May 30, 2024
February 16th, Mao hour (05:00–07:00).
The rebellion in Anping Prefecture had erupted, and once again, the imperial city’s sky was lit up by red beacon fires of war.
The clanging of golden bells and jade chimes resounded, summoning a grand court assembly.
As the Tianyang Duke, a title personally bestowed by the Son of Heaven, Lu Can found himself, for the very first time in his life, stepping formally into the Fuyao Hall as a court minister.
Standing in the foremost ranks of the military merit nobles, he was to participate in the grand court assembly and report before the emperor.
Inside the grand hall, the atmosphere was suffocatingly oppressive, weighing down on every breath.
Outside the hall stood rows upon rows of Divine Martial generals, imperial guards, and the Yulin Army, all tightly packed together with countless prison guards, captains, and muscular attendants.
What was even more chilling was that for the first time in nineteen years since Emperor Yinyuan ascended the throne, the Fuyao Hall had arranged the great dynasty’s ancestral legal execution instruments outside.
These were the same instruments established by the founding ancestor of the Dayin Empire.