Given the strength the king of the realm had revealed, the princes believed that he would easily be able to survive two or three more decades. The battle for succession would be drawn out as a result.

The crown prince continued to speak even as tears fell from his eyes; this finally made Zhang Lie feel as though he really were at a funeral.

"Today, the entire world shall grieve for your absence, the greatest of respects we can pay—a memorial to disaster and the resulting humanity we witnessed in its aftermath. Disaster may have struck, but we remain standing. It may have weakened us temporarily, but I assure you all, we shall grow stronger for it.

"We have worked together to overcome this crisis, and we can do so...