The Morning Song Banquet Sparks Disaster

Morning Song's grand hall—his dragon visage thundered with rage.

Di Xin sat upright upon his throne, gazing at Shen Gongbao standing solemnly below the steps, intense fury churning in his eyes.

News that Chong City had fallen in its entirety and the Northern Marquis's army had been defeated and annihilated had already reached Great Shang's court, known throughout the realm.

Facing Di Xin's towering wrath, Shen Gongbao lowered his head and bowed. His expression was respectful, yet a trace of well-hidden contempt and indifference lay in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, I do indeed bear blame for this oversight," he said, neither servile nor overbearing.

"Yet I had repeatedly instructed Chong Houhu to hold the city fast, and had even left one hundred thousand elite troops to garrison Chong City. Who could have expected him to be muddleheaded and incompetent, unable to judge men properly? In the end, he let the wolf into his house and lost both city and life."

Di Xin's anger had yet to fade, the flames of rage blazing in his chest, but Shen Gongbao's next words instantly doused all his Vicious Qi.

"However, Your Majesty must know that though Chong City has fallen, Ji Chang of Western Qi has already passed away."

At those words, all the fury in Di Xin's eyes vanished.

Chong City had originally been Chong Houhu's hereditary fief. Though nominally under Great Shang's jurisdiction, it had never mattered much to the royal house.

The only regrettable loss in this defeat was the one hundred thousand elite soldiers stationed at the border.

But if the loss of one hundred thousand troops could be exchanged for Ji Chang's death, then to Di Xin, it was an incredibly profitable bargain.

At that moment, King Wu Cheng Huang Feihu stepped forward and demanded in a deep