Azure Province Shaken

The imperial city had been destroyed, but the outskirts of the Capital City remained.

There, a group of bold townspeople and cultivators gazed at the ruins of the Great Zhou Imperial Palace. Once a symbol of supreme authority, it was now nothing but a vast crater. Their eyes were filled with confusion and fear.

Among them stood a middle-aged man in fine robes, staring blankly toward the imperial city as though his soul had left his body.

He was Xu Chang, the Great Zhou Dynasty's imperial son-in-law.

"Wh-what do we do now?"

Beside him, an obese woman in lavish clothes wore the same look of panic, though her habitual imperiousness showed through.

When Xu Chang failed to respond, irritation rose in her. Out of habit, she reached for his ear and shrieked, "I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?!"

In the past, Xu Chang would have swallowed the insult and begged her forgiveness.

But now, that familiar gesture of humiliation sent a nameless fury surging through him. He swept his arm out impatiently and sent the plump Princess Defender of the Realm stumbling.

Stunned by his sudden defiance, the princess caught her balance. Disbelief and rage flooded her face as her voice shot up. "Well, Xu Chang! Have you grown the gall of a bear and the nerve of a leopard?! How dare you treat me like this?!"

Furious and humiliated, she lunged at him with claws bared, ready to shove him as she always did during her tantrums.

"Enough!"

Xu Chang spun around. His low rebuke carried a resolve she had never heard before, and it struck like a splash of cold water, freezing her mid-motion.

"You—you—" The princess stared at him, utterly stunned. Her pointing finger trembled, and for a moment she was too angry to form a