After the secret meeting ended, the powerful senior ministers moved swiftly, mobilizing the city garrison and portions of the palace guards under their control and laying out a meticulous plan.
Three days later, at dawn, the routine council meeting convened once again.
Inside the palace hall, the air felt heavier and more oppressive than ever.
The God-Emperor, Bu Gai, wore a grief-stricken expression as he asked in a near-pleading tone, "General, how are the city defenses… coming along?"
The General was just about to step forward and deliver an impassioned account of his plans for defending the city.
But the moment he took a step, the sound of heavy, synchronized footsteps and the grinding of armor echoed from outside the hall, rushing closer by the second.
Every face in the chamber drained of color.
"Bang!"
The two massive, gold-inlaid doors of the council hall were smashed open from the outside.
Armored soldiers, blades in hand, surged in like a tide, instantly securing every exit and surrounding the civil and military officials along with the God-Emperor on the dais.
"You… what are you trying to do?!"
The General, shocked and furious, drew his sword and shouted, "I am the General! Who gave you the—"
Before he could finish, a sharp whistle cut through the air.
A bolt shot out from the soldiers' ranks and punched straight through his throat.
The General's eyes flew wide in disbelief. A wet, gurgling sound escaped his neck as his sword clanged to the floor. His massive body collapsed with a heavy thud, blood spreading rapidly beneath him.
"Ah—!"
The civil officials screamed in terror as the hall erupted into chaos.
Bu Gai was utterly petrified. He slid off the dragon throne and collapsed onto the cold, golden tiles, his body shaking uncontrollably as a yellow stain spread across his ornate dragon robe.
At that moment, several elderly men slowly stepped out from among the officials, cold smiles curling at the corners of their mouths as they looked down at Bu Gai.
They were the very ministers who had plotted together that night.
Bu Gai stared at them in disbelief, his voice trembling. "It… it was you? Why would you rebel?! I never treated you unjustly!"
The leading noble's expression remained flat as he looked down at the God-Emperor sprawled on the floor, his voice icy. "Your Majesty, we had no choice. We cannot stand against the dragon in the heavens. For the sake of the lives and fortunes of everyone in the capital, for the sake of sparing millions in Yin from utter destruction, we can only… ask Your Majesty to step aside."
With that, he turned away from Bu Gai's pleading gaze and waved a hand toward the soldiers.
Two soldiers, fierce as wolves, strode forward. Ignoring Bu Gai's desperate struggles and cries, they hauled him up like a dead dog. One of them raised his blade and brought it down in a single motion.
A flash of cold light.
A head still bearing the imperial crown rolled across the floor, its face frozen in utter disbelief.
Bu Gai, the last God-Emperor of the Azure Dynasty, was dead.
When Lo Quen led his army, buoyed by the momentum of his overwhelming victory over Pol Qo, and arrived before the walls of Yin City in full force, what he saw was not a city braced for battle or gates sealed shut.
Instead, the gates stood wide open.
From the entrance all the way to the horizon, the civil and military officials and nobles of Yin City knelt in submission.
At their head stood the very noble elder who had personally orchestrated the palace coup.
He held a richly decorated rosewood box high above his head. The moment he saw Lo Quen descending slowly atop a blood-red dragon, he raised the box even higher, his posture humble to the extreme.
"Your Majesty, the traitor Bu Gai, who dared to resist your imperial forces, has been executed by us. We present his head as proof. On behalf of all officials and citizens of Yin City, we open the gates in surrender and pledge our loyalty to you, forever and without betrayal."
Lo Quen leapt down from the dragon's back and walked up to him. His gaze fell on the opened box, where Bu Gai's head lay inside.
He was genuinely surprised.
He had expected turmoil in Yin City, but he had not imagined the nobles would turn so quickly, or act with such ruthless decisiveness.
He took the box and casually handed it to Luo Wen behind him. His calm gaze swept over the mass of kneeling figures before him, then over the towering city that symbolized Yi Ti's highest authority.
"Rise. Since you have made a wise choice, I will not begrudge you my mercy. From this day forward, Yin, and all of Yi Ti, shall become part of my path of conquest."
He accepted the surrender of Yin's nobles. Amid thunderous cries of "God-Emperor," he rode his dragon, escorted by the Dragon Soul Guards, and for the first time set foot in the legendary eastern imperial capital said to rival a hundred capitals in size.
After entering the city, Lo Quen swiftly took control of the imperial palace and all key institutions.
He did not carry out a large-scale purge. Instead, he largely preserved the existing administrative structure, inserting only his own overseers.
He needed this enormous imperial apparatus to keep running, supplying resources for his future explorations and conquests.
Soon after, he ordered the news of Pol Qo's defeat and Yin's change of rule sent throughout Yi Ti.
Thousands of carrier pigeons were released from Yin's dovecotes, each bearing proclamations destined for every Magister, general, and noble across the land.
Lo Quen understood that military conquest was only the first step.
Only by breaking the will to resist through fear could he truly take control of this vast and fertile realm at the lowest possible cost.
While Lo Quen was handling affairs within Yin's imperial palace, Qyburn arrived unannounced, bringing new discoveries with him.
He wore his familiar gray robe, perpetually stained with who knew what, and cradled a rare volume from the Asabhad Library in his hands.
"Your Grace, I found something rather interesting in these records of the Patrimony of Hyrkoon."
Lo Quen looked at him. "Maester, go on."
Qyburn smiled. "I found references to the Greatsword Dawn."
Lo Quen was taken aback. "Dawn!"
Qyburn nodded and began recounting, in detail, the path his research had taken over the past month as he studied the Asabhad texts.
From the very beginning, he had focused his efforts on the historical records of the Patrimony of Hyrkoon.
After days of relentless, sleepless study, his persistence was finally rewarded.
In an ancient manuscript bound in specially treated, lizard-tanned leather, he discovered a passage that shocked him.
The language was exceedingly archaic, interwoven with numerous mystical symbols from Yi Ti.
Relying on his extensive knowledge of languages and the occult, and guided by context and the occasional illustration scattered through the manuscript, Qyburn painstakingly deciphered its contents.
It described an ancient sword.
The descendants of Hyrkoon called it the "Dawn."
At once, Qyburn thought of the legendary greatsword, Dawn.
The descriptions matched Dawn's known characteristics almost exactly.
Suppressing his excitement, he continued reading deeper.
In later sections of the manuscript, as well as in several other illustrated fragments he uncovered, he found further confirmation.
Along the edge of a damaged scroll, a greatsword had been sketched in faded paint.
The curve of the blade and the style of the guard were blurred by age, but even so, Qyburn was almost certain.
It was Dawn.