it carefully before converting. Blood descendants were said to have come out of the Flesh and Blood Progenitor, who was the source from which every one of them came. The benefits had simply been more than he could hold out against, so he had converted.

It appeared now that there was a side effect after all, and here it was. The Flesh and Blood Progenitor could work a blood descendant like a puppet, down to complete control of the body.

A side effect on that scale was a terrifying thing. Did it not mean that every blood descendant alive left his life and his death in one man's hands?

"There is no need to be so tense. I do not want your life," Lu Changsheng said mildly. "I need a favor from you. Take me in to see the emperor. Once I am in front of him, the rest of it has nothing to do with you."

"You... want to see His Majesty... Do you mean to control him?" The marquis seemed to have grasped what the man was after. If Lu Changsheng took hold of the emperor, the consequences would be unthinkable.

"No. I only want to make a deal with the emperor. Never mind, whether you agree or not makes no difference either way." Lu Changsheng had no patience left for talk and simply took control of the marquis and shut his mouth for him. Holding him and walking him into the palace was easy enough in any case.

Soon, the carriage rolled up to the palace gate. The old emperor evidently valued the marquis highly since he was allowed to stay in the carriage even inside the walls, and he did not step down until they reached the hall where the emperor was.

He brought Lu Changsheng along with him, whom the guards looked over once before letting them through. The moment Lu Changsheng entered the hall, he saw the emperor.

As the emperor turned, he saw Lu Changsheng standing at the marquis's side. He looked very young, and the emperor had no memory of him at all, taking him for a son or a nephew of the marquis.

Lu Changsheng had no appetite for circling the matter. He stepped forward and said calmly, "Hey, Emperor, being a blood descendant must feel rather good."

"Hmm? Who are..." The emperor instantly felt something was off, but when he moved to call for the guards, he found that he could not open his mouth at all.

No, he could open it. He opened it and ordered the guards to withdraw, leaving the three men in the hall while everyone else waited outside.

The words had been no wish of his, and horror went through him at once. What demon sorcery was this? Not even an ancient demon could take hold of him this silently.

This was the imperial palace! A demon king guarded it, and the demon god of the Demon God Ministry kept his attention on the place at every hour. No true demon could slip inside. How was what stood in front of him to be explained, then?

There was only one way. Lu Changsheng was not a demon!

The emperor felt control of his mouth come back to him, and the words were out almost before he had formed them. "You are the Flesh and Blood Progenitor?"

He was a shrewd man, and he had guessed it.

Lu Changsheng stood with his hands behind his back and nodded mildly. "Correct, I am the Flesh and Blood Progenitor."

"I should have seen it long ago. A blood descendant is very nearly perfect, with hardly any side effects anywhere. How could that be possible? This is the side effect, then. Every blood descendant can be controlled by you, the Flesh and Blood Progenitor..." the emperor murmured.

It left a bitter taste in his mouth. He understood perfectly well what an ability like that meant. Though given the choice again and knowing the side effect in advance, would he have refused to become a blood descendant?

Hand on his heart, he would have converted without a moment's hesitation even so. The reason was simple. Without it, he would have died, and who wants to die? Once death arrives, there would be nothing left.

"Flesh and Blood Progenitor, you can control every blood descendant, which means essentially nothing in the Jing Dynasty can threaten you any longer. I believe you have not come all this way merely to take control of me.

“It even seems to me that the throne holds no interest for you. What meaning could a mere emperor's seat have in the eyes of someone as strong as you?"

The emperor was shrewd indeed. He had seen through to the fact that the throne was not what Lu Changsheng wanted, and he was right about it. With the power to control blood descendants, taking the throne would have cost him nothing if he wanted it.

Lu Changsheng smiled slightly. "I see you're still calm even at a moment like this. You are truly worthy of being the emperor. I have come for only one thing, and it is a very good thing for the whole of the Jing Dynasty. I want the dynasty to help the Temple of Flesh and Blood spread the blood descendants. Every person is to become one.

"You can remain emperor through all of it. My enemy has never been the human race. It is the demons. Using the Jing Dynasty as its foundation, I want the Flesh and Blood Martial Dao to flourish and spread from here across the world to the whole human race, so that the demons can at last be met with something that genuinely stands against them."

He had laid his goal out. A sharp glint shifted in the emperor's eyes, and the shock of it ran deep. As lofty and arrogant as the speech had sounded, what was actually in it? Ambition was all the emperor heard. Spreading the Flesh and Blood Martial Dao across the world and through the whole human race meant converting the whole human race into blood descendants. How enormous an ambition was that?

Regardless of who sat on a human throne after that, the Flesh and Blood Progenitor would be the one standing above them all. What good did seeing Lu Changsheng's ambition do him, though? Could he stop it? He could not!

Beyond that, the man had a point. The enemy of the blood descendants was the demon race, and wiping the demons out would be an enormous good for every human alive. What was it, in the end, except one Flesh and Blood Progenitor standing over his head? The emperor did not mind that. Before this, there had already been demons over his head, and more than just one of them.

The emperor's face was grave as he gave his answer. "It is no difficulty at all. I agree. At the grand court assembly, I will publish an edict naming the Temple of Flesh and Blood the state religion, and every official and every subject is to be converted. I will back it with everything I have, even if it has to be forced through.

"What stands in the way is not me, though, and it is not the court either. There is one more man whose consent you need, Flesh and Blood Progenitor. Your plan can only go forward once he agrees."

"Oh? Who would that be?" Lu Changsheng asked.

The emperor spoke a name out, one word at a time. "The demon god, Li Zong."

Lu Changsheng instantly understood. The demon god, Li Zong, was the guardian deity of the entire Jing Dynasty. In certain matters, the emperor's authority ran shorter than his. Without Li Zong's protection, the dynasty could never have held steady for more than five hundred years.

A matter the size of carrying the Temple of Flesh and Blood across the realm could not possibly go forward without the demon god's consent.

"The demon god? That suits me. Meeting this legendary demon god is something I actually want. Let us see whether an ancient demon's powers run as vast as the stories say."

With that, Lu Changsheng took a single stride and was out of the hall. Soon, he was out of the palace entirely and moving straight for the Demon God Ministry.