At the summit of the ninth heaven, all realms pay homage to the palace.
Lin Feng sat calmly on the "Throne of Bones," forged from the skulls of countless kings. Before him, on a massive holographic sand table, images of the Qing Dynasty delegation were playing clearly.
In the scene, officials dressed in official hats and peacock feathers, with their hair styled in the shape of money rat tails, followed respectfully behind a group of power armor soldiers from the Imperial "Iron Blood Legion." With each step they took, they were cautious, their faces filled with awe and curiosity towards the surrounding buildings that shimmered with energy.
Behind them were a dozen or so ornately decorated prison vans—no, in their eyes, "wedding cars." Inside sat the carefully selected princesses, who were about to be presented as "gifts."
"Your Majesty," the holographic projection of Imperial Marshal Qin Lan reported calmly, kneeling on one knee beneath the throne, "an indigenous delegation from the New World has arrived at the 'Welcoming Port' on the outskirts of Chengtian Capital. They call themselves the 'Great Qing Kingdom,' and have come to 'negotiate peace' and 'offer tribute.' Should we purify them directly?"
Qin Lan's tone was as if she were asking whether she wanted to crush an ant.
A playful smile appeared on Lin Feng's lips. He looked at the Qing Dynasty officials in the picture with great interest, his eyes filled with undisguised disgust as he gazed at their long, thin braids hanging down the back of their heads.
"No, let them in," Lin Feng said lazily. "It's been a long time... since I've seen such an interesting drama. Let me see for myself what kind of 'surprise' these living antiques who have crawled out of the dusty archives can bring me."
"Yes, sir." Qin Lan's projection disappeared.
Soon, the colossal gate of the Hall of All Realms, carved from a single block of obsidian and standing a hundred meters tall, slowly opened amidst a muffled rumble.
The chief envoy of the Qing Dynasty delegation, Tulai, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and his group of deputy envoys, entered the magnificent hall, so grand that it made their souls tremble, under the "guidance" of the imperial protocol officer.
The moment they walked in, everyone was completely stunned by what they saw.
Inside the main hall, there were no pillars. Above the dome, a huge crystal, as dazzling as the sun, was embedded, illuminating the entire space as if it were daytime.
Beneath their feet lay a complete world map, pieced together from countless rare gemstones, unlike anything they had ever seen before. They could even find their own tiny, grain-of-grain "Qing Dynasty territory" on that map.
What terrified them most was the throne high at the far end of the hall.
It was a terrifying creation constructed from countless pale white skulls of different races. A chilling, violent aura, filled with endless resentment, emanated from the throne, making them feel as if their souls had been frozen.
A black-haired man dressed in a moon-white robe sat casually on the throne. He looked very young, even excessively handsome, but his golden eyes, looking down at the throne, were colder than the abyss and more vast than the stars.
Under the gaze of those eyes, Tulai felt as if he had become an insect being scrutinized at will by a god, his body and soul laid bare before him.
"Thump!"
Tulai could no longer withstand the pressure; his legs buckled, and he knelt down. All the members of the delegation behind him followed suit, kneeling down in a flurry.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, Tulai, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites of the Great Qing Dynasty, pays homage to the Emperor of the Celestial Empire!" Tulai shouted, his voice trembling, as he slammed his forehead heavily against the cold ground with all his might.
He didn't even know how to address the other person, so he could only use the most honorable words within his knowledge.
Lin Feng remained silent.
The entire hall was deathly silent. The only sounds were the heavy, fear-filled breathing of Tulai and his companions.
Time ticked by, second by second. Each second felt like an eternity to Tulai. The invisible pressure was almost crushing his spine.
Just as he was about to suffocate, that godlike voice finally came from the throne.
“Raise your head.”
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable authority, resonating deep within his soul.
Tulai cautiously raised his head, but dared not look directly into Lin Feng's eyes, instead focusing his gaze on the ground in front of the throne.
"What are you doing here?" Lin Feng's voice remained calm, revealing no emotion.
Tulai took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He knew that every word he was about to say would affect the fate of the Qing Dynasty.
"Your Majesty," he said, trying to make his voice sound humble and respectful, "I have come here on the orders of my sovereign. Previously, our border soldiers, due to their ignorance, had wrongly offended Your Majesty's authority and deserved to die. Upon learning of this, my sovereign was filled with fear and specially dispatched me to apologize to Your Majesty."
As he spoke, he pulled out a prepared letter of state from his pocket and held it high.
"To show our sincerity, our monarch has prepared a small gift: one million taels of gold, ten thousand pearls, ten thousand bolts of fine silk... and ten daughters of our royal family, which we wish to offer to the Emperor to enrich his harem, in order to... in order to appease the Emperor's wrath and bring peace to our two nations."
