Within the Heaven-Facing Hall of the Human Way Heavenly Court, a Nascent Soul True Lord serving as an inner court official emerged holding an imperial edict and began to read it aloud.
The edict's contents consisted, first, of praise for meritorious deeds, and second, of rewards and ennoblement.
The first to be rewarded were the imperial cultivators and battle troop units. They had suffered many casualties and rendered countless merits in the great war between the Immortal Dynasty's Human Way Heavenly Court and the Demon Country's True Spirit Heavenly Court. Later, in the war between the Immortal Dynasty and the Demon Realm Underworld, they had guided the Human Emperor out and rendered great service once more.
The edict laid out each of these achievements in detail before listing the rewards: Spirit Stones, resources, noble titles, destiny, and more.
As they were imperial cultivators, most were granted princely titles, primarily the rank of commandery prince. Most received no fief, merely the resources and destiny accorded to a commandery prince—ordinarily about equivalent to the annual resources and destiny produced by a fourth-rank commandery-clan family.
Among the commandery princely titles granted to imperial family members, those accompanied by fiefs were few indeed.
Take the Prince of Huainan line in Huainan Commandery, Yang Province. Only because they had rendered great service in suppressing the rebellion of the West-Pacifying King line were they granted the title of Prince of Huainan, along with Huainan Commandery as their base.
At the time, Yang Province and the Yang Family had both been grievously wounded by the West-Pacifying King line's rebellion. Though they had not, like Liang Province and Jing Province, been forced to replace their great clans, they still had no choice but to contract their strength, allowing the Lu Family to encroach and the imperial family to