Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty, Sovereign Ji Wen was holding an official meeting. However, he sat on his throne with his hand on his chin, looking in the distance.
"Over the past 500 years, ever since the attack on the Capital, the movement of Sun Jiaolong has slowed down drastically. Although we have lost many territories, we also manage to capture some of them as well," reported the Army Commander.
"That's good news. If they continued to move as fast as before, then we would have lost more Domains."
"Not necessarily. The previous tactic--although very fast and effective--had a fatal flaw: the citizens did not feel any sense of belonging to Great Wu. But now, after 500 years, it is more than enough time for them to start identifying as Great Wu citizens instead of Great Zhou."
"That's true. If we manage to recapture these territories, the citizens might not accept us."
"It all depends on how Great Wu treated them."
The room became quiet for a moment, then someone asked: "So, what's our next step?"
Everyone then looked at Ji Wen--who was still staring in the distance, completely ignorant of the gaze surrounding him.
"Your majesty...Your majesty….Your majesty" said, Prime Minister Zhao Yan.
"Humm, did you say something?" asked Sovereign Ji Wen.
"Your majesty, is everything alright? You have been very absent as of late."
Ji Wen sighed before saying: "To be honest, I've been feeling that something is wrong for quite some time now. However, I do not know why. Maybe I'm too tired."
Zhao Yan frowned, "Your majesty, you're connected with the Dragon Luck of the Dynasty, so your intuitions are sharper than others. If you feel that something is wrong, then there is a high chance that something will happen to you. So, it's better to investigate as soon as possible."
Sovereign Ji Wen was about to nod his head when he heard the sound of loud footsteps slowly coming not far away. He frowned as he wondered who dared to break the Dynasty's law of not interrupting Court Meeting--unless there was an emergency.
Ji Wen's eyebrow raised when he saw who barged inside the meeting.
"Su'er, what are you doing outside of the Royal Tomb? Plus, you should know better than to disrupt a court meeting."
Unfortunately for Ji Wen, his son just looked at him with cold eyes full of hatred. Then, Ji Su's eyes moved to the court officers in the room. Immediately, many of them moved from their seats and stood behind him. To be precise, more than three-quarters of them--including the Commander of the Army and the head of the Imperial Guards, Zhou Fan.
Realizing what took place, Ji Wen stood up from his throne: "What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious?" replied Ji Su with a sneer on his face.
"You unfilial son, why are you doing this? Especially at a time like this?"
"Unfilial son? Hahahahahah," laughed Ji Su with a grave hint of madness and sorrow.
"Are you worthy to say such a thing after what you've done to my brother?" roared Ji Su at his father.
Ji Wen took a half step back, then he said: "Is this what this is about? Because I could not protect Song'er? Do you think that I do not miss him as much as you? Do you think I do not grieve for him every single day? Do you think that I do not blame my weakness and incompetence for not being able to protect my own son?"
"This is not about your weakness," replied Ji Su as he looked down at his hands. "Over the past hundred years, I've thought of the situation over and over again, and I realized that given the situation, there was nothing either of us could do."
He paused for a moment, "Every single moment of my existence, I blame myself for not convincing him of putting his name on the Heavenly Dao Protection Book, that way, all of this would have been avoided."
He raised his head to look at Ji Wen straight in the eyes, his own eyes bloodshed.
"The reason I hate you so much is because of how you reacted after his death: you did absolutely nothing. You lowered your head to his killers like a dog wagging his tail for a few pieces of meat, then moved on with your life as if nothing ever happened."
"So, what did you expect me to do? Risk the fall of Great Zhou in my hands? Risk the lives of trillions of people?"
"Do not use this lame excuse to hide your power-hungry side," grunted Ji Su. "You could have given the throne to someone else and tried to kill Wang Wei on your own, thus fulfilling your duty as a father. That way, even if something went wrong, the Dao Opening Sect could not place the blame on us as your actions would have been your own.
"You could have hired an assassin to kill him, then take the blame for it to protect the Dynasty.
"But you did none of that. When the choice was given to you between your role as a ruler and as a father, you chose to be a ruler without any hesitance. This is the reason for today's event.
"Since you like power so much, I will forcefully take it away from your cold hands, leaving you with nothing."
Ji Wen was momentarily silent after hearing this. "In that case, there is nothing to say anymore." A golden Halberg and armor appeared over his body. He began to control the dynasty's luck to bless himself and increase his power.
However, to his horror, he realized that his control over it was slowly decreasing. "What have you done?"
