Assistant Minister Chen Yu

Chen Yang stood guard quietly. Beyond that, there was nothing else he could do.

Once Emperor Zhou had absorbed that immense joy, he lifted the little Crown Prince, who looked as though he had nothing left to live for, by the armpits and held him in midair for another good look. Then he gathered him back into his arms, as though embracing everything he possessed.

For countless days and nights, this Ancestral Hall had weighed upon his spine, forcing him to lower his head and bend his back, leaving him so ashamed and full of self-pity that he dared not set foot inside.

Because his fortune manifestation had a severed tail, because his body was incomplete, because producing an heir was difficult and he had no hope of ascending to the true golden dragon station.

Whenever he came to worship at the Clan Ancestral Shrine, the spirit tablets of his ancestors seemed to stare straight into his soul, silently questioning him.

-Can you bear Great Zhou's Mandate?

If Great Zhou went astray in his hands, could his spirit tablet enter the Clan Ancestral Shrine in peace after his death?

The Retired Emperor had once offered him two choices: willingly surrender his flood dragon fortune to a collateral branch, then fake his death and withdraw from the world. Thereafter, the imperial family would have no such person as him, and whether he lived as a man or a woman would be his own affair.

The Retired Emperor had even chosen his replacement.

The answer Emperor Zhou delivered was Wu Junji.

Under the pretext of inspecting the troops, he had gone to the Northern Border Pass and forced Chen Yang into a one-night encounter.

If Heaven gave him a child, then his fortune had not yet run out.

If Heaven showed him no mercy, if he was fated to have no claim to the throne, Emperor Zhou would surrender his fortune for Great Zhou and for the survival of his people. But he would not hide away and cling to life.

Wu Junzheng was the unexpected one.

Consort Dong had concealed her pregnancy, waiting until the fetus was stable at three months before telling him. Emperor Zhou had wanted to strangle that woman.

Had she spoken two months earlier, he would not have needed to humiliate himself by forcing Chen Yang.

Now, it seemed Wu Junji was not his humiliation, but Heaven's blessing upon him.

Even the Great Ancestor of Zhou had only attained the true golden dragon station, but his son possessed human emperor fortune, destined to rule alongside Heaven!

The last human emperor fortune had appeared in the age of Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang.

Only an emperor was worthy of giving birth to such a precious little person.

That's right. Me!

The civil and military officials hurried back from outside like a flock of ducks returning to their pen, shamelessly offering flattery one after another. The Retired Emperor found it hard to save face. He disliked Wu Junji, but he found human emperor fortune very pleasing indeed.

With those two faces that vexed him placed together, his aged face twitched. He coughed lightly and offered a conciliatory remark.

"In that case, the position of Crown Prince belongs to none other than Jier."

Father and son rolled their eyes in unison, their mockery speaking for itself.

The Retired Emperor hurriedly moved past the subject.

"Where is Jier's summoned general?"

Wu Junji was utterly bewildered now. He even wondered whether his experiences in his previous life had been a nightmare. Otherwise, how could so much have changed in this life?

His entire understanding of the world had been warped.

Monsters, ancestor spirits, fortune-all of them had suddenly appeared!

Had he really been reborn into the right world?

If these things had existed all along, why had he never heard of a single one in his previous life, much less encountered them?

Was something wrong with his memory, or was there more to this?

Wu Junji yawned and asked:

"Didn't we already finish the General Summoning?"

Emperor Zhou patiently explained to him.

"This general summoning is not the same as that General Summoning. It refers to a person whose fortunes and misfortunes are bound to yours. Each generation of Great Zhou's imperial princes lives like ordinary people from birth until the age of three. At three, they undergo the General Summoning ceremony-the experience you just had."

"After the ceremony, an imperial prince's fortune begins to rise. In every generation, princes who possess a flood dragon station have an Assistant Minister destined to aid them."

