Three days later, the capital had regained its calm.
The Yulin Royal Guards were heavily guarded outside the Imperial Palace. Their expressions were as cold and resolute as usual. Only the most attentive people could see the tiredness and a tinge of bewilderment in the eyes of those officers and soldiers. The City Gate Guards were under strict orders to constantly patrol the markets and arrest many thieves who wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rebel. There was no problem with public security.
The populace once again busied themselves with their livelihoods. In their free time, they no longer enjoyed discussing political affairs in the tea houses or secretly cursing the Demon Empress for harming the country. Instead, they returned home early and locked the doors to their courtyards, treating the storm outside as having nothing to do with them. The people of the capital had seen far too many things and heard far too many stories. Let alone the events of the Hundred Herb Garden, just twenty years ago, when the capital was embroiled in the bloody incident of the Orthodox Academy, many people had personally witnessed an even bloodier sight. Whether it was a coup, a rebellion, a purge of the emperor's side, or a return to the throne, they had long since experienced it. These matters had nothing to do with them. They could just silently wait for the initial storm to dissipate.
The weather of the last few days was also exceptionally good. The clear autumn air was refreshing, the sun was high in the sky, and the leaves were drifting down. It was like nothing had happened in the last few days. Yet there were few pedestrians on the streets. The quiet capital was not quiet, only deathly stillness, because in the end, many things had happened.
On the morning of the Tianhai Empress's death, a young Daoist, accompanied by the former Orthodox Academy's Shang Xingzhou, the Chen clan's prince, and countless ministers, entered the Imperial Palace from the Mausoleum of Books. Then, in the Imperial Court, he once more received the obeisance of the ministers and formally ascended to the throne.
It was rumored that this was Crown Prince Zhaoming who had escaped the palace.
The first thing the new monarch did upon ascending to the throne was issue an edict. The edict had many words and was very complex. Not even the officials of the Bureau of Rites could remember all the details, but even the stupidest and most boorish person could make out a few basic meanings from the words of the edict: everything the Tianhai Divine Empress had done in the last few years had been wrong, the people she had punished were all innocent, and then there were rewards, so naturally there were punishments.
The rewards were all official positions of the Imperial Court. In any case, those officials loyal to the Tianhai Divine Empress were all imprisoned, as well as the glory of Divine Generals. In any case, those Divine Generals loyal to the Tianhai Divine Empress were either dead, heavily injured, or betrayed. As for punishment, it was even simpler, just the word 'kill'.
It was said that autumn wind and autumn rain were murderous. These few days had been a cold autumn. There was no bleak wind or miserable rain, but many people had been killed.
After killing all those who needed to be killed and those who needed to be killed, many people cast their gazes in one direction. Logically speaking, everyone's gazes should be on the Imperial Palace or the Li Palace, but they just had to look in that direction, with completely different moods.
That was the Orthodox Academy.
Very few people knew that on that early morning, Chen Changsheng had carried the Tianhai Divine Empress's body back to the Orthodox Academy. From that moment on, the gate of the Orthodox Academy was never opened again. Not even the fruits and vegetables that Clear Lake Restaurant had braved the risk to deliver were delivered in. This was because the gate had never been opened, and also because the Orthodox Academy had already been surrounded.
Two thousand black-armored cavalry had surrounded the Orthodox Academy so tightly that not even a drop of water could trickle through. Hundred Flowers Lane and the Hundred Herb Garden were filled with cultivators. Only a very small number of people knew that the first thing the new sovereign did upon ascending to the throne was not to issue that edict to the world, but to issue a decree ordering that the Orthodox Academy be guarded, forbidding anyone from entering or leaving, and that violators would be executed without mercy.
Somewhat subtly, the people responsible for guarding the Orthodox Academy were Tianhai Shengxue and the Prince of He County.
The Prince of He County was the Prince of Xiang's younger brother from the same mother, and they had always had a close relationship. In the past, he had even killed an official sent to him by the Imperial Palace for the Prince of Xiang's sake. Tianhai Shengxue was the most outstanding descendant of the Tianhai clan's younger generation. He had an old grudge with the Orthodox Academy, but it seemed to have been resolved. Crucially, why had the Imperial Palace sent the two of them to handle this matter together? The Tianhai Empress was already dead, so how could the complicated relationship between the Chen clan and the Tianhai clan continue?
Those who knew the inside story maintained their silence. They gazed at the Orthodox Academy with very complicated gazes, because the Tianhai Divine Empress's body was within. Those who did not know the inside story spiritedly discussed this matter in their own estates, their gazes towards the Orthodox Academy brimming with ridicule, sympathy, or perhaps delight in its misfortune.
That night three days ago had truly been very long. It began with Chen Changsheng leaving the Orthodox Academy and beating Zhou Tong half to death in that crabapple tree courtyard in the alley of the Northern Military Department. Afterwards, he was sent back to the Orthodox Academy by the Orthodoxy and then brought to the peak of the Mausoleum of Books by the Divine Empress. Just when everyone believed that the Divine Empress would kill him, for some reason, the Empress released him. Finally, all the experts of the world gathered in the capital, and finally, the Divine Empress's soul returned to the sea of stars … In the span of a single night, so many world-shaking events had occurred. It was naturally easy for people to forget the details of these relatively unimportant events, but the entire world would never forget Shang Xingzhou's words.
Chen Changsheng … was not Crown Prince Zhaoming, he was not the Divine Empress's son. He was only a guise used to protect His Majesty, only bait used to weaken the Divine Empress. Now that the Divine Empress was dead and His Majesty had succeeded in ascending to the imperial throne, what use did he have? Without his background and identity, what use was there even if Chen Changsheng's talent in cultivation? Anyone could admit that he had displayed an extremely rare ability and courage in killing Zhou Tong, but … if nothing unexpected happened, Lord Zhou Tong, who had played the most crucial role in this rebellion, would assuredly play an even more important role in the new structure of the Imperial Court. At that time, what would he do?
Those powerful figures thought of the black-armored heavy cavalry surrounding the Orthodox Academy and believed that in a little while, a new and precise decree would descend. Chen Changsheng would lose everything he once possessed. The Principal of the Orthodox Academy? The successor to the Pope? Everything was just a river of stars in the Luo River. In the end, it was not real.
As he gazed at the tightly shut gate of the Orthodox Academy, he thought of the mocking smile on his father's lips over the last two nights, thought of Tianhai Ya'er's clansmen taking pleasure in his misfortune. Two unnatural blushes appeared on Tianhai Shengxue's pale face. He said, "The matter has just ended and you want to throw him away? Are you really using him like a rag?"
The Prince of He County knew that he was speaking of Chen Changsheng and jeered, "I don't even know where this bastard came from. Just because his luck was good, he was able to pick the venerable Principal Shang to be His Majesty's substitute. After entering the capital, he stirred up so much trouble, but a chess piece is still a chess piece. Does he really want to continue holding onto those things that he has no right to hold onto?"
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