Chapter 303

Ding! You're dead—the wrong choice brought about a bad ending… Actually it's not entirely wrong; at least, thanks to this trip to the capital, you've found out the court's secrets.

The Empress Dowager and the Emperor are at odds, old ways clashing with new policies… Although some foundations left by the founding emperor can keep the court afloat for a time, it's merely treating symptoms, not the root. Beset by enemies on all sides, a court lacking a divine Dao master to preside is already doomed!

If you get a second chance, you only need to build high walls and stockpile grain, then slowly wear down the court's days. They'll eventually fall under the blades of wave after wave of rebel armies… The more desperate the moment, the higher your stabbing combat value, and the greater the legitimate benefits you can gain from the court in the future.

Until you completely swallow the court whole…

Besides, this trip of yours brings a huge unexpected gain!

As it turns out, after death cultivators can enter the netherworld and be reincarnated, but because the Heavenly Emperor for some reason withdrew the netherworld's spirits, causing the Underworld to fall into disuse, that's how the current situation came about.

What is the Heavenly Emperor's purpose? Why open the Underworld only to shut it down again?

This is a very important question…

Furthermore, what you additionally gained from the mysterious Daoist concerns the founding emperor: it turns out that back then the founding emperor also harbored aspirations to reach the heavens, wanting to storm heaven and change the situation where the gods of the heavenly realm ignore worldly affairs, so they could benefit mankind!

However, the founding emperor ultimately failed to fulfill his vow—he couldn't make the Heavenly Court benefit mankind, and he himself only upheld his original intention for a mere 120 years before completely abandoning it, choosing to ascend to godhood, accept a title from the Heavenly Emperor, and throw in his lot with the heavenly realm.

Could the founding emperor's conviction really be that weak? Was it defeated by high rank and generous stipend, or is there some other reason?

These questions require your slow investigation…

No! Perhaps what's needed isn't a slow investigation, but to carry out thunderous measures!

In your final moments before fading away, you secretly thought: the human world is nothing but mortals and cultivators, who don't know much about heavenly affairs; even if you turned the human world upside down, you wouldn't likely find many clues.

Rather than waste time in the human world, it'd be better to, after becoming a god, directly storm heaven!

Give the heavenly realm a little shock of a ruckus in the heavenly palace!

…

Should time be rewound, returning to a previous point in life?

"This time you're really dead…"

The last little segment of Lin Liu's wandering soul life also ended, and Zhao Si finally confirmed he was truly dead—this side story won't have any further twists.

However, the information provided by Lin Liu's brief seven‑day wandering soul life is actually quite substantial—even more than what he'd supplied after decades of living in the mortal world. How does the saying go? "Your death is worth more than a lifetime of living."

Zhao Si sighed: sure enough, to be a simulated protagonist you have to die a lot! The more you die, the more usable information you get…

"Now the worldview can basically be set!"

Relying on the various pieces of information Lin Liu bought with his life, Zhao Si pondered a while and sketched out a preliminary worldview for this chapter:

"Heaven, earth, and the netherworld are divided into three realms: the heavenly realm is where the gods dwell, and Xue Xuan is the Heavenly Emperor here. The human realm is where mortals live, divided into four great continents, each ruled by a state. The ghost realm is open only to cultivators; formerly it could help people be reborn, but now the Heavenly Emperor has abolished it, so cultivator souls that arrive can only completely dissipate after seven days."

"In theory the heavenly realm should bless the human realm, but in reality the heavenly folk are all lazybones, doing nothing, letting floods and droughts rage unchecked, spreading poison everywhere."

"The human realm's emperor rules a domain, but aside from the founding emperor, all later emperors are mere mortals; the founding emperor originally wanted to storm the heavenly realm so that heaven would fulfill its duty to humanity—but in fact he later accepted a title from the Heavenly Emperor, ascended, and became a god who does nothing."

"This could be because he says one thing to your face and does another behind your back—he's basically a two‑faced opportunist—or maybe the heavenly realm's iron fist beat him into submission."

"And the ghost realm is strange too: even when it's functioning normally, it doesn't accept ordinary souls, only cultivator souls… Now the whole institution has even been dismantled."

In short, one word: weird! Everywhere there's an air of slacking off—the heavenly realm slacks off and does nothing, the human realm's founding emperor also slacks off, and the ghost realm is worse—it's just gone.

Moreover, amidst the slacking off, there's also a whiff of oppressive hierarchy, especially stark in the ghost realm: in the netherworld's normal days, ordinary mortals aren't even worthy of a rebirth! Now that things are slack, not even cultivators qualify for rebirth! The whole world is like a pyramid that envelops all beings—some stand on top, others are merely fuel keeping the machine running.

And the more terrifying and strict the world becomes, the stranger it seems to Zhao Si—because Xue Xuan is the Heavenly Emperor! "Xiao Heizi… could he too have fallen?"

