The young Grand Shaman looked at Sa’er Khan’s gloomy expression, pursed his lips, then risked his life to add: “Your Majesty… from the current situation, our Tianfeng must face the reality of today’s world order. Our Tianfeng… aside from ink powder and giant elephants, we have too few people, too few slaves, and the slaves… when fighting wars, victory belongs to the master, but defeat means execution. Therefore, our soldiers don’t fight as desperately as the Great Zhou’s soldiers! We… temporarily cannot defeat the Great Zhou and Yan!”

The young Grand Shaman knew that Sa’er Khan was well aware of this, but Tianfeng had always been a powerful nation – how could he, as Tianfeng’s emperor, be willing to admit it? Today’s Grand Shaman, having experienced life and death, had a clearer mind than before, and even… understood that to become strong, one must first acknowledge one’s weakness.

So today, the young Grand Shaman risked potentially enraging Sa’er Khan to speak these words to him.

Sa’er Khan gripped the water cup tightly in his hands. If he didn’t know this, why would he come to Dongyi to instigate conflict between Dongyi and the Great Zhou? It was precisely because he knew that Tianfeng alone could not oppose Great Zhou or Yan that he came to Dongyi.

Liu Rushi sat cross-legged in a corner of the prison cell where moss crawled up the walls. The air was filled with moldy smells, the straw in the prison was not dry, and there were many crawling insects. By the dim firelight from outside, one could vaguely see five or six completely black rats crawling around in the spoiled prison food.

Liu Rushi closed his eyes, forcibly enduring the nausea and discomfort.

The several Great Zhou envoys who had just been imprisoned for a few days, like Liu Rushi when he first arrived, refused to eat this prison food that even dogs wouldn’t touch, watching helplessly as rats ruined the food rather than eating it.

Liu Rushi had tried to persuade them, but it had little effect. However, it wouldn’t be long when people couldn’t endure anymore, they would eventually eat. Staying alive was more important than anything. As long as they lived… Liu Rushi believed that Bai Qingyan would send people to rescue them, because their Great Zhou Emperor was exactly that kind of ruler who would never abandon her subjects and people.

Suddenly, Liu Rushi heard footsteps approaching from far to near. The four Great Zhou envoys imprisoned with Liu Rushi exchanged glances and looked toward Liu Rushi, their pillar of support, only to see that Liu Rushi had already opened his eyes and was looking toward the outside of the cell.

“Lord Liu…” Several people suddenly straightened up, unconsciously moving closer to Liu Rushi’s direction, as if Liu Rushi were their pillar of support. “It seems someone is coming!”

In the prison, aside from a small window for ventilation, there was nothing they could use to judge the time. They could only calculate days by watching the sky darken and brighten through the small window, making everything rather muddled. The crescent moon hanging high in the sky had moved west and could no longer be seen from the small window. Based on Liu Rushi’s usual experience, it was probably nearly dawn.

“It’s fine, don’t panic…” Liu Rushi spoke with a hoarse voice.

Soon, two teams of the emperor’s guards quickly marched to the cell door, each gripping the hilts of their accompanying sabers. One team stood left and right at the cell door, the other stood opposite the cell – quite an impressive display.

The Dongyi Emperor, dressed in plain clothes, slowly walked to the cell door. Looking at Liu Rushi, who had become much thinner, he realized… though Liu Rushi had been imprisoned in this dungeon for so long, he didn’t look haggard like other prisoners. Though his clothes were not as wrinkle-free as when they first met, they were still relatively neat. Apart from being thinner, he didn’t seem much different from before his imprisonment.

The Dongyi Emperor stood at the cell door with his hands behind his back. Knowing that Liu Rushi was considered a close minister of the Great Zhou Emperor, he said, “Liu Rushi, I heard the Great Zhou Emperor values you greatly. Tell me… does the Emperor value you more, or does she value this gambling with the nation more?”

Liu Rushi’s dark, deep eyes looked at the Dongyi Emperor without speaking.

“Tell me… if I use you and these four Great Zhou envoys, plus Prince Han Cheng’s remains, to exchange for the jade cicadas that are the Great Zhou Emperor’s husband’s relics, would the Great Zhou Emperor give them?” the Dongyi Emperor asked with a smile.

Liu Rushi suddenly understood – this Dongyi Emperor was the same as the Tianfeng Emperor, both targeting the jade cicadas, both blinded and bewitched by the time reversal matter, actually believing such absurd nonsense.

Looking at the Dongyi Emperor’s appearance, Liu Rushi’s eyes revealed a mocking expression: “Didn’t our Majesty already send someone to deliver the three jade cicadas we found to the Second Prince? Weren’t they what the Second Prince wanted?”

Liu Rushi did not change his form of address for the Second Prince to “Dongyi Emperor.” In Liu Rushi’s heart, this Second Prince was just a treacherous usurper. The first thing he did after ascending the throne was kill his imperial brother, and now he was still searching everywhere for the Seventh Prince, afraid that the Seventh Prince would appear to seize his throne.

Such an unrighteous beast didn’t deserve to wear dragon robes and be emperor – it was like a monkey wearing a crown, an enormous joke…

As a Great Zhou envoy, Liu Rushi would not, for the sake of his own life, help Great Zhou recognize such a creature worse than pigs and dogs as Dongyi’s emperor.

The Dongyi Emperor narrowed his eyes, walked one step closer to the cell door with his hands behind his back, seemingly wanting to see Liu Rushi more clearly. His fingers rubbed the mother jade cicada gripped in his palm as he spoke in a low voice: “That depends on how much the Great Zhou Emperor cares about Lord Liu and the other lords, as well as Prince Han Cheng’s remains. I… only give the Great Zhou Emperor three months. If she can’t find the other jade cicada in three months, I’m afraid all you lords will end up like Prince Han Cheng and won’t survive. Lord Liu, are you afraid?”

“The Second Prince staged a rebellion and usurped the throne, waged war against our Great Zhou navy without cause, resulting in our Great Zhou Prince Han Cheng’s death in battle, and not one of the navy officers and soldiers protecting the fishermen returning alive. He imprisoned us, Great Zhou envoys, in prison, yet still fantasizes about using us and Prince Han Cheng’s remains to exchange for our Great Zhou Emperor’s husband’s relics!” Liu Rushi showed no fear, his lips carrying a mocking smile. “Second Prince… are you still not awake? If you’re not awake… go back and wash up and sleep. Fantasies in dreams are always easier to realize.”

The Dongyi Emperor’s hand, rubbing the jade cicada behind his back, paused. He suppressed the urge to kill, and his voice turned cold: “It seems Lord Liu truly doesn’t want to live!”

“It’s not that Liu doesn’t want to live, but rather that the Second Prince… probably won’t survive!” Liu Rushi’s lips curved up, his eyes containing a murderous aura unlike that of a scholar. “The Second Prince still doesn’t understand our Great Zhou Emperor well enough. After the Nan Jiang battle, when Western Liang knelt and sued for peace, Liu had the honor of accompanying our Great Zhou Majesty to the peace negotiations. At that time, our Majesty said that whoever kills one of our people, the Majesty would kill a thousand or ten thousand of theirs, leading Great Zhou’s elite soldiers to attack the capital and annihilate their nation! Western Liang was such a great power, yet our Great Zhou said we’d destroy it, and we did!”