Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 190 Xin Qiji, did you think Hunyuan Palace was an empty pocket? [Seeking monthly votes]

Looking at the notes in the black notebook, Zhou Yi didn't know what to say for a moment. Just two days ago, he said that even if Xi Shi came, he wouldn't get too involved in things there.

Despite all her careful planning, she never expected that Xi Shi would kill King Goujian of Yue less than two minutes after returning.

On the surface, she was an obedient girl, but in reality, she swiftly and decisively killed the last of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period... Compared to Xi Shi, those so-called "contrast beauties" on the internet are not even babies who have just been weaned.

It's a pity there's no time-travel phone call, otherwise Zhou Yi really wanted to call and ask the Lotus Fairy in his standard Lu accent:

"What happened?"

Killing Goujian was so swift, but what happened afterward? How should the matter be resolved?
A series of questions lingered in Zhou Yi's mind, but unfortunately no one could answer him now. He could only wait five days to ask Xi Shi himself.

Putting his thoughts aside, Zhou Yi flipped through his notebook and found Xi Shi's page. The enormous amount of merit she had accumulated made him very envious.

As expected of a master at using a honey trap, she instantly gained a pound and a half of merit, utterly annihilating Zhou, who was always stingy and calculating about merit.

Zhou Yi closed the notebook and redeemed half an hour of super training.

The 10% increase in gravity wasn't very noticeable; it just made walking a bit more strenuous and tiring.

Zhou Yi even jogged a little, and the time he spent in the air and the intervals between his steps were noticeably shorter. After jumping around for a while, the muscles in his legs started to ache.

To be honest, this thing is really effective for training. If you practice it every day, your physical strength will definitely increase dramatically. Who knows, you might even be able to punch a zombie dog's head off in the future.

The next morning, while Zhou Yi was brushing his teeth, Li Qingzhao, carrying her canvas backpack and wearing white shoes, walked briskly into the courtyard, humming an unknown tune.

Upon seeing Zhou Yi, she bowed:
"Greetings, Immortal Master. My father has been entrusted with an important task by His Majesty: to interrogate the Western Xia people for bribing officials. He is somewhat unsure of himself and hopes that you can grant him some books on modern torture and forced confessions."

Zhou Yi spat out the foam in his mouth and asked:
"Isn't your father afraid of being slandered as a cruel official by the court officials? If he ends up on the list of the ten cruelest officials, and is associated with Lai Junchen and the like, don't blame me for not warning you then."

Li Qingzhao waved her hand and said:

"Posthumous fame is nothing important. If he can deal with his political enemies to the point of death while he is alive, his reputation after death is irrelevant. Anyway, his name is tied to my master's name. We share the same fate, whether it is a glory or a loss."

Ever since he impeached the officials of the old party in the imperial court, Li Gefei had been expelled from the old party and, like Su Shi, became a common enemy of both the new and old parties.

Fortunately, with Li Qingzhao as a divine companion, and with Zhao Xu frequently placing the brass token on the imperial desk, the officials dared not go too far. They only dared to impeach Li Gefei, who, as an assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites, had overstepped his bounds.

After brushing his teeth, Zhou Yi pulled out a book from the bookshelf, "The Complete Book of Torture in the World," which he had bought out of curiosity. It contained all sorts of strange and unusual methods of torture, which Li Gefei could try one by one.

In addition to books, Zhou Yi also searched online for information about water torture, water dungeons, and other forms of punishment, compiled them into a document, and then printed it out.

Now is a critical period for Zhao Xu to set things right. Once the court is turned around, the label of "weak Song" can be loosened a bit.

Whether it can be picked or not remains to be seen.

In the struggle for dynastic supremacy, weakness is the original sin. In fact, factional strife is not a problem as long as the country is strong enough. These are not fundamental mistakes.

But if you play this game when surrounded by enemies, not only will you not expand your territory, but you will also actively cede territory. Then you can't blame later generations for repeatedly whipping your corpse and spitting on the old party.

What Zhou Yi disliked most about the old party was that they voluntarily ceded several prefectures and counties to the Western Xia. He couldn't have done such a cowardly thing without three hundred years of brain thrombosis.

After the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, the old faction attributed the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty to Emperor Zhezong's vigorous expansion of the borders and his reckless use of force, which offended friendly nations and led to this disaster... It was absolutely right for Li Gefei and Su Shi to break away from this stupid group.

As the printer buzzed and worked, Zhou Yi asked:
Is Zhao Xu coming today?

"Come, His Majesty came right after the morning court session. He said that if Xin Qiji arrives early, he must stay a while, as he wants to have a good talk with him."

As they were talking, Chen Tang, wearing sunglasses and swaying his head, entered the courtyard and immediately started shouting about the lightning-struck city gate decree:

"He's openly causing me trouble. If I'm not mistaken, the Prefect of Zhangye is hiding nearby. If I get violent, he'll jump out and imprison me for a year or two. Unfortunately, he didn't expect that I could summon divine thunder... Hehe, this thing is really useful. Now, no matter where I go, the area within three zhang is immediately cleared up. Not even a dog dares to come near."

Zhou Yi finally understood where the merits had been lost, and said with a smile:

"Keep a low profile. What if you go back to Chang'an and Kuang Heng kowtows to you a few times, playing the 'bearing thorns to apologize' act? Then all your plans will be ruined."

Chen Tang nodded:
"Old Gan said the same thing, so I've been keeping a low profile lately, giving them tips every time I enter the inn, but the more I do that, the more afraid they become of me." Everyone hadn't eaten yet, so Zhou Yi set up the statue of Shennong the Great and started making breakfast.

