Conspiracy, Military Review at the Northern Camp

"Everyone, speak your minds." Zhang Wuji sat in the seat of honor, holding a cup of tea that had long gone cold. His eyelids twitched wildly. Even his Astral Qi realm cultivation could not suppress the panic in his heart. Ever since the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Zhuge Huaijin, was ordered by the late Emperor to reflect behind closed doors half a year ago, Zhang Wuji had never felt this way—a feeling that things were slipping out of his control.

"Lord Vice Grand Secretary, what on earth is this little emperor trying to do?!" The Right Censor-in-Chief, a hot-tempered, scrawny old man, slammed his hand on the table and roared in a suppressed voice, "The secret police are running rampant, and the imperial guards are everywhere! How many people did they arrest last night? Even Butcher Wang, who sells pork in the south of the city, was taken by the Eastern Depot! Just because he shouted 'This knife is really sharp' while butchering a pig the day before yesterday, he was suspected of passing a secret signal to assassins! Absurd! It's utterly absurd!"

The Left Vice Minister of Revenue wiped cold sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling, "Yes, My Lord, and that's not all. I heard... that bunch of eunuchs from the Directorate of Ceremonial raided homes in the palace yesterday! Liu Xi and his lot were stripped bare. The exact amount is unknown, but there were at least a hundred carriages hauled out! The little emperor now has money in his hands!"

"So what if he has money?" The Minister of Works snorted coldly, feigning composure. "The national treasury's deficit is a bottomless pit! Even if he raided a few eunuchs, can he cover the military pay for the Northern Army? Can he fill the hole left by the Jiangnan floods? I think his indulgence of the secret police arresting assassins is fake; his real goal is to use this opportunity to warn us, or even to reach out and demand money from us veteran officials!"

A Director from the Bureau of Equipment and Communications swallowed hard and cautiously interjected, "I boldly guess... could His Majesty have discovered our connection with..."

"Shut up!" Zhang Wuji slammed his teacup onto the table with a sharp crack, cutting the man off. His gloomy and cold gaze swept across the room, a sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Everyone, do not panic and mess up our own formation," Zhang Wuji took a deep breath. "The little emperor was merely frightened and is just venting his frustration relying on the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The Great Zhou Empire is governed by us scholars from noble families, not by that bunch of castrated eunuchs and brute warriors!"

He paused, his eyes turning extremely dangerous. "Since he likes to stir up trouble, we will play along. At the Grand Court Assembly in two days, we will give him a heavy blow! Lord Zhao, Left Vice Minister of Revenue, prepare the account books of the treasury's deficit; Lord Qian, Director of the Ministry of War, prepare the emergency dispatches from the northern border! We will jointly submit a memorial to impeach the secret police for disturbing the people and harming the innocent. We will force him to abolish the Eastern Depot and revoke the Embroidered Uniform Guard's powers of investigation, arrest, and judicial trial!"

"What if he doesn't agree?" Liu Yi, the Right Vice Minister of Rites, asked worriedly.

Zhang Wuji sneered repeatedly. "Not agree? Then all the officials will kneel before the palace gates in protest! I want to see how a sixteen-year-old greenhorn can hold up against the pressure of the entire civil and military court forcing his hand, and a paralyzed government with no one to manage affairs! We will completely destroy his prestige and make him obediently act as a clay idol whose only job is to stamp seals!"

"Brilliant, Lord Vice Grand Secretary!" In the secret room, over forty officials cupped their hands in unison, greedy lights flashing in their eyes.

Early the next morning, the mist over the capital had yet to dissipate.

Wang Hao changed into a set of dark gold Nine-Dragon Interlocking Mountain Pattern Armor. With the Emperor's Sword at his waist, and flanked by Pei Jingzhe and Wei Zhongxian as his guards, he marched out of the Imperial City in a grand procession.

Behind him were twenty-five thousand reorganized "Purified Army" soldiers who had just survived a brutal elimination process, their bodies exuding a chilling aura of death. They were accompanied by exactly one hundred massive carriages covered in heavy waterproof tarps. The heavy wheels crushed deep ruts into the bluestone pavement—that was the weight of six million taels of silver!

