Xinling Gong

While wandering through the slums of the old Wang Jing, Li Fan had a sudden inspiration and did some calculations.

Huh? That kid Qin Jiu's cultivation speed is really fast. He's already formed his core? Even with the help of fate, it seems too fast, doesn't it? No wonder he's someone I've taken a liking to.

I was initially worried about whether he could manage without someone watching over him, but now it seems that the newbie task with the bandits is quite simple. This fully demonstrates that his educational approach is correct and far superior to that of a certain Xuan Tian Liu.

Talented people emerge in every generation. There's no need to worry about this kid. Let him experience the world on his own, make connections, and accumulate some martial arts experience. Later, we can find a few Nascent Soul Realm cultivators to help him overcome his tribulations.

Then Li Fan calculated the progress on Yuepo's side... Hmm, it seems they're still stuck. They must have really gone deep into the North Mang Mountain.

North Mang Mountain is located north of the old Wang Jing, facing south, the North Emperor's Seat, Immortal Palace imperial mausoleum in the open.

Including the Celestial Venerable, all the Heavenly Treasure Emperors of past dynasties were buried here, along with countless rare and precious treasures and divine weapons. As a result, it has been coveted by thieves since ancient times, and the Celestial Immortal Palace of all dynasties have taken strict precautions and heavily guarded the tombs. The elite guards of the Northern Army are stationed here, along with the guards of the Ziwei Yuan Palace and the Yulin Guard, all under the jurisdiction of the Guardian General.

Moreover, besides the Northern Army camp stationed outside the mountains, the Immortal Palace and the Mystic Sect have different cultivation methods. The Immortal Palace's external alchemy method can only prolong life and improve one's realm, but it cannot overcome tribulations, and one's lifespan is limited. In addition, the method of cultivating the primordial spirit is also somewhat inferior, and one cannot maintain true Divine Sense consciousness for long. The hidden combat power trump cards of the Immortal Palace throughout the ages, such as spirit officials, pillar generals, Martial God, eunuch ancestors, and heads of powerful clans, have basically passed their peak. After reaching a certain age, their divine light gradually dims, their thinking slows down, Five Declines of Heaven and Man, and they are no longer able to handle state affairs.

Therefore, these older generation of the Immortal Palace masters do not become a burden by monopolizing sect resources like the old Xuanmen. Apart from those who lost in battles, had their homes confiscated, and were exiled, most of them would tacitly retire and go to North Mang Mountain to guard the tombs and live out their days. Thus, although their combat power is not as strong as it used to be, North Mang Mountain has accumulated many hidden talents and powerful figures over time. It is really not easy to take them down head-on without dealing with the main forces of the Nine Great Xuan Sects.

Those old Daoist sects are all hypocritical. When their time for calamity hasn't come, they're too embarrassed to openly raid other people's graves. They only dare to sneak in for archaeological digs or take advantage of the chaos to bully a few powerful clans.

Therefore, blocked by the layers of mountain formations and the restrictions of the underground palace and secret tomb, Li Fan could not be sure of Yue Po's current situation. The sword child clone he gave Yue Po, though called a clone, was actually a sword sheath forged using the sword child method of the Beichen Sword Sect. Even the Divine Court used a special secret method to dismantle and reshape it, making it into a sword palace for the flying swords to maintain their sharpness. It was practically a human mecha for the sword spirit. Heaven knows what great opportunity a certain Xuan Tian obtained to be able to go berserk and kill the previous generation of the main mountain sword sect.

Regardless, Yuepo is now a Sword Master at the Divine Transformation stage, and he also has the Sword Child's Dharma Body to use. He might not be able to steal anything particularly valuable, but he can always escape. If things really go wrong, he can simply disguise himself as Devil Sect Dharma Protector and set fire to North Mang Mountain to rescue people.

In short, Li Fan is currently busy with his new business in Sanyuan.

The Grand Tutor's side reacted quickly. Li Fan asked for a small construction foreman position, and the Grand Tutor readily agreed without hesitation. He immediately issued an imperial edict appointing Li Fan as the Assistant Minister of Works, bestowing upon him a bronze seal and yellow ribbon, and granting him a monthly stipend of four hundred bushels of grain.

Although he was just a minor official with a salary of 400 shi (a unit of grain), he was the chief clerk in charge of civil engineering and labor services among the various departments of the Ministry of Works. With his copper seal, he could handle big deals worth tens or hundreds of thousands of guan (a unit of currency).

