Even eating back twice as much could never soothe the fury of the people of the Southern Kingdom. The devastation across the entire country had all been charged to the Northern Kingdom, so when the rioters rose, the world fell into chaos. Refugee armies, rebel armies, and official armies—all were driven by me, burning, killing, and looting their way into the Northern Kingdom.
Lowering the banners and beating the drums was simply impossible. The official army needed victories in battle to earn military merit; the rebel armies needed the emperor's recognition and proof that they had a place in the world. As for the refugees and mobs, at that very moment they wanted only the Northern Kingdom's fertile lands, beautiful women, money, grain, and territory. Those had become the sole desires in their hearts.
The evil in human nature had all been awakened. Having no rules was inherently the hardest strategy to defend against. People said it was simple enough to block soldiers with generals and stop floods with earth, but it also depended on who one was dealing with. I had only three axes, but each one could counter a different strategy.
In matters of strategic vision and domestic governance, Ling Tian was among the very best, even capable of reviving any country. But he was not an emperor who, like me, dared to smash the chessboard outright, use chaos to forge his own rules, and make his enemies crawl beneath them.
I was a warlord born in troubled times. Bringing the world under my rule was the play I knew best. Ling Tian had not been born into an age of chaos. His thinking was steeped in the orthodox way of kingship, so how could he deal with me?
When he emerged from the interface, Ling Tian let