Su Mingzi's Collapse

The trouble brought by Duke Xiang, Yue Tu, was taken over by Zhao Lu. Zhao Lu, small and stoop-backed, hurried over with a squad of eunuchs clad in half-armor and announced Ying Zheng's decree—Yue Tu had disrupted the Eastern Harmony King's betrothal ceremony with the imperial family, a crime beyond measure. If Yue Tu failed to compensate Lin Qi, within three days and according to the duel contract, with property worth ten times the betrothal gifts, he would be stripped of his ducal title and reduced to a commoner; all his family property would be confiscated and given to Lin Qi as compensation!

Not one of the nobles present dared make a sound. They all knew that Duke Xiang's family was finished!

The line of Duke Xiang, which had guarded Blood Qin Empire's southwestern frontier for nearly two thousand years, with nine generations of one family stationed there in succession, was finished. Unless Yue Tu could compensate Lin Qi with ten divine artifacts and ten times the betrothal gifts, his entire family was done for!

Ying Zheng's imperial decree represented his attitude toward this matter. Clearly, Ying Zheng was deeply dissatisfied with Yue Tu and had taken the chance to deal the Duke Xiang family a heavy blow. No matter what reason had driven Ying Zheng to make such a decision, since he had issued such a merciless edict, even if Yue Tu paid sufficient compensation, his family was finished.

A grand clan that had endured for a thousand years had come crashing down, and a new noble house would rise in the southwest.

But too many such thousand-year clans had collapsed these past days. Everyone still remembered the grim sight of heads rolling everywhere a few nights ago. In the gorge outside the city, countless corpses of soldiers who