Chapter 163: Zhao Yu Unleashes, One Night of Dragons and Phoenixes Dance

…

Life has five iron bonds: studying together; fighting side by side; visiting brothels together; sharing stolen goods; serving time in prison together.

Zhao Yu's logic for reconciling the five women was simple: artificially create one of these iron bonds for them, bringing them closer and letting go of past grievances.

Studying together and fighting side by side were out of the question.

As for the first, no need to elaborate—they had long passed the school stage and could never be classmates again.

As for the second, women—especially imperial consorts—could never become soldiers.

What about sharing stolen goods?

They were all high-ranking imperial consorts, none of whom lacked money; having lived their entire lives in the palace, they needed little cash—Zhao Yu's monthly allowances and gifts were more than enough.

Serving time in prison together?

To be honest, since arriving in this world, they had been confined to the palace; in a sense, they had already served time together.

But the problem is, sharing prison means enduring hardship together—they each had servants to dress them and food served to them, enjoying every luxury; where was the desolation and helplessness behind prison walls? Where was the deep bond forged through adversity?

Thus, only one option remained: visiting brothels together.

Zhao Yu had no habit of cheating on himself, so he would never give them such an opportunity.

With no other choice, Zhao Yu took matters into his own hands.

—Though doing so made him feel like a "prostitute," for the sake of reconciling the five women and fulfilling his long-held dream of sharing one bed with them all, Zhao Yu decided to sacrifice himself and help them forge this deep friendship.

Thus, Zhao Yu unleashed his full power, and for one night, dragons and phoenixes danced…

The next morning.

Zhao Yu, refreshed and invigorated, went to practice cultivation with Zhang Xubai and others, leaving behind on the bed Zhang Chun, Li Lin, Ye Shi Yun, Ma Xiao Jiao, and Yuan Qing Cheng, too exhausted to rise.

After Zhao Yu left, Zhang Chun, who had been forced by Zhao Yu to apologize to each of the other four women, croaked: "Is Zhao Yu really this powerful when he goes all out?"

Li Lin, the healthiest among them, was far better off; she said coolly: "That's why I told you—your weak body can't possibly endure Zhao Yu. With his current stamina, he's far stronger than the best special forces soldiers I've ever seen. You think you can outlast him and become Empress Dowager? Not a chance."

Zhang Chun privately agreed, but she retorted: "Sure, his body is strong—but playing women like this, how could he possibly live long?"

Ye Shi Yun, listening nearby, murmured:

"According to the New York Post, veteran actor Warren Beatty had countless affairs; according to biographer Peter Biskind, Beatty had slept with 12,775 women, either actively or passively. Born in 1937, he was still alive before our transmigration, nearly ninety years old."

"NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain claimed he averaged 1.2 women per day. Many of his friends believed he had an irresistible charm—he once slept with 23 women in ten days. He had slept with 20,000 women, earning him the nickname 'Zhang Two-Ten-Thousand' in China; he lived to sixty-three."

"The immortal ruler Castro needed at least two women daily—one for lunch, one for dinner, sometimes an extra one in the morning. Over forty years, reaching 35,000 was no problem. When asked how many children he had, he replied: 'About a tribe.' He lived even longer—he reached ninety."

Ye Shi Yun turned to Zhang Chun: "After hearing these figures, do you still think you can outlive Zhao Yu?"

Zhang Chun knew these figures well, but she still stubbornly said: "These are all speculations—maybe they or others exaggerated for them?"

Ye Shi Yun replied: "Have you heard of Shimokura Ken? Since entering the industry in 1998, he has appeared in over 11,000 films—a figure confirmed by multiple sources, including Baidu Baike and Weibo, authoritative platforms. Other sources note he starred in about 500 films per year, further validating this astonishing output. The number is still rising; before our transmigration, he was already forty-five and still active in the industry. It's said he has had intimate relations with over nine thousand female actresses."

Zhang Chun fell silent.

After a long pause, she muttered grudgingly: "Fine, fine, stop trying. I admit—I can't beat Empress Zheng, and I might not even outlive Zhao Yu. If there's no chance in the future, I won't ever mention becoming Empress or Empress Dowager again."

Seeing Zhang Chun finally yield, Li Lin, Ye Shi Yun, and Ma Xiao Jiao thought: "Our sacrifice last night wasn't in vain."

Only Yuan Qing Cheng lay curled in the corner, sulking.

