Chapter 807: Where My Heart Finds Peace, There Lies My Homeland

“Is he coming soon?”

“He should be here soon.”

In the Great Yu imperial palace, on Golden Pool Bridge, all court officials stood beneath the blazing sun, necks craned upward, gazing at the sky, occasionally whispering among themselves.

Such a grand scene.

It had not been seen in the Yu imperial palace for a long time.

“Minister Liang, Prince Qi, Minister Liu.”

“The weather today is quite fine.”

The Holy Emperor smiled, squinting at the scorching sun, addressing Liang He, Yuan An, and Liu Tong behind him.

Only the Elder of Evergreen could warrant such a personal welcome from the Holy Emperor of Great Yu.

Liang He had received the news yesterday.

His master, Li Rui, was descending the mountain today.

He informed the Holy Emperor, who then waited with the entire court for a full hour inside the palace.

The Holy Emperor knew Li Rui was not a man who favored pomp.

But whether one likes it or not is one thing; whether one does it or not is another.

As the Elder of Great Yu and the first True Person of Jin Ting Province, this level of ceremony was still modest.

“It’s a fine, bright day.”

Liang He replied.

After Grand Secretary Zhang’s death, the Holy Emperor issued an edict appointing him as the new head of the Grand Secretariat.

The second most powerful man in Great Yu, above ten thousand others.

While Grand Secretary Zhang was still alive, Liang He had observed every detail within the Grand Secretariat, even assisting in red-inking memorials, gradually mastering the inner workings of Great Yu’s governance.

Liang He understood that Zhang had deliberately taught him the art of statecraft.

He now grasped five or six tenths of it.

Moreover, years of worrying over state affairs had given him a faint echo of Zhang’s former bearing.

The Holy Emperor chatted with Li Rui’s three disciples.

His words suddenly halted.

A faint murmur rippled through the crowd.

A massive flying vessel descended from the sky, its hull forged from black jade immortal iron, gleaming with a chilling black radiance; the array patterns carved upon it were so intricate that even Yu’s most skilled array masters could not fathom even a fraction.

Most terrifying was the aura surrounding the figure on board.

Even without deliberately releasing it.

It nearly suffocated the entire court within the palace.

“Is this the power of a True Person?!”

True Persons rarely emerge.

These civil and military officials had never seen such a fearsome cultivator.

Each stood with mouths agape.

Someone, unknown who, was the first to cry out: “Pay homage to Elder Evergreen!”

Then.

The entire court snapped awake as from a dream.

In an instant, their cries rose like a mountain tide.

“Rise, all of you.”

Li Rui stepped down from the flying vessel and spoke calmly.

Now a True Person, every word he uttered carried the Dao, radiating an innate authority and majesty.

The civil and military officials felt themselves drawn upward by some mysterious, ineffable force, rising in unison.

“Holy Emperor, it has been a long time.”

Li Rui bowed slightly.

The Holy Emperor of Yu, hearing Li Rui address him as “Holy Emperor,” felt no pride—only profound solemnity as he bowed deeply: “The Holy Emperor of Yu welcomes Elder Evergreen.”

In the past,

Li Rui was a subject; he was the sovereign.

The sovereign’s supreme authority was absolute.

But in the cultivation world, status is determined solely by strength.

Great Yu had only just secured its place among second-tier immortal dynasties; Li Rui had already attained the True Person realm—without exaggeration, he alone could obliterate the entire Yu kingdom.

Not to mention Li Rui’s equally exalted status in Baiyu City.

Li Rui: “Disperse, all of you.”