The Lord Who Revived the Realm

Li Hong awoke from his cultivation and opened his eyes to see his eldest brother staring at him without blinking.

"Fourth Brother, how do you feel?"

Li Ye believed that a grandmaster would not stoop so low as to deceive him, yet Li Hong's changes would determine the instructions that followed.

"Very good!"

Li Hong had cultivated top-tier internal martial arts since childhood, had his sinews and bones tempered by martial experts, and had taken no small number of pills. Now, after being nourished and sorted through by spiritual energy, his physique and strength had increased enormously in a short time.

"After Senior rescues you, find a place to cultivate in seclusion and break through to the Innate realm. Then seek a chance to avenge our clansmen!"

Li Ye cautioned, "If the Zhao family also has a grandmaster protecting them, there will be no need to risk revenge. Change your name and surname, and continue the Li family bloodline and inheritance."

"Eldest Brother!"

Though Li Hong was young, he understood what that meant. A sob almost escaped him.

"Men of the Li family may bleed, and they may die, but they must never shed tears!"

Li Ye rebuked Li Hong for being so small-minded, then repeatedly instructed him to cultivate wholeheartedly in the future, beware of the Brocade Guard, put survival first and revenge second, and so on.

"Thank you, Senior, for the grace of saving my life and imparting your teachings. Whether the Li family prospers or declines, its descendants will surely revere you as parents and honor you as ancestors!" Li Ye led his three younger brothers in kneeling and kowtowing.

"There is no need for such grand ceremony."

Zhou Yi asked, "Have you decided when to rescue him from the Heavenly Prison?"

Li Ye said, "Please wait a while, Senior. Once the court issues its verdict, it will most likely strip our title and exile us to the frontier. If bandits attack along the way, Senior can rescue Fourth Brother amid the chaos."

Zhou Yi nodded slightly. Doing so would not draw attention, and Li Hong would be much safer while cultivating in seclusion afterward.

"How can you be certain the court will sentence you to exile? The current emperor abandoned even his own son in order to eradicate your family!"

Li Ye said, "Emperor Hongchang is determined to become a sage ruler and wise sovereign, leaving his name in the annals of history. He will certainly not bear the infamy of treating meritorious officials harshly. Sparing the Li family's lives will earn him a reputation for benevolence and virtue, then he can send mountain bandits to wipe out the family. Killing two birds with one stone!"

Zhou Yi said, "Setting aside what happened to the Li family, Emperor Hongchang truly is the lord who revived the realm!"

During Emperor Chongming's reign, the Fengyang Kingdom had nearly collapsed. More than half its territory had fallen into the hands of Great Yong and the rebel armies.

In the eighteen years of Emperor Hongchang's reign, he had already swept away the decline and restored the dynasty to prosperity.

Li Wu deserved great credit for this, yet war was not the whole of a nation. Emperor Hongchang had been able to sort out the mess left by Emperor Chongming, making him a ruler truly capable of governing the country.

"That dog emperor himself was nothing special, but his eye for people was exceptionally sharp. One Li Wu, one Hongchang."

Zhou Yi recalled Emperor Chongming's arrangements before his death. He had secretly nurtured Li Wu, plotted Chancellor Long to death, and used an imperial testament to place the Third Prince on the throne. Every step of his schemes and arrangements had been excellent.

"How did such a clever man become so obsessed with cultivating immortality and seeking the Dao?"

"Senior..."

Seeing the change in Zhou Yi's expression, Li Ye thought there had been some oversight and added, "If Emperor Hongchang sentences the Li family to execution, then I must trouble Senior to seize Fourth Brother during the escort."

"Why not in the Heavenly Prison?"

Zhou Yi was now the oldest prison guard in the Heavenly Prison. He had outlived three wardens, and replacing one person would be effortless.

Li Ye said, "The four of us brothers are thorns in Emperor Hongchang's eye. If anything goes wrong in the Heavenly Prison, it will certainly implicate the officials and guards throughout the prison. It would be bad if that affected Senior's secluded life."

Zhou Yi looked deeply at Li Ye for a moment, then nodded without saying anything more.

A person with such clear understanding would be able to make waves wherever he went. Being born into the Li family had instead been his misfortune.

Things indeed unfolded just as Li Ye had expected.

The court's three judicial departments held a joint trial. Since the evidence in the treason case was conclusive, a verdict was swiftly reached.

The Crown Prince was stripped of his status and reduced to a commoner, imprisoned in the palace for life and forbidden from ever leaving. The remaining accomplices received punishments ranging from exile to execution. As the chief supporters of the treason case, the Li family was stripped of its duke's title and sentenced to the extermination of nine kinships!

After hearing the verdict, Emperor Hongchang lay on his sickbed and summoned Chief Minister Zhang Zhengyang.

