Chapter 123: Waves Rise with the Wind

And two hours after Baichuan's departure, the rebel Zhang Rang and his men finally arrived, late and slow.

Zhang Rang stared at the devastated ground and the corpses strewn everywhere, each one clad in armor forged of fine iron, and his expression was utterly shaken.

Clearly, he recognized at a glance that this dead contingent was the Great Zhou elite Forest Guard that had been pursuing them.

But now this powerful force, which had even included experts at the Eight Limits level, had died here.

His face full of shock, he kept examining the corpses, and even crouched down before the body of the general, which was almost completely carbonized.

He reached out and touched the armor, which had begun to slightly melt and warp, and could not help muttering to himself: "Even armor forged of fine iron has been scorched out of shape — is this the power of a dragon? It truly is incomparably mighty."

After a sigh, he stood up and exhaled a long breath of stale air, as if trying to breathe out the shock in his heart, before turning to look back at the trees that were faintly blackened and leaning askew.

Without a doubt, that had been caused inadvertently when the dragon departed.

"Qing Qing, let's go. We must find it before the Great Zhou truly captures the dragon."

Truth be told, at this moment Zhang Rang did not even know why he was searching for a Strange Beast — a dragon — whose intelligence was uncertain.

Nor did he know what he would do once he found it, because even the Forest Guard that had been hunting them had died so cleanly, unable to mount any decent resistance, let alone them.

In his heart, he had completely given up on obtaining the dragon's power.

Perhaps the reason he still tracked the dragon's traces was that he had grown up listening to legends of dragons, and as a former little snake-catcher, he truly wished to see a dragon's majesty with his own eyes.

This impulse to see a real dragon was something the Great Zhou had, over the course of a thousand years, unknowingly bred into him.

……

Early morning, just before the sky was about to brighten.

Sun Lin gazed at the resplendent palace before him — the most exalted place in all of Great Zhou — and the surging emotions in his heart battered his innermost being.

As a man of humble origins, he truly could never have imagined he would climb to the position he held today.

He slowly exhaled, and unhurriedly adjusted his attire.

As one who had just been honored with the rank of minister, he attached immense importance to today, for it was his first time setting foot in this sacred place, where in the future he would devote himself wholeheartedly to Great Zhou's development alongside the other ministers.

Although he had long heard the various rumors circulating about His Majesty — calling him incompetent, foolish, and cruel.

He believed that a sovereign who could choose an official of no background like himself, who had climbed up from the bottom, must have his own reasons.

Perhaps His Majesty only lacked a step, a pretext. If so, then let him be the one to sweep away every obstacle for His Majesty.

The countless suffering common folk across the realm needed them.

Thinking of how natural disasters now Burst with alarming frequency throughout the land, and how the people were displaced and homeless,

He felt a pang of bitter anguish. Great Zhou was in urgent need of good officials who served the country and its people.

After slowly straightening his official robes, he stepped onto the staircase, which was cast entirely of white jade.

At this moment, the staircase, paved of fine white jade, was gleaming with a gentle radiance — cast by the morning glow about to stream in from the east.

He walked straight ahead with the crowd, occasionally exchanging a few pleasantries with the officials who came up to greet him. At this moment, he was no longer the invisible nobody no one had known before.

After passing through countless magnificent halls — extravagantly luxurious, carved with dragons and phoenixes, roofed with all manner of glazed tiles — he finally arrived at his destination: Tian He Gong.

This was precisely where the Great Zhou emperor held his morning court.

After he followed the experienced ministers through the somewhat unfamiliar procedures, he finally saw the true master of Great Zhou — His present Majesty, Zhou Tianzi.

Yet the scene before him was somewhat at odds with what he had imagined.

The sovereign in his mind should have been wearing a purple-gold crown binding his hair, a golden headband across his brow chased with two dragons fighting for a pearl, a great yellow arrow-sleeved robe of two-toned gold and white, pierced through with twin dragons, and a palace sash of five-colored silk finished with long tassels.

Yet the man who truly appeared before him was a young man with a head of disheveled hair, clad only in a loose black brocade robe. His eyes were dark as ink, his expression languid, and he possessed not a trace of a sovereign's dignity.

If Sun Lin had to describe him, the only thing he could think of for the moment were those upstart scions of wealthy families in the city. Was this truly the legendary Zhou Tianzi?

But reality did not bend to his wishes. While he stood lost in thought, the morning court of the day began, and ministers one after another presented their memorials.

Just then, a rather shrill voice from outside the hall suddenly called out: "The Duke Who Guards the State requests an audience!"

At this, the man above gave a start, then turned with a smile to the attendant standing beside him and said: "Announce him!"

Before long, an old man in white robes with white hair and four eyes came walking in step by step, his hands tucked into his sleeves. The pair of eyes on his face were kept tightly shut, as if opening them would unleash something terrifying and unpredictable.

Zhou Tianzi looked at this old man and laughed, as though no one else were present: "Clan Uncle, what brings you to me today?"

Then, frowning, he added: "Xiao Li, why haven't you brought a chair for my clan uncle yet?"

"There's no need, Your Majesty. This old minister has come today on urgent business." The old man paid no heed to his manner, shook his head, and drew directly from his sleeve the memorial he had long prepared, allowing those beside him to pass it up.

Seeing his clan uncle so solemn, the man no longer pressed the matter, took the memorial directly, and began to read it — but the moment he read it, he froze.

His back gradually straightened; he no longer leaned against the dragon throne, and his expression slowly shifted from its initial casualness to one of gravity.

