I have Immortality In The Cultivation World

Chapter 624: Chapter 462 Maintain the Self
 

Dawn.

The sky was on the verge of lightening but had not yet lit up.

Zhou Yi was still dealing with memorials to the throne, his expression unrippled like an ancient well, resembling an emotionless machine.

To Zhou Yi, the memorials concerning the honor, disgrace, life, and death of countless people were only to be judged as right or wrong. They neither aroused his sympathy nor provoked his anger.

At that moment,

the head of the Imperial Guards rushed in with haste, bowing deeply to report.

“Your Majesty, water has flooded in many places in the city, and the Bureau of Soldiers and Horses is struggling to contain the fire. Should we allow the Imperial Guards to extinguish it?”

Since the hundredth year of the Orthodox reign, Zhou Yi had ordered the abolition of prostration rituals and had enacted related laws for this purpose. Anyone who forced others to prostrate themselves would be subjected to flogging.

The officials at the Imperial Court adapted naturally to not prostrating before the emperor but were uncomfortable with the commoners not prostrating before them. They secretly incited the commoners to restore the prostration ritual, even using the Martial God Temple as an excuse.

Zhou Yi had several heads chopped off, and no one dared to mention this matter again.

“Go, remember to post a notice stating that all losses suffered by the commoners tonight will be compensated by the Inner Treasury.”

“Your Majesty’s benevolence!”

The commander bowed and left to organize the palace guards to extinguish the fire in the city.

Zhou Yi then approved over a dozen more memorials before suddenly rising and saying, “I am weary; I will retire to the resting palace for rest.”

The attending eunuchs were astonished, their faces showing disbelief. His Majesty had not left the Diligent Administration Hall for over a decade; the younger eunuchs had never even seen His Majesty visit the Inner Palace.

The morning courts and memorials were all handled in the Diligent Administration Hall; on rare occasions when he wanted to eat or sleep, he would go to the side hall.

The personal eunuch Xiao Lutzi was the first to respond, his voice deep and powerful as he called out, “Prepare the carriage for the Wanshou Palace!”

Zhou Yi walked out of the hall, looked back at the eunuchs behind him, and instructed, “Xiao Lutzi will follow me; as for the rest of you, organize the memorials well. I will continue to review them tomorrow.”

The eunuchs bowed in response, their eyes on Steward Lu filled with envy.

Since the Orthodox Emperor’s ascension, all lead-pencil eunuchs had been called Xiao Lutzi, and to this day, there had already been over twenty of them, almost becoming an official title.

Zhou Yi strolled through the palace at an unhurried pace.

“Xiao Lutzi, how many years have you been in the palace?”

“To respond to Your Majesty, twelve years.”

“How many people are in your family?”

“Thirty-two, Your Majesty.”

“What does your family do for a living?”

“Thanks to Your Majesty’s grace, we took over the vegetable supply for the Shangshan Bureau.”

“…”

The two conversed intermittently, walking from the Diligent Administration Hall towards the southwest. As the surrounding palaces grew increasingly secluded, Xiao Lutzi discreetly reminded him in a low voice.

“Your Majesty, this is not the way to Wanshou Palace.”

“I know.”

Zhou Yi arrived in front of an unmarked palace and said gravely, “I wish to meet an old friend. It was here that I got to know them, and it’s also here where things should come to an end.”

Xiao Lutzi suddenly turned pale but dared not speak.

Zhou Yi pushed open the palace gate to see inside, where the grass was lush and the walls of the courtyard were damaged in many places, clearly having lacked maintenance for a long time.

Since his accession, Zhou Yi had never taken any concubines, leaving the Inner Palace void of anyone. Consequently, the Cold Palace had lost its purpose, and for over a hundred years, no one had visited, so its dilapidation was to be expected.

Zhou Yi walked forward to a set of stairs overrun with weeds and swept them clean with a wave of True Qi.

He then sat down, looked up at the sky, and said,

“Xiao Lutzi, the sky is not as blue as it was a hundred years ago.”

Xiao Lutzi replied softly, “To respond to Your Majesty, they say it’s because of the many coal-burning workshops. Their smoke is covering the sky.”

Zhou Yi asked, “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Certainly a good thing. If it weren’t for those workshops, the common people wouldn’t have enough food to eat.”