For example, if the sons of powerful families don't want to perform corvée labor, they can simply pay someone to do it for them. For instance, a few days ago, the Demonic Sect set fire to the capital, burning down more than thirty city wards. Should they rebuild or repair them? It's just a matter of a word. Taking a 10% or 20% kickback is no big deal for them.

If you want to play even more aggressively, you can find a merchant to place a sealed bid, take 70% upfront, share the remaining 30% with others, and take 10% of your share, then subcontract 50% to others, keeping the rest for yourself. These are all low-level games.

Of course, you can't handle this kind of job without someone behind you or the strength to back you up. There are so many powerful clans in Sanyuan, all of them are relatives of the emperor and Guan Nei Hou within the pass. Who's afraid of whom? So, under normal circumstances, civil engineering projects require all the families to get together for tea, music, and a meal before the profits are determined.

However, Li Fan is now the Marquis of Duting, and a powerful envoy favored by the Grand Tutor. Moreover, the Demonic Sect did indeed burn and kill many people and destroy many places, with several wards almost razed to the ground. Rebuilding the Three Walls and resettling the disaster victims will indeed be quite a task, not the kind of work that can be easily made money. Besides, he had already flexed his muscles. Therefore, while Sikong's body was still warm, the various clans all expressed their willingness to give Marquis Yu face and not interfere with this project.

Li Fan also expressed his gratitude for everyone's respect. He explained that as a newcomer to the Three Palaces, he still had much to learn from the esteemed clan leaders. To show his respect, he would only send the mechanical engineers from Ink Bamboo Mountain to conduct urban planning, receiving a tenth of their labor fee, with the remainder to be distributed equally among everyone. He requested that all clan leaders contribute their efforts, sending some manpower to help, so that everyone could share the spoils. His only request was that everyone hire more homeless people for work relief, which would also help maintain order in the Three Palaces, alleviate the burden on the national treasury, restore the Wang Jing's prosperity as soon as possible, and save face for the court.

Upon hearing that everyone would receive a share, the group of nobles praised Lord Yu for his loyalty to the court, declaring him a truly devoted minister. They pledged their full support.

Now that everyone had reached a gentleman's agreement, Li Fan began to arrange for some mechanical engineers from Ink Bamboo Mountain to come under the guise of an envoy to provide technical guidance. Considering the technological gap between the two sides, Li Fan personally contacted the foremen sent by the powerful merchant families, teaching them the engineering and technical standards of Mozhu Mountain and popularizing the methods of Mozhu Mountain.

You know what, the Central Plains is truly a land of hidden talents. Even the craftsmen of the Three Realms have heard of the names of the Heavenly Craftsmen and the Grand Masters. Many of them were disciples of the Grand Masters or Heavenly Craftsmen. After witnessing the power of the Heavenly Craft Peak's system of mechanisms, they said that although they didn't understand it, they were greatly shocked. So they all voluntarily signed agreements with the Grand Masters, joined the Celestial Immortal Organization, and learned about the advanced productivity of the other world.

The powerful clans weren't unaware that Li Fan was using the engineering project to smuggle in personal gain. However, to be honest, while they were well-versed in the Six Secret Teachings, they lacked the necessary science and engineering background and couldn't understand those complex equations and formulas. But the mechanical creations of flowers, birds, fish, insects, spaceships, trains, and artificial dolls were already the most popular southern barbarian goods in the Central Plains recently. Moreover, due to the Hengshan Mountain blocking the way between Ink Bamboo Mountain and Sanyuan, transportation was inconvenient, making them very expensive and rare toys that people competed to acquire.

Unexpectedly, this Marquis Yu had no business acumen whatsoever. He directly shared these trade secrets and engineering techniques with others, making his sons grin from ear to ear. They all sent their family craftsmen to infiltrate the ranks and attend Marquis Yu's open lectures on engineering, hoping to secretly learn the secrets of Ink Bamboo Mountain.

In short, everyone gets what they need, which is a win-win situation.

