Chapter 345: Breaking the Balance……Must Die!

Great Yin Divine Dynasty, Capital.

After court, Vermilion Bird Avenue today was unusually silent.

The constant flow of carriages and horses, officials visiting each other—this bustling scene had vanished; the whole street now only had a few patrol city-defense troops moving uneasily.

The gates of all aristocratic mansions were tightly shut; even the stone lions at the entrances seemed to feel a suffocating air, as if a storm were approaching.

Minister of Personnel Cui Hong's sedan chair, amid the silence, was lifted into the side gate of the Cui Manor.

As soon as he set foot on the ground, Cui Hong flung open the sedan curtain and stumbled out.

"Get out! All of you, get out!"

Cui Hong kicked over the steward who had come forward to support him, then, like a rabid old wolf, rushed into his study and slammed the heavy golden-thread nanmu door shut.

Inside the study, no lamps were lit.

Cui Hong gasped heavily, his chest rising and falling violently.

Everything that happened in the Hall of Supreme Harmony was like a bizarre and terrifying nightmare, replaying over and over in his mind.

Thirteen aristocratic clans were exterminated! The Inspector of Secluded Prefecture was beheaded! The 300,000-strong demon army vanished in ashes and smoke!

And the instigator, Gu Ziyuan, not only received no punishment, but was instead granted the title of Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince by His Majesty, and is about to enter the cabinet and become prime minister!

"Fatuous ruler…… fatuous ruler!"

Cui Hong snarled through gritted teeth,

"Do you think a single swift blade can carve away our clans' flesh? Do you think tossing that evil wolf into the capital will let it devour us? You're inviting the wolf into the house! You're destroying the Great Yin Divine Dynasty's realm!"

Cui Hong clearly saw that the emperor and the second prince's mutual support in court had completely pushed Gu Yuan onto the clans' opposing side, while also granting him legitimate authority.

Once Gu Ziyuan steps alive into the capital, takes control of the cabinet's authority, with his habit of confiscating properties and exterminating clans, utterly disregarding court rules, the capital's aristocratic clans will surely face an unprecedented bloodbath.

Moreover, it's easy to imagine.

After dealing with these clans,

The emperor and his ilk will certainly act against Gu Ziyuan to win over the people's hearts.

"Idiots, a bunch of idiots!"

"That Gu Ziyuan doesn't even realize he's being used as a gun!"

"He must not be allowed to enter the capital…… absolutely cannot let him set foot alive in the capital!"

Cui Hong's eyes flashed with crazy killing intent.

He knew that ordinary assassination would be useless against Gu Yuan.

Even the Black Mountain Old Demon and the 300,000-strong demon army could be wiped out by him in a single night.

The person behind him taking action, his true combat power, has absolutely reached an unimaginable level.

"Could it be a Second-Rank Grand Scholar? Or perhaps…… a legendary First-Rank Near-Sage? Impossible—Great Yin Divine Dynasty hasn't produced a sage in ages; otherwise it wouldn't have been pressed by the demons…"

Cui Hong forced himself to calm down.

But whether it's a Grand Scholar or a Near-Sage,

essentially they must still follow the Great Yin Divine Dynasty's system.

Therefore, those capable of such power are few across the entire Great Yin Divine Dynasty.

"Who exactly made the move?"

Cui Hong had thought of many people.

But he always had no clue.

Soon.

He then gave up thinking, walked to the study's antique shelf, took a deep breath, and made his decision!

"Regardless of whether Gu Ziyuan gained special power from triggering the Heavenly Dao Golden List, or whether the person behind him is strong, as long as he remains within the Great Yin Divine Dynasty's system…… he absolutely cannot be a sage!"

As long as he isn't a sage.

Then there's still a chance!

Thus he turned an extremely concealed bronze incense burner.

Click-click-click…

Accompanied by a dull mechanical sound, the antique shelf slowly slid to both sides, revealing a dark secret passage leading deep underground.

