The main gate of the Imperial City, Vermilion Bird Avenue.
The remaining officials from the various government offices waited in silence. The princes and nobles felt as though their hearts had turned to dead ashes, while far in the distance, Ouyang Jin and the other martial arts experts of the Experiences Office guarded the Jia Family's dependents.
"Was it all over?" Concubine Zhao asked, trembling with fear. They, too, had endured the most perilous and harrowing day of their lives.
Ouyang Jin looked at Madam Zhao, a long-absent smile appearing on his face, and said softly:
"The dust has settled. Lord Jia has succeeded in purging the villains around the emperor and now controls the entire Forbidden City."
Even in the annals of history, this would stand as a day of unparalleled tension and audacity. From early morning until Hai Hour, from the Capital Region to the inner Forbidden City, every obstacle had been an insurmountable mountain, each higher than the last. Even a warlord without equal in this world could not have broken through a single one of those peaks.
Yet Lord Jia had trampled every last one beneath his feet!
And he had done so openly and honorably, issuing his denunciation first, then advancing step by relentless step.
"Huan'er..." Concubine Zhao could not hold back her tears. Her mind held none of those tangled considerations. She only felt that her son had suffered far too much today, and now that he had emerged unharmed, she wept with joy.
Suddenly, the clamor at the Imperial City's main gate ceased.
Grief welled up in the Imperial Nobility, and they wailed hoarsely.
The other officials dared not look any longer. They bowed their heads and fell to their knees, the chill growing inside them rising steadily until it almost swallowed them