Of course, the disturbance that Elder Wang caused in Liu Residence didn't go unnoticed. Many of the Nobles, Officials, and Ministers of the Imperial court had stood outside of Liu Residence only to run away in fear when they heard that the Emperor was inside of Liu Residence. They were already aware that the Emperor was deeply unsatisfied with the members of the Imperial court.

Therefore none of them wanted to be caught outside of Liu Residence and draw the Emperor's displeasure or get accused of disturbing the newly returned members of the four martial families. 

However, these Nobles, Ministers, and Officials felt deeply unsatisfied that they had to run away with their tail tucked between their legs without accomplishing their goal. Their main goal was to find out the identity of the Lord of the new Liu Garden Residence. However, before they could do so, they had to run away as if they were petty criminals fleeing the Patrol Guards.

They were deeply unsatisfied and unwilling to accept this. They didn't wait until the morning court session to file their complaints. As soon as they got home, almost all of them immediately began writing memorandums of complaint and sent them off to the Imperial Palace that very night.

They requested that the Emperor summon the Lord of the new Liu Residence to court to give an explanation of the disturbance that took place in Liu Residence in the middle of the night. Some even requested that the Emperor conduct an official search of Liu Residence. Some requested that the emperor punish the Lord of Liu Residence for allowing the house guards of Liu Residence to behave too aggressively.

Due to the events that took place earlier that night, the Emperor was too restless to sleep. So instead of spending a night twisting and turning in his bed, he decided to better utilize his time by working on the unceasing piles of documents and memorandums that continuously flowed into the Imperial Palace.

Late evening found the Emperor in his work studio viewing the memorandums of complaints concerning the event that took place at Liu Residence earlier with a deep scowl on his face.

The memorandums of complaints were so plentiful that the Emperor didn't bother reading them all. Some of the memorandums were so outlandish and exaggerated that if the emperor weren't there himself, he would have thought that Liu Tián Qǔ spent the night running around terrorizing the citizens of the Imperial City.

The Emperor grew very annoyed with the members of his Imperial court. Instead of utilizing their time to help fill the vacant posts of the Minister of Personnel and the Minister of Public Works. The members of the Imperial court were running around in the middle of the night, worried about the identity of the Lord of Liu Residence.

The Prime Minister of the Left and the Prime Minister of the right were quickly decided after several days of debates. However, the Minister of Personnel and the Minister of the Public Works had yet to be determined. The Emperor had turned down all the recommendations that were brought before him thus far.

The Emperor's annoyance grew deeper and turned to deep aggravation bordering on anger as he sat in his work studio reading the ridiculous memorandums that continued to flow into the Imperial Place.

After reading a memorandum of complaint requesting the Emperor to have the Lord of Liu Residence arrested and charged with terrorizing the citizens of the Imperial City and for allowing his house guard to threaten and intimidate the Imperial City Patrol Guards, who work hard to keep the city safe. The Emperor had enough.

For almost twenty minutes, the Emperor sat at his desk lost in deep contemplation before summoning Wang Fèn Yǒng, and a couple of young minor officials to enter the Imperial palace immediately.

The Imperial City; Liu Garden Residence

The event of the blinding bright gold light destroyed Liu Tián Qǔ's timeline she had set for accomplishing everything that needed to be done before she could take the Black Blossoms Dual Potion. Instead of standing around lamenting the destructions of her plan. Liu Tián Qǔ decided to adapt and keep on going.

The most fortunate thing about the whole situation was that other than the guards of Liu Residence, no one else in Liu Residence witnessed the event.

This was confirmed by the Shadow Warriors that had monitored Liu Residence during the time of the disturbance. The house guards that Commander Jiang had ordered to make rounds had attested to that fact.

Most of the servants had already retired at the time that the event took place. The servants that were still awake and working were indoors, so they missed the blinding bright gold light that had lit up the skies over Liu Garden Residence.

Although all the Liu Residence servants and guests would soon find out about it anyway, it saved Liu Tián Qǔ from having to come up with an explanation at that moment.

Later that morning after court Wang Fèn Yǒng arrived unannounced and joined Liu Tián Qǔ for a late breakfast. He also brought a message and orders from the Emperor. As they ate breakfast together, Wang Fèn Yǒng took the time to inform Liu Tián Qǔ of what took place in the Imperial Meeting Hall earlier that morning during court.

The Imperial City; In the Imperial Meeting Hall

In court that morning, many of Ministers and Officials came forward and requested that the Emperor to summon Liu Tián Qǔ to explain the disturbance that took place over the skies of Liu Residence that night. Their request only caused the Emperor to get deeply vexed. Of course, he couldn't tell the Imperial court that Liu Tián Qǔ was innocent and that the real culprit was his Imperial Grandfather Elder Wang. Elder Wang had disappeared with the tome and immediately began studying it. He hadn't been seen since.