Li Fan stayed in Sanyuan for another seven days. While the Grand Tutors, Guardian General, Secretaries, and Shangshu Lang were all hiding in their mansions and military camps to avoid disaster, Li Fan was running Fourth Department, using the Grand Tutor's name to embezzle funds from the imperial court and the gold and silver given to him by the Zhang clan as advance payments. He also borrowed manpower and construction teams sent by powerful clans, treating all the disaster victims as corvée laborers. He organized construction teams to build temporary housing for the disaster victims, provided them with basic living supplies, advanced some wages and medical expenses, and provided emergency treatment for the injured from the fire. He did use some methods, but at least temporarily quelled the aftermath of the Demonic Sect's attack, and most of the displaced disaster victims inside and outside the city were temporarily resettled.

Although Li Fan knew it was largely futile, he figured he might as well help if he could. Waiting for the high-ranking officials in the imperial court to allocate funds for disaster relief would take forever. After all, when faced with natural disasters or man-made calamities, the Immortal Palace's best course of action was to open its granaries and distribute grain. But with rice prices so high now, it wasn't even enough to supply the military. In Zhen, people were already resorting to cannibalism; who would give you any more grain? At worst, you could rebel. The officials of the Imperial Guards were just looking for men to earn military merits.

People born under the emperor's nose are probably more sensible. The disaster victims were quite cooperative. No one complained about the shacks, or about not having enough to eat, or asking for more wages. If they happened to encounter Li Fan coming to help with medical treatment, they would silently kneel down, kowtow, and then watch him leave without saying a word.

Unfortunately, this brief period of peace lasted until the seventh night, when another incident occurred.

Warships gathered in the sky, warhorses galloped on the ground, and fully armed elite soldiers, carrying swords and crossbows, blocked the three walls.

Li Fan was giving a lesson in a shack for disaster victims outside the city when he saw this and came out to check on the situation.

Fortunately, this time it shouldn't be aimed at them. Although a battalion of troops has been mobilized, there are mainly more people in the refugee camps, so troops have to be sent to keep an eye on them and prevent them from taking the opportunity to cause trouble. The main troops have been mobilized elsewhere.

"Greetings, Lord Yu"

When the officers and soldiers guarding the refugee camp saw Li Fan fly onto the warship, no one pointed bows or arrows at him; they simply bowed down to him without hesitation.

"What's going on now?"

Since that was the case, Li Fan didn't make things difficult for those who were being ordered around. He casually slipped them a handful of gold coins and came over to inquire about the situation. He had been busy with the refugee camp these past few days and didn't know what changes had occurred in the court. The situation in the Three Realms was chaotic, and it was also a time of calamity for the Grand Tutor. The secrets of heaven were unpredictable.

"Reporting to Your Excellency, I have heard that a few days ago, thieves set fire to the Jingji. The Sili Xiaowei discovered that it was the Xinling County Duke who colluded with the Demonic Sect to cause trouble. The Court of Tingwei has already mobilized the troops from the Left and Right Supervisory Offices to arrest them."

Oh ho, isn't the Sili Xiaowei that Zhong Hui? And even a captain of the Imperial Guard knows this so clearly, isn't it a done deal, and the whole army has been informed? How come the imperial clan hasn't heard a thing?

With such a huge burden being placed on his head, and the Grand Tutor being the cunning and shrewd type who never misses a beat, isn't Bei Gong Wuji doomed?

Li Fan did some quick calculations and felt that his friend's chances of survival were slim.

It seems the Northern Palace clan will be wiped out this time. Is the Grand Tutor really just going with the flow? Or did he plan this from the beginning, striking first, using the Weaving Bureau as a pledge of allegiance, sacrificing the Minister of Works as a flag offering, and then wiping out the entire clan in one fell swoop? How insidious! How can we deal with such an inhuman and shameless strategist...?

Li Fan counted on his fingers for a while, but even with the system's assistance, he still felt that the celestial secrets were confused. Although the moon was bright and the stars were few, it was as if a thick fog had covered his head, and he couldn't see anything clearly. At this moment, there were probably countless people in the Jingji who were just like him, frowning and counting on their fingers.

Now he truly realized that when he was a naive and impulsive young man, he was quite decisive in his actions. But now that he can calculate cause and effect and glimpse the secrets of heaven, he has become more ambivalent and hesitant.

Sigh, thinking about it, maybe Xuan Tian is right. What's the point of trying to outsmart this cunning old fox? Just cut him down with a single sword strike. Or rather, since he's already figured out all the options, a swift and decisive move is the only optimal solution.

But assassinating the Grand Tutor...

