Chapter 1768: The Divine Son of Punishment

The ministers were in an uproar, their fighting spirit filling the palace; civil officials and military generals alike were full of longing to establish merit and become founding heroes of the empire.

They had been invincible on every battlefield, and so feared nothing.

The Mountain King and the Guard King were nothing more than defeated subordinates.

The Zheng King, who styled himself the Divine Son, was even more laughable—far more worthless than the former Yu King's fading courage. If his lands were not situated in a remote, desolate border realm, he would long since have died somewhere unknown, nothing but bleached bones in a tomb.

All the enemies across this realm, though they appeared dazzling and imposing, were in truth nothing more than peddlers hawking their own heads.

If one set out too slowly and the merit was seized by others, would that not be a lifelong regret?

"Great King, please dispatch the troops at once!"

The generals requested battle one after another, like a tide.

Silence.

No answer.

"Dispatch troops?"

Amid such a scene of flowers piled on brocade and oil poured on raging fire, Tu Ying San Yi felt an inexplicable chill rise within him; he was reminded for no reason of the scene years ago in Reliance Mountain Village, when Zhou Xiaocui was burned by raging flames.

Clearly that moment and the present scene shared not a single point of resemblance, yet it felt inexplicably familiar.

Was the fire of fanatical longing for achievement burning in these ministers' eyes meant to burn Me?

Tu Ying San Yi was silent for a long while, not answering the ministers' request for battle, letting the palace gradually fall silent—so quiet one could hear a pin drop.

The ministers exchanged uncertain glances, full of puzzlement.

What is wrong with the King?

In such a fine moment to press on with a single surge, could the wise and mighty King, whose foresight reached ten thousand li, truly fail to see it?

"The soldiers' casualties are too heavy; it is not fitting to march now."

"Wait until the soldiers have healed and provisions have been stockpiled, then make further plans."

An inexplicable unease in his heart made Tu Ying San Yi speak slowly.

"Your Majesty must not!"

"Though our losses are great, the losses of the Guard King and the others are greater still, and the people's hearts are shaken, the soldiers fearful and uneasy—this is precisely the moment to attack.

If we continue to delay, once they have set firm roots, it will surely drag us into even greater losses, and may even give rise to unforeseen changes. I beg the Great King to reconsider…"

A Confucian scholar stepped forward and said urgently.

He was a great scholar of the realm, deeply versed in the way of revering the divine, who loved the common people and could not bear to see them perish in the chaos of war. Thus he had left his seclusion to assist the Tu King, earning great merit, and held long-standing prestige among the court officials as the Prime Minister of Great Tu.

"Great King, you must not delay!"

Once this great scholar stepped forward, he immediately drew many court officials to voice one plea after another, urging and remonstrating.

This scene of utter loyalty and earnest sincerity did not move Tu Ying San Yi in the slightest; instead the chill in his heart grew ever thicker, as if he were seeing one after another shrieking fierce ghost, wanting to gnaw him away piece by piece.

"Hold your tongues!"

"I have my own plans—how could the likes of you comprehend them?"

Tu Ying San Yi said coldly.

The ministers fell silent.

The wrath of the founding lord was made known to them; their hearts trembled with fear, and they dared not speak further.

"Your Majesty, you must not…"

Only the great scholar continued to plead bitterly.

"Minister Fang."

Tu Ying San Yi's eyes flashed with a fierce light as he fixed them on this kind-faced old man.

"Your Majesty, you must not show the mercy of a woman!"

"For the sake of all the people under heaven, why should this old man begrudge his own life?"

The great scholar, however, showed no fear at all. He raised his head and said with ringing force: "Your Majesty, for the sake of all the people under heaven, I beg you to dispatch the troops at once, to rescue the myriad common folk from fire and water."

"If so,"

"Though I die, I shall die without regret."

His words struck the ground with ringing weight.

The ministers were moved in their hearts, admiring his character.

"Since that is so,"

"Minister Fang."

A sudden, groundless cruelty welled up in Tu Ying San Yi's heart; unwilling to deliberate further, he said calmly: "Then go ahead. I shall look after your family—do not worry."

