At the head of the Bridge of Long Life.

Thirty-two soldiers of the Ye Clan guarded the bridge, casting stern glances upon the group of curious onlookers that began to crowd around them, as many of the people began clamoring distastefully at the blockade.

“What’s going on at the front? Why are you barring the road? This is outrageous!” A man shouted loudly at the soldiers.

“The Ministry of War is conducting an investigation. No irrelevant personnel is allowed to pass until further notice,” growled the sergeant of in charge of the troop.

“Irrelevant personnel? What irrelevant personnel? I used this road every day! In what way are we irrelevant people here.”

“Anyone without the authorization pass issued by the Ministry of War is considered irrelevant personnel.”

“My house is just at the street in front. How am I supposed to go with you fools barring the road?” Another voice yelled over the boisterous din.

“The blockade will be lifted after mid-day.” The orders issued by a superior was absolute to soldiers, for military discipline was paramount in the army. As such, the soldiers held their line at the bridge, with complete deference to the directives they received without questioning them.

The sphere of the troops’ blockades was hardly extensive, but they had effectively sealed off all roads leading to the Divine Sect Seminary. The blockades would only be lifted after mid-day, when the inauguration ceremony would have long ended and the food in the feast would have gone cold and hard.

The entire operation was a deliberate challenge!

They were trying to prevent wellwishers from visiting the Divine Sect Seminary!

It was a gambit aimed towards embarrassing the Crown Prince: the Seminary was established under Qian Shuxiao’s name, and Qian Shuxiao was the heir of the Qian Clan which was close with the Crown Prince. A humiliation unto Qian Shuxiao would be tantamount to a disgrace of the Crown Prince; a message of intimidation delivered to the heir of the throne without being overly conspicuous.

Little did Qian Shuxiao realized that his opening of the Divine Sect Seminary had instead entangled him in the political strife between the Crown Prince and the Second Prince.

Seconds ticked by, but the entire street outside the entrance of the Divine Sect Seminary was as empty as the silence that hung over the whole area like a gloomy pall. Neither a shadow nor the patter of footsteps could be seen and heard.

The cool breeze blew gently;

Whistling drearily with desolation.

The crowd at the barricade did not subside as the time loomed closer towards ten in the morning; rather, more and more people congregated at the blockade, although none were allowed to pass through. None dared to defy the decree of the Ministry of War, and the name of the hosts of the Ye Clan only added to the common folk’s forced obedience despite their grumbling displeasure. Before long, whispers and hushed tones began to arise, indicating that the blockades were in fact authorized by the Second Prince himself.

“What a high-handed manner of managing Luoyang City…” A man griped who was from abroad.

“This is the son of the Emperor, do you not understand the simple fact?” A local quipped in response, “I’ll hazard we’re still far from the end of it!”

“This is a battle between juggernauts which we can only witness haplessly.”

“There’s a tea stall just in front. How about a cup of tea as we wait to see what transpires next? The plot’s about to thicken.”

The sun inched higher and the morning wore on.

Ye Que had remained calm and still, but the Qian Shuxiao beside him was seething with rage. Word of the blockade around the Seminary had finally came to him.

“What? An investigation by the Ministry of War?”

“Preposterous!”

It was hardly a secret that the Ministry of War and the Second Prince were in league with each other. Qian Shuxiao would never believe that the whole matter was not part of their intrigue and conspiracy.

At length, a person emerged from amongst the mob of crowds at the head of the Bridge of Long Life.

A woman, dressed in a richly-woven brocade dress, came forward with a smile so cold that the soldiers had to suppress a shudder, knowing that she could not be anyone ordinary. She strode to the sergeant of the troops and spoke softly to him with her back to the crowd, “I am an agent of the Judicature. I have a business in the vicinity, and I need your cooperation, please allow me to pass.”

The woman fished out the authority pass issued to her by the Judicature and showed it to him furtively before slipping it back into her robes.

The sergeant peered at her thoughtfully. He paused for a moment, pondering. “I’m afraid I cannot allow you to pass. My orders are explicit: no one is to be allowed into the quarantined area before noon.”

I am confident that this includes also anyone from the Judicature.”

The sergeant felt contrite immediately as he finished. “If you are indeed on urgent business,” he added hastily, “You can request permission from the Ministry of War. We will be able to allow you to pass if you are able to procure an authorization from the Ministry.”

“Otherwise, I’m afraid we have our orders to follow.”

“Not even as a favor for me?” The woman appealed, frowning with disdain. The woman made a quick hand gesture that could only be seen by them both.

“My orders are absolute!” The sergeant bellowed sternly after seeing the woman’s gesture. “I am a soldier of the Ye Clan. You of the Judicature should know full well the excellence of our military discipline and our adherence for rules and regulations!”

“Were you trying to insult me with your gesture?”

