Seven Hundred Years of Great Chu, Peace Throughout the Realm.

Chapter 21: Seven Hundred Years of Great Chu, Peace Throughout the Realm.

"Off by a thousand miles..."

Chu Mu returned his saber to its sheath and stood where he was. In his mind, the several saber swings from earlier surfaced once more.

The first swing had been a minuscule fluctuation.

The second, third, and fourth swings had likewise contained minuscule gaps.

Compared to before, his progress had been tremendous, and so had his gains.

But Chu Mu keenly sensed that completely erasing those tiny discrepancies would likely prove exceedingly difficult.

After pondering for only a moment, Chu Mu suppressed the thought. He was already quite satisfied with such progress.

Rice had to be eaten one mouthful at a time, and roads had to be walked one step at a time.

It was better for him not to think too much.

He raised his head and glanced at the mist-shrouded sky. Pulling his clothes tighter around himself, Chu Mu set off toward his room.

As soon as he entered, he set down his saber, then instinctively picked up the Patrol Inspector Armor hanging on the wall. Only after taking it into his hands did Chu Mu realize that he seemed to be off duty today...

According to the Patrol Inspectorate's regulations, there were four days of leave each month. Which four days one took depended on the arrangements of each individual squad.

But after joining the Patrol Inspectorate, Chu Mu discovered that regulations... were always merely regulations. What actually happened still depended on the arrangements from above.

In the more than month since Chu Mu had joined the Patrol Inspectorate, this was the first time he had taken leave. He had this day off because the Patrol Inspectorate's expansion had been completed, and a Hundred Household transferred from the county seat had finally arrived.

"Rare indeed..."

Chu Mu shook his head and casually rehung the armor on the wall. Just as he was about to leave, he seemed to notice something, and his steps suddenly halted.

Chu Mu looked toward the corner of the courtyard wall. A dog cub was curled up there, occasionally letting out a whimper.

"Where did this stray dog come from?"

Chu Mu swept his gaze around once more, and it finally settled on a small gap at the base of one side of the courtyard wall. Clearly, the dog cub had probably crawled in through that hole.

Seeing the dog cub shivering violently from the cold, it had probably been abandoned by someone—or perhaps it had simply gotten lost.

"I might as well raise a dog to guard the house and courtyard."

Chu Mu looked over his own courtyard and suddenly felt that this idea of his was truly not bad.

He patted the snowflakes from the dog cub's body, then lifted it up in one motion and hurried into the room. The furnace flames flickered inside, heat roiling through the air, and the shivering dog cub seemed to grow considerably more comfortable.

The dog cub curled into a ball and quietly lay at Chu Mu's feet. It occasionally wriggled twice, looking exceptionally adorable.

"I'll get you something to eat."

Chu Mu chuckled, walked into the kitchen, and stuffed a steamed bun into his mouth. He reheated the leftover dishes and rice, poured them into a bowl, and brought it before the dog cub.

The dog cub cast a timid glance at Chu Mu, then looked around in all directions before tentatively lowering its head and noisily gobbling from the bowl.

Chu Mu glanced at the snowflakes that seemed to be swirling outside the courtyard. His original desire to stroll around town faded considerably.

He walked over and sat beside the charcoal fire, casually picked up a book, and began reading it slowly.

Before, he had read merely to learn the written language. But after nearly a month of schooling, Chu Mu's thoughts had gradually changed quite a bit.

Reading could be said to be the easiest thing for a person to do to find peace and focus. And that single-minded focus could make his "Spiritual Radiance" grow. For him, this was undoubtedly a case of killing two birds with one stone.

As usual, with a book never leaving his hands, time passed swiftly. Nearly half an hour later, Chu Mu finally returned from the world within the book.

He had long since read the four introductory books countless times. Although there were still quite a few characters he did not recognize, their system of meanings was similar to Chinese characters, so it did not greatly hinder Chu Mu's understanding of the texts.

What he was reading now was a history book he had deliberately bought from a bookstore a few days earlier.

It mainly described the history of the Great Chu dynasty. This was also the most important reason Chu Mu had bought and read it despite not yet being fully literate.

After all, what could help him understand this era better than a history book?

The book recorded that, to this day, Great Chu had stood for six hundred and ninety-three years and gone through twelve emperors. The current ruler was Great Chu's twelfth emperor, whose era name was Jingwu. This year was the twenty-eighth year of Jingwu.

According to Chu Mu's original thoughts, a dynasty that had stood for nearly seven hundred years must have experienced countless changes and upheavals, and countless capable people and heroes must have turned the tide and devoted themselves to the state for Great Chu to have endured until now.

Yet after flipping through the entire history book, aside from the turbulent changes and rivers of blood during the reign of the founding emperor, even matters such as the Banknote that had puzzled Chu Mu had been established by Great Chu's founding emperor.

Mines were state-owned and strictly controlled. This rule had also been established after Great Chu was founded.

As for the eleven emperors afterward, the records were practically nothing more than a running account from beginning to end—utterly bland.

The succession of imperial power had not seen the slightest ripple. No trace of policy reform could be found. The powerful ministers so common in the annals of history had never appeared, and there was even no record of nobles usurping the throne or launching rebellions.

The occasional Civil Unrest and uprisings had all been like ants shaking a tree. The moment they gathered momentum, they were crushed with the force of Thunder.

After reading through the history books, Great Chu's nearly seven-hundred-year reign could be described as a harmonious scene filled with peace throughout the realm and harmony between ruler and subject.

Was this normal?

It seemed fairly normal, but clearly, normality was the greatest abnormality of all.

Chu Mu did not understand history very well, but the divisions and reunifications across several thousand years in his previous life had long since made one great truth perfectly clear: there had never been any plan that could last forever. No matter how good the policies and systems, no matter how prosperous the fortunes of a state, they would always be worn down and changed by time.

After all, the human heart was unfathomable.

For a dynasty, a realm, and a set of rules to continue for nearly seven hundred years was already something that felt like an Impossible Tale.

Across the several thousand years of history in his previous life, how many Kings and Generals and heroes had there been? Even national fortunes lasting three or four hundred years were exceedingly rare.

Not to mention nearly seven hundred years of national fortune that had remained peaceful and entirely free of setbacks. This was practically more fantastical than a fairy tale.

Moreover, according to the history book, Great Chu did not rule the world unchallenged. Several other countries existed around it, and neither their national strength nor their territories were inferior to Great Chu's. Yet for more than four hundred years, Great Chu and the surrounding nations had coexisted harmoniously, without even a single war breaking out.

In the nearly seven hundred years since Great Chu was founded, the wars recorded in this history book seemed to consist only of the founding wars and the wars against the Barbarians.

And the Barbarians were not foreign enemies in the True Sense of the word, either. According to the history book, they were roughly equivalent to the indigenous foreign races of the Huaxia civilization in his previous life's history. They lived amid Deep Mountains and treacherous waters, and their culture and customs were utterly different from those of the people of Chu.

However, in the nearly seven hundred years since Great Chu was founded, most of the so-called Barbarians had also become part of history.

According to the history book, during Great Chu's seven hundred years, the weather had been favorable, the people had lived in peace and prosperity, and the national fortune had endured without end.

"I can't make sense of it..."

Chu Mu shook his head. Since coming to this world, although he had not encountered many things, the matters he could not make sense of had only grown more numerous.

Seven hundred years of national fortune, peace throughout the realm, twelve emperors, each ruling for nearly sixty years on average...

Great Chu couldn't possibly have been ruled by long-lived sage rulers generation after generation. It was practically more of a fairy tale than a fairy tale.

This era was truly bizarre!