Authority

Pink Dragon coiled around the demons and soared into the air, then exploded with a bang, scattering them. Sticky demon flesh and blood rained down.

The emperor had come!

The emperor of Great Zhou had come!

Onlookers and those in hiding poured out of every nook and cranny. They knelt toward Azure Cloud Road in homage, their excited voices piercing the clouds:

"Your humble subjects greet Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty, ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

The next instant, Wu Junji felt his body grow light, and the familiar scent of Sandalwood Incense rushed to overwhelm his senses.

He stared blankly at Emperor Zhou, and Emperor Zhou stared blankly back.

They had been apart for only a day, yet father and son both found each other unfamiliar.

With trembling hands, Emperor Zhou pinched his collar. The coarse cotton-and-hemp scholar's robes were soaked in blood.

The slightest rub left his fingers sticky.

Pain pierced straight through Emperor Zhou's heart.

He touched the little Crown Prince's head. Blood everywhere.

He touched his hands. Frighteningly cold.

He touched his feet. His palm came away wet and chilled.

When they had parted, the little Crown Prince had still been a pink pearl glittering with jewels.

Emperor Zhou had wound the pink floral chain around his head himself.

Emperor Zhou had combed his little topknot himself.

Emperor Zhou had chosen his little pink clothes.

Emperor Zhou had held the little Crown Prince's feet and pulled on his deerskin boots lined with rabbit fur.

Afraid he would catch cold, Emperor Zhou had chased after him to drape a lightly fleece-lined hooded cloak over his shoulders.

Emperor Zhou had even counted the pearls on his belt himself.

He had raised his precious darling into a plump, polished pearl and sent him here with a heart full of reluctance, asking for nothing! Just that he eat well, sleep well, and make a few drinking-and-dining friends who could keep him happy.

He had even imagined how the teachers would tactfully complain to him someday when this brat caused trouble or bullied someone.

Earlier that day, he had even bragged to Master Tianxuan that the little brat had made the outrageous claim that he would win him twenty-five mountains of gold. He intended to have a good laugh at his expense after the grand competition at the end of the month.

Just one day.

Only one day!

The muscles around Emperor Zhou's lips trembled uncontrollably, and his vision blurred.

He bit his lip, his throat tight with sobs.

"Why are you wearing so little? I specifically asked. Jixia Academy issues padded robes."

He had even specifically instructed them to air the robes in the sun often, because the Crown Prince could not tolerate dampness.

The little Crown Prince's eyes were bewildered, and Emperor Zhou understood. They had given him none.

"Where are your shoes? I sent deerskin, tiger pelts, sable pelts, fox pelts, eastern pearls, and mica."

They had said children grew quickly, and that his feet needed to be measured every day to make shoes that fit comfortably.

The little Crown Prince curled his toes, still saying nothing.

Tears streamed down Emperor Zhou's face.

Jixia Academy flew the banner of rigorous scholarly discipline, but how could noble children truly be left with watery cabbage, hemp clothes, and sparrow-sized lodgings?

Every family sending a child to study here had made arrangements in advance.

Emperor Zhou had not had a good time at Jixia Academy as a child. The Retired Emperor believed in strict paternal discipline, and the Empress Dowager was no attentive, doting mother. Among the royal heirs of the various nations, everything he ate, used, wore, and adorned himself with had been a cut below theirs.

Noble children were always comparing themselves, too, and Emperor Zhou had swallowed more than his share of humiliation.

When the little Crown Prince's turn came, he had lied, saying he could bring only his little gold crown and a few snacks, and that he would not pull strings or arrange special treatment for him at the Academy.

In truth, he had opened his private treasury long ago and sent over a share of everything he possessed.

He had bestowed gold and silver, bestowed jewels, and even taken responsibility for Jixia Academy's food purchases!

He had granted fine silks, rewarded them with jade and antiques, and arranged for people to deliver rare curios to the little brat from time to time so he could show off.

He had imagined the little Crown Prince discovering his imperial father's goodness every day, then happily nestling in his arms during the holidays and mewing that his imperial father was the best in the world!

And what had happened instead? His head was split, he was bleeding, his clothes could not ward off the cold, his shoes could not warm his feet, and he was filthy as a little beggar.

Holding his beloved son, he looked at the humans and demons all around. They surrounded him, pressured him, bullied him!

"Your Great Zhou signed a National Pact with our Demon Domain! Human Emperor Fortune in exchange for five years of peace for Great Zhou!"

"Now we can no longer feed on Human Emperor Fortune. You must give us an explanation!"

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince just threatened to eat demons! So young, yet already utterly unscrupulous and evil by nature. He is truly unfit to be heir!"

"Your Majesty! The Crown Prince incited the Demon Heir to slaughter indiscriminately, destroying the peace between the human and demon realms!"

"Your Majesty! The Crown Prince tortured and killed members of the Demon Race with brutal methods..."

Humans and demons listed Wu Junji's crimes one after another, as though they had gone mad.

