Chapter 518: Xing Han's Investigation
The court historian recorded that in the winter of the Gengchen year, an earthquake struck the capital. The Jade Mountain of the Grand Academy sank seventeen zhang into the ground, and the Crimson Flame Cavern illuminated eight hundred li with an extraordinary splendor. However, the historian did not record the cause of the earthquake, merely employing a subtle brushstroke afterward, mentioning that Celestial Sage Academy's Grand Sacrificial Officer Qin Mu had neglected his teaching duties, was fined two years' salary by the emperor, and his official rank was reduced from the fourth rank to the fifth rank.
However, according to people in the palace, on that morning, the emperor was awakened by a thunderous noise and rushed over to inspect. Seeing that the explosion site was Jade Dragon Lake, with countless red dragon carps blasted dead, the lake surface covered in white, and the lake itself several times larger and deeper than usual, he flew into a thunderous rage.
It was said that the emperor even had an injury on his hand, and he clamored for someone's head.
At that time, the emperor carried a blade, his eyes red as he roamed the mountain. He did not find that someone, only finding the sleeping Dragon Qilin and the box. So he stood guard beside Dragon Qilin with his blade, waiting until noon. When no one came, he finally gave up.
Another rumor said that that someone had fled a thousand li early in the morning. By noon, the awakened Dragon Qilin rode the box in pursuit, chasing for two days and two nights before catching up.
There was also a rumor that the emperor went to the military camp, paced around the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon for a while, and finally sighed, saying, "His merits outweigh his faults; his crime does not warrant death. A demotion and a fine will suffice." So he put down his great blade and turned away.
Of course, these were all rumors, unverifiable. The court historians did not record such baseless hearsay.
More than ten days later, in the Great Ruins' Inlaid Dragon City, Qin Mu activated the Bridge of Life and Death. A long river spanned the void, and Inlaid Dragon City became a connecting point to Fengdu, bustling with activity.
Inlaid Dragon City was originally a property of the Qin family. The city was filled with shops of the Celestial Sage Sect, transporting goods from Yankang to sell in the Great Ruins and shipping Great Ruins goods out to sell in Yankang.
This place was the first stop for entering the Great Ruins. Practitioners venturing into the Great Ruins for training all chose to rest here. In recent days, the number of practitioners in Inlaid Dragon City had surged, prices skyrocketed, and Si Yunxiang and Hu Ling'er were grinning from ear to ear.
A few days later, officials from the Ministry of Revenue came to the Great Ruins, claiming they wanted to collect taxes. Qin Mu rebuffed them, and they went to complain to Emperor Yanfeng. The emperor was caught between laughter and tears. "The Great Ruins are not within Yankang's borders. If you go there to levy taxes, it's already a courtesy that he didn't kill you. According to their Great Ruins' rules, he would behead you. Don't cause trouble. The Great Ruins are not our territory."
"Your Majesty, Grand Sacrificial Officer Qin makes too much money! The trade alone in Inlaid Dragon City is a huge sum!"
The Minister of Revenue protested loudly. "Moreover, this time Your Majesty plans to build roads connecting the Western Lands to Yankang. The route passes through the Great Ruins and must go through Inlaid Dragon City! Grand Sacrificial Officer Qin has planned two roads, both passing through Inlaid Dragon City! Inlaid Dragon City will surely become the foremost town in the Great Ruins, the wealthiest under heaven! Your servant believes that the Grand Sacrificial Officer must have selfish motives, using the court's money to pave roads for his own hometown!"
Emperor Yanfeng was helpless. He looked at him deeply and said meaningfully, "The Western Lands were conquered by him. He saved the court countless military funds and prevented countless soldiers from dying in battle."
The Minister of Revenue said, "But most of the practitioners training in Inlaid Dragon City are from our Yankang. If they spend money there and we don't tax it, that place will become a state within a state. Our Yankang's wealth will inevitably drain away! If this continues, how can it be tolerated? Yankang will have no money to use!"
Emperor Yanfeng was amused. "Daoist Yuanfeng, you are a master of arithmetic from the Daoist school. How can you not understand?"
