Chapter 11608 — Good Boy
The Blossom Guardian Page 1 of 2
Bai Shizu shook his head in bewilderment.
By any reckoning, he had dealt with Wei Zhao a fair amount—had once even regarded him as his greatest rival among the younger generation.
Yet this Wei Zhao before him and the Wei Zhao he remembered from a year ago, though at first glance one and the same man, felt like two entirely different people.
Elder Qin said gravely, "He means to snap the backbone of the seven princes' estates."
The King of Qin grasped it at once, his expression turning incomparably grim. "Good boy—he has played me."
A moment ago, Wei Zhao had let him ride the slope down and slip away, which had looked like a favor, a way to stay out of it.
But now it seemed plain that this was exactly what Wei Zhao had intended all along.
The seven kings could not kneel; once they knelt, their backbones would be broken.
Had the King of Qin still been in the game, he would have had a chance to shoulder that pressure—to take the lead and fight Wei Zhao head-on to the bitter end.
But now he had already pulled himself out, and getting back in would not be so easy.
To recklessly charge back in would make him the biggest target of all; for whatever reason, Wei Zhao would have to use him to make an example.
The King of Qi and the rest, by contrast, would never step forward to help him—most likely they would gloat, only too eager to see the Prince of Qin's estate and Wei Zhao bleed each other white.
By any measure of feeling or reason, the King of Qin could not possibly do such a foolish thing.
And more than that, what he bore was not his own future alone, but the interests and glory of the entire Prince of Qin's estate.
To say nothing else, even if he wished to take the risk himself, Elder Qin and the others would certainly stop him.
"What a strike at the heart."
The King of Qin sat back down.
Elder Qin and the others exchanged glances and let out a collective breath of relief.
If things went on this way, the pace might be alarming, but at least for the moment it could only be a matter of the Daoist friend dying while the poor Daoist lives on.
Even if someone knelt, that would be the business of the King of Qi and his lot, with no bearing on the Prince of Qin's estate.
Even if repercussions followed, the Prince of Qin's estate had no need to leap out now and play the saint.
By this time, the atmosphere on the scene had frozen solid.
The King of Qi spoke coldly: "What lofty airs. Do you even know what you are saying?"
Wei Zhao nodded. "Perfectly clear. If you gentlemen truly do not wish to kneel, that is no matter."
Everyone let out a breath of relief at once.
So it had been nothing but an empty feint after all?
As expected—no one under heaven would dare to be that insane.
Then Wei Zhao spoke again, his tone soft and eerie: "I can bring my men to your doors and help you kneel. Rest assured, it is free of charge."
"..."
Every scalp in the hall prickled.
By now the image of Wei Zhao in their eyes was no longer the Wei Zhao they had once known, but an out-and-out demon.
To come to their doors and force the five kings and the Son of Heaven of Zhou to kneel?
How did he dare?
Far away in the Prince of Qi's estate, the King of Qi heard this and instinctively wanted to retort, You may try—yet before the words could leave his mouth, a vast and inexplicable sense of crisis descended upon him.
The Prince of Qi's estate before his eyes was, in the space of a single instant, swallowed by a bloody crimson hue!
And the reason such a vision appeared was simply that the Ten Great Sins beneath Wei Zhao's banner had all turned their gazes toward him at once.
That was all.
For the first time in his life, the King of Qi felt a long-forgotten chill run through his bones.
He knew perfectly well that this was only an illusion he saw; but the moment he uttered that sentence aloud, the scene before him might very well become reality.
The Prince of Qi's estate was powerful, to be sure, yet if he searched his conscience—if Wei Zhao truly led the Ten Great Sins to his door, he genuinely could not withstand it!
And when that time came, it would no longer be a matter of one kneel and an apology; whether the Prince of Qi's estate could even continue to exist would be in question.
At the very least, his seat as King of Qi would surely no longer hold steady.
A moment of silence.
At last the King of Qi's thousand-zhang phantom image moved, slowly dropping to one knee in the direction where Wei Zhao stood.
The whole of the Inner Royal Court was struck dumb as one.
He actually knelt?
Among the seven kings, the King of Qi's prestige had always been second only to the King of Qin's; and after the formation of the Vertical Alliance, his renown had been unmatched in his day.
Many in the streets even held that he had already surpassed the King of Qin and become, in the truest sense, foremost of the seven kings!
What a supremely exalted figure that was!
And today, because of a single sentence from Wei Zhao, he had truly knelt before them all?
Wei Zhao reminded him earnestly, "Your head is not low enough."
This was beyond all forbearance!
It was not only the King of Qi, caught in the trap, but even many onlookers who ground their teeth along with him. Was kneeling on one knee still not enough? Must he knock his head upon the ground as well?
Of course, there were also those who delighted in the spectacle, wishing they themselves were Wei Zhao, so that it was to them the King of Qi knelt and kowtowed.
Every gaze converged upon the King of Qi.
Then his phantom image held rigid for a moment, and slowly bowed his head down.
The whole assembly erupted in uproar.
The majestic King of Qi had truly knelt and kowtowed just like that? Was this still the lofty King of Qi?
The Seven Princes' Estates were the very heaven of the Inner Royal Court. Apart from one another, nothing and no one could rise above them—this was the common knowledge instilled in every soul of the Inner Royal Court from childhood.
Yet now, with this one kneeling of the King of Qi, their understanding collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Wei Zhao said nothing, and turned his gaze to the other four kings.
The four kings' scalps prickled as one.
They had never imagined that the King of Qi would fail to withstand the pressure and submit beneath Wei Zhao's feet just like that!
In their hearts the four kings cursed savagely, wishing they could drag out all eighteen generations of the King of Qi's ancestors and flog their corpses.
But now, when the pressure truly came down upon their own heads, the choice they finally made was no different in the slightest from the King of Qi's.
Kneel. Kowtow.
Five kings kneeling!
This spectacle shook every soul in the Inner Royal Court.
Looking across the whole long history of the Inner Royal Court, this was a scene that had never before occurred.
Crack!
From the great powers on high to the common folk below, everyone vaguely heard a sound like a bone snapping.
Many did not understand, and thought it a mere hallucination.
Only the top-tier figures of the King of Qin's caliber all wore grim, solemn faces, written full with shock.
"The backbone of the Seven Princes' Estates has broken."
Old Qin gave a long, faint sigh.
The seven great princely houses were as one flesh and one blood; though only five kings had knelt, the Prince of Qin's estate was not among them.
Yet the invisible bonds that bound them together dragged the Prince of Qin's estate down with the rest.
On the face of it, the five kings' kneeling today had cost them nothing but face; in substance, it proclaimed outright that the age in which the seven great princely houses held sole dominion over the Inner Royal Court was ended.
From this day forth, the seven great princely houses would no longer be invincible, and the Inner Royal Court stood on the brink of a new era, one in which all the heroes would contend for the prize.