The great hall at the first storey of the Divine Sect Seminary was hundreds of meters long.
The citizens of Luoyang were mostly free in the afternoon. As such, the seminary was already full of people.
Everyone sat cross-legged and quietly on mats. The great hall had been specially built. Much earlier on, Ye Que had set up a noise-canceling barrier here. As such, commotions from the streets would not affect the meditation of those in the hall.
Mind Focusing Joss Sticks were lit at each corner of the hall, which was somewhat beneficial to the students' cultivation. A youth dressed in a long white robe stood in front of the hall and chanted. He was saying the words of breathing technique, but if one observed carefully, one would realize that it was slightly different from that of current sects in the Cultivation World. It did not teach the students to go against Heaven to achieve Dao. Instead, it taught them to go with Nature's flow and to sens
It grew darker gradually. The evening sky looked as though it was burning. The evening sun turned the entire city scarlet. A square pear wood table was placed near the window of the third floor of the Divine Sect Seminary. There were eight dishes with one bowl of soup placed on it, along with a jar of high-quality apricot flower wine and a colorful wine pot that looked as though it was made of sheet metal. Four people sat on each corner of the table. Ye Que was sitting opposite Qian Shuxiao, and Red Bean faced Qian Shuhua. Ye Que looked a little awkward at this moment. Qian Shuhua was fuming mad; there was no way for her not to be angry. Not long ago, she had gone all out to attack Red Bean, thinking that she could teach this ignorant young woman a lesson. She did not expect to meet her match. Before she even knew what happened, she had already been punched in the face. Just one punch created a huge
It took 15 minutes for Qian Shuhua to return with two bowls in hand. The bowls looked ordinary, but they were as wide as three fists. Ordinarily, they would be used to hold noodles, and even brash martial artists and mountain bandits rarely used them for drinking liquor. Even though stories frequently described drinking by the bowls and eating in big mouthfuls, one would still have to choose the right size of drinking bowl or cup to avoid death by intoxication. Qian Shuxiao's expression immediately changed as he saw the bowls Qian Shuhua was bringing over. "Sister, how could you use that for drinking? Let's stop this foolishness, alright? Normal cups are good enough." Qian Shuhua placed the bowls on the table without even bothering about her brother. Her eyebrows arched as she said, "What do you think about using these bowls for drinking? If you think they're too big, I can change them. It wouldn't be a problem; not everyone can use them for
This very night, Qian Shuhua held Red Bean back and drank throughout the night. Ye Que could no longer remember how much they actually drank, but he knew that they had made many trips bringing down empty jars of apricot flower wine and replacing them with full ones. Eventually, when both ladies were sufficiently high, they began talking about everything and anything. Qian Shuhua told Red Bean about many disgraceful things that happened to her when she was young, and Red Bean told about a certain nation at the South Sea, where many pink flowers would blossom on the sea bed in spring. Qian Shuxiao sat on the rooftop and told Ye Que truthfully about the incidents and changes experienced by the Divine Sect Seminary during his absence. He also gave Ye Que a small grey booklet in which he had recorded a few secret plans he had made for the sect. He had purchased hundreds of properties under the name of the Divine Sect in the capital, nine cities a
"Court of Judicial Review is here for official work, and all people uninvolved stand to one side." The low and serious tone gave the speaker an air of authority. Dozens of his men stood at the doors with sabers hanging by their waists. From their official dress, however, they were evidently from two different departments. Most of them were obviously bailiffs from the Luoyang Court of Judicial Review, while the rest strangely seemed to be important personnel from the military department. Since the past, civilians never fought with officials. Even though they might have their own ideas, and might not be willing to give way, not many of them had the guts to protest to the bailiffs. A passageway wide enough for two people to pass through quickly emerged from the path from the entrance of the seminary up to the platform. Everyone's gaze was fixed outside the doors. As the Right Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, He Fei actually did no
He Fei's patience was running thin in the face of Divine Sect Seminary's arrogance. The anger inside him was raging. How dare an insignificant seminary on the streets openly stop an officer of the Court of Judicial Review! How dare they insult high-ranking officers of the Ministry of War! They even wanted to verify their identities! Since when did some Jianghu hooligans have such authority? The authority behind the Divine Sect Seminary was Qian Shuxiao, the first wife's son of the Qian clan. He Fei had investigated the Seminary's background before coming here. But so what? What was so great about the first wife's son of some merchant family? Weren't the once-powerful General's Manor confiscated and the family exterminated as well? Their maids and manservants were struggling between life and death in the imperial prison. What good did it bring them? Of course, he had no idea about the relationship between the Qian
Thanks to Li Jianqi's interference, what was supposed to be the arrest of a serious criminal turned into a farce? However, a perceptive person would realize just how powerful Divine Sect Seminary was. No one would cause trouble for the Seminary from now on, at least not in Luoyang. Who would dare to provoke the so-called "brother" of the beloved Princess of the future Emperor? The brave ones were welcome to try; the Princess had promised not to beat the perpetrators to death, after all. Just the fright alone was enough to kill. The bailiffs of the Court of Judicial Review and the officers of the Ministry of War came in high spirits but left dispirited. Irrepressible sneers escaped from the apprentices of the Seminary. The laughter was quiet but landed like an intangible slap on the officers' faces. He Fei didn't know about the rest but he swore not to conduct business in the vicinity of the Divine Sect Seminary. He would be too
Huang Shan raced into the palace on horseback with a secret letter, a jade note, and a map marked with smoke signals rolled up in his hand. The message in the secret letter was short but the content was shocking enough to cause a chain reaction: "You Prefecture has declared itself an independent state with the City of You as its capital. Thousands of piles of dead bodies litter the land. The Devil Seeds are arriving." Before the Glorious Tang Empire could react, 200,000 soldiers of the Ye Army died in the City of You Prefecture and not a peep could be heard from the tens of thousands of households there. Did You Prefecture establish its own country without permission before the Imperial Commissioner of the Tang State had even stepped out of Qing Prefecture? Who had occupied You Prefecture? Was it truly the Devil Race's work? "Thousands of piles of dead bodies litter the land?" Were the piles made up of the bodies of the 200,000
Serenity Palace, the imperial palace of Tang State. Li Chunzhi sat upright on the wooden bench with Huang Shan standing beside him. The servants inside the hall had been excused. "Your Majesty, it's indeed a wise idea to have our citizens learn cultivation but a faraway well can't cure our current thirst. You Prefecture has declared itself a state without permission and created mountains of dead bodies everywhere. The Cultivation World is under attack and experiences a constant internal turmoil. The Immemorial Copper Gates have been opened, smoke signals have risen throughout the four thousand kilometers of the west border, and six states have declared war against us. We should prepare and plan ahead of time or our Tang State will fall to a state of peril," Huang Shan said in a deeply worried voice and a solemn expression. "Then do you have a plan in mind?" Li Chunzhi asked. "The incident in the You Prefecture is a known fact.