Chapter 556: Fortune

Chapter 556: Fortune

Within the grand and majestic bedchambers, Ji Lin paced back and forth in a towering rage, his hands clasped tightly behind his back. Success had been mere inches away, yet a blunder had arisen at the final hour.

After walking for a time, he swung his left hand violently, his broad sleeve whipping through the air.

"Deploy the remaining men. I do not care what method you use; that girl Anping must be found before the grand coronation!"

"Your old servant obeys the decree."

"Your Majesty, pray appease your anger. This trifle will not delay us for long. Now, unless one is blind, anyone can see that fortune favors you. It would be a far graver matter if you were to ruin your health over this."

Hearing these words, Ji Lin’s countenance softened slightly. "Right, is there still no news of Er Jiu from the Ao Jing Sect?"

"The guards at the city gates claim to have seen him enter, but whether by divination or casting lots, he cannot be found anywhere in the capital."

"Hmph! That man is truly useless when put to the test. No matter, in consideration of his past merits, his faults are balanced by his achievements. Grant him some idle, minor official post."

Having spoken, Ji Lin kept his hands behind his back and prepared for the morning court. Yet while changing garments, he suddenly changed his mind and walked toward the imperial ancestral temple instead.

This time, he went unaccompanied, entering the sepulcher entirely alone. Accompanied by the shuddering rumble of stone, the sarcophagus pulled by nine dragons slowly ground open.

"Imperial Father, everything you once commanded of me, I have accomplished." Ji Lin looked straight at his father lying within, his eyes devoid of even a shred of attachment.

"Good... Good! Hahaha, you truly are the son I favored." Wrapped tightly in golden chains, the old emperor laughed aloud.

"Imperial Mother supported the First Prince, so I killed her too!" Ji Lin's words forced the emperor's voice to a sudden halt.

"The Grand Empress Dowager intended to rebel, so I killed her as well. Imperial Father, this is what you taught me: he who accomplishes great things may kill even his closest kin!"

The old emperor inside the coffin paused for a moment before speaking once more: "Ruthless enough. I did not judge you blindly."

This was clearly not the answer Ji Lin had hoped to receive. Flying into a furious rage, he kicked over the sacrificial offerings before the sarcophagus.

"Why! Now that I am on the verge of becoming emperor, I ask you now, why! Why must we brothers slaughter one another!"

"I tell you! I am the emperor now, and from now on, my word is law. I will absolutely never allow my own children to slaughter one another!"

"Hehehe..." The old emperor laughed. "Lin'er? Why do you think the civil and military officials listen to us? Why do they honor us above all?"

"Because we are the emperors!"

"Do you truly believe so? Do you truly believe that relying on the mere name of emperor can make the military strategists and the Confucians absolutely loyal to our imperial house, without a single trace of betrayal?"

"Even the imperial guards are their men. Do you know why they dare not overthrow us and become emperors themselves?"

This question struck Ji Lin dumb; it was a matter he had never once considered.

"Because they dare not. Because they dare not watch their own clansmen slaughter one another in cold blood, but we of the Ji family dare!!"

"When the Great Qi Dynasty collapsed and the realm was left without a leader, our Ji family was accounted a great clan, numbering at least several thousand if not ten thousand. For this imperial throne, we killed mothers as sons, killed grandsons as grandfathers, and slaughtered our own brothers until, by brutal force, only a single soul remained—and that man was the first emperor of our Great Liang Dynasty."

"That is why our Ji family can maintain a single line for ten thousand generations, while the remaining cowardly rats can only be driven at our beck and call!"

Ji Lin recoiled a few paces in disbelief, visibly shaken to the core by this revelation.

After pausing for a several seconds, he said with immense grievance: "But why!! Why must it be our Ji family, of all people, that must tear through our own flesh and blood?"

"Because we are the Sons of Heaven! True Dragon Sons of Heaven! Only by this means can we bear the fortune of the Great Liang Dynasty!"

With a roar from the old emperor, a soul-shaking dragon's cry echoed from within the sarcophagus. Strands of dragon scales turned up across Ji Lin's body, only to vanish piece by piece.

After a long while, the dragon's cry gradually subsided. The old emperor's voice carried a hint of weariness as he said: "Since you are about to ascend the throne, I shall enlighten you. In truth, this world was not as peaceful in the past as you imagine."

"In ancient antiquity, mankind was bred by the Wu shamans to be eaten, living exactly like swine that feed on filth."

"But later, our ancestors refused to remain swine for generations, so they all fled."

"Yet fleeing was not enough; sooner or later, they would come looking for us. Therefore, we had to find a way to carve out a realm of our own to live in, and fortune is the very thing that props up this realm."

"But they will not leave things be; they are always thinking of breaking through our realm to drag us back to being swine."

"Back then, the ancients devised a method. They seized a portion of fortune from the Wu shamans and had a single person prop up this realm. That person was the original emperor. No matter where an emperor rules, they are all the same."

Ji Lin stood frozen in place, his mind in complete disarray, unable to comprehend what the other was saying for the moment.

"It matters not if you cannot grasp it. After you ascend the throne, take your time to ponder it well. Remember, what I speak is the truth. If anyone tells you of some Ordainer of Fate or Eternal Heaven in the future, those are all falsehoods, meant only to deceive the ignorant masses."

Ji Lin walked out in a daze, sitting upon the steps of his bedchambers to ponder for a long time, from the falling of dusk until the breaking of dawn.

If his imperial father had not deceived him, then his own descendants in the future would also have to slaughter one another just as he had.

To uphold this so-called fortune, the Ji family had truly paid far, far too high a price.

It was not that Ji Lin had never thought of abandoning the emperorship, of letting someone else bear this fortune instead.

Yet he had already sacrificed so much, killed so many brothers and sisters, and survived with great difficulty to finally ascend the throne.

He had paid the price, exerting every ounce of his strength to emerge as the sole survivor among the nine. Now that the fruit was ripe for the picking, was he to hand this prize directly to another simply because his future children would slaughter one another? He could not bring himself to do it.

Only when the old eunuch draped the dragon robe over his shoulders did he suddenly startle awake. "Your Majesty, pray enter the palace to rest. You will break your health with such exhaustion."

Ji Lin nodded silently, turning back toward his bedchambers, his mind still echoing with thoughts of his father and the state he was currently in. "If a dead man can be kept alive by force, does that not mean the Imperial Father of today is immortal?"

Lying upon his bed, Ji Lin muddled through these questions in his mind.

It was at this moment that he suddenly caught the sound of faint footsteps rapidly approaching his position.

"What is it?" Ji Lin asked, his eyes half-closed as he lay upon the bed.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Princess Anping's whereabouts have been spotted on the outskirts of the capital. She was taken away by that Er Jiu."

"What!?" Ji Lin's eyes snapped open, glaring with gritted teeth at the young eunuch who had brought the news.

"It is actually him! I bared my very heart and soul to him! Yet he dared betray me for the sake of a woman!"

"Pass down the order! Once captured, execute Er Jiu's entire clan to the ninth generation! Put him to death by a thousand cuts! Feed every shred of his flesh to the dogs!!"

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(End of this chapter)