The Hall of Mental Cultivation was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. It was unclear what kind of incense was burning in the burner; the fragrance was not heavy, yet it lingered at the tip of one's nose, refusing to dissipate. After a while, the scent was enough to make anyone drowsy.
However, the two men in the hall were clearly occupied with other matters, their minds far from sleep.
After listening to the grand ambitions of the Emperor, Zhao Yan felt his head spinning. The Emperor’s ambition always exceeded his expectations. He was, after all, a civil official—he was good with a pen or a tongue, but the Emperor now expected him to be a weapons inventor. On the surface, he had no connection to such things; the Repeating Crossbow and the Cannon had merely been upgrades he performed based on the work of his predecessors, not inventions he had conjured out of thin air.
Chapter 653