Provocation

The next day, Dudun was bursting with energy. The night of drinking and revelry had left no trace, and he decided to cross the second boundary and win the Imperial Guard's loyalty.

Holy Sun King's suicide had resolved an awkward dilemma. Dudun showed his elder brother tremendous respect, personally arranging his funeral and ordering the entire army to observe a moment of silence.

At noon, the body was cremated, ascending to heaven to join Old Khan King and fulfilling the Imperial Guard's hopes. Dudun delivered a solemn speech, looking back on the history of the Khan Lineage and praising the great khans who had become legends. He declared that their divine blood had been passed down to every descendant of the khans. Thus, the deaths of Holy Sun King and the khans before him were no ordinary deaths: they were the withering of certain branches of the Khan Lineage, and the beginning of new shoots sprouting in their place, and so on.

Fang Wenshi listened to the speech, which was soon repeated everywhere, then returned to the tent and said to Dragon King, "Empty boasting and petty tricks. Any village schoolteacher could have done better. Dudun thinks this is how he'll win people over? How naïve."

"Dudun won't have just one trick up his sleeve. I'm afraid we'll have to do something," Gu Shenwei said. The speech's appeal lay in more than its words. Dudun had just shown everyone the calm, fortitude, and far-sightedness of a true king, and that would have a subtle, lasting influence.

Fang Wenshi sighed, forced to admit that Dudun had more skill than he'd imagined. "Yes, Dragon King is right. We can't sit back and do nothing. Fortunately, I've made preparations. While Dudun wins some people over, he's bound to alienate others. It would be