"What... what did you just say?" The king’s voice rumbled, low and dangerous.
The servant before him trembled so violently he could barely keep his knees from buckling.
His words spilled out in broken fragnts, every syllable quaking.
"Y-Your Majesty... the Crown Prince... h-he marched an army to Coldwind City... and— a-and it was annihilated!"
The hall fell into suffocating silence.
The king’s expression twisted, his fury barely contained, each breath seething like a storm about to break.
The Fang clan. Again.
Again and again, they had dared to defy his authority, as though the throne itself ant nothing. And yet, he could not make a move recklessly.
The Fang clan was no ordinary family.
Their clan head was like a shadow, an enigma even to his spies.
And worse... reports from the Shadow Squad included that the infamous Four Saberfangs now served under their banner.
If he wanted to bring the Fang family to heel, he could not lash out blindly. He would need precise, ruthless preparation.
Yet his rage boiled, burning hotter with every thought of his dead son and the humiliation of Coldwind.
From the silence, a voice dared to break through.
"Your Majesty," one of the councilors said, bowing low but letting his words carry.
"Please... avenge the Crown Prince. The Fang family’s disobedience cannot go unpunished."
The king’s gaze snapped to him, sharp as a blade.
The councilor’s back stiffened, yet he pressed on, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and fervor.
"To let this pass is to invite chaos into the realm. If one clan can slaughter the royal heir without consequence, then what will stop the rest from rebelling? The people will whisper that the Fang stand above the throne itself!"
The words hung heavy in the chamber, feeding the fire already roaring in the king’s chest.
The king slamd his hand against the throne’s armrest, the sound echoing like thunder.
"Silence, fool!" His voice cracked through the chamber, shaking the very air.
"You dare tell to avenge my son as if I have been blind? For months, months!, they have held my daughter captive, and you think I do not care for her life?"
His glare was molten fire, burning straight into the kneeling councilor until the man’s forehead touched the floor in terror.
"Why do you think I ordered that boy to wait for my command? Do you think I let him march without reason? No! I was fu*king preparing, a plan to take down the Fang Family. I would have crushed the Fang family in one stroke, wiping them out while saving my daughter. But now..."
The king rose to his feet, robes flaring, rage boiling over.
"Now that reckless idiot has ruined everything! Dead! Dead before my hand could even move! He even lost Teacher Ian in the process!"
The council chamber fell into a suffocating silence, none daring to breathe too loudly beneath the king’s fury.
The king’s chest heaved, but his fury didn’t scatter.
His gaze swept across the chamber, each councilor trembling as though their necks already rested on the block.
"Summon the generals!" he barked.
"Every last one! I want Coldwind City watched, smothered, until not even a bird escapes without my knowledge."
He pointed toward the captain of his shadow guard, voice like a blade.
"You—double the shadows in Fang territory. I want their gates, their markets, even their latrines watched! If a Fang so much as sneezes, I will know of it."
His eyes burned, veins throbbing across his temple as he roared again:
"Send word to the imperial academies. I want every disciple loyal to the crown recalled imdiately. And the sects, yes, the sects! Send tribute, gifts, whatever it takes, if the Fang family dares think they can sway one sect, then I will bind ten to the throne!"
The throne chamber shook with the weight of his voice.
Finally, he leaned forward, hands clenching the arms of his throne like he might snap them off.
His next words were low, dangerous, dripping venom:
"And prepare the decree. The Fang family is guilty of regicide and treason. Their annihilation will be law."
The councilors prostrated themselves fully now, foreheads pressed to cold stone, none daring to lift their heads.
The king’s tirade halted suddenly, his eyes narrowing into slits as another thought slid into his mind like poison.
His lip curled.
"And one more thing," he said, voice sinking into a cold, deliberate hiss. "That rat from the Fang family—the one who ca here bearing news of the Fang family and their alliance with the Divine Ice Sect..."
The councilors stiffened. The chamber’s air felt heavier by the heartbeat.
"Kill him."
His words were soft, almost casual, yet they struck harder than thunder.
A few ministers shifted uneasily, but the king’s glare pinned them where they knelt.
He leaned back against the throne, fingers tapping the armrest with patient venom.
"I will not tolerate traitors under my roof. Today he dare spits on his family, tomorrow he may spit on . Such n are useless."
His voice sharpened into venom, dripping with old hatred.
"And besides... he bears the Fang na. That is cri enough. Whether they kneel or resist, all of them will share the sa fate, annihilation."
The captain of the shadow guard bowed low, fists pressed against the floor.
"Your will shall be done, Your Majesty."
"Good." The king’s eyes glittered.
His knuckles whitened against the throne.
"When I move against the Fang family, it will not be so half-baked lashing born of grief. No, I will erase them root and stem.
And when the kingdom looks upon their ashes, they will know what it ans to provoke the Qin royal bloodline."
A silence followed, suffocating, the only sound the faint drip of blood where the ssenger had been dragged away.
The throne hall was deathly still.
Only the crackle of the torches accompanied his words, every man present daring not even to breathe too loudly.
Finally, the king raised his head, his voice like the toll of a funeral bell.
"Make ready. The Fang family’s live will be short lived."
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