Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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“Yixiao sent a letter and said that you want to help Feng Zhong take the position of emperor, and I just want to hear your reasons with my own ears.” Lin Xin and Feng Zhong were both Zhu Xingli’s apprentices. If they wanted to rebel, they must involve Zhu Xingli, and by extension the entire Zhu family.
Zhu Yangai took him to a high pavilion called Reaching for the Stars. There were two sentences written on the pillars:
[Climb the tower and whisper, don’t shock the heavenly master.]
It was written out in a serious manner, as if it was really high to the sky, which was quite interesting.
“Master, do you know how people from the Central Plains view the Southern Region?” Lin Xin stood on the edge of a high platform without railings, looking into the distance. It was indeed very high here, and you could see the entire Bodhi City. The city was full of carts and horses, crowded with people, and it was a scene of prosperity.
“What do others think of it, what does it matter to me?” The wind was strong on the high platform, and the gorgeous red sleeves of Zhu Yangai’s robes were rolled up, like a phoenix dancing in the fire, seeming ready to ride the wind away at any time.
As the head of the wealthy Zhu family, whoever became the emperor would have to give him face, but it really had nothing to do with him. Unless it was absolutely necessary, the Zhu family would not get involved in such a thing as struggle for the throne.
“There are tiles in the southern region, ten thousand hectares of land in the Central Plains,” Lin Xin put away his expression of begging for candy from his elders, and said seriously, “It’s not that Feng Zhong wants to fight for the throne, nor is it that Lin Xin is greedy for power. It is that the crown prince has the ambition to govern the country, but he has no experience. The talents of the world are self-willed and narrow-minded… The Luli order is not limited to the inspection of Luli, and the master should be clearer about it than this nephew.”
The Luli order would add 10% annually to the Luli yearly tribute. It may not be obvious in the first few years, but as long as you continue to exchange the gold for Luli and as the inventory starts running out, the price of Luli was bound to skyrocket. At that time, the Zhu family, which would never be short of Luli, would become the target of public criticism.
In his previous life, Lin Xin also worked hard to be a loyal person. After all, he was already an unrighteous master-killer, and he didn’t want to wear the hat of disloyalty again.
But Feng Zhang didn’t believe him. After Emperor Yuanshuo died, he wanted to put Lin Xin to death.
“The subject is just a sword of the late emperor. When the new emperor succeeded the throne, this subject became the new emperor’s sword.” Lin Xin, who was full of evil spirits, knelt in front of the seal, took off Mojian and placed it flat on the bluestone board in front of his knees.
Feng Zhang was wearing a bright yellow dragon robe and was sitting on the throne. There were eighteen masters standing around him to guard against Lin Xin’s sudden attack. “I plan to take back the Luli mine in the southern region, but Zhu Yangai is really a tough nut to crack.”
The Zhu family had a strong military force and abundant Luli, and they had always paid the Luli on time. Except that Zhu Yangai had a bad temper and had embarrassed the court for a long time, there was no other big mistake. An unprovoked attack on the southern region would definitely make the princes of the four regions dissatisfied, and one mistake could put Dayong in danger of national subjugation.
In order to seize the Luli vein from the Zhu family, the new emperor’s favorite idea was to kill Zhu Yangai and cause chaos in the Zhu family. In the name of quelling the chaos, the court would take the opportunity to take over the Zhu family.
“Your Majesty wants me to kill Duke Jiang?” Lin Xin lowered his eyes, his eyes full of coldness.
“This kind of thing is the most suitable thing for you to do, just like when you killed… Zhong Changye,” Feng Zhang smiled with interest, “I believe in your ability.”
There was a brief pause after the word “kill”, which made Lin Xin clench the hem of his clothes under his fist. Zhu Yangai was his uncle, although he had many misunderstandings about him at first. But over the years, he had gradually understood the cause of Zhu Xingli’s death, and he had recently given Lin Xin the spiritual sword Zhu Xingli had asked him to make for him.
