That night, Empress Rong had not returned to the palace. She remained within the Imperial Guard’s compound.

“Your Highness, why not return to the palace first? In case His Majesty comes looking for you…” Mama Qin pleaded earnestly.

She had watched Her Highness grow up from childhood — what was on Her Highness’s mind, she understood better than anyone.

Her Highness was infatuated with the Ninth Prince, and she had seen every bit of it.

Though the Ninth Prince was indeed a devastatingly captivating man — even she, an old woman of her age, could not help but steal a few extra glances at him.

If truth be told, if she had sufficient power, Mama Qin would have been sorely tempted to keep Zhan Qingcheng locked away for herself alone, for the rest of her days.

But such thoughts were just idle fantasy — she still had that much self-awareness.

Her Highness, however, was in no such state of merely fantasizing. She had nearly sunken in beyond all hope of recovery!

“Your Highness, His Majesty has been coming to find you rather frequently of late. He…”

“That old man comes to find me only because he wants to persuade me to relinquish the military authority I hold. What reason have I to meet with him?”

The nation of Bei Mu at present appeared calm on the surface, yet in truth, turbulent undercurrents ran deep beneath.

His Majesty held the Imperial Protectorate Army in his hands — yet it commanded no more than thirty percent of Bei Mu’s total military strength.

Her Nanmeng clan’s Azure Dragon Army held twenty percent of the entire nation’s military strength in its grip, and on top of that, her son the Crown Prince’s Imperial City Guards accounted for another ten percent.

If the Emperor wished to move against her Nanmeng clan, her son would inevitably stand to protect her, his mother — this son had been raised at her side from childhood, and the bond between them was naturally far deeper than any bond he shared with the Emperor.

What was more, the Emperor had other sons — but she, Nanmeng Rong, had only Zhan Yuheng as her own flesh and blood.

The Nanmeng clan would naturally rally behind the Crown Prince. Under such circumstances, the Crown Prince could not possibly side with his imperial father and turn against her.

By any measure of emotion or reason, the Empress had no cause whatsoever to fear His Majesty. So the notion of surrendering her military authority? Pure absurdity.

Did he not remember that when the Late Emperor seized the throne, the Nanmeng clan had fought to win him nearly half the empire? To attempt to erase those merits now — was that even possible?

At present, the figure who wielded the greatest influence over Bei Mu’s entire political landscape — equally matched against His Majesty — was the Ninth Prince, who likewise controlled thirty percent of Bei Mu’s military strength.

The Ninth Prince’s Dragon Martial Army had begun as nothing more than a small and modest force, yet it had grown with unstoppable momentum into a vast and mighty host.

Both she and His Majesty had once been unable to believe it — that in the blink of an eye, the Dragon Martial Army had fully risen to power.

They did not seize a single inch of Bei Mu’s territory, but instead relied on their own capability to expand the frontiers and eliminate border threats in one decisive stroke.

Yet the direct result was that every tribal nation had pledged allegiance to the Dragon Martial Army — and so its strength grew by the day, until even His Majesty could do nothing about it.

Whether the Ninth Prince harbored ambitions of domination was a matter to set aside for the moment — the fact remained that whenever any neighboring nation encroached upon Bei Mu, it was the Dragon Martial Army that drove the enemy back. That was undeniable.

For Bei Mu’s founding had been rather turbulent, and its governing institutions had been established only some twenty-odd years ago. In the early years, neighboring nations had launched ceaseless incursions, and the court had been under immense pressure.

But since the Dragon Martial Army came into being, prosperity and peace had settled over the land. Within just a few short years of development, the nation was thriving and its people content.

The Dragon Martial Army had become a force of divine might, a faith held by the common people. If one were to speak of who truly kept His Majesty losing sleep at night — the Ninth Prince was a far greater cause for concern than even the Empress.

And yet, the Ninth Prince suffered from a chronic illness that had plagued him for years — which did grant His Majesty some measure of reassurance.

Even so, His Majesty still felt that the military forces under his own command were insufficient, and so he had been continuously seeking to draw the Nanmeng clan’s troops under his control.

The Empress gripped her cup, and let out a cold laugh: “This Empress refuses to go back. Let that old man try and do something about it.”