Star Odyssey

br>“Of course not.
He was the one who agreed to my plan to draw out the Sheng Ao.
He was also the one who let me become a war drummer for the battle drums at the border.
To be honest, he’s very charismatic.” 

Madam Nalan nodded.
“Yes, he is indeed very charismatic, but he has been stained by the crime of betraying humanity.
At times, conspiracies can be terrifying.”

Lu Yin looked at her in confusion.
“You’re not telling me that the person you’re recommending is the grand marshal himself, are you?” 

She chuckled.
“Of course not! He’s currently imprisoned in Gaia’s Swamp.
That prison is the nadir of despair for humanity, and nobody can save him from that place.
The person who I’m recommending is someone else whom you’ve met before.
Her name is En Ya, and she’s right outside of the Zishan palace.” 

Lu Yin immediately had Bronsen bring the woman in. 

Not too long after, Lu Yin saw her and was shocked.
It was her!

After Lu Yin’s merit had been recognized, and he’d obtained some Honor Points, En Ya had taken him to Planet Cangyuan and explained the situation to him there.
Lu Yin had quite a deep impression of this beautiful, blonde vice-commander, especially since it was rare for women to be in the military.

En Ya saw Lu Yin and immediately bowed, her face serious.
“Greetings, Your Highness.”

Lu Yin immediately stopped her and asked, “I remember that you were the marshal’s vice-commander.
Why aren’t you at Erudite Flowzone’s border warfront right now?”

En Ya explained, “The Human and Astral Beast domains have agreed to a truce for now.
The Grand Marshal was captured, and some of us were sent to work far away, while others were expelled from the military.
I was quite lucky and sent to the Outerverse.”  

“En Ya unwittingly saved me, which is why I decided to recommend her to you.
She’s been a part of the military since a young age, and since that place is no longer open to her, she has nowhere to go.” Madam Nalan stood up as she spoke. 

Lu Yin nodded and looked En Ya up and down.
She was an Explorer and rather strong.
The fact that she had worked directly with Shui Chuanxiao showed that she was exceptionally capable.
“I’m planning to build a Lu Ministry of Defense that will help me handle military affairs.
Are you willing to join?” 

En Ya immediately agreed.

Madam Nalan immediately expressed her gratitude as well.
While the Lu Ministry of Defense had not been established yet, the fact that it was meant to serve Lu Yin by way of the word “Lu” in its name indicated that serving in it would definitely lead to gaining power in the future. 

“I’m the one that should thank you.
The Great Yu Empire has a huge shortage of manpower, and yet here you are, sending me a valuable worker right away.” Lu Yin chuckled. 

Madam Nalan and Lu Yin exchanged a few pleasantries before she finally left.
Lu Yin then arranged for En Ya to remain in the King Zishan palace.
When the Lu Ministry of Defense was properly established, she would be in charge of handling its affairs. 

Concerning both the Lu Ministry of Staff and the Lu Ministry of Defense, Lu Yin was planning on establishing both of their headquarters close to his residence so that it would be easier for him to keep an eye on them. 

Lu Yin did not believe in the saying that one should only use people that they absolutely trusted.
He did not think that he had the charisma to win people over to his side right away, and he also needed to observe people for a period of time before he could determine whether or not they were trustworthy.
If someone was not trustworthy, then it didn’t matter how capable they were.
 

The conversation with Madam Nalan had been very useful to Lu Yin.
Ten days after their meeting, during the morning meeting with the ministers, Lu Yin announced some changes in the Great Yu Empire’s power structure.
He officially established the Lu Ministry of Defense and the Lu Ministry of Staff, which would have priority over the other ministries.
They would help him take care of matters relating to politics and the military, respectively.
And right below them in the hierarchy would be the Lu Office of Civil Affairs and the Lu Office of Defense.
 

There would be one Lu Office of Civil Affairs for every ten filaments.
This was the system that Lu Yin had devised.
Each branch of the Lu Office of Civil Affairs would oversee the governance of ten filaments.
From there, the most important issues would be passed up the office and be properly organized before finally being handed over to the Lu Ministry of Staff and the Imperial Cabinet.
And only after passing through the Lu Ministry of Staff and Imperial Cabinet would the most important issues finally be handed over to Lu Yin.

The same system would also take place in the Lu Office of Defense.
There would be one branch in every ten filaments, and they would run the military affairs in their region.

This was all according to the Spider Web Theory, and each Lu Office of Civil Affairs and Lu Office of Defense could be considered as a section of Lu Yin’s spider web.
There might still be room for corruption or incompetence, but such things were unavoidable.
This method would temporarily keep the empire stable and would also be useful for nurturing talented individuals. 

After Lu Yin announced the changes in power at the meeting, he was immediately met with major disapproval from the members of the Imperial Cabinet. 

While the Lu Ministry of Staff had already been established, it could only be considered as a personal department to assist Lu Yin, and its members did not even have the right to take part in the morning meetings.
However, if the cabinet gained an official status, then the power in the Great Yu Empire would truly become diluted, and the Imperial Cabinet’s power would diminish.
That was unacceptable to them. 

The Great Yu Empire was right about to unify Frostwave Weave and merge with Grandtop Weave, so this was the time when their power should increase drastically.
However, Lu Yin was instead redistributing the authority that they already had.
Nobody would stand for such treatment. 

However, all of their objections were only met by Lu Yin’s ruthlessness.
He had not forgotten the wretched voices and faces of these ministers back when Karthika had been on Zenyu Star.
Two particular ministers of the Imperial Cabinet had been utterly shameless.

Back when Undying Yushan had been in power, the Grand Yu Empire had followed its own system of governance while not being in a state of war.
Removing a minister from power was not possible unless there was good reason and proof for doing so.
However, Lu Yin possessed an absolute power that had the ministers now cowering in fear.
Even Garope, who’d always been very stubborn, remained silent. 

Lord Garope was very intelligent.
While he was willing to voice his opinions, he also knew when it was a good time to speak up.
Rebutting Lu Yin at a time like this would essentially be going directly against the regent, and Garope wasn’t willing to do that.