The Enthronement

“Raise the tablets… Prostrate… Offer sacrifice to Heaven… Rise—”

Within the Imperial Palace of the Great Liang capital, the imposing Altar of Heaven seemed to possess a peculiar acoustic quality, carrying the old eunuch’s chanting of the edict far and wide.

Below the altar, the hundred civil and military officials raised their bone tablets in both hands, following Gao Zhijian as he knelt toward the east. The eight-sided drums at the four corners of the altar beat out a rhythmic triple pulse under the drummers’ strikes.

Li Huowang stood on a distant rooftop with Li Sui, silently watching Gao Zhijian, whose face was hidden behind the beaded tassels of the imperial diadem.

“Dad, how much longer do we have to stand? I’m hungry.” Li Sui had no concept of the surrounding events; she always noticed her most basic needs first.

“Soon. Soon.”

“Raise the tablets… Prostrate… Offer sacrifice to Earth… Rise—”

The eunuchs’ thin, yin-pitched voices rose in a high chant, passing from one to the next, echoing across the entire square.

The hundred officials raised their bone tablets once more, following Gao Zhijian as he knelt toward the north.

“Raise the tablets… Prostrate… Offer sacrifice to the Gods of Soil and Grain… Rise—”

Watching Gao Zhijian follow the eunuchs’ guidance through the orderly ritual process, Li Huowang’s feelings were intensely conflicted. There was a sensation in his heart he couldn’t quite name.

That was his brother in life and death—now enthroned as an emperor.

No matter what had come before, from today onward, their relationship would never return to what it had been.

Ji Lin had been twisted into that horrific state by this place. Li Huowang didn’t know how much this place would change the simple, honest Gao Zhijian. He only hoped Gao Zhijian could keep hold of his core self and not become someone even he would despise.

Just as he was thinking these things, he saw Gao Zhijian in the distance, once again surrounded by eunuchs as he descended from the altar.

Li Huowang went down and approached the National Preceptor who had been following the procession. “Lord Preceptor, is it done? Is the enthronement ceremony over?”

“Not so fast,” the National Preceptor said coldly. “After Heaven, Earth, and the Gods of Soil and Grain, we must finally pay homage to the Imperial Ancestral Temple.”

“Erjiu, I’ll overlook what happened before. But you need to understand: the matter of the Dragon Vein concerns the very foundation of the state. If anything goes wrong, as long as you live under this sky, it brings you nothing but harm.”

“Oh.” Li Huowang nodded and followed Gao Zhijian toward the Ancestral Temple. After coming this far, it was better to keep a close watch.

Even though the National Preceptor and the Supervisory Heavenly Office would certainly have people monitoring such an important ritual, this concerned his brother. Until things were settled, he couldn’t trust any of them.

Staying invisible, he followed Gao Zhijian’s honor guard at a distance until they finally reached the entrance to the Imperial Temple.

The civil and military officials, along with the palace maids, all stopped outside. Only a few old eunuchs led Gao Zhijian inside.

Li Huowang followed them in this time, meeting no more resistance than the last time. He only noticed that the number of unseen gazes fixed on him had increased.

“Child, you are the new emperor of Great Liang? What is your surname?” A reverb-heavy voice drifted out from the Nine-Dragon Coffin.

“Gao.”

“How tragic. How tragic. In the end, our Ji family line is broken. Heh heh heh…” The former emperor’s laughter was mournful.

From his reaction, someone had already explained things to him.

Under the eunuchs’ guidance, Gao Zhijian personally arranged the offerings for the Dragon Vein, inserted three incense sticks, and began performing the three kneels and nine prostrations.

Just as Gao Zhijian pressed his head to the ground for the final bow, the National Preceptor stepped forward swiftly, drew a cyan-jade scroll from his robe, and stood before Gao Zhijian, unrolling it toward the Dragon Vein coffin.

The scroll was extraordinarily strange. Its exterior was jade, but the material recording things inside was paper softer than bean curd.

These soft pages curled up nimbly like phoenix tails, or swam leisurely like a scaled true dragon. Dense golden ancient characters appeared and disappeared among the flipping leaves.

“By the Mandate of Heaven! The Imperial Edict proclaims: The late emperor suddenly passed, returning to the Five Phases. Receiving the favor of Celestial Heaven, the grand legacy of the saintly forebears, and bearing the late emperor’s final command, according to the order of succession, he enters the ancestral shrine…”

As the Great Liang National Preceptor began reading the scroll’s content, dragon roars gradually surged from the depths of the coffin. The dragon voices mixed with the Preceptor’s words, slowly turning into a full dragon’s howl.

A powerful aura surged forth, pressing down on everyone present until they couldn’t breathe. Only by prostrating fully on the ground could they find some relief.

Just as Li Huowang gritted his teeth and pulled Li Sui behind him, something he could sense but not see suddenly burst from the coffin and slammed directly onto the kneeling Gao Zhijian.

Gao Zhijian’s skin began to split like dragon scales. Blood sprayed from the cracks, completely soaking his robes.

“Zhijian! Are you alright?!” Li Huowang’s right foot had barely lifted when two old eunuchs, each clutching a golden whisk, knelt instantly before him.

“Do not panic, Reverend. His Majesty is receiving the entire Great Liang’s Mandate of Heaven. There must not be the slightest mishap.”

Though they were kneeling, the numbness at Li Huowang’s neck warned him that if he took one more step forward, he would likely lose his head.

Seeing it was just the normal procedure, Li Huowang suppressed his concern and pulled Li Sui aside to stand silently.

Gradually, Gao Zhijian’s body began to transform. He was slowly becoming like the emperors inside the coffin. Dragon claws, dragon whiskers, dragon horns.

Suddenly, as Gao Zhijian thrust his dragon claw forcefully into the air, everything stopped at once. The overwhelming pressure vanished without a trace.

At that moment, Li Huowang felt a strange sensation. Clearly, Gao Zhijian was still far from the Dragon Vein, but it gave him the feeling of being completely fused as one.

Without anyone needing to explain, Li Huowang knew. The enthronement ceremony was over. Gao Zhijian had taken on the Mandate of Great Liang and become its true emperor.

Seeing this, Li Huowang stroked the hilt of his spinal-blade sword, and said with melancholy in his heart: “Brother Zhuge, did you see that? Your Great Qi can be saved.”

He thought of the young girl whose voice had been hoarse from crying. This way, she might be able to live too, right?

At this moment, the monk looked even more excited than Li Huowang. “Daoist, you have done a great good deed! A truly great good deed! You saved so many people. When you die, you can go to the Western Paradise and become a bodhisattva!”

“…” Li Huowang wasn’t repulsed by the act itself. He just minded that Zhuge Yuan had lied to him.

“…‘To bring about order and governance, one must abolish the old and establish the new. Let all matters follow the established precedents, and also reverently carry forward the ancestors’ will. I am of meager virtue, and must still rely on wise kin and ministers to work together for new governance…’” Huangfu Tiangang was still there, holding the jade scroll and reciting words Li Huowang couldn’t quite follow.

But none of that mattered anymore. Since the most important step was complete, the rest should just be going through the motions.

Taking one last look at Gao Zhijian’s back, Li Huowang led Li Sui toward the exit. “Suisui, let’s go.”

———————

Next chapter update: 00:02