He was now the common sovereign of the many powers in the Owl Dragon interstellar universe,
the formidable presence at the peak of the pyramid of power in this universe.
Very soon the Owl Dragon Emperor came before them all.
"Qin Xiaolei, Queen of the Starlight Kingdom, at the head of her ministers, welcomes His Majesty the Owl Dragon Emperor here." Qin Xiaolei stepped forward, slowly lifted the hem of her skirt, and made a most respectful obeisance.
The other ministers bowed one after another.
Qin Xiaolei still knew her place and standing very well: everything she had now had been given her by this man before her.
"No need for ceremony," Zhao Chen said calmly.
He swept his gaze over those gathered to welcome him, and it soon came to rest on an old gentleman.
He looked at this old gentleman with a smile and said, "Old Marshal Chu, standing so far off: aren't you glad to see this young fellow?"
At these words, the other ministers' faces changed slightly.
But many of them knew well enough how things stood between these two.
This old gentleman was naturally Marshal Chu Changhe, and everyone knew that Zhao Chen, back when he was a lord in the Owl Dragon Star System, had received Old Marshal Chu's care.
And after the Owl Dragon fleet grew strong, Zhao Chen had always looked out for the Chu family and Old Marshal Chu; Old Marshal Chu's granddaughter was now an Imperial Marshal of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, her name renowned.
That showed well enough how highly the Owl Dragon Emperor valued the Chu family.
And now, on such an occasion, after greeting Queen Qin Xiaolei, the Owl Dragon Emperor had hailed Old Marshal Chu directly, and even called himself "young fellow."
This was beyond doubt telling everyone that the Chu family's standing was out of the ordinary.
The Owl Dragon Emperor was "standing on the stage" for the Chu family.
An old hand like Old Marshal Chu naturally knew what it meant.
He looked with gratification at this young fellow before him and walked slowly over, but he did not presume on his special standing either, and gave a military salute: "Chu Changhe presents himself to the Owl Dragon Emperor. There's no need to be so polite to an old man like me; I've retired now. Most of the Chu family's affairs I no longer ask about. I'm just a crusty old man. If Queen Qin hadn't insisted on my coming this time, I'd be at home on my planet fishing in my old age right now."
"Old Marshal Chu, you jest; you're old but going strong. By the look of you, never mind retiring: commanding an interstellar fleet through three hundred more rounds of battle would be no problem." Zhao Chen chatted like an old acquaintance.
Those around them cast envious looks.
Never mind chatting with the Owl Dragon Emperor like this; if the Owl Dragon Emperor were only willing to say a single word to them,
the family powers behind them would be wholly different!
That was how special the Owl Dragon Emperor's standing was now.
So long as one had the Owl Dragon Emperor's backing, even a single word was enough to change a family's fate!
Zhao Chen passed through the welcoming crowd, with only Queen Qin Xiaolei and Marshal Chu Changhe at his side.
At last Zhao Chen got into the waiting hover car.
His stay in the Starlight Kingdom was only half a day, and in that half day Zhao Chen's schedule was a dinner banquet, plus hearing the Starlight Kingdom's senior figures report on the past year's development.
Once he was in the hover car, the whole car was wrapped in a screen of light that the outside could not see through.
Only then did Zhao Chen's expression relax a good deal.
"You young fellow, you had to call me over. I know what you mean by it, but there's no need to give our Chu family such special care; our Chu family isn't on its way down yet. If those boys can't keep the Chu family flourishing once they lose your care, then the Chu family has no need to go on existing. Your going on looking out for us like this will only make those few boys presume on your favor. When I get back, I'll have to give them a good talking-to." Old Chu Changhe sat at Zhao Chen's side, smiling both helplessly and happily:
helpless at Zhao Chen's way of doing things, happy because this young fellow Zhao Chen still remembered him, an old man.
"With you there, sir, I'm sure the Chu family will stay on the right road," Zhao Chen said with a smile.
Those few "boys" Old Chu Changhe spoke of were in fact all Chu family men in their forties and fifties.
They were now the Chu family's heads in name on every front, while Old Chu Changhe was half retired.
Nor could Chu Xuan now take time away to manage the Chu family's affairs.
So things stayed as they were.
The Chu family was now among the top five great family powers in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire; Zhao Chen naturally could not pay it no attention at all.
Among the people under Zhao Chen there were even some charged especially with watching these family powers within the Empire, keeping record of their intelligence and their recent doings.
These families now could be said to have no secrets at all before Zhao Chen, the Owl Dragon Emperor.
That Zhao Chen was willing to hold a place for the Chu family on this appearance in the Starlight Kingdom
was naturally because, in the placing of family powers within the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, there was a place for the Chu family.
