2268 Loss of Control and Escalation

However, Chu Tianhe had only just got started when General Zhou Lifu’s widow suddenly burst into tears.

After their mother started to cry, the few little kids followed her and started weeping too. The few female officers attending to them nearby, soaked in the atmosphere, were upset and felt like crying too.

Chu Tianhe couldn’t help but feel distressed after seeing that, and he could not go on with his speech anymore. He simply turned around and kneeled before Blackstar the Great and shouted, “Your Majesty, take a look at today’s world!”

After his cry, many generals began to wail together with him.

The tourists and visitors nearby were all filled with indignity as they watched.

Right then, a team marched close aggressively from not far away. Many people in the team were wearing the uniform of the mausoleum’s guardians.

At first, the bystanders thought that those people were here to disperse the surplus generals. They couldn’t help but whisper. Some were even bold enough to move forward to stop the newcomers.

However, cries were echoing from the team that was growing larger and larger too. All the bystanders looked at each other in bewilderment, not knowing what was going on.

Before Chu Tianhe, Zhao Zhenwu, and the rest of them went forward to ask, the leader of the team had already introduced themselves. As it turned out, they all belonged to the royal family and were the descendants of Blackstar the Great.

The Emperor’s Mausoleum in the Imperium was a splendid and vast city. Besides the tombs of the emperors of all generations, the memorial park of martyrs, and the national museum, there were also smaller museums, hotels, restaurants, and business areas around. The tourism in the place was rather developed.

Most of the interests in the tourism industry, including the staff of the mausoleum’s guardians, the memorial park of the martyrs, and the tour guides in the national museum, were in the hands of the royal family.

It was also one of the few ways to make a living that the four Kurfürst families had left them. Many members of the royal family simply gathered in the city and lived on it.

The members of the royal family with the surname “Wuying” hadn’t seen so many generals of the Imperium paying tributes to their ancestors for years. Now that they read the fliers and learned why the generals were here, they were even more touched and also thought of their own misfortunes. Organized by certain people, they also formed a huge team to cry to Blackstar the Great.

The royal family was the natives of the place. Naturally, their number was dozens of times higher than the number of generals. Even though only one-tenth of them had joined the team of crying, the crowd had still significantly expanded. Pressing forward like angry tides, they boosted the atmosphere to an even higher level.

The leader of the newcomers walked forward to Chu Tianhe’s side quickly and kneeled before Blackstar the Great’s enormous statue first, before he turned around with his head soaked in blood and bashed his chest before the people. “I guarantee that what General Chu said is true. The Imperium has been corrupted to such an extent that even the members of the royal family can barely survive. It is needless to mention the generals here.

“Ancestor, please wake up and make things right. There are bad guys in the Imperium. Bad guys!”

While he was talking, the members of the royal family almost burst into tears.

The members of the royal family cried differently from the generals.

The surplus generals such as Chu Tianhe and Zhao Zhenwu were iron-hearted soldiers and ruthless Immortal Cultivators after all.

Even though their lives were terribly difficult, and despite all the dissatisfactions in their hearts, they still had the bones of soldiers and Immortal Cultivators after all. It was definitely impossible for them to weep and snot like women and children. The best they could do was to quietly shed a few tears while they bowed and paid respects to Blackstar the Great’s statue. Nothing more.

The members of the royal family, on the other hand, had mostly lived here for hundreds of years. Many of them had come with their entire families, with both the old and the young.

Also, without life-and-death experiences and without too much training, many of them were no different from civilians.

Those aunts and ladies who were slightly aged couldn’t care less about their manners. They yowled so hard that even the sky seemed cloudy and the earth was collapsing, with a combat ability ten times higher than the generals.

Such a splendid gathering went on a rampage like a raging flood and a volcano eruption. Soon, the emotions of all the tourists, visitors, and pilgrims on the spot were triggered.

The virus of grief instantly spread to every corner of the Emperor’s Mausoleum. Everybody was in a subtle reverberation of feelings. When hundreds of thousands of people burst into tears at the same time, the Emperor’s Mausoleum was in a state of almost falling, and Blackstar the Great could have crawled out of his tomb in fury!

After the unexpected turn, the ceremony of crying was already vaguely getting out of the control of the surplus generals.

At this moment, everybody inside and outside the Emperor’s Mausoleum was crying beyond their control. Even the Imperial Guards stationed at the edge were cursing that the royal family had been reduced to such misery only because there were too many bad guys in the Imperium today. They were also crying and shouting and spitting in the direction of the Council of Elders.

The surplus generals, on the other hand, became the most conscious ones on the spot.

Zhao Zhenwu vaguely felt uneasy.

This wasn’t where things should be going. According to their plan last night, they would cry in the Emperor’s Mausoleum, disseminate flyers to the people, and bow and offer flowers to the statue of Blackstar the Great. After they created enough influence, they would disperse.

