The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 249 Executive Vice Emperor (Six Thousand)

The twenty-third year of Jia Jing, New Year’s Eve.

Yin Shi.

The emperor slowly opened his eyes, and subconsciously tried to use his arms to support himself on the ground to stand up.

But there was no action.

There was no sense of touch.

"Swish~suck."

There was a whistle nearby.

"Don't bother, your majesty. You can't get up."

"Or, look up and take a look at yourself."

The emperor suddenly woke up.

He had just woken up and was dazed, thinking he was still in the palace. But Li Miao's voice instantly brought him back to reality.

He lost.

In this life-and-death battle, he ran away, so he lost.

The emperor reluctantly raised his head and looked at his body.

"Ho-"

A dull, hoarse scream emanated from his throat.

Arms, legs, gone.

Even the area below the hips had completely disappeared.

He listened to the sound coming from his throat and tried to move his tongue, but found that his tongue could not reach his upper teeth.

His tongue was also cut off.

The emperor had become a real "human stick", lying on the ground like a flesh worm.

The wound was sealed by the growth of flesh and blood. In a sense, the wound had been "healed". Unless the growth of flesh and blood was cut off, the healing method would be useless.

Precisely because the wound had been "healed", he did not feel any pain, and was unable to react for a moment, even trying to prop himself up.

Only when he saw his situation clearly did his nerves slowly send unbearable numbness, itchiness and dull pain into his brain, but he was unable to even move his limbs to relieve the itch.

"How is it, Your Majesty? Are you comfortable?"

Li Miao's arm had been healed. He sat on the steps of the main hall of the Xiaoling Mausoleum, supporting his chin with one hand and resting the other on his leg, looking at the emperor with a mischievous look on his face.

"If you had continued to fight, you might have won. You ran away quickly too. If it weren't for Master Ji, I think we wouldn't have been able to stop you."

"I, Emperor Jianwen, and Master Ji have all told you many times, earnestly and earnestly. We told you that you cannot escape, and that escaping means death; we talked about the heart of a warrior and the principles of fighting."

"Unfortunately, you didn't listen at all."

"I've lied to you so many times, but you still dare to believe me."

Li Miao pointed to the tomb where Emperor Jianwen was sealed in the square.

"Just now, Master Ji and I stuffed the body of Emperor Jianwen back, and then I went to your tomb and took a look. Looking at the body of the celestial being hanging on your wall, I suddenly got an inspiration."

"I thought, why not hang you up to make you more comfortable? I was afraid you would wake up and move around, so I cut off these useless parts of your body."

"How do you feel now? Do you feel at home? Do you want to lie down in your own grave and take a nap?"

"woo woo woo woo--"

The emperor let out a series of whimpers. He wanted to speak, but all he could make were ugly sounds like an animal waiting to be slaughtered.

Li Miao smiled, turned around and shouted.

"Hey, Master Ji, are you done with your work?"

Ji Tianrui raised his hand and collapsed the tomb where Emperor Jianwen's body was buried, then turned around and smiled.

"almost."

"Come over when you're done and heal His Majesty's tongue. I want to talk to him."

"it is good."

Ji Tianrui drew the soft sword from his waist, slowly walked to the emperor's side, and pinched the emperor's cheek with his hand.

"Your Majesty, don't move. You have tried my sword before. If you move, it will cut off some other flesh and that will be bad."

She smiled gently.

The emperor's eyes widened instantly and he stopped struggling.

laugh--

The emperor let out a cry of pain from his throat, and then blood poured into his trachea, causing him to choke and cough suddenly, and his whole body curled up like a shrimp.

"Don't move, don't move."

Ji Tianrui chuckled and said, reaching out to pinch the emperor's pulse, slowly transferring his true energy into it.

All the other wounds on the emperor's body had already been "healed", so she was not afraid that the healing technique would heal other parts of his body.

Blood and flesh grew, and the emperor's tongue slowly grew out.

"Don't kill me!"

The emperor screamed as soon as his tongue was cured.

Ji Tianrui took a few steps back and looked at Li Miao.

"Master Li, do you want to chat with him for a while?"

"Of course, after all the hard work of fighting, if you don't laugh at your opponent after winning, what's the point of winning?"