"You mean this?" said Ji Su as he held a dragon carving made of the most precious of jade: the Imperial Seal.
"Do you think I did not prepare for this in the past few hundred years," added Ji Su with a smirk.
"How is that possible? Wait...your mother," said Ji Wen. However, soon after that, he spewed a big mouthful of blood, then he fell backward. Luckily for him, he caught the throne behind him.
"Your majesty," yelled Prime Minister Zhao Yan as he rushed to the Emperor. Many other officers did the same thing, but Zhao Yan gave them a fierce look and prevented them from approaching Ji Wen.
'Even the Queen is related to this situation, I cannot trust anybody,' thought Zhao Yan. While the Prime Minister was injecting his origin essence into Ji Wen's body to try to remove the poison, another person walked into the room.
It was a beautiful middle-aged woman dressed in a long hanfu decorated with red phoenixes, she had a golden crown on her head.
"You poisoned me?" muttered Ji Wen with blood all over his teeth as he looked at his wife; they have been together for countless millennia, but now he was dying at her hands.
However, the queen did not say anything. She looked at him with sadness, love, pity, and a lot of resentment.
"You do not need to worry about dying yet as the poison I fed you the Living Dead," said Ji Su.
Zhao Yan's face suddenly changed after hearing this. "You want to turn your majesty into a puppet to control the Dynasty?"
"As astute as ever, Prime Minister. Unfortunately, your loyalty to my father is truly unwavering; it's a shame such a talented individual as yourself has to die like this."
The Living Dead Poison can kill a person's body, but keep their souls intact and living inside that body, thus turning them into living dead. Then, the living dead body can be controlled by another person. The best part about this poison is that it is very difficult to spot.
'I need to buy some time until the Supreme Realm True Monarchs get wind of this situation; this is our best chance of intervening.' Zhao Yan stood up and released his Domain, preparing to fight.
Ji Su smiled after seeing this. "If you think that buying enough time for the True Monarch to come to save you is your best option, then you're greatly mistaken."
Meanwhile, inside a secret realm of the Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty. Ji Song's previous Dao Protector, Ji Han, installed a powerful formation to prevent many of the remaining True Monarchs from intervening in Ji Su's plan.
As for the others, they were either occupied by different battlefields against the Great Wu, or they sided with Ji Su in this rebellion.
A few hours later after the incident, the news was released to the Great Zhou citizen by the "Sovereign" himself that Assassins infiltrated the Palace and killed many of the court officials, including the Prime Minister.
In honor of these officers' service to the dynasty, there will be a few days of mourning for them.
…
Sun Jiaolong was in a secret room with a communication formation in front of him displaying someone's face: it was Ji Su.
"According to our agreements, all the Domains in the east belong to you, nothing more," said Ji Su.
"I'm happy that you're a man of your words," replied Sun Jiaolong with a smile. "However, I've been thinking that this was not enough. I'm suddenly interested in the Western side as well."
"We had a deal."
"Nothing was set in stone. Plus, with how weak your dynasty is due to in-fighting, what can you do in your situation," added Sun Jiaolong with a sneer.
Ji Su looked at him deeply for a moment, then he said: "In that case, how about we blow this situation out of proportion. Let's wake up the Dao Ancestors and Immortal Venerables of our respective Dynasty and let them decide the outcome of this war."
Sun Jiaolong immediately became silent.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot that your dynasty is full of Pseudo-Emperors, so the amount of Sleeping Ancestors you have is pitifully low--and there might even be only a few if any at all," added Ji Su with a sneer on his face.
With an ugly look on his face, Sun Jiaolong retorted: "How do you know about this?"
"Do you really think that this was a big secret? I'm sure many people have already speculated as much based on how snake-like you people of Great Wu behaved."
Sun Jialong took a deep breath, "If you do that, then you will pay for your rebellion as well."
"So what? Compared to placing a greedy mutt like you in his place, it's worth it." Ji Su then ended the communication without saying anything else. As for Sun Jiaolong, he took a deep breath to calm himself down, then he began to conquer the territory that he was granted to according to their previous deal.
Dao Opening Sect, Transcending Fate Mountain, inside a cultivation room:
Wang Wei's Good Fortune Flame was slowly burning his purple soul. This was a sign of breaking through the Primordial Spirit Realm. However, after a few hours, he spat out a mouthful of blood, thus stopping the process.
"This is the 13th failure," muttered Wang Wei. "It seems that with how powerful my soul is, ordinary methods will not allow me to enter the Primordial Spirit Realm."
End of this Volume.