209: Chapter 209 The Western Envoy

He did not issue an order immediately, but instead led Gu Shenwei to the massive world sand table, pointing with his hand to the vast expanse of blank space representing the Taixi Empire.

"Xu Changqing and Zhao Yu are the two nets I have cast out; one in the light, one in the dark," Gao Feng's voice became deep and solemn. "But I fear that these two nets can at most catch some fish and shrimp on the surface, and cannot reach the true behemoths beneath the deep sea."

"I want you to personally lead a team and make a trip to the Western lands."

Gu Shenwei listened quietly, his eyes hidden beneath his mask showing no ripple of emotion, as if the place the Emperor was sending him to was not a den of dragons and tigers, but merely as simple as visiting a neighbor.

"I do not want you to spy on their armaments, nor do I want you to understand their civilian life." Gao Feng's gaze became sharp as an eagle's. He stared fixedly at the blank space on the sand table, saying word by word, "I want you to dig out their roots! I want to know what exactly this so-called 'god of light' of theirs is! Is it a vague, ethereal belief, or a real, existing power? What is the organizational structure of that 'Holy See' that stands above imperial power? How does it control the entire Empire? And furthermore, where exactly is the source of their power!"

This was a mission a hundred times more dangerous and a hundred times more critical than the previous two groups.

This was no longer simple intelligence gathering, but rather a direct attempt to touch the most fundamental and heavily guarded secret of a vast civilization.

Gu Shenwei replied in a deep voice, using his unique tone that sounded like metal clashing against stone: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty."

"In this world, there is no wall that the Heaven's Net cannot pierce."

"Your subject obeys the decree!"

Without any unnecessary chatter or the slightest hesitation, Gu Shenwei performed a standard, formal kowtow to Gao Feng once more, then slowly stood up. He stepped backward, and like melting ice and snow, he silently merged back into the deep shadows, disappearing without a trace.

Inside the Imperial Study, silence returned once again.

Gao Feng stood alone for a long time before the massive sand table, his gaze seemingly piercing through ten thousand miles of space, landing on that distant world full of unknowns and challenges.

Three routes dispatched simultaneously, weaving light and dark—this was the true "grand gift" he had prepared for that mysterious Taixi Empire.

The gaze of the Wu Dynasty would, for the first time in a true sense, be cast toward that distant world full of unknowns and challenges.

...

The winter of the eighth year of Qiyuan seemed to have arrived earlier than in previous years; the bitter north wind swept up swirling snowflakes, decorating the entire majestic Divine Capital into a world wrapped in silver.

However, less than half a year after the two groups of scouts sent by the Wu Dynasty had departed, the arrival of an uninvited guest broke the tranquility of this Imperial Capital in winter.

This was a massive caravan, composed of hundreds of camels and dozens of huge four-wheeled carriages; they came from the West, traversing the long Silk Road, and finally arrived at the heart of the Wu Dynasty.

Escorting this caravan was a man wearing a scarlet robe, with a huge golden cross hanging on his chest, claiming to be an envoy dispatched by the Emperor of the distant Taixi Empire—a red-robed priest.

The commoners of the Divine Capital were seeing so many golden-haired, blue-eyed people at their own doorstep for the first time, and they all felt incredibly curious. They walked out of their warm houses, gathered on both sides of the wide Vermilion Bird Street, and pointed at the exotic procession, discussing it animatedly.

"Look, look! Those people's hair is actually golden, and their eyes are blue! They look just like the Bodhisattvas painted in our temples!" A child riding on his father's shoulders shouted excitedly.

"Not just that, look at their builds; they are all like iron towers, even taller and bigger than our northern barbarians!" A knowledgeable merchant smacked his lips in wonder. "And the clothes they're wearing, they're so gaudy. The material is decent, but the style is just too strange."

The eyes of the commoners were filled with curiosity and scrutiny, but there was not a trace of fear or rejection—this was the unique confidence and tolerance of the people of a prosperous Dynasty.

