Central Continent Imperial City, Defense Study.

Yunqin Emperor Changsun Jinse had two individuals at his side.

Those who were allowed to sit in the Defense Study of this world’s most powerful emperor naturally weren’t ordinary existences.

One of the two individuals was dressed in wide and spacious long robe. He was white haired yet had young eyes which occasionally flickered with sword radiance. This was precisely Yunqin’s Grand Court Great Consecrator Ni Henian.

Most of Yunqin’s cultivators either wished to achieve their own goals, or they purely wished to use their cultivation to achieve recognition. The ultimate objective of the latter was precisely to become a Consecrator of the Grand Court.

The significance of the Grand Court Consecrator wasn’t in the fact that this was an official position with true authority, but rather that those who could become the Grand Court’s Consecrator had cultivation strength that already received the recognition of Yunqin’s people. These were true masters.

If this type of master publicly took action and faced another as the enemy, then everyone would come to watch. For cultivators, how glorious was this?

There were more than a single Grand Court Consecrator in Central Continent, but as for the title of ‘Great Consecrator’, there was only one person.

Great Consecrator was precisely the most powerful individual among all of the Consecrators.

Standing at Great Consecrator Ni Henian’s side was a white faced middle-aged man dressed in yellow tiger robes. This was precisely Wen Family’s Wen Xuanshu.

Wen Xuanshu was originally Government Sector’s Sector Head, having countless students beneath him. After succeeding the position of Grand Secretary, he took over management of all of the other sectors as well, also seizing authority over Central Continent’s guards. As such, in terms of authority, it truly could be described as being above all levels of society, even greater than his original goal of becoming one of the nine senators.

“All of Zhou Ruohai’s men had gathered at the residence of his deceased wife, but they all scattered afterwards, respectively returning to their hometowns.”

Just like what Grand Secretary Zhou expected, Changsun Jinse wasn’t at ease with him after all. When he called in Wen Xuanshu and Ni Henian, the very thing they discussed were the matters of Grand Secretary Zhou’s subordinates. Only when he heard Wen Xuanshu’s reply, did Changsun Jinse whose eyes were covered in bloody wisps after the crown prince was assassinated in Jadefall City, only resting for four to six hours every day lessen a bit of his fierce expression, saying indifferently with a sneer, “Seems like you still have a trace of loyalty in your heart towards your monarch in the end… In that case, I ought to also gift him a bit of glory he ought to have to avoid seeming too cold.”

If there was something bestowed, that was the emperor’s own matter. Ni Henian and Wen Xuanshu didn’t say anything, only remaining silent.

“This one knows that you still had a chance of killing Gu Xinyin. Why didn’t you do it?” Changsun Jinse’s sneer disappeared, now coldly turning around to look at Ni Henian, saying this with a clear and dignified voice.

Ni Henian replied with a calm voice, “Because Vice Principal Xia sent someone over to bring me some words.”

Changsun Jinse’s expression suddenly changed, coldly saying, “What words?”

Ni Henian slowly replied, “He said that as long as Gu Xinyin dies before he returns to the academy, then he will kill all of our Grand Court’s Consecrators.”

“Unbridled!”

Changsun Jinse erupted into anger. The entire study’s air trembled, several openwork metal furnaces with beast coals burning within them exploded. “This is clearly threatening this monarch! He actually dares to be this brazen!”

Ni Henian and Wen Xuanshu once again remained silent before the enraged emperor.

“Does he have the ability to do it?” Some more bloody wisps appeared in Changsun Jinse’s eyes as he shouted fiercely.

“He does.” Ni Henian said with a heavy voice. “His cultivation should still be above Purgatory Mountain Patriarch’s. Judging rom the rumors of the exchange between Purgatory Mountain Patriarch and Li Ku… if he doesn’t hesitate to pay the price, he should be able to kill all of us.”

Changsun Jinse’s expression continuously changed several times. He restrained his rage, his expression instead becoming completely overcast. “Wen Xuanshu, if we sever relations with Green Luan Academy, do you feel that we can win this war against the south?”

Wen Xuanshu nodded, calmly saying, “This subject believes we can win.”

Changsun Jinse’s expression became a bit more relaxed, nodding and saying, “Tell me your reasoning.”

“The land between my Yunqin and Great Mang is level, suitable to the advance of great armies. In a battle between armies, individual cultivations will be suppressed to the limit. Even those as powerful as Sacred Experts will be crushed under the deaths of thousands.” Wen Xuanshu calmly said, “Gongsun Quan

[1]

has died, Cheng Yu

[2]

has died, the number of men who escaped Jadefall City and successfully fled into Great Mang is few. Wenren Cangyue’s current advantage is merely his strategic ability being higher than my Yunqin’s generals, and that the dynasty and Purgatory Mountain are all using him as their speartip. Great Mang’s people and my Yunqin bear a great grudge. The current difficulty in deciding victory and defeat between great armies is merely a wearing down of national power. As long as we reinforce this type of crucial timing, and continue with everything strictly, our Yunqin’s royal court will stabilize. Without the rebelling chaos, Wenren Cangyue’s advantage will naturally vanish without a trace and defeat will be inevitable.”

“In my opinion,” After a slight pause, Wen Xuanshu’s eyes narrowed slightly as he said, “he doesn’t care much about the wins and losses of this war either. What he wishes for is merely the increase in his own strength, as well as the effect on this world.”

“Very good.”

A bit of a satisfied expression finally appeared on Changsun Jinse’s face. He gave Wen Xuanshu a deep look. “When scoundrels are many, more ruthless governing needs to be used, this is an age old saying… At this type of time, we must first calm our own side. Those who don’t exert themselves and instead encumber the greater situation must be dealt with first.”

