Chapter 300

The divine manifestation is called West King, it forbids disloyalty, unfilialness, lack of benevolence, lack of righteousness; the army is called the Loyalty-devoted Army, and its number is eight thousand disciple soldiers.

Dao soldiers who have drunk the talisman water internally implement union of government and teaching, their slogan is "Support the Emperor, destroy the rebels", they also seek imperial pardon, and now they have been granted the name Quan Zhong...

Fully loaded! Really fully loaded!

Even if you don't know these memes, you now start to feel abstract!

Objectively speaking, you are naturally dissatisfied with your name, after all it's just a pure number, with zero recognizability; if you had the chance to change it, you would definitely want a better-sounding one.

But the two characters Quan Zhong...

Reciting these two characters, an indescribable strange feeling makes you inexplicably resistant... but what you dislike most is still the political meaning this name represents!

Quan Zhong, Quan Zhong, the Emperor obviously wants you to be wholeheartedly loyal to the court, to be his good loyal hound; if you were truly a filial son like Song Yansi, you would gladly accept and immediately kneel to thank the grace.

But you are not a filial son; loyalty is merely a mask you put on; your ultimate strategic goal has always been to replace the court and build the beautiful world you dream of!

Therefore, you are deeply dissatisfied with this meaningful name, instinctively unwilling to accept it, but...

Looking at the Emperor's expectant face, you cannot help but hesitate... this is not because you suddenly became filial, but because you consider that under someone else's roof you must lower your head.

Your purpose in coming to the capital this time is to obtain a legitimate identity from the court, to avoid being ganged up on... if you refuse the Emperor's bestowed name, it's tantamount to slapping yourself in the face right then and there—now you have enemies even if you had none before.

So after your careful consideration, you ultimately suppressed your inner displeasure, and your face showed a respectful and delighted expression...

"Commoner Lin Quan Zhong, thank Your Majesty for the bestowed name!"

"Good! From now on, beloved minister, you shall be called Quan Zhong!"

Seeing you accept, the young Emperor's face instantly lit up with joy, the intensity of his joy even surpassing the delight you deliberately feigned!

This discovery makes your already suspicious heart grow even more confused: what exactly does the young Emperor mean?

Winning over? Does a simple act of winning over warrant such fuss? This posture makes it seem as if you are his top loyal subject...

Just capturing four rebel kings each commanding less than a hundred thousand troops gives such strategic value? Has the court really deteriorated to this point?

Confusion and curiosity well up in your heart; intuition tells you there must be some important information here, and if you could uncover it clearly, it might be of great use...

……

After solemnly receiving you and specially granting you an unexpected bestowed name, the delighted Emperor then announced in court the disposition of the four great rebel kings.

The four great rebel kings, above they do not think of loyalty to the sovereign and service to the state, below they do not think of pacifying the populace; they dare to rally the masses to oppose the court and poison the people—their crime deserves death!

Disloyal, unfilial, inhumane, unjust... they shall be executed!

Thus, the four divine-path rebel kings you brought were, amid curses, sent to the execution ground, where the court's veteran executioner personally wielded the blade, each receiving two or three thousand cuts...

As for the manner of death of these four scoundrels, you didn't care much; judging by the mischief they did during their rebellion, being sliced into roast duck was wholly deserved.

Moreover, under the court's professional handling, not even one of the four could escape their divine manifestations; body and spirit destroyed, truly ruthless... this surprises you, showing that although the court has profited, it still has a couple of tricks up its sleeve...

After slicing the four roast ducks, the court then began formally bestowing rewards upon you; although you didn't understand the specific title, the court indeed gave you, as you wished, a legitimate regional military-governor status!

With this military-governor status, you can thereafter relatively freely recruit troops and buy horses, and even enjoy the great economic right of minting coins; moreover, you can freely attack other rebels without imperial orders, and when suppressing rebels, the official troops will actively cooperate in the assault...

The lavishness of this grant astonishes you, for it is overly generous, essentially equivalent to permitting you to establish your own mini-court; aside from not being openly enfeoffed as a king, it is no different from being enfeoffed!

Is your strategic worth really that high?

A vague sense of dread wells up...

That is, at the time you felt dread, one midnight a palace eunuch suddenly came, cautiously inviting you to enter the palace to see the Emperor.

An audience at midnight?

Your already uneasy heart felt a thud... instinct told you something was wrong, but since the Emperor had sent someone, you couldn't refuse, so you could only follow the little eunuch stealthily along a secret passage into the palace.

Under the glow of a lone lamp, you saw again the young Emperor you had met a few days earlier, but now his face was completely devoid of the previous sunshine and joy, filled only with worry and sorrow...

You seem to have triggered some hidden quest...

……

"Subject Lin Quan Zhong, pays respects to Your Majesty!"

In the midnight palace, Lin Liu approached the Emperor of unknown intent with utmost caution and performed the salute.

He couldn't help but be cautious, for the current buffs are nearly maxed out: it's midnight, it's the palace, it's a secret summons by a eunuch... moreover, the Emperor openly displays worry; linking this to the previous excessive rewards, it's obvious he wants him to share the ruler's burdens...

