Great Cang Imperial Palace.
Dragon aura surged and leapt, dyeing the sky gold, while a faint blood mist seemed to spread through the air.
"Beauty, don't run..."
"Hehehe..."
"Playing hide-and-seek with me? Once I catch you, I'll make sure you... meet a gruesome end! Hahahaha!"
Inside the palace, Azure Lord wore yellow robes, with a strip of black cloth wrapped over his eyes.
He chased, and they fled.
Suddenly, Azure Lord's hand caught a woman.
A smug look appeared on his face. "Caught you."
Azure Lord removed the black cloth, his smile radiant.
His hand was like an iron claw, veins bulging as it clamped around the palace maid's neck, leaving bruised marks.
The palace maid's face was pale, the skin on her face taut as though she were forcing herself to remain calm.
She did not dare move, remaining utterly still, but the slight trembling of the arm exposed beneath her sleeve betrayed her thoughts.
The smile vanished from Azure Lord's face in an instant. "Are you afraid of me?"
His hand gripped the palace maid's neck, and her breathing grew ragged.
"Why are you not answering me?" Azure Lord flew into a rage. "Do you still regard me as your emperor?"
The palace maid instinctively struggled, but she was powerless.
She could only make muffled whimpering sounds.
"Oh?" Azure Lord paused, a smile appearing on his face. "So it was because I was squeezing your neck and you couldn't speak."
A faint smile rested on Azure Lord's face.
Yet the other women nearby did not relax because of this.
Azure Lord was brutal and moody, his joy and fury impossible to predict.
"I wrongly blamed you." Azure Lord spoke calmly, his face full of remorse. "I have made a mistake. I can accept the consequences of my mistakes, admit my errors, and apologize to you."
"Azure Lord..." The woman knelt on the ground, her face covered in tears and snot, tears and mucus streaming together.
"However..." Azure Lord abruptly changed his tone, a hint of a smile on his face. "You also made a mistake. You did not remind me in time, nor did you tell me that I was squeezing your neck and making you unable to speak."
Azure Lord's words were absurd.
If he was gripping someone's windpipe, how could they answer him? How could they point out his mistake?
Yet the scene was deathly silent. Every palace maid and consort knelt on the ground, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
No one laughed, nor did anyone dare point out Azure Lord's error.
"Therefore, the punishment for your mistake is..."
Azure Lord burst into laughter.
"A slight punishment. Throw her into the Seven Poisons Den and feed her to my little darlings."
At once, two iron-armored soldiers stepped forward and dragged the palace maid away.
Only a burst of crying could be heard.
The kneeling women shuddered like fallen leaves. No one dared move.
The Seven Poisons Den was a devil's cave built by Azure Lord.
Within the Seven Poisons Den were tens of thousands of creatures of the seven poisons.
Snakes, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, geckos, toads, and golden frogs.
Throw a person inside, and before long they would be bitten and torn apart by venomous creatures, with myriad poisons attacking their heart.
Moreover, these venomous creatures had been carefully selected. They were small in size, and their venom was not the kind that killed instantly.
Once thrown inside, a person would not die within an hour.
Of course, they would also lose the ability to move and could only endure it.
The Seven Poisons Den had originally been created because, during the more than ten years after Great Cang pacified the realm, there had been over a hundred peasant uprisings, large and small.
Azure Lord grew weary of them, so he built the Seven Poisons Den. Every captured high-ranking rebel was thrown into it one by one.
"Li Jia." Azure Lord spoke as he returned to the palace hall.
"Your servant is here." A man dressed like a eunuch approached.
"From today onward, every consort and palace maid in my harem is to drink a pot of pineapple juice every night." A smile appeared on Azure Lord's face.
Today, while discussing learning with the Minister of Rites, he had learned a trick.
Drinking pineapple juice would make it sweet.
Having been acknowledged as master by the Azure Dragon Stone, he craved certain things even more.
"By your command." Li Jia nodded and turned to leave.
He did not understand Azure Lord's meaning, but he did not need to understand.
Azure Lord looked at the memorials on the table and swept his hand, scattering them all across the floor.
"The pleasures of being an emperor are truly beyond imagination."
But just then, a voice came from outside.
"Azure Lord, Liu Zhengwen has arrived."
A trace of impatience appeared on Azure Lord's face.
Footsteps rang out, especially loud in the empty grand hall.
The sound drew closer and more hurried.
"Your subject pays respects to Azure Lord!"
Liu Zhengwen knelt on the ground, his expression grim.
"Rise." Azure Lord propped his forehead with one hand, his eyes half-closed.
"Azure Lord, I heard that you have just issued an order to conscript five hundred thousand laborers to carve out the Taiqing River!"
"The Taiqing River has been excavated for so many years, yet the progress is too slow." Impatience showed on Azure Lord's face.
"Azure Lord, the realm is unsettled. Of the twenty-nine provinces, thirteen are ravaged by floods.
The disaster victims are already strewn everywhere like the cries of wild geese. Instead of opening the granaries for relief at such a time, you continue gathering laborers to carve out the Taiqing River!
This is sending the common people to their deaths and placing Great Cang in peril!"
"You are merely the Minister of Personnel. Why concern yourself with such matters?"
"Azure Lord, Great Cang has only thirty million people. Already, one-tenth of its able-bodied young and middle-aged men have been reduced to laborers!"
Cloudy tears filled Liu Zhengwen's wide, round eyes.
"A few days ago, I went to Anping County.
Anping County is only a hundred li from our Kyoto.
Yet in such a county, every household had its doors tightly shut, and only tottering elders and tiny children remained in the streets!
It is already like this beneath the Son of Heaven's feet; elsewhere, it must be terrifying..."
Liu Zhengwen's voice choked.
"Even the tottering old men are still alive. Doesn't that prove my governance is excellent? Hahahaha!" Azure Lord laughed loudly.
"Azure Lord." Liu Zhengwen's eyes were bloodshot. "Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it!"
"What water overturns is a boat, not me!
I am not a boat. I am a true dragon!
With me here, Great Cang will have a first generation, a second generation, a third generation—generation after generation, until ten thousand generations."
Azure Lord swept his wide sleeve, incomparably majestic.
"How could ordinary mortals like you possibly see my painstaking intentions?
Get out of here at once. Otherwise, tonight I will confer the title of Worthy Consort upon your newly married daughter.
I presume Scholar Liu will not refuse—no, it is that you will not dare refuse."
Azure Lord burst into laughter.
Hearing this, Liu Zhengwen raised a hand and pointed at Azure Lord. "You..."
His vision went black, and he fainted from rage on the spot.
Azure Lord laughed loudly. "Someone, come! Minister of Personnel Liu Zhengwen has suffered a fire attacking his heart and been paralyzed. Quickly summon the imperial physicians.
Summon Liu Zhengwen's daughter, Liu Yinli, into the palace and confer upon her the title of Worthy Consort, to bring Minister Liu some good fortune."
The palace guards and eunuchs received Azure Lord's orders and left one after another.
In the vast palace hall, only Azure Lord remained.
"Imperial younger brother, tell me—am I a foolish ruler?" Azure Lord spoke.
From the shadows, an old Daoist emerged.
The old Daoist's beard was white and long. He was the master of Tai Qing Palace.
"A foolish ruler—and no ordinary one at that."
"Hahahaha." Azure Lord laughed. "The realm is in our hands, so what if I am foolish and incompetent?
There are dozens of rebel armies every year—so what?
This realm will always be the realm of my Great Cang."