After Lin Hanzhou suppressed the rebellion, Li Yuechan immediately sent men to seize all the princes who had taken part in it, along with their followers.
Inside the imperial palace, Li Yuechan sat upright on the Dragon Throne, all traces of childishness and timidity gone from her face.
In their place was the majesty and coldness of an emperor.
"Convey My decree."
Her red lips parted slightly. Her voice was not loud, yet it rang clearly in everyone's ears.
"First Prince Li Xun, Third Prince Li Tai, and the others have rebelled and stirred up chaos. Their crimes are unforgivable. Behead them as a warning to all!"
"Their followers are just as guilty. Behead them here and now as well."
One icy decree decided the fates of dozens of imperial relatives and high-ranking court officials in an instant.
This was the first fire Li Yuechan had kindled after ascending the throne.
She used her own brothers' blood to cleanse the majesty of imperial authority and proclaim to the realm:
She, Li Yuechan, was no longer the Ninth Princess whom anyone could bully. She was the empress of the Great Gan Dynasty, whose word was law!
As the decree was carried out, those princes and high-ranking officials were beheaded on the spot.
Lin Hanzhou's actions had already left the court drenched in blood, so a little more made no difference.
After dealing with the rebels, Li Yuechan issued a second decree—the most important one.
"Appoint Lin Hanzhou as Grand Protector State Preceptor of Great Gan. From this day on, to see the State Preceptor is to see Me!"
This decree formally established Lin Hanzhou's extraordinary position throughout Great Gan: second to one, above all others.
At last, the turmoil in the Capital City had been brought under control, at least for the time being.
Li Yuechan knew in her heart that all of it was thanks to that man.
That night, deep within the palace.
Li Yuechan summoned Lin Hanzhou in secret.
"Esteemed State Preceptor."
She bowed deeply to Lin Hanzhou, showing none of an emperor's airs.
"Without you, there would be no Yue Chan today, nor would Great Gan be what it is today."
"I have no way to repay you, so I can only offer you the treasures of the Great Gan imperial house. I hope you will forgive me for the inadequacy of this gift."
As she spoke, she took from her robes the Imperial Seal of State, the symbol of legitimate imperial authority.
"State Preceptor, do you know that the Imperial Seal of State has another very important purpose besides symbolizing imperial authority?"
As she said this, a trace of pride flashed in Li Yuechan's eyes.
"It is the only key that can open the greatest treasury of the Great Gan imperial house!"
"The seal was carved from a meteorite from beyond the heavens by the Founding Emperor of Great Gan."
Lin Hanzhou nodded slightly. He had clearly never expected the seal to serve such a purpose.
At the same time, he began to look forward to seeing the Great Gan imperial treasury.
A treasury passed down for hundreds of years had to hold plenty of good things, right?
Before long, Li Yuechan led Lin Hanzhou to a secluded spot in the deepest part of the palace.
Standing before what appeared to be an ordinary stone wall, Li Yuechan slowly pressed the Imperial Seal of State into a hollow in the stone.
"Rumble—!"
With a deep roar, the stone wall slowly slid apart.
A vast entrance, brimming with rich spiritual energy, appeared before them.
"Esteemed State Preceptor, this way."
Carrying a palace lantern, Li Yuechan led the way inside, with Lin Hanzhou following behind her.
When he saw the treasury, even he—a former emperor of Great Sui—couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
This... this was extravagance on a whole other level!
It was a vast underground chamber, several football fields in size.
Along one side stood row upon row of enormous bookshelves made from thousand-year-old nanmu wood.
They were packed with all kinds of cultivation manuals and martial arts texts.
From the most basic third-rate martial arts to grandmaster-level techniques that could drive the entire martial world into a frenzy, they had it all.
A rough estimate put the collection at several thousand books.
On the other side were mountains of rare treasures and natural riches.
There was century-old ginseng, fleeceflower root, and all kinds of rare ores, medicinal herbs...
This was the entire wealth Great Gan had accumulated over the past several centuries.
"Esteemed State Preceptor, this is the treasury of Great Gan."
"From this day on, you have the highest authority to enter and leave as you please."
"You may read any of the techniques here and freely use any of the resources."
Li Yuechan's voice was utterly sincere.
Hearing her words and taking in the dazzling array around him, Lin Hanzhou smiled from the bottom of his heart.
He truly hadn't misjudged her. This Ninth Princess had been clever since childhood. Helping her had been well worth it.
And so, for the time that followed, Lin Hanzhou immersed himself completely in the vast treasury.
Like a parched sponge, he greedily soaked up the knowledge and resources there.
He pored over all kinds of martial arts texts, drawing connections between them and refining his own theories of martial cultivation.
At the same time, he didn't hesitate to swallow century-old spirit herbs as if they were candy.
He refined their medicinal power to improve and consolidate his cultivation.
Outside, the loyal commander of the Imperial Guard, the peerless grandmaster Wang Jian, was keeping watch.
The situation in the Capital City was unlikely to cause any trouble.
Everything seemed to be heading in a good direction.
But the good times didn't last.
On the fifteenth day of Lin Hanzhou's seclusion,
an urgent military dispatch, carried eight hundred li at full speed, struck the Capital City like a bolt from the blue.
The Great Qing Dynasty to the north had assembled its elite army of one hundred thousand, known as the "Snow Wolf Iron Cavalry," and sent them south.
For reasons unknown, the hundred thousand cavalry had bypassed the front line, where the armies were locked in a standoff, and driven straight into Great Gan's heartland.
Now, those hundred thousand cavalrymen were at the very gates of the Capital City.
The news plunged the Capital City, which had been stable for barely half a month, into a state of utter panic.
One hundred thousand Snow Wolf Iron Cavalry!
The terror of this army had spread throughout Great Gan with the fighting along the border.
Every soldier was a second-rate martial artist, capable of taking on ten men alone, and a veteran forged in seas of blood and mountains of corpses.
The Capital City's Imperial Guard garrison also numbered over a hundred thousand, but in terms of combat strength, they were no match for the enemy's elite army.
But that wasn't even the most despairing part.
The worst of it was that the enemy's hundred thousand cavalry were led by two grandmasters.
A grandmaster was known as a "one-man army," capable of carving through a formation of ten thousand troops alone!
And a great grandmaster was a legendary figure said to be the equal of a million soldiers!
In their presence, the numbers of an ordinary army no longer mattered.
Only a great grandmaster could stand against one.
Yet Great Gan had so few great grandmasters that they could be counted on one hand.
Of those, only two were openly allied with the court.
One was the General of the State, who was now on the main battlefield in the north, holding back another of Great Qing's great grandmasters.
The other was an imperial Attendant, stationed year-round near the three great sects to keep watch on their movements.
Both great grandmasters were far from the Capital City. They were too far away to help in time.
When the dark mass of Qing Army cavalry appeared on the horizon,
the entire Capital City fell into a deathly silence.
Black Snow Wolf banners snapped in the cold wind.
The fierce, blood-soaked Killing Intent of a hundred thousand elite soldiers hung over the entire Capital City.
On the city wall, the young empress, Li Yuechan, who had ascended the throne only half a month ago, was now as pale as paper.
The civil and military officials beside her were even more panicked, their ugly sides on full display.
Some were already plotting in their hearts how to open the city gates and surrender to the enemy outside.
The Great Gan Dynasty had reached the most dangerous and desperate moment in its several centuries as a nation.
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