Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

For a moment, Tong Chuxue's heart was filled with complex and conflicted emotions.

She had long been prepared to die for her cause. Although her memorial contained no insults to the emperor, every sentence directly pointed out the ills of the government, criticized the current affairs, and was scathing in its words.

Even after all this, the emperor still cherished his talent and was willing to give him such great trust and favor!

Why would such a monarch, with his keen eye for talent, allow the corruption in the court to fester and ignore the suffering of the people?

The supervising eunuch said no more, and escorted the shackled Tong Chuxue out of the prison, onto a prison cart, and headed towards the palace. Along the way, he continued to instruct and advise her to be cautious in her words and actions when she met His Majesty, and to bow her head and submit.

As a close attendant of the emperor, he was both ordered by the emperor to issue warnings and genuinely wanted to protect Tong Chuxue, a loyal minister, to prevent further chaos in the court and among the people.

After traveling for a while, they finally arrived at Wanchen Palace.

…………

Ji Yushen sat upright on the majestic dragon throne, and specially ordered someone to place a prayer cushion, allowing Tong Chuxue to kneel in front of the hall.

Ji Yushen flipped through the memorial in his hand and asked calmly, "Tong Chuxue, I have treated you well, why did you submit this memorial?"

Tong Chuxue was silent for a moment: "The ancient sage Mencius said: 'The people are the most important, the state is next, and the ruler is the least important.' Your Majesty has used your own heart to control the hearts of the people, without taking any action to allow them to rest and recuperate. As a result, the upper class is extravagant and the lower class is greedy, exhausting the people's wealth, causing the country to be in disarray and the people to suffer. I am submitting this memorial to ask Your Majesty to think more about the state and country of our empire, and to think more about the common people of the world."

Didn't I tell you to back down? This isn't what we agreed on!

The supervising eunuch was terrified, half to death. Ji Yushen's hand holding the memorial froze, and his face changed drastically.

But Tong Chuxue continued, "The empire has tens of thousands of officials, yet not one dares to speak to the Emperor. Only I, Tong Chuxue, speak for the Emperor. If I do not speak, future generations will record it in the annals of history!"

Ji Yushen fell silent, and after a long while, a deep voice came from his abdomen: "According to you, my emperor is a tyrant, and all his ministers are treacherous, while you alone are a loyal, virtuous, and good minister?"

Tong Chuxue: "I am merely a loyal subject."

"A loyal minister who has no father or ruler!"

Ji Yushen cursed angrily. Tong Chuxue was about to reply when Ji Yushen waved his hand to dismiss those around him.

Inside the ring, Cheng Cheng's eyes widened.

One after another, jet-black, icy chains slowly extended and grew from the dragon throne beneath Ji Yushen. Before Cheng Cheng could react and stop them, these chains had already swiftly coiled around her, tightly binding and imprisoning Tong Chuxue's body!

The essence of [Glory] symbolizes supreme order and absolute dominion!

Ji Yushen has never liked using this method to control her ministers. Instead, she uses strategic means to control the court and play the role of "emperor" to promote the digestion of the blasphemous card. Of course, ministers or legends like Lu Weiming, Peng Longteng, and Cang Xuan have long been bound by her chains for any occasion.

Moreover, under the influence of the Source Essence [Glory] and the Blasphemy Card "Emperor", Himegami possesses an inherent imperial majesty.

Even without using her authority, she is enough to make anyone who has seen her submit; and the "Dragon Vein" formed from the source [Glory] has been rooted in the capital for generations, turning "loyalty to the emperor and love for the country" into a steel imprint of thought, engraved in the minds of almost everyone.

Of course, this kind of ideological stamp cannot be considered domination; power of gold or higher can dispel it.

But all the empire's gold is under the control of Himegami.

