Shennong Dao Master
Chapter 443 - 44: Aftermath, Re-entering the Dream Palace! (6K)

Chapter 443: Chapter 44: Aftermath, Re-entering the Dream Palace! (6K)

Before Zhao Xing made his move, he had thought through various possibilities:

First, a severe punishment where all military achievements would be confiscated, his official position forfeited, and he would be imprisoned.

This possibility was extremely slim because even if everything was recorded, and even if Zhao Xing had intentionally killed someone, the fault initially lay with Qian Shougang, who, after all, was a military leader abusing his power.

It was not a time when the Fortune Dynasty was collapsing, so the probability of such a punishment was exceedingly low.

Second, a lighter sentence where his official position remained unchanged but his military achievements were penalized as a form of discipline.

The range of military achievements penalized would be about 30,000 to 100,000.

This was the scenario Zhao Xing had anticipated would occur.

Because in his previous life, he often used princes to farm "reputation".

Deliberately finding princes’ subordinates who had erred and executing them to boost his reputation score.

Such actions typically resulted in gaining "reputation" but losing "military achievements," "official positions," and "titles."

But, with careful handling, one could keep his official position and title, only sacrificing some military achievements to gain "reputation points."

Farming reputation from princes was also a favorite task among players because weakening the power of princes was exactly in line with Emperor Jing’s strategies during the Dingxin Period.

Everyone wanted to be like Boss Cao who assassinated Dong Zhuo and became famous throughout the land. Large guilds were particularly fond of orchestrating such events.

Because in the Battle against Barbarians, military achievements were easy to obtain, but reputation points were hard to accumulate.

Its functions were numerous, including but not limited to "political reputation," recruiting famous generals, promoting rank, and more.

Prince Liang was the favorite target among players.

Because Prince Liang had significant influence, farming "reputation" from him would yield a bit more.

But, the cost would also be somewhat higher.

Zhao Xing estimated that 100,000 military achievements would be sufficient for penalties.

He and Long Xiao together had amassed two million military achievements, so a penalty of 100,000 each wasn’t significant.

As he had considered earlier, their next step was to join forces with various armies to fight in the Qinggang War Zone. If the incident of "military bullying" triggered today was not decisively countered,

then in the future, Li Shougang and Wang Shougang would come to usurp their achievements.

A defensive punch now could prevent a hundred more later.

With such an occurrence, should there be another friction with allied forces, he assumed the other armies would restrain themselves a bit more.

However, neither being charged with a crime nor penalized in military achievements was an outcome Zhao Xing had not anticipated.

"That makes no sense. Although I insisted it was an unintentional counterattack, anyone with eyes can see it was somewhat driven by personal grievances."

"At the very least, some military achievements should be penalized."

Zhao Xing pondered deeply.

Not being penalized in military achievements, however, caused Mr. Zhao some annoyance.

Because some matters were beyond his understanding, or rather, his experiences from a previous life no longer served as a reference.

"Someone intervened. But I didn’t even touch the three letters from Tian Shan. Who could be so capable to suppress Prince Liang’s forces?"

"Yang An? Does he have that much clout?"

"Fan Zhaoli? That shouldn’t be; he is just a fifth-rank official, and we aren’t even close."

"Liu Tianning? He did seem to think highly of me, but Lao Liu can be at most a fourth-rank official now, right?"

Although this was supposed to be good news, Zhao Xing felt somewhat uneasy.

After withdrawing from the vicinity of West Xian Territory, he immediately wrote to his teacher Tian Shan to inquire.

Before long, Tian Shan replied to Zhao Xing.

The letter contained only one sentence: The final decision was jointly made by Lingde King, Luo Hou King, and King Heavenly Destiny.

"Phew~" The letter burned, casting fluctuating light on Zhao Xing’s face.

After receiving the answer, a weight was finally lifted off Zhao Xing’s heart.

Although Tian Shan had written only one line, it revealed a wealth of information.

"I only knew about the preliminary investigation results, but the teacher mentioned ’the final result,’ meaning there must have been variations in between. According to the rules, the initial verdict should come from Jiutian Yingyuan Mansion, followed by a report to the Military Realm’s Supervision Department."

"The Barbarian Battle is overseen by thirty-three anointed kings; in the most severe scenarios, it requires the joint deliberation of thirty-three kings overseeing the five major Grotto Heavens."

"But such a matter doesn’t reach the extent of needing ’thirty-three kings to deliberate.’"

"I belong to the Ten Suns Grotto Heaven of the Military Realm, under the supervision of Luo Hou King, King Heavenly Destiny, and Lingde King; this level of involvement is indeed surprising," Zhao Xing secretly thought.

With more information at hand, Zhao Xing felt more reassured.

Lingde King didn’t leave much of an impression on him, but he was familiar with the names of Luo Hou King and King Heavenly Destiny.

Especially Luo Hou King, who was the first to react when Prince Liang suddenly rebelled, and prevented part of Prince Liang’s legion from heading north out of Lvliang State.

This individual was also among those who hit Prince Liang the hardest and, ultimately, it was he and King Heavenly Destiny who raided Prince Liang’s stronghold.

"Things are different now compared to two hundred years ago," Zhao Xing reflected, "At the dawn of the Dingxin Period, Emperor Jing aimed for reform, heavily relying on his brother Prince Liang and granting him substantial power; come the Jingxin Period, Emperor Jing had plenty of people at his disposal, making this little brother somewhat expendable, even assigning people to watch over his own little brother."

"So it was these three overseeing the Ten Suns Grotto Heaven... No wonder..."

Understanding the key point, Zhao Xing felt much more at ease.

....

Military Realm, Hundred Soldiers Tower, topmost level.

Lingde King, Luo Hou King, and King Heavenly Destiny gathered.

"Luo Hou, I didn’t think you’d actually sign off on this," King Heavenly Destiny looked at Luo Hou King, "I thought you wouldn’t bother with this matter."

The second appeal of the Qian Shougang incident, which had been interfered by Prince Liang’s Faction, ruled that Zhao Xing and Long Xiao be penalized 200,000 military achievements and demoted two ranks.

But King Heavenly Destiny blocked this verdict and amended it to not guilty, not demoted, with a symbolic penalty of thirty thousand military achievements.

After learning about it, Luo Hou King revised the judgment again, leaving his decree on record: "If there is no guilt, why penalize achievements?"