In such a way, they would make their voices heard without giving any excuse to the authorities. Visiting the Emperor’s Mausoleum was the most natural thing in the world. It was even an obligation for every soldier and every Immortal Cultivator of the Imperium. What could the highest authorities do other than secretly cursing them?

But the situation right now was obviously going out of control.

When hundreds of thousands of people were on a riot in the Emperor’s Mausoleum, something terrible would definitely happen to them!

Zhao Zhenwu secretly observed Chu Tianhe who was next to him, only to discover that the commander of the gathering today had been completely devoted to his role. The man looked so excited that his eyes seemed to be bleeding. He cried while he continued instigating the people, as if he felt that the atmosphere was not hot enough!

Isn’t Chu Tianhe a very famous “general of wisdom”? Why is he acting so stupidly today?

Uncomfortably, Zhao Zhenwu looked at the direction of the Council of Elders and immediately bulged his eyes.

The Emperor’s Mausoleum was established next to the mountains. The enormous statue of Blackstar the Great was naturally at a high height. From the high stance, Zhao Zhenwu looked afar, only to discover that black torrents were rolling toward the mausoleum from not far away!

The overwhelming crowds were dozens of times more than the members of the royal family. Also, they were wearing the standard uniform of the expedition army of the Imperium.

The floods of people moved very fast and pa.s.sed the Imperial Guards’ defense line in the blink of an eye. Naturally, the crying and cursing Imperial Guards did not mean to stop them either.

The troops of the Council of Elders?

Zhao Zhenwu grew rather anxious. But he was relieved after careful observation. Unlikely. They are not wearing crystal suits or carrying any heavy magical equipment. No stars.h.i.+ps are covering them from above either. They are not the Council of Elders’ troops!

However, the news that pa.s.sed on from down below half a minute later shocked him so hard that he almost pa.s.sed out.

The newcomers were the disabled veterans in the Imperium’s counterattack in the past ten years!

They had come from various worlds at the edge of the Imperium to the Emperor’s Mausoleum to pay tributes!

Tens of thousands of veterans had already broken into the mausoleum. Ten times or even more people were joining them incessantly from behind!

The lives of the disabled veterans were even more difficult than that of the surplus generals. The latter were taken in by the “Royal Seminar For Advanced Generals” after all, and they could manage to survive with the few subsidies and allowances.

The disabled veterans from the peripheral worlds, on the other hand, were simply kicked back to their hometowns, where they were supported by the local finance.

But right now, the governments of the peripheral worlds of the Imperium were all going bankrupt. They had to submit all kinds of war taxes and national defense fees. How could they find enough money to feed the garbage?

Therefore, the disabled veterans had been dissatisfied for a long time. When they heard that some generals were crying in the Emperor’s Mausoleum, they immediately came to join the event too!

This isn’t right!

Zhao Zhenwu’s brain hummed and exploded with ten thousand questions.

He knew the sufferings of the disabled veterans very well. But now that those guys did not even have the money for food, how could they have afforded the fees of transportation and accommodation when they traveled from the peripheral worlds to the Empyreal Terminus Sector?

Besides, how were the hundreds of thousands of disabled veterans organized and delivered to the capital? It couldn’t have been a spontaneous event.

Zhao Zhenwu knew very clearly that, since the Imperium was in an unusual period right now, the jump points and s.p.a.ceports of the capital were thoroughly watched by the fleets of the four Kurfürst families. Only the stars.h.i.+ps of the four families could travel without obstacles. The civil carriers had to be examined dozens of times if they wanted to enter the capital. How could the disabled veterans have snuck in easily?

Also, it was too coincidental. They had not cried for long here, and both the members of the royal family and the disabled veterans had come to join them. That was really—

The more he thought about it, the more uneasy Zhao Zhenwu became. Sweating hard, he looked at Chu Tianhe unconfidently and said, “General Commander…”

“Old Zhao!”

Chu Tianhe’s eyes were bloodshot, but his face was calmer than ever. Patting his back heavily, the organizer of the event whispered to his ear, “With everything coming to this point, we will be executed anyway. The only way of survival for us is perhaps to make the trouble even greater and turn everything upside down. You used to command troops too. Do you not understand such simple logic?”

Looking at Chu Tianhe’s demonic eyes, Zhao Zhenwu shuddered hard. Rigidified, he was unable to say anything anymore.

Chu Tianhe smiled at him in the most hideous way. Then, he suddenly raised an arm and explained, “Look! A million disabled veterans have joined us. We are not leaving today! We will just wait in the Emperor’s Mausoleum until the Council of Elders gives us the justice that we deserve! Without justice, we would rather die below Blackstar the Great’s feet!”

Boom!

Zhao Zhenwu felt that he had been blown up into pieces. He had no idea where he was or what he was doing anymore!