Chapter 320

【Chen Jiuyan was silent for a moment, her face turning from white to red. She calmed her mind, and only then did the chill in her heart gradually dissipate.】

【Finally, she pulled herself out of that dreamlike, hazy state, but her heart remained unsettled.】

【That illusion was truly too realistic and shocking, as if she had experienced it herself, pulling her back into past memories.】

【Once upon a time, she followed her father into the deepest part of Dezehu, where an ancient palace was hidden—the forbidden land known to all: Long Gong.】

【The center of Dezehu was actually a place of dead silence, devoid of life.】

【That day, she saw the Lord of Dezehu, a colossal creature emerging from the water—a flood dragon snake body, covered in scales, like a divine object of the human world, not some so-called demon.】

【And just now, the flood dragon snake in the illusion was exactly the same as that terrifying figure in her memory, causing her to lose her composure for a moment.】

【Chen Jiuyan's eyes still flickered with uncertain light, locking tightly onto the young man in front of her, as if she wanted to see through him completely.】

【Unless one had set foot in Dezehu and seen that "flood dragon," it would be impossible to sketch it out?】

【But then she thought, given your age and experience, being far away in Bianjing, it was absolutely impossible.】

【What was even more shocking was!】

【You were not yet twenty, yet your cultivation in the Primordial Spirit had reached an extremely high level, even above hers.】

【If it weren't for that, how could you have escaped her illusion and pulled her into "Dezehu"?】

【Chen Jiuyan looked at Xie Guan, feeling both amazement and doubt, and a kind of indescribable awe quietly sprouted.】

【The annoyance in her heart from losing the game had now dissipated for the most part.】

【To possess such Primordial Spirit cultivation, this person was definitely not an ordinary person.】

【The ten games of chess just now must have been you deliberately hiding your strength, winning only when she was caught off guard.】

【That didn't count as skill!】

【You must be deeply skilled in chess, having studied it for many years.】

【Losing to you was not surprising!】

【You are a member of the Xie Fu; could it be that you have some connection with that Xie Hong?】

【After all, the Master once said that in Bianjing, there were only three and a half people worth paying attention to.】

【The Second Master and Third Master still at the Academy, and the third was "Xie Hong" in Qingliang Temple.】

【Those two Masters go without saying, but there were so many figures in Bianjing!】

【Why wasn't it the Divine Martial Twin Protectors of the Li family, Sima Chunfeng of the Sima family who "is good at nurturing the Haoran Qi," or "Zhuge Ziqing" of the Zhuge family, who had a feminine appearance but was noble beyond words.】

【And the leader of the swordsmen of the Zhao family, "Zhao Jiadi"... The nine great surnames had many talents in this generation, otherwise they wouldn't have suppressed the Chen surname of their Great Qi so much that they had no royal dignity.】

【It wasn't one of the several people in the nine great surnames who were currently famous, but uniquely Xie Hong, who had become disheartened more than ten years ago.】

【The Master only commented on him with one poem: "In the heavenly White Jade Capital, there are twelve towers and five cities. The Immortal strokes his crown, and he receives eternal life upon tying his hair."】

【She had never understood the meaning of this sentence, but she had kept in mind that Xie Hong could be mentioned in the same breath as the two Masters of the Academy.】

【As for the remaining half a person mentioned by the Master, it was the current Minister of Rites, Tang Ziang, known as the "Sick Tiger of the Ministry of Rites," Old Master Tang.】

【Su Yun saw that Chen Jiuyan seemed to be fine, and the heavy stone in his heart finally fell.】

【He knew the identity of this Princess Kangle well; if something really happened to her because of losing the chess game, he would indeed find it difficult to answer to his grandfather.】

【Su Yun smiled: "Young Master Guan, sorry for the disturbance, we shall take our leave now."】

【Xie Xuan was on the side, looking at you with complex eyes, remembering the ten games of chess just now.】

【He cleared his throat, his tone becoming more serious: "Ninth Brother, we shall take our leave now."】

【Chen Jiuyan, on the other hand, had the appearance of someone who would honor a bet: "Losing is losing; I will help you do one thing. However, let's agree beforehand: this matter cannot violate morality."】

【"If the difficulty is too high and I can't do it, then it will be void."】

【"If you feel like you're bullying a girl, it's no problem to void the bet."】

【After speaking, she got off the bed, spread her hands, and struck a pose of "not intending to suffer a loss."】

【Su Yun couldn't help but laugh at Chen Jiuyan's appearance. He remembered that this princess used to bet with his grandfather all the time, and she was the same after losing.】

【Facing this, you decided...】

1. Ask Chen Jiuyan to help give Dong Shao's adopted son a sum of silver. (Hint: May be beneficial for subsequent development.)

2. Ask Chen Jiuyan to help arrange Dong Shao's funeral. (Hint: May be beneficial for subsequent development.)

3. Ask Chen Jiuyan to help give Dong Shao's adopted son a sum of silver, and also help arrange Dong Shao's funeral. (Hint: May be beneficial for subsequent development, and there may be unexpected gains.)

