Luo Shi had passed away!
What this affected was not merely his own life and death, or his family's grief and sorrow.
The death of any great figure would bring enormous changes to the political landscape; even the survival of an entire faction could rest upon its leader.
No outsiders knew that the Luo Clan possessed a Divine Artifact, and their supernatural qualities were likewise only a matter of speculation to outsiders, who did not know how powerful they were.
But why did emperors, nobles, and officials alike still fear the Luo Clan so deeply and treat them with such respect?
Ordinary people respected the Luo Clan because of their legends and virtue.
But how could creatures like officials possibly respect someone purely for their virtue?
If that were truly the case, the man directing the affairs of Great Ming should not have been Zhang Juzheng, but Hai Rui!
When Great Han had first been founded, the Luo Clan had been known as "Half the Court of Luo," and people had said, "Luo and Liu share All Under Heaven!"
These sayings described the immense power of the Luo Clan, which rivaled that of the imperial house. This was not the slightest exaggeration, but what everyone under heaven believed-even the imperial house itself.
Some people with exceptionally dark minds had even suspected, during the Three Luos Assisting in Government, that the Empress Dowager might imitate Qin Shi Huang's mother, Zhao Ji, and produce a supposed posthumous son of Liu Bang to usurp the Han Dynasty.
For in the court of that time, even the founding statesmen had straddled the fence between Luo and Liu. Great Han's founding contributors and its major stakeholder, the Lü Clan, all leaned toward the Luo Clan. How could the Liu Clan fight them?
They could usurp