The Imperial Preceptor had returned to court.
Wenren Xianyi's departure from the Heavenly Palace for Azure Cloud Prefecture seemed never to have happened at all. From top to bottom, the imperial dynasty had chosen to forget.
The Heavenly Palace, with everything awaiting renewal, continued to function. Officials came and went through its halls.
The legitimate heir of the Wenren Family sat upon the Golden Throne Hall—a little brat named Zishu Yuan. Yet the child's aptitude was anything but ordinary. He had swallowed Human Emperor Blood and remained perfectly unharmed. That drop of Human Emperor Blood had been given to Zishu Family children by an elder of the Zishu Family; by the time it reached Zishu Yuan, thousands upon thousands of children had already perished.
When Wenren Xianyi brought Zishu Yuan back, he was cared for well and taught well. So he often asked those around him how to become a good emperor, how to treat the powers across the Southern Lands and beyond so that they would willingly serve the imperial dynasty, and how to resolve the grand predicament of the dynasty's internal and external troubles.
Now, he had a new question: where had his Imperial Mother gone?
And so, carrying that question with no easy answer, he took his seat in the Golden Throne Hall, year after year.
In the past, the one who taught him how to govern from the Golden Throne Hall was his Imperial Mother, who patiently instructed him in everything yet also rebuked him. Now, it was the courteous, rule-abiding Imperial Preceptor seated beside his dragon throne, accompanying him as he grew day by day.
He grew from a child into a youth, then into a handsome and imposing young man.
Still, he had received no answer. So one day, during a Heavenly Palace court