Chapter 731: Stabbing in the Back at the Critical Moment! (Request Subscription, Request)

When Li Chen left Shengdu, the scene was profoundly “moving.”

The new emperor, Ma Te, personally led the hundred officials to see him off at the ten-mile pavilion outside the city, his eyes red with emotion and reluctance, and meticulously planned for his master’s “retirement.”

He believed that high cultivators seeking stillness always lived in solitude.

Ma Te carefully dressed all the imperial concubines and beauties who had once been “favored” by Li Chen, regardless of their birth status, under the pretext that “serving the Witch Ancestor and journeying to the sacred land to cultivate is the highest honor.”

He assembled a remarkably grand procession and sent them all into Li Chen’s Witch Ancestor’s Immortal Realm.

Moreover, Ma Te solemnly promised Li Chen: “Master, in your quiet cultivation, how could you lack attendants to care for your daily needs and ease your loneliness? Your disciple has thought of everything. Starting this year, the Great Luo Dynasty shall hold an annual ‘Sacred Maiden Selection.’”

“We will select virtuous, pure-born, high-talent, and beautiful maidens from across the land to serve you in your Immortal Realm. This is a great grace and honor bestowed upon them and their families—and a token of filial devotion from the Great Luo imperial house to you, Master.”

Li Chen looked at the throng of fluttering beauties before him and Ma Te’s expectant face, beaming with “look how filial I am,” and couldn’t help but smile inwardly.

His disciple might still need polishing in cultivation and statecraft, but his instinct for reading the master’s intentions and pleasing him came naturally—he understood him perfectly.

He maintained the detached composure of a transcendent master and nodded slightly: “You’ve thought deeply. This is a virtuous act—it will bring fresh blood to our Witch Sect and bless the families of believers. Very good.”

He thus tacitly approved and commended the arrangement.

Back in the mist-shrouded, spiritually rich Witch Ancestor’s Immortal Realm, Li Chen did not rush to return to TianCe.

He first properly settled the women Ma Te had sent, entrusting their management and guidance to the realm’s old residents, such as Lady Youlan.

For a time afterward, the Witch Ancestor’s prestige within the Great Luo Dynasty reached an unprecedented peak.

Stories of how he had turned the tide, stabilized the court, persuaded the new emperor to avoid war with TianCe, and saved the people from ruin, before retiring gracefully into seclusion, spread by word of mouth and grew ever more mythic.

He nearly became the sole true god incarnate—embodying compassion, salvation, and power. The number of believers surged, and the faith-energy from incense and worship became more vast and refined than ever.

For Ma Te, this situation was not a threat—it became an excellent tool to consolidate his rule.

After all, he was not only emperor, but also the Witch Ancestor’s only direct disciple! Of course, that was only how he saw it.

Yet this identity granted him a transcendent status in the eyes of the faithful.

Whenever he needed to enact a policy or gain regional support, all he had to do was invoke the banner of “Witch Ancestor’s Disciple” and “for the advancement of the Witch Sect”—local shamans and believers would eagerly respond, forming a powerful grassroots force.

In return, Ma Te granted the Witch Sect official recognition and numerous privileges, ensuring the shamans’ social status and material benefits.

A solid, mutually beneficial alliance formed between them—far more stable than mere blood ties or profit-based bonds.

After enjoying several days of leisure in the Immortal Realm, feeling the subtle progress in his cultivation from the faith-energy,

Li Chen formally entrusted the realm’s management to Lady Youlan—capable and skilled in spiritual plant cultivation—and quietly returned to the long-absent TianCe Imperial Capital.

Within the magnificent TianCe Imperial Palace, Li Chen shed the mysterious robe symbolizing the Witch Ancestor and donned the bright yellow imperial robe embroidered with nine-clawed golden dragons, signifying supreme imperial authority.

In the mirror, his face remained youthful and handsome, yet his brow now carried a deeper, unfathomable authority and the quiet weight of storms weathered.

He stirred his thoughts slightly and summoned the mysterious system interface that had accompanied him for so long.