She was the one who least wanted to take part in last night's absurdity.

But Zhao Yu had gone berserk last night, and she became collateral damage.

Worse still, she who had originally despised such things… seemed to have enjoyed it afterward…

"Do I have some perverted gene in my blood? How could this happen…"

Yuan Qing Cheng silently wondered, her cheeks flushing crimson with a complex mix of shame and confusion over last night's experience.

At that moment, Ma Xiao Jiao noticed Yuan Qing Cheng's silence and asked: "Still not used to it?"

Then, without waiting for a reply, Ma Xiao Jiao went on: "You'll have to face this eventually. I used to be just like you—but after giving birth to Wan Ying, I started having Xi Duo and the others help me. I simply couldn't handle Zhao Yu alone, and with help, I save energy and even enjoy it more. Honestly, you just get used to it."

Ye Shi Yun added: "Exactly. His stamina and endurance are monstrous—we're not like Li Lin. Without help, none of us could possibly endure him."

Unexpectedly, Li Lin said: "To have children, I've abandoned Prisoner's Fitness and now only practice Yoga. My stamina and endurance are nowhere near what they were—I now need Nian Yue and the others to help too."

After a pause, Li Lin added: "Strange thing is, Zhao Yu's physical strength is even greater than my peak. I suspect it's tied to his Daoist cultivation practices."

No one expected Zhang Chun to suddenly speak in a low voice: "I fear he doesn't just practice Daoist cultivation."

At Zhang Chun's words, Li Lin, Ye Shi Yun, Ma Xiao Jiao, and Yuan Qing Cheng all turned to her. Li Lin asked bluntly: "What do you mean?"

Zhang Chun didn't hide her concern: "Zhao Yu's body is too strong—unnaturally so. I suspect he's taken pills."

"Taken pills?!!!"

Li Lin and the other four women were all stunned.

As modern people, they knew well—taking pills wasn't beneficial; it was suicide.

Zhang Chun continued:

"You probably think Emperor Yongzheng was a workaholic who died from exhaustion—but that's wrong. His death had another cause."

"It's true that when he first ascended the throne, he was a workaholic—never left his room, spent all day in the Yangxin Palace reviewing memorials, sometimes writing over ten thousand characters in responses. Some ministers stopped submitting memorials for long periods, and he'd issue imperial edicts demanding to know why. When they replied, 'I have nothing to report,' he'd say, 'Submit one anyway—even just to pay your respects.' He reached that point."

"But in the eighth year of Yongzheng's reign, everything changed—because that year, Prince Yi, Yinzhang, died. The blow to Yongzheng was devastating."

"From Yongzheng's daily records, it's clear that from that year on, he became a different man—not the tireless, most diligent emperor in history."

"From the eighth to the thirteenth year of his reign, the number of memorials he reviewed daily dropped sharply. He no longer wrote lengthy responses of hundreds, thousands, or even ten thousand characters—he often wrote only three words: 'Understood.' Sometimes just one: 'Understood.'"

"Starting in the eighth year, Yongzheng moved from the Forbidden City to the Yuanmingyuan, because it was far more comfortable, and he rarely saw outsiders."

"In his final five years, Yongzheng abandoned diligence—he switched to cultivation. Aside from essential duties, he did only two things."

"First, he played with porcelain—even personally firing exquisite pieces."

"Second, the one tied to his death—you've probably guessed: he became obsessed with alchemy."

"How obsessed? According to the Qing Palace Workshop Records, Yongzheng ordered the Imperial Household Department to build an alchemy chamber in the southeast corner of Yuanmingyuan's Xiuxing Village. He personally studied ancient texts to formulate recipes, ordered massive purchases of charcoal, cinnabar, and purple copper as ingredients, and personally supervised the alchemical process. The pills he produced he named 'Ji Ji Dan.'"

"According to Yongzheng himself, after taking these pills, his body became strong and his appetite excellent."

"Emperor Yongzheng also often bestowed these elixirs upon the ministers he favored—E'ertai, for instance, had eaten them."

"After eating them, E'ertai even memorialized the throne, saying that after taking them he found them greatly effective."

"Besides E'ertai, there were also ministers like Nasutu, Yue Zhongqi, Tian Wenjing, and Li Wei—Emperor Yongzheng gave all of them elixirs."