4. Participate personally. (0/3)

Yu Ke looked at the four options above and was slightly stunned.

This time, the side quest for "Dong Shao" was triggered again.

It had been triggered twice before: once for "Physician Hua An" and the second time for "Xie Houer."

Why was a similar option triggered again today with this young lady?

Every time an option pops up, it is a crossroads in "Xie Guan's" life, so one must choose carefully.

This was the enlightenment teacher who only appeared a few times in "Xie Guan's" thirteen-year simulation.

Could it be that it is of great importance later on?

Yu Ke didn't hesitate and chose directly.

3. Ask Chen Jiuyan to help give Dong Shao's adopted son a sum of silver, and also help arrange Dong Shao's funeral. (Hint: May be beneficial for subsequent development, and there may be unexpected gains.)

【You pondered for a moment, then said: "There is indeed one thing that requires Young Master Yan's assistance."】

【You slowly recounted the story of Dong Shao dying drunk at home: "This Master Dong was once my enlightenment teacher; encountering such an unfortunate event, I naturally want to do my best to help."】

【"It's just that I am of low status in the Xie Fu and cannot order anyone around, so I must trouble Young Master Yan."】

【After hearing this, Chen Jiuyan let out a long sigh of relief. She had originally been worried that this Xie family concubine-born son would make some tricky request; if she refused, he might pull her into "Dezehu" again, and she didn't want to go through that again.】

【Chen Jiuyan readily agreed: "This matter is simple; I will have someone handle it for you tomorrow."】

【You asked Sister Wu Tong to bring fifty taels of silver.】

【Chen Jiuyan waved her hand: "For such a small matter, you don't need to spend your own silver."】

【Just as you were about to refuse again, Su Yun had already smiled: "Young Master Guan, you don't need to worry about this; the Caotang Poetry Gathering will also arrange it."】

【"Young Master Yun, thank you very much."】

【Hearing this, you had to nod in agreement.】

【The three of them prepared to leave, and you saw them to the courtyard gate. It was already afternoon, and a light snow was drifting down outside again.】

【Su Yun tightened the expensive fox fur on his body and couldn't help but sigh: "I hope there will be good weather when the Qunfang Banquet is held."】

【"Young Master Guan, I will come to find you again when the Qunfang Banquet arrives."】

【After Su Yun finished speaking, he braved the wind and snow and left with the others.】

【Sister Wu Tong looked at their retreating figures and couldn't help but ask: "Young Master, who are these people?"】

【You smiled slightly and replied: "They are our big financial backers."】

【You turned and returned to the room, only to see one hundred taels of silver left by Su Yun on the table, saying it was a New Year gift for the poetry gathering.】

【Sister Wu Tong saw this and was overjoyed.】

【Recalling the expenses at the market today, she still felt quite distressed; after all, every tael of silver spent was one less.】

【Unexpectedly, just as she was feeling sleepy, someone brought a pillow.】

【"Young Master, we should be able to save quite a bit every month now."】

【"If Young Master participates in the imperial examination in the future, whether it's entering an academy or socializing with fellow students, expenses will be unavoidable."】

【Sister Wu Tong counted on her fingers and said one by one: "Young Master, after you pass the exam, you will have to hold banquets, give rewards to the messengers, buy a house, hire servants..."】

【Hearing this, you smiled again and said: "Buying a house is probably difficult. Bianjing today is worth an inch of land for an inch of gold; even high-ranking officials in the court mostly live in rented houses."】

【Sister Wu Tong nodded in deep agreement. Even a small house in Bianjing today had a ridiculously high price, and ordinary people couldn't afford one in several lifetimes.】

【She closed the door. The sky outside had darkened, so she lit the candles in the room.】

【The dim yellow light instantly illuminated the entire room.】

【"Young Master, the market was truly crowded today; there wasn't even room to stand," Sister Wu Tong recalled while sewing clothes and doing needlework.】

【"Luya and I set out in the morning and even specifically called for the coachman in the mansion. We thought that if we went early, there wouldn't be too many people, but as soon as we arrived at the market, we found people everywhere."】

【"Especially the firewood, rice, oil, and salt for eating and wearing, which were snatched up. Fortunately, we had already booked them in the Xie family's shop, otherwise, we really might not have been able to buy them today."】

【At this time, you were already sitting on the heated brick bed, holding a book in your hand.】

【Ever since you broke through to the Second Realm of the Primordial Spirit, "Calm Spirit," you could see in the dark as if it were broad daylight.】

【You quietly flipped through the books. These books were moved here by Xie Yuan recently; influenced by Lu Hua, most of them were Daoist classics.】

【Especially those concerning the Sanzhen Sect.】

【The Sanzhen Sect originated in the north and had already risen during the Warring States period.】

【With Mount Zhongnan as the ancestral court of the Sanzhen, and honoring Lu Chen as the founder, it was the most prosperous sect in the world.】