Li Fan estimated that, with his current abilities, the Tai Sha Sword Rainbow might be able to break through the Grand Tutor's defenses and injure him. With the addition of the Tai Sha Star Core, he might even have a chance. The problem was that he still couldn't pinpoint the Grand Tutor's location. Thinking about it carefully, he'd been in the Jingji for so long and hadn't even seen the Grand Tutor or Guardian General. Could it be that they were also wary of him suddenly acting impulsively and breaking through their defenses with a single sword strike? That was certainly quite cautious...

Li Fan knew that the chances of him suddenly turning against the Grand Tutor were relatively small compared to other calamities. After all, without the Grand Tutor presiding over the overall situation in the Three Realms and balancing the various Xuanmen forces on Yuntai Peak, given the low limits of these old Xuanmen and old demonic sects, the day of peace in the world would be even more distant.

Currently, the overall strength of Ink Bamboo Mountain is far from enough to allow Li Fan to easily unify the world without risking its destruction. For now, they can only walk one step at a time on a tightrope between chaos on one side and the destruction of the world on the other.

As for his friend Bei Gong Wuji, Li Fan could only apologize and say he would help him reincarnate if given the chance.

So Li Fan spent the night guarding the refugee camp with mixed feelings, on guard against any evil cult Fourth Department killing, setting fires, throwing bombs, and trying to disrupt order and loot during the chaos.

Fortunately, such a thing did not happen. Although there were certainly some small-scale skirmishes and sword fights, they did not escalate to the point of setting up battle formations and engaging in magical combat in the Jingji.

As dawn broke, seeing that the situation seemed to have eased, but the Jingji had not yet withdrawn its troops and lifted its alert, Li Fan did not want to move Fourth Department and attract attention. So he sent his primordial spirit to Yuntai Peak Square and squatted down with the idle fortune tellers of the Xuanmen sect, eating melons. Soon, he received one shocking secret after another from the people of the Three Realms.

"Xinling Gong has already escaped the territory of the Three Enclosures!"

"How is that possible! Even if he managed to get out of the Wang Jing, how did he get out of the pass?"

"I heard that he held the Tiger Tally and moved freely through the Immortal Palace's grand formation, protected by trusted experts. When he left the Western Suburbs Guard, the guarding officer didn't dare to stop him at all!"

"What! The Tiger Tally! Wasn't half of the Tiger Tally in the Grand Tutor's hands? The other half... hiss... could it be the Ziwei Yuan...?"

"Who knows? During the morning court session, someone from the Ziwei Yuan said that the Tiger Tally had been stolen. Heh, whether you believe it or not, I believe it."

"Why doesn't the Grand Tutor immediately send troops to arrest him? What if Xinling Gong steals the Tiger Tally and rebels?"

"There's no one in the world today who would be foolish enough to go crazy with a member of the imperial family, right? What use are his few personal guards and assassins anyway?"

"Escape? If the Three Emperors had stripped him of his dukedom, removed him from the imperial clan register, removed him from the list of deities, and issued a public proclamation to capture the thief, even a mere county magistrate could have apprehended him and brought him to the capital. Hmph, is this all the imperial clan members have to offer now?"

"However, if they leave through Maowei, it seems they are fleeing towards the Dui Country... Could it be that they intend to sneak across the Hexi Corridor and escape to the Divine Cult?"

"No way, a member of the royal family dares to join a cult? Are they asking for trouble?"

"Speaking of which, how is the cult doing these days?"

"Urgent military intelligence! The Divine Cult has entered the pass! The Divine Cult army has broken through the Heishan Pass and captured Quanzhou City!"

"What?! How is this possible! Weren't the vanguard of the Divine Cult still in Shazhou yesterday?! Across the vast desert, four prefectures, a thousand miles away! Did they fly here with wings?! What are the garrisons of Guazhou and Yumen doing?! Not a single word! Did they surrender without a fight?!"

"Hiss--So it was planned all along! Damn it! Xinling Gong, a first-class duke of the imperial family and a direct descendant of the Immortal Emperor, actually colluded with the Demonic Sect to invade!"

"A major event has occurred! At the grand court assembly in the Taiwei Hall, the Grand Tutor has recommended the Xinling County Duke to be appointed Conquering West General, ordering him to command the four Duhu Manor of Hexi to resist the invasion of the Demonic Sect! The Ziwei Yuan has already approved the recommendation!"

"Oh no... what on earth is the Immortal Palace up to...?"