Court Assembly

At first light, bells and drums were already ringing through the Golden Throne Hall.

Beneath vermilion corridors and pillars, the civil and military officials stood in their court robes, arranged on either side by rank. Scarlet and purple robes, jade belts, official caps—each stood precisely in place, yet none dared utter a word. Their eyes watched their noses, their noses watched their mouths, their mouths watched their hearts, as though they were truly clay statues and wooden puppets.

An exotic fragrance filled the hall. Beneath the imperial seat, two bronze incense burners shaped like immortal cranes released curling wisps of smoke. The haze intertwined, making it nearly impossible to discern the face behind the imperial crown's bead curtains—whether it was truly still the person they remembered.

No one dared raise their head without permission.

Nor did anyone dare casually look toward the side of the dragon throne, where a gaunt monk wearing a Vairocana cap sat with prayer beads constantly turning through his fingers, seemingly chanting with his eyes closed.

At this moment, what shrouded this hall—the symbol of supreme mortal authority—in a deathly silence was nothing else but the shrill, flat voice of the ceremonial eunuch reading the memorials. "—As of today, an urgent dispatch has arrived from the Eastern Zhejiang Circuit—"

The old eunuch's eyelids drooped halfway, as though he was not reading news that might shake the foundations of the state, but some insignificant routine document.

"A bold madman has falsely claimed to be a member of the Southern Chen imperial clan of the previous dynasty. Calling himself Chen Jingqiu, he has used the name 'Heaven's Rift Brings Change' to incite and gather several thousand ignorant mountain folk. Within five days, he seized several counties south of Kuaiji Mountain and presumptuously declared himself in rebellion—"

At those