Li Miao stood up, brushed off the dust on his body, and walked slowly to the emperor.

"Your Majesty, continue."

"If you speak more nicely, maybe I will really forgive you."

"Don't kill me, I'll give you everything you want!"

The emperor tried hard to move his bare shoulders, turned over on the ground, raised his head, and looked at Li Miao in a flattering manner.

"What do you like? An official position? I'll make you the chief minister of the cabinet, grant you the nine gifts, and you don't have to kneel when entering the court, don't have to use your name when praising or bowing, and you can wear a sword and shoes when entering the palace, okay?"

"Do you like beauty? In my palace, I have twenty-one concubines, more than a hundred beauties, and countless maids, all of whom are beautiful. If you like, I will give them all to you! And the queen, all of them are yours!"

"And, and, yes, money! I still have one million taels of silver in my inner treasury, and this year's salt tax is in the Taicang warehouse, which also has several million taels. I'll give it all to you, all to you, okay?"

The emperor kept begging.

"I just want to stay alive. You can be the emperor and let me be a rich man. Is that okay?"

"Master Ji," he turned to look at Ji Tianrui standing beside him, "I appoint you as the national teacher and Mingjiao as the national religion. Please persuade Lord Li."

Ji Tianrui chuckled and shook her head.

Li Miao just let him struggle and beg for mercy on the ground without saying a word and just looked at him with a smile.

He gradually became desperate.

"My God, I will give you all my martial arts skills. With my harem, you can have as many children as you want. With the help of Lord Jianwen's martial arts skills, you can continue my path."

"Don't you want to continue practicing? The inheritance of Xing Gong has long been lost. At present, there are only two copies of the method from Taizu and Jianwen Jun. If you kill me, you will not be able to take over the celestial beings collected by the court, and you will not be able to practice this method, right?"

"Speak..."

The emperor said tremblingly.

"hehe."

Li Miao sneered.

"If we were to repair these two pieces of junk, then Sect Leader Ji and I would be considered useless."

"You want to use these two techniques to achieve the Six Paths Integration, and ascend to heaven like Bodhidharma and Sanfeng, or you can take a step back and seek immortality."

"But don't you think about it——"

Li Miao showed a disdainful smile on his face.

"Will Bodhidharma and Sanfeng eat humans?"

"One of them is a Taoist and the other is a Buddhist. Would Buddha eat people? Or would gods eat people?"

"Only ghosts eat people."

"You are also a martial artist. Don't you know that it will be inconvenient to use other people's moves? Can you use other people's realms recklessly?"

"idiot."

The emperor's face turned livid.

How could he not know this, but he had no choice!

There are only these two books on the method of sexual cultivation. If you don’t practice these, what else can you practice?
The offerings were all celestial beings who had cultivated themselves up along the way. If he "used" all the celestial beings along the way, the number of offerings would become fewer and fewer, and the number of celestial beings in the entire court would also become fewer and fewer, and his control over the world would become weaker and weaker.

It is precisely because of this that the Ming Cult was able to gather these celestial beings, allowing Ji Tianrui to have the capital to carry out her plan step by step and force him to this point.

If he had not practiced this method, the imperial court would definitely have more than just these current offerings, and by then Li Miao and Ji Tianrui would have to stay out of its spotlight.

He understands all these principles, but he has no choice!

Now, it's too late to regret.

The emperor made his final struggle.

"You can't kill me..."

"Yes, you can't kill me!"

A glimmer of hope suddenly appeared in his eyes.

"Although I have not been involved in government affairs for many years, all the officials in the court are loyal to me! I am the real emperor!"

"There are many people here today, Jinyiwei and Mingjiao, your identities cannot be concealed. If you kill me, you will be the target of public criticism. The first goal of those who want to replace me is to kill you and gain the reputation of righteousness!"

"You may be able to escape with your martial arts skills, but your relatives, friends and forces will die with me!"

"You can't kill me. The court is not stable right now. The Japanese in the southeast are causing trouble, and the Tatars in the north are repeatedly invading the border. Once I die, I don't know how many people will be buried with me!"

"Lord Li... No, Lord Li, Prime Minister Li, you may not care about human life, but you don't want to live under a foreign court, do you?"

