Chapter 2017 Dukedom And Dream
Emperor Feng's words echoed in the hall, etching themselves into the minds of all those that heard.The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l-B1n.
Never had the elders of the Morning Glory clan thought that they would get to enter the inner circle of the aristocrats. Not to mention, jump directly to the level of a dukedom!
This was a massive thing for them, as this meant they had a free hand to gather power. They could not only expand their domain, but also openly recruit people.
Ever since the Dao Wind Empire grew to its peak, there were some limitations on the clans and organizations that lived within it. They couldn't simply expand wantonly and gaining land was also not allowed directly.
One was allowed to live in uninhabited regions, but they still had to register it with the Administrative offices when they were making an organization or a full scale clan.
Plus, there were limitations on how they could recruit people into their fold.
For Clans, they could only recruit people through marriage or through servitude. They couldn't just accept 'disciples' from the outside. They had to keep it limited to familiar relations and blood kin.
As for other organizations that weren't bound by blood but rather by work or goals, were allowed a bit more freedom in recruitment. But they also had to report more often to the administration.
They had to give details about who the people they recruited were as well as their origin and more.
This kept a certain level of security in the entire empire and kept it stable. Not to mention, it actually made the administrative functioning of the empire smooth. There was a reason why the Dao Wind Empire had managed to rise this far.
It was mostly due to their administrative policies and the staff that worked in it. The Emperor was also particular about the work that nobles should do, and as such limited who was granted a title and position.
Duke was the highest noble title one could get other than the Emperor himself.
And in the entire Dao Wind Empire there were only two such dukes. But now a third duke had been added and the dukedom shall be formed.
The other two Dukedoms belonged to those who had helped the Dao Wind Empire to rise in power and take over the entire continent. As such yet had been granted dukedom and the tweeter quite close to the imperial family as well.
In fact, two of the Emperor's wives were from the two dukedoms. Even Crown Prince Feng Shun's mother was from one such dukedom.
Thus the relations between the imperial family and the two dukedoms was quite close. And now that the third dukedom had been added, it was very close too. Not only was the Morning Glory clan a close ally due to being their supplier of alchemical pills, now that Meihua had become a celestial's disciple it had to be kept even closer.
There was no way the Emperor wouldn't favor his granddaughter.
In fact, one could even say he was almost favoring her more than the Crown Prince Feng Shun.
"Father… is this… is this really acceptable?" Princess Feng Lan asked, as she came to terms with his declaration.
"Of course!" Emperor Feng stated with confidence.
"The entire Morning Glory clan thanks the Emperor!" Guang San stood up and so did the rest of the people. "All kneel to the Emperor!" he commanded.
"ALL HAIL EMPEROR FENG!" The entire Morning Glory Clan erupted in cheers.
~THUD~THUD~THUD~
Hundreds of people kneeled at once, thanking the emperor for their grace. Meanwhile, the girl who was the reason behind it all sat in the same emperor's lap, feeling quite confused.
She tilted her head and looked around at the emotional people.
"Can I do this when I'm big too?" She muttered to herself.
Soon a celebratory banquet was held in the Morning Glory Clan, while the news about their rise to dukedom was spread. It reached the Capital City within minutes, before the aristocratic faction erupted in shock.
Many people had seen the Emperor leave in a hurry but didn't know why. But since he had left like that, they knew it must be something important.
And now the news about the Emperor declaring the Morning Glory Clan as a dukedom arrived.
It couldn't help, if all the aristocrats thought that this was the reason why he had gone out. Not many knew about the arrival of a Celestial after all, as that news was limited to only a few higher ups as well as the Temple of the four guardian beasts.
The aristocrats had their own meetings about what would happen now and how they would deal with the Morning Glory clan.
They made plans about sending gifts as well as emissaries to the Morning Glory clan. Now that they had become a dukedom they to keep good relations with them. Not that they didn't already have, after all the Morning Glory clan was an alchemist clan.
But now they wished to form deeper relations with them, even thinking about future marriage alliances.
Back at the Morning Glory Clan, while the banquet was ongoing, Guang San and Feng Lan personally went to the courtyard that had been assigned to the Celestials. They wished to invite them over, but got no response from the closed up courtyard.
Taking the silence as a response, they tacitly returned and resumed the banquet.
Of course, they didn't know that the Master of their Daughter was beaten up and didn't wish to show her face outside for now. Plus, Lin Mu was slit asleep and as such they didn't think it was best to go outside.
The Ever Spring mistress finally got the permission to heal herself a day later and the barrier on the courtyard was also lifted then. But even then, Lin Mu was still asleep. He was deep in dreams, which was a bit rare for him. As when he slept, it was either dreamless or he was in the Sleepscape.
In his dreams, Lin Mu found himself in a space filled with colorful clouds.
"What is this place?" Lin Mu muttered to himself as he looked around.
He had no memory of his breakthrough and didn't even know how he ended up here. 'What was I doing before this? And how did I end up here?' Lin Mu couldn't help but question himself.
He tried hard to think and recalled that the last thing he had done before this was to have a meal with the Saintess and the Ever Spring mistress.
"What happened after that?" Lin Mu tried hard to think, but no memories surfaced. There was an abrupt gap between his memories that he didn't really like.
"Senior Xukong? Are you there?" Lin Mu called out, wondering if his master had seen anything.
But no response was heard, even after a few minutes.
"Strange…" Lin Mu said and started to walk. He waved his hand in the colorful clouds and saw that they moved freely. At the same time, a fuzzy feeling appeared in Lin Mu's hands when they touched the clouds.
"Definitely not Qi." Lin Mu determined.
He knew what Qi felt like and this was quite different from that.
He wondered if it was some other kind of energy, but couldn't determine it, no matter how much he tried.
Lin Mu soon realized he didn't have his Immortal sense or his cultivation base here.
"I can't feel any cultivation… not even my body cultivation." Lin Mu realized. "This I suppose… this is a dream?" he guessed.
Narrowing his eyes, Lin Mu walked around more, and also thought about his situation.
"Since I'm in a dream, I definitely fell asleep sometime ago. But I don't remember when, which means it must have been abrupt." Lin Mu muttered to himself. "And since I can't enter the Sleepscape, it means this isn't the sudden sleep that is caused by the Well of Slumber. This is just normal sleep." He understood.
Having come to this conclusion, Lin Mu knew he just had to wait till the dream would be over. He would eventually wake up, or perhaps someone would wake him up.
"May as well look around," Lin Mu said. "Though the dream is a bit dull… Nothing much other than colorful clouds." Still to pass time, Lin Mu decided to look around, wondering if the dream would change.
And sure enough, after a short while, Lin Mu found the clouds parting.
"Huh?" Lin Mu saw a path appear in front of him.
He decided to follow it and walked for a couple of minutes before reaching its end. A shimmering wall stood in front of him that looked like a water-like membrane.
"What's this?" Lin Mu placed his hand on it and was suddenly sucked into it.
~SHUA~
Lin Mu opened his eyes and found himself in a new place.
He was surrounded by tens of thousands of treasures and the entire room he was in was golden!
Gems and countless weapons were scattered around, along with books and more.
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