If Heaven hadn't given birth to me, I would be arrogant.

The matter of Lotte at the Imperial Palace was over, and no one continued to dwell on it. However, the next day, it was said that His Majesty the Emperor had heard about it and, after the court officials had dispersed, kept Vice Minister of Military Affairs Lotte behind. According to the palace guards, His Majesty was furious and even smashed a beloved quill pen, giving Lord Lotte a severe scolding!

No one knew that on the very night the incident occurred, the very night after old Flort sent Lot back to the mansion, in the main family's martial arts hall, two old men had a long conversation!

The two parties in the conversation were Grand Marshal of the Rune Empire, Duke Zong Xiaozhang, and the former Imperial Chancellor, Lord Flort, who had hurriedly returned!

"Old friend, thank you for giving me face today!"

Old Flort was the first to speak. He was genuinely grateful that Zong Xiaozhang had only given him a slight lesson today, since Flort was his student and Zong Xiaozhang had shown him some respect by not actually hitting him!

"Hmph!" Zong Xiaozhang was not buying it. He snorted and said, "You old codger, stop trying to flatter yourself. You know perfectly well that I'm not giving you face, but giving face to that little brat Lan Qizhan. After all, no matter what, Lotte is his only son. If it weren't for that, just because he dared to cause trouble in my house today, I would have twisted his head off and used it as a chamber pot!"

"Haha! You're still the same as ever!" Old Flort laughed loudly. "You always do things but don't admit them. You only feel happy when you make yourself look like everyone's enemy. Do you think I don't know? If you hadn't secretly suppressed it, with your son's hot temper, and the fact that he didn't even know that kid's true identity, he might have actually dared to kill him on his way home!"

"Isn't that why you offered to take him home?" Zong sneered. "Old man, don't blame me for not reminding you, but in this matter, the one I'm most worried about isn't Kuang'er, after all, he will still give face to our Emperor. The one I'm most worried about is that little brat Xiao Ze!"

“Me too!” Old Flort nodded, his tone becoming somewhat heavy: “I practically watched that little guy grow up. Speaking of which, that kid really is the kind of person who always seeks revenge, which is why I came back to find you!”

For a moment, the air in the martial arts hall became a bit heavy, and the two old men suddenly fell silent!

After a long pause, Zong Xiaozhang finally spoke, "Old friend, to be honest, I'm a very incompetent grandfather. I don't even know as much about my grandson as you, an outsider. You and Xiaoze are close friends despite the age difference, and you two often talk more than we do. Can you tell me the truth today? Xiaoze, he..."

After another long pause, Zong Xiaozhang, seemingly considering the right words, said, "What kind of personality does Xiaoze have? If something like that really happens in the future, what will Xiaoze do?"

"Alas!" Old Flort sighed deeply and said, "You must have already sensed it. Ever since you advanced to the Martial God realm, His Majesty has become wary of your main family. But this is not surprising. After all, in the history of the continent, every dynasty has changed like this. Back then, wasn't the Lan family also a military family of the Scher Empire? In the end, the Lan family produced two Martial Gods, and the Scher Empire was gone, replaced by the Rune Empire!"

"Hmph!" Zong arrogantly snorted, "My Zong family has no such intentions!"

“I know!” Flot said with a wry smile, “His Majesty knows too, but what can he do? He is the Emperor. As I once said, one must always be wary of others. That’s a good saying. You know, the first thing an emperor must learn is the art of being wary of others!”

"I believe the minor chess tournament won't do anything to my clan, as long as my clan relinquishes military power! And that's exactly what we're doing now!" Zong arrogantly said, "However, things seem to have changed a bit now!"

“That’s right!” Old Florte nodded. “That’s exactly how it is. His Majesty had long intended to weaken the military power and prestige of the main clan, but who would have thought that they would create a Divine Machine Battalion? This made His Majesty both happy and afraid! Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sent Lote back to the capital ahead of schedule!”

"What's there to be afraid of!" Zong's arrogant tone was tinged with resentment. "No matter what, my Zong family belongs to him, and Xiao Ze's Divine Machine Battalion is also his, isn't it? Now look what's happened, he insists on bringing Lotte back, and Lotte is such a disappointment, thinking he's about to take over, and he's the first one he's thinking of targeting my Zong family. I don't care about myself, I'm just afraid that after I leave, he'll take over again, and then..."

“At the very least, he will definitely rebel!” Old Freud paused for a moment. “I know his character all too well. When we were discussing state power and the art of rulership back then, he told me very clearly that he had no interest in that position whatsoever. At the same time, he also told me something that still haunts me to this day!”

"Oh?" Zong raised an eyebrow. "Even if he was smart back then, he was just a little kid. What could he possibly say that would make an old man like you, who has been the prime minister of the empire for decades, feel lingering fear?"

"He told me!" The old prime minister narrowed his eyes slightly: "I will not offend others unless they offend me; if they offend me, I will kill them!"

“This…” A sharp glint flashed in Zong’s arrogant eyes. After thinking for a long time, he said, “If this continues, something terrible will definitely happen. No, in a few days I will remove him from his post as general of the Divine Machine Battalion and make him stay at home!”

“It’s useless!” Old Freud shook his head and said, “I have to say that the ideological and political education that Xiao Zongze carried out was really amazing. I can tell you with certainty that I also sent my confidants into the Shenji Camp back then, but do you know what the result was?”

"You kicked your people out?" Upon hearing old Flort's words, Zong Xiaozhang immediately laughed: "Haha, I never thought that after a lifetime of scheming and plotting, you would be seen through by my grandson in the end?"

"If only they had just been kicked out!" Old Freud's bitter smile deepened. "But in reality, Xiao Ze didn't kick my people out at all. He said at the military assembly of the Shenji Battalion that even if they were spies sent in by others, he would reform them through practical actions!"

"So arrogant?" Zong Xiaozhang was stunned. His grandson actually said such a thing at the military conference, and he didn't even know it!

“It’s arrogant, but they actually did it!” Old Freud continued with a bitter smile: “I got 10 people in, and kept 6. Now those 6 people won’t report anything to me! Even if I ask them, they’ll stubbornly tell me that I shouldn’t ask them anything!”

"Then..." Zong Xiaozhang was stunned: "What will happen in the future?"

"What can we do?" Old Freud sighed. "We can only take it one step at a time and leave the rest to fate!"