Longzang

Chapter 1004 You look a lot like...

On the seventh day of the third month of the third year of the Hongjing era, Wei Yuan, the regent of the Western Jin Dynasty, the King of Wei, the Grand Councilor of the Southern Military Council, and the military governor of Dingxi, submitted a memorial stating that he had obtained a box of letters from an inside agent in Zhao containing correspondence between Jin officials and Zhao. The evidence was irrefutable, and those involved should be executed along with their entire families according to the laws of Tang and Jin.

Wei Yuan, the official implicated in the case in the eight southern prefectures, has been arrested and imprisoned, awaiting only trial before execution. However, these officials also implicated many high-ranking officials in the court, so Wei Yuan submitted a memorial requesting that they be severely punished as well.

The memorial was accompanied by a list of officials involved in the case and their accomplices, which numbered over a thousand!

Among them, the Left Chancellor's former associates and protégés numbered the most, totaling eighty-seven people, while the Right Chancellor was implicated forty-two. Other high-ranking officials in the court, those who opposed Wei Yuan, were implicated in numbers ranging from two or three to dozens. Those who had a good relationship with Wei Yuan were not involved at all.

The blatant and undisguised nature of this operation left everyone in the court speechless.

In the Western Jin Dynasty's government hall, the King of Jin summoned fewer than ten high-ranking officials, with only two of the six ministers present. In addition to the officials in their regular positions, the King of Chu was also present, sitting on the sidelines listening.

At this moment, a video is being played in the center of the State Affairs Hall.

In the morning mist, an antique mansion was still asleep. The house, with its white walls and gray tiles, was quiet and serene. Suddenly, a large troop of soldiers emerged from the mist, surrounding the mansion in the blink of an eye. An officer smashed the heavy gate open with a hammer, and the fierce soldiers leaped over the high walls, entering the house directly.

Inside the mansion, any servants or guards who rushed to the scene at the sound were immediately hacked to death if they dared to utter a single word. The steward had his arm chopped off for pointing his finger at the officer's nose and cursing, "Who do you think you are?" Then a soldier pierced his shoulder with a spear and pinned him to the wall.

Moments later, a large number of gentlemen, sons, concubines, and mistresses were dragged out from various courtyards. Officers, holding rosters, called out names one by one. Those whose names were called were dragged onto separate prison carts and taken away on the spot.

A middle-aged, greasy-faced young man was whipped hard across the face simply for shouting "The law does not apply to officials"; an elderly man with gray hair was kicked to the ground for trembling as he shouted "I am a Jinshi from the early years of the king's reign".

Several concubines and ladies who were throwing tantrums hadn't even had a chance to wail twice before they were whipped. Fortunately, the Qingming soldiers were disciplined and used their strength sparingly, not touching them physically, but only striking the fleshiest parts. After a few lashes, all the women instantly became reasonable and calm.

In the end, the entire mansion was taken away, leaving only a few soldiers to guard it. These soldiers sealed off each room one by one, without touching any valuables.

The video ends here.

The Left Chancellor stepped forward, knelt on the ground, and said, "Just now, Wei Yuan arbitrarily mobilized the army to search the old residence of Mu Tianyan, the Assistant Magistrate of Xingrong County! This Wei Yuan is truly audacious and lawless! Openly arresting an official of the court is tantamount to rebellion! I beg Your Majesty to issue an edict to punish him, and this old minister is willing to personally lead troops to suppress him!"

At this moment, Xu Gong, the Minister of Personnel, suddenly said, "As the Regent and the Grand Councilor of the Southern Military Council, Wei Yuan can execute officials below the rank of Prefect if they commit crimes, as long as there is evidence. Only Prefects need to report to the court for a decision. Now, we have only arrested a Deputy Prefect, which is not an overstepping of authority. So what we need to find out now is whether there is evidence."

The Left Prime Minister was taken aback, glanced at Xu Gong, and quickly began to make a mental calculation.

All the officials' eyes fell on the lacquered wooden box placed in the center of the hall. Inside the box were letters between officials of all ranks in Jin and Zhao, which Wei Yuan had sent along with the memorial to the throne.

At this moment, Lu Zhongzhi, the Commander of the Nine Gates, stepped forward and said, "Leaving aside whether these letters are forged or not, even if one or two of them are genuine, they need to be carefully verified and jointly tried by the three judicial departments before they can be imprisoned and prosecuted. I believe..."

