章 50: War council

My whole way to the palace was a blur, I was escorted from prefecture to prefecture through Yu with the utmost haste possible, arriving at record time only a week after I encountered that first guard.

I crossed the Meridian gates of the forbidden city atop my horse and galloped all the way to the Gate of heavenly purity where I dismounted and continued on foot to the Palace.

“His majesty, the Fourth Prince Shen Long Mu!” a guard announced me to the inhabitants of the palace when he spied me on the distance, and I fell to one knee as soon as I cleared the entrance.

“This servant has responded to your summons, oh Emperor!” I made a wushu salute and rose when the man himself called my name.

In the couple of months that my absence lasted, the Emperor had seemingly aged a couple of years, his long beard with quite a few gray hairs, but the smile he had for me was just as resplendent as the one he gave me when I left.