Chapter 953: Chapter 913: The Six Ministers and the Chancellors Stirring Up Trouble

In their hearts, they all thought that if they could seize this opportunity, their seats might finally shift a little.

Hadn’t they just seen that Zhu Jun who spoke up earlier already receive praise from the new Emperor?

Praise like that was rare indeed, and with such praise, what it pointed to was naturally a promotion.

So the new monarch actually liked this sort of speech, this kind of flattery. For a moment, all of them were itching inside: if they stood up now as well, perhaps when the rewards were handed out, they too could get a share.

Of course, that was what these deputies were thinking; as for their immediate superiors, and those two Chancellors to the left and right, and the six Ministers, their faces were all extremely ugly and extremely complicated.

They exchanged glances and all saw the bitterness in each other’s eyes.

In their view, this time the new king clearly had an ulterior motive; he was using this matter as a pretext to promote a batch of officials, that was the real point.

And if so, if he truly managed to promote a batch of officials, then their respective power blocs would be greatly weakened.

Yes, weakened. One had to know that although these deputies were usually useless and rarely worth dealing with, one mustn’t forget that at present they all nominally belonged to their factions.

Once they were drawn over by the Emperor and became people personally selected and promoted by him, how could they possibly remain "their" people any longer?

When that happened, their factions would suffer a heavy blow.

That would be a losing bargain.

So, the fellow headed by the Right Chancellor suddenly exchanged looks with the other six Ministers.

And with that one look, everyone understood what it meant.

Thus, in the very next moment, in this tense atmosphere, while the hall was in a clamor and the deputies were all itching to step out, suddenly the Left and Right Chancellors and the six Ministers, led by the Right Chancellor, all dropped to their knees with a loud thud, and together declared their resolve:

"What Assistant Minister Zhu Jun says is true. This object is truly an Immortal’s treasure, a rare and priceless thing. If these old ministers could purchase it and by fortune receive Your Majesty’s reward, then even if Your Majesty were to order these old ministers to retire to the countryside at once, we would utter not a single complaint."

"Yes, yes, not a single complaint."

In an instant, these eight people were the first to kneel all over the floor, all saying this in unison.

This immediately left the Assistant Ministers dumbfounded.

No one had expected that these chief officials would be this shameless, actually kneeling at this moment to steal their credit.

And with this maneuver, the matter would likely be smoothed over and quietly shelved.

Any thought of promoting them and raising their ranks was probably now impossible.

After all, once this lot got involved, there would be no large-scale promotions; their own ranks were already at the top, there was no way to promote them any further.

In that case, the final outcome would probably be nothing more than some token rewards.

But that wasn’t what they wanted. They had swallowed their anger and endured in these deputy posts for so many years, all for this very moment, hadn’t they?

And now it had been wrecked, forcibly ruined by this bunch of old fossils. How could they not be furious?

Only, even though they were extremely displeased, extremely stifled, and extremely enraged, they didn’t dare show the slightest sign of it.

After all, these people were still their direct superiors, and those two were the Left and Right Chancellors—figures they absolutely could not afford to offend.

On ordinary days, when they met them in the corridor and greeted them, they might not even get a response.

Yet now they were truly in a dilemma: if they followed and knelt as well, they would just be going with the flow and might not gain any benefit; on the contrary, they might even end up offending these old monsters.

Couldn’t they see that only those few were currently kneeling there?

If they went and muddied the waters as well, it might very well backfire, and those old guys might start making life difficult for them in petty ways—that was entirely possible.

Precisely because of these considerations, the deputies all stood rooted to the spot, lowering their heads awkwardly. No one dared step forward, no one dared to speak up.

Not only them; the first to kneel, Zhu Jun, was the most embarrassed of all, wishing he could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

He was now caught in a total bind. If he stood up, he would offend the Emperor.

If he kept kneeling there, what right did he have to kneel alongside the Left and Right Chancellors and the six Ministers?

In an instant, he was thrown into an utterly awkward situation, and he was now consumed with regret—why had he jumped out in the first place?

Why had he tried to hog the spotlight?

Not only did he hate himself, he hated that bunch of old codgers even more. It was because of them that he had been pushed into such a position. These old bastards were terrified he might get any benefit.

In his heart, he couldn’t help grinding his teeth and thinking: if he ever rose to power one day, he would definitely chop the lot of them down.

Of course, he also knew this was impossible. His family background simply didn’t allow him the ability to do that. He was already the most capable one in his clan.

How could an Assistant Minister like him possibly contend with a Minister? How could he contend with the Left and Right Chancellors?

In the end, with no other choice, he could only lower his head and pretend he neither heard nor saw anything.

Let things take their course; he could only resign himself to fate.

Up above, Lin Yi watched the scene before him, and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help curling into a playful smile.

His gaze swept over every person present, taking in every expression and every trace of emotion on their faces.

At the same time, he sneered inwardly. So these old fellows truly had their claws buried deep; now that they’d stepped forward to speak, not a single person dared follow.

That alone was enough to show just how arrogant and overbearing they were in normal times.

However, this happened to be exactly what he most wanted to see, precisely the result he desired.

"Haha, very good. All of you are truly fine ministers of mine.

Come, Xiao Chen, go summon the best Painter in the palace for me."

As soon as he spoke, Xiao Chen, standing to the side, immediately bowed and accepted the order.

[To be continued...]