The Emperor had glared down at the gathered Ministers, Nobles, and Official from where he was seated on his throne. "It just so happened that the event at Liu Residence wasn't the only event to take place in the Imperial City last night. I happened to pass several gambling houses, wine houses, and brothels on the way back to the Imperial Palace last night. Last night I witnessed a big drunken brawl in the heart of the Imperial City amongst the profligate scions of the members of my Imperial court." The Emperor said, leaving the Ministers, Nobles, and Officials of the court gawking at him in deep shock and horror.

The Emperor turned and coldly glared at a group of retired Elders who also wrote memorandums and sent them off to the Emperor last night. The Emperor specially summoned these retired Elders to the morning court session, "Also involved in this brawl were many scions of prominent noble Family's." Many of the scions involved were the descendants of the Elders that were summoned.

The blood drained out of the faces of the Elders. The Elders turned extremely pale with fright when they realized they had drawn the Emperor's displeasure with their memorandums of complaint. The Elders immediately collapsed into a kowtow position and began to plead for forgiveness for not teaching their descendants properly.

The Emperor then looked over and coldly glared at an Assitant Minister of the Secretariat, who was most insistent on having  Liu Tián Qǔ summoned.

Several Ministers, Nobles, and Officials felt their hearts almost fly out of their chests, when the Emperor said in a freezing ice-cold voice, "Minister Diao, I see you hurried to court first thing this morning to complain about the Lord of Liu Residence. Did you bother inquiring about the whereabouts of your Eldest son and your third son? You spent the night worrying about the disturbance at Liu Residence and writing memorandums of complaint. That time would have been better spent had you use it to correct your sons who are now sleeping off their drunken state in jail after leading a drunken brawl in the heart of my City."

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Minister Diao felt his heart freeze as he stood there, gawking in horror and terror. Even his extremities suddenly felt cold. Minister Diao's trembling legs gave out as he collapsed into a kowtow. Other members that were gathered in the Imperial meeting hall began to panic when they realized that they, too, had sons or a young family member that didn't return home last night.

Before Minister Diao could even begin to plead for forgiveness or plead his case, the Emperor said, "Minister Diao wasn't the only one with a messy household who spent all night worrying about another man's household. He also wasn't the only one to hurry to court first thing this morning to complain about another man's household instead of fixing his own."

The Emperor proceeded to call out many of the Ministers, Nobles, and Officials whose family's scions were also involved in the drunken brawl and was sitting in jail. 

Of course, just about every Official, Minister, Noble, and Retired Elder already knew about the brawl. However, to them, it was a small matter. After all, they were powerful members of the Imperial court, and those that weren't still had the power to make the situation of the brawl vanish. They were more focused on dragging the Lord of Liu Residence before the Imperial court so he could be identified.

They were deeply shocked and horrified because never in a million years would they have expected the Emperor to subdue, pressure, and attack them all at once, using the matter of the brawl. News of the brawl should have never made it to the ears of the Emperor. It was not good that the Emperor knew about the brawl. The Emperor was already displeased with the Imperial court. They were afraid that this matter would only make things worse.

Eighty-nine members of the Imperial court knelt trembling before the Emperor. Alongside them knelt the many retired Elders that were summoned to court by the Emperor. The Emperor then turned his sight on the Commander of the Imperial City Patrol Guards.

Before the Emperor could even begin, the Commander of the Imperial City Patrol Guards quickly fell into a kowtow and loudly said, "Your Majesty I know my wrong. I will fix this situation and ensure that there will never be a repeat of this incident."

"Humph! At least you know your wrong." By this time all the Retired Elders, Ministers and Officials realized that the Emperor was on a witch hunt.

Since they attacked the Lord of Liu Residence, the Emperor was attacking them. But why was the Emperor shielding the Lord of the new Liu Residence?

Who was the Lord of the new Liu Residence that the Emperor of the Tolling Lands would come forward and protect him? Was the new Lord of Liu Residence really an Imperial family member in disguise as the rumor said? Just what was going on here?! This should not be!

There were three reasons the Emperor protected Liu Tián Qǔ. One was to fulfill the first condition of the negotiation for the Knell Stones of keeping Liu Tián Qǔ identity a secret a bit longer. The second was to conceal the actual events that took place in the hidden enclosure in Liu Residence, and the final reason was to protect his Imperial Grandfather, who was the person who triggered the event that took place in Liu Garden Residence.

Not one noble, official, minister or retired elder believed for one second that the Emperor just happened to conveniently walk by just as the scions of the various noble families happened to get into a drunken brawl.

It's more like the Emperor went hunting for something to use against the members of the Imperial Court that was using the disturbance at Liu Residence to pin down the Lord of Liu Residence.

