Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

The air inside the Taiji Hall seemed to have solidified into a huge piece of transparent amber.

The midday sun shone through the exquisite stained-glass windows, casting dappled shadows on the marble floor. Envoys from over a hundred countries remained in their devout and stiff kneeling postures, their knees long since numb and devoid of feeling, yet none dared to move an inch.

Marcellus lowered his head, beads of sweat on the tip of his nose gathering into large droplets that splattered onto the floor.

He could hear the heavy, ox-like breathing of the Persian crown prince beside him, but he could not hear any turning of the imperial edicts above the hall.

Li Shimin sat on the dragon throne, and it felt like there were needles growing under his buttocks.

He looked down at the sea of ​​heads below, then at the empty yet conspicuous chair beside him, his face flushing red and then turning pale.

That brat is putting me on the hot seat!

"Go, take another look."

Li Shimin lowered his voice, each word sounding as if squeezed out from between his teeth.

With a sob in his voice, the old eunuch crouched low and pressed himself against the wall, slipping like a ghost towards the back hall for the third time.

Before an incense stick could burn, the old eunuch slipped back.

He knelt beside the dragon throne, his neck hunched, his voice trembling like a candle flickering in the wind.

"Your Majesty... this old servant deserves to die, His Highness is still not awake."

"Commander Xu Xiao personally guarded the door, carrying two newly sharpened sabers. He said that His Highness had been studying the 'internal combustion engine blueprints' until the wee hours of the morning yesterday, and now even if the Emperor himself came, he couldn't make a sound."

The old eunuch swallowed hard, his voice becoming even softer.

"His Highness also said that anyone who dares to make a noise at this time will be stuffed into the boiler room of the steam train and burned as firewood, so that even the ashes won't be scattered."

Li Shimin's eyes twitched violently, and his fists clenched tightly beneath his dragon robe.

Was it burned as firewood? This unfilial son is becoming more and more lawless!

He subconsciously looked down at Wei Zheng.

In the past, on such occasions, this "number one troll of the Tang Dynasty" would have jumped out long ago, pointed his finger at him, and berated him for "the upper beam is crooked and the lower beam is crooked" and "the crown prince's behavior is disgraceful to the nation."

But today, Wei Zheng remains as steady as Mount Tai.

He closed his eyes slightly, even gently swaying his head to a certain rhythm, with a strange smile on his face that seemed to convey "gratification."

In Wei Zheng's view, His Highness the Crown Prince was practicing the method of "governing by doing nothing"!

What's wrong with sleeping? Sleeping means the world is at peace, and it means the prince is confident.

This “laziness” displayed in front of envoys from all over the world is precisely the absolute confidence that the Tang Dynasty’s national strength is so strong that it is ingrained in its very bones!

"Lord Marcellus..."

Prince Peroz asked in a barely audible, trembling voice close to the floor.

"Why...has that godlike prince not appeared yet? Could it be that the gems we brought weren't pure enough, and disturbed his presence?"

Due to nervousness, Marcellus bit his lip so hard that it left deep white marks.

"No, Peroz."

"This must have been a sacred ceremony of the Tang Dynasty."

Marcellus conjured up the grandest logic in his mind.

"In the West, believers are only required to wait in silence when the supreme Pope is communicating with God."

"The Crown Prince of Tang must be making a pact with the great gods of the East to rule the world in his sleep. For us to speak out is blasphemy against the gods!"

Prince Peroz nodded repeatedly in deep agreement, his eyes filled with increasing awe.

In this extremely eerie and oppressive silence.

"Creak—"

From the direction of the side hall came the clear sound of wooden wheels turning.

The sound was even more deafening than the roar of cannons in the deathly silent hall.

Immediately following was a series of heavy and extremely oppressive footsteps.

Four enormous, black-and-white iron-eating beasts, with an air of indifference, pulled an extremely luxuriously decorated palanquin into the main hall.

The palanquin was surrounded by thin, white gauze from Suzhou and Hangzhou, through which a slender figure could be vaguely seen.

At this moment, envoys from more than a hundred countries seemed to have made a prior agreement.

More than a thousand people held their breath at the same time!

The scene was so grand that the entire Taiji Hall seemed to fall into a vacuum.

The palanquin came to a steady stop beside the dragon throne.

A fair, slender, and even somewhat childish small hand slowly and deliberately lifted the curtain.

Li Chengqian rubbed his sleepy eyes, his white silk robe loosely draped over his body.

He glanced at the kneeling crowd below, then at Li Shimin, whose face was filled with resentment.

"Father, the air conditioning in your Taiji Palace... oh no, there isn't enough ice."

Li Chengqian yawned casually and picked up a chilled grape from the plate that Wu Meiniang handed him.

"With all this noise, I thought Goguryeo had come back."

In fact, the main hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

But his casual demeanor was seen as an overbearing display of arrogance by the envoys.

Marcellus stared blankly at the eight-year-old boy.

The languidness that emanated from his very bones and his indifference to all things instantly confirmed his suspicions.

This is no prince! This is clearly a deity who patrols the human world and has no interest in the offerings of mortals!

Li Chengqian finally stepped down from the palanquin.

He was walking on an expensive Western Region carpet, his steps still a little unsteady from just waking up.

But just as his toes touched the ground...

"Splash—!"

The more than one hundred envoys below looked like harvested wheat.

They no longer simply knelt in worship, but instead pressed their foreheads firmly against the cold floor tiles in unison.

This fear and worship, emanating from the depths of the soul, made the air inside the hall feel thick and sticky.

Li Chengqian was stunned for a moment, before he could spit out the grape skins in his mouth.

"What's going on? I haven't even sent out any red envelopes yet, and you're already thanking me in advance?"

Marcellus practically crawled forward half a step, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

"The special envoy of the Great Roman Empire... pays homage to... the incarnation of God of the Great Tang!"

Li Chengqian rolled his eyes and turned to look at Li Shimin.

"Father, have these foreigners gone mad from staying at our State Guest Hotel?"

Li Shimin was too lazy to care about his son's rudeness at this point.

He looked at the foreign nobles who were so terrified they were practically out of their wits and didn't even dare to lift their heads.

An unprecedented sense of pride exploded in my chest.

This is my Great Tang Dynasty!

As long as my son is alive, even these arrogant and ignorant foreign barbarians will have to obediently shrink back and act like grandsons!

Li Chengqian stretched and glanced at the dazzling array of tributes.

A hint of utter boredom flashed in his eyes.

"Since you're already here..."

He lazily sat back down in his chair.

"Then hurry up and leave the local specialties behind, I need to rush to test drive the new car."