Little did she know that the Celestial Academy had indeed sent its own people to watch Lin Hongxiu for her—only for that whole band of Celestial Academy experts to be expelled from the realm outright by a single written order from Wei Zhao, rendering them utterly useless.

The title "Lord of the Heavenly Prefecture" was no empty boast.

Now, with each passing day, the layers of restriction shrouding the Heavenly Prefecture loosened by a fraction, and it grew ever easier for outside forces to reach in and meddle.

But at the same time, Wei Zhao's actual authority as Lord of the Heavenly Prefecture was rising in step.

No need to lift a hand himself—a single written order, and the Celestial Academy's finest were driven from the realm...

When word came that Gu Yanchuan had placed third, no one was more shattered than Ji Youli. All this time, Ji Youli had pictured Gu Yanchuan as a muscle-brained idiot who knew only brute force—what the hell, had the man strapped himself to a rocket?

At dawn, someone or other set off a string of firecrackers, and the once-quiet morning was suddenly flushed with festivity. Yet even before that string had finished crackling, the Prince Chen's mansion was already stirring—like some vast machine, one gear turning the next.

"At the shipyard we've only built four docks so far; they were finished by the time you last came back, and only the calibration remained. Didn't you say then that we should build a few fishing boats first—both to test the equipment and to put meat on everyone's table?" Yang Huan said, then glanced at Wei Ximeng.

Especially the two round ones flanking the chandelier—the kind of colored lights that could spin. A single room had in an instant become something like a barroom dance floor.

Whether his words were sincere or false, they made her give way to longing against her will. Everyone in this world loathed her; only he had said he would not leave her behind.

Against such a situation, Gao Siqi and the two chiliarchs under him were powerless—after all, this was simply how things stood; had they arrived first, they likely would have done the same, and the other side had even left men behind to explain matters to them. So they bore no resentment toward the Eastern Depot or the Northern Security Bureau.

So on the second night, he came to Mai Country, released that war-vessel once more, let it rise slowly, then shot through the air to the skies above the Atlantic and, under the watchful eyes of countless satellites, came down directly onto the surface of the sea.

The materials submitted for testing were incomplete, and neither the battery's principle nor its operating mechanism was explained. The purpose of submission was simply to obtain an authoritative test report, the better to secure more support funding and develop the project.

And the Heavenly Mechanism Stone could not be split for use—it had to be used whole, or else the spiritual energy would all leak away before one could comprehend anything from it. It was a spirit-stone in the midst of condensation, its energy unstable and unfit for long storage.

The few employees were startled. Wasn't the general manager at the press conference? How had he come up here? Was there something he needed to fetch?

Meng Jingchen glanced at her, then at the seat beside him. Jian Tong understood at once and sat down next to him.

Yuan Wanzhen's teeth chattered. Her father was an upright and cautious man, clear-eyed in his judgments—he would never do such a thing.

She did not tell Qin Yang; in private she had Dongqing accompany her to secretly consult a physician for a pulse reading, after which the doctor prescribed medicine to calm and stabilize the fetus, to be taken for two months.

Everyone in the room assumed the Emperor had summoned the people from Renshou Palace for a confrontation, but to their surprise the Emperor said nothing for a long while. The Emperor silent, Wen Wanrong silent, and the old matron silent as well.

While Prince Qing was suffering the torments of itching, the one who had started it all, Gu Jinxiu, was tangled in clouds and rain with her man in the Prince Xuan's mansion.

Yongcheng went further, advising that no courtesy need be shown to Davachi. Thus by November the Emperor issued an edict suspending trade with the Zunghars.

Before the words had faded, the phantom giant hand contracted, was raised high once more, and before all eyes slowly descended.

She lay down and sighed softly, wondering how much longer this testing, this suspicion, this strife would go on—and who, in the end, would climb to the top upon a forest of white bones.

Yu Wei shrank back and tried to dodge, only to find his movements gentle while the force at his fingertips left her no room to evade.

"Wealthy as my Zhuo family may be, in the eyes of a sovereign we are no more than a turtle in a jar. Arranging this marriage for you was all in the hope that you might attach yourself to imperial power and lift our family one step higher—but who would have thought, ah..." said the Prince of Zhuo.