Now, Feng Zhang was asking him to kill Zhu Yangai.
Picking up Mojian in front of him, Lin Xin stood up slowly without looking at the emperor on the throne. The sword made of cold iron also had a heart.
After leaving the main hall, he met Feng Zhong with a sad face.
“The emperor asked me to go to the Western Regions to quell the chaos.” Feng Zhong frowned tightly, because of the implementation of the Luli order, the imperial power was gathered, and the national treasury was full. However, the price of Luli had become high, and in the land of princes, the people did not have ways to make a living. The new emperor raised the annual tribute again, and there were complaints from all over the country, and the people were preparing to rise up.
The heavens were not benevolent and treated everything as a straw dog; while the emperor was not benevolent and regarded human life as worthless.
Lin Xin turned around and looked at the splendid main hall with murderous intent in his eyes, “If the heaven is unkind, break the heaven; if the king is unkind, destroy the king!”
It seemed he was destined to be an unkind, unjust, unfaithful and unfilial person.
In this life, everything had not happened yet. It was not easy to persuade Zhu Yangai to change his mind. And Lin Xin also had no intention of asking him to help immediately. “We haven’t reached the point of rebellion yet, so we might as well wait and see for the time being. This nephew will do his best to let the emperor justifiably pass on the throne to Feng Zhong.”
It would be unwise to rebel head-on. Even with the support of the Zhu family, it would be very difficult to succeed. Not to mention the military power controlled by the royal family, if the emperor was in trouble and a war broke out, the princes like Shen Qirui would definitely come together to save him.
Zhu Yangai raised his hand, threw a gleaming sword to Lin Xin, jumped off the high platform without saying a word, and floated away.
Lin Xin caught the overly beautiful sword, smiled, and asked loudly: “Uncle, what is the name of this sword?”
“Yanggu.”
Yanggu, the place where the sun rose; Yuyuan, the place where the sun set[1].
Stepping on the natal spiritual sword with smooth spiritual power, Lin Xin couldn’t wait to rush back to Yongdu, wanting to show Shen Lou his sword.
“Gone?” Lin Xin looked at the empty room with disappointment in his eyes.
“When you go to the Beimo as an envoy, you have to ride a horse carrying the imperial flag. It’s so slow that he couldn’t delay.” Zhu Xingli played with the Huang Quanzhu and couldn’t help but sigh at his brother’s talent.
“His spirit has not yet been cured, how could you let him go to Beimo alone?” Lin Xin snatched the Huang Quanzhu back.
“Those messy memories have been eliminated.” Zhu Xingli snatched the bead back and turned his back to study the formation above. “The boy from the Shen family is really smart. He can learn it as soon as his soul leaves the body.”
After the soul left the body, everything could be seen clearly, and the patched fragments were also clearly visible, which was much more convenient than using formations to lift the soul. But this thing was difficult to learn, and Zhu Xingli had only figured it out after studying it for a long time.
“Remove?” Lin Xin frowned. It was not an easy task to remove the impurities stuck to the soul, and the process would not be pleasant.
“Well, although replenishing the soul with other remnant souls is quick, it is not a long-term solution. Let me think about it again.” Zhu Xingli said and hung the Huang Quanzhu on himself. Without waiting for Lin Xin to say anything, he suddenly pointed behind his back.
Lin Xin turned his head to look over and saw Feng Zhong standing awkwardly at the door.
“Senior brother.” Feng Zhong walked over and sat next to Lin Xin.
Lin Xin glanced at him and ignored him.
“Master told me that I was not good that day…but you should have also told me…” After talking for a while, without getting a response, Feng Zhong scratched his head, “Don’t be angry, I’ll buy food for you.”
“Hey——” Lin Xin couldn’t help laughing, “Do you think everyone is as greedy as you?”
