Goddess Atlas, Starting from the Queen

Chapter 18 The Queen and Tianshu's First Confrontation
Royal Palace, Jinluan Hall.

The main hall is tall and paved with blue bricks. Several huge golden pillars with coiled dragons are located in the hall, and the gilded pillars sparkle under the light.

On the high platform is a dragon throne carved from purple sandalwood, and behind the dragon throne is a golden dragon made of pure gold. The entire hall is magnificent and majestic.

At this moment, the ministers were already standing in neat rows in the hall.

At this time, a eunuch's voice sounded in the hall.

"The Queen has arrived!"

As the eunuch finished speaking, Wu Wanrong, wearing a red phoenix robe and a phoenix crown on her head, walked slowly from the side hall to the dragon platform.

Then she spread out her long sleeves and sat directly on the dragon throne.

The moment she sat on the dragon throne, a feeling of looking down on the world arose in her heart. This position seemed to have some magic. In just a moment of sitting on it, the dragon energy in her body became much thicker.

At this moment, the ministers in the hall looked at Wu Wanrong sitting on the dragon throne and were slightly distracted for a moment. For some reason, they suddenly felt that the queen's temperament seemed very different today, as if they were facing not the queen, but Emperor Zhou.

After a while, the ministers in the hall finally reacted and hurriedly saluted Wu Wanrong.

"Greetings to Her Majesty the Queen, may Her Majesty live a thousand years and a thousand thousand years!!!"

Wu Wanrong did not immediately ask them to stand up. She glanced at the people standing in the first two rows.

Standing in the front row of officials were five old men, the second row were three princes who had not yet been crowned kings, and at the end were officials from the six ministries.

The power structure of the Great Zhou Dynasty was the emperor - Tianshu - six ministries. Tianshu was established by Emperor Taizu. Its main responsibility was to help the emperor handle government affairs. The Tianshu ministers were also directly called Tianshu. There were five of them in total, and they had decision-making power over court affairs.

Most of the time, matters in the court can be decided by voting in Tianshu, and only truly controversial or major matters will be reported to the emperor.

Compared with Empress Wu Wanrong, Tianshu had relatively greater power. Even without the Empress as regent, the five ministers of Tianshu could ensure the normal operation of the entire court and the officialdom of the Great Zhou.

Tianshu did not salute the queen, which obviously showed that they did not take Empress Wu Wanrong seriously. The three princes did not salute because Empress Wu Wanrong was not their mother.

Wu Wanrong was able to become the queen because of the power behind her, and Emperor Zhou needed the support of that power.

However, to this day, Wu Wanrong does not even have a child. A queen without children will not be valued in any dynasty. This is why none of the five ministers of Tianshu paid her respects.

Wu Wanrong wanted to control the court, and the biggest obstacle for her was Tianshu.

Wu Wanrong was not angry because these people did not salute her. This was expected. At this time, she said indifferently, "No need to salute."

"Thank you Queen!"

Immediately, officials from the six ministries stood up one after another.

Wu Wanrong said, "Your Majesty will be in seclusion for six months, and I will be the regent during this period."

Having said that, Wu Wanrong's gaze fell on the five Tianshu in the front row of the hall.

"This is my first time as regent, and I'm not very familiar with court affairs. If there's anything I'm doing inappropriately, I hope the Five Heavenly Masters can point it out." As Wu Wanrong finished speaking, the elder standing on the far right of the front row spoke up, "Since the Empress has said so, I, this old minister, will boldly ask the Empress to step down from the throne."

Upon hearing this, the hall fell silent for a moment.

The ministers were also aware that Tianshu held great power and was not afraid even of the Queen. However, Tianshu attacked the Queen on her first day as regent, which was indeed somewhat unexpected.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the hall became extremely solemn. Wu Wanrong's face turned gloomy, and the dragon energy in her body was released at this moment. Just when Wu Wanrong wanted to rely on the dragon energy in her body to suppress Tianshu who spoke.

However, he discovered that Tianshu seemed to be emitting an even stronger official aura, which was related to the power he held. The greater the power, the stronger the official aura.

Wu Wanrong frowned slightly. She felt that the trace of dragon energy in her body was not only unable to suppress the official aura of Zhang Hanwen, but even that trace of dragon energy showed signs of retreating.

After a long while, Wu Wanrong finally spoke: "What does Zhang Tianshu mean?"

Zhang Hanwen said directly: "The Dragon Throne is the exclusive symbol of imperial authority, representing the supreme imperial power. It carries the achievements and majesty of successive emperors and is the condensation of heaven's will and ancestral system."

"When the Empress sits like this, she is not sitting on the dragon throne, but on the imperial power. This not only undermines the majesty of the imperial power, but also violates the ancestral system."

"Females are yin and males are yang. Your Majesty, a woman, sitting on the dragon throne, would be like yin suppressing yang, like the phoenix suppressing the dragon. Now that His Majesty is in seclusion, he must have reached the critical moment of breakthrough. Your Majesty's small action may ruin His Majesty's path to cultivation."

Hearing Zhang Hanwen's words, Wu Wanrong mobilized the trace of dragon energy in her body and said coldly: "I am acting as regent on behalf of Your Majesty, exercising the imperial power. Even so, Zhang Tianshu thinks that I cannot sit here?"

Zhang Hanwen said calmly, "Yes, you can't sit."

For a moment, the atmosphere in the hall became more depressing, and people seemed to vaguely see the flashes of swords and sabers.

At this time, Tianshu, who was standing next to Zhang Hanwen, also spoke up: "Your Majesty, I believe what Zhang Tianshu said is correct. You have the body of a phoenix, and the dragon throne is for your majesty's body. It is indeed inappropriate for you to sit on it."

After the two Tianshu spoke, the atmosphere in the hall became tense, and the eyes of all the officials fell on the remaining three Tianshu.

However, the remaining three Tianshu seemed not to have heard their conversation. They just stood there, motionless and silent.

They didn't say anything, which proved that their attitude was the same as those of the two Tianshu.

At this time, an official took the lead and said, "We sincerely ask the Queen to put the country first and move the phoenix body and rise from the dragon throne!"

Once one official spoke, the vast majority of the remaining officials knelt on the ground and said in unison, "We implore the Empress to put the country first and move the phoenix body and rise from the dragon throne!"

For a moment, the sound of Wu Wanrong standing up from the dragon throne resounded throughout the Golden Palace. In the hall, only a few officials from the queen's party did not kneel down.

At this moment, Wu Wanrong felt a huge pressure, and a bead of sweat appeared on her white forehead. Wu Wanrong tried to use dragon energy to resist the pressure, but found that the dragon energy was useless in the face of the pressure.

She had anticipated from the beginning that the five Tianshu would attack her, but she thought that she could suppress them with the dragon energy in her body. Now it seems that the dragon energy Lu Ming gave her was too little.

The court fell into deathly silence at this time. Zhang Hanwen did not speak, the three princes did not speak, and the officials also did not speak.

(End of this chapter)