Shi Yan ended up in the Imperial Medical Bureau after all.
Even the Dark Phoenix Jade Pendant had been useless. They had not waited for him to show it before pulling a huge burlap sack over his head.
If you did not get it out in time, they treated you as though you did not have it.
According to a member of the Dark Phoenix Guard who wished to remain anonymous, the culprits had actually been their own people from the War Deception Bureau. Chong Yingbiao, the head of War Deception Bureau Five, who excelled at neither letters nor arms and had not even made the list, had personally done the deed.
Whether the report was true remained unknown. Lately, however, whenever the court's Civil and Martial officials saw Chong Yingbiao, they would spontaneously approach to ask after his well-being. Their attitude toward this rich kid, whom they had presumably always looked down on, had improved considerably.
Fortunately, the Monthly Appraisal's Famous Generals List had already been successfully published and distributed. That was a blessing amid the misfortune.
At the foot of Mount Qi.
The Zhou Army's main force had advanced slowly because they were hauling earth and mud, felling trees, and building a platform.
Only today had the towering platform finally been completed.
The platform stood twenty feet high, its configuration aligned with the three powers. Above, the eight trigrams harmonized yin and yang; below, the nine palaces fixed the dragon and tiger. Its four corners embodied the four seasons, its left and right represented heaven and earth, its front and rear reflected the bond between sovereign and subject, and the energies of wind and cloud surrounded it.
Above, it accorded with Heaven's will and answered the four seasons; below, it aligned with the Earth Portal and belonged to