Chapter 627: Blade and Weapon

26th Year of Jiajing, May 21st, Night.

Great Ming, Forbidden City.

Grand Secretariat.

Zhu Zai poured a cup of tea slowly, brought it to his nose to taste the tea fragrance, shook his head, then took a shallow sip of tea, narrowed his eyes and leaned back on the chair, exhaling a long breath.

"Ha—"

He smacked his lips.

"Li’s lazy days..."

"Tsk tsk, it’s not without its merits..."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at the stacked memorials on the table, which were less than half a foot high and had already been written on by other Grand Secretariat officials. Most of the dispositions could be considered appropriate. He only needed to glance at them roughly, then use a vermilion brush to draw a circle, and then distribute them to the Six Ministries for execution.

Recalling the frantic state three years ago, Zhu Zai nodded with satisfaction.

"Cleaning up the world isn't that hard~"

Of course, this was just a joke by the old man to amuse himself.

Three years was not enough to turn the world around.

At present, only the capital has rebuilt a set of teams that can operate smoothly. Things in the local areas are still emerging one after another, the Ordinary Jianghu is still turbulent, Japanese pirates are still appearing sporadically, and the newly emerging evil Ordinary Jianghu sects cannot be killed off...

But, the general trend has been turned around.

A large number of officials, vetted by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, were promoted and quickly filled the vacancies; after three years of tempering, they had begun to mature. Mount Wudang, Shaolin, the Beggar Sect, and the Canal Gang had completely leaned toward the imperial court, and a new order for the Wu Lin was being established bit by bit.

Within the Embroidered Uniform Guard, seedlings with hope of cultivating to Heaven-Man have begun to emerge, and the cultivation method created by Li Miao to improve aptitude has also begun to be implemented. A large amount of wealth has been copied from the homes of corrupt officials, aristocratic families, and eunuchs, so Zhu Zai can safely reduce taxes for the people.

Wang Hai is presiding over the reconstruction of Nanjing, An Shen Ziyang is leading a team to sweep from north to south, county by county, killing, dividing land, and distributing money, while Zheng Yi is taking Gao Ling from south to north, sweeping away the powerful families who made moves due to fear in advance.

Of course, because the Profound Observation cultivation method has spread, the Ordinary Jianghu has not been peaceful in the past three years, and there is no lack of evil Heaven-Man giants with strength exceeding ordinary offerings. The largest scale was when three evil Heaven-Men who cultivated Profound Observation jointly established a huge mountain gate named "Three Immortals Mountain." For a time, evil sects and green forests chased by the Embroidered Uniform Guard gathered and followed.

One month later, the Canal Gang and the Beggar Sect sent out invitations to all the sects under heaven.

There were only three words on the invitation—Moon Appreciation Banquet.

The location was at Three Immortals Mountain.

The Ordinary Jianghu people who didn't know why arrived at the bottom of Three Immortals Mountain on time, but only saw that on the collapsed mountain gate, an ordinary iron sword strung the heads of the "Three Immortals." Below the heads, Mei Mei Qinghe sat cross-legged on the ground, and the disciples of the Five Mountains Sword Sect were moving corpses down from the mountain and piling them up.

In front of the corpse pile were hundreds of wine glasses already filled.

Three days, the wine in the cups was finished.

Since then, for a month, You Shen Ziyang has re-hung the wooden signs of the Moon Appreciation Banquet on the mountain gates of major sects.

Of course, it’s not that there are no deep-minded evil Heaven-Men who haven't appeared in the dark, accumulating strength... then he will have three results.

Either, have his head smashed by the Shaolin abbot with a human face growing on his chest.

Or, have his head smashed by the mystical, swaying Mount Wudang Heaven-Man.

Or... have his head smashed by a certain Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander who has been wandering around for four years.

Thinking of this, Zhu Zai sighed.

"Don't know when Li will return... why has he been gone for so long..."

"Is Japan difficult to handle?"

Li Miao has been at sea for more than three months, and there has been no news back yet.

Zhu Zai knew that if there was anyone in the world who didn't need to be worried about, it was Li Miao... But he has been feeling uneasy for no reason these past few days.

If it were just ordinary uneasiness, he wouldn't be worried.

After all, he was already old, and occasional palpitations were not very rare.

But—he was not the only one with this feeling.

Zhu Zai raised his eyes and looked to the right.

By the window on his right hand stood a figure in a bright yellow dragon robe, who turned his head after noticing his gaze, his clear face frowning tightly.

Zhu Zai’s heart sank.

"Still?"

"Hmm."

The Emperor replied.