Chapter 2688: Coronation!
Seven days later, it was a sunny and cloudless day.
Though they had been on the ground for a week and were no longer surprised at the blue sky or the scorching sun, the representatives of the underground people, including Xu Zhicheng and Bing Bing, were still overwhelmed by the boundless square that had been jam-packed with people.
The huge square that boasted infinite s.p.a.ce was something that they could never imagine below the ground.
All the underground representatives felt that they had been reborn into a whole new world.
Other than the s.p.a.ciousness, they were also amazed by the millions of people here.
The place was s.p.a.cious enough, but there seemed to be more people in the capital than the capacity of any place. The streets, the towers, the square, and the auditorium that was floating with anti-gravity units had all been crowded. Even the sky was occupied by wars.h.i.+ps!
The delegation of the underground people walked for more than three hours from dawn to morning before they finally found their designated location. They were like a tiny spot that was embedded into an array of infinite spots.
Standing on tiptoe, they saw that the ocean of people stretched all the way to the horizon.
Glamorously-decorated loudspeakers were floating in the sky and roaring, now playing exciting songs and now announcing new orders and policies. Their noises crashed each other like torrents, making it impossible for the underground people to know what was going on at all. They only felt that they were dizzy.
Xu Zhicheng craned his head to look at the royal palace, but he could not see the new emperor on the high platform at all. So, he simply browsed through the few fliers and leaflets in his hands.
Though the news of the new emperor’s coronation had been spread throughout the Spiritual Nexus, some places, such as the remote resource planets or the territory of the four families, might not receive the message in time. The fliers were officially printed to make up for that so that the partic.i.p.ants of the ceremony could disseminate the message with the fliers to every corner of the Imperium.
The fliers included an introduction to the new emperor and Emperor Shenwu’s remark on him, which said that his son took after him and would certainly carry on his cause.
The emperors of the Imperium of True Human Beings were different from those of ancient times anyway.
The succession of the emperors in ancient times did not need to care about social influence. All they needed to do was to win the approval of the n.o.bles and the powerful warlords.
However, the Imperium of True Human Beings was a modern country anyway, and the emperor was a representative of the country instead of a simple dictator.
In particular, the new emperor elected by the reformists had to compete with “Emperor Chengwu”, which was selected by the four families. Since Emperor Shenwu had been dead for a year, neither of the two new emperors seemed legitimate enough, so it was all the more reason to beautify this new emperor.
So, these luxurious fliers introduced the life of the new emperor, claiming that he was the late emperor’s thirteenth son who had been raised in another family because his father feared that he would be set up. Bing Bing had told Xu Zhicheng that earlier.
Xu Zhicheng was not at all interested in the fliers that were official and hence boring.
What he carefully studied was the leaflets that were of a much lousier quality.
The leaflets were also introductions to the new emperor, but they were much more exciting. There was no telling who published or spread them, but almost every partic.i.p.ant of the ceremony was holding one.
According to the leaflets, the late emperor once fell asleep when he was too tired from working before his demise, and he saw a golden lion with wings flying into his palace and circling around him. There was even a glittering star on the forehead of this lion!
The black-starred lion gazed at him first, before it leaped out to the back of the palace!
The late emperor woke up from his dream and got the news that the queen had given birth to his thirteenth son.
Because of the unusual dream, the late emperor paid special attention to the thirteenth prince and secretly decided to let him inherit the crown.
However, the spies that were all over the royal palace somehow spread out the unusual dream, and the four Kurfursten certainly wouldn’t allow the prince who was the reincarnation of the black-stared lion to grow strong. They decided to murder this thirteenth prince.
But fortunately for the Imperium of True Human Beings, one of the a.s.sa.s.sins found his conscience. He secretly replaced the thirteenth prince with another baby and carried him out of the royal palace into the Li family boldly!
After that, the thirteenth prince gradually grew up, and he realized his bloodline and his ident.i.ty at a critical moment. Under the support of his most loyal subjects—the Black Wind King and Dongfang Mingyue—he left the Li family for the Seven Seas s.p.a.ce Zone, before he marched back to the capital, vanquished the four families, and secured a glorious victory as well as the crown that belonged to him!
Xu Zhicheng had no idea who wrote such a leaflet, whose language was simply bordering on vulgar and whose content was hard to believe. However, it was indeed exciting to read the leaflet. Everybody would feel that the new emperor was a young hero who was destined to lead them after reading it!
The leaflets, naturally, were not official.
But Xu Zhicheng was not a fool. If the authorities really disagreed with it, they would’ve censored those leaflets, yet the fact was that almost every partic.i.p.ant of the ceremony was holding onto one of the leaflets, which showed the authorities’ indirect support.
While Xu Zhicheng was considering the matter, the noises above his head turned ten times louder. He raised his head, only to see that the blue sky had turned into a golden ocean as thousands of stars.h.i.+ps had arrived over the capital.
Thousands of stars.h.i.+ps would be a grain of sand in s.p.a.ce.
But within the atmosphere, when they were only several hundred meters from the ground, their overwhelming exhaust flames seemed to be tearing everything apart!
The sun was completely eclipsed by the fire from the stars.h.i.+ps. When the sunlight pa.s.sed through the gravity fields of the stars.h.i.+ps, it turned into colorful fragments that added to the magnificence of the ceremony, as if it were fireworks for the coronation of the new emperor.
“Ah…”
Xu Zhicheng could not breathe anymore. He cheered with the millions of other people around him.
As an underground rebel, he was never proud of his ident.i.ty as a member of the Imperium, but when he saw the grand scene of thousands of stars.h.i.+ps, he suddenly had an uncanny urge.
If the new emperor was really the young man he knew, with the support of Li Yao and Dongfang Mingyue, the underground people might really have a chance to melt into this unparalleled power and become part of the Imperium, right?
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The unexpected shots of cannons nearly made Xu Zhicheng jump to his feet.
Thankfully, he remembered what he was repet.i.tively taught a few days previously. It was said that cannons would be fired during the coronation.
As he expected, the deafening explosions did not cause any damage. The cannons from the thousands of stars.h.i.+ps launched the most dazzling flames of light, paving a golden path from the sky to the ground, as if they were delivering a certain power from the universe to the high platform before the royal palace!
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Thousands of light beams were unfolded in the sky, displaying the picture where the new emperor was slowly setting foot on the high platform so that the partic.i.p.ants of the ceremony and all the people in the Imperium could see him clearly.
The new emperor turned out to be a tall and vigorous young man. He was wearing golden formal clothes that extended to a dozen meters away. The gold scales st.i.tched to his clothes made him look like a golden dragon that was slowly stretching out. Holding the sword that represented royal power, he slowly stepped on the platform.
His black hair, mixed with some golden strands, was dancing as if it were alive. Deep in his eyes, golden light and purple light were fighting with sparks bursting out. After his every step, a footprint was left where he set his foot on. He looked much more majestic than Emperor Chengwu that was elected by the four families. Many people who learned of his background from the fliers and the leaflets were growing more and more respectful of him, vaguely realizing that this new emperor was different from any of the puppets in the past hundreds of years!