Wu Junji was a discarded pawn. If he were valued, why would he have been sent to Jixia Academy?

Azure Cloud Road lay right ahead!

With every person who stepped forward, Emperor Zhou felt more deeply that the world had become absurd.

His Crown Prince, his heir, his own flesh-and-blood son whom he wished he could take everywhere!

He had yearned so earnestly for him to live freely and safely. Seeing him made him smile; thinking of him made him happy. Yet others thought him unwanted, unlovable, a discarded pawn!

Slander, isolation, exclusion, blows and abuse, mob beatings!

He cherished him like delicate glass, wishing he could build him a nest upon his own heart, yet others trampled him like rotten mud and declared him worthless in every way!

Emperor Zhou's heart and entrails ached as though they would rot away.

The little menace who used to swagger before him and order him around was now as quiet as a sparrow.

Did he, too, think his imperial father no longer wanted him?

Did he, too, think his imperial father had abandoned him and would never come?

This human world, foul as sludge...

With a trembling hand, Emperor Zhou covered the little Crown Prince's eyes and called to him over and over in a heartbroken voice.

He called, "Jier..."

"Jier..."

"Jier..."

In anguish, in fury, in grief.

He touched his little sunken belly and looked across all of Jixia Academy, his heart filled with the desire to destroy.

"Be good. Tell your imperial father, what did you eat for lunch?"

Wu Junzheng had no sense of the mood. He only wanted to complain:

"Watery porridge mixed with cabbage!"

"They served the food in chamber pots! Two meals a day, no supper, and we were captured during General Summoning! They even spat at the Crown Prince and called him a bastard!"

Emperor Zhou's reason cracked and crumbled, inch by inch.

Bastard!

Bastard!

Bastard!

That word stabbed Emperor Zhou until his lungs hurt!

Pink Dragon gave a long roar and charged into the demons, tearing! Sweeping! Crushing!

Emperor Zhou declared to the Lord of Changbai Mountain:

"If a single demon in Jixia Academy survives today, apart from the Demon Heir, then from this day forth, I shall blast every mountain I see! Poison every river I see! Fell every forest I see! The hunts shall never cease, through spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Even at the cost of my dynasty's collapse, I will leave the Demon Domain nowhere to stand!"

The Lord of Changbai Mountain's pupils kept contracting. Emperor Zhou was forcing him to slaughter his own kind!

He saw a company of several hundred red-clad Golden Eagle Guards appear out of thin air!

Blades raised, they charged into the crowd.

The human scholars' roars, screams, pleas for mercy, and furious curses rang out without end!

All of Jixia Academy descended into chaos.

Fire blazed-

Emperor Zhou actually intended to burn the greatest Academy under heaven to the ground and tear out its roots!

Dragon cries rang ceaselessly in his ears. The Lord of Changbai Mountain looked up and saw the Imperial Seal! The jade seal held dominion from on high!

The emperor was serious!

He had gone mad! He had gone mad!

The Lord of Changbai Mountain felt a fierce hatred for the Retired Emperor. Emperor Zhou treasured the Crown Prince so dearly-had the Retired Emperor lost his mind, using the Crown Prince as a bargaining chip?!

Helpless, the Lord of Changbai Mountain took tiger form and charged into the demons.

Ruan Yuan watched the students he had taught wail and fall beneath the King's Blade. Some of them were completely innocent!

He clung to the emperor's leg and cried out hoarsely:

"Your Majesty! This act endangers the state!"

Emperor Zhou kicked him down and roared, "I am the state!"

Kicked to the ground, Ruan Yuan got up and clung to Emperor Zhou again, pleading:

"This humble subject begs you to butcher my body instead. Please spare them!"

They were his disciples!

"Spare them, my ass!"

Roaring in fury, Emperor Zhou kicked him three times in succession.

Coughing blood, Ruan Yuan stubbornly clung to him again.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince! Open your eyes and look! These students are innocent-!"

Emperor Zhou burned with rage. He covered Wu Junji's ears and bellowed:

"I am innocent too! I am innocent too! I am innocent too!"

Wu Junji saw the firelight, heard the wailing, and naturally heard Ruan Yuan's pleas as well.

He tilted his head up toward the jade seal in the sky. A single jade seal pinned every demon within that tiny patch of ground.

What immense authority...

So this was an emperor.

Two thousand eight hundred scholars, all killed.

An Academy that had stood magnificent for a hundred years, burned to the ground.

Things Wu Junji could only dare imagine now, Emperor Zhou could do openly!

The demons he feared were beasts Emperor Zhou could kill with a single word.

The Demon King he wanted to win over was a great beast Emperor Zhou could threaten whenever he pleased.

As long as the emperor came in person, demons, ghosts, serpents, and spirits would all be swept away!

A turn of his palm brought clouds; a flip brought rain. This was the emperor!

The little Crown Prince relaxed. He obediently kept his eyes closed, his ears covered, his chin nestled against the old man's shoulder and both arms around Emperor Zhou's neck.

So very well-behaved.