"Only a Commander-in-Chief who has the people's wholehearted support is worthy of possessing the Imperial Jade Seal."
Inside Ziwei Hall, the silence was so complete that only the faint sound of air slipping between its pillars could be heard.
Li Xiang clasped his hands in salute. Standing straight, he looked up toward the nine tiers of jade steps.
The indistinct cloud of black mist churned like a giant beast lurking in an abyss, swallowing every trace of light around it.
The tide of history surged on, vast and unstoppable.
The Beiyang Commander-in-Chief held half the realm, kept Demon City in check, and had swept through an age of chaos. His right to claim the throne had long been an unspoken truth in everyone's heart.
All that remained was for the man in that chair to nod.
A faint sigh came from within the black mist. Rather than thunderous authority, it carried a trace of weariness.
"Say no more of this." The Commander-in-Chief's voice sounded directly in Li Xiang's mind.
"I have no desire to vie for the throne. If I did not know how the common people suffered, I would not even sit in the Commander-in-Chief's seat."
"Would it not be better to leave all this mud behind and pursue the great path to immortality?"
Li Xiang's expression did not change. His back remained perfectly straight.
"If the Commander-in-Chief will not take the throne, no one in this world deserves the Imperial Jade Seal."
There was no calculated flattery in his words, only an almost ruthless statement of fact.
Li Xiang was not currying favor.
From his perspective, if the Commander-in-Chief followed the script of that figure from his previous life, then at this convergence of Fortune, his eventual ascension was all but an irreversible tide of history.
Besides, no