Become a king right from the start, beginning with receiving rewards from all the heavens.

"What is Lord Mu's view on the current Great Xia Dynasty?" Xia Zhaoyan suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.

He then gently flicked the thumb ring on his thumb, a ring that symbolized one of the prince's identities, and it shone with a unique light under the sunlight.

Mu Wenhan paused slightly, realizing that this was a test from the King of Benevolence.

"Your Highness, our Great Xia is currently flourishing and prosperous."

"However, as the epochal catastrophe approaches, some forces and noble families are accelerating their struggle for resources, hollowing out the foundation of Great Xia."

"If this continues, before the Heavenly Dao awakens to reap its harvest, my Great Xia will already have collapsed!"

The Heavenly Dao harvests all living beings once every 129,600 years, but it only targets cultivators.

Therefore, ordinary people have no idea what an epochal catastrophe is, as their lives are less than a hundred years long.

As time went by, it was long forgotten in the annals of history.

Only those cultivators who survived will remember this world-ending crisis generation after generation.

As for ordinary cultivators, they have no right to know such things.

If Xia Zhaoyan hadn't been born into the royal family, with his current cultivation level, he wouldn't have known about this at all.

Only true powerhouses above the Innate level are qualified to establish a force that can be passed down for generations, and are also qualified to know about the Heavenly Dao's reaping of all living beings.

"Yes, on the surface, our Great Xia is full of flowers and brocade, but in reality, it is riddled with holes."

"The Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Demon Suppression Bureau, the Six Doors, and even the Eastern Depot have all become corrupt."

"They are entangled and colluding with various interests, and now they all have their own calculations."

"Although I have no grand ambitions, I still want to try and preserve the flame of the Great Xia Dynasty to see if it can still stand in this world after the cataclysm of the era."

"To preserve the flame, we must eliminate some of the decaying elements."

"And because the Department of Divine Punishment lost its power, it became the cleanest institution."

"Lord Mu, do you think my wish can be fulfilled?"

Mu Wenhan was deeply shocked after hearing Xia Zhaoyan's words.

I underestimated His Highness's ambition.

"Your Highness's wish is truly admirable; you are unlike any other prince."

"They only see what's in front of them; even if they want to be emperor, it's only for power and resources."

"They only want to utilize the resources of the Great Xia Dynasty to cultivate to the Celestial Realm as quickly as possible, so that their souls can be reincarnated again!"

The Heavenly Dao reaps the rewards of all living beings, and even the strongest beings in the Heavenly Human Realm are no match for it.

However, there is also a great chance that one's soul can be reincarnated.

When one cultivates to the perfection of the Celestial Realm in the second life, one will awaken the memories of the previous life.

With the accumulated knowledge and experience from two lifetimes, there is a great chance to break through to a higher realm.

If it's the third, fourth, or fifth generation... then there's a chance to become a powerful human immortal who can contend with the Heavenly Dao.

Throughout history, several powerful immortal beings have been born in this world.

They accumulated experience through countless reincarnations before they had the opportunity to become top-tier human immortals.

A powerful being in the Human Immortal Realm can completely break free from the cage of the world and leave this world that has been kept in captivity.

"Lord Mu, you see things so clearly. That's right, they became emperors only for their own future."

"As for the fate of the Great Xia, it is not even within the scope of those imperial brothers' considerations."

Xia Zhaoyan said this aloud, but in his heart he was already overjoyed.

I never expected that his casual bluff would have such an effect.

However, what Old Man Mu didn't know was that others needed to accumulate wealth generation after generation, and there was a high probability that they would perish halfway through.

He himself didn't need it; with the existence of the Heavenly Sacrifice System, he was confident he could slay this damned Heavenly Dao.

This Heavenly Dao is probably a defective product; otherwise, how could it not even discover the people rewarded by the system?

Thinking of this, Xia Zhaoyan looked at Mu Wenhan with a serious expression.

"Then, Lord Mu, I wish to completely control the Heavenly Punishment Division. Are you willing to help me?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Mu Wenhan stood up and respectfully bowed to Xia Zhaoyan.

"I swear by my very soul that I am willing to follow King Ren and together change the fate of this Great Xia!"

"good!!!"

"Hahaha... It is my greatest honor to have Lord Mu pledge allegiance today!"

Xia Zhaoyan got up and helped Mu Wenhan up. He hadn't expected that his casual words would make the old man bow down in obeisance.

"Could it be that I, Xia Zhaoyan, was born with the aura of a tortoise—no, I mean, a domineering king?" he couldn't help but mutter to himself.

But who is Xia Zhaoyan? He has memories of two lifetimes, so he knows that Mu Wenhan has ulterior motives and won't be completely loyal to him right now.

But that doesn't matter; the Heavenly Punishment Division is merely a vessel to conceal its true power.

To redeem those who receive system rewards, a suitable container is needed.

Regardless of what Old Man Mu's plans are, in three to five years at most, I will completely step into the limelight.

Back then, if Old Man Mu had been even slightly smarter, he would have followed him wholeheartedly.

The entire staff of the Heavenly Punishment Division had no idea what the Supervisor and the King of Benevolence had discussed.

However, they knew that the Heavenly Punishment Division had changed.

In the following days, the Heavenly Punishment Bureau began its reforms.

The first step was to weed out some lazy, unproductive people and then recruit new staff from outside the company.

Taking this opportunity, Xia Zhaoyan quietly arranged for the hundred guards he had been rewarded with by the system to be placed in the Heavenly Punishment Division.

Even Mu Wenhan didn't notice anything unusual at first, because these people all came from the common people.

To put it bluntly, they were after the benefits offered by the Heavenly Punishment Division.

In this way, Xia Zhaoyan's one hundred trusted confidants were completely integrated into the Heavenly Punishment Division.

That evening, Hongyang quietly arrived at the study of the Prince's mansion.

"Your subject Hongyang pays his respects to Your Highness!"

"Get up and sit down!" He waved his hand, gesturing for Hongyang to get up and sit down.

"Has anyone in the Heavenly Punishment Division noticed anything unusual these past few days?"

...

"Your Highness, based on our careful observation, no one appears to be acting abnormally."

"This time, some lazy good-for-nothings were weeded out, and our entry into the Heavenly Punishment Division was exceptionally smooth."

...

"Very good, I can now say that I have a basic foundation."

"Remember, try your best to win over and control those new recruits."

"If any more guards are born in the future, I will send them to the Heavenly Punishment Division."

"After some time, I will promote you and the other two, so that the three of you can grow up as quickly as possible."

As for how to promote him, Xia Zhaoyan had already figured it out.

Xia Zhaoyan just happened to be dealing with that Vice Minister Zhang of the Ministry of Justice, and he refused to believe that Zhang's background was clean.

Don't forget, although the Heavenly Punishment Bureau has declined, its rightful powers have not been stripped away.

The Zhang family, which Xia Zhaoyan mentioned, has been having some bad luck lately.

First, their own businesses were inexplicably suppressed and destroyed by unknown forces.

Before the Zhang family could investigate and report to the authorities, the Eighth Prince, Prince Qiong, openly attacked him in the imperial court.

This plunged the entire Zhang family into fear and shock!