More than a hundred soldiers of the Ye Clan manned barricades in four different directions from the Seminary. Even coercion or persuasion could do little to dilute the soldiers’ steadfastness to their orders, that no one would be able to pass their encirclement of the Divine Sect Seminary before noon.

But the hard and unyielding stance of the soldiers angered the crowd of people who slowly stirred and grew restless.

But this was Luoyang, the capital of the mighty Tang Empire, where law and order reigned supreme! Who would dare incur the wrath of the Ministry of War? Who would dare offend the legions of the Ye Clan and push past their blockades?

The wheel that squeaked the loudest got the grease, but the tall poppy shall be the first to be sheared.

“A true man seeks to use his strengths to good and just, and governs his life with chivalry!”

“Without chivalry, what honor is there left for us!”

A strong voice rang from the midst of the crowd as the female agent of the Judicature blended into the crowd.

The voice was barely strong and thunderous, but everyone could clearly hear him.

“I am only a common scholar. My eyes may deceive me, but I fail to see how this looks like a true and credible investigation. You are soldiers, you say? Under strict orders not to allow anyone to pass? Very well, I shall seek to trouble you not.”

A gaunt man, in the garb and disposition of a fragile intellectual, made his way through the horde of onlookers and rowdy malcontents, and stopped before the thirty-two soldiers. He heaved a breath and spoke loudly, for the benefit of everyone present.

“You are under orders of the Ministry of War to seal the roads here?”

“That is correct.”

“There is an investigation underway, you say?”

“That is what our orders say.”

“So enlighten me, what is the punishment for a person who intrudes upon an official investigation by the Ministry of War, in accordance to the laws of the great Tang Empire?”

The sergeant’s eyebrows rose quizzically as he raked through his memory for the answer, which he gave after a quiet moment.

“Ten lashes with the stick!”

The scholarly young man gently furled up his sleeves as he listened to sergeant’s reply. “Very well,” he said, “Let me be convicted of intruding upon the business of the Ministry of War today.”

“What I do, is a personal matter of mine. Feel free to charge me with this offense in accordance with the law,” he continued, “I will gladly await my sentence, for I am Zhao Ting, the fourth son of the Zhao Manor of Luoyang.”

“Mark me down for these ten lashes. Inform the Court of Judicial Review that I shall be awaiting their summons. I will not flee or hide.”

With that, Zhao Ting, the fourth son of the illustrious Zhao Manor, marched proudly across the Bridge of Long Life.

The sergeant’s arm shot upward instinctively, but the cry for his men to act stuck at his throat as his arm sank slowly back to his side. He of all the people present knew full well the name of Zhao Ting, who was hardly a common student and intellectual; more so for the name of the Zhao Manor, which commanded tremendous respect in the capital, being the residence of the Grand Preceptor of the Imperial Court, Zhao Yuntian. Additionally, Zhao Ting had most recently been crowned the Grand Scholar, the title of the academic with the best results in the imperial examinations. With a boundless future ahead of him, he would undoubtedly rise swiftly up the hierarchy of the Imperial Court in no time.

Arrest Zhao Ting?

And condemn him to a sentence of ten lashes?

I dare say no one from the entire Court of Judicial Review would dare take the case, the sergeant gulped hard. With Zhao Ting’s pedigree and potential, no one would dare aggravate the person who could one day hold greater office and authority within the court lest they value their life and career too lightly!

A brief lull of silence hung over the crowd and the soldiers that watched the Bridge of Long Life; a stillness that was broken only by the soft rustling of leaves and the light whistling of the breeze.

Another man stormed forward and came to the sergeant. “The name is Yun Feihe, from the Inked Sleeve Pavilion of Luoyang City! Mark me down for the ten lashes!”

Swiftly, another voice boomed, “My name’s Shi Lei of the Cloud-reaching Manor House of Qingzhoufu (present-day Yidu, Shandong). Ten lashes it is then!”

“Me too! Leng Wuxin, Second-tier Executive of the Mortal World Pavilion. Please mark my name for the punishment of ten lashes too!”

“And I…”

With a phenomenal paradox akin to the butterfly effect, Zhao Ting’s valiant gallantry had evoked a rush of recollections that roused the hearts of the many heroes that had been present that day.

The eloquent and lucid reminiscence of the brotherhood that they all shared during the battle against countless demons at Luo River.

One by one, the heroes stood forth and proclaimed their names proudly. Their number was merely a fraction of the whole swarming throng flocking around the barricade. But their voices resounded over the stunned silence of the mob as each and every syllable the heroes bellowed echoed deeply through the hearts of everyone present that day.

All for the want of the chivalry they all shared.

All for the want of the destinies and fates that they all shared.

“So, what if it’s ten lashes?”

“Do you think we would have fretted even if it’s a hundred lashes?”