Chapter 354: (1): Imminent Carnage
It was a very stormy day; Duke Gao Shizhen was standing at the foot of a mountain, and he turned down the umbrella offered to him by his servant, choosing to stand under the rain.
In the wake of the recent events, concepts like patriotic loyalty and working for the greater good were no longer worth even a single copper coin in his eyes. Gao Shuyi was his only son, and he was now dead. He had painstakingly nurtured this only son of his for close to the past three decades, and even as his father, Gao Shizhen wasn't able to pick out the slightest flaw in Gao Shuyi.
Prior to receiving that secret letter from the third prince, he had always firmly believed that Gao Shuyi was going to become a pillar of the imperial court, and that regardless of who became the emperor in the future, the Gao Clan would enjoy a resurgence under the leadership of his capable son, and that the clan's title of duke would be elevated to that of county king.
In his mind, the Gao Clan would earn the favor of the new emperor, and that their empire would conquer Northern Jin Nation and Southern Qi Nation to become the largest empire on Parasol Leaf Continent.
The emperor and the third prince had both promised to compensate him for his loss, while all of the guest elders of the clan had advised him to bear the loss in silence.
Over this period of time, Gao Shizhen had appeared very calm and unperturbed, completely unlike what one would expect to see in a man who had just lost his own son. First, he left the imperial palace, then the prince's manor before finally leaving the capital city altogether in secret to serve as a secret messenger for the emperor.
He traveled to the Riding Crane City relay station to meet Yao Zhen, and the meeting went by without a hitch. Gao Shizhen was still the same shrewd and selfless duke who always had an eye on the big picture, and he had never disappointed the elderly emperor.
If it weren't for that opportunity that the heavens had bestowed upon him, Gao Shizhen wouldn't have been able to do anything. After all, Mirage City belonged to the emperor, while the Great Quan Empire belonged to the Liu Clan.
However, things were different now.