Chapter 44: A Cry of Reckoning for All Living Beings

This winter feels as though it will never end. Even after a full year, even as it has become the first month of the twelfth year of Jianwu, spring has yet to arrive.

Even without the wind and snow that blot out the sun, this ground covered in frost and soil frozen for a year is still a catastrophe. In the six prefectures of Great Liang, thirty percent of the cultivated land has been ruined by the freeze.

Spring plowing and autumn harvesting—without spring plowing, how can there be an autumn harvest? In the bitter cold of January, even without snow, Great Liang has fallen into famine.

Of the millions of refugees, ten percent have starved to death, ten percent have been devoured by demons, and of the remaining eighty percent who are still alive, they are merely waiting to die.

The young Emperor remains indifferent.

He neither opens the granaries to distribute grain nor discusses the resettlement of refugees, acting as if he cannot see the tens of millions of ordinary citizens of Great Liang.

"The Heaven-Swallowing Remnant Scroll... I wonder if anyone is still practicing it."

"That sword strike that should have questioned the young Emperor... in the end, it never made its way to his door to strike him!"

Leaning against the doorframe, wrapped in a cotton padded coat, Su Chen watched the eunuchs and palace maids passing by the pharmacy. They were almost all unfamiliar faces.

Everyone he knew had died.

The wretched souls in this deep palace—those low-level eunuchs and maids—were like leeks; once one crop was harvested, a new one would grow in its place.

Never mind them; even the current Five Red Robes had mostly been replaced by new faces since the era of Tianwu.

It is said that humans can live to a hundred, but the path of cultivation is perilous and filled with endless strife; many often perish halfway.

"Master Xu."

A few young eunuchs who had entered service at the same time as Xiao Xuanzi greeted Su Chen, before calling Xiao Xuanzi out to run toward the palace gates.

"Where are you going? It's almost lunchtime," Su Chen said.

"Master Xu, we're going to watch the spectacle!"

"The new Chief Minister has been kneeling for half a day outside the palace gates, begging His Majesty to open his eyes and look upon the common people of this world!"

"Even the Director of the West Depot has gone!"

The civil official system of Great Liang was somewhat chaotic, but the Chief Minister was undoubtedly the highest civil official. In a previous life, he would be equivalent to a Prime Minister or Grand Secretary, holding the pinnacle of officialdom.

Since the Year of Heavenly Chaos, when Great Liang saw three emperors change in a single year, the empire had begun to decline. By now, not only had they lost three prefectures, but the Purple Robe sat vacant, and the foundation of the First-Rank Tianwu Tower had been lost. They relied solely on the deterrence of a Demon Ancestor to keep the neighboring countries at bay.

But that was forgotten.

That very Demon Ancestor had also failed in his succession; a tale of "filial piety" where the son sealed the father into a coffin, the whereabouts of which were unknown.

"By all rights, a Chief Minister should be a First-Rank cultivator."

"A pity."

"I fear the current court of Great Liang cannot even muster a single First-Rank expert."

Su Chen shook his head.

This Chief Minister was an ordinary man, which was precisely why the young Emperor dared to treat him with such negligence, allowing him to kneel for half a day.

"Going to watch the spectacle might be alright."

Su Chen walked toward the palace gates.

The area was heavily guarded, layered with ranks of people: eunuchs, imperial guards, and the brocade-clad agents of the West Depot.

There was a set of seats where Xu Han, wearing the red robes of the Director of the West Depot, sat drinking tea with an indifferent gaze.

Behind him.

The brocade-clad agents were arrayed on both sides, wearing Soul-Locking Sabers at their waists and chainmail armor, their eyes harboring a murderous intent.

"I implore His Majesty to look upon the lives of Great Liang's people!"

"They are not cultivators; they cannot fight demons or protect themselves! The winter descended, the earth froze for thousands of miles, and nothing was harvested. They go hungry, displaced by the invasion of demons, even resorting to eating their own children..."

"They are also the subjects of Great Liang!"

In front of the palace gates, a man in his forties wearing vermilion and purple robes held his official cap in his hands. His voice was hoarse as he repeatedly struck the palace gates.

His lips were cracked from lack of water. Having knelt for a long time without receiving a response, perhaps this silence was already the answer.

The passionate light in his eyes gradually flickered out.

He covered his face and began to weep bitterly.

"Great Liang, how could it come to this? How could it come to this!"

