A Dish Best Served Cold (The Man In Rage) novel Chapter 1145

"For as long as the rivers flow and the mountains stand, may he remain unrivalled in his strength and prowess. For as long as the moon rises and the sun falls, may he find no match for his power and abilities. Such is he, Mr Chu, the one and only!"

Silence descended upon them all.

It enveloped the world. Each blade and leaf stilled. The distant clouds paused in the sky while the surface of the lakes seemed to have frozen over. Time appeared to have come to a standstill.

Nothing stirred in the still air. The winds had died.

Li Hong-Ze's strong voice boomed loudly in the stillness and reverberated like thunder between the heaven and earth.

Everyone was stunned speechless.

Wu Wei-Tao stood frozen to his spot while He Lan-Shan's jaw dropped.

Li Er, Chen Ao and the others widened their eyes. The utter shock on their faces made them look like fools.

Li Hong-Ze's words echoed endlessly inside their heads.

Had they just heard someone declare Ye Fan as a pillar of the nation and the pride of the country? Had he just been conferred a title by the government?

Dear heavens, what the hell was even going on?

Wu Wei-Tao and the rest nearly peed themselves.

Any one of those praises would have had the power to transform a person's life.

None of them, not Wu Wei-Tao or He Lan-Shan, not Long Bai-Chuan, not even the well-respected Lu Cang-Qiong, was worthy of such praise.

Yet Ye Fan had been accorded all of them.

He had been hailed as a pillar of their nation, someone who kept the country going and held the world up.

Men like Li Er, Chen Ao and He Lan-Shan might seem like influential figures in Yunzhou, Jianghai or Jiangdong, but their contributions to their country were limited to these small regions. To China, they were but a few of countless bricks that went to the construction of the mighty empire that was the country.

Old generals and lords like Xur Jun-Lin and Lu Cang-Qiong were slightly better off than the former group. Nevertheless, they were but a few metal rods in the grand construction of China.

You needed millions of bricks and tens of thousands of metal rods yet there were only seven pillars that held the country up.

The upper echelons of the Chinese government must accord Ye Fan with the highest regard to have conferred him the title of the seventh pillar of the nation, a prestige that few could enjoy.

They had hailed him as the one and only, the Unrivalled. What high praise indeed!

There were only two persons that had been accorded that title in history.

The first was the man who had created the Mongolian Empire, a great man of East Asian origins whom none could rival. He was Genghis Khan!

The next was a general who had commanded the three armies and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and who had been praised as the only and one by the great emperor of the Han dynasty. He was the Military God, Han Xin!

One had created a great empire that had spanned the European and Asian continents. The other had built the founder and the first emperor of the Han dynasty his empire and paved the way for a glorious age in Chinese history.

Every word in the government's decree was worth diamonds. Each praise would have given Ye Fan limitless prestige and glory.

In fact, neither Lu Cang-Qiong nor Xur Jun-Lin was worthy of such praise.

That had been why they had been utterly dumbstruck when they had heard Li Hong-Ze's words.

They couldn't understand why a nameless nobody like Ye Fan had earned such high praise from their country.

The country had regarded him so highly that they had sent Li Hong-Ze to make a personal trip to Yunzhou and confer his titles upon him.

"This is just...but why?" Lu Cang-Qiong's voice shook with disbelief as his face paled with horror. He couldn't believe his eyes.