roccoschili Chapter 1326 - 1326 18 All is Your Majesty's Grace
Chapter 1326 - 1326 18 All is Your Majesty's Grace
1326: Chapter 18: All is Your Majesty’s Grace 1326: Chapter 18: All is Your Majesty’s Grace “Reporting to Your Majesty, fifty lashes have been completed!”In front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, on the open square, the flogging executed personally by the Commander of the Chun Si Army, Cao Jie, finally came to an end.
For the punished, it was torture; for the onlookers, it was no less than heart-pounding terror!
At this moment, the two nobles kneeling on the ground had identical expressions of pale misery.
Their bare upper bodies similarly marred with purple and blue lash marks, hideously intertwined like snake prints.
Flogging consists of ten lashes per degree, totaling five degrees; fifty lashes are the maximum.
In principle, this is the lightest punishment.
However, if the executioner so intends, it is not difficult to whip a person to death right there and then!
Cao Jie stretched out his right hand, waiting for the eunuch standing by to take away the whip before turning and stepping back onto the raised platform.
Emperor Qi said, “Rise.”
It was only then that Tian Xili and Liu Yingqi slowly pulled on their garments and shakily stood up.
The cultivation levels of the two men were not equal, and Cao Jie, as the executor of this flogging, controlled his strength very well.
The whip strikes on the two men were also limited to the levels of Godly Cultivation and Outer Building respectively.
Thus, at this moment, both of them were equally tottering.
The Son of Heaven then said, “If you are unsteady, you may retire to rest.”
“Thank Your Majesty for your grace!” Tian Xili bowed and said: “Your Servant…
can stand steady!”
Liu Yingqi also said, “Your Servant…
also can…”
Thump.
Before he could finish his sentence, he had already fallen to the ground.
But as if there were knives on the ground, as soon as he fell, he immediately bounced up, miraculously summoning some strength.
“Your Servant can stand steady!” he said through gritted teeth.
Son of Qingyang had departed to fetch Liu Xiao, and had not yet returned.
The matter concerning the Tian Family and Liu Family was not yet concluded.
At such a moment, no one wanted to leave the scene.
Staying here still presented an opportunity to struggle; to leave would mean only awaiting fate!
The Son of Heaven said nothing further.
The ministers remained silent as well.
In front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, a repressed silence enveloped the area, everyone quietly awaiting the outcome.
Sometime later, a eunuch hurriedly stepped towards the platform where ordinary civilians gathered and whispered something to them.
Most likely words indicating that the assembly could disperse and head home, causing most ordinary civilians to immediately depart.
Some, however, opted to stay.
The assembled officials and nobles were not so fortunate to leave; they had to wait there for the outcome.
The position of the sun slowly shifted, this process achingly slow.
Until…
The figure in blue robes with a sword approached slowly, carrying a person into the square.
The anxious crowd breathed a sigh of relief, regardless of the outcome, there finally was one.
Drawn first to the Son of Qingyang and then to the person he carried — face-down, with long hair cascading down and hands locked together by a broken rope.
Jiang Wang was holding him by the belt at the lower back, walking all this way like so.
Some could not help but frown.
No matter what, Liu Xiao was a Godly cultivator, and a strong person must be treated with dignity.
Could Jiang Wang truly subdue Liu Xiao without being aware of his own boundaries?
Did he truly believe that as the foremost Inner Mansion, he could scorn the Godly Cultivation?
To carry the Godly cultivator Liu Xiao in this manner, as if carrying a mere chicken, was truly unsatisfactory.
Liu Yingqi, the Marquis of Xuanhuai, felt an immense sense of humiliation as if he himself was implicated.
He was flogged today in bare clothes, his Liu Family’s Godly cultivator was carried before the emperor in such a manner.
Liu Family’s dignity was trampled into the mud!
But as he watched Jiang Wang, he realized he had no anger within him.
It wasn’t that the situation didn’t merit his anger, nor was it the prominent presence of Jiang Wang that made him fearful to anger, rather he suddenly found that he truly could not muster any outrage.
The Liu Family had already become so…
The Liu Family had indeed become so!
Being stepped on a few more times was only to be expected.
He thought perhaps, he had resigned himself to fate.
The gaze of Marquis of Gaochang, Tian Xili, was starkly different.
However, his focus was not on Jiang Wang, but continuously fixed on Liu Xiao, his murderous intent fierce, almost wishing he could drink his blood and devour his flesh.
How others looked at him mattered not to Jiang Wang.
He walked composedly, proceeding across the vast square.
His sword was in its sheath.
It had been sheathed even before he entered the city.
This was an attitude.
He could have brandished his sword and entered the city, demonstrating his confrontation with Tian Anping.
