Zu An didn’t really care whether he was a duke or a marquis. After all, he was someone who had even been an emperor before in Yinxu. The difference between those two ranks was negligible to him.

The human side was much more convoluted and elaborate, and promotions all had strict regulations and restrictions. One’s family status and background would also be taken into consideration. Giving him the title of king was definitely impractical, but he had thought that with such a huge contribution, he would at least be a duke, even if it was the lowest level county duke.

In the end, however, he was still reduced to a marquis. Even though the superficial reason was that he killed Yi Zhibing, as long as the emperor wanted to, he could have just investigated the Sang clan first. Considering Yi Zhibing’s actions, not even death would have wiped out his crimes.

And yet, the emperor hadn’t looked into it and had chosen to punish him first. Yi Chun and the others probably felt that the emperor was protecting him, but Zu An understood very clearly that the reason was that the emperor didn’t want to make him a...