The heavy double doors of the Supreme Harmony Hall stood wide open, bathed in the clear midday sun.
Above the palace roof, the repossessed Nine-Dragon Imperial Seal floated gently down from Lin Mo’s tea table. It came to rest on a clean mahogany pedestal at the center of the terrace. Its green nephrite surface pulsed with calm, steady golden light, completely cleansed of Ji Wudao’s corrupt bloodline seals.
Lin Mo stepped down from the floating pavilion, his dark blue robes fluttering in the fresh mountain breeze. Beside him walked Su Wan, Lord Wen Zhengming, Dean Yan Shouzhen, and Top Scholar Han Yu.
Behind them stood three thousand newly graduated magistrates from Taichu Immortal University.
Every single magistrate wore simple, dignified gray scholar robes with silver trim. Each carried a standard legal abacus and a portable Spirit-Crystal POS terminal at their belt. They were the sons and daughters of farmers, herbalists, blacksmiths, and small shopkeepers. Every one of them held a certified Goodness Score of eighty-five or higher.
“Lord Wen. Dean Yan,” Lin Mo said, resting his hand on the mahogany pedestal. “Taichu Benevolence Group is an enterprise, not an imperial dynasty. We do not do crowns, we do not do thrones, and we certainly do not do hereditary emperors.”