They had seen too many foreign envoys coming to pay tribute and were long accustomed to their status as the Celestial Empire. In their eyes, these Western people were merely another group of distant visitors coming to admire the civilization of the Celestial Empire and seek trade.

This Western diplomatic mission was quickly arranged by the officials of the Court of State Ceremonial to stay at the official guesthouse specifically for receiving foreign envoys.

However, on the very night they checked in, the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, who was responsible for the reception, had his first intense and direct confrontation with the red-robed priest named "Clement" over matters of etiquette.

"Respected Minister," Clement sat on a chair covered with a soft Persian rug, leisurely sipping the fragrant tea unique to the Wu Dynasty. In his blue eyes, deeply set in their sockets, there was an innate arrogance. "Regarding the etiquette for the audience with His Majesty the Emperor in three days, our side has some small requests, and we hope to receive your respect."

The Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial was an old official over fifty, well-versed in the etiquette of various nations. He stroked his beard and smiled, saying, "Please speak, Priest. Our Dynasty has always treated others with courtesy. Unless it violates the dignity of our Dynasty, I will naturally make arrangements at my discretion."

Clement put down his teacup, straightened his back, and said in an unquestionable tone, "According to the traditions of my Taixi Empire and out of respect for our Lord, the 'god of light', when the envoy of our Emperor, which is myself, presents the credentials to your Emperor, your Emperor must rise from his seat to show respect to our Emperor. At the same time, he must also place his right hand on his chest and perform the chest-touching salute to me, to show respect to our Lord, the 'god of light'."

As soon as these words were spoken, the air in the entire reception hall seemed to freeze in an instant.

The smile on the face of the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial slowly vanished, replaced by an icy sternness. He simply could not believe his ears. This red-haired barbarian actually demanded that the Emperor of the Wu Dynasty, the Supreme Ruler, rise to welcome a mere envoy and even perform a salute to him? What absurdity and arrogance this was!

"Priest, are you joking?" The Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial's voice became deep and dangerous. "Since the founding of our Dynasty, ten thousand nations have come to pay tribute, and I have never heard of such an unreasonable demand! In our Wu Dynasty, not kneeling before the Emperor is already a massive grace; yet you dare to demand that His Majesty rise and perform a salute? This is simply the height of absurdity!"

Clement seemed to have anticipated the anger of the Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial; he just smiled faintly and said slowly, "Minister, please mind your words. This is not a demand, but the will of God. Our Emperor is the sole representative of the god of light on earth, the guardian of world order; his nobility is far beyond what a secular monarch can compare to. Allowing your Emperor to rise and perform the salute is already a great grace granted by our Emperor, out of consideration that they are both monarchs."

"Presumptuous!" The Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial slammed the table, stood up abruptly, and rebuked angrily, "I don't care if your Emperor is a representative of God or a representative of a ghost! This is the Wu Dynasty! This is the Divine Capital! Not your barbaric Western lands! On the land of our Wu Dynasty, you must follow the rules of our Wu Dynasty! Kneeling before the Emperor is a heavenly principle! There is absolutely no room for negotiation on this matter! If you dare to speak such wild words again, do not blame me for expelling you directly!"

This confrontation ended unhappily.

Three days later, at the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Inside the solemn and majestic Throne Hall, the civil and military officials were lined up on both sides. The entire hall was deathly silent; one could hear a pin drop.

Gao Feng wore a black dragon robe embroidered with the twelve symbols, and a crown with twelve jade pendants. He sat high upon the dragon throne, which symbolized the Supreme power under heaven, his gaze calmly observing the hall below.

Amidst the high-pitched announcement of the eunuch, the Western envoy Clement, dressed in his most magnificent red priest's robe and holding a parchment scroll tied with a golden ribbon, walked into the Hall of Supreme Harmony with his head held high.

He ignored the knife-sharp gazes around him and walked straight to the center of the hall. However, he did not perform the great kowtow of three kneelings and nine kowtows like other envoys, nor did he even kneel on one knee; he simply placed his right hand on his chest and bowed slightly to Gao Feng, who was on the dragon throne.

