Daqian Night Emperor

Chapter 175 A Frank Talk Between Master and Servant (5K)

Zhao Qi'an sat in the hall, reading the letter in his hand by the candlelight on the table.

He looked at the contents of the letter and his brows gradually furrowed.

Some time ago, he asked the second prince to help him find the whereabouts of the Anuyi people, and today he finally got an answer.

But the result was not very good.

Zhao Qi'an put down the letter and pondered for a long time.

Just at this moment, the ugly slave came in from outside, carrying a tray. After coming in, he said happily to Zhao Qian'an: "Master, the kitchen has prepared cold soup today. I brought you a portion. You can take a rest first."

She had served Zhao Qi'an for so long and was already familiar with some of her master's habits.

If Zhao Qi'an was in the study, she would not dare to disturb him.

But Zhao Qi'an was not in the study, which meant that the matter he was currently working on was not very important, so it didn't matter if he was interrupted for a while.

She walked over to Zhao Qi'an and placed the bowl of cold soup on the tray on the tea table next to him.

It is called a cold soup, but it is actually sweet water made from seasonal fruits, and it also contains small balls made of glutinous rice.

The meatballs are filled with brown sugar, jujube paste and other fillings. After being cooked and cooled, they are added to the sugar water, and some ice is chiseled from the cellar and added to it.

Have a bowl of it in the summer, it tastes cool and very comfortable.

This is also the favorite snack of wealthy families in Kyoto in summer.

It is just the middle of June now, and it is not too hot in Kyoto yet. The princess's mansion has cold soup so early, all thanks to that greedy girl Chou Nu.

After all, she made the glutinous rice balls herself, bought the fruits herself, and even the ice cubes were chiseled out piece by piece in the cellar by her with a small chisel.

In fact, Chounu no longer needs to do these things herself. Now she is the "head maid" in this mansion. Even Luannu, who has become the housekeeper in the mansion, has to respectfully call her "Sister Achou" when he sees her. It's so majestic.

If you want to eat something, just tell the kitchen.

However, after she enjoyed a few days of doing nothing, she began to feel uncomfortable.

There is someone else to serve Zhao Qian'an on her behalf, so what is the point of her?

She is not a rich lady who does nothing. After all, isn't she still a maid serving others?
After Chounu keenly sensed his "crisis of being laid off", he took back the jobs of cleaning the yard, washing clothes and cooking for Zhao Qian'an, and did everything by himself.

Apart from the fact that his salary has not increased, Chounu can be said to be extremely satisfied with his current life.

Her life is even better than when she was in her hometown.

So she didn't dare let Zhao Qi'an realize that it would be the same with or without her. What if she was sold out?
Then wouldn’t my good days be over?
The ugly slave took the cold soup from the tray, put it on the tea table, and said happily: "When I was in my hometown, it was hot all year round, but there was no delicious food like this to relieve the heat."

In the past, Chou Nu was very secretive about his past and would not mention it easily.

But since she and Zhao Qian'an got along better and better, she gradually relaxed and would always mention things like the customs in her hometown from time to time during their conversations.

Zhao Qi'an brought the cold soup over and stirred the bottom of the bowl with a spoon. The ice cubes and the bowl wall made a "ding-lang" sound when they collided.

He asked: "What is the country of Anuyi like?"

Chounu was a little surprised. This was the first time that Zhao Qian'an took the initiative to ask about her hometown.

But she didn't hide it. After thinking for a while, she said, "It's a very small country with not many people. We are not like the Central Plains, living in a fixed place with high city walls. We all follow the water. The river changes every day. We can catch the most prey by following the water..."

She sat next to Zhao Qi'an and began to talk about her hometown.

Zhao Qi listened quietly, occasionally taking a sip of cold soup, but most of the time he listened attentively.

In fact, he knew most of what Chou Nu said.

Anuyi was a small country in the southern part of Daqian. Although it was called a country, the total number of its citizens did not exceed 100,000, and they lived a nomadic life. Although its land area was not small, most of the land was not suitable for farming. Overall, it was a very poor country.

But every citizen of the Anuyi Kingdom is a natural warrior. No matter whether they are men or women, as long as they reach adulthood, they will be extremely strong and invulnerable to swords and spears. Even if they have never practiced, they have the strength of an eighth or ninth-grade warrior in the Central Plains. Among them, the Anuyi tribe, as the royal family, is even more scarce, with only one or two thousand people.

Zhao Qi'an listened for a long time and asked, "I heard that the royal family of Anuyi claimed to be the descendants of the god 'Dagon', and that they have golden blood flowing in their bodies. Every member of the Anuyi tribe is born with golden glow and golden skin, so they are also called the 'Golden Blood Clan'. Is this true?"