"These Assistant Ministers are collectively known as summoned generals. Here, a summoned general is a person."

The merit of following a dragon to the throne referred precisely to these summoned generals.

Once the lord they assisted attained the true golden dragon station, the benefits they received were no small matter.

"Who is Jier's summoned general?"

Wu Junji had been about to say, "How would I know?" Yet what slipped out was:

"Chen Yu. Chen Yu of the Grand Marshal's Residence."

Wu Junji froze.

Those words had come straight out of his mouth without passing through his mind, utterly beyond his control.

Emperor Zhou stroked his stubborn little tuft of hair and soothed him:

"Don't be afraid. This is normal."

The Retired Emperor's expression, which had returned to normal, darkened again.

The Chen family again!

The Human Emperor's summoned general was a matter of enormous importance. If it was Chen Yu, then the Chen family could no longer be killed.

"Since it is Chen Yu..."

Before the Retired Emperor could finish, Wu Junji coldly refused.

"I don't want him. Give me someone else."

Everyone merely took it for a child's tantrum.

How could a summoned general be replaced?

Emperor Zhou glanced at Chen Yang. The man remained composed, showing neither surprise nor joy, as though none of this concerned him.

"Let's return to the palace first and discuss the rest later."

Those words met with widespread agreement. The civil and military officials were once again subtly taking Emperor Zhou as their leader.

Previously, the Retired Emperor had supported the second prince, who possessed flood dragon fortune. The officials had seemed to support the Retired Emperor, but in truth, they were choosing their allegiance across three generations.

Who would have thought that man's calculations would fall short of Heaven's? What upheaval this unprecedented human emperor fortune, unseen for a thousand years, would unleash remained unknown.

But for now, Emperor Zhou's standing had undeniably risen through his son.

The officials pursued advantage. They were simply withdrawing their wagers on Wu Junzheng and placing them on Wu Junji instead.

Wu Junzheng trailed far behind. He watched Wu Junji being carried by their imperial father and surrounded by the crowd, countless auspicious words weaving a tale of the Crown Prince as a celestial star descended to earth.

In his previous life, during the fourteenth year of the struggle for the throne, Wu Junzheng had stumbled by chance into advancing from python to flood dragon. Only then had he learned the truth.

Not one of the imperial princes and princesses born during the Crown Prince's sixteen years adrift among the common people had been a flood dragon. The Retired Emperor was a sun sinking in the west, and their imperial father had long failed to attain his true station. A defeat in the War Against the Monsters had added tens of thousands of monsters to the world.

Their imperial father had visited Master Tianxuan, asking him to point out a clear path.

Master Tianxuan had said that Wu Junji was the only way to save Great Zhou from its collapse.

Bringing him into the game could allow Great Zhou's pythons to transform into flood dragons and give Emperor Zhou an opportunity to attain his true station.

Thus began the tumultuous fifteen-year struggle for the throne.

Abbot Tianxuan had been right, but he had also been wrong.

Great Zhou's Mandate had been doomed to collapse the moment Wu Junji was cast adrift among the common people. Even when the pythons finally transformed into flood dragons, the golden dragon attained its true station, and human emperor fortune rose, none of it could reverse the sweeping tide.

Becoming Crown Prince at one, undergoing General Summoning at three, and standing as Great Zhou's incomparably exalted heir, with an open road ahead, every eye upon him, and praise surrounding him-that was Wu Junji's original destiny.

The humiliation of bending his knees and kowtowing, the wretchedness of being thrown into prison, the anguished cry of being powerless to rise again, the bitterness of his dying moments-all of it was like a nightmare, smoothed away by the great hand that turned back time.

Yet everyone who remembered that dream could not let go, could not forget, could not sever its hold.

Like Chen Yu, wrapped by remorse into a butterfly trapped in its cocoon, unable to break free.

Like Wu Junzheng, crawling and stumbling through a labyrinth of emotions, unable to find a way out.