Chapter 76: Chapter 67: First Grade Grandmaster

Su Chen didn’t go to meet with Black Abyss. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but that he couldn’t. Because... the Flame Emperor had arrived.

Year Three of the Great Zhou Xuanlong Dynasty.

The first day of the third month.

The Imperial Palace gradually settled down.

Within the Imperial City, the purge of traitors was still underway. As great clans fell, new elites rose, triggering another storm of blood.

But none of this had anything to do with Su Chen. He silently watched as the Flame Emperor personally poured him tea in the courtyard.

Even as the Captain of the Western Depot, he shouldn’t have been granted such a great honor.

’What’s the deal with this Little Eunuch?’

’Did His Majesty the Flame Emperor summon us just to watch him pour tea for this Little Eunuch?’

’This kid is in his twenties and has no cultivation aura whatsoever. He’s obviously a nobody. What right does he have to make the Flame Emperor visit in person?’

’The Flame Emperor is even pouring him tea? His Majesty wouldn’t act like this even for a First Grade expert.’

In the courtyard, the three Peak First Grade experts from the Heaven-Ascension Tower exchanged glances, each seeing the confusion in the others’ eyes.

Besides them, another man stood by the Flame Emperor’s side. He was an old man holding a Duster, with white hair, a white beard, and the transcendent air of a Daoist immortal. His eyes remained fixed on Su Chen.

"This..."

Cyan Sparrow was confused.

For this visit, the Flame Emperor was wearing casual attire.

Even so, it was still a bright yellow robe, a color exclusive to the Royal Race.

She wondered if he was some Prince.

"Master Xu."

"What did you do to offend the Royal Race?"

"The Great Zhou Royal Family rules all under Heaven! How can ordinary eunuchs and palace maids like us afford to provoke them?"

Cyan Sparrow grew frantic, even wanting to grab Su Chen and flee.

She had reached the Fourth Grade.

In just two short months, she had become a cultivation prodigy.

Cyan Sparrow figured.

She still had a sliver of a chance.

What she didn’t know was that everyone else in the courtyard was First Grade. Even the Flame Emperor was a cultivator, with power comparable to the First Grade.

Cyan Sparrow fainted.

Su Chen had knocked her out.

"The little lady is just being foolish. Please don’t take offense, Your Majesty."

Su Chen spoke apologetically to the Flame Emperor, carried Cyan Sparrow into the Library Pavilion, then sat back down on the stone stool and resumed reading, all without a glance at the Emperor.

"How audacious!"

"A mere Pharmacy Eunuch from the fallen Great Liang dares to show such disrespect for His Majesty the Flame Emperor, the master of this world? Do you really think your Western Depot can blot out the sun?"

"Get over here and perform your obeisance at once!"

The three Peak First Grade experts from the Heaven-Ascension Tower, who hadn’t even dared to make a move on Su Chen, were suddenly very bold, immediately starting to berate him.

They were showing their allegiance, trying to curry favor with the Flame Emperor.

But the Flame Emperor was unappreciative.

In fact, he seemed annoyed, as if in his eyes, this frail-looking Little Eunuch carried more weight than the three Peak First Grade experts combined.

"You may all withdraw."

The Flame Emperor glanced at the three Peak First Grade experts behind him.

They didn’t understand, but they complied nonetheless.

Now, only Su Chen, the Flame Emperor, and the Fuchen Daoist remained in the courtyard.

Su Chen was reading.

The Flame Emperor was drinking tea.

As for the Fuchen Daoist, he stared intently at Su Chen. Beneath his robes, thunder and violet lightning gathered on his Silver Armor.

He was itching for a fight.

This Daoist had stood at the Peak for an unknown amount of time; perhaps he had even touched upon the Grandmaster Realm.

No one in the courtyard spoke.

After a long moment.

RUMBLE—

Dark clouds gathered and rolled in. The sky, which had finally cleared, was once again filled with rain. A light drizzle drifted down upon the Human World, blanketing the Imperial City.

And yet, not a single drop managed to dampen the robes of anyone in the courtyard.

"The tea is getting cold. Are you not going to drink it?"

In the end, it was the Flame Emperor who broke the silence.

"I am unaware of Your Majesty’s intentions. I dare not drink."

Su Chen was still reading his book.

It was a cultivation storybook he had found in the Library Pavilion. It told the tale of an Internal Organ Second Grade expert who made a great vow. In response, the heavens took notice, and his body became Leakless, his Qi and blood reached Perfection, and he stepped into the First Grade.

It also told of drawing upon the Power of Heaven and Earth to temper the physical body, advancing from First Grade to Grandmaster, and thereafter roaming the world unchallenged.

Su Chen read with great relish.

"We wish to appoint the Wind Snow Little Grandmaster—he who split the Nujiang River with a single sword—as the Great Zhou’s Supreme Supervisor of the Purple Robe. What are your thoughts, Eunuch Xu?"

The Flame Emperor’s gaze was deep as he quietly watched Su Chen, awaiting his response.

Great Zhou had no Purple Robes.

Even the Chief of the First Seal Division, a Peak First Grade expert on the verge of reaching the ultimate Peak, was still just a Red Robe.

A Purple Robe, and bestowed with the title of "Supreme" at that. This was an unprecedented event in the history of Great Zhou; the honor could not be overstated.

"What does appointing Lord Su have to do with me, Xu Ge?"

Su Chen was still reading.

As if no one else existed.

And yet, no one present dared to question it.

The Wind Snow Little Grandmaster, who had split a river and ended the Great Liang Dynasty with a single sword, had earned the right to be so.

"Unifying the lands under Heaven will inevitably bring about growing pains."

"But."

"After the pain passes, the lands will be safe, and the Human World will be at peace."

"I wonder."

"How do you suppose the Wind Snow Little Grandmaster would view these things, Eunuch Xu?"

The water on the tea stove boiled.

He brushed the rainwater from the stone table, wiped a cup clean, and once more poured tea for Su Chen.

The Flame Emperor was still pressing for an answer.

This time.

Su Chen put down his book.

"’Growing pains?’"

"Even if Lord Su doesn’t intervene."

"These ’growing pains’ might be enough to bury Great Zhou all on their own. Is Your Majesty certain you wish for them to continue?"

The rain fell, and the air grew colder.

The cup of tea grew cold with it.

"As long as the Wind Snow Little Grandmaster does not interfere, then after a decade of pain, the state will be prosperous, the people will be at peace, and the lands will be safe."

"And Great Zhou will not fall."

A light shone in the Flame Emperor’s eyes.

He, too, was an ambitious sovereign in his own right.

He had risen to power by committing patricide.

He did not believe he was wrong.

And.

He wanted to prove that he was not the one at fault—the Xuanlong Emperor was.

He was determined to favor the Zhou people, to let them—who had suffered hardship for three hundred years—finally live happy lives. Of course, the Liang People were also his subjects.

But it had to be the Zhou first, and the Liang second.

Ten years.

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