Qing Kingdom's entire court refused to accept it and wanted to hold the last city in Xi Prefecture, but the Sacred Academy gave them no chance at all!
The Sacred Academy directly amended the rules of the Battle for Prefectures: if one side held too overwhelming an advantage, all provisions regarding holding a single city would become invalid.
There was no need for Qing Kingdom to vote. The other nine kingdoms unanimously approved it, and the new rule was immediately enforced.
Before Qing Kingdom could even react, all of Xi Prefecture had fallen.
Qi Kingdom's scholars went mad with rage and rushed onto the Discourse Ranking, hurling accusations at the kingdoms like rabid dogs, only to be shut down by a single sentence from Zhang Poyue.
"Rather than waste time cursing your heads off, think about how to defend the next prefecture."
Only then did the people of Qing Kingdom realize that Jing Kingdom had been the passive party in the Battle for Prefectures. Over the next three years, it could launch an unlimited number of Battles for Prefectures against Qing Kingdom.
The people of Qing Kingdom immediately fell silent.
New Qing Capital, old imperial palace.
The young Qing Lord still had not attended court. Only the Qing Kingdom Empress Dowager sat behind the hanging curtain, her face veiled in black gauze, motionless as a clay statue or wooden carving.
"Can anyone tell this old man where those new mechanisms came from?" Zong Ganyu took another dose of divine medicine, but this time, it failed to completely suppress his illness.
Both his hands trembled. Flames flickered and leaped in his eyes, while behind his voice seemed to lurk a savage beast on the verge of fury.
Zong Ganyu, the Literary Ancestor, was once again nearing the brink of losing control.