A piece of strange, finely polished purple gold was inlaid in his left cheek, as though wearing brocade and jade and a gold thumb ring was still not enough for its owner: even his flesh and bones had to exude a nobility beyond the reach of the world.
His cultivation was indeed unfathomable. The moment Di Jiu stepped into the hall, he felt the daylight seemingly dim, a cold gloom enveloping his body.
The man now gazed languidly at the scarlet robe below him, as though the color signifying fourth rank merely bored him. He tapped the table lightly, but when he spoke, his voice was thin and shrill as a snake's hiss. "Lord Di, I hear you are loyal to your sovereign and devoted to the people. It seems I must come personally to smooth things over."
Di Jiu drew a deep breath, then held it as he looked levelly at this eunuch whose power was renowned throughout the Divine Capital. In that instant, a chill inevitably swept through him.
Yu Sicheng.
If the sovereign was the sky over Great Tang, then the man before him was at least the dark cloud shrouding the Divine Capital.
A palace eunuch since childhood, he had climbed step by step to the very top within a palace where lives were worth no more than grass. Years ago, during the war on the Northern Frontier, he had inspected the troops and led them to defeat the enemy, earning the title of commandery duke. Even then, he had already been the sovereign's most familiar right hand, while Di Jiu was still wearing the pale blue robes of ninth rank, drifting through a minor post outside the capital on a meager salary.
Now, hearing the man address him as "Lord Di," Di Jiu brushed his