Because of what had happened in years past, so long as the Chu family did not cross the line, there would always be a place for the Chu family with Zhao Chen,
whether for the sake of Old Chu Changhe's help back then, or for the face of Chu Xuan, now serving as a marshal of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
All of that had settled the Chu family's present standing.
If those few heads of the Chu family now did not behave, or did something wrong, Zhao Chen had a thousand ways to put the Chu family back in its proper place and on its proper road.
So Zhao Chen had no worry at all in doing this.
Zhao Chen looked at Queen Qin Xiaolei, sitting across from him. "My elder sister and Wei Shishi both have duties this time, so neither could come on this trip, but they both asked me to send you their regards. My sister above all invites you to come and see her in the Owl Dragon Star System more often. The two places aren't far apart anyway, and both have star gates; it's easy to come and go. When you have time, go and see them more. They both miss you very much; in fact they both think of you as their own little sister."
Qin Xiaolei had not expected the first thing the Owl Dragon Emperor said to her in private to be this.
It made her think back to when she was still a princess, with Zhao Ruyue and Wei Shishi at her side.
The two of them had indeed looked after her like two big sisters.
Only after she became Queen of the Starlight Kingdom did she understand clearly how much wind and rain they had kept off her back then, while Zhao Ruyue and Wei Shishi were at her side.
At first she had been very tired and under great pressure, had missed them very much, and had even thought many times of giving up.
But in the end she had held on.
The one here now was no longer that tender Starlight princess of before, but the Queen of the Starlight Kingdom of today.
"Thank you for bringing the message, Your Majesty; I miss them very much too. Tell Sister Ruyue and Sister Shishi for me that I miss them very much too. If I have the chance, I'll be sure to go and find them for a get-together. And if they have time, they can come to the Starlight capital too; they're always welcome here," Qin Xiaolei said with a smile.
After that the three of them chatted in the car, like close family and friends.
Very soon they reached the banquet ground.
Stepping out of the car, they put back on the masks they wore before outsiders.
The schedule after that was very simple: a dinner banquet, attended by the Starlight Kingdom's princes, dukes and nobles, every one of them longing to squeeze up to the Owl Dragon Emperor and toast him.
But those who truly had the chance to sit at the Owl Dragon Emperor's table, or to step before him to toast him and say a word, were very few.
These people had not only been picked by Qin Xiaolei; only after the Secretariat at the Owl Dragon Emperor's side had checked them were they allowed to appear before Zhao Chen.
This arrangement, this banquet,
amounted to settling the prosperity of the family powers these people stood for, in the Starlight Kingdom and even in the whole Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire, for the next hundred years.
So long as they made no mistakes themselves, wealth and honor could not escape them.
It left those fortunate enough to toast the Owl Dragon Emperor all flushed red, their faces full of a joy they could not hold down.
In fact they had not drunk much at all, yet every one of them was already drunk on it.
And those on the outside, with no chance to meet or toast the Owl Dragon Emperor, could only look with longing and envy at these flushed faces.
And those with an eye for it noted down the list of these people.
After the banquet, gifts and offers of cooperation were sure to be sent to their mansions.
A simple meal decided the rise and fall of the Starlight Kingdom's princes, dukes and nobles.
It seemed unbelievable, but that was the power the Owl Dragon Emperor's standing carried now.
Over the next few days, Zhao Chen's schedule at his other destinations went basically the same way.
It counted as one way of proclaiming the Owl Dragon Emperor as the supreme authority.
And by the time Zhao Chen's Emperor's Guard Fleet returned to the Owl Dragon Star System,
it was already the start of the year 3040.
It could count as the tenth year since Zhao Chen had come to this world.
The Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship · the bridge
Zhao Chen opened his eyes on his big bed, washed, and stood with a glass of milk before the huge viewport in his room, looking out at the thriving scene of the Owl Dragon Star System.
He felt that everything he saw was like a dream.
These ten years, ten years of memories,
truly felt like a dream.
At first he had thought he had crossed over into this world, and that this was why everything in this world had happened; that he was a transmigrator who did not belong to this world.
But later came the astonishing revelations: his original memories had been edited long beforehand, and even his "golden finger" as a "transmigrator" had been arranged in advance by someone else.
He was only a piece in someone else's plan; that stretch of memory in his head was only a set of feelings someone had edited in advance.
To be honest, on hearing all that, Zhao Chen had been saddened, and at the same time somewhat moved.
For the first time he had felt a true sense of belonging in this world: he really did come from this world after all.
And add to that, he now had in this world someone he loved, a family, children.