Xu Gong sneered and said, "What do you think should be done? Remove Wei Yuan from his position as regent?!"

Lu Zhongzhi's upright, square face gradually turned purple. Ignoring Xu Gong's sarcastic remarks, he said to the Prince of Jin, "His regent status should be removed, and he should be taken back to the capital to be punished!"

Xu Gong clapped his hands and said, "Lord Lü, you have great courage! Since Lord Lü has made this suggestion, whoever made the proposal shall be responsible. So please, Lord Lü, lead your troops and go and capture Wei Yuan! You are the Commander of the Nine Gates, I doubt Wei Yuan would dare to cut off your head!"

Lu Zhongzhi could no longer contain himself and shouted, "Xu Gong! The King hasn't even spoken yet, how dare you spout such nonsense!"

Xu Gong sneered: "Yes, the King hasn't even spoken yet, so how dare you spout nonsense! The King is kind and unwilling to speak plainly, but I'm willing to share the King's burden and make things clear! Don't think you're invincible just because you have someone sitting on your head. If you're so capable, go to Qingming and see if Wei Yuan dares to kill you!"

Lu Zhongzhi sneered: "I never expected that the Xu family would also become Wei Yuan's lackeys!"

"The Xu family..." Xu Gong drawled.

Lu Zhongzhi's expression changed, and he immediately cupped his hands to the sky, saying solemnly, "I, Lu, spoke without thinking for a moment, please forgive me, Immortal!"

He waited for a while, and when he saw that there was no movement in the air, he breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, the Prince of Jin finally spoke: "Wei Yuan's plan this time is extremely ambitious and his determination is very strong. He has also given me enough benefits. I know that some of you are very unhappy that I have lived these extra years. But there is nothing I can do. Since I am still alive, you have to put up with it."

The officials dared not utter a sound. At this moment, the King of Jin seemed to have reverted to the deep-thinking, decisive ruler he had been when he first ascended the throne. The young King of Chu felt a chill run down his spine, and before he knew it, his clothes were soaked with sweat.

The Prince of Jin surveyed the hall and continued, "What I'm curious about is that even the Immortal Ancestor Zhao Li personally intervened to arrange this matter for Wei Yuan throughout the entire Zhao Kingdom. Wei Yuan was practically announcing to the world that this matter concerns his future path. Since you've intervened to obstruct his path, you should have known the consequences. Why are you now passing the buck back to me?"

There were a total of nine high-ranking officials in the hall; apart from three, the rest were all from the same family.

The Left Chancellor said, "This matter concerns the face of the court, as well as the face of His Majesty. If we ignore Wei Yuan, we fear it will discourage the scholars of the land!"

The Prince of Jin suddenly sighed and said, "Hey! This has chilled the hearts of scholars all over the world... I hear this several times a year, and I never thought I would hear it again. I remember when you first said this to me, you were just a minor censor. In the blink of an eye, you have become a high-ranking official with thousands of acres of land and houses."

The Left Prime Minister's expression remained unchanged as he said, "Those are all rumors! If Your Majesty does not believe me, you may send men to search my home. I am willing to donate all the proceeds to the national treasury."

The Prince of Jin said calmly, "Stop spouting these fancy words that even ghosts wouldn't believe. I've managed to live a few more years, and I want to enjoy them to the fullest. Time is precious, so I won't waste my breath on this nonsense. If you can't come up with anything useful, then go sit over there. If you don't want to sit, then go out yourself."

The Left Chancellor was taken aback, then silently kowtowed and returned to his seat. The Right Chancellor coughed lightly and said, "Now that things have come to this, I believe we should first bring all six prefects on the list back to the court and hand them over to the Three Judicial Offices for questioning... At least we can save some face."

The Prince of Jin was somewhat tempted by what he heard.

Just then, someone came running up and said, "A memorial from the King of Wei, delivered with utmost urgency!"

Suddenly, all the high-ranking officials in the hall felt a chill run down their spines, sensing that something was amiss.

The Prince of Jin took the memorial, opened it, and suddenly laughed heartily. He casually handed the memorial to the Right Chancellor beside him. The Left Chancellor, sitting opposite him, instinctively reached out to take it, but caught nothing.

The Right Chancellor's expression changed drastically upon reading it, and he then passed the memorial to the next official. In the blink of an eye, the memorial passed through the hands of all the officials before finally reaching the Left Chancellor.