"Leave me here. Dashuo is still Dashuo. At worst..."

The emperor gritted his teeth.

"You have destroyed my martial arts, and all the gods and immortals in the court are at your disposal! I don't ask for immortality anymore, just let me live until I die, okay?"

Li Miao shook his head and sighed.

"Well, Your Majesty, what you said does make sense."

"I really don't care about the conditions you promised. But killing you and causing the whole world to suffer is definitely not the result I want to see."

The emperor was right.

In fact, Li Miao had already discussed this topic when he talked with Zhu Zai Ye in the palace before. Whether it is a prosperous or chaotic era, whether it is a wise or incompetent emperor, the emperor cannot be killed casually.

The emperor was not just a "person", but also one of the pillars that supported the Great Shuo. Killing him was not a simple matter of one blow, this action itself was a political act that was enough to shake the whole world.

This blow could very likely send the entire Jinyiwei and even the entire Dashuo, along with the emperor, into the grave.

Li Miao might be a martial arts madman, but he is not a fool who only knows how to kill people. Killing people is easy, but not bearing the consequences after killing people is the real difficulty.

When the emperor heard Li Miao's words, a glimmer of hope appeared on his face.

However, a strange smile appeared on Li Miao's face.

He suddenly changed the subject.

"Your Majesty may not know that before tonight, I have actually been wondering whether you were possessed by Ji Tianrui. This was also the first topic I discussed with Master Ji after meeting him."

"Finally, we discussed it and decided on two plans. We will see if you are Ji Tianrui and then decide how to proceed."

"After hearing Master Ji confirm tonight that you are not Ji Tianrui, I was actually relieved."

The emperor looked puzzled.

Li Miao raised his eyebrows.

"I really can't kill the emperor. The impact will be too great and there will be too many things to deal with. It might even make my life difficult."

"New Year's Eve is a good day. I'm not interested in causing trouble for myself."

Li Miao looked at the emperor on the ground and suddenly a smile appeared on his face.

"But, just because I can't kill the emperor doesn't mean I can't kill you."

"???"

Li Miao's words were so confusing that the emperor felt they were all nonsense and illogical.

You can't kill the emperor, but you can kill me! ?

I am the emperor!

Could it be...

The emperor was suddenly startled and spoke hurriedly.

"Could it be that you want to replace the crown prince with someone disguised as me?"

"impossible!"

The emperor said in a decisive tone.

"Although I have lived in the palace for a long time, I often meet with important ministers in the cabinet. There are countless eunuchs in the palace. They are all smart people and know me very well!"

"You want someone to replace me, but you may be able to disguise yourself perfectly, but you can't imitate my actions, let alone know what I have told them!"

"Within a month, they will definitely find clues; within three months, they will find out that something is wrong, and they will definitely find out that it is you!"

"The result will be the same then!"

Li Miao waved his hand.

"No need to talk nonsense, I know."

"I wouldn't use such a stupid method." The emperor opened his mouth.

"That--"

Li Miao ignored him and turned to look at Ji Tianrui.

"Master Ji, it's your turn."

"Has Lord Li finished speaking?"

Ji Tianrui chuckled, walked to the emperor's side and slowly squatted down.

"Your Majesty, unlike Lord Li, I wish you were my father."

"He died so suddenly that I never had a proper conversation with him. It would be a comfort to be able to speak to his stand-in for a few words."

She sighed.

"Unfortunately, you are not him."

Her expression was gentle, as if she was really a girl remembering her father. But both the emperor and Li Miao could hear the deep murderous intent in her voice.

If the emperor was Ji Tianrui and fell into her hands, his fate would definitely not be any better than being cut into pieces.

Ji Tianrui chuckled.

"Well, I don't have anything to say to your majesty. Since I have made an appointment with Lord Li, I can't break it."

"So be it."

Ji Tianrui stretched out her left hand, pulled open her sleeve with her right hand, revealing her snow-white wrist, and stroked her wrist with her finger.

puff.

The cut was so deep that blood immediately pumped out and flowed down her arm.

Ji Tianrui looked calm as usual. She stretched out two fingers, inserted them into the wound, fumbled for a moment, and then slowly pulled them out.

The Emperor looked at her finger.

There was a bug stuck there.