This arrogant and rude action instantly made the atmosphere in the entire court tense and ready to explode.

Du Wei, Xiang Hao, and a group of hot-tempered martial generals had already opened their eyes wide in anger, gripping the swords at their waists tightly. If it weren't for the fact that the Emperor hadn't spoken yet, they would have probably rushed up long ago to drag this ignorant foreign charlatan out and behead him.

Gao Feng's face remained as calm as an ancient well, showing no signs of joy or anger. He just raised his hand faintly, signaling the interpreter to the side to come forward.

Seeing this, a slight, imperceptible sneer curled at the corner of Clement's mouth. He held the parchment scroll of credentials high in his hand, which was then passed by a eunuch to the interpreter.

The interpreter tremblingly took the parchment scroll, which emitted a strange fragrance. After he unfolded it and took just one look, bean-sized cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead.

He took a few deep breaths before using a trembling voice to read the contents of the credentials out loud, word by word.

The credentials were written in Western script, and their content was filled with unbelievable arrogance and presumptuousness.

In the letter, that never-before-met Taixi Emperor, in a condescending manner, styled himself as "the sole representative of the god of light on earth, the guardian of all world order, the King of Kings, and the Dominator of the sun and moon."

And he referred to the Martial God Gao Feng as "the newly risen, uncivilized barbarian monarch on the eastern grasslands."

After engaging in a bout of self-aggrandizement, this Taixi Emperor, in the tone of God addressing lost lambs, proposed three "holy" demands to the Wu Dynasty:

First, the Wu Dynasty must immediately abolish all faiths within its borders; whether it is Daoism, Buddhism, or ancestor worship, all must be completely banned. All subjects of the Wu Dynasty must convert to their so-called "god of light," and the Holy See must dispatch priests to the Eastern continent to build churches and spread the "Gospel of God."

Second, the Emperor of the Wu Dynasty, Gao Feng, must personally travel to the "Holy City" of the West to receive a personal coronation from His Holiness the Pope. Only in this way can he obtain the legitimacy to rule the Eastern continent and become a "secular king" under the Western theocratic system.

Third, in return for divine grace, the Wu Dynasty must annually present the Holy See with one hundred thousand taels of gold, one million taels of silver, and various local specialties like silk, porcelain, and tea as an annual tribute, in exchange for 'God's protection' and a hard-won peace.

At the end of the state letter, written in blood-red ink, was a sentence filled with threats and curses: 'Obey the will of God, and your Souls shall attain eternal life; defy the will of God, and the fire of divine punishment shall descend from the heavens, completely purifying your dirty and sinful Souls.'

When the translator finished reading the last word in a trembling voice, the entire magnificent Hall of Supreme Harmony fell into a deathly silence.

All the officials, whether civil or military, seemed petrified by the contents of the state letter.

They simply could not believe that there existed such an ignorant, arrogant, and presumptuous nation and monarch in this world!

After a brief dead silence, a sky-high rage erupted like a volcano!

'Arrogant! How dare this brat insult my Your Majesty and my Wu Dynasty like this!' Du Wei, the Minister of War, was the first to explode. With a 'clang,' he drew the sword from his waist, pointed it at Clement, and roared: 'Your Majesty! Please allow this humble general to drag this scoundrel out and execute him by slow slicing! Let this serve as a warning to others!'

'Kill him! Kill him!' Wulu was even more direct. His copper-bell-like eyes were already overflowing with Killing Intent. 'A weakling who can't even ride a horse dares to bark before our Dynasty's heavenly might! Your Majesty, let me go; I can twist his head off with one punch!'

The entire Hall of Supreme Harmony instantly erupted in an uproar; the crowd was incensed, and the cries for killing shook the dust from the ceiling.

However, amidst this monstrous rage, Gao Feng, sitting upright on the Dragon throne, suddenly laughed.

