Chapter 7 (1/2)

In Duke Ling's mansion, there was a new son, a new fat grandson.

General Ling finally had his first son! Both mother and son were safe, with the weight of the newborn child reaching a whole nine catties and two taels!

This matter spread like a tsunami, alerting all of the upper echelons within the Sky-Bearing Empire! Apart from the high status of Duke Ling and General Ling, the Ling family was one of the six biggest aristocratic families which held the most authority in the world! Duke Ling, Ling Zhan, was the family head of this large family! Be it in terms of wealth or manpower, the Ling family was positioned well at a frightening level!

The next instant, the gates of the Ling family were filled with a long queue of people, an endless crowd bustling to give their blessings to the Ling family. Not to mention the Yang family who was in the same empire, even the other four families from the other two continents had sent people over to congratulate the Ling family. Even the emperor of the Sky-Bearing Empire paid a personal visit to the Ling family before the first full month of young master Ling...

In the Sky-Bearing Empire, almost everyone knew that Duke Ling and the late emperor were sworn brothers who were life and death comrades! Of the large territorial lands of the Sky-Bearing Empire, at least half of them were captured by Duke Ling! No one in the empire was able to match his large contributions to the empire!

As for General Ling Xiao, he was one of the pillars within the empire's army today! At least a third of all the troops were within the control of General Ling. The amount of authority he held was comparable to even the prime minister, Yang KongQun of the Yang family!

Apart from these, General Ling and the present emperor were like brothers and grew up together since young. Furthermore, the only sister of General Ling was Consort Ling, who had a status only lower than the empress in the imperial palace.

Who would dare to look down on such a family?

Before Ling Tian was even a month old, two warehouses which the Ling family built beforehand to store the various congratulatory gifts were completely full. Furthermore, the guest rooms in the Ling family were completely full during this period! The bright laughter of Duke Ling would sound ever so often and General Ling who was gloomy over having no descendant had completely brightened up! As for the charitable old madam Ling, she donated 10,000 taels of silver to aid the victims of disasters. All of a sudden, all of the poor families had erected a longevity tablet for old madam Ling.

After Ling Tian understood all of these matters, he was not only unhappy but also extremely worried! Just as the saying goes, anything which is at its limit would easily falter. Presently, the authority which the Ling family possessed was already at a dangerous level! It was able to threaten the authority of the imperial family already! This was definitely not a good thing!

It was impossible for a family this strong to not draw the attention of the imperial family! Perhaps now the Ling family was deeply rooted within the empire and couldn't be easily provoked. Another reason was that the empire was still young, with troubles brewing internally and externally. Thus, the Ling family was still needed to subdue any chaos. As such, the authority of the Ling family would still be on the uprise for a short period of time. However, when the imperial power was firm with both internal and external troubles gone, it would also be end of the line for the Ling family!

Any large empires would not be able to accept the existence of such a large power like the Ling family! Getting rid of anything once their purpose had been served had been the way history had always taken place. In comparison to authority, all friends.h.i.+p and brotherhood seemed dull and useless. This was politics.

Ling Tian felt that he definitely had to take some precautionary measures and do something about it. His grandfather, Ling Zhan, had already pa.s.sed his prime and his father, Ling Xiao, was deadly loyal to the empire and was trapped by his friends.h.i.+p with the emperor. If things were to go on like this, the destruction of the Ling family would be inevitable!

Now, the Ling family had its own rightful successor who was a male. This would definitely make the empire even more suspicious and wary! After all, it was far too easy for the Ling family to stage a rebellion with its authority and power.

After he was certain of his family's situation, Ling Tian realized that he was born in the middle of a tsunami! It was as though he was born atop a volcano! He inevitably became the focus of all the big families! With regard to such a situation, Ling Tian could only laugh bitterly in his heart.

Ling Tian understood that if he were to just be a little outstanding when he grows up, the Ling family would be in an even greater danger! Thinking about this, Ling Tian just wanted to cry out, After putting up an act for the whole of my previous life, don't tell me I would still

The only thing that Ling Tian felt happy about was that his name had finally been decided after a night of discussion among his parents and grandfather. What made Ling Tian the most surprised was that his name was the same as the one in his previous life, Ling Tian!

Dammit, not only did I come here with my memories, but also with my name, Ling Tian thought to himself.