The hundreds of Feudal Lords, great and small, wore immensely complicated expressions.
Across a thousand long years, this was the first time anyone had openly called himself a benighted ruler.
Pah! What a thick skin.
Some of the court officials looked ashamed. What kind of absurd business was this?
"What makes a wise and enlightened ruler?"
A voice like thunder rang out.
The voice sounded familiar. Zi Shou looked around. Which idiot was picking a fight with him?
Then he saw Wen Zhong. Oh, never mind, then.
The old man held his Steel Whip pointing down. Fine droplets of rain clung to his white hair and beard, and his drenched clothes stuck to his body. Beneath him stood a jade Qilin.
The jade Qilin was swift; a round trip between the North Sea and Chaoge took little time.
"Heaven sought a ruler for the people, and thus bestowed its glorious mandate upon Cheng Tang to punish and destroy Xia! Cheng Tang destroyed Xia, spread his blessings to the eight reaches, left three sides of the hunting net open, and enfeoffed the Feudal Lords. Could he be called an enlightened ruler?"
This was a story about Cheng Tang. While hunting, he saw a hunter stretch nets across all four sides, trapping any game that came from any direction.
Cheng Tang thought this excessive. At this rate, no game would remain, so he had the nets on three sides taken down, leaving only one.
After the story spread, people said Cheng Tang's benevolence extended even to birds and beasts. More than forty Feudal Lords consequently submitted to him, marking the beginning of his renown as an enlightened ruler.
"Of course he was a wise and enlightened ruler."
The Feudal Lords would not speak ill of Cheng Tang. After all, he had enfeoffed