Chapter 168: Brother, What Do You Think?

"Brother Long, er no, Your Majesty... you have really ruined me."

They were still in the great hall, but Ren Yidao was not standing below like an ordinary court official; instead, he was sitting side-by-side with Li Long on the steps of the hall.

"No need to be so distant. In private, just call me Brother Long as you did before."

After Li Long ordered people to bring wine and food, he sent the troublesome Su Peiqing outside the hall to keep watch, leaving only the two of them to drink together in the hall.

Half a day passed, and Li Long had thoroughly adjusted his mindset, sitting leisurely on the steps, stretching out his legs and leaning back.

"Hahaha, I was only trying to play a joke on you at the beginning."

Blinking at Ren Yidao and making an expression that any man would understand, Li Long laughed to himself after speaking.

"Ling'er has never been close to men since she was young. It was hard enough to find a Senior Brother of the same age, so as her father, I had to properly vet him, didn't I?"

The pity of parents under Heaven... not at all.

Stop putting on an act.

You guy just wanted to play Role-playing yourself!

Although, you are indeed a praiseworthy, good father, that is true.

"Of course, I didn't intend to hide it from you for so long at first, but through a series of coincidences, I ended up acting until now."

Li Long personally poured a full cup of wine for Ren Yidao and filled one for himself as well.

Lowering his eyes to look at the wine in the cup, watching his own reflection mirrored within, he sighed softly.

"Suddenly I realized, it has been many years since I sat in this great hall and talked to someone like this."

After finishing his lament, he tilted his head back and drank the wine in his cup.

Ren Yidao turned his head back; he had not expected Li Long to be happy and cheerful just a moment ago, only to suddenly become emotional now.

You haven't even started drinking much, and you're already drunk?

But he was not so tactless as to point it out at this moment; instead, he picked up the wine pot and silently filled a cup for Li Long.

"Back then, when I first ascended the throne, there were changes, but they were nothing much, and I naively thought it was nothing."

"It was just changing an identity, what could it be?"

He raised his cup and smiled, but his expression held an indescribable bitterness.

"At first, Shi Anqi would still chat with me, but later, even he became slick."

"I don't blame him; after all, the revival of their Shi Family depends entirely on my whim, so they cannot be as unbridled as they were in the past."

The Shi Family.

This somewhat mysterious and special family—Ren Yidao finally received a few scraps of information about them at an unexpected moment.

Although it was only the word "revival," for a background that was previously almost blank, it was enough.

This is an ancient family that had once faded away during a certain period, but now it has ushered in its own rise.

However, the matter of the Shi Family can be set aside for now; after all, this Emperor who shakes the world before him still has more to say.

"No matter who it is, one by one, they have all changed."

"The longer I sit in this position, the more they change."

"Awe, worship, complexity... looking into those pairs of eyes, you will discover that the human heart is far more complex than you think."

"Some seek wealth, some seek power, some want both money and power—hehe, guess what I did?"

"What did you do?"

"Pfft..."

With a scoff, Li Long turned his head and gave Ren Yidao a smug smile.

He said:

"I found it annoying, so I ignored them all and told them all to get lost."

Ren Yidao: Fine, that is very Li Family.

"I handed everything over to Wang Xuesong, while I put more of my energy into cultivating the Dao."

"To my surprise, this move not only caused no adverse effects, but in the years I didn't intervene, everything in Beigan went well."

Recalling the situation back then, Li Long didn't know what to say.

Without the Emperor's command, this dynasty actually became better and better...

"So, I completely set my mind at ease and focused on seeking the Dao, finally succeeding in breaking through the barrier of the Heaven Realm and achieving the No-Form."

"The world knows that I, Li Long, have extraordinary talent and love seeking the Dao more than state affairs."

"But they are all wrong; I only chose to cultivate the Dao out of helplessness."

"The world fears me, the Inner Palace covets me, everyone in the world has something they want from me... this world makes me feel extremely troubled."

"What they don't know is that compared to this No-Form strength, what I crave most is actually someone who can chat with me easily."

Staring at the youth who was currently holding the wine pot and pouring wine for him with ease, his tone was somewhat strange.

"Why are you not afraid of me?"

Why are you not like the others?

Blinking his eyes, the youth put down the wine pot and sat obediently.

Why am I not afraid of you? This question...

After thinking about it seriously, Ren Yidao chuckled:

"As for me, it's more that things happened too suddenly, and I haven't reacted yet."

"Perhaps I will change later, but right now, asking me to connect the Brother Long who treated me kindly before with the current Emperor still requires a little time."

"Besides... I am different from others in one way: I have no demands of you."

I have no need to fear you, nor do I need to favor you, and I certainly don't need to obtain anything from you, so why should I treat you like an Emperor?

He who has no desires is strong.

Quietly watching Ren Yidao, after a long while, Li Long began to laugh.

"Good! A very good 'having no desires'."

Happily patting Ren Yidao on the shoulder, he laughed loudly:

"If possible, I, the Emperor, hope you can extend this time a little longer."

Without changing his expression, Ren Yidao dissipated the force of Li Long's excited pat and asked curiously:

"Why not say you hope I remain unchanged forever?"

You are not being greedy enough here.

"I, the Emperor, would hope for that, but so many years have passed, and I am no longer that youth from back then."

"There is nothing in this world that does not change."

No matter how much he looked like a youth on the surface, this Emperor was also a cultivator who had experienced hundreds of years of vicissitudes.

Compared to the life of a mortal, which is not even a hundred years, he had already experienced far, far too much.

Within this Divine Dynasty, he could also see more than other cultivators who were ignorant of the ways of the world.

He said:

"The lonely man, this is the fate of I, the Emperor."

Although there was some lingering regret in his tone, he had long been able to face it calmly.

"I was just feeling sentimental for a moment; I didn't expect to say so much off-topic..."

Quickly adjusting his emotions, Li Long

"You must have already guessed the purpose of my summoning you here today."

Having lowered his status to lay the groundwork for so long, Li Long finally pulled the conversation back to today's main topic.

He stopped stalling and said straightforwardly:

"That's right, I, the Emperor, want you, my worthy brother, to be this Prime Minister."

He said:

"Worthy brother, what do you think?"

Slept for two hours and feel much better, but my head is still a bit dizzy; only four thousand words today.

Anyway, I didn't break the update streak, thank goodness...

Setting a flag: I will definitely post the extra chapter from last month before the middle of the month.