Cui Hong entered without hesitation.

At the end of the passage lay an ancient pavilion buried deep underground—the Literary Abyss Pavilion.

This is not the Literary Abyss Pavilion in the imperial palace, but the clans' foundation secretly built by the top clans of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty, who jointly funded it and spent millennia of effort.

Here are enshrined the ancestors of the clans who, since the founding of the Great Yin Divine Dynasty, though they have abdicated and yielded to the worthy, still survive in the world.

They once were all Premier of the Cabinet and Ministers of the Six Ministries, their cultivation having reached the terrifying level of a Positive Second-Rank Grand Scholar.

Although they surrendered their official seals, they bound their righteous vital energy and the clans' fortunes together with secret arts, becoming the clans' final Divine Needle Stabilizing the Sea.

Cui Hong pushed open the heavy stone gate of the Literary Abyss Pavilion, and a thick aura of scholarly texts and decay, almost substantial, rushed over him.

In the pavilion's center sat three gaunt, white-haired elders, cross-legged.

They wore the wide Confucian robes of the former dynasty, their bodies surrounded by visible rings of white light.

Within those halos, faint illusory figures of countless commoners reciting scriptures and paying homage to gods flickered in and out of existence.

These three were exactly the Great Yin Divine Dynasty's former literary circle leaders and Second-Rank Grand Scholars—Kong Qianqiu, Meng Changhe, and Yan Daolin!

"Cui Hong, greetings to the three Grand Secretaries!"

Cui Hong dropped to his knees and performed an extremely grand salute.

The middle-seated Kong Qianqiu slowly opened his eyes; those murky eyes seemed to hold endless vicissitudes and law.

"Cui Hong, as the current dynasty's Minister of Personnel, not aiding the sovereign in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, why have you come to this sunless Literary Abyss Pavilion? Could it be that the clans have reached a life-or-death juncture?"

Cui Hong knocked his head to the ground and cried out in sorrow:

Old Kong! The heavens of the aristocratic family are really about to collapse! That foolish emperor, bewitched by treacherous villains, has promoted a low-born madman named Gu Ziyuan.

This scoundrel has opened a massacre in Youzhou, exterminating the thirteen clans of our aristocratic family, even opening the granaries to distribute grain, distributing fields and exempting taxes, severing our family's centuries-old foundation in the north! Now, His Majesty has issued an edict to summon this traitor to the capital, to enter the cabinet and be appointed prime minister!

What?!

Upon these words, the three originally calm second-rank great scholars all changed color.

Meng Changhe glared with eyes wide open, and the surging righteous qi around his body boiled like boiling water, violently churning.

How dare you, brat! Slaughtering scholar-officials, distributing fields to mud-legged peasants—this is digging up the graves of our orthodox Confucian tradition! How can His Majesty tolerate such rebellious ministers and traitorous sons?!

Yan Daolin also snorted coldly, and by feeding his own second-rank great scholar's righteous qi into the golden dragon of fortune, he instantly understood the whole story.

Born of lowly stock, unaware of awe, he thinks that with a little cleverness, writing a couple of sensational articles to curry favor will overturn the rules of this Great Yin! Without our family's thousand years of teaching and governance, the mud-legged peasants of this world would have rebelled long ago.

Seeing the three cabinet elders grow angry, Cui Hong secretly rejoiced and hastily added fuel to the fire, saying:

Three cabinet elders, take heed! That Gu Ziyuan, who knows what demonic arts he has cultivated, can actually slaughter three hundred thousand monster troops in a single night—ordinary assassins can't even get near him. If we let him live and enter the capital, colluding with imperial authority, our aristocratic clan will surely face utter disaster!

Kong Qiuqiu fell silent for a moment, and a flash of resolve crossed his deep eyes.

The rules were set by the sages; the world of Great Yin is jointly governed by our family and the imperial clan—anyone who dares to break this balance must die.