The morning sun rose, spilling golden light over the Divine Capital's sweeping eaves and interlocking brackets, gilding the thousand-year-old city with a warm glow. Bathed in the sunrise, the Retired Emperor's aura joined heaven and earth and climbed without limit. The Empress Dowager was slightly moved; she had not expected his strength to have truly surpassed what it had been back then.
But she said no more to him. Though their affection as husband and wife had long since faded, she still respected this man who had once been her husband.
Power was an aphrodisiac in its own right. Most of those who lived as freely as drifting clouds and wild cranes had never tasted it.
For someone like the Retired Emperor, forcibly driven down from the mountain, unwillingness to accept his lot was only natural.
She merely felt some regret over Heavenly Bird's fate.
Back then, Heavenly Bird had served under her.
She, too, was an old acquaintance of his.
Just then, the Retired Emperor suddenly spoke. "I never asked Heavenly Bird to do any of this."
The Empress Dowager had not expected him to speak to her.
Seeing the look in his eyes, she understood something. "He probably wasn't doing it for you either. The Great Grandmasters of Nine Heavens are different from officials of the Former Dynasty. They've retained some of their Jianghu ways. What he died for was his own path-the rules and human obligations he acknowledged beyond the Imperial Court's laws." At this, she grew somewhat wistful. "You people surnamed Xia deserve the greatest credit for allowing those Jianghu ways to survive in Nine Heavens." Martial heroes used their prowess to violate prohibitions. Under normal circumstances, the Imperial Family should not have shown Nine Heavens' experts too much tolerance.
But apart from the Empress five