When a person was heartbroken to the extreme, none of their emotions showed before others. And someone like the Emperor Yu, capable of gathering the Eastern Yi survivors, each with their own ulterior motives, into a force enough to bring ruin upon a nation—those emotions of grief, fury, and resentment would be buried in the deepest corner of his heart, where they took root and sprouted, waiting for the day they would grow into towering trees that blotted out the sky.
The Emperor Yu sat by the creek again, as though nothing had ever happened at Immortalwatch.
Gear Sickle stood behind the Emperor Yu.
For some reason, looking at the Emperor Yu's tranquil appearance, Gear Sickle felt an inexplicable fear in his heart. This lord of the Eastern Yi, to whom the survivors pledged their loyalty, might have been the Human Emperor's contingency plan of "betting on both sides," but during those early years when the Emperor Yu had united the Eastern Yi in Yu Prefecture, he had employed the bloodiest of methods.
Yet in the years that followed, the Emperor Yu had rarely presided over the greater picture. Even the invasion of the Central Plains had, much of the time, followed the Human Emperor's arrangements. Like a man who had possessed everything and, after losing all that he had once sought, began to sink into despondency.
But now, Gear Sickle felt that the Emperor Yu had found a new goal.
That was a terrifying thing.
Gear Sickle, who had dared to rebuke the Emperor Yu that day, did not dare act rashly now. He merely reported respectfully, "Your Majesty, Immortalwatch is rebuilding its city. As for the eldest young master..."
The Emperor Yu's fishing rod twitched, cutting Gear Sickle off.
"No need to investigate further."
"What?" Gear Sickle narrowed