Chou Nu nodded vigorously: "Really, this is the blessing of the god Dagon to his descendants. Every member of the Anuyi tribe is different from others and very beautiful."

Zhao Qi'an nodded, put the cold soup in his hand on the table, and looked up and down at the ugly slave: "But I see that you... don't have skin as white as gold."

The expression on the ugly slave's face froze immediately, and his eyes began to wander: "Master, what are you talking about? Of course I... I'm not a royal family."

The voice gradually became quieter, sounding unconfident.

She glanced at Zhao Qi'an cautiously, and seeing that Zhao Qi'an looked calm, she couldn't help but muttered softly, "Master, when did you know?"

Zhao Qi'an smiled slightly and asked, "Didn't I tell you that I wouldn't leave anyone I couldn't trust around me?"

The ugly slave suddenly looked up at him, his eyes widened: "So you knew this when you bought me?!"

Zhao Qi'an did not hide it and nodded, "Indeed."

"But...how did you know that?" The ugly slave's eyes were full of disbelief. He lowered his head and looked at himself, "I obviously look different from other people in the tribe."

Of course, Zhao Qi'an couldn't tell her that he saw it from her panel. This was too unbelievable and ordinary people couldn't understand it.

He thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it was because he noticed that your strength was growing all the time. At first, he was just interested in your practice method, so he bought you and kept you by his side to observe you from time to time. But later, he looked into the affairs of the Anuyi tribe and roughly guessed your identity."

With a pair of naked eyes, one can tell whether a person's strength has increased...

Is this a human?

The ugly slave wanted to complain, but the atmosphere was so tense that he held it back.

She held it in for a long time, but couldn't help but ask, "Master, you are like that little slug in Master Chu's house. You can see things that ordinary people can't see, right?"

Zhao Qi'an was stunned for a moment: "Little slug?"

"It's Master Chu's daughter. She can't be shaken off. Isn't she just like a slug?"

Zhao Qi'an then realized that she was talking about Chu Wuxin. He couldn't help but smile and warned her, "She's a pretty girl. Don't give people such a nickname."

Chu Wuxin possesses the innate magical power of "Spiritual Eyes", which allows her to see through the flow of all spiritual energy between heaven and earth. Even Zhao Qi'an's powerful energy-hiding skills cannot escape her detection.

If she could reach the fifth level of cultivation and begin to open up her Qi Sea and Dantian to refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, then her talent would truly begin to show its power, and her cultivation would definitely be twice as effective with half the effort than that of ordinary people.

She was a good talent, and Zhao Qian'an wanted to take her as his disciple. However, for some reason, after Master Chu came to visit the princess's mansion last time, he seemed reluctant to let Chu Wuxin see him, so the matter was put on hold for the time being.

Now Chou Nu asked him whether he had the same talent as Chu Wuxin. Zhao Qi'an thought for a moment and nodded, "I guess so."

The ugly slave showed an expression of "as expected" and looked at Zhao Qian'an with resentment: "Since you already knew my identity, why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Zhao Qi'an smiled and asked back, "If I tell you, will there be any changes?"

When Chou Nu thought about it carefully, it seemed to be the case.

Just because Zhao Qian'an saw that she was the princess of Anuyi Kingdom, would she no longer have to make Zhao Qian'an's bed, do the laundry and cook for him?
Will the wages go up by even a penny?
Not at all!

She immediately became discouraged.

Zhao Qi'an asked: "You haven't told me yet, as a member of the royal family, why don't you have golden blood?"

"Actually... there are."

At this point, Chounu dared not hide anything from Zhao Qi'an.

She always felt that Zhao Qi'an knew everything, and the reason she asked her now was just to see if she would answer honestly.

So she just gave up and confessed everything at once: "If I don't have golden blood, I won't be able to practice the cultivation method left by the gods to the Anuyi tribe."

She paused for a moment and continued, "In fact, the body of the god Dagon is the same as that of ordinary people, not shining with golden light. So after researching, the elders in the tribe said that the golden blood in my body is too strong, just like the gods, and has returned to its original nature."

"Back to Basics?"

Zhao Qi'an suddenly frowned and looked at Chou Nu: "Have you seen the physical body of the god? The god Dagon really exists, not just a myth?"

"Of course not." Chounu said proudly, "The history of our Anuyi tribe is even longer than that of the Daqian Dynasty. The flesh body of the god has been worshipped by the Anuyi tribe for thousands of years. I can see it every year during the worship."

Thousands of years of immortality?
Zhao Qi'an thought of the skeleton of the first-grade Yangxian that he had seen in the East Sea Immortal Palace. It was also a figure from thousands of years ago, but it was still lifelike, as if it was still alive. Even the body was still warm.