Therefore, Tong Chuxue, who is only at the Silver Rank, should normally only have loyalty to the emperor and serve the lord in her heart—yet she dared to write such a memorial that directly pointed out the ills of the imperial power, and was willing to die to remonstrate—in Ji Yushen’s view, there must be someone secretly helping her behind the scenes, offsetting the constraints of her ideological imprint!

Who did it?

The civil service, of course!

The civil service group, on the surface, is merely a faction of interest within the imperial court, with the chief minister Lu Weiming in charge... but the true mastermind behind the scenes is Grand Marshal Cangxuan.

This was also a check and balance mechanism established by the first emperor of the Elf Empire a thousand years ago, based on the separation of imperial power, military power, and political power.

However, after Hime Mikami ascended the throne, in order to complete her own plans, she continuously seized military and political power, shifted the conflict between the emperor and his ministers to the conflict between civil and military officials, and provoked factional strife—the purpose of which was to sit on the sidelines and watch the two factions fight each other, thereby continuously weakening both sides and strengthening her own power.

The original order to investigate Tong Chuxue's accomplices was merely a pretext to further incite factional strife between the two sides.

But now, there's no time for factional infighting.

On the western front, the power of war demons has resurfaced and flowed back, and Wang Zhiming has already launched a rebellion; on the eastern front, the army's advance is aimed directly at Silver Glow City, and victory is in sight—his long-planned scheme has reached its most critical moment, and he absolutely cannot allow any mistakes!

Especially Tong Chuxue, the "priestess" she herself chose, cannot fall into the hands of the civil and military factions!

Therefore, this time, Hime no longer held back and directly used the authority of [Glory] to exert control over Kiri Hatsuyuki, turning her into a puppet under her control, making her unable to disobey any of her orders, and then began the real interrogation!

Bound by chains, Tong Chuxue was completely unaware of this. Ji Yushen's expression was solemn as he asked in a deep voice, "Did someone secretly instruct you or give you verbal hints behind the scenes when you wrote this memorial?"

Tong Chuxue answered truthfully: "Never."

"Your previous memorials and remonstrances were all from the bottom of your heart, and were not influenced or secretly interfered with by anyone?"

"Never."

Hearing this answer, Himeko felt a little relieved.

Therefore, it is not the civil service group that secretly intervened to try to regain the power they had seized; the ideological imprint of "loyalty to the emperor and love for the country" is still in Tong Chuxue's mind, and she still loves the emperor.

However, the same ideological imprint is interpreted differently by everyone—most people understand it as unconditional loyalty to the emperor, but Tong Chuxue has misunderstood the book and mistakenly believes that "loving the people is loving the emperor," which is why she made this desperate act of remonstrance.

Although it was still considered insubordination, the motivation was good intentions, and the crime did not warrant death.

Having figured out the crux of the matter, Ji Yushen's tense expression slowly relaxed. He leaned lazily against the dragon throne, his gaze once again falling on Tong Chuxue below, and asked one last question:

"Is there anything you are hiding from me that you absolutely do not want me to know?"

"Have."

Tong Chuxue slowly raised her head, her once clear pupils now transformed into nested rings under her control, her face filled with heartfelt loyalty: "In my ring, there lies a fallen immortal."

"I became his disciple because of his secret assistance, which is why I have achieved my current level of cultivation and accomplishments."

Chapter 122, It doesn't feel as good as "The Blazing Resurrection Poem"

"You scoundrel, how dare you!"

Upon hearing this, Ji Yushen was terrified and enraged. He roared, and suddenly a dense array of black chains shot out from beneath the dragon throne!

Source Quality [Glory]!

Countless chains, symbolizing domination, hurtled through the air, heading straight for the inconspicuous ring on Tong Chuxue's ring finger!

Just as the thousands of chains were about to pull Cheng Cheng out of the ring and seize him for a moment to refine him—all the attacks suddenly stopped, and the chains all hovered in the void, motionless.

A deathly silence fell over Wan Chen Palace for a moment.

Ji Yushen, sitting on the dragon throne, frowned slightly, tilted his head slightly, and the overwhelming anger in his eyes quickly faded, leaving only a blank look.

