Everyone looked at their Empress in horror.
They had expected to see thunderous fury, or at least a trace of panic.
Yet there was none!
The Jade Dragon Empress was momentarily stunned upon hearing the news.
Then, before the terrified eyes of the old minister and the eunuch—
A smile slowly bloomed across her dignified, peerlessly beautiful face...
That smile began as a faintly amused curve, then gradually became a soft laugh she could no longer suppress.
At last, she pressed a hand to her forehead and burst into clear, melodious, yet bone-chilling laughter!
"Hahaha... Hahahahaha!"
"Good! What a Ye Li!!"
Even Uncle Fangshan, whose tears had yet to dry, forgot his grief and raised his head in stunned disbelief.
"Your Majesty, General Shi Xingya is dead as well!" A minister outside the hall could not help reminding her. This was no longer something a Dao Seeking Realm prodigy could explain!
"Shi Xingya?" The Jade Dragon Empress stopped laughing and slowly wiped away a tear she had laughed from the corner of her eye.
"A piece of trash at the fifth level of the Melding Dao Realm, unable to take down even a tiny Heavenly Maiden Star Domain."
"Dead, then dead."
Her gaze then fell upon the vast star-river map, and an almost greedy possessiveness erupted from her:
"What matters is Ye Li!"
"He wiped out my two hundred thousand troops within the time it takes an incense stick to burn, together with Shi Xingya!"
"This is no longer merely a prodigy!"
"This is a gift!"
"The most perfect trophy that Star Sea has bestowed upon me!"
Another old minister said tremblingly, "But... our army has already been routed..."
"Routed?" The Jade Dragon Empress's tone brimmed with absolute confidence. "This does not even qualify as a rout!"
"It merely means