The emperor's words struck the calm lake like a boulder, sending up countless splashes before setting off endless ripples. Xu Lanqing couldn't settle down for a long time.
He had never imagined that Xu Tianran would actually urge the emperor to establish the Holy Spirit Cult as the empire's guardian religion. What did it mean?
Had he decided that since the Holy Spirit Cult could no longer be kept hidden, he might as well bring it out into the open?
Xu Lanqing couldn't make sense of it.
But then, a thought suddenly came to him. What mattered wasn't Xu Tianran's proposal, but the emperor's attitude.
From the looks of it, he had received Xu Tianran's proposal quite some time ago. Yet there was still no public word about the Holy Spirit Cult in the Sun Moon Empire.
An issue this important couldn't possibly be kept secret. That meant the proposal hadn't been approved. So far, only the emperor and Xu Tianran knew about it—and now Xu Lanqing did too.
So, after all this time without any movement, what was the emperor thinking?
The emperor was still hesitating, and had sought out Xu Lanqing, who had Snow Empress's support, to discuss it.
Xu Lanqing understood his intentions now. The emperor wanted to be the only banker at the gambling table and take the whole pot!
But how could anything that good happen?
Xu Lanqing looked up at the emperor. His deeply wrinkled face was perfectly calm.
"Father, I once heard an amusing little story while I was away. Would you like to hear it?"
Xu Lanqing smiled. "It's rather fitting for the situation."
"Oh? What story? Go on." The emperor adopted a listening posture.
"Once upon a time, two bear brothers found two pieces of cheese, one large and one small.