"Your Majesty, that traitor Zhao has proclaimed himself king in the Southern Wasteland!"
When Liu Guangzheng received the news, he was in the middle of a meal.
A bowl of white rice and several dishes, both meat and vegetables.
For an emperor, such fare was undoubtedly far too plain, yet Liu Guangzheng had been eating with great relish.
But upon hearing this news, all flavor naturally vanished from the meal.
Bang!
Liu Guangzheng had been holding his bowl, but in his fury, he slammed it straight down onto the table, upside down.
Ever since learning that the newly appeared Child of Heavenly Mandate had crafted a nuclear bomb by hand, Liu Guangzheng had devoted twelve parts of his attention to matters in the Southern Wasteland.
Though the plank road was gone, with the court's power, learning some of what was happening in the Southern Wasteland was hardly difficult.
When he had first heard that the three allied forces were besieging Wu City, that was perhaps when Liu Guangzheng had been happiest. Yet who could have imagined that before much time had passed, the situation would turn abruptly, and the Child of Heavenly Mandate would directly unlock firearms.
Several months ago, when Liu Guangzheng saw the bullet sent over by his subordinates, he had gone numb.
It was not that he had failed to work hard. Over the past year and more, he had forged alliances and played powers against one another. Using the matter of Heaven's End Pass, he had dealt the powerful clans a grave blow. Some he courted, some he suppressed; even the Imperial Uncle's arrogance had been beaten down considerably beneath his series of combination blows. It was no longer as it had been in the beginning, when the ruler was young and the realm doubted him.