The Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 559: The Mandate of Heaven

Within the grand, imposing bedchamber, a seething Ji Lin paced back and forth, his hands clasped behind his back. Success had been so close, yet something had gone wrong at the very last moment.

After a while, he stopped. With a violent sweep of his wide sleeve, he gestured.

“Send out everyone we have left. I don’t care what it takes, but you must find that girl, Anping, before the coronation ceremony!”

“This old slave obeys your decree.”

“Your Majesty, please calm your anger. This small matter won’t delay things for long. Anyone with eyes can see the Mandate of Heaven is on your side. The real worry is if you harm your own health over this.”

Hearing this, Ji Lin’s expression softened slightly. “By the way, any word yet on that Ao-Jing Sect envoy, Er-Jiu?”

“The gate guards report seeing him enter the city, but neither divination nor calculation can locate him anywhere in the capital.”

“Hmph! The man is utterly useless. Enough. Considering his past merits, let the merits offset his faults. We’ll grant him some idle sinecure.”

Having said this, Ji Lin clasped his hands behind his back and prepared to attend the morning court. But as he was changing his clothes, he suddenly changed his mind and headed toward the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

No one accompanied him this time. He entered the mausoleum alone. As the stone ground trembled, the coffin, pulled by nine dragons, slowly opened.

“Father, everything you instructed me to do, I have done.” Ji Lin looked levelly at his father lying inside, his eyes devoid of any attachment.

“Good! Hahaha, you are indeed the son I chose.” The old emperor, tightly bound in golden chains, laughed heartily.

“The Empress Dowager supported the Great Prince, so I killed her too!” Ji Lin’s words cut the emperor’s laughter short.

“The Grand Empress Dowager attempted rebellion, so I killed her as well. Father, you taught me this: to achieve great things, even one’s closest kin can be killed!”

The old emperor in the coffin paused for a moment before speaking again, this time with a hint of approval. “Ruthless enough. I didn’t misjudge you.”

This was clearly not the answer Ji Lin had been hoping for. Enraged, he kicked over the offerings in front of the coffin.

“Why! I am about to be emperor now! I am asking you, why! Why did you make us brothers kill each other?!”

“Let me tell you! I am the emperor now! From now on, I make the rules! I will never let my own children slaughter each other!”

“Heh heh heh…” The old emperor laughed. “Lin’er? Do you know why all the civil and military officials obey us? Why they honor us as their sovereign?”

“Because we are the emperor!”

“Do you truly believe that? Do you truly believe that just the name ‘emperor’ is enough to make the Military Scholars and Confucian Scholars loyal to our house without a second thought?”

“Even the Imperial Guard are their men. Do you know why they don’t dare to overthrow us and become emperor themselves?”

This question stumped Ji Lin. He had never considered it before.

“Because they don’t dare. Because they cannot bear to watch their own clans kill each other! But our Ji family dares!!”

“Back then, when the Great Qi Dynasty was overthrown and there was no leader, our Ji family was a prominent clan. There were thousands of us, at the very least. For this single throne, we sons killed mothers, grandfathers killed grandsons, brothers slaughtered brothers. We fought until only one was left alive. That man was the first emperor of our Great Liang Dynasty.”

“That is why our Ji family alone can pass down the throne for ten thousand generations. And those cowardly rats who didn’t dare to do it can only serve our Ji family!”

Ji Lin staggered back a few steps in disbelief, clearly shocked by this answer.

After a few seconds of silence, he asked, unwilling to accept it, “Why!! Why does it have to be our Ji family that sheds each other’s blood?”

“Because we are the Sons of Heaven! The True Dragon Sons of Heaven! Only by doing this can we bear the weight of Great Liang’s Heavenly Mandate!”

With the old emperor’s bellow, a heart-shaking dragon’s roar erupted from within the coffin. Scales flickered across Ji Lin’s body, appearing and then fading away.

A long time passed. The dragon’s roar gradually subsided. The old emperor’s voice, now tinged with exhaustion, spoke again. “Since you are about to be crowned, let me tell you a truth. This world has not always been as peaceful as you imagine.”

“In ancient times, humans were raised by the Wu as livestock, living like pigs wallowing in filth.”

“But then, our ancestors didn’t want to be pigs forever, so they escaped.”

“Even after escaping, it wasn’t over. The Wu would eventually come for them. So, they had to find a way to carve out their own world to live in. The Heavenly Mandate is the thing that holds this new world up.”

“But the Wu wouldn’t give up. They are always trying to break into our world and turn us back into pigs.”

“The ancients came up with a solution. They stole a part of the Mandate from the Wu and let one person bear the burden of holding up the entire world. That person was the first emperor. It doesn’t matter which dynasty, all emperors are the same in this regard.”

Ji Lin stood frozen, his mind in turmoil. He couldn’t understand what was being said.

“It’s fine if you can’t figure it out. Think it over carefully after your coronation. Remember, what I have told you is the truth. If anyone ever tells you about ‘Siming’ or ‘Fusheng Heaven,’ those are all lies, meant to deceive the ignorant masses.”

Ji Lin stumbled out of the mausoleum in a daze. He sat on the steps of his palace for a long time, thinking until the sky grew dark and then light again.

If his father hadn’t lied to him, then his own children and grandchildren would have to do the same as him, killing each other.

To support this so-called Heavenly Mandate, the Ji family had paid far, far too much.

Ji Lin wasn’t without the thought of simply abdicating, of letting someone else bear the burden of the Mandate.

But he had already paid so much. He had killed so many brothers and sisters. He had clawed his way to the throne.

He had already paid the price. He had fought with all his might to be the last one standing out of nine people. Now, just as he was about to pick the fruit, was he supposed to hand it over to someone else just because his future children might kill each other? He couldn’t do it.

The old eunuch draped the dragon robe over his shoulders, and only then did Ji Lin snap back to reality. “Your Majesty, please return to your chambers and rest. You will wear yourself out like this.”

Ji Lin nodded silently and turned toward his bedchamber. His mind was still filled with thoughts of his father, of the state he was in now. “He can be awakened from the dead… Doesn’t that mean my father is immortal now?”

Lying on the dragon bed, Ji Lin drifted off, his mind clouded with these thoughts.

Just then, he heard soft, hurried footsteps approaching.

“What is it?” Ji Lin asked, his eyes still closed.

“Your Majesty, Princess Anping has been spotted outside the capital. The envoy Er-Jiu has taken her!”

“What?!” Ji Lin’s eyes snapped open. He glared at the reporting young eunuch, grinding his teeth.

“It was him! After all I did for him! He betrays me for a woman!”

“Spread the word! When you catch him, execute Er-Jiu’s entire clan by slow slicing! Feed every piece of his flesh to the dogs!!”