A brilliant smile appeared on his face, but that smile did not carry even a hint of warmth; instead, it made Clement, who was at the center of the storm, feel a bone-chilling cold emanating from the depths of his Soul.

Gao Feng slowly took the parchment state letter from the attendant's hand. He didn't even glance at it again, simply grasping the parchment, which he considered incredibly filthy, in his hand.

The next moment, an invisible, majestic surge of Internal Energy erupted from his palm!

That tough parchment, along with the golden ribbon, was instantly pulverized into the finest powder in his hand without even making a sound, falling like sand through his fingers.

After doing all this, Gao Feng slowly lifted his eyes. His cold, emotionless eyes, like two of the sharpest knives, were fixed firmly on Clement, and he spoke word by word in a tone so calm it was terrifying:

'Go back and tell your so-called crappy emperor, and that so-called Pope.'

'I have no interest in being anyone's dog.'

'If your so-called god of light is truly as powerful as you brag, then let him roll over to the East himself.'

'Let's see if my blade is sharp enough to cut off his so-called divine head!'

After speaking, he waved his hand sharply, as if swatting away a fly.

'Drag him out! Throw him out of the Imperial Capital! He is never to set foot in my Wu Dynasty again!'

Clement was so terrified by Gao Feng's tangible, horrific Killing Intent that his face drained of color. His legs went weak, and he could no longer maintain his so-called priestly demeanor. He was dragged out of the Hall of Supreme Harmony in a wretched state by two fierce palace guards, just like a dead dog.

A war concerning the future destiny of two massive Empires had now become inevitable.

In the months following the expulsion of the arrogant Western envoy like trash, the spies Gao Feng had previously dispatched returned to the Imperial Capital one after another with the intelligence they had gathered.

The situation for the military 'friendly visiting delegation' led by Zhao Yu's men was not optimistic.

Their main force was intercepted by a well-equipped and extremely tough border defense force the moment they arrived at the border of the Taixi Empire.

The other side refused their entry request on the grounds that 'without the permission of the Holy See and the Emperor, no Eastern army is allowed to enter.'

The two sides had some small-scale, probing conflicts in the border region.

Zhao Yu brought back samples of the standard longswords, armor, and crossbows used by the enemy soldiers and gave a fairly high assessment of their combat effectiveness: 'Individual strength is formidable, far exceeding the grassland barbarians; discipline is extremely high, strictly obeying orders; they are fearless in the face of death, seemingly dominated by some kind of fanatical belief, and are extremely difficult to deal with.'

Subsequently, Zhao Yu dispatched small groups of elite scouts disguised as merchants to infiltrate the enemy's border cities, bringing back some basic intelligence about the social structure and military organization of the Taixi Empire, but it was all quite superficial.

The situation regarding the secret line led by Xu Changqing, the commander of Tianwang, was even more confusing. The dozens of elite secret agents he dispatched were like clay oxen entering the sea; most of them lost contact.

Only sporadic intelligence was intermittently transmitted back, confirming that the Taixi Empire indeed possessed a massive organization called the 'Holy See,' whose power was even above the Imperial authority, and it possessed a secret police force called the 'Inquisition,' which was specifically responsible for purging heretics with extremely cruel methods.

What made Gao Feng feel the most uneasy was the team personally led by Gu Shenwei, whom he trusted the most and who was also the strongest. There had been no news from them to this day, as if they had completely evaporated from the world.

This cast a faint shadow over Gao Feng's heart.

After synthesizing all known intelligence, a clear outline gradually emerged in Gao Feng's mind.

This Taixi Empire was by no means one of those vulnerable small foreign nations from before, but a powerful opponent with tight organization, unified belief, formidable strength, and extreme aggressiveness.

He immediately ordered the establishment of a 'Supreme War Cabinet' that would stand above the Six Ministries.

