The Lord’s Empire

“However, if we don’t use that method, after Great Qin cleanses that ground, they will still attack. If we use that method in conjunction with the cursed ground, perhaps we will be able to beat them back, and we can use this time to prepare other things.”

Many people supported this suggestion, and everyone turned to look at Shi Xiao to see what she thought.

Shi Xiao slightly sighed; that person’s suggestion was their best choice, so she was about to nod and agree. Otherwise, facing the terrifying Great Qin, they would not have any other options.

At that moment, a soldier charged in and cried out in joy, “Your Majesties, Great Qin has retreated; we’ve won!”

After hearing this, everyone felt quite confused; why would Great Qin suddenly retreat? They hurriedly asked the soldier for details.

Following this, everyone looked delighted and their grave expressions disappeared. Great Qin had indeed retreated, and they had successfully defended the Corpse Pall World.

This was all thanks to the Devil Horn Empire, because Great Qin had split into three armies and were madly attacking the Continents that Great Qin occupied in the Grassi, Half-Beast, and Elf Worlds. Because of the urgent battle reports from the three Continents, Great Qin could only retreat.

Yao Ming did this purely out of spite, because every time the Devil Horn Empire tried to do something, Great Qin would interfere. The Devil Horn Empire’s plans were always being thwarted by Great Qin and Great Qin had always reaped benefits, and Yao Ming had remembered this.

After hearing that Great Qin was attacking the Corpse Pall World, Yao Ming understood that his opportunity for revenge had come, so he ordered people to madly attack Great Qin.

The Devil Horn Empire was not like the allied worlds, which just attacked for show; it really was ferociously attacking. If Great Qin was set on conquering the Corpse Pall World, the Devil Horn Empire would obtain three worlds at the same time. When that time came, the Devil Horn Empire would have six worlds.

However, Great Qin retreated and sent over its troops. After hearing this, Yao Ming immediately gave the order to retreat. Now that Great Qin had retreated to defend, Yao Ming naturally understood that with the Devil Horn Empire’s strength, it was impossible to break through the Great Qin’s defenses, so he could only give the order to retreat.

However, Yao Ming still gave a pleased smile; he had vented out much of his anger. Otherwise, he would have felt too sullen after continuously being set back by Great Qin.

Looking at the Devil Horn army, Zhao Fu could only put a hold on the invasion of the Corpse Pall World while preparing methods to quickly dispel the curse.

It was nearly time for the next round of Imperial Examinations. He had been putting all of his focus on warfare and had not taken care of internal affairs for a while. He could take this opportunity to sort out the internal affairs matters.

Imperial Examinations were something that Kings, Ministers, commoners, and talented people all took seriously. It was an opportunity for people to reach the sky in one step, and no one wanted to miss out. This made Great Qin much more lively than usual.

There were talks everywhere about the Imperial Examinations, and various talents gathered at the Great Qin Royal City, preparing to take the Imperial Examination and attain scholarly honors.

Now, Great Qin had hundreds of billions of people and innumerable talented people. Some people were overflowing with talent and were quite famous, and the common people had made a ranking of the various talented people.

At least one-third of them came from the Rising Qin Academy. Now that Great Qin had greatly expanded its territory, there were tens of thousands of academies all over. However, the very first Rising Qin Academy that Zhao Fu had created was something that could never be rivaled.

That was a holy land for scholars and countless geniuses gathered. Ordinary academies could not compare to it.

There were a few other academies that were quite good, such as the Book and Poem Academy opened by the Confucians, the Demon Immortal Academy from the Dark Demon World, the Sky God Academy from the Spirit Light World, and the Forest Academy from the Elf World.

As Great Qin’s territory expanded, they needed more and more talents. With so many Academies and scholars, the competition was quite intense, so everyone wanted to be ranked at the top.

Perhaps they would be summoned by Great Qin’s Emperor; to the ordinary people, this was an incomparable glory.

This Imperial Examination was like the previous ones. On the flat ground outside the palace, Zhao Fu wore a black dragon robe and wore his black dragon crown. He had a dignified expression as he led out the various Ministers and Generals.

“We greet Your Majesty! Long live His Majesty! Long live His Majesty!” the scholars immediately knelt and called out in unison, their voices sounding like thunder and shaking the sky. The heavens and earth seemed to be filled boundless righteousness.

Zhao Fu was pleased as he sat on his throne and gave the order for the Imperial Examinations to begin. The scholars went to their positions and took their pens as they started to write and diligently answer the questions. They wrote out their own thoughts, aspirations, and their plans for Great Qin’s future.

The Ministers around Zhao Fu discussed the scholars they favored.

There were mostly Civil Ministers here, and the Generals were over at the Martial Examinations. The one responsible for the Martial Examinations was Wang Jian, while Bai Qi was responsible for defending the three Continents in the three worlds. Zhao Fu would later go and take a look.

Great Qin’s Ministers were predominantly men. Li Si and Shang Yang were relatively important and controlled great power in Great Qin. All of the commoners knew them.

Of the female Ministers, there were only Li Muqing, Shangguan Wan’Er, Lu Lingxuan, and the Confucian scholar who had done well in the last Imperial Examinations, Li Xiaoling.

Even though Zhao Fu believed in equality between men and women, in actuality, most power was held by men and the women in power were often suppressed.

If it was not for Li Muqing and, Shangguan Wan’Er and Lu Lingxuan’s hard work, resulting in them being valued by Zhao Fu, almost no woman would have power in Great Qin’s Imperial Court.

Zhao Fu knew about this, and it was primarily because many people’s ideologies were still quite old fashioned. The historical Ministers still held onto their old values, and many people felt that women should not be able to become Ministers and that men’s authority was being challenged.

Even though Zhao Fu supported gender equality, it had only been eight or so years and the ideology had not been changed yet. Li Si and Shang Yang slightly suppressed the female Ministers while others did this more openly. The female Ministers were always on the defensive and were often oppressed.

Zhao Fu knew about this but did not interfere; this was not something that could be rushed and required time to change.

The Imperial Court splitting into factions was unavoidable and it was only because of Zhao Fu that the Ministers did not dare to go too far. Otherwise, Li Muqing and the other female Ministers may have been thrown out or executed long ago. Li Muqing was now incredibly famous and was a role model for many women.

She was not only incredibly beautiful but also had astounding talent, and she was incredibly kind to the commoners. She did her best to protect women’s rights and everyone called her the number one talented woman in Great Qin.

Her family had originally been against her serving Great Qin. After all, as the descendant of Li Qingzhao, how could she serve a tyrant?

However, the current situation now showed that Li Muqing had great foresight. Great Qin had not only unified China but the entire world, and it had started to conquer other worlds.