This thumb-length poisonous insect was held between Ji Tianrui's two fingers, its shell having a dark blue luster like corpse ointment.

The twelve pairs of appendages are as thin as hair, and the joints are embedded with dense bone spurs; flocs float in the translucent abdominal cavity, slowly floating and wriggling; the compound eyes reflect a strange light under the moonlight.

The mouthparts are spirally cracked flesh tubes with a dense inner layer of serrated keratin. Sticky silver threads hang between the cracks, emitting a faint fishy odor.

The shape is strange and ferocious, and just one glance at it makes people instinctively feel a chill in their hearts.

"This, this is..."

The emperor said tremblingly.

"The insect's name is 'Nether Dragon'."

"Your Majesty, you should have seen it, right?"

Ji Tianrui said with a chuckle.

As she finished her words, the emperor began to tremble like a sieve, and his teeth made a "click-click-click" sound, and it was obvious that he was extremely scared.

He has seen it.

He had seen it fifteen years ago.

"you you……"

His lips turned pale, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence. His heartbeat was out of control, as if pumping blood into his trachea, and a smell of rust rose up his nose.

"You really did recognize him."

Li Miao said with a chuckle.

"Yes, this is the same species as the poisonous insect that Ji Tianrui sent to Shuntian Prefecture fifteen years ago. It is the fundamental reason why the Miao King is still alive."

"Minglong, taken from the 'Minghe floating dragon' in the Records of the Underworld."

"In the original novel, it's a soul-ferrying insect."

In an instant, the emperor understood what Li Miao and Ji Tianrui said.

Why did Li Miao say that he could not kill the emperor, but he could kill him.

Because Li Miao wanted to erase his consciousness from this body, and then let another person come back to life from his body. The "Emperor" was indeed not dead, but he was dead.

Why Li Miao said he felt relieved after knowing that he was not Ji Tianrui.

Because a person cannot be possessed by another body for a second time. If he is Ji Tianrui, this method will be useless to him.

After a battle with the Miao King in Miaojiang, Li Miao has figured out what this so-called "possession" is all about.

Unlike Li Miao's "soul crossing", this insect cannot completely replicate someone's soul into another person.

The person is still the same person and remembers everything, but the underlying logic of his behavior has been completely changed. His likes and dislikes, beliefs and persistence have all become what they are.

The behavior of King Miao that angered Yongjie at that time also proved that after being possessed by another's body, as long as he wanted, he could act out his previous self vividly.

It is most suitable to be used on the emperor.

Ji Tianrui asked.

"I'll leave the Gu to you, Lord Li."

"But I wonder who you want to come alive in him?"

Li Miao raised his head and smiled.

"I have a perfect candidate."

--------

"Commander, from today on, you are the executive vice emperor of Dashuo! Please don't let my painstaking efforts in training you down!"

"what!?"

Zhu Zai had not yet recovered from the shock of "the emperor being cut into a human stick". When he heard Li Miao's words, his eyes suddenly widened.

"WTF!?"

He had finally led several clan members to stabilize the situation and was directing the Embroidered Uniform Guards to fight the Imperial Guards when he was suddenly dropped from the sky by Li Miao, who grabbed his belt and brought him into the Xiaoling Mausoleum. How could he react at that moment?
"Wait a moment, wait a moment."

Zhu Zai let out a long breath, tried hard to calm his restless inner energy, then turned to look at Li Miao.

"Speak, speak slower!"

Seeing that the old man had recovered his breath, Li Miao explained to Zhu Zai what had happened and the subsequent plans.

"In short, I leave the emperor's shell to you. From now on, the one sitting on the throne will be a good emperor who thinks what you think and hates what you hate. You can take some time to teach him. Soon you will be the mastermind behind the entire Dashuo."

"With the cooperation of the emperor himself, wouldn't it be easy for you to eliminate dissidents and control the court? In another seven or eight years, when the situation is firmly in our hands——"

Li Miao moved his hands downwards and said with a sinister smile.

"Let him die suddenly and bury him in a grave."

"You call all the officials together, and I will bring you a whole deer. You lead the deer to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, point it at the officials and ask them whether it is a deer or a horse. If they say it is a deer, I will kill it directly, and if they say it is a horse, I will keep it for you to use."