It seems that this god worshipped by the Anuyi tribe for generations is also a supremely powerful person who has achieved the first level of Taoism.

Zhao Qi'an asked, "Now that the Anuyi Kingdom has been destroyed, has the body of the god fallen into the hands of the Zhengyuan Army?"

When this matter was mentioned, Chou Nu looked as uncomfortable as if he had eaten a fly, and he gritted his teeth and said angrily: "No, it was snatched away by those bald donkeys long before the Daqian army arrived. Those bald donkeys are so hateful. It is obviously our ancestor, but they insisted that it was their 'Golden Body Mingwang', saying something like... it was predestined with the Buddha, but they snatched it away from us!"

Zhao Qi'an was really surprised this time: "Bald donkey?"

"It's... those monks from Southern Buddhist Country!"

"How could this be?"

Zhao Qi'an showed a puzzled look on his face. This news was indeed somewhat beyond his expectations.

After Tianwu destroyed Buddhism, Buddhism disappeared from the territory of Daqian, but it did not disappear completely. Instead, it was completely driven out of the territory of Daqian. Now, a "Buddhist Kingdom on Earth" has been established outside the southern border of Daqian, also known as the "Southern Buddhist Kingdom."

After the establishment of the Southern Buddhist Kingdom, it has been gathering foreign forces and gradually growing stronger. Now it has become a bomb that may explode at any time in the southern part of Daqian.

Now, Buddha Tulinhu is still stationed in the southwest with his anti-Buddhist army in order to attack and suppress the Southern Buddhist Kingdom and curb its growing trend.

The expeditionary force of the eldest prince Ji Wuchang left the border of Daqian and went deep into the heartland of the alien race to wipe out the alien forces that were colluding with the Southern Buddhist Kingdom.

The Anuyi Kingdom was destroyed because of this.

But now, listening to Chounu's words, he is saying that the Anuyi Kingdom and the Nanfo Kingdom have an irreconcilable feud?
The ugly slave said aggrievedly: "Master, now that things have come to this, why would I lie to you?"

Zhao Qi'an also felt that Chou Nu would not lie to him.

Could it be that the eldest prince deceived the world?
But in this case, why did the eldest prince lead an expeditionary army to destroy the Anuyi Kingdom?
Does he also want the body of that god?

Zhao Qi'an thought of the information the Second Prince had found out for him and had other guesses in his mind.

Perhaps the real target of the eldest prince Ji Wuchang... is the Anuyi tribe with golden blood?
The ugly slave asked anxiously, "Master, you told me so much today... Is there any news about my sister?"

Zhao Qi'an handed her the letter sent by the Second Prince on the tea table and said, "Take a look."

Is there really news?!

Chou Nu suppressed his excitement, quickly reached out to take the letter, and couldn't wait to read it.

Zhao Qi'an also said: "When the eldest prince escorted the prisoners of war from Anuyi to the capital, he did present a group of prisoners of war to His Majesty. The prisoners of war sent to the palace... were all members of the royal family of Anuyi. If my guess is correct, your sister is among them."

The ugly slave had already finished reading the letter and pointed at the last line of words and asked, "Master, what is this Luanzhi Mountain? There is a mountain inside the palace?"

Where her finger pointed, there was a line of words written by Ji Haoyu himself:

"...I have lived in the palace for a long time, but I have never seen slaves of foreign races in the palace. So I asked Otomo to ask the palace eunuchs about this matter, and then I learned that these foreign captives were sent to 'Sumeru Mountain'."

Zhao Qi'an nodded and said, "Yes, it is in the center of the imperial city, but the imperial master has set up a 'sky curtain' around the mountain, so it cannot be seen at ordinary times."

He paused for a moment, his face showing a bit of solemnity, and said in a deep voice: "That is a real fairy mountain."

"Fairy Mountain?"

"Have you ever heard of this legend? There is a land of China hidden in a palm-sized gourd."

"Ah, yes, yes, yes, and there's even a city hidden in the sleeves or something."

"Mount Xumi is like this. If you look from the outside, this mountain is less than a hundred meters high and less than two miles wide, but when you go inside, you will find a different world, five thousand miles wide, with jade trees as forests and purple clouds as rocks, like a fairy gate and villa."

The ugly slave felt like he was listening to a story and found it hard to imagine.

However, Zhao Qi'an knew that this was true.

This "Sumeru" is the work of the national teacher.

No one knows where she "moved" this fairy mountain from, just like Shui Yuexian's own origin, it is full of legends but has never been confirmed.

Zhao Qi'an only knew that it was because Shuiyuexian had moved this fairy mountain for Emperor Tianwu that the dispute between her and Dean An over the great way that had lasted for several years was finally settled.

