353. Was That a Miracle from Heaven? (I)

Translator: Storm in a Teacup

Fang walked towards Long.

“The crown prince, my so-called elder brother, is really stupid. It was just such a small crisis, but he couldn’t wait to kick out a great a.s.sistant for him. If he’s always like this, how many people will be willing to work for him?”

“Right.” Long smiled. “How would he be given up by the emperor if he wasn’t so stupid?”

“That’s true.” Fang nodded.

Long looked at him. “Where is Xu You?”

Fang replied, “He’s in the room. He caught a cold, so I asked him to have a good rest.”

“Is it serious?”

“Don’t worry. He’s fine. Doctor Liu has prescribed some medicine.”

Long felt relieved. “That’s good.”

One day later, the sacrifice ceremony in Western Mountain would be held.

Early in the morning, Fang went to the imperial palace.

Long and Liu, as his personal guards, naturally followed him.

However, the two of them could only stop at the gate of the palace.

Along with them was a group of twenty guards in Fang’s mansion.

Ten of these people were Shadow Guardians.

Long and Liu naturally became their leaders.

Instead of dressing up as a woman, Liu wore men’s clothing this day, but he still wore makeup. At a glance, other people would think that he was a woman who had been disguised as a man.

When Fang came out later, these guards would become the vanguard and lead the crowd to clear the way.

Generally speaking, it represented that the master valued them very much and they would have a promising future.

Therefore, many men in the palace were vying to be a member of the team.

But when it came to Fang, things were a little different.

It would be a ceremony to wors.h.i.+p heaven, so Lord Zhou naturally had to go there in person.

However, he would be like an ascetic monk all the day. He couldn’t even speak in order to show respect for heaven.

Therefore, the leader of the imperial family, Fang, would speak on behalf of him.

On this day, Lord Zhou needed to wear a white robe, which was really like the ca.s.sock worn by an abbot.

Since he got up in the morning, Lord Zhou couldn’t eat or drink anything except some water.

During the whole day, he could only drink a little water until the end of the ceremony.

Perhaps, it could make his recall his suffering in the old days and cherish the good life at present?

Anyway, he would definitely have an ascetic day!

The sacrifice ceremony in Eastern Darkness was just like this.

Western Mountain was a mountain for the imperial family

It was said that the founder of Eastern Darkness proclaimed himself emperor just at this place. Back then, he suffered a lot of twists and turns in order to overthrow the previous dynasty and almost all people died here.

However, it was also in Western Mountain that the first emperor had an extraordinary encounter.

Reputedly, he obtained a scroll of martial arts, which had something to do with the leader of the martial arts world back then.

With the help of the martial artists, everything went on smoothly.

Therefore, Western Mountain had always been auspicious in the eyes of the first emperor.

Moreover, when he was wors.h.i.+ping heaven in Western Mountain after he was enthroned, a real dragon appeared.

Therefore, the mountain mattered a lot in the hearts of the imperial family.

The crown prince thought that Fang robbed him of the opportunity to speak on behalf of the emperor. So how could he be happy?

Long and the others waited outside for about an hour before the gate of the imperial palace was finally fully opened.

All the ministers had entered the palace before dawn.

At this time, they all came out under the leaders.h.i.+p of Fang.

After Fang and hundreds of ministers came out, they stopped in front of the gate. Then, they turned around to face the palace.

Led by Fang, all people knelt down together.

“Greetings, Your Majesty,” Fang said solemnly.

Then, the ministers said loudly, “Greetings, Your Majesty.”

Of course, Long and the others had already knelt down.

At this time, a plain imperial sedan chair came out of the palace.

The sedan chair was made of bamboo and it was carried by four eunuchs.

There was no decoration in the sedan chair. For the emperor, he’d live like an ascetic monk only on this day.

Lord Zhou was sitting in there upright. He was dressed in white, with his hair hanging down loosely at the back.

He did that in order to… return to nature?

Long was a little puzzled.

He didn’t understand why they had to hold such a ceremony to torture everyone.

However, there were different customs at different places, so there was nothing to complain.

Lord Zhou’s sedan chair was slowly carried to the gate of the palace.

Later, Fang stood up and slowly walked to his side.

“You may all rise.”

Long caught a glimpse of the crown prince and found his forehead twitched when he heard these words.

Long laughed inwardly.

The ministers all stood up.

Then, they stood on both sides respectfully.

Fang stood in front of the sedan chair.

“Let’s go.”

Upon hearing that, Long and the guards took one step forward.

Fang got on the horse, while Long and the others followed, of course, by foot.

Behind more than twenty guards was the emperor’s sedan chair.

They were followed by the ministers and princes, including the crown prince and the fifth prince Zhou Suye.

Those who were at the back were three thousand imperial guards.

These people headed towards Western Mountain in mighty contingents.

Long thought that with such a formation, the a.s.sa.s.sins would easily launch a sneak attack by shooting arrows from both sides. This means was included in his original plan.

However, there was actually a suicide squad of hundreds of men following the emperor secretly.

Besides, the route had long been checked in advance.

There were actually a lot of Shadow Guardians in ambush along the way.

Perhaps a sneak attack wouldn’t end up well in such a situation. On the contrary, their current plan seemed better…

Not only would the situation be messed up, they would also hide themselves.

At this moment, Long only hoped that things could go smoothly on Western Mountain.

The mountain really occupied a large area. However, their purpose wasn’t to a.s.sa.s.sinate the emperor, so it shouldn’t be so difficult.

Thinking of that, Long felt more confident.

After three hours, they reached the foot of Western Mountain.

Fang, who was in the very front, raised his hand.

The entire group of people stopped.

Fang got off his horse, walked to the sedan chair and knelt down. “Your Majesty, please get off.”

Then, all the ministers knelt down and said, “Your Majesty, please get off.”

Everyone looked very serious, which added some tension to the atmosphere.

Long lowered his head and played a guard dutifully.

The sedan chair was put down, and then Lord Zhou slowly stepped out of it.

From the foot of the mountain, the emperor needed to climb up to the top step by step.

West Mountain was surrounded by forests and there were many wild animals in there.

However, no beasts would be so stupid to come out to court death when there were a large number of people out there.

Besides, there was a flat area at the top of the mountain.

That was the place where the ceremony would be held and there was also an altar which had been built for many years.

A stone tablet was also standing there.

Moreover, the altar was usually heavily guarded.