The young lad spoke again, “However, in recent years, as the people of the Divine Capital finally have enough food to eat, the skies have grown increasingly dim, and there’s been considerable dissent toward the coal workshops.”

Zhou Yi sighed, “That’s why, no matter how diligently I work, it is difficult to achieve perfection.”

“Your Majesty, I, too, have studied classics, histories, and philosophical works in depth, and even if I were to take the imperial examinations, I might pass and become a bureaucrat. Yet in recounting the history of past dynasties, none rival the prosperity of today.”

The young lad sincerely extolled, “You are truly a once-in-an-eternity emperor!”

“If that’s so…”

Zhou Yi suddenly asked, “Why did you betray me?”

Thump!

The young lad knelt on the ground, not daring to hide anything, and said, “Your Majesty, that demon threatened me with the extermination of my Nine Clans, compelling your servant to steal secrets from the palace.”

Zhou Yi stared at the young lad for a long time, dissipating the True Qi concentrated in his eyes, “Confess your crimes to the Three Departments and submit to their judgment; perhaps you’ll be able to save your life.”

The young lad kowtowed loudly, “Thank you, Your Majesty, for sparing my life.”

Ke ke ke…

A strange laugh sounded, followed by a rolling black fog, like dark clouds overtopping the sky, shrouding the Dragon Palace within.

“After a hundred years, the head of the Eastern Depot, once known for killing without blinking an eye, has become softhearted?”

The young lad suddenly screamed in agony, his face twisting and deforming, and with a faint outline of black fog on his visage, he leaped up from the ground, his palms turning into claws, lunging at Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi’s eyes emitted a piercing True Qi, penetrating the young lad’s chest and skull. He sighed, “Old Deer, our grievances… why involve the innocent?”

“I was beginning to think you had forgotten an old friend,” came the retort.

The black fog churned and condensed into a human shape, transforming into a hoary old man, none other than Old Deer, unseen for nearly two centuries.

“How could I forget?”

Zhou Yi said, “In this world, you are my only friend.”

“So am I.”

Old Deer stood at the entrance to the Cold Palace, eyeing Zhou Yi who was casually seated on the steps, as if recalling when the two first met, only now their positions were reversed.

“I have a question that troubles me, and I seek guidance from the head of the Eastern Depot.”

Zhou Yi nodded, “I have nothing to hide.”

“With your strength and temperament, why cling to the imperial throne?”

Old Deer spoke with a hint of resignation, “Why not live as a carefree hermit, indulging in the ephemeral beauty of mountains and rivers? If I could not find you, naturally, I would not seek revenge.”

“Worldly power is but child’s play in my eyes,” Zhou Yi remarked. “However, the endless affairs of the Imperial Court can fill my mind, halting my cultivation, preventing my understanding of heaven and earth, and thus, preserving my self.”

“Preserve yourself?”

Old Deer looked puzzled, pondering for a moment before nodding, “It seems that after reaching the Innate Realm, you’ve changed quite a bit, not only in your cultivation talents but also in temperament.”

Zhou Yi furrowed his brows, knowing one’s heart better than others. The changes within were a hundredfold more severe than what Old Deer witnessed.

The inexplicable self-identification, nonsensical vocabulary, inexplicable knowledge, and even the obsession with fairness… The former head of the Eastern Depot, once solely driven by self-interest, was gradually being transformed into someone else.

“That’s why I must stay busy, thinking of nothing else, immersed in mundane affairs, so the change can occur more slowly.”

“So that’s the case.”

Old Deer suddenly understood, expressing regret, “Then there’s no helping it; now that I know you’re in the palace, I must come back for vengeance, never resting until death!”

Zhou Yi asked puzzledly, “Why so? Could it be that I’m not a good emperor?”

“You are a very good emperor, the best there’s ever been,” praised Old Deer. “In these hundred years, after studying the annals of history, I’ve realized that history is a cycle, with wise and foolish rulers emerging every few centuries, experiencing eras of prosperity and chaos.”

“But little Yi, you are immortal and an exceedingly fair and just ruler; perhaps, you could end the cycle of chaos recurring every few centuries!”

“What a pity…”

With a sigh, Old Deer’s body roiled with mist, and from within emerged hundreds of heads with varied appearances—old and young, monks and laypeople—all twisted in agony and ferocity.

“In order to survive, I made a promise to the heavens—I must kill you!”