He baked several layered pancakes and then used a pre-made hot and sour soup packet to make half a pot of hot and sour soup. The three of them sat in the restaurant and enjoyed a delicious meal.

During the meal, Li Qingzhao mentioned Xin Qiji's visit to Hunyuan Palace. Chen Tang slapped his thigh in dismay, regretting leaving so early last time. He wished he had stayed for dinner so he could have taken a picture for Xin Qingji and let the old man see what his descendants would look like a thousand years from now.

The Book of Changes says:

“Xin Qiji will be here today. I’ll take a few photos with my Polaroid camera, laminate them, and you can take them back and have someone send them to Jiuquan by fast horse.”

Chen Tang took a big gulp of the spicy soup from the bowl, nodded, and said:

"Just to my liking."

After discussing Xin Qiji, Zhou Yi recounted Xi Shi's visit to Hunyuan Palace and also informed the two that King Goujian of Yue had passed away.

Chen Tang clicked his tongue:
"I just left a little early, I never expected so many things to happen... So what if Goujian is dead? He was the one who killed his meritorious officials. The saying 'When the cunning rabbit dies, the hunting dog is cooked' started with him, bringing disaster to China for thousands of years."

Li Qingzhao broke off pieces of the layered pancake and soaked them in a bowl, saying with a smile:

"I wonder if Fan Li and Wen Zhong will thank Xi Shi. I'm going to stay a couple more days to see the most beautiful woman in China."

While the three chatted over their spicy soup, Huo Qubing, leading his team on a continuous journey, finally managed to contact Gongsun He and Su Jian via walkie-talkie at dawn.

The two men were so engrossed in chasing Yizhixie that they forgot all the rules of marching.

Huo Qubing said:
"Send out drones to scout the area and see if there are any ambushes nearby. Remember not to just look in one direction, but to check from all 360 degrees."

Huo Qubing was now more than 50 li away from Gongsun He and his men, while Gongsun He and his men were only 30 li away from Yizhixie. Neither side dared to set up camp and rest, and they continued on their way.

Soon, one of Su Jianjun's drones took off. He peered at the screen and looked around. He finally discovered that there were troops hidden in a mountain valley in the northwest, numbering about 20,000 to 30,000. Clearly, this was Ichishigawa's reserve army.

After discovering the ambush, Su Jian felt a wave of fear and repeatedly thanked them over the walkie-talkie. Then, he, Gongsun He, and Huo Qubing discussed the situation over the walkie-talkie.

The best course of action is to retreat. The merit already gained is great enough, and a safe retreat is the best choice. It will also let Yizhixie taste what it feels like to fail at the last minute.

The middle strategy is to continue following them and launch a counter-encirclement of the ambushing Xiongnu troops. If successful, the rewards will be enormous; if it fails, the military merits already gained will likely be lost.

As for the worst option… before Su Jian could finish his rambling, Huo Qubing said:
"Let's go with the middle strategy. You pursue them in batches, but don't go too fast. I'll lead the army to the flank. Once the reinforcements that are lying in ambush come out, I'll launch a full-scale surprise attack."

Heavy cavalry leading the charge was a nightmare for the poorly armored Xiongnu cavalry.

Although the heavy cavalry would be exhausted after at most two charges, the damage to the morale of the Xiongnu would be immeasurable, making it worth a try.

Having devised the plan, Huo Qubing led his troops in a circuitous advance, saying as he did so:
"Today is the day to go to Hunyuan Palace. I hope to encounter a big fish in this battle and make my master happy."

Zhao Ponu took a 2.5-liter Coca-Cola bottle from his mount's saddlebag and handed it to Huo Qubing. Inside was water he had filled up by a river the day before, which had been left to stand overnight with water purification tablets.
"Huo Biaoyao, does the Immortal Master like that golden statue used for sacrificial rites?"

Huo Qubing took it, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip:
“I like it. In the future, I will bring all the sacrificial objects of the alien races over and bury them at the entrance of the temple for all people to trample on.”

The army took advantage of the slow march to eat and drink. Half an hour later, the cavalry began to gradually accelerate. Zhao Ponu had set up a resting point in advance so that they could rest, change into their warhorses, and then start fighting.

Meanwhile, inside the Hunyuan Palace.

Chen Tang took a shower, changed into his basketball uniform, and carefully groomed his beard in front of a small mirror. He even wanted Zhou Yi to help him buy a box of beard cream. The Eastern Han Dynasty had the "Beautiful Beard Gentleman," and the Western Han Dynasty couldn't fall behind!

Li Qingzhao bound the printed water torture documents and put them in a document bag, hoping that her father could punish more corrupt officials who brought disaster to the country.

Zhou Yi changed the incense for the statue of Shennong the Great. Just as he was about to ask the Osmanthus Fairy what she wanted for lunch, he saw a huge golden wave suddenly rise in the Wucheng King's Palace. After it subsided, he discovered that the entire Wucheng King's Palace was submerged in wheat.

Xin Qiji crawled out of the wheat pile in a disheveled state. Upon seeing Zhou Yi, he quickly brushed off the dust and chaff, straightened his clothes, and solemnly bowed.
"Greetings, Immortal Master. This is a gift of a thousand bushels of grain from my classmate Dang Huaiying. I intended to store it here temporarily, but it has unexpectedly flooded the entire Martial Temple. I apologize for my rudeness!"

The Book of Changes: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Good grief, you've turned Hunyuan Palace into a time capsule, haven't you?

(End of this chapter)