…

It wasn’t that Lin Xi never had the idea of turning this world of cold weapons into one with firepower, but according to the stele Principal Zhang left behind, he already knew that this world didn’t have niter and other things that could be used to make explosives. Even if he could find other things to make explosives with astonishing power, it couldn’t be made on a large scale, so there wasn’t too much meaning in doing so.

That was why ever since he left Deerwood Town and entered Green Luan Academy, truly understanding what kind of world this was, Lin Xi long gave up on any thoughts of spending large amounts of time on chemistry research.

They didn’t even have the most crude forms of gunpowder, that was why there had never been fireworks released during Yunqin’s new years.

However, the lack of fireworks didn’t mean a lack of festivities.

Yunqin’s new year period was when Qiantang Province

[3]

’s bamboo merchants made the most money. It was because the various households would all purchase large pieces of hollow moso bamboo and then place them in fire to burn. These were the ‘firecrackers’ of Yunqin and this world’s new years.

The new year already replaced the old. The massive Yunqin Empire already felt as if it crossed another period.

Under continuous explosive firecracker noises, within a government residence in Vast Abundance Province’s Abundant State City, Liu Family’s important strategist Su Zhongwen opened a confidential letter.

After carefully inspecting the contents of this confidential letter, Su Zhongwen’s brows suddenly frowned. In this room that he alone occupied, he coldly said to himself, “There were some issues after all… I really want to see just what you are.”

What was recorded on this Liu Family secret letter were things related to Chen Feirong.

The first time he and Liu Ziyu met Chen Feirong, he already felt like Chen Feirong wasn’t an ordinary person, so he had Liu Family secretly investigate her background. With Liu Family’s strength, purely through the surname Chen Feirong previously reported when passing through the city, he could already find her information in Civil Sector. However, the information he obtained regarding Chen Feirong were instead extremely ordinary, that she was just the daughter of an ordinary farmer in East Forest Province who was betrothed to a merchant to be his concubine, meant to work for the merchant in a business by Dragon Snake Border Pass. Other than this, there were no other records. From these records, it seemed like Chen Feirong should be someone who hadn’t even done much studies, an ordinary girl who shouldn’t have too much knowledge or experience, she definitely couldn’t be this type of great shopkeeper who managed Auspicious Virtue!

In Su Zhongwen’s opinion, a beautiful woman who preferred peace and quiet and didn’t meet with others definitely wouldn’t have the type of indescribable Chen Feirong had that made even him a bit moved. That was why this Auspicious Virtue great shopkeeper’s mysteriousness definitely had some issues, definitely not like what Chen Feirong said, only naturally not fond of meeting outsiders.

When he now saw the records Liu Family investigated, Su Zhongwen was already sure that Chen Feirong only replaced this ordinary peasant household girl’s identity.

After burning this Liu Family confidential letter, Su Zhongwen began to write a letter for Liu Family to continue the investigation on Chen Feirong.

In the opinion of a strategist like him, there were only two types of people who needed to hide their own identities. One was that they were a Yunqin criminal and the other was that Auspicious Virtue might be involved in illegal businesses. Meanwhile, regardless of which type it was, for him, it was enough to grip Auspicious Virtue by the throat, allowing him and his Liu Family to obtain astonishing benefits.

…

As he walked along River Province Iris City's streets, heading towards his own shop, Liu Jing held a small pumpkin-shaped purple sand pot.

[4]

He was a shopkeeper of Riceflower Company’s branch store in Iris City. Riceflower Company was one of the seventeen allied shops.

[5]

Regardless of whether it was Yunqin or Tangcang and Great Mang, after the New Year, only on the eighth day of the first month would most merchant companies open their stores one after another. This wasn’t because these merchant companies wanted to get some more rest during new years, neither was it because they were scared that they would have their businesses seized by their competitors, but rather because this unknowingly naturally became a custom. It was because almost all families would store up enough for new years, there definitely wouldn’t be any situations like not having enough rice to eat during this period.

That was also why even if shops remained open during the new years, they wouldn’t have much business either.

The eighth day of the first lunar month, under countless explosive firecracker noises, the allied seventeen rice companies all opened up for business in the morning. As soon as they opened their shops, these seventeen families that had already fought with Auspicious Virtue for a long time borrowed these most festive times of celebrations to deliver a strong blow, all of them lowering their rice prices.

A week after they opened for business, these allied rice businesses still seemed a bit lonely and cheerless.

For old shopkeeper Liu Jing who had already worked in the rice business for thirty years, this was something extremely normal, because after the lowering of prices went into effect, the rice reserves of everyone’s families had to drop first before they would come and purchase more. Moreover, the various rice companies already imitated Auspicious Virtue’s methods, all of them keeping records, they also recorded that those old clients’ rice reserves would run out soon. Roughly two more weeks needed to go by before their businesses would become red hot again.

However, while Liu Jing was pouring a cup of old tea, absent-mindedly walking to his shop, he suddenly stopped.

He saw a dozen or so massive carriages.

These massive carriages all gave off an extremely familiar aura. What was within the various bulging sackcloth bags was all rice.

These dozen or so carriages all belonged to Auspicious Virtue!

1.

Gongsun Quan was a powerful poison master under Wenren Cangyue who was ultimately killed by Lin Xi

2. Cheng Yu was the second in command in Wenren Cangyue’s army

3. Bian Linghan’s home province. She is from South Rainmist Region

4. This Liu is not the same as Liu Ziyu’s Liu. Liu Ziyu’s Liu means willow, this one is strictly a surname

5. Seventeen shops allied together in B10C28

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