All of Jingang fell into chaos.

People from the fire brigade hurriedly rushed to the dock, but the raging fire stretched for miles. The entire dock’s accumulated timber and moored warships were devoured by the flames – they had no way to begin fighting it.

All the people of Jingang were alarmed and came in panic to the cliffs at the town’s edge to look toward the sea.

Such a massive fire was something they had never seen in their lifetimes – even the sky was reflected in red.

The connected warships burned as the sea wind roared, and the sea surface somehow caught fire too, as if a giant dragon was ablaze. Thick smoke billowed, obscuring clouds and sun.

Among the people, some worried, others wiped away tears, and still others knelt and kowtowed repeatedly to gods and Buddhas, praying for protection of Jingang’s people and begging heaven to withdraw its punishment.

“It must be because we dismantled the warships – even heaven disagrees!”

An elderly man angrily struck his walking stick.

Others said: “We don’t cherish our own warships, so heaven is taking them back. It won’t let us Zhou people use them anymore.”

“What can we do!”

Some women began crying loudly.

The local magistrate sought paper and brush, his hands trembling as he reported to His Majesty that the warships had mysteriously caught fire, the entire dock had fallen into a sea of flames – perhaps it was heaven’s warning…

The magistrate didn’t want to be blamed for poor management, but he seemed to forget that the current emperor was most concerned about matters of heavenly mandate. A heavenly warning that burned the warships he needed for his imperial mausoleum – could it mean heaven was displeased with him as emperor?

The magistrate couldn’t consider such matters at the moment.

No one noticed that behind the vast fires and billowing smoke, over thirty warships of various sizes slowly departed the dock, sailing at full speed toward the southeast.

Even less did anyone notice that a small donkey was carrying an immortal-looking old man, taking advantage of the night to leave Jingang and head toward the capital.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

At the Huichuan County yamen, Li Qitian was being helped to change clothes by Xiong Jinshui when he heard someone outside calling urgently in a rough voice: “Urgent report from Jingang!”

Li Qitian frowned and casually ordered “Withdraw,” then strode to the front hall.

He saw a man in tight clothing standing anxiously in the center – it was the secret agent Zhu Meng.

“What matter?” Sweeping his robe, Li Qitian gracefully took his seat.

Zhu Meng presented both the memorial and secret report in his hands, then bowed his head and carefully stepped aside.

Seeing Zhu Meng’s cautious manner, Li Qitian knew something must have happened at Jingang.

He first opened the secret report from the agent. After scanning it, his expression changed dramatically. Then he opened the memorial from the Jingang magistrate. His face immediately turned ashen as he slammed the table hard.

“What heavenly warning! Warning to whom! Those useless fools – are they all just eating for free! Ordered to dismantle a few ships, yet they burned down the entire dock! What use are these useless fools to me!”

With His Majesty so enraged, Xiong Jinshui and the palace servants all knelt in panic.

From the fragments he heard about Jingang catching fire and burning the warships His Majesty needed for the imperial mausoleum, Xiong Jinshui felt disaster was imminent.

Li Qitian was already pacing furiously, panting heavily.

“Useless! A bunch of useless fools! What use are you useless fools to me!”

Walking to the table, he swept away all the writing implements with his hand. A blue and white porcelain brush washer fell to the ground and shattered, its clear water spilling everywhere.

“Your Majesty, please calm your anger!”

Everyone kowtowed in unison.

Li Qitian roared: “Calm down? How can I calm down! I merely want to build an imperial mausoleum – first there was repeated embezzlement, then inferior materials, I just bought stone with silver, and now all the timber is burned! They say it’s heaven’s warning – what have I done that requires heaven’s warning?”

“I love my people like my own children, working diligently every day without the slightest negligence. Even if heaven gives warning, it’s telling me not to spare you incompetent fools!”

“Your Majesty, please calm your anger!” Everyone kowtowed again.

Li Qitian was breathing like an ox, gritting his teeth: “Investigate for me! Thoroughly investigate! How could such a massive fire start at the seaside for no reason? There must be something suspicious! If you can’t find the truth and just say it’s heaven’s warning, I’ll kill everyone at that dock to accompany my timber in death!”

“Yes!” Zhu Meng accepted the order and quickly withdrew.

Li Qitian then issued several more orders, arranging for people to quickly investigate Jingang’s situation.

After waiting an hour, he sent someone to ask how many warships remained.

When he heard that all warships at the entire dock had been consumed by fire, Li Qitian angrily smashed the newly brought writing implements again.

Li Qitian didn’t avoid people when venting his rage, so the guards outside vaguely heard the commotion. Though they dared not spread rumors carelessly, there was no guarantee these sounds wouldn’t be heard by others – like Tang Xiu who served beside Pang Xiao.

Pang Xiao was currently staying in the yamen’s rear courtyard recovering from his injuries. After hearing Tang Xiu’s news, his somewhat pale handsome face showed its first smile in days.

With such a huge commotion, his beloved must have safely boarded the ships with the treasure by now.

No one would ever imagine that the treasure was aboard former dynasty warships, carried far from Li Qitian’s search by his precious darling.

Seeing Pang Xiao smile, Tang Xiu couldn’t help lowering his voice to whisper teasingly: “With such a virtuous helpmate as the princess consort, Your Highness is secretly delighted.”

Pang Xiao raised an eyebrow and also whispered: “You’ve grown bold, boy. If the princess consort heard such words, be careful she won’t bear to marry Ji Yun to you.”

Tang Xiu’s young, handsome face immediately flushed red.

Seeing this, Pang Xiao couldn’t help but smile with relief.

Everything was proceeding smoothly – his injuries should gradually heal too, so they wouldn’t hinder future actions.

Tang Xiu had happened to overhear these words, but the imperial guards ultimately dared not spread news outside.

So when Lu Heng received news of trouble at Jingang, it was already three or four days later.

“My lord, people in the streets are all saying that a giant dragon flew to Jingang days ago. First it breathed fire and burned the warships, then blew fierce winds that prevented anyone from approaching to fight the fire. That fire dragon lay on the sea surface until dawn, and only after all the warships had burned to ash did it fly into the clouds.”

Lu Wenru, whom Lu Heng had requested back to his side under the pretext of being accustomed to his personal service, had heard news outside and hurried to report.

Lu Heng was amazed and set down the idle book in his hands.

“Fire dragon?”

“Yes. It could breathe fire and blow wind – the people of Jingang spread the tale as something miraculous. This servant just heard people talking about it on the street.”

“All the warships were destroyed?” Lu Heng frowned.

Lu Wenru nodded: “Yes, reportedly not a single one remained. Even the timber already dismantled and stored on shore was burned together. Fortunately, there were no civilian casualties and the dock fire didn’t spread to the city. The great fire has now been extinguished.”

Lu Heng shook his head. “Do you think His Majesty cares whether civilians were hurt? He only cares about the timber that was burned.”