"Even in the tenth year of Yongzheng's reign, Emperor Yongzheng specially ordered people to send the elixirs to Chengde and distribute them among the Mongol princes and ministers to eat together, and issued an edict saying: this is an excellent thing, a medicine I have personally taken in great quantity, beneficial and harmless."

"Folklore has it that over those years Emperor Yongzheng ate more than two hundred jin of elixirs in total."

"As a result, on the eighth day of the tenth month of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng's reign, Emperor Yongzheng suddenly passed away at Changchun Garden in the Yuanmingyuan, at the age of fifty-eight."

"What effect the elixirs Emperor Yongzheng ate actually had, I certainly don't know, but I do know that Emperor Yongzheng originally had only four consorts. Yet after he started taking these elixirs, the number of consorts suddenly skyrocketed from four to thirty-seven."

"Combining this point with Emperor Yongzheng's age, and the fact that Emperor Yongzheng wildly praised the effects of these elixirs, I have reason to suspect that these elixirs had the effect of boosting yang energy."

"And as for Zhao Yu—we've all experienced it firsthand, he's absurdly strong—could he be in the same situation?"

After Li Lin finished listening, she said: "I think Zhao Yu probably isn't in that situation. You all haven't practiced 'Convict Conditioning,' so you don't understand—it really can train usable strength, extreme strength, survival strength. 'Yoga' can also improve flexibility, enhance muscle strength, and build the physique. The effort Zhao Yu has put into 'Convict Conditioning' and 'Yoga' far exceeds your imagination, so it would be… within normal range for him to have this kind of strength."

Zhang Chun keenly caught the hesitation in Li Lin's words and said bluntly: "See, you also feel that Zhao Yu is a bit too strong, and you're not sure whether his bottomless physical fitness all comes from his diligent practice of 'Convict Conditioning' and 'Yoga,' right?"

Li Lin did not dodge the question. She said: "I've said it before—Zhao Yu's current physical fitness is even above mine at my peak. That does surprise me somewhat. If you really made me come up with a reasonable explanation, the only thing I can think of is that he's also practicing Daoist health-preservation arts. I imagine that should be quite a help to his body as well."

Zhang Chun said: "If Zhao Yu can have this kind of physical conditioning just from practicing 'Convict Conditioning,' 'Yoga,' and Daoist health-preservation arts, then of course that's a good thing. But if he's gone down the wrong path, and we don't want to become widows or lose our greatest backer, we'll have to find a way to stop him—otherwise something big might happen."

Afraid Li Lin and the others wouldn't support her, Zhang Chun added: "Jiajing also loved seeking immortality. When he was refining his elixirs, besides adding mercury and arsenic, he insisted on using some menstrual blood as well. To keep the elixirs pure, he wouldn't let the palace maids eat whatever they pleased—the people say food is heaven; cutting off someone's food is like killing their parents. And that wasn't all—the palace maids also had to get up every morning to gather dew for him to drink. The palace maids couldn't sleep well or eat their fill, aging day by day, with someone falling ill every day. In the end, a group of palace maids led by Yang Jinying nearly sent Jiajing off."

Saying this, Zhang Chun looked around and asked: "You don't want Zhao Yu to go mad to that extent, do you?"

The moment Li Lin and the other four women heard this, they hurriedly called their maids in to help them dress…

Not long after, the five women each took a spyglass and climbed up to the second floor opposite the Jade Purity and Yang Palace, then used the spyglasses to secretly watch Zhao Yu practice his arts.

Soon, Zhao Yu's personal guards spotted the five women.

However, He Qingyan waited until Zhao Yu finished his breathing exercises before coming at the first opportunity to report to Zhao Yu: "Imperial Consort Zhang, Imperial Consort Li, Imperial Consort Ye, Imperial Consort Ma, and Imperial Consort Yuan are watching Your Majesty practice his arts through spyglasses from the pavilion opposite. I wonder if Your Majesty requires us to ask them to leave?"

Zhao Yu had no idea what these five women were up to this time, but he didn't care about them watching him practice, so he said: "Don't bother with them. If they want to watch, let them watch."

After thinking it over, since the five women were so eager to see what arts he practiced, he might as well give them something spectacular.

So Zhao Yu had the few Daoist Priestesses who usually attended him during his practice come and attend him as he practiced the next stage of his arts.

When the five women watching from across saw what arts Zhao Yu was practicing, they were all dumbfounded. Ma Xiao Jiao, who had no idea what was going on at all, even asked outright: "Can you practice martial arts like this…"

……

(End of this chapter)