"I wonder how Your Excellency intends to deal with us..."
Tarona stared at Tao Yu in a daze, brushed back a strand of hair, and let out a soft sigh.
The princesses and other consorts who had been sent out stood nearby, all looking shocked and uneasy.
They had no idea how things had ended up this way.
Triss, however, seemed much calmer.
"Thank you for helping me get revenge earlier. As for now, you can do whatever you like with me..."
By now, she knew the empire was finished!
After the First Prince sparked infighting, the once relatively stable situation had already fallen apart. Now, the empire had lost every means of deterring the True Gods.
The Emperor's lingering authority had been shattered, too. It was gone!
The Nine Heavens Divine Path might have to deal with other powers that had their eyes on it, but the empire's former forces—and the few people from the cabinet in particular—would get nothing in the end.
Even the Divine Path experts who had once served the empire locally might be appeased and recruited. Someone had to manage those territories, after all, and they might even be offered better terms than before.
For people like them, making it out together was already a good outcome...
"Deal with you?"
Tao Yu glanced at Tarona, then at the whole group of beautiful women.
To be honest, they were all quite attractive. Many wore expressions of fear and confusion, which could easily stir certain feelings in a man.
But remembering what the "Nine Heavens" had said about him earlier, Tao Yu immediately looked away and resumed the air of a gentleman.
He wondered who had been spreading such nasty rumors and slandering his good name.
There were plenty of wicked women in the Yinkui Sect, and