Emperor Tianwu made a choice between "exiled immortal" and "supreme Confucian", and Shuiyuexian was the one who eventually became the imperial teacher.

Nowadays, Emperor Tianwu lives in Mount Sumeru most of the time, and the Imperial Master accompanies him in Mount Sumeru all year round to seek enlightenment and the path to becoming an immortal.

No one in the entire Daqian Kingdom knows what the interior of Mount Sumeru looks like.

Zhao Qi'an was no exception. He knew a little more than others, that is, in addition to Emperor Tianwu and the Imperial Master, there was also a royal guard of unknown size stationed in this fairy mountain.

Ling Fang, the current general of the Astronomical Survey Bureau, was once the commander of the imperial guards stationed on Mount Xumi. However, few people know who replaced him. It is only rumored that the replacement was a pillar of the country.

Zhao Qi'an told Chou Nu everything he knew about Mount Xumi.

The ugly slave immediately looked miserable: "Then is it difficult to enter the Xumi Immortal Mountain?"

"To enter Mount Xumi, I'm afraid... I'll have to wait another year."

One more year and it will be time for Dean An to become a first-rank official and return to official career.

By that time, he would be qualified to enter Mount Xumi, and it would be normal for him to help find out the whereabouts of those Anuyi people who were sent to Mount Xumi.

Ugly Slave quickly became optimistic: "It doesn't matter, at least we know where he is. We have waited for so long, it's just another year."

But Zhao Qi'an was not so optimistic.

Because he didn't know what the current emperor wanted to do by sending those Anuyi people into Mount Sumeru?
The mind of this Pig Dragon Emperor has always been difficult to guess.

For example, Zhao Qi'an didn't know that the Pig Dragon Emperor had reached this point, so why was he still practicing like a demon?

He vaguely guessed that the reason these Anuyi people were sent to the Luanzhi Fairy Mountain might be related to the Pig Dragon Emperor's "quest for immortality."

"Golden blood..."

Zhao Qian'an silently repeated this word in his heart, and some bad guesses came to his mind.

Those Anuyi people...are they really still alive?
……

As the Gao family's affairs were settled, Kyoto City began to calm down again.

The Third Prince has now completely retreated into retreat. He has completely given up on the imperial land and has turned a blind eye to the Gao family’s assets being confiscated by the Astronomical Survey.

One of the Gao brothers who used to be his right-hand men died, and the other was demoted and exiled from Kyoto. He had no reaction at all, and the main word he adopted was "forbearance".

This was somewhat beyond Zhao Qi'an's expectations. He thought Ji Yunrui was a rather violent person, but he didn't expect that he could endure to this extent.

However, Ji Yunrui's forbearance is good for him.

All the imperial land has been taken back to the Zongzheng Temple. Gou Xiangxi is trying to find a way to contact the Zongzheng Temple through the Zhao's Trading Company, hoping to lease the imperial land to develop new trading houses on land, in order to dig out the roots of the Hu merchant market in the east of the city.

The Zhao Company had already contacted the royal relatives who owned land. The annual rent offered for one acre of land was more than twice as high as that for farming, so naturally the royal relatives were willing to pay.

However, Duke Ji Liyuan had some concerns. After all, the incident of the Gao family forcibly renting the imperial land was still fresh in his memory. He was a little worried that now that the tiger had been driven away, the wolf had come running. Instead of the Gao family, there came the Zhao family.

However, the Zhao family had no interest in refusing to pay the land rent, and it was only a matter of time before they persuaded the Duke. Zhao Qi'an was not worried about this.

Gou Xiangxi saw that the Duke was trying to raise the price, so he simply stopped indulging him, left the Duke aside, and started to concentrate on doing another thing.

What is it?

Write a complaint and file a lawsuit!
He wants to sue the Ministry of Revenue and the Zongzheng Temple for seizing the land of innocent citizens!

The lands of Baiyun Temple clearly have heirs, so why are they going to be taken over by the government?
Sue! Must sue!
He first filed a complaint with Jingzhao Prefecture, and when Jingzhao Prefecture refused to accept the case, he gradually appealed to other prefectures, as if he would not stop until he got his case before the emperor.

It's just a pity for Zhao Lingyun. He was pulled up from the chess table and has been running around with Gou Xiangxi in various government offices these days. He already had a stern face all day long, and now it's even worse, with a frown on his face every day.

Zhao Qi'an just paid attention to it but did not participate.

He has been concentrating on retreat these days.

After this period of accumulation, the 352nd purple pattern can finally be attempted to break through!
This chapter is difficult to divide, so I merged it into two chapters

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(End of this chapter)