If the Son of Heaven were to ask, it wouldn’t be difficult to subtly discredit Tian Anping.
But firstly, would the Son of Heaven be pleased with such a scene?
Secondly, setting aside the matters of the Hidden Star World, he bears no grudge against the Tian family.
The standoff at the gates of Ji City was because he was carrying the emperor’s decree; he had no personal reason to act against Tian Anping.
He really had no need, nor the desire, to make an enemy of such a top-ranking aristocratic family.
He walked to the center of the square, set Liu Xiao down, and helped him to stand firm; Liu Xiao just stood there blankly.
With this, everyone could see that something was wrong with Liu Xiao.
Jiang Qingyang was not intending to humiliate him; rather, Liu Xiao was simply unable to act on his own and had to be carried around!
Liu Yingqi, weak in spirit, took a bold step forward, then forcefully stopped himself.
He ultimately dared not make another disrespectful move.
It was then Jiang Wang solemnly said, “Your Majesty, Jiang Wang has fortunately completed the mission without dishonor!”
“Son of Qingyang,” Jiang Rumo inquired, “What is wrong with Liu Xiao?”
He clearly could see Liu Xiao’s condition, so he was asking how Liu Xiao came to be this way.
“I do not know,” Jiang Wang replied.
“When I rushed to Ji City, Liu Xiao was already like this, hanging from the city gate.
I took him down and brought him straight back to Linzi without delay.”
All the nobles and officials present were deeply moved!
Liu Xiao was not merely compliant; instead, he had been subdued even before Jiang Wang arrived—and it seemed his mind was damaged!
“Then, what about Tian Anping?” Jiang Rumo asked.
Jiang Wang replied, “He is unharmed.”
At this moment, Tian Xili’s eyes burst with extreme joy, but it was unclear whether it was genuine or feigned.
Liu Yingqi immediately turned and knelt to the Son of Heaven, saying, “Your Majesty, the Tian family has broken the pact, Tian Anping dared to defy the order and break the realm!”
His reaction was quick, but still too late.
Right from the start, Liu Xiao’s forceful intrusion into Ji City was a misstep!
Liu Yingqi’s struggles during today’s grand ceremony are like a microcosm of his struggles over the past decade.
He exhausted his mediocre talents to restore the glory of the Liu Family, but the successive life and death of the old masters and Liu Shentong had long severed the roots of the Liu Family.
No matter the struggle, it was futile.
The Son of Heaven asked, “Son of Qingyang, what do you think of Tian Anping’s cultivation level?”
Jiang Wang impartially stated, “He should still be in the Inner Mansion Realm, but he has exceeded my understanding of it.
In my opinion, it seems as if he has refined the room of Inner Mansion into Ji City!”
In fact, the scene of the floating Inner Mansion room was deliberately shown to him by Tian Anping, seemingly for this very explanation in front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
From this point of view, Tian Anping is not entirely mad.
The nobles and officials on the square were inwardly shaken.
Tian Anping, having his Golden Frame and Jade Marrow shattered and the Saint Tower destroyed, yet suppressed for ten years, has still managed to develop new methods within the Inner Mansion Realm!
There are so many talents in the world; if one only seeks “novelty,” it is not hard.
The difficulty lies in being strong beyond the “novelty”!
Being able to subdue a Godly Cultivator like Liu Xiao, how could Tian Anping not be strong?
From the Inner Mansion, Outer Building to God Arrives, is the true path of cultivation hammered out by the sages of the Human Race over countless ages.
In the eyes of Jiang Rumo.
It’s not that Tian Anping has developed a new path, but rather, limited by his Inner Mansion cultivation, he has skipped the confines of cultivation level and prematurely enhanced his combat power.
Given his once achievement in God Arrives and his unparalleled nature, he indeed might have managed this.
As for more specific details, he hasn’t seen for himself and thus can’t judge.
But this outward display of abilities from the Inner Mansion is indeed beyond imagination…
Above the Cinnabar Steps, the Son of Heaven said, “You act as my proxy, what you see, I see.
Since Tian Anping has not broken the realm, it is not a violation.
As for this Liu Xiao…”
Liu Yingqi looked on perplexed and pleadingly.
At this crucial moment deciding his fate, Liu Xiao himself just stood there blankly, lips slightly parted, eyes wide open, seemingly still trapped in some kind of fear.
What a pity for a Godly Cultivator to not know whom he should fear at this moment!
“Let Lord Xuan Huai take him back for care,”
The Son of Heaven seemingly sighed almost imperceptibly, stood up from his throne, and walked outside.
Han Ling, who stood silently, hurriedly followed with a proclamation—
“Depart!”
And Liu Yingqi once again knelt down, bowing his head heavily to the ground: “Thank you for Your Majesty’s grace!”