Longzang

Chapter 1166 Going to Beijing
In the first month of spring in the seventeenth year of Hongjing, Wei Yuan stood above the azure sky, observing the qi of the six realms and eight directions, and saw that the world seemed to be at peace.

The battlefront remains intact, though the fighting has just begun to subside.

At this moment, the full moon hangs high in the sky, and countless stars twinkle. The earth is dotted with clusters of human lights, even more dense and brilliant than the Milky Way in the sky.

The Azure Sky was now nearly ten thousand miles across, an incredibly vast expanse, encompassing the three prefectures of southern Shanxi and the three prefectures of western Ning, which originally belonged to the Xu family.

As for Hanyang Pass, it's a thing of the past. Now deep in the heart of Qinghai, it has completely lost its significance as a pass and has become a hub connecting the heart of Qinghai with the Western Jin Dynasty, as well as a famous historical and cultural city. There are still many scenic spots in the city, such as "the place where the Lord of the Realm traveled west" and "the place where the Lord of the Realm hid," and so on.

Where there is enough land, there will be abundant resources. Coal, also known as coal in the outer world, is extremely abundant in the Azure Netherworld.

Therefore, after large-scale mining, Qingming has now designated coal as a basic resource, and every household has the right to purchase a certain amount of coal at a fair price.

In the Azure Sky, it's summer all year round, so there's no need for heating, but every household still needs to cook. After coal production increased, Wei Yuan banned the use of firewood throughout the Azure Sky.

In the Nine Kingdoms, ordinary families would rest as soon as it got dark, basically maintaining a life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

In Qingming, however, the scene was quite different. People worked during the day, the ambitious studied or practiced physical training at night, while the unambitious ate, drank, and had fun. In short, neither the ambitious nor the unambitious wanted to sleep.

Thus, the sky was filled with lights until late at night, a scene that was described by literary enthusiasts as "the Milky Way on Earth" and widely praised.

Nearly a year had passed since Wei Yuan conquered the ancestral lands of the Lü family. During this year, Wei Yuan ceased military campaigns and instead focused on consolidating the newly acquired territories.

The daily lives of over a billion people are incredibly complex. For a whole year, the Eight Heroes of Jianmu, including the Old Daoist Chuhe, traversed countless mountains and rivers, and more and more cultivators from Jianmu Palace came to provide support. Everyone was exhausted and lost weight, but they only managed to finalize the overall plan for the relocation of the boundary stones and barely completed the relocation of the boundary stones in the southern and Ningxi counties.

The immense karma generated when the boundary stone was re-established was partially shared by hundreds of Jianmu Hall cultivators, with the remaining portion shared by thousands of template cultivators who accompanied them. Less than 20% of the karma was attributed to Wei Yuan.

In terms of people's livelihood, in the past year, we have only managed to clear the trade routes so that Qingming's grain and cotton can be transported to the selected nodes and hubs, so as to prevent people from freezing or starving to death due to the changes in the boundary stone and the earth vein.

However, as the boundary stones were continuously removed, many plots of land had completely failed to yield a harvest, requiring the transportation of large quantities of grain from Qingming. The land routes were already overburdened, but fortunately, there was no fighting in the surrounding area at the moment, so Wei Yuan dispatched several hundred floating boats and airships to transport the grain, thus preventing a man-made disaster.

In the Western Jin Dynasty, apart from the flying boats that would be considered a wonder even by the standards of outer space, all that remained were muddy roads. Even in the major cities, only the main roads were paved with stone slabs, and those roads had been in disrepair for many years.

In this world, there is neither the best nor the worst. Although cultivators and mortals live in the same realm, they seem to be two different species. One yearns to explore the heavens and seek the Great Dao, while the other struggles to survive in the mud. Even if they pass each other by, they will never intersect.

It's the first day of the new year. The harshest winter has passed, and the days to come will gradually warm up. For immortals, this day is meaningless. For mortals, it simply means another year has passed.

