The common people peeked at the Emperor's face through their fingers, seeing his eyes pitch-black and deep, his expression not pleased or angry, he didn't look like a mortal, he looked more like a merciless god. Suddenly, they gained a deeper understanding on the meaning behind the term 'Son of Heaven'. The thrill of the corrupt officials being beheaded dissipated, gradually replaced by endless reverence- towards the Heavens, the gods, and imperial power.
Zhou Yun Sheng had arranged an amplifier on the platform, enough to spread his voice throughout Fei Lai Mountain's summit. His lips opened slightly, and he lightly said, "Start the music."
The musicians kneeling at the edge of the platform began playing the traditional sacrificial music, and the more physically built soldiers were standing in front of the drums, thumping wildly. Stepping on the powerful and resonating drum beats, Zhou Yun Sheng installed the rain callers one by one, pointing them at the most water vapor rich "Divination" direction. Then he fixed copper mirrors into the rain callers, which would reflect the sun's light into the clouds, one by one, the beams of light overlaid, eventually forming a huge pillar of light, from a distance, it resembled the legendary golden light that descends after reaching the path of heavenly virtue, it shined into their eyes, shaking the people's hearts and souls.
Don't say that the audience was dumbstruck, even the experienced and knowledgeable court officials were stunned, kneeling down in fear and reverence, shouting long live Your Majesty. What was a true Dragon Emperor? To be able to readily attract such a bright golden light of virtue, this was the true Dragon Emperor!
The common people saw the ministers and imperial guards kneeling and woke up from their shock, falling to their knees in quick succession, a thousand mouths frantically shouting 'long live'. The rebel army spies came to make the atmosphere rowdy, then incite the people after the rain prayer failed, but they never expected to see such a miraculous scene. Suddenly more and more lifeless, they prostrated themselves before the Emperor, unable to get up for a long time.
Zhou Yun Sheng adjusted the rain callers, then wrote down an imperial edict on the spot, calling to lightning goddess Dian Mu to quickly send rain clouds towards the Southwest, to save the people from distress. He ordered the Qin Tian official to throw firewood into the huge copper cauldron and ignite the bunch into a roaring fire, then he read out the imperial decree and tossed it into the scarlet flames.
[Qin Tian official- official in charge of observing the astronomical phenomena, formulating calendars.]
The imperial edict instantly combusted, changing into billowing thick smoke floating up to the sky, then the wind suddenly blew it towards the "Divination" position, fusing together with the huge light pillar.
Zhou Yun Sheng raised his hand to test the air's humidity level, and knew that the rain prayer performance had succeeded. He once again kneeled down in prayer, and recited the 'Great Compassion' mantra in the most pure Sanskrit. The Emperor's voice was clear and melodious, like precious stones, coupled with the Sanskrit and mysteriously misty pronunciation, he sounded like a Ninth Heaven oracle, making all those who listened feel relaxed and happy, their hearts filling with reverence.
Even the officials were too enraptured to get up, not to mention the civilians, the previously noisy Fei Lai Mountain was now completely silent, except for the Emperor's prayer, there was no other sound. About a quarter of an hour later, the blaze inside the copper cauldron slowly extinguished, but the black smoke didn't dissipate in the sky, on the contrary, it thickened, unknowingly turning into a large dark cloud. The dark cloud was like a hood, wrapping Fei Lai Mountain's summit in darkness.
Someone exclaimed, "Rain! The Heavens received the Emperor's decree, they really sent rain!"
The imperial decree finished burning and dark clouds immediately started drifting over, it was difficult for even the most cynical men to call this marvel a coincidence. How on earth could there be such an astounding coincidence?
"Long live the Emperor!"
"The Emperor is certainly not a man, he's an Immortal!"
"A god has descended to the world, he's come to protect Da Qi!"
"Oh, we're saved! The Emperor really is the true Dragon Emperor, even the Heavens have to listen to his orders!"
The citizens kowtowed and cried out in excitement.
"It's not raining yet, don't count your chickens…." The rebel spies pushed out rebuttals, but before their voices faded, bean sized rain drops immediately plopped down, ice-cold water splashing onto their faces. Suddenly dumbfounded, they looked up at the platform. The Emperor had stood up and was walking off the platform, a trace of killing intent in his eyes. Except for kneeling down in worship, the rebels couldn't afford to think of any other ideas. The person they banded together to overthrow was unexpectedly such a matchlessly powerful, and incomprehensible character. What did it mean to 'produce clouds with one turn of the hand and rain with another'? This was it. Before now, they always thought this saying was just exaggerated, they never thought such a god-like man would actually exist.
The rebel army's slogan, "We Move by Heaven's Light", suddenly seemed like a big joke.
The rain was falling heavier and heavier, it seemed to have majestic momentum. Zhou Yun Sheng took off his heavy crown and stepped into the open space where the guilty officials were just beheaded. The blood mixed with the rain water, splashing up scarlet sprays, contaminating his bright yellow imperial boots and robes. His black hair hung loose, and he was soaked from head to toe, but it didn't diminish his grace in the slightest. He looked solemn, noble, imposing, causing the citizens and the officials to fall over in prostration one after another.