What was I thinking just now?

Within the confines of the ring, Cheng Cheng hung suspended in the darkness, his back already soaked with cold sweat.

We made it!

The essence of understanding, forgetting symbolism!

The moment Ji Yushen unleashed her killing intent, Cheng Cheng used Freya's Source Essence Scepter through system sharing to erase her memory of questioning Tong Chuxue!

From the legendary level onwards, those in power exert a strong sense of superiority over those in lower positions—ordinary sparks have little influence, and only when multiple sparks combine to form a deadly attack can they threaten a legend.

The difference between the rank of Source Essence and Legendary is only greater, not smaller!

Therefore, only source matter can fight against source matter. Cheng Cheng had no intention of using puppets or other fire sources to resist Ji Yushen. He used his strongest move as soon as he made a move!

That should be fine, right?

On the dragon throne, Ji Yushen pondered for a moment, but his mind was blank, and he could not find any reason for his anger.

But Cheng Cheng quickly dispelled these doubts. Ji Yushen, as if nothing had happened, gathered her thoughts and, continuing the interrogation that had been left unfinished, asked in a deep voice:

"Is there anything you are hiding from me that you absolutely do not want me to know?"

"Have."

Tong Chuxue slowly raised her head and answered truthfully: "A fallen immortal is hidden in my ring. I became his disciple, and it was with his secret assistance that I achieved my current cultivation and accomplishments."

The moment the words fell to the ground, the chill on the dragon throne exploded once more.

"You scoundrel, how dare you!"

Ji Yushen's rage was reignited, and the dark chains instantly revived, surging with malevolent energy, and charged towards the ring a second time!

Cheng Cheng: "..."

forget!

Himegami's murderous intent and thoughts were once again erased from the sky.

She looked puzzled, paused for a moment, and then asked, "Is there something you're hiding in your heart...?"

Cheng Cheng: "..."

Hime Mikami: "You scoundrel, how dare you!"

"forget!"

"Have you ever rescued a... in the snowy mountains...?"

"forget!"

"Do you..."

"forget!"

…………

Ten thousand miles away, in the Kingdom of Konoma, in the Royal Palace Parliament Hall.

The solemn and dignified Parliament building was packed, with both civil and military members present, creating a heavy and almost suffocating atmosphere.

Battle reports from the front lines kept arriving at the palace, each word filled with alarm.

On the western front, the power of war seemed to have returned to its former master. Wang Zhiming launched a rebellion, and the Elven Empire merely dispatched a few Gold-level experts to stop him, which was extremely perfunctory—it was as if they were giving the demons of war experience, completely showing an attitude of letting the rebels grow stronger and deplete the empire's resources!

Compared to the perfunctory approach on the western front, Himeko-shin deployed all of the empire's main forces to the eastern front.

Led by three platinum elves, the five million-strong Elven Empire army crossed the border of the Kingdom of Akka and swept across the land, tearing apart three core defensive lines of the Kingdom of Konoma.

All seventeen of the kingdom's gold-level generals who guarded the border perished in the battles of the empire's platinum-level combat power, leaving no trace of their bodies.

In dire straits, Navel fought desperately, using the fifth strike of the Five Fingers Heart Sword to kill an Imperial Platinum-ranked soldier and severely wound the enemy vanguard. However, she was also exhausted and seriously injured, remaining unconscious to this day.

At this moment, the mighty imperial army was only 150 miles away from Silvershine City, the capital of the Kingdom of Konoma.

The danger of national subjugation is imminent!

On the high platform, Freya, dressed in a pure white royal robe, stood tall and straight in the center of the parliamentary podium:

"Today, the enemy is pressing in, our land is falling, our soldiers are dying, and our capital is in imminent danger!"

"Some people advised me to seek peace, to cede territory and pay reparations, to abandon the people and uphold the monarchy, and to exchange compromise for a life of temporary peace!"