Chapter Forty-Seven: Everything I Deserve

Zetian flies the Yellow Dragon toward Chang’an, leaving the Chrysalis army at the frontier and having destroyed the Kaihuang watchtower to prevent pursuit. She plans to erase existing power centers so chaos compels obedience to her rule. As the city prostrates, the palace speakers hail her, but the Sages reveal her captured family in the courtyard to halt her advance.

Zetian wavers when her mother pleads and her father tries to sacrifice Dalang instead, exposing their favoritism and confirming their willingness to use her. Refusing a life ruled by such leverage, Zetian declares them an obstacle and crushes the entire Palace of Sages with the Dragon’s claw, killing her family and the regime’s leaders.

Gao Qiu then approaches in a hovercraft, shielded by sobbing captive girls, offering to serve as regent and threatening to send incriminating video to Yizhi. Bound by her limits and the hostages, Zetian hesitates while Gao Qiu taunts them. Yizhi demands to confront him and steps onto the Dragon’s snout.

Unleashing yellow-green qi, Yizhi channels Wood amplified by Earth and kills Gao Qiu in a lightning-fast strike, shocking even Qin Zheng from his mental torpor. Yizhi orders Gao Enterprises to submit under threat of annihilation; Gao’s goons immediately pledge allegiance, and the corporate power shifts to their side.

Reeling with grief and exhilaration, Zetian rejects the moral strictures that once constrained her. With the populace cowed and a major power bloc secured, she and Yizhi abandon dreams of retreat and agree on open conquest: to rule the world.