Not long after.
The main gate of the Gan household.
Beneath the incense table, Gan Yu had brought his wives, concubines, sons, daughters, servants, and maids... an entire yard knelt in submission.
A stretch of auspicious clouds descended ahead of them. An angel stood in their midst, slowly unfurling an Imperial Decree and reading aloud:
"By the Mandate of Heaven, the Son of Heaven decrees: Jinshi Gan Yu has been loyal in service to the throne and has enlightened an entire region. He is hereby specially bestowed the eighth-grade Supreme Dao Court Big Dipper Secret Talisman and appointed Principal Eighth-Rank Loyal and Valiant Colonel of Blackstone County, Panlong Prefecture. So ordered!"
After reading the Imperial Decree, the angel said in a shrill voice, "Lord Gan, accept the decree!"
Gan Yu's expression looked as though he were crying and laughing at once, and his heart resisted somewhat.
But as someone who had already received Talismans, he was utterly unable to resist the Imperial Decree and angel representing the Son of Heaven's authority. He could only kowtow. "Your subject, Gan Yu, accepts the decree and thanks Your Majesty for the grace!"
Even if the court bestowed a cup of poisoned wine and ordered him executed, Gan Yu would in fact have had no choice but to do the same.
As he kowtowed, a Daoist Talisman suddenly blazed with light and drifted down, replacing the Daoist Talisman originally within Gan Yu's body.
Gan Yu rose to his feet with only one thought in his heart: Who is trying to harm me?!
If this had been another county, being promoted from Subordinate Ninth Rank all the way to Principal Eighth Rank—in an instant, rising one rank and two grades—he would have had to kneel and kowtow to the person who promoted him, no matter