Amid the crowd, Third Master Yu watched the proceedings of the ceremony with excitement, "The founding ceremony of the Ling Family is different from our Yu Family indeed! Look at how majestic their ceremony is! I really wish I could get big brother to redo the ceremony."

The three souls and seven bodies looked at each other as they waited for the signal that they had agreed upon before! The moment they could see the smoke billowing, they would immediately take action! However, they could not even see a single wisp of smoke up until now and the ten of them could not help but be at a loss!

Just what was going on? The best opportunity had just gone by but the signal was still not sent! Could it be that the family has decided to give up on this mission at the very last moment? But even if they gave up on the mission, they should send a letter at the very least!

The ten individuals looked towards the fluttering flag on the city gates. There was a nice north-westerly wind at the moment and lighting the bewildering gra.s.s up at this time would knock out everyone in the crowd and create a huge mess. They would then charge forward into the mess to unleash a ma.s.sacre before easily leaving. However, just what was going on now?

Not on the three souls and seven bodies from the Yu Family, even the six from Above Heavens were cursing under their breaths. Why isn't there any signal up until now? However, just when the six of them were startled, they all had a feeling of a burden being lifted off their shoulders. At least they didn't have to sacrifice their lives.

They all understood that even the best grade bewildering gra.s.s would be completely useless against XianTian realm experts. With the many XianTian experts under Ling Tian's charge, the moment a fight broke out, even if they had the initiative, they would not be able to escape death!

In the crowd, there were a couple of people looking around with an expression of doubt on their faces. From time to time, their heads would be lifted up to the sky as though they were waiting for something. However, they did not know that a pair of sharp eyes had already locked onto them when they were looking around and up at the sky!

The sound of cheering could be heard all around and countless colorful ribbons filled the sky as though rainbows were descending from the heavens.

All of a sudden, another wave of exclamations could be heard. Above Sky Bearing City, nine gigantic objects could be seen floating up towards the sky like lanterns. Everyone could see that these lanterns were made from cloth with something like a basket hanging below the lantern.

There were a total of nine lanterns, the number symbolizing eternity!

Hot air balloons! The moment these nine gigantic objects drifted up into the air, they covered the entire earth with their majestic presence!

Ling Tian was completely speechless and Li Xue's face appeared in his head. In this entire world, only that la.s.s would be able to create such an item. He finally understood what Li Xue was so busy with over the past few days. It turns out that she was preparing these hot air balloons.

How would the crowd know what hot air balloons were? They all cheered to the heavens and knelt down as though they had witnessed a celestial being manifesting itself.

Li Xue who was at a distance covered her mouth and chuckled.

Right at this moment, a gigantic cloth was unrolled from the nine hot air balloons with eight golden words being written on them: The Divine Prefecture Empire shall prosper for ten thousand generations!

Another wave of cheers could be heard.

In the midst of the loud cheering, Old Master Ling stepped forward from the crowd of ministers. Behind him, a couple of palace maids slowly placed a yellow dragon robe over him!

Being clad in yellow robes!

The symbol of a monarch!

The ministers and generals of Sky Bearing all knelt down and paid their respects to the new emperor!

The rituals were completed!

Following that, it was time to bestow the relevant t.i.tles to the relevant individuals. Old Madam Ling was crowned the empress, Ling Xiao the crown prince of Divine Prefecture and Ling Tian as the imperial grandson. Following that, all the ministers and officials were all raised by a rank.

Meng LiGe was the Country Protecting Military Advisor and given the t.i.tle of Duke Xu. Shen RuHu, East Suppressing General, with the t.i.tle of Country Stabilizing Duke. Yu ChengLong, South Suppressing General with the t.i.tle of Country Protecting Marquis...

It was then time for the various envoys to present their gifts.

The Yu Family and Xiao Family gave their gifts.

The present family head of the DongFang Family, DongFang JingLei had presented the entire DongFang Family, all of their forces and land, as a congratulatory gift!

This action of theirs had naturally shocked everyone!

In comparison to the DongFang Family, the gifts of the Yu and Xiao Families were completely negligible. They were nothing much at all!

"The leader of the Whirlwind Gang from Heavenly South Mountain presents 200,000 taels of gold, 10,000,000 taels of silver, ninety-nine Night Illumination Pearls... and a note of surrender, pledging allegiance to the Divine Prefecture Empire..."

All the envoys were shocked!

Such a frightening amount had already exceeded the sensibilities of everyone present. Furthermore, they had even pledged their allegiance to the empire. This was just too baffling!

A newly founded empire usually had weak foundations and would be incapable of bothering these bandit heads in the next couple of years. Was it truly worth for them to be so afraid? Surrendering before even putting up a fight?

"Leader of the Heavenly Drought Mountain... 250,000 taels of gold, 15,000,000 taels of silver, pledging our allegiance to the Divine Prefecture Empire..."

