Shenjing, the Imperial Study.
Candles blazed brightly.
A scroll of bright yellow silk lay spread across the center of the imperial desk.
It was not an imperial edict.
It was the "Anti-Zhou Proclamation" sent up from the south.
Song Wuya knelt beneath the crimson steps, his forehead pressed against the golden floor tiles, not daring to move.
He had buried his head so low precisely because he did not want to see the face on the Dragon Throne.
Time crept past.
The emperor read on, word by word.
He read very slowly.
The Imperial Study was terrifyingly silent.
At some point, beads of cold sweat the size of beans had broken out across Song Wuya's forehead.
"Even beasts do not devour their own young."
The emperor read it aloud.
His voice was very soft.
"The Jiang Clan devours its own kin to the ninth degree."
"This is no sovereign, but a fiend."
He finished reading the final word.
Crash!
The emperor could no longer contain his fury.
With one violent heave, he overturned the imperial desk.
"Traitor! Li Xinge, you damned traitor! Motherfucker..."
Pointing south, the emperor unleashed a furious torrent of abuse.
He cursed eighteen generations of Li Xinge's ancestors.
At the sight, Song Wuya reacted.
He hurriedly kowtowed.
He pleaded, "Please calm your anger, Your Majesty! Please calm your anger!"
"Calm my anger?"
The emperor threw back his head and laughed.
Yet his laughter sounded uglier than weeping.
"He dares call me a demon?"
"Li Xinge himself is the greatest demon of them all!"
With that said.
He picked up the proclamation from the floor.
And tore it to shreds.
Song Wuya lay prostrate, trembling like chaff in a sieve.
"Investigate!"
The emperor's chest heaved violently.
"I want to know everywhere this thing has been posted!"
"How many