After he finished speaking, he kowtowed heavily, awaiting Lin Feng's verdict.
In his view, his words already represented the lowest possible stance. Ceding territory, paying reparations, and offering beautiful women were tried-and-tested tactics they used to manage relations with the northern steppe tribes. Presumably, this seemingly more powerful "Celestial Empire" would have no reason to refuse.
However, what he received in return was a soft laugh.
The laughter was soft, yet it pierced the hearts of all the Qing Dynasty envoys present like cold needles.
"A marriage alliance?" Lin Feng leaned forward slightly, and for the first time, his golden eyes revealed an emotion that Tulai could not understand—a mixture of extreme contempt, disgust, and a hint of anger at being offended.
"You guys?"
His voice suddenly turned icy and chilling.
"What right do you barbarians with pig tails have to talk to me about 'peace through marriage'?"
"Your lowly bloodline can only insult me, and the noble bloodline of my Holy Star Empire!"
Upon hearing this, the temperature in the entire hall seemed to drop by tens of degrees.
Tulai and his envoys were all stunned. They had considered countless possibilities: the other party might think the gifts were too few, or might propose even more demanding conditions. But they never expected that the other party would say something like this.
A young deputy envoy following behind Tulai, a hot-blooded Manchu nobleman, couldn't hold back for a moment. He suddenly raised his head, his face flushed, and loudly retorted, "You can insult us, but you cannot insult our great monarch! You certainly cannot insult the national dignity of my Great Qing!"
Lin Feng's gaze slowly shifted to the young deputy envoy.
That gaze, like two invisible swords, instantly pierced the young deputy envoy's soul.
The young deputy envoy felt his whole body stiffen, and an indescribable fear instantly gripped his heart. He wanted to say something, but found that his throat was being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, and he couldn't utter a single word. His body began to tremble uncontrollably, and a foul-smelling liquid flowed uncontrollably from his crotch.
"A great monarch?" A cruel smile curled at the corner of Lin Feng's lips. "The form of government?"
He slowly rose from the throne of bones and walked down step by step.
With each step he took, the overwhelming aura of dominance emanating from him grew stronger. In the end, it seemed as if all the light in the entire hall was focused on him.
He walked up to Tulai and the others, looking down at these "ancient people" kneeling on the ground, trembling.
"I have come to ask you," his voice boomed like thunder in judgment, echoing in the ears of every Qing envoy, "what do you have to offer besides barbarity?"
He extended a finger, pointing outside the main hall to the magnificent capital city that had gathered countless miracles of civilization.
"The city beneath your feet is a culmination of the wisdom of hundreds of civilizations. And you can't even make this one paving stone."
"I ask you again: Is there a scientific work in this world that has been disseminated throughout the world, written by your people? Is there a physical law inscribed on the laws of the universe, discovered by your people?"
"No, you don't."
Lin Feng's voice was filled with an unquestionable power of judgment.
"Your civilization's only contribution to the universe is teaching men how to braid their hair like women. All you've brought to the world, besides slaughter, enslavement, literary inquisitions, and the suppression of thought, is that ugly braid on your heads, a symbol of submission and servility!"
His words struck Tulai and the others like heavy hammer blows.
They wanted to refute him, but found themselves powerless to do so. Their pride in the "saintly teachings" and their knowledge of archery and horsemanship seemed utterly laughable and pale in the face of this man.
"I have conquered more civilizations than you have seen grains of sand."
Lin Feng slowly walked back to the throne and sat down again. He looked at the ashen-faced envoys below, his eyes cold and devoid of any emotion.
“Go back and tell that local tyrant named Kang Mazi.”
"I have no interest in your gold, and even less interest in your underdeveloped women."
"What I want is your land, your resources, and... the extermination of you nobles."
"I will wipe your pathetic, servile, and ugly civilization completely and utterly from this planet. I will never allow you, descendants with money-tailed rats, to continue to live in this world and pollute my territory."
“Go back and tell him that I will come in person. I want him to see with his own eyes how his army will turn to ashes; how his subjects will wail in despair; and how his empire will be utterly crushed under my feet.”
"I will make him die a horrible death. I will wipe out your entire clan!"
"Regardless of gender or age, leave no one alive!"
As the last four words were spoken, a terrifying killing intent, like a tangible cold current, instantly swept through the entire hall.
Tulai and his envoys felt as if their souls had been torn to pieces by this murderous aura. One by one, they collapsed to the ground, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, completely terrified and unconscious.
Lin Feng glanced at these useless people with disgust and waved his hand.
"Throw this trash out."
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