As midnight passed, Wei Yuan's sea of ​​consciousness suddenly trembled, and specks of green light came from all directions!

This was the first time the people of the Western Jin Dynasty had discovered that, surprisingly, not many people had frozen to death or starved to death that past winter. Wherever the Qingming troops appeared, even the local officials became more lenient, no longer arbitrarily punishing the dead, and imprisoning and sentencing people became much more cautious.

So on this New Year's Eve, many people of Qingming spontaneously prayed for Wei Yuan. Countless prayers transformed into countless streams of good fortune, converging on Wei Yuan, ultimately amounting to more than ten million streams!
Wei Yuan sighed inwardly. These ordinary people were so easily moved to tears. Anyone who treated them even slightly well would be overwhelmed with gratitude. Wei Yuan felt he hadn't done anything special, merely distributing some food and clothing, yet this was already considered a blessing from all the people?
Looking at the magnificent starry sky on the ground, Wei Yuan once again felt that what he had done was meaningful and that his cultivation of great power was not in vain.

But at this moment, he suddenly remembered something: Why hasn't Emperor Jing died yet?

Wei Yuan didn't understand why he had such strange thoughts. What did it matter to him whether Emperor Jing died or not?

But he just had a sudden urge, and he felt that Emperor Jing should have died long ago, at the very moment when the Heavenly Demon severed the connection with the outside world, officially entered the Yellow Springs Cave Heaven, and he himself officially stepped into the Imperial Jing.

Even if he hadn't collapsed then, Emperor Jing should have died when he later cultivated his spiritual palace and his true spirit returned to its place. Why hasn't the edict announcing his death been issued to the world yet?

Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, then shook his head, having no answer. He suddenly became curious: who exactly was Emperor Jing, who sat so regally on the throne deep within the palace?

……

In the palace of the Great Tang Emperor, Emperor Jing suddenly awoke from a nightmare, sat up abruptly, and gasped for breath. After a long while, he finally calmed down and realized he had just been dreaming.

He suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold, only to realize that his clothes were already soaked with sweat, and that the warming and energy-storing array in the room had stopped at some point, with wisps of cold wind occasionally seeping into the room.

Emperor Jing reached out and touched the bed beside him; the blankets were already cold, and the person inside was nowhere to be found. Emperor Jing didn't think much of it. In recent years, his concubines would often disappear in the middle of the night; some would reappear after a while, while others would vanish forever. He had grown accustomed to it.

Emperor Jing steadied himself, the scene from his dream still lingering before his eyes. In the dream, he was constantly hunted by demons and monsters, and could only hide among the ruins of the city. The screams of the ghosts still echoed in his ears.

In his dream, Emperor Jing was only focused on escaping and had no idea what the ghosts were yelling about. But now that he was awake, he understood what the ghosts were saying: Why aren't you dead yet?!

Emperor Jing felt a chill run down his spine, a tightness in his chest, and a suffocating sensation, as if he were in a dream. Suddenly, a shadow moved in and enveloped him. Emperor Jing looked up and saw a palace maid who had served him closely for many years standing before him. She seemed unusually tall, blocking the moonlight from the window.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't understand how the palace maid had gotten in, at least she was someone he recognized, not a ghost. Emperor Jing was about to get out of bed when he said, "How did you get in? But you've come at the right time, help me change my clothes..."

The palace maid seemed to be saying something, but Emperor Jing heard nothing. He grew irritated and was about to reprimand her when he suddenly saw two streams of bloody tears flow from her eyes, and she let out a rough, inhuman roar: "Why aren't you dead yet?!"

The palace maid lunged forward, her gaping maw aimed at Emperor Jing's throat! Startled, Emperor Jing recoiled, crashing heavily onto the bed. Just as the maid approached, she suddenly burst into flames without a breeze, instantly reducing her to ashes.

Emperor Jing was greatly alarmed and broke out in a cold sweat.

