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.
Grey bricks, red roof, and a thirty-feet-tall censer. Ye Que was overcome with deep surprise as he stared at the nearby hall. There was a faint voice calling for him. This voice once appeared in the underground cave at the ley lines of sovereignty in the Imperial Mausoleum, underneath the Divine Tool, River Soldier. He had found a page of the Divine Book after a search back then. Now, the same voice was coming from the imperial palace of the Glorious Tang Empire. To think that it was right under his nose all along. Ye Que ignored Li Jianqi and made a beeline for the hall. "Didn't you say you're leaving? Why are you so fixated on that hall? Did you discover a treasure? You're really a hypocrite! Leave, I dare you!" Li Jianqi mumbled to herself as she watched Ye Que walk away from her. Even an idiot could tell that he must have discovered something. Earlier, he looked utterly dumbfounded. "Hall of Incense Offerings?
The city of Luoyang was shrouded in fog. The entire sky darkened. Li Jianqi stayed in the palace while Ye Que returned to the Divine Sect Seminary with the censer that he handpicked. In his hand was also a box filled with keys to the General's Manor and some twenty shops facing the Yong'an Street. Li Chunzhi's support of the Seminary caught Ye Que by surprise. It was evident how much the Emperor thought of his people that he was able to see the purpose of a small seminary and its future development. Of course, it also indicated just how serious the country's crisis was that he was forced to depend on the force of the people. The soon-to-be Emperor must be worried about being besieged by enemies from all sides. Ye Que put the censer away in the Yin-and-Yang Pouch with plans of examining it later. He left the keys to the shops with Lin Dashu at the Seminary, ordering him to make the renovations as soon as possible. He wanted to k