Prime minister felt his heart jump from the consuls reaction while the rest were curious to learn of the content. The head of the neutral faction looks at their emperor with disappointment and read the content out loud.
"Emperor of Huajin...Xu Shiyou not only have send a high level beast tamer to raise a chaos in our Jing...he poisoned our armies stationed in Xuzhou, Caiming and Green wind..he hired mercenaries to kill our generals and vice generals also had placed several of suicidal squad inside these cities including Jing and capital...
Large hidden passages were used to attack our poisoned armies and waiting to ambush crown prince Pei Jin and Great General Chen who were there to rescue...his men managed to enter in our palace to assassinate the royal family who were praying in their ancestral shrine..
They even had send their retired General Tao as the lead to capture and subdue the capital...peace and property were destroyed...innocent lives were taken and our ministers were placed in imprisonment with their families as hostages...
We have captured several men and written testimony of the people who disclosed the true intention of Xu Shiyou. We came to learn how he was hiding beneath the gentle facade to engulf our land for his own..never had we from Nanling expected to have such a malicious foe...
As huajin disregards the peace, balance of the world and most of all the treaty signed by his ancestors in such atrocious way..we from Nanling also won't cling onto past good memories..by the grace of heaven none of the evil plan of Xu Shiyou bore fruit...and Zhen and his family along with all ministers are alive...
Zhen warns Xu Shiyou to either present himself in caimin borders to come clean and provide reparation according to our demands with crown prince Pei Jin as the representative from Nanling or Zhen shall send Chen, Lin, Yan and Jin army to flatten huajin.. Zhen expects the decision by tomorrow early morning...pass that time it won't be Zhen but Zhen's valiant army who shall seek answer in their own way..."
The hall was so silent that one could listen how many times a person took air to breathe. All the consuls from neutral faction were in disbelief while Xiuzhi's faction had as expected look. Shiyou's faction had their eyes on the ground with fear gripping their heart.
Shiyou had his eyes closed his face was red from anger. Learning that his nemesis was still alive and was now instead challenging him in such a mocking way he felt as if someone had inserted a knife in his heart and twisting it.
He opens his eyes and looks down at the stupefied consuls. He no longer hides his anger and hate and snarls in loud voice "so what...yes..all of it is true...Zhen had ordered for this sudden attack..though Zhen doesn't know what went wrong within few hours but yesterday it was reported that General Tao had managed to subdue their capital...
Why...why is that scum still alive?...he was clearly reported to be dead...few days just few days and Zhen would have Nanling..."
Shiyou rages and mumbles like a mad man making everyone shock suprised and tremble from his outrage. They finally came to learn what his true nature was, he looked devilish and maniac at this moment. Shiyou who was blind with anger finally succumbs to fainting with blood pouring out from his mouth.
The entire hall was in chaos from his fainting, prime minister calls for a physician to check on Shiyou. Even the consuls from the neutral faction were nervous about his health while Xiuzhi's faction couldn't help but pray for the person to die.
After the emperor was taken to his chamber all the other members gathered in the hall once again to discuss the matter at hand. As usual head of the neutral faction took the lead to speak "prime minister...the matter isn't simple to brush off easily...please convince the emperor to agree to the condition...no matter his desires huajin's fate cannot be placed as bet with thousand of lives on risk...
We as the neutral faction are going to kneel here and perform fasting until the emperor sends letter to Nanling confirming on the meeting..we would rather die first than to see our land once again ravaged by the war..."
Prime ministers and his factions face turns ugly upon seeing all the men kneeling with determination including Xiuzhi's faction. They can neither scold nor be violent with them and could only helplessly wait for the emperor to regain his conscious for further instructions.