The Third Quarter of the Si Hour.
At the Grand Secretariat Yamen, the Grand Academicians had barely returned from the court assembly when two urgent reports arrived. Their opening lines seared their eyes.
[Huizhou Hundred-Household Guard Station massacred. No survivors.] [Lin'an Prefecture Yamen: everyone from the prefect down to the constables killed.]
In an instant, the seat from which decrees issued across the realm became an ice cavern, sending chills down the ministers' spines.
Chief Grand Secretary Yang Taiyue's face turned livid as he roared hoarsely:
"A vicious, depraved madman! Condemned by gods and men, intolerable to Heaven itself!!"
The other Grand Academicians were equally beside themselves with fury.
A thoroughly cold-blooded beast was determined to gnaw Jiangnan until it was covered in wounds.
Huizhou lay a day and a half's journey from Jinling, yet the urgent reports had arrived only half a day apart. This confirmed that the old White Lotus Cult Leader's followers and Jiang Wuji's men had bared their fangs simultaneously.
Most terrifying of all, whether burning down the Weaving Bureau or massacring the Lin'an Prefecture Yamen, these Vicious Fiends had done no looting. They wanted neither silk nor the grain stores nor the silver vaults.
Their eyes held nothing but slaughter. They were like puppets of flesh and blood, making the world shudder all the more!
"I'm going to the palace." Chief Grand Secretary Yang gripped the urgent reports and headed for the Imperial Study.
Commanding Commissioner Jia surely could not withstand this. If His Majesty still refused to grant him the tiger tally and command of the troops, a calamity vast enough to blot out the heavens might follow!
Desheng Gate, Capital Camp.
Wang Ziteng strode into the government offices in high spirits, his gait as commanding as a dragon's or tiger's.