All the envoys were shocked again!

"Silver Autumn Mountain... pledging our allegiance to the Divine Prefecture Empire..."

The envoys were dumbfounded!

"Yellow Cover Mountain... pledging our allegiance..."

"..."

"..."

...…

Apart from the various ministers of the Divine Prefecture Empire, everyone was dumbfounded.

Every single one of them was an infamous bandit king who was a ferocious character in their territory leading thousands of men under them. To think that all of them would gather together to pledge their allegiance to the Divine Prefecture Empire during its founding ceremony. Furthermore, they all presented extremely precious gifts and even surrendered themselves to the empire...

"I...I... am I dreaming?" Not to mention the various amba.s.sadors, even the officials of the empire felt as though they were dreaming.

In the past few years, war broke out all over the continent and the various bandit heads were extremely arrogant. At this moment, chaos was widespread and many officials had already written a memorial to request the emperor to uproot all the bandits in the territory of the Divine Prefecture Empire.

Who would have thought that not only did the majority of the bandits in the Divine Prefecture Empire surrender to the empire, even the bandits from the other regions had surrendered?

There were only four to five larger bandit groups and a few in the Yu Family's territory that didn't surrender. However, the gifts that they gave weren't any less than the other gangs.

The newly appointed Minister of Finance had almost fainted from excitement. Without considering the current reserves of the Divine Prefecture Empire, just the gifts that they had received today would be worth billions of silver!

My goodness, this was far too frightening a figure! With this large amount of money, even if the Divine Prefecture Empire didn't collect any taxes and fought war year after year, they would be able to hold on for more than ten years!

The Minister of Finance fainted from happiness.

Xiao FengYang was truly shocked silly!

Seeing the strength of the Divine Prefecture Empire, Xiao FengYang had already lost his confidence. In the face of such wealth, army, and martial strength, how would their dwindling Xiao Family be able to fight back?

The strength of the Ling Family was truly shocking!

The empire founding ceremony finally ended with everyone still in awe.

Ling Family Courtyard.

Ling Tian was clad in yellow robes looking a little distracted.

He laid down on his bamboo chair with his mouth open. Ling Chen who was beside him plucked a few pieces of grapes and fed it to him. Ling Tian shut his eyes and chewed on it before spitting out the seeds of the grapes in a beautiful arc.

With someone feeding and another person eating, it was an extremely sweet scene in the little yard.

Li Xue walked over slowly and shook her head bitterly upon witnessing the scene before her, "I say little sister Chen. If you always dote on him and take care of him as such, the life of us sisters won't be good in the future. Us women can also bear the weight of the heavens on our shoulders."

Ling Chen smiled gently and said, "Big sister Xue is right. However, he is young n.o.ble."

Li Xue was exasperated.

Walking over angrily, Li Xue grabbed the plate of grapes from Ling Chen's hands and said, "You are truly enjoying yourself. Apart from eating, you only know how to sleep. Do you really treat yourself as an imperial grandson who doesn't need to work? Young n.o.ble Ling, isn't it time for you to get to work?"

Ling Tian opened his eyes lazily and asked, "This young n.o.ble is an imperial grandson. Did Ling Jian and the others send news?"

"They have not." Li Xue snorted, "However, something seems wrong in the court over the past few days."

"I knew it. My grandfather is up to his little tricks." Ling Tian sighed, "Quickly send word to Ling Jian and ask him to settle all of his matters. The six from Above Heavens were taken care of so easily, but why are they spending so much time on the Yu Family's three souls and seven bodies? Even if they are stronger than the six from Above Heavens, the difference shouldn't be so big right?"

"Ling Jian has to consider Yu ManTian after all. While it wouldn't be easy to take care of the three souls and seven bodies, nothing should go wrong." Ling Chen said gently, "Young n.o.ble doesn't need to worry."

"I have never been worried about Ling Jian! What is the point of worrying about him? I am worried about..." Ling Tian paused abruptly and said with frustration, "In any case, this Sky Bearing City is a place full of trouble and I have to find a reason to leave quickly. If not, trouble will come soon."

"Trouble?" Ling Chen blinked in confusion, "What kind of trouble can threaten young n.o.ble in Sky Bearing?"

Ling Tian let out a long sigh.

All of a sudden, the sound of footsteps could be heard and a eunuch walked in with a yellow scroll. Unrolling it, he shouted, "The imperial decree is here. May the imperial grandson receive the decree."

"Read it!" Ling Tian did not get up and continue lying down. Closing his eyes in anger, he knew that trouble had truly arrived.

Old Master Ling was about to announce to the world.

"By the will of the heavens, the emperor decrees. Ever since we ascended to the throne, we have been cautious and conscientious in managing the empire's affairs. Our age is already advanced and crown prince Long Xiao is competent in managing national affairs. We shall pa.s.s on the throne to crown prince Long Xiao..."