The current Empress of the Great Chu Empire, Jiang Mengxuan, was just seventeen years old.
Her beauty was stunning. Her cold demeanor made others hesitate to approach. Her purity was like a lotus blooming from clear waters—fresh and ethereal.
These traits had followed Jiang Mengxuan ever since she completed her coming-of-age ceremony at the age of fourteen. Every frown and smile of hers carried a unique charm that drew attention from all around, yet made people afraid to get too close. She was like a snow lotus atop a high mountain—beautiful to admire, but untouchable.
But beneath that icy exterior, her heart quietly longed for connection. When she ascended the throne at sixteen, she vowed to build the Great Chu Empire into the most prosperous empire on the entire Great Martial Continent.
Yet ideals are full, and reality is harsh.
From the moment she took the throne, Jiang Mengxuan faced overwhelming pressure from both the Court and other forces. Ceding the three counties north of Bingzhou to the Northern Yan Empire and shaking hands in peace was the only way she could stabilize her throne. In truth, those three counties weren’t even part of the Great Chu Empire’s original territory. They were buffer zones the Chu military had seized from the Yan army. Yet losing them still pained her more than anyone could know. It was a helpless compromise.
Because within the entire Court, the one with the greatest influence wasn’t the Jiang imperial family—it was the Chancellor’s Estate, the Ye family.
The Ye family had been foundational contributors when the Great Chu Empire was first established six centuries ago. Over time, they had become the most powerful noble family in the empire. The Chancellor’s Estate had students and protégés across the empire. Anyone wishing to enter politics had to be recommended by the Ye family.
To this day, 80% of the officials across the Great Chu Empire, including key military positions, were all appointed through the Ye family’s influence. The Chancellor’s Estate had already become a symbol of dominance.
The current Chancellor, Ye Mo, held enormous power. Everyone in the Court and even sects across the empire relied on his favor. Even the martial world maintained close ties with him.
This was the greatest opponent Jiang Mengxuan had to face since her ascension—the power struggle between imperial authority and noble families.
She still remembered clearly how, at the beginning of her reign, she had no choice but to compromise with Ye Mo to consolidate her authority. The ceding of the three counties north of Bingzhou to the Northern Yan Empire was orchestrated entirely by Ye Mo. His aim was to test her attitude toward the Ye family.
Only after the truce agreement between the two empires was signed did Jiang Mengxuan receive the Ye family’s support and temporarily stabilize her position as Empress. But she understood all too well that this was only a temporary arrangement. The rupture between the Jiang family and the Ye family was only a matter of time.
Before that day came, Jiang Mengxuan needed to cultivate power that truly belonged to her, to resist the pressure from the Chancellor’s Estate. She had to endure and suppress all personal feelings until she possessed the strength to challenge them openly.
The Imperial Guard was her first move.
Originally, when Jiang Mengxuan ascended the throne, she had intended to reorganize the imperial guards. But after making a private deal with Ye Mo, she had to abandon that plan. Even within the guards, there were too many Ye family loyalists. A reorganization would shake imperial authority itself.
So she took a step back and created the Imperial Guard—a loyal force directly under her command.
At least for now, the Imperial Guard had performed well enough to satisfy Jiang Mengxuan.
But now, a new problem had emerged.
A secret realm had been discovered on the outskirts of Jinling. After investigation, it was confirmed to be a Tier-3 secret realm. (Secret realms were divided into seven tiers, the lower the number, the greater the treasure or wealth within. Beyond the seven tiers were ancient secret realms, which were extremely rare.)
This was good news for the Court. The treasures within the secret realm could replenish the national treasury and attract cultivators to serve the Great Chu Empire.
However, the issue lay with this very secret realm.
It had been targeted by a sect called Qingyi Tower, which claimed that they would be the first to explore and claim the secret realm in Jinling.
Qingyi Tower was a quasi-first-class sect within the Great Chu Empire. Its Tower Master, Xue Wuying, was at the perfection stage of the Innate Realm. The sect’s disciples were a mixed bag, and most of the negative gossip in the martial world revolved around Qingyi Tower.
Naturally, Jiang Mengxuan had no interest in dealing with such a sect.
Unfortunately, this time, Qingyi Tower was recommended by none other than Ye Mo, and they had already dispatched fifteen disciples who were expected to arrive in Jinling before the 8th of this month. That meant there were less than three days until they reached the capital.
Jiang Mengxuan was extremely reluctant to let a group of such degenerates claim the secret realm. But right now, she had no leverage to negotiate with the Chancellor’s Estate.
Looking at the itinerary Ye Mo had sent to the Imperial Study, Jiang Mengxuan maintained her cold expression, but inside, she was seething with anger.
“If I can’t even protect this secret realm in Jinling, how can I talk about revitalizing the Great Chu Empire? I already failed the late emperor with the loss of the three counties. No matter what, I must find a way to restore the royal family’s honor this time!”
She knew clearly that if she compromised again, the officials in the Court would lose all hope in her and side completely with the Chancellor’s Estate. At that point, she would become nothing but a puppet of the Ye family. How could she possibly hold onto her throne?
With that thought, Jiang Mengxuan called out beyond the palace doors, “Someone, summon Commander Jiang Shangxian of the Imperial Guard to enter the palace.”
…
At early dawn, inside Shen Lang’s courtyard, a figure holding a dagger was moving back and forth with swift precision.
This was Shen Lang’s daily training. Every morning, he would spend an hour practicing to keep his spirit and body in peak condition. A simple dagger danced in his hands, radiating dazzling brilliance. Coupled with his agile footwork, his movements were too fast for the eye to follow.
At last, the final strike cut through the air, sweeping a sharp gust of wind. Shen Lang ended his morning routine.
He put away his dagger, closed his eyes, and focused on the flow of true qi within him. A hint of joy flashed across his face. “Not bad, not bad. Another step forward. Looks like breaking through to the late stage of the Innate Realm is only a few days away. Hope nothing unexpected happens.”
Breathing a sigh of relief, Shen Lang washed up, changed into a clean Hundred-Man Commander uniform, and prepared to head out for breakfast.
Just then, the tightly shut main door was knocked.
“Hehehe, Brother Shen, are you home?”
The moment he heard that voice, Shen Lang’s expression darkened. “Damn it, if this guy is here, there’s no way it’s anything good.”
He opened the door, and there stood a fat man—eight feet tall, over 125 kilograms, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old—squinting at him with a smile.
“Brother Shen, long time no see.”
Shen Lang instinctively tried to shut the door. The fat man quickly pressed against it, “What are you doing, Brother Shen? I’m your superior, you know. You’re not even going to give me that much respect?”
As he spoke, the fat man ignored Shen Lang’s murderous glare and shamelessly squeezed his way into the courtyard.
“Sigh.” Shen Lang let out a long breath, sat at the stone table inside the yard, and asked irritably, “No wonder I heard crows early this morning. So it was you, this walking disaster. Come on, what do you want this time?”
This fat man was none other than Jiang Shangxian, Commander of the Imperial Guard, also the Empress’s Imperial Uncle—the person Jiang Mengxuan currently trusted the most.
Jiang Shangxian waddled over and sat next to Shen Lang, squinting as he said, “Brother Shen, believe me, I wouldn’t bother you if I had any other choice. If I had any other ideas, I wouldn’t be here, right?”
Shen Lang poured himself a cup of tea, sipping as he waited for him to finish, then asked directly, “Say it. What do you want me to do now?”
Jiang Shangxian chuckled, then slowly spoke three words.
“Qingyi Tower.”