The eunuchs and maids who had originally run over to watch the spectacle found the atmosphere suddenly stripped of its excitement, as if they had been infected by the Chief Minister's weeping.

A heavy silence spread, permeated by a sense of sorrow.

If it weren't for the fact that they could no longer survive, who would be willing to be sold into the deep palace as slaves or maids, or even sacrifice their dignity as men...

Perhaps if they hadn't entered the palace, they would be among the millions of refugees either starving to death, being eaten by demons, or waiting to die.

"Why can't Great Liang open its eyes to look at us lowly people, who are like mere blades of grass? Is it just because we are not cultivators?"

Xiao Xuanzi clenched his fists, his eyes filling with tears as if remembering something heartbreaking.

His emotions were becoming unstable.

Seeing this, Su Chen stepped forward quickly, grabbed Xiao Xuanzi's sleeve, and spoke in a low voice.

"Do not make a scene!"

"We are just ordinary eunuchs..."

"It is enough to look after ourselves."

Xiao Xuanzi shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Master Xu."

"No one has ever asked me if I wanted to be a eunuch. But what else could I do? If I didn't, I would have starved to death..."

"My mother brought us three brothers all the way to the Imperial City. I thought if I became a eunuch, my family wouldn't have to starve anymore."

"But I was wrong. On my very first night as a eunuch, my mother and my brother died of hunger. To save a single mouthful of food so that I could survive in the palace..."

Xiao Xuanzi was sobbing uncontrollably.

"If only..."

"If only... back then, when the disaster struck, if His Majesty could have looked at us just once, I wouldn't have had to be castrated to be a eunuch, and my mother and brother wouldn't have starved to death just to save a bite of food for me..."

"The Chief Minister is a good man. This is the first time I've known that a high official in the court is willing to speak up for lowly people like us..."

Xiao Xuanzi's eyes were brimming with tears, yet they were bright. He broke free from Su Chen and walked forward with slow but steady steps. He supported the swaying Chief Minister and, without saying a word, knelt down beside him toward the palace gates.

He said nothing, but the thousands of words in his heart seemed to be screamed aloud at that moment.

*Emperor! Open your eyes and look! We are your subjects too! Why won't you let us live!*

More and more palace maids and eunuchs knelt silently before the palace gates, crowding around the Chief Minister as if to support and protect him.

"How can it be like this! How can it be like this! You will be implicated, you will all be implicated..."

The Chief Minister looked at the maids and eunuchs beside him, his vision blurred and his voice choking with emotion.

He was the high-ranking Chief Minister.

Yet he was still an ordinary man. In pleading for the lives of the people, he could not move the Emperor's heart even a fraction. By kneeling at these gates, how many people would he drag down with him?

"Presumptuous! Presumptuous!"

"You are rebelling!"

"We brought you here to witness the disgrace of this Chief Minister, not to let you bolster his momentum!"

The brocade-clad agents flew into a rage, whipping their lashes toward the maids and eunuchs!

A bunch of dog-like eunuchs and lowly maids, you are truly out of control!

"Sigh!"

With a sigh, Su Chen stepped forward. The whip struck his body, leaving a bloody streak that soaked through his black robes.

With eyes filled with anger, he stared at the indifferent Xu Han, who was still drinking tea in his wooden chair, and said coldly

"I once heard that Director Xu also came from a background of poverty and low status. To survive, you entered the palace and once knelt three times and bowed nine times before Master Su in the Library to beg for a chance at wealth and status!"

"Is this coldness, this bullying of the weak, this willingness to be a mindless lackey, the wealth and status that Su Chen taught you and gave you?"

"If that is truly the case, then I think that Su Chen is truly blind, having given you such a heaven-sent fortune!"

At that moment, the three hundred brocade-clad agents of the West Depot all bristled, caught between shock and fury, staring at the suicidal black-robed little eunuch.

"Impudence!"

"A lowly black-robed eunuch like you dares to utter Master Su's name? You dare speak to our Director like that?"

"You're out of line! Open your mouth! Open it wide!"

A leader of the agents roared in fury.

*Boom!*

The three hundred agents lunged at Su Chen simultaneously.

At that moment.

Xu Han, the Director of the West Depot in his great red python robe, who had remained silent with a cold gaze, finally raised his eyes to look at Su Chen.

"That single kneel in the Library... only Master Su and I knew of it. How is it that you know this?"