The Minister of Revenue was puzzled. "Your servant is dull. Please enlighten me, Your Majesty."
Emperor Yanfeng smiled. "The practitioners going to Inlaid Dragon City use our Yankang's Dafeng coins. If they want to spend that money, they must buy our Yankang's goods. The money will still return to Yankang."
The Minister of Revenue frowned. "What if the Dafeng coins circulate in the Great Ruins and never return to Yankang?"
Emperor Yanfeng laughed. "If Dafeng coins can replace gold, silver, and valuables and circulate in the Great Ruins, that would be even better! Since the court mints the coins, and the Great Ruins have no power to mint, wouldn't the court then control the minting power of the Great Ruins? How much wealth the Great Ruins have would be entirely up to the court to decide! Once Dafeng coins replace gold and silver, the court can use Dafeng coins to buy mines and rivers in the Great Ruins. Unifying the Great Ruins with Dafeng coins is just around the corner!"
The Minister of Revenue was dumbfounded.
Emperor Yanfeng tossed the memorial aside, stood up, and looked outward, his gaze distant. "Without spending a single soldier, merely by using Dafeng coins, we can obtain this fertile land of the Great Ruins. What a bargain! You are still too rigid, thinking that Yankang's wealth flowing into the Great Ruins is a bad thing. You don't realize that unifying through currency is the supreme strategy of conquest. The art of governing a nation is not about haggling over every penny. You must look far ahead, decades or centuries from now. The Grand Sacrificial Officer wants to make money—those are just small sums. I want to make money, and I aim for the realm itself—conquering without bloodshed, governing the people, unifying the economy!"
The Minister of Revenue was completely convinced. "Your Majesty's words can serve as a warning for future generations."
In Inlaid Dragon City, Qin Mu watched the bustling stream of practitioners and merchant caravans coming and going. The practitioners and merchants from Yankang made the city even more lively.
"If the State Preceptor leads the female practitioners from the Western Lands to pave the road here, connecting the Western Lands and Yankang, the people of the Great Ruins won't have to live so harshly."
Qin Mu calculated. Over a month had passed. The Yankang State Preceptor had led the Heavenly Works Hall of the Ministry of Works to the Western Lands. They should have almost turned the desert into an oasis. Using the Azure Dragon Pearl, one of the four great spiritual treasures of the Western Lands, this could be done.
And by opening rivers and diverting snowmelt from the mountains into the desert, vegetation could flourish.
If the Heavenly Works Hall could carve through the great mountains in the southern desert and draw the cloudy air from the Southern Sea northward, the desert's water source would be endless, eliminating worries about rainfall and snowfall.
In just a few years, the Flame Desert would become history.
Once the roads were built, connecting the Western Lands, the Great Ruins, and Yankang, with unimpeded trade routes and commercial towns and cities established along the way, the people of the Great Ruins would become prosperous.
"Divine Physician Qin, I hear you are from the Great Ruins."
Xing Han stood behind him, interrupting his thoughts. "You are from the Great Ruins, yet you bring Yankang's influence into it. You are a traitor to the Great Ruins."
"The Great Ruins has no nation, so how can there be talk of a traitor?"
Qin Mu was puzzled. "The people of the Great Ruins have always lived off the land and water. There is no ruler here. Even if Yankang comes, the Yankang people will also be subjects of the Great Ruins. They won't become masters. They must follow the rules of the Great Ruins. Here, the rules of the Great Ruins are more effective than the emperor's laws."
Xing Han shook his head. "I have not met Emperor Yanfeng many times, but I can see he is a man of great ambition and talent. In the future, he will surely unify the Great Ruins. By the time his army arrives at your gates, it will be too late for regrets."
Qin Mu smiled. "If the emperor sends troops against the Great Ruins, his throne won't last long. You should know how terrifying the Great Ruins are. These stone statues..."
He pointed to the various temples in Inlaid Dragon City and said leisurely, "They are waiting for the call to resurrect. When they awaken, heaven and earth will be overturned. Yankang will never become the master of this land. The master of this land is someone else."
