"You were not stubborn," Emperor Yuan He paused, then repeated in a low voice. "Not stubborn... If A Yan resembled you even the slightest bit, he would not have died so young. Dragons birthed dragons, phoenix birthed phoenix, what kind of seed will grow into that kind of tree, Zi Xi, the blood flowing in you is the true iron bloodline of the former Emperor... "

Gu Yun: "Your subject is afraid."

Emperor Yuan He waved his hand: "There are no outsiders today, I want to say a few honest words to you. Zi Xi, you were naturally born to expand territories. Even wolves will tremble and bow down before you, but I always worry that you are too strongly shrouded in a violent and murderous aura, this will have a detrimental effect on your future blessings."

There was a rumor coming from the common folk that Gu Yun's grandfather on his mother's side — Emperor Wu — had done too much killing in his lifetime, causing him to fall into a bleak fate, losing all his children one by one.

"Wei Wang's ambitions might be grand, but with you keeping guard, the country that belongs to the Crown Prince in the future was not of much concern, I'm only concerned about you... You must listen to my words, all good matters in this world could turn bad once it is too much, you must cherish and build your blessings for times to come ... The old head monk of Hu Guo Temple could be considered to have watched over you since you were young, the teachings of Buddha are boundless. If you have some downtime, you should go visit his place for a while."

The old bald donkey of Hu Guo Temple had a crow's beak: he once said that Gu Yun bore the Star of Calamity, bearing ill affinity with family relatives — parents, siblings, spouse, and children. Because of this, Gu Yun had always refused to step into that temple.

At this time, as he heard the Emperor mention this matter, Gu Yun reminded himself: "Yes, that's right, almost forgot about that bald old man, I must wait for the opportunity to arise and settle all loans with him at once, and set fire to his phony and rotten temple that scams people."

The reason for his deep resentment was not due to him being small-hearted. That year, after the death of the old marquis, the Emperor had also used this argument of 'heavy killing intent will bring in bad omens' to weaken the Black Iron Camp.

However, in recent years, there were sightings of 'Dragons*' belonging to foreign countries frequently traveling to Great Liang's sea. From the Northern Frontier to the Western Regions, and even the Eastern Sea from thousands of miles away — not a single territory of Great Liang could be free from the greedy eyes of foreign enemies, like hungry tigers overlooking their prey.

*'dragons' in this story is a type of ship used to travel by sea.