Legend of the Paladin
This story got a whole lot more complicated . Slow witted Song himself doesn't understand how the city was truly destroyed although he himself was a big proponent of it ,huh ? By assuming the emperor is part or heavens will and is its attempt to complete itself ,then its similar to slow witted Song . And these existences seem to have a special ability to unite , slow witted Song and glass coloured scholar , and now he's taking to absorb heavenly emperors part because he couldn't completely take over it seems . Yet , the emperor is no slouch and robbed back part of the emperor path using help from heavens will (which she's part of) and the path of time . The emperors path seems to be involved in enslaving the world itself ,being able to dominate and control other paths such that they become her army . Example is how slow witted Song used the emperor authority to fight the path of time , while he himself also has the paths of all the soldiers and emperors to serve as the emperors army . Just that they are incomplete , only ones like Gu Beifang seem to be better off with his successful rebirth and reforging of his path .
One thing I love about this story is you never know where its going to go. Any other story and Death Seeking Song becomes the Big Bad in a surpise twist, all the complecities of the plot become small components of that final story and things resolve to a close. Here, the heavenly emperor breaks free just one chapter later and everything gets even more complex in a way that makes us want to know more.
So the emperor and Slow Song were originally part of Song's ghost spirit fusion, but something additional happened that divided them before the city and re-fused them together after the city's fall, warping the current part of Slow Song's self. Also the emperor could be made to be under the control of Song, if the ghost contract could be conpleted and it was in the emperor's possession.