Chapter 306: Life is not easy, the Heavenly Master sighs

The heavens and earth were dim, the sun and moon slow.

When Fuzhouzi opened his eyes again, the moonlight had not yet climbed onto the window lattice.

Everything was just as he had imagined before falling asleep.

On the bed lay three sleeping bodies.

The Empress lay in the center, eyes closed in rest; Chinu attended on her left, not beside her, but with their face pressed against her waist and abdomen.

That appearance of brows and eyes was of the utmost gentleness, composed......

Of course, the premise was that his own fleshly body wasn't being choked by Chinu; only then would he feel that way.

Damn it!

Damn it! (〃＞皿＜)

How dare this bastard still choke his throat, when he clearly only took up a tiny spot on the Empress's knee!

How can this bastard be so jealous!

What if he gets choked to death!

Then his cultivation would have been for nothing!

Fuzhouzi was so angry smoke came from his seven orifices; he lifted his foot, wanting to stealthily kick the other a few times while they slept.

But as soon as he lifted his foot, he realized he had already left his body, being merely a soul, and could do nothing to the other.

Fuzhouzi felt miserable, but Fuzhouzi didn't say (〃＞皿＜).

He glumly followed the original plan, sitting to gather his qi into his body, refining the yin and yang qi anew.

In the boundless night, others noticed nothing; only Fuzhouzi's Yin Transmission Dao Eye could see a layer of innate purple qi faintly wrapping the person on the bed.

That purple qi swirled and mingled, exactly the orthodox Yellow Dao of the Daoist Sect.

The Daoist scriptures say: purple qi is the root of heavenly omens; Yellow Dao is the qi that governs the center of heaven and earth, lying between yin and yang, fixing the four extremes; it is the supreme Dao mechanism that mortal destinies can bear, not comparable to ordinary auspicious vacuous qi, rare as a thousand years, encounterable but not sought.

In a single breath, his earlier scattered consciousness all vanished.

Fuzhouzi's soul settled; he secretly employed the heart technique, drawing this rare Daoist qi essence into his soul.

He took his spirit terrace as the elixir cauldron, his soul as the furnace, observing proper bounds, drawing only the wandering remnants of that person's purple qi, absolutely not disturbing their innate foundation.

Then he blended this central, pure Yellow Dao purple qi with his own innate yin-yang qi cultivated over years, refining them together.

Yellow Dao governs centrality and control; yin and yang govern growth and decline; within the spirit terrace they circulate in heavenly cycles, grinding and harmonizing.

The purple qi cleansed the soul's accumulated yin turbidity; the yin-yang harmonized purple qi's rigid dry qi; they complemented and balanced, quietly dissolving his long-standing cultivation stagnation.

Daoist cultivation values most the return of yin and yang to the center and conformity to the Dao; this time, borrowing the extreme Yellow Dao qi of the mortal world to make up his own bias is an excellent opportunity to break the Mysterious Pass and glimpse the Heavenly Dao.

Fuzhouzi dwelt quietly in the void, letting the qi mechanism nourish his soul, relying on heaven‑granted Dao affinity to seek deeper heavenly Dao mysteries.

However, however.

Just then, tumultuous splendor rose, and the moonlight climbed.

A breath, only a breath.

The mirror surface he had placed beside the bed before sleep, bathed in moonlight, suddenly flickered faintly.

That flash of light passed over his brows and eyes; only then did Fuzhouzi belatedly recall what he had done before falling asleep.

The Mysterious Mirror was certainly placed there by him on purpose.

Last time heaven and earth converged, he took the chance to glimpse those obscure characters on the Mysterious Mirror.

This time, although it was also his first time falling asleep with his head on a knee, not knowing what use the imperial purple qi might have, he still took down that Mysterious Mirror together with the golden crown on his head before sleep and placed it beside him.

After all, his soul‑exit cultivation method, once the body is left, cannot easily move the flesh again.

If he placed the Mysterious Mirror in his bosom, even if it changed, he could not tell if he couldn't see its surface.

In short, it's truly a case of 'beating whether there are dates or not'.

He never expected that the Mysterious Mirror would actually respond now!

Fuzhouzi wanted to lean in for a closer look, but he was reluctant to give up the endless purple qi at his side, hesitating for a moment.

However, after a bout of anxiety, Fuzhouzi finally could not suppress his damned curiosity, and muttered through clenched teeth:

"Forget it; as long as the Empress is here, there will surely be more cultivation opportunities......"

The person across who claimed to be from a thousand years later—what they had to say was not all something one could get a chance to see.

He had discovered before that many characters, once missed, could not be found again even if he tried later.

The other seemed strongly hostile toward the Empress's first child; let's see what trick they might pull......

Fuzhouzi relaxed his meditation posture and drifted down from the canopy.

He steadied his gaze and fixed his eyes on the Mysterious Mirror.

Those characters were the same ones the other had etched onto the Mysterious Mirror a month ago; the only difference was that, thanks to the undispersed purple, yin, and yang qi, he could now clearly see those obscure characters gradually emerge, bit by bit merging into characters he recognized.

On that palm‑sized Mysterious Mirror, densely written was——

【You previously asked about Yuanlong; I will now tell you exactly who Yuanlong is.

This person is scheming, having held power for years; appearing diligent in affairs and orderly in discipline, actually using tactics to imprison the court and populace.

His temperament is violent and unpredictable; his anger shifts readily, often heavily punishing officials and harshly demanding of bureaucrats.

Later generations all condemn his stinginess and perversity, his covert manipulation of sole rule.

He keeps no honest, upright ministers close; instead he favors the sycophants and lackeys around him, deliberately promoting base private servants, letting a gang of villains control key affairs and disrupt the court.

He indulges domestic slaves to disrupt politics, lets sycophants burn the court's regulations......

He abandons the public way for private schemes, imprisons the people's hearts to grasp total control......

He draws near the sycophantic and distances the virtuous, harsh and cruel, lacking grace.

It is all about consolidating power and unilateral decision‑making, using villains to counterbalance upright officials, employing slight turmoil in the court to stabilize his own position......】

It's not that Fuzhouzi is unwilling to read further, but the palm‑sized Mysterious Mirror simply cannot contain more.

The characters grew smaller and smaller as they were carved, more and more numerous, endlessly; the later characters became so tiny that Fusuzhi could hardly see them in the darkness.

Fusuzhi was stunned for a moment, then recalled the scene of his previous conversation with the 'ghost' opposite the Profound Mirror.

The other party then asked him to kill Yuanlong, but he sensed something was off, so he specifically wanted to inquire what kind of role Yuanlong ultimately played in later generations......

That side gave no direct answer; that fleeting opportunity to glimpse heaven, which comes only once every few decades, quickly passed again. He also calculated that the meaning contained in the two characters 'Yuanlong' was not bad, so he guessed that the other side perhaps was just trying to deceive him, and thus spoke nonsense.

But, but upon closer look, what 'power suppressing the court'—this whole thing seems to have hardly any good words at all?

It seems not only is he full of black water in his belly, but his whole body is covered with scheming thoughts?

This Yuanlong seems completely different from what he had imagined?

Fusuzhi was bewildered, his spirit somewhat shaken. He wanted, as per his habit, to reach out and scrape off the characters on the Profound Mirror, then carve some more to ask questions; however, as he extended his hand, he suddenly felt something was wrong, and grudgingly withdrew his hand——

First, now he is merely a soul, and cannot possibly grasp the Profound Mirror.

Second, he was also somewhat surprised by the Profound Mirror's 'repetition'.

This Profound Mirror clearly seemed to have been stumped by his questions earlier; why now......

Why now, it tells him such big news?!