He personally served as the Supreme commander of this cabinet, and its members included the Left and Right Prime Ministers Liu Chengfeng and Fang Xuanling, the Ministers of the Six Ministries, and all the great generals who guard the nation in the capital, such as Zhao Yu, Wulu, and Xiang Hao.

The establishment of the War Cabinet marked the official transition of the entire Wu Dynasty from a state of peaceful development to a highly centralized quasi-war state.

This brand-new system greatly improved the decision-making efficiency of the entire nation.

Under the unified command of the War Cabinet, all the military, economic, industrial, and agricultural forces of the entire Wu Dynasty could be efficiently coordinated to serve the coming war.

At the first War Cabinet meeting, after intense discussion, the general strategic policy of 'active defense, intelligence first, and technological preparation for war' was quickly determined.

Orders were issued for all major military regions to strengthen border defense, for the Ministry of Works to step up the production of new firearms and ironclad warships, and for Tianwang to continue probing the enemy situation at all costs.

On the very night the first War Cabinet meeting concluded, in the dead of night, a blood-soaked figure with weak breathing, accompanied by the only three remaining secret agents who were also covered in wounds, appeared like a ghost in the depths of the Imperial Palace.

The person who arrived was none other than Gu Shenwei, the commander of the Martial Suppression Bureau, who had been missing for nearly a year.

When Gao Feng saw his sharpest blade again in the Imperial Study, even with his composure, his pupils couldn't help but constrict.

At this moment, Gu Shenwei no longer possessed his usual coldness and composure.

The black cloak on his body had long been stained dark red by blood, and it was covered with scratches from swords and traces of burns.

His iconic black iron mask was also shattered on one side, and on the exposed half of his face, there were several hideous scars crisscrossing it, one of which had almost blinded his eye.

'Your Majesty... this subject... has not failed the mission...' Gu Shenwei knelt on one knee, his voice hoarse and weak, but in his only remaining eye, there still flickered a heart-stopping brilliance.

What Gu Shenwei brought back was the most core and most tragic intelligence of all.

Their party of thirty-six of Tianwang's top elites successfully infiltrated the heartland of the Taixi Empire.

However, they were quickly targeted by the terrifying organization known as the 'Inquisition.'

In the course of half a year of brutal pursuit and counter-pursuit, they were like dancing on the tip of a blade.

The thirty-six Tianwang elites who went with him all sacrificed themselves heroically, one after another, to cover Gu Shenwei and to bring back this crucial intelligence.

Gu Shenwei himself also had an earth-shattering life-and-death duel with an unfathomably powerful Cardinal of the Inquisition at the very last moment.

He risked suffering severe injuries and exhausted almost all his Internal Energy, only barely managing to escape from the opponent's bizarre and powerful attacks.

The intelligence he brought back finally revealed the secret of the Taixi Empire's mysterious power system, which was completely different from the martial arts of the Central Plains.

'Your Majesty,' Gu Shenwei's voice was weak but every word was clear, 'The experts of the Taixi Empire do not cultivate Internal Energy, nor do they practice Qi Refining. They use a method called 'prayer' to borrow a type of energy called 'power of Holy Light' from the 'god of light' they worship. This energy can be used to heal wounds, and can also be transformed into an invincible attack, which they call 'divine arts'.'

'Besides this, they also master a peculiar technology called 'alchemy,' which can create metal Puppets called 'alchemical golems.' These golems do not know fatigue, do not fear death, possess infinite strength, and are extremely terrifying killing machines on the battlefield.'

'And the most critical thing is...' A flash of deep apprehension flickered in Gu Shenwei's eyes, 'According to the top-secret intelligence I obtained last, in the deepest part of that Holy See, there may exist legendary-level beings called 'Saints' who transcend the level of Cardinal. It is said that they are terrifying figures who can truly manifest divine miracles in the human world.'

After hearing Gu Shenwei's bloody report, the entire Imperial Study fell into a deathly silence.

Gao Feng was silent for a long time. He personally walked down from the imperial steps, helped Gu Shenwei up from the ground, and patted his shoulder, which was no longer broad.