The members of the Imperial court who thought that way was correct. The petty cunning Emperor got so vexed with his Imperial court he decided to straighten them out and redirect their attention and energy to the things that the members of the Imperial court should have been focusing on, to begin with.

That very night the Emperor summoned  Wang Fèn Yǒng and several young minor officials that knew the hangout spots of the profligate scions and the scions of Noble and wealthy influential families.

It was then that the Emperor had learned that there had been a gathering amongst the scions of nobility and the scions of the wealthy and influential family's earlier. After the gathering, the scions had moved to second locations in the entertainment district to hang out, eat, drink, and have fun.

The Emperor had the young minor officials write down the scions who didn't get along with each other. As well as the scions that had deep grudges or animosity towards each other. After the Emperor found out what he wanted to know, he commanded that no one was to speak of the matter.

The Emperor once again disguised himself and went back out. He had teams of his Shadow Guards disguise themselves as scions and initiated conflict amongst the scions.

These Shadow Guard went into several gambling houses, wine houses, brothels, and other places where the scions hung out and began to initiate discord amongst them. As per the Emperor orders the Shadow Guards paid special attention to the scions that had deep grudges, enmity, and hostility towards each other.

At that hour of the night, many of the scions were already drunk and feeling very impetuous and rash. In their inebriated state, very few among them were able to think with clarity. Therefore the conflict which the Shadow Warriors triggered among them quickly sparked into flames that burned brightly and fiercely in the night.

Aggressive, pissed off, intoxicated, violent scions boiled out of several brothels, wine houses, tea houses, gambling houses, and places of entertainment and onto the streets of the Imperial City and war commenced.

The cunning black-belly Emperor even invited the Commander of the Imperial City Patrol Guards and the Imperial City Patrol Guards along to the show. He had them hide in an alley close by until the show started. The  Emperor invited them along to the show because he wanted to make sure all the scions were properly arrested and jailed. Since the Commander of the Imperial City Patrol Guards and the City Patrol Guards were so adamant about doing their job, the cunning black-belly Emperor found work for them to do.

Sitting on his throne, the Emperor coldly glared down at the members of his court gathered before him, "We have yet to finish refilling the vacancies on the border left behind by the warriors that were found guilty of treason and eliminated. The Minister of Personnel and the Minister of the Public Works had yet to be determined. We have a five to ten year grace period to prepare for a war that will find us sooner or later. However, instead of focusing your energy on matters of the Imperial court that are calling for attention. What are the ministers and officials of my Imperial court doing? They are running around in the middle of the night, focusing their energy on unnecessarily useless things. Am I going to have to begin punishing and demoting the ministers and officials of my court before you all come to your senses?" The vexed Emperor was starting to get angry as he heavily scolded the members of his Imperial court.

By now, all the members of the court were kowtowing and pleading for the Emperor's forgiveness and leniency. Many of the members of the court were frightened out of their minds. The thought that crossed everyone's mind was, "The Emperor had changed!"

However, had one of those officials mentioned their thoughts to Liu Tián Qǔ. Liu Tián Qǔ would have laughed mockingly at them and said, "Change? What Changed?! That black-belly petty cunning Emperor is just tired of hiding his true nature. He didn't change. He was always that way. You're the ones who are idiots for never noticing it. Your complaining now?! Why complain? He still didn't fully unleash his true nature. You better pray he never does because I don't think you will survive it."

In an ice-cold sarcastic voice, the Emperor said, "Since my Imperial court already invested so much energy and attention on the Lord of Liu Residence, then I will enlighten everyone on the disturbance that occurred last night at Liu Residence. With his eyes wide open, the Emperor began to lie.

"Yesterday evening before the disturbance, the Lord of Liu Residence notice a problem in his Residence that was left behind by the late Chen Family. The Lord of Liu Residence immediately informed Young General Wang, and the Heir of Wang Royal Manor immediately informed me of the situation. Elder Wang, the Grand Prince, and I personally went to Liu Residence to control the situation. At the time of the disturbance, we were already present in Liu Residence."

This confirmed what the many of the Ministers and Officials had surmised. The Emperor was in Liu Residence last night! Many of the members of the Emperor's court broke out in a cold sweat. The only thing they could think was, 'Ah!? It's a good thing I ran away!'

"As of now, the situation is under control. However, by noon all servants and guards of Liu Residence will be dismissed for one week. During this week, the Shadow Dragoon Warriors will take control of the Residence. A special team will be assigned to thoroughly searched Liu Residence to see if the Chen Family left anything else behind that will trigger another disturbance. Are there any more concerns concerning the situation regarding Liu Residence?" The Emperor's statement triggered hundreds of questions in the minds of the members of the Imperial Court. However, not one person dared to give voice to the many questions running through their minds.