Zhao Xuan was hidden in the rear of the crowd, his dark eyes glued to the drenched yet even more alluring Emperor. He loved his holy expression and indifferent eyes, and wanted to possess him even more, to let him transform from a merciless god to a flesh and blood man. If his holy face was contaminated by crimson lust, his indifferent eyes clouded by a mist of desire, the scene would certainly be beautiful and soul-stirring. Although the rain was pouring down on his body, Zhao Xuan still felt very thirsty, he licked his dry lips, and quietly disappeared into the crowd.
Zhou Yun Sheng quickly returned to the Southwest governor's residence after ceremony. Lin Ann had already prepared hot water and ginger soup, and waited upon him as he washed.
After changing into clean casual clothes, Zhou Yun Sheng fell onto the couch and let out a comfortable sigh. The copper furnace was ignited with some kind of sandalwood, the smell of which was actually starting to make him feel dizzy.
Fuck, that animal's here again. Are you still not finished? Can't you just make love to me openly for once? Zhou Yun Sheng clutched his forehead, grinding his teeth in dark thoughts.
Soon, Zhao Xuan, wearing all black, sneaked into the house, chuckling, he brought the collapsed onto the couch Emperor into his arms, and skillfully blindfolded him.
"Reveal your true face at once if you have the guts! Don't do these surreptitious things!"
"You're the only person in the world that knows I'm a coward!" Zhao Xuan laughed more wantonly as he neatly stripped off the Emperor's casual clothes and took a set of dragon robes out from the clothes trunk to dress him in.
"I really liked seeing you in these dragon robes, you're not only beautiful, but also noble. I'm positive I must've saved the common people in my former life, so the Heavens gave you to me in this life." His voice was husky, his hands never pausing.
I was given to you by the Heavens? If I was someone else, you'd be a fucking rapist, you know that?! Zhou Yun Sheng considered cursing him out, but Zhao Xuan blocked his mouth, kissing him wildly. When he opened his eyes again, not a soul was in sight, but a blood red Chinese rose was on top of his pillow, and 008 had more code snippets. Zhou Yun Sheng smashed all the furnishings in his room, then called Zhao Xuan over, pointing to his nose as he cursed, "What kind of guard captain are you? Just now an assassin came in, and you didn't even notice! If not for my outstanding martial arts, I would've already died a few hundred times!"
His sweetheart really did have incredible martial arts, he almost squeezed him dry last night. Zhao Xuan's expression was fearful, but his heart was trapped in a sweet memory, seeing the Emperor pick up a whip as if to flog him, he started trembling in excitement.
Zhou Yun Sheng felt a chill all of a sudden, he raised his arm a few times, but finally couldn't bring it down, he tossed the whip away and growled: "Get out! Search the city at once, bring that bandit to me!"
Zhao Xuan felt quite disappointed, but then he started thinking that the Emperor's heart was not able to bear hurting him, and his mood brightened. He led his men to clean out all the rebel parties.
The heavy rain fell for a full three days and three nights, by the fourth day, the Emperor's rainfall marvel spread throughout the Southwest. The rebel army's "We Move by Heaven's Light" slogan was no longer able to resonate with the people, no one was willing to defy a god. The peasants who were part of the rebel army tossed aside their weapons and fled their home villages overnight. They fearfully hid for a few days, but after seeing that the court truly wasn't sending troops after them, but was even counting up and dividing the farmland among the people, opening up the granaries and distributing food, providing work to relieve poverty, and declaring decrees that greatly improved the disaster victims' lives, they traveled back to reunite with their families.
Half a month later, less than two thousand people remained of the more than one hundred thousand man rebel army. They were driven away by the imperial army and slowly dispersed, reduced to a few scattered rebel bands, who started killing and looting wherever they went, completely ruining their reputation. At this point, Zhou Yun Sheng didn't have to be courteous with them, so he ordered the army to surround and wipe them out.
After properly dealing with every trivial matter, Zhou Yun Sheng decided to leave the Southwest on the day the natural heavy rain would fall. When the citizens lining the streets to see him off felt light drizzle, their reverence for the Emperor rose to an unmatched height. Even Luo Zhen and the other officials were gazing at the Emperor as if looking at a god. They reflected over the rain prayer scene over and over, and decided to write it all down in a biography after they returned, so the future generations could pay tribute.
At this moment, Zhou Yun Sheng didn't know, because of his people-oriented concept of governance, advanced scientific knowledge, governing policies, and his mystical ability to order Heaven, his evaluation in the history books far surpassed Da Qi's 24 other monarchs. He'll be labeled as the Holy Emperor by future generations, and even scientists will constantly study him, trying to prove that the Holy Emperor came from a space of more developed technology, otherwise, how could his knowledge of astronomy, geography, art of war, and his extreme versatility and progressive viewpoints be at least thousands of years ahead of everyone else?
But no matter how future people evaluated him, the current Zhou Yun Sheng didn't care. His goals were very simple: One, get revenge; two, govern this turbulent country that had sunk into chaos because of his previous muddle-headedness. Now that the Southwest's chaos was pacified, it was time to settle his private debts.