If he had still hesitated a moment ago, now his resolve was fixed.

Great Tu is the Tu family's Great Tu.

A mere nobody of a great scholar, daring to forcibly twist his will with the great righteousness of all under heaven—the will of a founding lord!

A Confucian scholar like this—would one not kill him at once for satisfaction? Was he to be left for one's descendants?

Even if this act carried hidden dangers and would cause political upheaval, he would not hesitate!

"Your Majesty…"

The great scholar was stunned.

"Yes, sir!"

Before he could say more, a group of wolf-like armored soldiers burst into the palace from outside.

Without a word of explanation, they gagged the old scholar, dragged him out of the palace like a dead dog, and with swift, clean blades, soon returned bearing a head dripping with filthy blood to report their deed.

The ministers trembled without cease.

For many years the Tu King had always treated the worthy with courtesy, sincerely accepting even the most loyal ministers' face-to-face remonstrance and even their scoldings. No one had expected him to suddenly erupt with such savagery, chilling to the bone.

"Do any of you ministers still have objections?"

Tu Ying San Yi said again.

"We subjects humbly obey Your Majesty's command!"

The ministers said deferentially.

……

The ministers dispersed, leaving the palace hall empty.

Tu Ying San Yi gazed at the sky, the chill in his heart growing ever deeper, not easing in the slightest with the great scholar's death or the ministers' retreat—only growing colder.

He knew what this was.

The dynasty's dragon Qi issuing a warning.

The dynasty's dragon Qi was warning its sovereign, alerting that a tremendous danger was gradually drawing near—a danger that was everywhere, like a tide, inescapable.

This

nearly drove him to lose his reason.

"Your Majesty, what are you worried about?"

Queen Li walked over and asked softly.

"It's nothing."

"The Confucian influence is too heavy. I'll just find a pretext to weaken it, to avoid upheaval after the founding of the state."

Tu Ying San Yi smiled and said: "At our level, the greatest hidden danger is not from the outside, but from within ourselves. As long as we purge the inside, seizing the realm will be as easy as turning over one's hand."

"Your Majesty's foresight runs deep."

Queen Li said, her eyes bright.

The husband and wife shared a tender moment for a while, then Queen Li took her leave, leaving this stretch of the palace to King Tu—this had been his habit for many years.

The palace fell into silence.

A long while passed.

"Trollop."

Tu Ying San Yi said coldly.

……

The Great Zheng Dynasty.

Amid boundless, endless black-red fortune, a palace of obsidian stood tall. A dragon Qi in the shape of an unknown savage beast roared, with countless white bones and blood and flesh piled up.

This dynasty, just as the ministers of Great Tu had said, was even more wretched than Yu Wang and Yu Yong.

It was more bloodthirsty, more brutal, with a stronger custom of cannibalism—far exceeding Yu Wang by a great deal. Yu Wang still possessed some "progressive" features of slave society, but here there was not even slave society; it was like the savage wilderness beasts, utterly without civilization. Humans were like beasts—like lions, tigers, wolves, and dogs.

This also caused the Great Zheng Dynasty's dragon Qi to be unprecedentedly weak. Even after unifying several world clusters, the dragon Qi's intensity could not reach Dao Merging, barely reaching the mid-stage of Void Refinement.

The Great Zheng Dynasty had reached this day for only one reason.

Its luck was good enough.

Throughout the realm domains, it was being spread that King Zheng had received Heaven's favor and would surely unify the realm in the future.

In the obsidian palace, a black serpent with three heads, wearing a royal robe, sat upon the Wang Zuo, its entire body like a black jade statue, not moving even slightly for a long time.

The Great Zheng Dynasty had no real state affairs.

Local lords ruled their own territories, gathering together in wartime to take orders under King Zheng. In ordinary times, from the nation down to villages and market towns, everyone managed their own affairs, with no chain of command between them—crude to the extreme, merely following the same strongest king.

King Zheng also very rarely stepped out of his own palace.

On this day, a black eagle like black jade flew into the palace, revealing the figure of a half-human, half-eagle woman. She dropped to one knee and said respectfully:

"My King, King Tu is suspected to have sensed the danger and is slipping out of control."