After I Stepped Down as Lord of the Nation, the Entire Continent Hailed Me as a God

The year I became ruler of Yan, the state had only two cities left. The treasury was so empty a mouse could run through it, and the court was so poor the paint was peeling off the pillars. The Six States were sharpening their blades at the border, the old ministers of Yan were forcing my abdication in the throne room, and even the eunuch who served my tea urged me, "Your Majesty, why not just admit you were wrong?"

What was I supposed to admit to? So I took off my crown and tossed it onto the imperial throne.

"Fine. I abdicate."

The entire court was dumbfounded. They thought I'd cry, plead, and cling to the ancestral tablets, saying Yan must not fall. But the moment I stepped down, the Heaven-Abandoned Imperial Bloodline within me, cursed by my ancestors for eight hundred years, awakened.

1. "Your Majesty, you..."