His eyes flickered, and he laughed. "I drove away the Minister of Revenue, and the emperor didn't come to trouble me. I know exactly what he's planning. But his ideas are all pipe dreams. If the emperor's achievements could surpass those of the Founding Emperor, there might be a chance. Otherwise, it's all just a reflection in a mirror, a flower in the water. I'm planning to visit the graves. Senior Brother Xing Han, are you coming along?"
Xing Han watched the box running over on several legs, then withdrew his gaze. "Wherever you go, I go. I will only leave you once I find the person I am looking for."
Qin Mu frowned. "I'll visit the graves after your matter is resolved."
The location of the Human Sovereign Hall was a secret known only to successive Human Sovereigns. With Xing Han following him, he couldn't go there. If he led Xing Han there and the location was leaked, it would cause many unnecessary troubles.
Moreover, who knew if Xing Han would dig up the bones of the past Human Sovereigns for his collection?
Another ten-plus days passed. The court, the Celestial Sage Sect, the Daoist Sect, the Great Thunderclap Monastery, and other places gathered the information on people born at the zi hour on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the jiazi year. There were thirty thousand people born at that hour.
The Ministry of Revenue official who delivered the materials said, "The data from the grasslands, the ice fields, and the Western Lands have not yet been compiled."
Xing Han looked at the thirty thousand files and felt his head swell to the size of a bucket. After a moment, he said, "The person I'm looking for is male. Separate the men from the women."
The Ministry of Revenue official immediately gave orders. After sorting, he reported, "There are seventeen thousand males, of which only eight thousand are still alive. Many died in wars and disasters."
After another moment, Xing Han said, "Remove those who are not practitioners."
The official passed the order again, instructing the Ministry of Revenue clerks to sort through the data. The reply came back: "Four hundred practitioners remain."
Xing Han was silent for a moment. "Check these four hundred for any unusual signs at birth, and whether any were born wearing a jade pendant."
The official ordered an investigation into these four hundred.
Seeing this, Qin Mu grew suspicious. "Every time Xing Han gives an order, he hesitates for a moment. It doesn't seem like he's giving orders on his own, but rather following someone else's commands. That's right. In Fengdu, Xing Han jumped off the Bridge of Naiju and fell into the Netherworld. The Netherworld is far more dangerous than Fengdu, filled with malevolent spirits and demons. How did he return from the Netherworld? Could it be..."
His eyes flickered. Suddenly, a Gate of Bearing Heaven appeared behind him. The gate formed, and Qin Mu transformed into a serpent-headed, human-bodied form. A vertical eye opened on his forehead, and he looked toward Xing Han.
Xing Han immediately sensed it and turned back. Divine light swirled in his eyes, blocking Qin Mu's gaze. He said calmly, "Divine Physician Qin, there are some things it's better you don't know."
Qin Mu laughed heartily, dispelling the Zhen Star Lord form, but he was deeply shocked. Just now, while Xing Han was off guard, he had used the Zhen Star Lord's divine eye to see a terrifying eye hidden within Xing Han's life-and-death divine storage!
That terrifying eye had also noticed his gaze and immediately looked back at him, but Xing Han cut off their line of sight!
Just then, the Ministry of Revenue official came to report. "No practitioners born wearing a jade pendant were found. Being born with a jade in one's mouth is, after all, a myth."
"That person wasn't born with a jade in his mouth."
Xing Han was silent again for a moment, then took out a painting. "That jade pendant was used to suppress his demonic nature. This is the pattern of the pendant. Since we can't find a practitioner born at that hour, post this painting in every city and county, and search for the whereabouts of this jade pendant! Divine Physician Qin, have someone copy this painting a thousand times!"
Qin Mu took the painting, his gaze falling on the jade pendant pattern.
"Divine Physician Qin, have you seen this kind of jade pendant?" Xing Han asked, noticing his close scrutiny.
Qin Mu shook his head. "Never seen it."
Xing Han's eyes flickered. He took out a mirror and suddenly asked, "I've been meaning to ask, Divine Physician Qin, how old are you?"