His Majesty Never Breaks His Word to His Own People

"That half-step tenth-rank strange creature was stabbed by me and retreated to the depths of the South Sea. But it's not dead - it's nursing its wounds, absorbing the strange power from the depths of the South Sea, and preparing for the next attack. It will come back - not today, not tomorrow, but one day it will. When it returns, it will be stronger, more ruthless, and more desperate than this time."

"So I won't give you a long vacation. Once you've recovered from your injuries, continue your training. Once the ships are repaired, resume your patrols. Once the city walls are mended, keep strengthening them. I want to turn the South Sea defense line into an impregnable fortress, so that when it comes next time, it will be beaten to a pulp before it even gets close to the coastline."

"I'm asking you - can you do it?"

"Yes!" The response on the city wall was thunderous.

"Can you?"

"Yes!!"

"Good." Wang Hao nodded, and then said something that left everyone stunned.

"The memorial service is over. He Lanyue, Han Shanyue, and the Demon Lord - you three stay. The rest of you, go have a meal."

The words "have a meal" made the solemn atmosphere on the city wall loosen up a bit.

The soldiers stared blankly at their emperor.

He stood at the highest point of the city tower, and the twelve tassels of his crown cast a mottled shadow on his face.

He had gritted his teeth while saying the previous words, but when he said "have a meal" at the end, the familiar, somewhat annoying bright smile appeared on his lips again.

"The wounded soldiers eat first. There's plenty of meat porridge - I've had the imperial kitchen move the stewing pot from the capital here. You can't drink alcohol - it won't help the wounds of the injured heal. I'll treat you to a good drink once you're recovered. Each person gets three bowls of rice. If you get one bowl less, go to Wei Zhongxian for reimbursement. Don't stare at me. I'm not eating - I still have internal injuries, and the imperial doctor said I can only have porridge."

As he turned to leave, a bold young soldier suddenly shouted, "Your Majesty, you're much handsomer when you don't swear!"

Wang Hao raised his right hand without looking back, giving a thumbs up.

"Of course. When have I ever not been handsome?"

Laughter mixed with sobs echoed over Zhennan Pass for a long time.

As the soldiers dispersed in twos and threes, some still had red eyes, some were secretly tucking the remaining wine from the memorial offering on the altar into their bosoms, and some silently kowtowed three times in the direction of the sea by the city wall.

Wei Zhongxian stood in the shadow of the city tower, watching the back of his emperor walking away. A rare glint flashed in his cloudy old eyes.

"General He," he suddenly said to He Lanyue who was still standing beside him, "You haven't known His Majesty for long. There's something you might not know."

"What is it?"

"His Majesty will do every single word he said today," Wei Zhongxian's voice was calm, as if stating the most ordinary fact.

"Your Majesty is greedy for money, scheming, good at swearing without using dirty words, and shameless when it comes to tricking people - but he never breaks his promises to his own people."

He Lanyue was silent for a moment, still looking at the direction where Wang Hao had disappeared under the city wall.

"Eunuch Wei, my life belongs to His Majesty."

"Coincidentally," Wei Zhongxian said indifferently, slightly tightening his hands hidden in his sleeves. "So does mine."

After the memorial service, the fragrance of meat wafted over Zhennan Pass for a full seven days.

These were the livestock urgently transferred from Nan'an City and various prefectures in the southern border - three thousand pigs, one hundred cows, eight hundred sheep, and countless chickens and ducks.

The transfer order from the Ministry of Revenue said it was for "military supplies," but the old imperial chef accompanying them secretly told the soldiers that it was the money His Majesty took from his own inner treasury.

"His Majesty said that after a victory, you have to eat well. You can't raise soldiers who can fight tough battles just by having porridge," the old imperial chef said while sprinkling salt into the pot. The salt was sea salt he brought from the capital, which was saltier and fresher than the rock salt in the southern border.

"But you can't drink alcohol - His Majesty said it won't help the wounds of the injured heal. If anyone secretly gives alcohol to the injured, they'll be sent to the naval corpse retrieval team."

When this reached the wounded barracks, a group of soldiers wrapped in bandages immediately groaned in distress.

Especially the old soldier who had broken three fingers - his name was Liu Tiezhu, an old scout from the Fourth Battalion of the border troops - he slapped the stretcher and shouted, "No alcohol? His Majesty is trying to kill me! I'd rather break three more fingers for a pot of sorghum liquor!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a peanut flew in from the window and accurately hit him on the forehead.

"If you keep blabbering, I'll send you to wash Han Shanyue's prosthetic leg," Wang Hao's figure flashed past the door of the wounded barracks, holding a bowl of white porridge and drinking as he walked.

"Han Shanyue's iron leg hasn't been washed for three days. The strange pus on it stinks worse than your mouth."

Liu Tiezhu immediately shut up, and the entire wounded barracks fell silent. After Wang Hao walked away, a new recruit beside him whispered, "Brother Liu, does His Majesty come to the wounded barracks every day?"

"Every day," Liu Tiezhu rubbed the red mark on his forehead, grinning, not knowing if it was from the pain or happiness.

"He played a game of chess with Lao Zhang yesterday. When he lost, he scolded Lao Zhang's chess skills as lousy. After that, he had someone send Lao Zhang a new walking stick. What kind of thing is this - even after being scolded by His Majesty, you still want to kowtow to him."

A low laugh rang out in the wounded barracks. The laughter was mixed with coughs and muffled groans from wound dressing changes, but there was finally laughter - this was the first time laughter had been heard in the wounded barracks since the war started.

On the city wall, the rune masters from the Ministry of Works were repairing the city - protecting formation. Three hundred rune masters were divided into three shifts, working day and night to re - carve the formation plates.

The black marks left by the strange creature's erosion needed to be cleaned first - it was an extremely delicate job. The rune masters knelt on the stone bricks and scraped inch by inch. Each inch had to be soaked in a special rune liquid three times, and after each soaking, it had to be dried in the sun. If the rune liquid wasn't dried, it wouldn't seep into the deep layer of the stone bricks, and the carved formation plates would crack within three months.

Cui Yuan, the vice - minister of the Ministry of Works, knelt at the front, with two rags under his knees and a carving knife in his hand. He hadn't slept for three days, and his eyes were bloodshot, but his carving knife was as steady as if it were cast in iron. This high - ranking vice - minister of the Ministry of Works now had a mixture of stone powder and rune liquid all over his hands, and his fingernails were full of black strange residues. His official robe sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing his skinny forearms.

"Sir Cui, take a rest," a young rune master beside him couldn't bear to watch anymore. "Let the apprentices carve these lower - level formation plates."

"Stop talking nonsense," Cui Yuan didn't even turn his head.

"The lower - level formation plates are the foundation of the entire formation. If you let the apprentices carve them, and if even one rune is carved half a millimeter off, the power of the entire Nine - Layer Strange Creature Extermination Formation will be reduced when it's restarted. His Majesty has poured all the spiritual stone reserves of the Eastern Wilderness into this formation. If anyone cuts corners, I'll first dismiss them from their duties and then go to His Majesty to take the blame myself."

"But your health -"

"Health? My health is nothing," Cui Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, rubbed the carving knife on the whetstone, and then bent down again to continue carving.

"Did His Majesty think about his health when he stood in front of five million people alone? Should I think about my health just because I'm carving a few stones?"