"The Li family has rendered great service to the dynasty. Even if Minister Li has betrayed Us, We cannot betray Minister Li. Change the extermination of nine kinships to exile. We must not allow Minister Li to die without descendants!"

These words spread through the court, and the hundred officials cried out that His Majesty was merciful!

When the common people in the streets heard of it, they too had to admit that the current emperor was a benevolent ruler who remembered old bonds.

March of that same year.

The court dispatched Imperial Guards to escort the Li family's one hundred and thirty-seven members northward toward the frontier in prison carts.

Zhou Yi had already requested leave half a month earlier, claiming he was traveling the martial world to visit friends, with no fixed date of return.

Warden Liu thoughtfully approved it, saying with heartfelt words that Zhou Yi's prison guard salary and shares would be kept for him, and that no matter how long he went out, he must remember to return.

After all, it was hard to find an expert in this world who did not fight for power and profit!

Longevity Mountain.

Emperor Chongming's mausoleum.

Zhou Yi sent his mana through the soil, lightly knocking on the roof of the tomb. After waiting for a long time, he heard no response.

"Could something have happened to Huang Yuniang?"

"That bastard Emperor Chongming ruled a nation and plundered all manner of treasures in the name of birthday tributes. He might truly have possessed methods of cultivating immortality. The Blood Refinement of Spirit Weapons was one of them!"

"Sending Huang Yuniang into this tomb so rashly was rather thoughtless!"

After pondering for a moment, Zhou Yi left Longevity Mountain. He would not attempt to enter the mausoleum.

Many methods related to cultivating immortality circulated among mortals. If there were Formation Restrictions or the like within the tomb, one careless misstep could leave him dead and his Dao extinguished.

"Once my cultivation has achieved something, I'll come investigate again!"

Zhou Yi bought a horse and headed north along the official road.

For the first time in more than twenty years, he had left Shenjing's territory. Taking in the travelers and sights along the way naturally broadened his heart.

As the sages had said, read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles!

Sheltering from the rain in a ruined temple deep in the wilderness, he borrowed the light of a bonfire to tell several ghost stories to merchants he had met by chance. Though they were too frightened to sleep, they still urged him to continue.

He also encountered martial heroes who would fight to the death at the slightest disagreement.

Amid flashing blades and dancing swords, Zhou Yi loudly cheered them on and kindly tossed them a silver ingot.

The two heroes proved incapable of appreciating the gesture, believing they had been insulted, and charged at him together.

"Am I, Yi, the sort who delights in valor and fighting?"

Zhou Yi cried out, then fled in utter disarray.

He also met a valiant and dashing woman of the martial world who fell in love with Zhou Yi at first sight, declaring that she would marry no one but him.

Zhou Yi had always heard Lao Bai boast of how carefree the sons and daughters of the martial world were, so he wanted to experience it for himself. Yet after following the woman to a residence, before anything good could happen, seven or eight burly men covered in black hair sprang out with cries of "Ha!"

"Harvest your kidneys... ptoo, robbery!"

"Lao Bai has led me astray!"

Zhou Yi sighed toward the heavens. Left with no choice, he killed every one of the bandits.

Though he traveled at an unhurried pace, stopping and starting along the way, Zhou Yi never forgot his objective. He kept constant watch over the Imperial Guard contingent trailing one or two li behind him.

"We're almost at Serpent Coil Mountain!"

Zhou Yi flicked the reins, and the horse's hooves raced forward. A continuous mountain range emerged at the end of the plains.

Riding hard, he traveled another twenty-odd li.

The mountains ahead became clear, like an immense azure serpent coiling and winding across the horizon.

Serpent Coil Mountain!

This mountain range stretched without end, with only a single mountain road running through it. Beyond it lay the northern frontier.

The Fengyang Kingdom used Serpent Coil Mountain as a natural barrier. Even in the later years of Emperor Chongming's reign, the soldiers of Great Yong had been unable to break through it.

"Many mountains, deep forests—it's exactly the right place to silence people forever! If Emperor Hongchang still doesn't act, the northern frontier army has quite a few generals promoted by Li Wu..."

Zhou Yi tied his horse at the foot of the mountain, attached a Light-Body Talisman to himself, and shot toward Serpent Coil Mountain.

Light as a swan's feather, he needed only the gentlest touch against the ground to soar into the air, crossing more than ten zhang before slowly descending.

"Lightness skill combined with talismans already possesses thirty percent of the wonder of flight!"

About half an hour later.

Zhou Yi climbed an unnamed peak and gazed into the distance.

The mountains were like a sea, the setting sun like blood.

Mountain winds swept through the forest sea, stirring rolling green waves, vast and magnificent in their grandeur.

An eagle passed through the sky, while tiger roars echoed from within the mountains.

Zhou Yi looked down at the mountain road below. The Imperial Guards and prison carts stretched one or two li in a winding line, and faint cries could be heard.

"In such a scene, killing and staining the land with blood would be most unbecoming!"