However...
Amid all those cheers, someone simply had to strike a discordant note.
"Absurd! Utterly absurd!"
In a corner of the crowd, a middle-aged scholar in a long gown stomped his feet and beat his chest, his face filled with indignation.
He pointed at the Golden Body slowly passing by, spittle flying.
"Since ancient times, only sages and departed heroes have been worthy of enshrinement in the Imperial Ancestral Temple after death, to receive the reverence of all the people."
"Though the eldest princess has performed great deeds, she is still merely a woman. Yet while still alive, she dares overstep her station, claim Heaven's accomplishments as her own, and receive incense offerings meant for the dead!"
"This... this overturns the moral order and defies the Heavenly Dao!"
His voice was far from quiet.
The lively atmosphere around him instantly cooled a few degrees.
Everyone turned furious glares on him.
The butcher's face flushed crimson with rage. He pulled a pig-slaughtering knife from his crotch and charged over. "You sour-faced scholar! What shit are you spewing?!"
"Want me to sew that filthy mouth of yours shut?!"
The gleaming blade was about to come down.
The scholar went deathly pale with fright, but still stiffened his neck, his mouth as stubborn as a dead duck's.
"You... what do you think you're doing?!"
"Would you commit violence in broad daylight? I... I am merely arguing according to reason! What I speak are the teachings of the sages!"
"I mean no disrespect toward Her Highness the eldest princess. It is simply that rules must not be discarded, nor ritual propriety thrown into disorder..."
"Fuck your ritual propriety!"
The butcher roared and moved to strike.
Just then.
A hand suddenly reached out from the side and grabbed the scholar's sleeve.
The scholar turned to