He didn’t know what Master and Feng Zhong had talked about, but the two on the left and right had temporarily reconciled. With Master around, Lin Xin wasn’t worried about having any disagreements with Feng Zhong, but was only worried about Shen Lou who was far away in Beimo.
The unsolvable curse of devouring spirits was created by the barbarians of Beimo. Beimo, which already possessed the spirit devourer, was like a dragon’s pond and a tiger’s den to those who cultivated immortality.
The consequences of being in a bad mood after cutting Luli were very serious.
The Luli handed over by the Zhu family was sufficient in quantity, perfect in color, and impeccable in every way. Lin Xin took Zhu’s family as the standard and went to Marquis Wangting’s fief to inspect the annual tribute.
Marquis Wangting considered himself the emperor’s confidant, and he fully supported the New Discretionary Luli Order, and had prepared the Luli early.
“This one is of insufficient quality, this one has too many impurities, and this one still has stray stones…” Lin Xin sat on a chair, crossed his legs, and pointed out one by one accurately.
Marquis Wangting, who looked magnanimous at first, gradually broke into a cold sweat, “Marquis Xiao Lin, isn’t this too harsh a standard?”
“Master Marquis misunderstood, this is not harsh,” Lin Xin raised his eyebrows. He hooked his hand and motioned Marquis Wangting to come closer, and spoke with a smile, his tone as light as a lover’s whisper, “I can be even more demanding.”
After saying that, he raised his hand, and Yuan’a Jiuren, who were already experienced, roared and the entire box of Luli fell to the ground and all the Luli spread on the ground.
Originally, it was just picking out the flaws on the surface, but now it was inspecting one by one.
Marquis Wangting was cut down by two counties at a time, and the little nobles from all over the place became nervous when they got the news. Lin Xin walked and chipped all the way. By the end of the year, more than 20 counties had been reduced, and the titles of three Marquises had been directly seized.
Dayong had four grand princes and more than thirty princes, all of whom were independent and self-governing princes. The big nobles could have several counties, but the small ones only had a few counties. If the county was not reduced enough, they could only seize the title.
Lin Xin had his own standards and did not follow Luo Shijun’s. The princes complained a lot, and they complained that Lin Xin was too strict. Emperor Yuanshuo was delighted, and directly gave Lin Xin the power to kill first and play later.
The princes suddenly fell silent and began to think of ways to save themselves.
The envoys of the barbarians had already arrived in Beijing, and Shen Lou followed them back to Yongdu, and a palace banquet would be held in their honour in the near future. At this time, Lin Xin had set foot on the territory of the Lin family in the Eastern Region.
The place where the Lin family lived was called Taxuelu[2]. The eastern region was warm and there was not much snow. The name referred to the white grass and reeds in autumn, as walking among the grass and reeds was like walking on snow.
Now that the season of flowers had passed, the scenery of Taxuelu was still very good, with gurgling water and luxuriant grass. In the depths of the reeds, the sound of the guqin was faint, but the clear singing was like the evening wind rising and falling:
The sandalwood is cut down, and the river is dry.
The river is clear and rippling.
That gentleman is not a vegetarian!
The author has something to say:
Note: The last poem is from the small theater of “The Book of Songs·Fa Tan”:
“The Super Fierce Chapter of Marquis Xunlu”
Small Noble Family: Protest, this selection method is too harsh
Xinxin: Use a microscope. Come on, Luli without Eight Hearts and Eight Arrows is all unqualified.
Small Noble A: So fierce QAQ
Small Noble B: Protest, your men are too fierce and scare others
Xinxin: Service with a smile
Small Noble B: So fierce T^T
Loulou: Protest, Lao Gong has returned to Beijing, Xin Xin has not returned home yet
Xinxin: Take off your clothes. Whoever begs for mercy first today will be the dog.
Loulou: So fierce (-﹃-)
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[1] IDK if you remember but Yuyuan is the name of SL’s sword.
[2] Which literally means the snowy road.