The memorial contained very little, just a few sentences: Huang Ping, Xiang Rong, and the other six prefects, seeing that their conspiracy had been exposed, had committed suicide out of fear of punishment.

Several officials felt a chill run down their spines; they knew that Wei Yuan had launched a counterattack.

No one expected Wei Yuan to be so ruthless, leaving no room for retreat. It seemed he was determined to uproot all their disciples, associates, relatives, and properties in the eight southern prefectures!

The worst-case scenario they had anticipated was not even eleventh as severe as Wei Yuan's current counterattack. Why... is this a fight to the death?!
Seeing the expressions on the faces of his officials, the Prince of Jin suddenly felt extremely pleased and burst into laughter. He then said, "Wei Yuan told me long ago that he doesn't care about his posthumous reputation at all. Even if he is cursed by people for ten thousand years to come, he will kill his enemies in this life first! Hahaha, why do you bunch of scholars have to provoke such a scoundrel?"

History must always be written, but it seems the pen will soon be in someone else's hands.

The officials' expressions were uncertain, but Lü Zhongzhi suddenly said, "So, Wei Yuan's journey has indeed been blocked?"

The Prince of Jin said calmly, "So, you caused his efforts to fail at the last minute, and now you want me to take the blame? What are your intentions? Should this be considered a usurpation of the throne, or a rebellion?"

No one dared to respond; everyone was frantically calculating their options, trying to extricate themselves from the situation and devise a counterattack. Some, however, felt a surge of joy: Finally, Wei Yuan's path to power was severed!
……

At this moment, Wei Yuan had just stepped out of the teleportation portal. He looked at the three blazing suns overhead and felt not the heat, but warmth. He took a deep breath of air strong enough to ignite paper and felt a sense of joy.

When Wei Yuan appeared, the world rejoiced from the inside out, and even Wei Yuan's mood improved considerably.

He looked around at the familiar scenery, then at the three celestial pillars in the far distance, and the newly appeared mountain range. Suddenly, he felt a pang of longing for Molten Dragon, Heavenly Whisper, Extreme True Steel, Hunter Trinity, and so on. He recalled those days fighting in the Desolate Realm, simple and joyful.

Stepping into the desolate realm once more, Wei Yuan sent a message automatically to a distant place with a thought. Then, in a flash, the enormous nine-eyed avatar appeared before Wei Yuan. Each of its tentacles held a huge wine barrel, and it had a straw in its mouth, taking sips from one barrel after another.

All nine eyes opened at once and blinked at Wei Yuan, meaning: Speak your mind, I'm busy talking.

Wei Yuan glanced at the barrels and was surprised to find that each one bore Qingming's mark, meaning the wine was actually their own. The purpose of the Nine-Eyed One carrying the barrels became quite clear.

Wei Yuan then said, "I really have no other choice, so I came here to ask for a wisp of Heavenly Witch's fortune."

Nine Eyes blinked and asked, "What's in it for me?"

Wei Yuan pointed to the sky and said, "I have a bit of the authority of the Heavenly Witch of this realm, which I can use to exchange for it."

All nine eyes opened again, and after carefully examining Wei Yuan, they said, "But with my Heavenly Witch's fortune, can I handle matters concerning your human race?"

Wei Yuan smiled wryly: "There will be some hidden dangers, but time is just too tight, and I've been tricked by the immortals of my own clan. So this is the only way; let's get through this first. I'll settle accounts with them one by one later!"

Nine Eyes said, "Giving you a bit of luck is not impossible, but I have a condition. If you agree, you can take the luck on the spot!"

"What conditions?"

Nine Eyes said, "You tell me first whether you agree or not."

Nine Eyes is a Heavenly Witch, and he never speaks empty words. Therefore, Wei Yuan knew that there was no room for negotiation on this matter, so he could only grit his teeth and say, "If it only concerns me, then I agree!"

Upon hearing this, the heavens and earth suddenly changed slightly, as these words had already been recorded into the Heavenly Dao.

Nine Eyes was very satisfied and said, "My requirement is that if we cannot find a suitable candidate after a period of time, then you will take over the position of Heavenly Witch of this realm!"

Wei Yuan was taken aback. Pointing to himself, he said, "Me, a human, who has succeeded to the position of Heavenly Witch?"

Nine Eyes narrowed his eyes and said, "Is there any reason not to? From the first moment I saw you, I thought you looked like a celestial witch."

　PS: I rolled it up a little again today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)