Protect Our Chief

A few short days passed.

The bridal escort team arrived at Changning Guard during the auspicious hour filled with good fortune.

Due to the long distance between the two places, and the fact that there weren’t many imperial properties in Longzuo County, many members of the royal race and young people from Gui Long City visited the Wang Family for the first time and were immediately stunned by the sights before them.

In their preconceived notions, Longzuo County was a newly established county; whether in terms of population or prosperity, it couldn’t compare to the central regions. Although they knew that Longzuo County had developed well over the years, they thought it was merely because Longzuo County had a weak foundation, making it easy to achieve results.

As for the Changning Wang Family, despite their prominent rise these years, they subconsciously thought that a family from a remote new county couldn’t be that wealthy, no matter how rich they were.

Until they saw it with their own eyes now...

This was no remote, rural family! This was clearly a wealthy and influential power!

The giant Spirit Gathering Array under construction alone was enough to be awe-inspiring.

It spanned an entire township and covered a radius of several dozen miles—such an extensive Spirit Gathering Array that even regular Third-Grade Noble Families lacked such scale.

Among noble families, only two Duke’s Mansions had Spirit Gathering Arrays of this magnitude.

Moreover, on the Wang Family’s territory, aside from traditional architecture, there stood several buildings towering over ten stories high, each occupying an area of over one hundred acres, surrounded by lakes and gardens teeming with Spirit Plants, creating a very comfortable environment.

The most unusual feature was the large floor-to-ceiling glass windows on the exterior walls of these buildings, allowing people inside to enjoy various scenic views.

"These restaurants near the main residence are all designed to entertain distinguished guests," the young members of the Wang Family proudly introduced to the guests. "Their design is novel, extremely tidy and comfortable, equipped with a whole system of arrays operated by energy, precisely controlling the lighting and temperature in every room, providing uninterrupted hot water and gourmet food for twelve hours, with various entertainment facilities inside..."

"Furthermore, each building has a flying chariot docking point on the rooftop, allowing guests to enter the restaurant directly from the top or depart directly from the top."

These innovative designs immediately amazed the group of people who came to escort from the royal family.

Although the Royal Ancestral Mansion’s properties also included restaurants, inns, and some royal branches even operated famous restaurants and luxurious inns, those were familiar sights to them. High-end as they were, they merely offered higher specifications for spiritual food and cultivation quiet rooms, lacking the unique ingenuity found in the Wang’s Restaurants.

Even without staying, just hearing the description allowed one to imagine how comfortable it would be to stay in such a place.

As the escort team reached the gates of the Wang Family’s Main Residence.

The royal entourage noticed that the archway at the entrance was over five stories high, entirely white as jade, and its pillars were intricately carved with snow-white immortal cranes and turtle scales.

As everyone knows, according to Daqian Law, Sixth-Grade Noble Families are allowed archways four stories high, not exceeding four and a half stories, adorned with Profound Bird Flying Fish patterns.

This archway before them clearly followed the specifications of a Fifth-Grade Noble Family!

It’s important to note that such archways symbolizing family status and grade cannot be privately constructed. They must be sculpted and built by official artisans, with detailed records of materials used, labor involved, and finalized dimensions, specifications, and patterns.

If privately constructed, it would be immediately evident.

The Wang Family could not be careless about something so important.

It was obvious that at some point, the Wang Family had already been promoted to a Fifth-Grade Noble Family.

Furthermore, the words on the plaque atop the archway, sharp and striking like iron carved into silver hooks, possessed an extraordinary aura that was clearly not of ordinary quality.

Sharp-eyed royal relatives quickly recognized it as the calligraphy of Emperor Longchang!

Although during these three thousand years of reign, Emperor Longchang had dispersed quite a bit of his writings, and both royal relatives and some Second, Third-Grade Families held his cherished calligraphy, plaques penned personally by him were rare.

Much less mentioned, were they inscribed on such an iconic archway!

The Wang Family’s elevation to Fifth-Grade, with the plaque inscribed by His Majesty himself, represented tremendous prestige!

The royal attendees suddenly gained a new understanding of Wang Family’s position in His Majesty’s eyes.

But they did not know that, according to Wang Shouzhe’s original idea, whether or not they were promoted to Fifth-Grade was of little consequence.

However, Emperor Longchang wouldn’t allow it, arguing that the Wang Family’s strength had already reached such a level, yet they were still holding onto the Sixth-Grade title, which if spread, would reflect poorly on him as suppressing noble families?

Moreover, was it appropriate for a "mere" Sixth-Grade Noble Family to wed two Little Princesses?

Initially, according to the Great Emperor’s intentions, it was to directly elevate the Wang Family to Fourth-Grade and incidentally confer a Marquis title or something to Wang Shouzhe, but Wang Shouzhe refused.

The Wang Family’s rapid ascent from Ninth-Grade to Fourth-Grade in such a short time would indeed be too ostentatious; settling for Fifth-Grade was reasonable, and Fourth-Grade could be discussed gradually.

As for the marquis title, Wang Shouzhe felt it was unnecessary.

The Wang Family fundamentally still lacked depth and didn’t even possess a Divine Power Realm combat force, so why rush?

Furthermore, aside from being able to collect a fixed stipend annually from the Three Talents Department, the marquis title simply offered a better-sounding name, more grandeur when traveling, and increased capacity to employ household generals, which held little practical significance in Wang Shouzhe’s view.