"In two or three years, when all the disobedient ones have died, I will make you a yellow robe, put it on you, and you will say, 'You have caused me so much trouble!'..."

Li Miao clapped his hands.

"Let's do it together!"

"It is our duty to restore the glory of Dashuo!"

"How is it! Commander, are you feeling particularly excited? Do you really want to give me a few years of vacation and a salary of tens of thousands of taels of silver?"

Zhu Zai was stunned and didn't come back to his senses for a long time.

"Commander? Are you still there?"

Li Miao raised his hand and waved in front of Zhu Zai.

"Didn't you understand? Then should I say it again?"

"I understand."

Zhu Zai said hoarsely.

He looked Li Miao up and down, and after a while, he let out a long sigh.

"I really don't know whether I was right or wrong to pick you up back then. How could a job for the Five Mountains Sword Sect be turned into an attempt to usurp the throne?"

"I have been a loyal minister for most of my life..."

He was sighing here, but Li Miao was clapping and cheering.

"Yes, yes, that's the expression and the tone!"

"When I put the yellow robe on you, you acted like this! It's great, it's natural!"

"Fuck off!"

Zhu Zai glared at Li Miao unhappily.

Unlike Li Miao, a demon from outside the region who had no king or father, he was a native of the Dashuo clan. Hearing Li Miao's rebellious words, he instinctively wanted to scold him. After a long time, he sighed.

What Li Miao said is actually very feasible. It just depends on whether he can get over this hurdle in his heart.

More importantly...what else can we do?

The emperor has been cut into a human stick!
What else can you do if you don't rebel? Hang yourself!?
"Forget it, forget it. I owed you this in my last life."

Zhu Zai sighed slowly.

"how to do?"

"Master Ji, how do we do this?"

Li Miao turned and asked Ji Tianrui.

"Just a drop of my heart's blood."

Ji Tianrui stood aside for a long time, looked at Zhu Zai with interest, and then answered with a smile.

After taking the blood and healing the wound, Zhu Zai waved his hand.

"You do it, old man. I can't bear to watch it."

He had been a loyal minister for most of his life, and even though he had been forced to this point by Li Miao, he still couldn't bear to see the emperor suffer.

"Okay, you go out and wait. I'll hand the person over to you once I'm done."

Li Miao smiled.

Zhu Zai nodded and turned to leave.

Li Miao walked slowly to the emperor's side and squatted down.

"Your Majesty, do you understand?"

The emperor did not answer.

Tears kept flowing from the corners of his eyes, his teeth were clenched, and a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. The regret was almost like a substance pressing against his heart.

One wrong step!
Just one wrong step!
"I--"

"Okay shut up."

Li Miao stuffed the insect into the emperor's mouth.

"I've said what I need to say. I'm not interested in hearing the rest. Just turn yourself into my commander!"

When the poisonous insect entered the emperor's body, his flat body suddenly arched, and the curvature almost seemed to break his spine.

His eyes were bloodshot and tears were streaming from the corners of his eyes. His mouth was wide open, but no sound came out.

After a while, he suddenly lost his voice and fell limply to the ground.

"Failed?"

Li Miao asked with a frown.

"It worked. This is how it is."

Ji Tianrui smiled.

"I added something to this poisonous insect. When he wakes up, he will forget everything that happened in the past month, including our identities."

"And the transformation will be immediate. It won't happen like my mother suddenly woke up and ran out to give me a sister."

"From today on, he is dead."

Li Miao nodded.

"That's good."

"Heal his limbs and hand him over to my superior. What happens next has nothing to do with you."

Ji Tianrui nodded and smiled without saying anything.

"But you can't leave."

Li Miao said.

"Oh? Lord Li, do you want to fight me to death now?"

Ji Tianrui asked with a smile.

"It depends."

Li Miao replied.

"Then, Master Li, do you have something to say to me?"

Ji Tianrui smiled sweetly.

"I just have one question."

Li Miao stared into her eyes.

"What on earth are you planning?"

"From Qi and Lu to Miaojiang and then to Shuntian Prefecture, I schemed against two emperors and tricked me into coming here. I risked my life to fight this night..."

"What do you want?"

(End of this chapter)