The palace maid had vanished, as if she had never been there. He mustered his courage and got out of bed to check, and sure enough, there was no trace of her. The raging fire hadn't even left a scorch mark on the bed curtains.

"It was just an illusion after all..." Emperor Jing muttered to himself. He checked the time and realized it was still early. Just as he was about to go to sleep, he suddenly caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. He noticed a thin layer of dust on the ground under the moonlight, and there was even half a footprint on it!
Emperor Jing was also a Dharma Aspect cultivator, and he immediately knew that the footprints were left by the palace maid!
Emperor Jing was stunned for a moment, then realized that he would probably never see that palace maid again, and that he would soon forget about it completely.

Only the nightmares of each night never arrive late.

He collapsed, exhausted, and lay down to sleep, his clothes soaked through, a helpless, bitter smile on his face. Perhaps only he in the whole world knew what kind of life the emperor of the Great Tang Dynasty led every day.

……

The sun still rises.

Upon entering the main hall, the assembled officials shouted "Long live Emperor Jing!" ignoring his haggard and pale face. After taking his seat, the regent Prince of Jin sat down beside him.

Emperor Jing's pupils flickered slightly as he noticed that someone had added a platform beneath Prince Jin's seat, making it only slightly lower than the imperial throne. Prince Jin, being tall and imposing, was actually a full level above Emperor Jing when seated on it.

The officials turned a blind eye to this.

Emperor Jing suddenly felt anger, resentment, and bitterness!

Their heads were even higher than the Emperor's—this was utterly presumptuous! Among the officials of the court, there were many like Faxiang and Yujing; how could they not see it? Yet they remained silent! According to the laws of Tang, these people were all traitors, deserving to be killed ten times over!

However, after his initial anger, Emperor Jing could only smile bitterly to himself. Who was the Prince of Jin? From the moment he became regent, he had gradually replaced all the key positions in the court with his own people. Now, the Empress Dowager and the Empress were completely sidelined, their authority extending beyond the palace walls. He could only deeply regret his actions, but it was too late to change anything.

Does a prince like this really need to engage in such childish things as trying to be a little better?
No, of course not. The Prince of Jin didn't need to use such methods to test the loyalty of his ministers. What he wanted to do was to demonstrate to all his officials, both civil and military, that the tide had turned!

Emperor Jing handled state affairs mechanically, making decisions on minor matters and postponing major ones until they were discussed, a skill so adept that it pained him to admit it.

All matters in the imperial court are of great importance.

Amidst a series of major events, Emperor Jing suddenly noticed several memorials. These memorials all requested the establishment of new military governors.

Emperor Jing was somewhat curious. The position of Jiedushi (military governor) had always been a source of dynastic collapse and chaos. Normally, the appointment of one would be carefully considered for a long time. Currently, the Jiedushi of the Great Tang Dynasty were mostly self-appointed, and they only came to the court to go through the formalities. For example, there was the Jiedushi of Qingyang, the Jiedushi of Yizhou, the Jiedushi of Xianghan, the Jiedushi of Zhenshan, and so on.

He took note of the locations of these military governors and found that they were all in the west, which essentially blocked the eastward expansion of the southern region of the western frontier.

Emperor Jing pretended not to know and, as usual, set the memorials aside, waiting to read and review them carefully that evening.

……

In the spring of the seventeenth year of the Hongjing reign, Wei Yuan received five imperial edicts in succession, all announcing the establishment of new military governors. Three of them were located at the border between Jin and Zhao, blocking Wei Yuan's eastward advance.

Wei Yuan was first taken aback, then puzzled, not understanding the court's intentions. Did they really think that these few guys who appeared out of nowhere could protect the borders, keep the people at ease, and control him?

Wei Yuan had long heard of the Regent's virtue and ability, so how could he not know that there were two kinds of military governors in the world: one was Wei Yuan, and the other was everyone else?

A few days later, Wei Yuan issued a proclamation to the world, preparing to go to the capital to meet the emperor.

The world was shocked.

(End of this chapter)