"The hilt of the blade, the hilt of the blade," Wang Hao thought to himself, his mind as clear as a mirror as he rode his Akhal-Teke steed and felt the cold morning wind. "A great man in my past life once said that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Zhang Wuji and that bunch of old geezers want to play with pens against me in the royal court, so I'll just go to the military camp and sharpen my blade! As long as these two hundred thousand imperial guards are firmly in my grasp, even if the entire civil and military court hangs themselves collectively, I can just recruit a new batch!"

The massive army marched grandly into the Northern Army Camp.

Stationed here was the core force defending the capital: the Four Guards of the Royal Forest Army, as well as the Great Zhou Empire's most elite two hundred thousand imperial guards.

"I, Wei Jing, Duke of Zhenguo and Chief Commander of the Central Army of the Five Armies' Commander-in-Chief's Mansion, lead the generals of the Northern Army to respectfully welcome His Majesty! Long live, long live, long live the Emperor!"

A robust old man with snow-white hair and beard, built like an iron tower, led over a hundred high-ranking military officers clad in solid armor and sharp weapons. They knelt on one knee outside the camp gates, his voice booming like a great bell.

Sitting upright on horseback, Wang Hao did not immediately tell them to rise. Instead, he quietly activated the "Son of Heaven's Qi-Observing Technique."

In an instant, a brilliant golden light flashed deep within his eyes.

In his vision, the world changed its appearance. Above the head of the Duke of Zhenguo and the group of military officers behind him floated clusters of destiny flames. To Wang Hao's gratification, most of these flames were a pure crimson red. The loyalty values provided by the system were uniformly above 80! Moreover, a thin thread branched out from each of these destiny flames, tightly connecting to the destiny above Wang Hao's own head.

Wang Hao looked up and was startled himself.

Hovering in the sky above his head was a Golden Dragon of Destiny, measuring a full twenty zhang in length! The golden dragon's scales were solid and lifelike, its claws bared and teeth drawn. It let out silent dragon roars, radiating a world-suppressing aura.

"Holy crap, when did my destiny take physical form?" Wang Hao cursed wildly in his heart.

The system's cold voice rang out right on cue: [The host led men to besiege the Child of Destiny, Ye Chen, yesterday. Although he escaped, thirty percent of his Heavenly Destiny was forcibly stripped by the system and fed back to the host, causing your destiny to manifest as a dragon.]

Wang Hao suddenly understood and almost laughed out loud on his horse. One must know that destiny has grades, ranging from lowest to highest: black, white, green, blue, yellow (gold), purple, red, and seven-colored. Previously, seeing that Ye Chen's destiny was red and shaped like a purple lotus had made him incredibly envious.

"So that's how it is! Ye Chen, oh Ye Chen, you're no fucking assassin; you are simply my exclusive cornucopia, a walking humanoid ATM! Keeping you around is like keeping a field of leeks that I can harvest anytime!"

Wang Hao looked in the direction Ye Chen had fled, his eyes incredibly gentle, as if he were looking at a peerless treasure.

"Rise, my subjects!" Wang Hao gathered his thoughts, dismounted his horse, and helped up Wei Jing, the Duke of Zhenguo. "Old Duke, you have guarded the capital with great toil and high merit. I am deeply pleased!"

Wei Jing was overwhelmed by the favor and waved his hands repeatedly. "It is merely my duty! With Your Majesty personally visiting the camp today, the morale of the two hundred thousand imperial guards has been greatly boosted! Please ascend the reviewing stand, Your Majesty!"

Wang Hao ascended the commanding platform, which was several zhang high, and looked down.

The combined force of the imperial guards and the Four Guards of the Royal Forest Army totaled two hundred and fifty thousand troops, resembling a boundless forest of steel. Even more terrifying was that, when viewed with the Qi-Observing Technique, all two hundred and fifty thousand of them were martial artists at or above the Second Stage of the Martial Dao, the "Muscle Forging Realm"! The soaring blood vitality gathered together and forcefully scattered the dark clouds in the sky!

"Excellent! What a mighty army!" Wang Hao declared, his heroic spirit soaring to the heavens. "This is the very foundation that allows the Great Zhou to suppress the world and fend off the eerie anomalies! Old Duke, show me your military drills!"

"As you command, Your Majesty!" The Defender Duke drew the heavy sword from his waist, thrust it fiercely toward the sky, and roared, "All troops, hear my command! Execute the formations!"