As the sun sets and the city lights begin to twinkle, the Hall of Preserving Harmony in the Forbidden City is teeming with people.

On New Year's Eve, Emperor Jiajing hosted a banquet for his officials, with over a thousand people in attendance, including countless palace maids, eunuchs, dancers, and singers.

The palace was brightly lit, filled with the sounds of drums and music, and bustling with people.

Outside the Forbidden City and inside the capital, lanterns were lit in every household, and families sat together eating rice cakes, drinking Tusu wine, and cracking melon seeds.

In the deep darkness of the night, the capital city resembles a brightly lit city that floats in the void of darkness.

Li Changzhou and Yaochi sat in the Hall of Preserving Harmony, opposite Shao Yuanjie, and above them were Emperor Jiajing and Empress Fang.

In the center of the main hall, after a dance performance, envoys from various vassal states stepped forward to congratulate Emperor Jiajing.

"The King of Ryukyu's Zhongshan wishes His Majesty the Jiajing Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty a long life!"

The tribute included twelve beautiful Japanese women, agate, pearls, large quantities of silver, ores, weapons, and some handicrafts.

"The countries of Hormuz and others have sent 1,200 envoys to congratulate Your Majesty on Your Majesty's long life!"

The tribute included coconuts, coconut wine, coconut oil, coconut sugar, gemstones, pearls, glass bottles, precious iron knives, double-edged swords, ambergris, and so on.

Malacca also sent tribute, including coral trees, crane crests, Western cloth, rhinoceros horns, ivory, black bears, turkeys, parrots, white muntjacs, agarwood, and so on.

Tatars, Oirats, Korea, Japan, Ryukyu Kingdom, Lesser Ryukyu Kingdom, Annam, Zhenla Kingdom, Siam, Champa Kingdom, Sumatra Kingdom, Western Kingdom, Java, Pengheng Kingdom, Baihua Kingdom, Sanfuqi Kingdom, Boni Kingdom, Turpan, Siam, Samarkand, Hami...

One country after another, with a dazzling array of treasures.

"How many players do you think are among these people?" Yaochi whispered in Li Changzhou's ear.

“At least one from each country,” Li Changzhou said with a smile, picking up a slice of cold lamb tail with his chopsticks and scanning the hall with his eyes.

Some of the prying cultivators or players avoided his gaze.

He put down the chopsticks, casually picked up his wine cup, and asked Yaochi, "Are you alone on this mission?"

“There are five more, but I don’t know where they went.” Yaochi also raised her wine cup and clinked it with his.

I believe you.

Yaochi rolled her eyes at him, and the two of them took a sip of wine at the same time. A beautifully dressed, graceful palace maid brought over spicy live rabbit and phoenix tail oranges.

Yaochi saw that the palace maid was petite and cute, only twelve or thirteen years old, just a child, and gave her a phoenix tail orange.

After the palace maids left, amidst the congratulations from Sumatra, Li Changzhou whispered to Yaochi, "I feel like throwing up whenever I see a rabbit now."

"Don't vomit on me."

"This is just an exaggeration because there are too many rabbits in the honey pot world."

"Once the lunar base is built, we can put the rabbits up there and make them into 'Moon Rabbit' dishes. A Quanjude roast duck costs two hundred, and you can charge two thousand for each rabbit. When tourism opens up in the future, we can advertise 'If you go to the moon and don't eat moon rabbit, you've wasted your trip,' and you'll only wish there were more rabbits." Yaochi spoke softly, with a captivating smile.

"Brilliant!" Li Changzhou clapped his hands and said with a smile, "Speaking of roast duck, I'm reminded of a TV series—"

Both of them said at the same time, "Love Across Time and Space".

“We must have a drink.” Li Changzhou raised his wine cup again, and Yaochi smiled and raised hers as well.

"When I watched this TV series, Zhu Yuanzhang eating roast duck made Qianxia's mouth water. The next day, I took my slingshot, shot a wild duck, roasted it in the woods and ate it."

"Is it a wild duck, or someone else's duck?"

"You're so wild. I didn't expect you to watch this kind of TV series. Don't young ladies from wealthy families usually practice piano and guzheng?"

"I can also play the flute."

"Be serious in the Hall of Preserving Harmony."

"Hmm? What's wrong with playing the flute?" Yaochi's eyes were innocent and naive, but the corners of her mouth under the veil were smiling in a way that wasn't quite a smile. "By the way, speaking of Ming Dynasty dramas, have you ever watched 'The World's Number One'?"

"Hulong Manor, I've seen it." Li Changzhou took a bite of the Yunnan matsutake mushroom. "This is delicious."

Yaochi picked up a skewer and took a bite: "So-so. The Zhengde Emperor in 'The World' is the one before Jiajing.' There are also Japanese characters like Yagyu Yukihime and Yagyu Hyōshū."

"The God of Slaughter's One-Slash Slash!" Li Changzhou slashed with his hand. "Qianxia used this move to hit me when we were little. It's a pity that I hadn't developed yet, and she straddled me and beat me up."

Yaochi covered her mouth and laughed, feeling very pleased.

After laughing, she glared at him reproachfully, and said breathlessly, "What I meant was, you should be careful of these foreign girls, what kind of killers can cut down gods with one stroke, or conquer the world with three strokes?"

“You understand.” Li Changzhou raised his glass. “To you.”

The two chatted and laughed, whispering to each other, occasionally gesturing, their eyes scanning the surroundings, making some people in the hall tremble with fear.

The cultivators could sense the vast, ocean-like magical power within the two individuals, and most players were familiar with Li Changzhou, having long heard of this Black Mist King who had slaughtered millions.

There are even rumors that he is the one who is "unrivaled" and "unrestrained".

But the two of them were really just chatting during the New Year, talking about TV dramas from the Ming Dynasty, and enjoying song and dance performances.

After the New Year's greetings from various countries were over, hundreds of singers and dancers took to the stage to perform, singing and dancing, accompanied by music and conversation, creating a lively and bustling atmosphere.

Watching the song and dance, Li Changzhou couldn't help but miss Yang Qinglan and his sister, wondering what they were doing now.

Around 9:30 p.m., the singing and dancing stopped for a while, and the Hall of Preserving Harmony was completely silent except for the slight crackling of the candles.

"By imperial decree—" the eunuch in charge of ceremonies shouted, "All the immortals and sages are invited to use their magical arts to exorcise ghosts and ward off evil spirits!"

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