Atop Heavenly Abyss City's walls, the torn half of the imperial edict turned into a skyful of golden flecks and scattered on the wind.
Prince Kang, Great Zhou's imperial envoy, fled back to the Divine Capital with his delegation like dogs that had lost their home. At that moment, nerves across Great Zhou stretched to their breaking point.
Every separatist lord and ancient sect master under heaven secretly fixed their gaze on Qingzhou, holding their breath as they waited for this newly risen Supreme Golden Core Immortal Lord's next move.
To everyone watching, Chu Bai's public destruction of the edict ordering him to attend the emperor in the capital was no different from unfurling the first corner of a rebel banner.
What followed would surely be Qingzhou's army swearing an oath to march north, with war raging across the land as it challenged the imperial court in the Divine Capital.
Yet, contrary to everyone's expectations, Heavenly Abyss City did not sound the horn of rebellion over the next few days. Instead, it grew eerily quiet.
The Protectorate Prefecture, Wind-Listening Pavilion.
Chu Bai sat behind a long desk with a writing brush in hand. His strokes swept like dragons and serpents, violet-gold spell power flowing down the brush tip to leave lines of calligraphy like iron strokes and silver hooks upon a bright yellow memorial.
"Your Highness, once this 'Memorial Against the Ji Clan Traitors' reaches the Divine Capital and is proclaimed throughout the realm, our feud with the Ji Clan will be entirely out in the open." Chief Secretary Zhang Cheng stood beside him, studying the memorial's contents, and could not help speaking in a low voice.
"There has long been no room for reconciliation between me and the Ji Clan. But this memorial isn't for the Ji Clan. It's