Chapter 702: Extra Chapter Five

Extra Chapter·Yellow Spring Realm

Great King faced the city gate colonel, who was putting on a pitiful act while blocking his entry with his guards, as he raised the Sun‑Shooting Bow, saying, "I am a prince of a state; today I'll shoot you dead, at worst earning a scolding from my father for arrogance and lawlessness. But you—will you come back to life?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Taizu exclaimed in approval.

"Good! At such a young age, this aura of dominance resembles that of our Baili clan's descendants!"

Taizu's son, the second emperor of Great Jin, Xuanzong, gave his father several looks. You're totally biased! He once had a beloved son who also acted that domineeringly, but the old man punished him severely, and before dying he even ennobled an imperial grandson to guard against him.

Taizu glanced at Xuanzong and knew what the foolish son was thinking; this guy is fine in everything as long as it doesn't involve his beloved son—his brain is more than adequate.

"What are you looking at me for? You can't tell dominance from banditry! If that unreasonable, barbaric son of yours had inherited the throne back then, we three would be sitting here now, and we wouldn't have to worry about Ningde, that serious threat."

Xuanzong glanced at his son Jingzong and said nothing; the old man's eyesight is good, but… is it really that serious?

He quieted down, but soon the Great King gave an outstanding performance that let him see his father's impressive change of expression.

At court, the Great King sat on the floor, wailing his complaint. He succeeded in opening the eyes of the ancestors; Taizu's expression took a while to compose. Xuanzong almost laughed—not out of fear of his father's martial prowess—but he wondered whether this was dominance, banditry, or some new kind of aura.

The upper circle was quiet, but the lower circle was shocked by the Great King's antics; they gathered to study what kind of person this stingy‑yet‑generous nature resembled—it was… surprisingly adaptable.

During the Great King's days as a playboy on Chang'an Avenue, the ancestors, looking through rose‑tinted glasses, could occasionally chuckle—until they heard the court debate over Wusun seeking a marriage with a princess.

On what basis?!

Has Great Jin really fallen to this state?!

Especially the several powerful monarchs—they were about to explode with rage. A desert‑state asking for a Great Jin princess in marriage? Who could tolerate that?!

Qiuci offering a princess was nothing surprising to them, but asking for the emperor's own daughter—where did they get the confidence?!

Seeing that they had already settled on a candidate, everyone found it unacceptable, each angrier than the last. When the Great King loudly objected and then punched the Wusun prince, giving him a black eye and swollen face, Taizu took an even greater liking to him.

He asked Xuanzong, "Do you see the difference between him and your beloved son? Xiao San has backbone and brains. By age eight he already knew what he could do, and could precisely step on his father's bottom line."

Xuanzong: …Anyway, Xiao San really has a lot of tricks up his sleeve.

Over the past few days, Taizu had seen many occasions where the eldest son went out feasting or entered the palace to meet with Ningde, and it made him uneasy. Ningde clearly favored that eldest son who was just like him. Even Zhangzong could see it—looking at Ningde's attitude toward his sons, the crown prince position seemed destined never to go to their favored Xiao San.

When Emperor Ningde's Longevity Festival arrived that day, Zhangzong wanted to take leave, but failed.

His grandfather personally hauled him over.

Ningde's Longevity Banquet was extravagant and luxurious; in his lifetime he had never held a Longevity Festival of such scale. Thinking of the displaced refugees driven away, Zhangzong felt a faint ache in his back, and his anger made his chest hurt as well.

Unfilial wretch!

Just you wait!

Taizu's only solace was to focus his view on the Great King: this fellow would sometimes glare at the Wusun people, sometimes yawn out of boredom, and finally start stretching his neck to swallow the untouched ring‑shaped biscuits…

The Great King's young great‑grandfather felt heartbroken, saying, "This child has hardly ever attended any banquets since childhood; he doesn't realize that the palace banquet biscuits are just for show and can't be eaten at all…"

Taizu glared and said, "Bad habit! Why waste food on something inedible? Where did this nasty custom come from?!"

Heszong said weakly, "I don't know—I've had palace banquet biscuits since I was little; isn't this just a rule handed down from our ancestors?" After speaking, he glanced at his father; Anzong immediately looked at Shunzong, who then asked his father Huanzong, "Father?"

Huanzong shook his head, "I don't know~~" He turned around, and nobody was willing to admit that these formalities were invented in their own era.

Taizu was amused by them, then turned to his son and said, "You still dare say I invented these?"

Xuanzong shook his head vigorously, "No, definitely… not even an Imperial Grandson." He didn't dare blame his father for the great‑grandson, so he could only look at his own grandson Chengzong, or else say, "You must have invented it!"

Chengzong: …

He had long realized that this middling way of survival was the most precarious!