That's impossible— in the previous chapter Xiao Heizi, though not a perfect saint, could absolutely not have fallen to this extent…

"It's getting stranger and stranger."

Zhao Si shook his head:

"Looks like, to figure out what really happened, we need to have Lin Liu bring the monkey and storm the heavenly realm, kick up a fuss in the heavenly palace, before we can know."

"No amount of evidence beats asking the person directly."

"Time reversal!"

Time has already been reversed…

… You've returned to the moment of decision, gazing at the pacification edict sent by the court; you don't know how to choose, so you can only pin your hopes on "another self"… You choose: (?)

A: Go— the arrow's on the string, you have to let it fly; things have come this far, no room for hesitation! B: Don't go— your life and property matter; having come this far with difficulty, how could you recklessly entrust your life to an untrustworthy court?

"Choose B!"

You chose B— don't go, your life and property matter; having come this far with difficulty, how could you recklessly entrust your life to an untrustworthy court?

Upon receiving the order again, a myriad of feelings welled up in you…

Having once suffered a dumb loss, you naturally don't want a second helping, so when faced with this audience edict issued by the emperor at the empress dowager's behest, you didn't simply accept it— you respectfully refused.

You casually dispatched a detachment of troops, escorting the four rebel kings you had previously captured alive to the capital, and also took the opportunity to write a letter to the imperial court expressing your loyalty; in the letter you wrote down every cheesy thing you could think of, striving to craft an image of unparalleled loyalty and bravery.

Afterwards, while waiting for the court's reply, you secretly took the bewildered monkey on a trip away...

A few days later, you brought back an even more dazed stranger Daoist to the main base.

This person is none other than the enthusiastic Daoist you happened to meet in the netherworld during the previous side quest; last time he answered many of your questions, so this time you ought to return the favor and specially come to save his life!

However, you didn't mention the previous side quest to him; you only said you could do finger-reckoning and had calculated that he faced this calamity, so you saved his life.

Faced with your lifesaving grace, the Daoist burst into tears, repeatedly shouting things like "The sect leader's kindness is endless!"...

Finally, to repay your lifesaving grace, upon learning that you were plotting to overthrow the imperial court, he immediately decided: join us!

This is your goal...

After successfully recruiting the first outside cultivator through favors, you pressed on, and thanks to his active introduction, you subsequently recruited several more Divine Dao cultivators to join.

Finally, aside from the monkey and the Daoist, you successfully attracted five wild Divine Dao cultivators of varying skill levels!

They had no other motive for joining; they simply wanted to obtain incense offerings, and you generously said that as long as they were willing to join, you could give them a share of the incense offerings...

You offered very generous wages; those country bumpkins had never seen such a scene, and after totalling it up, they promptly pledged their loyalty to you!

In this way, your force came to comprise eight Divine Dao cultivators; although there were many lackeys, the number was already quite considerable, truly a formidable force.

And just as you were winning over everyone, the court's reply arrived!

The emperor said: "Although you, my beloved subject, could not come in person, which I regret, I have read your letter; your feelings are very sincere, but... next time don't write something so cheesy..."

Next came the reward: the court allowed you to establish a fiefdom, you could recruit troops and buy horses… The content is basically the same as in the previous side quest.

With this official recognition, you can finally expand your power openly and legitimately!

You know, the emperor rewards you so heavily because he wants to win you over to his new policies, to have you help him oppose the dowager empress's conservative faction… but you're not interested in that; once you grow stronger, the entire court won't be able to escape.

After all, the little emperor is clueless; it's better not to have such a teammate…

Holding the emperor's edict permitting the establishment of a fiefdom, you respectfully thanked the emperor for his great kindness: Your Majesty's favor is endless!

Afterward, you turned and began establishing the fiefdom at the headquarters of the six counties.

You expanded the previous eight‑thousand "Loyalist Army" to eighty thousand, then divided it into seven banners, each with ten thousand troops; the banner names, in order, are "Loyalty, Filial Piety, Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, Faith"!

As your disciple, the monkey took the "Filial Piety" banner, while the other six newly recruited cultivators each took one of the remaining six banners.

Each of the seven subsidiary banner units had a banner commander, while the main Loyalist Army came under your direct command, thus making eight banners in total…

"From today on, our fiefdom shall be called the Eight Banners!"

You solemnly announced to everyone!

Although the seven banner commanders found it strange, they also thought it novel, so they raised no objections.

The Eight Banners were officially established!

The Prince of the Great West, bearing Loyalty, Filial Piety, Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and Faith, formed the "Loyalist Army", divided into eight banners, to quell the nationwide peasant uprisings in the twilight court where the dowager empress and emperor contended…

Abstract, as expected of you!

…

(End of chapter)