【During the Great Yan Dynasty, it was the state religion, encompassing the Daoist lineage of the world, honoring the Sanzhen as orthodox, and the sect leader was the Lu Lu Tian Shi.】

【After Lu Chen and Lu Yu, and the Seven Sons of Zhongnan, Yang Su became the next generation of Lu Lu Tian Shi and later changed his surname to Lu.】

【Lu Chen had no children in his life, but the lineage of the Lu Lu Tian Shi all took Lu as their home surname.】

【Regardless of bloodline, those with both virtue and talent occupied the position.】

【In the three thousand years of history, the brilliance left by Lu Chen was truly too dazzling, influencing the next thousand years.】

【After the promotion of several generations of Heavenly Masters, the Sanzhen Sect had long since become the well-deserved number one sect.】

【From peddlers and pawns to imperial relatives and nobles, all had their believers.】

【It had long since surpassed the Jianghu sects and became a behemoth that was truly no less than the Confucian school.】

【The Confucian school and the Daoist school now seemed to have a trend of rivalry.】

【Of course, the Confucian school had the Master, who suppressed the world so that it dared not raise its head, but the Master had gone to the East Sea to seek immortals and had not returned for two hundred years.】

【The world began to stir again; the Great Qi rose, and behind the Eternal Heaven in the north, there was the shadow of the demon sect.】

【The Southern Buddhist Kingdom also grew within two hundred years.】

【You came back to your senses, and although you didn't look up, you still listened to Sister Wu Tong's words: "Could it be because the end of the year is approaching, and every household is busy preparing New Year goods."】

【Sister Wu Tong looked worried and said: "I heard Liu Guanshi say it was because of the disaster victims in Jiangnan Dao. It seems that some high-ranking officials in the court decided to introduce them to the Capital Dao."】

【"Therefore, for a time, food in Bianjing was scarce, and the people began to store grain one after another, especially in the past few months, when grain prices climbed step by step."】

【You frowned slightly and fell into deep thought. The Great Qi had gone through thousands of years, and natural and man-made disasters were common.】

【Especially in the last two hundred years, there were small disasters almost every year, and there would be a major disaster every three years.】

【However, introducing disaster victims to the Capital Dao was unprecedented.】

【You must know!】

【The capital of the Great Qi, Bianjing, was located in the Capital Dao.】

【The number of disaster victims in Jiangnan Dao was three or four hundred thousand; gathering them in the Capital Dao was undoubtedly a huge hidden danger!】

【How could the high-ranking officials in the court turn a blind eye to this, especially with that Fourth Master with profound wisdom sitting in the court?】

【What was the reason for this?】

【Sister Wu Tong continued: "I heard Liu Guanshi say that our Xie family had already received the news. The grain stored in the mansion was originally enough to support the needs for four or five years, and now they have joined hands with the Zhao family and the Zhuge family to open multiple granaries in the suburbs of Bianjing."】

【"The Zhao family is the premier grain merchant in the Capital Dao. The grain they transport from the Three Lakes Dao to Bianjing by water is enough to make every person in Bianjing full."】

【"Waterway?"】

【You thought of the Yellow River bursting its banks; this would likely cause a great obstacle to grain transport, and the nine great surnames could not be unaware of this.】

【On the contrary, the nine great surnames had already begun to store grain in preparation for a rainy day.】

【These people from big families were full of their own interests and would never care about the lives of the people in the world.】

【It is likely that before long, the grain price in Bianjing will soar, and the price stabilization agency set up by the imperial court, which is fully committed to disaster relief, will not be able to balance the grain price at all. In this way, the pricing power of grain will be firmly grasped in the hands of the nine great surnames.】

【Relying on this information unknown to the lower-class people, they accumulated wealth for generations and had endless glory and wealth.】

【As the gathering place for wealthy merchants in the Great Qi, controlling Bianjing meant controlling the pricing power of grain in the Great Qi.】

【Food is the most important thing for the people; this is the top priority.】

【He who controls grain controls the lifeline of the world.】

【Sister Wu Tong also had worries in her eyes. When she was young, because her family was poor and could not support many brothers and sisters, she was sold into the Xie Fu.】

【Years passed, and except for the news sent by someone when her eldest brother got married, there was no news after she sent her only savings.】

【By comparison, Sister Wu Tong was still lucky. And the parents of her neighbor, in order to survive, actually sent their daughter to a place of flowers and willows like the West Wing Building, or sent her to the army to become a camp prostitute.】

【The fate and interests of the world seemed to have nothing to do with the people, and the most bitter were always the people below.】

【The world today had long since lost the clear atmosphere when the Master was there.】

【At that time, the Master sat in the Great Qi, and whether it was the Emperor or the nine great surnames, they all feared the ruler in his hand and dared not have the slightest transgression.】

【Once upon a time, there was the Second Master who walked the world and cut down injustice with a sword, the First Master who loved to travel through mountains and rivers, the Third Master who sat in the Academy to give lectures, and the Fourth Master who preferred to play chess for fun in the alleys of Bianjing.】

(End of this chapter)