Chapter 123: The Duel

As a matter of fact, the officials were right in thinking that Wang Wei was cunning when necessary.

Over the years, he did not stop thinking about how to get rid of these noble families that were a nuisance to his rule.

As such, he wanted to kill their backer first, their hidden cards: the Supernatural Realm Cultivators.

As such, he invented an array that would prevent them from flying, then secretly trained people that were capable of instantly setting up this formation and scattered these people to different cities of the Dynasty's territory.

One of the reasons he acted so swift and brutal today was because he wanted to lure these Supernatural Realm cultivators to show themselves, then rapidly arrest them with the formation he created.

Unfortunately, these people seemed to be on guard and just destroyed a few houses before immediately flying away.

After sighing for a while that his plan failed, Wang Wei regained his bearing and continued the meeting.

"What happened to the pills that I have asked you for?" suddenly asked Wang Wei to Yan Liling.

"I'm not done refining them due to the large requirement. I'm still confused, why do you need so many rare and high quality pills?" responded Yan Liling with a confused look on her face.

"I need them for something. I'll tell you all about it when everything is done."

"Well, given the fact it is extremely hard for me to refine Low Grade Earth Tier pills without a divine sense, it will still take a while for me to refine all of them."

"Well take your time and give them to me when you are done," replied Wang Wei with a calm look on his face.

Yan Liling just nodded and did not ask any further questions. However, someone else did.

"Your majesty," said one official. "What do we do with the war in the Barbarian Wolf Kingdom?"

"Send reinforcement immediately," responded Wang Wei without hesitation. "Tell General 2 that he has less than a week to breach the capital's city."

Everyone nodded and the court meeting of the day was officially over with all the ministers leaving.

As usual, Empress Dong Lifen stayed behind to talk to Wang Wei. When the room was empty with the two of them left, she got up from her throne and bowed to Wang Wei and said:

"Thank you, your majesty, for listening to my advice today."

As smart as Dong Lifen is, she could tell that his majesty had no plans to just brutally kill all the nobles without any reasons or official statement.

However, when Wang Wei showed that he changed his mind after hearing Dong Lifen's plea, it provided her with more power in the court; it showed to the officials that the Empress had the ability to influence the Emperor.

With the ability to influence the Emperor came the power to influence the entire dynasty.

As such, there is nothing that officials fear and respect more than an Empress that can whisper to the Emperor's ear. After all, what if the Empress started to talk badly about any of them to his majesty.

Wang Wei smiled and waved for her to get up and sit down.

To be honest, she was not the main reason that he acted so callous and indifferent during today's meeting.

Over the years, in order to properly govern his dynasty, Wang Wei has been using the concept that the law is above everything and should be followed and respected.

Although Wang Wei was not as harsh as the Qin's Dynasty back on Earth, he was still very moderately strict when it came to the law of Great Xia.

Unfortunately a problem soon arose.

A faction of scholars that worshipped the law was formed. These people called themselves the School of Law and became a rabid supporter of this way of ruling the dynasty.

At first Wang Wei supported their factions as it made it easier to control the court. However, recently, these people seemed to have gotten over their heads and started to play with the motion that even the Emperor should be bind and restricted by the law.

So, today, Wang Wei used this opportunity not only to lure his enemy from the shadow, but also to send a message to these scholars that as long as he was here, his words will be absolute, and will be above everything in this dynasty--even the law he himself created.

As for Dong Lifen's act of acquiring more power, he just provided an opportunity.

In that situation, any of his ministers could have spoken and he would have listened. The fact that she spoke first and took this opportunity showed that she is politically savvy and knows when to take action.

As for the reason that neither Wang Ju nor Yan Liling spoke, it was because none of the people cared about the struggle for political power.

For one, they had plenty of power already in the Great Xia Dynasty. Secondly and more importantly, they are just travelers in this world. For them, the experience in this small world will one day become nothing but a fond memory that they reminisced about in their very long and fulfilling life.

.. .

After sitting down, Wang Wei and Dong Lifen then began their study of the Dynasty's Qi Luck. After a few hours, the Empress left happily as usual and Wang Wei checked his Qi Dragon.

He smiled after noticing that a quarter of it had already returned to the color purple. Afterwards, he headed straight for a sealed room in the palace.

After opening this secret room, Wang Wei saw countless puppets standing there without moving. All these puppets had human shape and emanated a powerful aura.

After checking the room, a vicious smile appeared in Wang Wei's mouth before sealing the room and leaving.

Meanwhile, back in the Black Moon Sect's territory, Li Jun was sitting inside a military barracks while reviewing papers.

After the Black Moon Sect surrendered, he quickly brought people over from Great Xia to occupy the territories.

After more than a month of hard work, all the people of this new territory became aware of the rules and regulations of Great Xia--including the benefits like free schooling and access to their own fertile lands as long as they pay their taxes.

As such, it was quite easy for them to accept the new rule.

After reviewing his paper, Li Jun looked at General 1 and asked, "What about the duel letters, did the Iron Fist King accept the challenge?"

"Yea, Grand Commandant," responded Genera 1. "The Iron Fist King said that the duel can take place at the border of our territory 3 days from today."

Li Jun nodded, not that surprised by the outcome. He did not just randomly make this plan. He did so after a deep and careful analysis of the history and character of the Iron Fist King.

Suddenly, Li Jun noticed a hesitant look on General 2's face. As such, he said, "If you have something to say, just do it."

"Commandant, I'm just worried that the Iron Fist King will go back on his words. That all of this is just a trap against you."

Li Jun nodded and did not admonish his subordinate for being so cautious. As such, he replied, "Given the character of the Iron Fist King, the chance of him going back on his words are very slim."

"However, even if he did so, it will not matter. The reason that I used this method to settle our territories was in order to be fast and efficient. If he goes back on his words, we'll just have to use the hard way to conquer the Iron Fist Kingdom."

A fierce light flashed through Li Jun's eyes when he said that, then he continued, "And if it is indeed a trap?"

Li Jun just sneered at the idea. With his strength, would he be afraid of any trap?

However, he still took note of this possibility. He has also learned a great deal of things after the incident back in Black Wing City.

As such, he decided to take a few elite soldiers to accompany him during this duel just in case something beyond his calculations goes wrong.

Three days later, at the border of the Black Moon Sect's Territory and the Iron Fist Kingdom.

Li Jun, wearing his armor and holding a spear, waited for someone to show up. After a few minutes, he saw an old man with white long hair and white beard travelling towards him on top of a horse-like demonic beast.

After a few minutes, the old man stopped a few meters from Li Jun and descended from his mount. His armor shone under the light of the sun. He looked at his opponent  and said, "Slaughter God Li Jun."

"Iron Fist King Tie Gang," replied Li Jun while observing his opponent with a look of surprise in his eyes.

He was surprised at the fact that the Iron Fist King was an old man, but his actual age.

Based on secret methods he learned from the sect, without personally checking his body, he can roughly estimate that the Iron Fist King was actually only just over 100 years old.

Given the fact that he is actually a peak Divine Altar Realm Cultivator, he should have at least 1000 years of life span.

And yet, Li Jun could actually see that he did not have long to live.

The Iron Fist King looked at the soldiers a few thousand meters from them and asked, "You do not trust me?"

"Well. it's just precautions, They will not have any effect on the battle."

"Good, then, let's get this started," replied the Iron Fist King with excitement after taking out a halberd as a weapon.