Only now, as the man grew serious, did he truly possess a trace of a sovereign's dignity — rather than that of an unbridled scion of wealth.

A few minutes later, having read it quickly, Zhou Tianzi fixed a solemn gaze upon the old man below and asked gravely: "Has this matter been confirmed?"

"Zhou Li of the Forest Guard, and the snake-catchers of the Duanlong Mountain Range, have all heard of it," the old man replied.

The old man replied.

Zhou Tianzi asked no more. He slowly leaned back against the dragon throne behind him, pressed his brow, and closed his eyes in thought.

Their strange exchange of question and answer left the ministers at the side utterly baffled, but the veteran officials, well acquainted with the Emperor's mercurial temperament, none dared speak.

They could only stare at the memorial in his hand with eyes full of curiosity, wishing they could snatch it from His Majesty's hands at once to see what it contained.

After a long while, Zhou Tianzi finally opened his eyes again. He stood up, his dark-as-ink eyes now piercingly sharp, and declared in a ringing voice:

"I recall that place is closest to Youzhou. If so, then issue an order to Zhou Renyi: muster every garrisoned army there and march at top speed to the Duanlong Mountain Range, effective immediately."

At these words, the ministers erupted in an uproar. The most agitated among them was Sun Lin, the newly appointed minister. Overcome with excitement, he broke away from the crowd, stepped forward, and declared in a clear, loud voice:

"Your Majesty, this absolutely cannot be done! Youzhou lies closest to Great Zhou's border. Once the Youzhou army departs, in an instant those barbarian horsemen of the grasslands will drive straight into Youzhou, burning, killing, and looting at will. The fine land of Youzhou will be ruined in a single day. Your Majesty, this absolutely cannot be done! This would be a crime for the ages, one that will earn the scorn of ten thousand people!"

Hearing this, Zhou Tianzi was not angered. He turned his head, smiled, and asked in return: "And if I insist on doing so, what then?"

"I — I —" Sun Lin, who had thought the Emperor would fly into a great rage, had even prepared himself to speak further in remonstrance, because in a sense his words just now had already verged on the gravest disrespect.

He had not expected such an odd attitude, and for a moment Sun Lin could not react.

At this moment, his gaze suddenly fell upon a pillar nearby. A flash of Spirit crossed his mind, and he walked to the pillar, pointed at it, and said:

"Then, this minister will dash my head against the great hall's pillar and die to prove my resolve! I urge Your Majesty to come to your senses!"

The moment those words left his mouth, Sun Lin stared fixedly at Zhou Tianzi, because as a minister, once such words were spoken, His Majesty surely would not commit such a grave impropriety.

What he did not know was that everyone else in the hall looked at him as though looking at a dead man.

"In that case." Zhou Tianzi's tone seemed to soften a little, but before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his words shifted and he said with a chuckle, "Since that's how it is, go on and ram into it!"

"Wh-what?" The change came too suddenly. For a moment, the joy in Sun Lin's eyes had not fully surfaced before it instantly turned to bewilderment; he simply could not process it. After a long pause he stammered, "I, I…"

But Zhou Tianzi had no patience left. His sharp eyes narrowed as he leaned in close and said softly, "Ram into it."

Without waiting for a response, he directly stretched out a hand that looked fair and clean, seized him by the neck, and lifted him as easily as picking up a bamboo pole, then walked straight toward the great hall's pillar to ram him into it.

"Thud!!"

In an instant, a crisp yet heavy sound rang out, its echoes lingering and reverberating through the great hall. Sun Lin was seen to have breathed his last, his whole body going limp and collapsing.

Seeing this, Zhou Tianzi clicked his tongue, tossed him aside carelessly, and said in disappointment, "How boring — dead just like that? If you had really charged into it on your own, I might have looked at you with a bit more respect."

No one in the entire hall dared make a sound. Even that white-haired old man lowered his gaze and paid no more attention.

Clearly, this sort of thing was not a first or second occurrence. Anyone who had managed to live long enough in this court knew not to lightly offend His Majesty.

This held true even for him, the Duke of Protector of the Realm. The sovereign is the sovereign, the minister is the minister — one must not overstep one's place!

"Hey, you there, come over and clean this up right away. Since this official post has been vacated, pick someone new from that group of alternates soon."

Zhou Tianzi smiled, no longer paying this little interlude any mind, then addressed the assembly: "Since no one has any objections, hurry it up. I want to see that dragon captured alive and brought back immediately."

Having said that, he paid no more attention to anyone and left directly.

He left behind a group of utterly shocked ministers: "A dragon?! It really appeared?!"

Then came a wave of sudden understanding — no wonder His Majesty, who was usually careless and only knew how to enjoy himself, had for the first time taken something so seriously.

At the same moment, some of the quick-witted ones gathered around the Duke of Protector of the Realm, who had not yet left, while others rushed straight for the memorial that His Majesty had tossed aside before departing.

As for what would happen once they knew, only the heavens did.

One had to know that most of those in this hall had no simple backgrounds — the great mountains and sects, the noble houses, were simply too many to count.

The heavens were about to change.

An invisible vortex was about to slowly form at the foot of the Duanlong Mountain Range.

As for the common folk of Youzhou after the garrisoned army departed?

The grassland barbarians about to sweep in?

Who in this hall cared?

Could they possibly attack Tiandu? What a joke.

The one who truly cared was already lying on the ground now, and no one had paid him any attention since.

As the crimson blood spread, only then did a few servants and eunuchs come over to clean up…

(End of chapter)