The Emperor's worried gaze gathered on Lin Liu; he opened his mouth and slowly said: "Quan Zhong, can I trust you?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Liu involuntarily shuddered, and classic scenes from storybooks that only appear in tales inexplicably floated into his mind...

Seeing him seemingly frightened silly, the young Emperor suddenly sighed: "I know you are loyal and devoted; you not only voluntarily suppressed rebels for the court, but also personally escorted them to the capital... you are different from others, and I do not wish to harm you."

"Speak plainly," he said, "this invitation to come to the capital is the Empress Dowager's idea, and her reason for inviting you is absolutely not to honor you, but... to seize the opportunity to kill you!" Lin Liu's pupils contracted, but he did not explode nor beg for mercy; instead he resolutely said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, what do you need me to do?"

He believed that the young Emperor summoning him at midnight and specially saying these words was certainly not simply to kill him... obviously there is another purpose.

"Clever!"

The young Emperor was both surprised and satisfied:

"I just like this clever sort of Quan Zhong..."

After laying the groundwork for so long, the Emperor certainly isn't here to kill you in one stroke; in fact, he wants to use you...

In your contemplative gaze, the young Emperor slowly related a story.

"Since childhood, I have grown accustomed to the court's weakness: natural disasters go unrelieved, refugees remain unsettled, corruption runs rampant, evil spirits run wild... yet although the court clearly has a trend toward collapse, my father indulges in pleasures, causing governance to deteriorate further."

"Thus, since I ascended the throne at eight, I have constantly wished to aid the state and return to the prosperous era of Taizu, and so I have repeatedly tried to enact new policies."

After a classic opening, he then shifted: "But the Empress Dowager has always ruled from behind the curtain, variously interfering with my new policies, to the point that even after more than ten years on the throne, the dynasty has not revived..."

"Empress Dowager?"

Your heart stirred slightly, and you couldn't help but ask: "Why does the Empress Dowager interfere with the Emperor's new policies?"

"Because of the ancestral law."

The Emperor did not hide it from you: since the founding by Taizu, there has been an ancestral law that the court may not cultivate anyone outside the imperial clan to practice the divine path; if the imperial clan truly has no one capable of achieving a divine manifestation, then we must rely solely on mortal lives to pile up and defeat the rebels!

As for those wild gods, once discovered, they are to be exterminated immediately!

The purpose of this ancestral law is clear: to prevent divine-path cultivators from usurping or rebelling to replace the court, thereby prolonging the nation's fortune as much as possible...

【But it is precisely because of this ancestral law that, since the Taizu abdicated, the court has been stagnant; lacking Daoist cultivators, everything the court does is laborious—it cannot quell rebellions, cannot relieve disasters, cannot curb corruption, and thus gradually faces the danger of national ruin.】

【Thus, after ascending the throne, the young emperor has continually wanted to reform and introduce new policies, employing Daoist cultivators from the populace to enter the court in hopes of revitalizing it.】

【Yet the conservative faction represented by the Empress Dowager believes the ancestral laws cannot be violated; even while clearly aware that the dynasty is declining, they stubbornly cling to the old ways, essentially waiting for the nation's demise……】

【And precisely for this reason, the Empress Dowager had the emperor issue an edict summoning you here to secretly harm him!】

……

【Having understood the antecedents and consequences, you cannot help but stare in shock at the young emperor: although the ancestral law is bad, hastily enacting new policies is eighty percent a suicidal path, for the sole result of letting transcendent cultivators enter the court is usurpation and seizure of power, a change of dynasty!】

【It is impossible for transcendent beings to be willing to serve as dogs for a mortal emperor—nor could you; the so-called pacification has always merely been a pretense……】

【For a moment, you didn't know how to evaluate this young emperor: bold? Or lacking sense?】

【You cannot help but ask: 'Your Majesty, if cultivators prove detrimental to the court in the future… what then?'】

【This question hit the mark, and the young emperor's face involuntarily darkened.】

【Yet he still spoke in a deep voice: 'Advancing means death, standing still also means death… Rather than wait for the nation's demise, it's better to give it all—however long we can endure, that's how long we'll last!'】

【'Striving before death is always better than waiting passively for doom.'】

【The young emperor drew a deep breath, his gaze bright as he looked at you.】

【'Quanzhong, do you dare accept this imperial edict to eliminate treachery?'】

【You startled, though you had already guessed in your heart, yet you still asked: 'The traitor… who is it?'】

【The young emperor did not speak plainly, only said silently.】

【'The enemy lies in the Palace of Storage and Excellence!'】

【'The Palace of Storage and Excellence is the Empress Dowager herself!'】

【You immediately clasped your hands in a bow, said nothing, and strode straight out of the hall, walking farther and farther under the young emperor's hopeful gaze……】

【Help the emperor restore order to the court?】

【Of course not.】

【Report the emperor to the Empress Dowager?】

【Also not good.】

【The emperor is destined unable to restore the court; the Empress Dowager harbors ill intent, and you have no interest in meddling in their mother‑son feud, but……】

【This is an opportunity, a chance to probe the court's foundations: a rotten ship that has stood for three hundred years without sinking—how many pounds of iron nails does it still have left?】

【You decide to use a rebirth as the price, to probe the depths……】

……

(End of chapter)