Chapter 368 Longevity Pill
Secretariat.
Li Nuo sat in the government office, on the table were the important files that the Secretariat had compiled over the past month.
Nothing special happened in Daxia in the past month.
But the entire continent has been turned upside down.
Ningguo, Shengguo, Xuguo, Jinguo, Liangguo..., the thirteen small countries on the mainland, all carried out changes in their state system. The emperor let go completely and power was returned to the court. They moved from feudal monarchy to constitutional monarchy in an incredible way, which was jaw-dropping.
Although these small countries have a very low presence on the continent, even if the thirteen small countries join forces, they are no match for the five major dynasties, but the step they have taken is of extraordinary significance.
Zuo Xiang sat opposite him and asked, "Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing?"
The emperor handed over power to the court, which had never happened before.
When the news reached Daxia, the entire court was shocked.
How can a country be without an emperor? This is a thought rooted in their hearts.
But without emperors, nothing seemed to have changed in those countries.
Let alone them, Your Majesty has been neglecting state affairs for more than ten years, isn't Daxia still doing the same thing?
Li Nuo fell into deep thought. Constitutional monarchy is not the best political system, but compared with the feudal monarchy, it is undoubtedly the difference between civilization and barbarism.
At least, people’s lives will be much more dignified.
However, good things are good things, and they should be discussed according to the circumstances.
These small countries are nothing but fish on the chopping board of the big countries. It makes no difference whether they have an emperor or not.
But big countries are different.
The emperor is the strongest of the five dynasties and the greatest deterrent to foreign enemies. If any of the five dynasties loses its emperor, it will be quickly annexed by the other countries, unless...
The left prime minister asked, "Unless what?"
Li Nuo did not answer directly, but Zuo Xiang quickly came up with the answer himself.
Unless there is no emperor in the five dynasties.
Without the emperor, there would be no royal family, and no one would be above the law...
But this is treasonous.
Besides, if someone can threaten the monarch of a small country, who can threaten the emperors of the five great dynasties?
The closer we are to Chang'an, the stronger Your Majesty will be.
The emperors of Chu and Wei seem to be the strongest on the continent, but if they were in Chang'an, even if the two of them joined forces, they would not be a match for Your Majesty. No one can force the emperors of the five dynasties to abdicate.
After all, big countries and small countries are different.
Zuo Xiangqing sighed, looked at Li Nuo, and suddenly asked, "The fourth realm?"
Li Nuo nodded.
The Left Prime Minister was both overjoyed and shocked. He was happy that there was a new Confucian official of the fourth realm in the court, but he was shocked at how fast his cultivation level improved. It was only a few months since he broke through to the third realm.
In less than a year, he went from the first level to the fourth level, completing a journey that many Confucian disciples could not complete in their entire lives.
This was unexpected, but also expected.
Just based on those four sentences, his status in Confucianism was comparable to that of the ancient sages.
He looked at Li Nuo and asked again: "What are your plans next?"
After only a few months, Li Nuo deeply realized that what Fenghuang said was right. The situation on the mainland was changing too fast and it was facing major changes not seen in hundreds of years. Recently, Li Nuo could even feel that there seemed to be a pair of invisible hands stirring everything behind the scenes.
This is the intuition of a strategist.
He thought for a moment and said, "After the New Year, I plan to leave Chang'an for a while and visit various states."
Zuo Xiang was not surprised by this and said, "That's fine. However, you are alone outside, so you should take your own safety as the most important thing. There are so many people who hate you. They dare not take action when you are in Chang'an. After you leave Chang'an, I'm afraid many people will not be able to restrain themselves..."
Li Nuo nodded and said, "Thank you, Zuo Xiang, for your reminder."
When the left prime minister walked out of the yamen, he paused for a moment, turned around and asked, "Do you think anyone can really do those four things?"
To establish a mind for heaven and earth, to establish a mission for the people, to carry on the lost knowledge of the ancient sages, to bring peace to the world for all eternity... these are things that countless wise men and sages have never done.
Li Nuo nodded and said confidently: "Yes..."
…
Soon, Li Nuo walked out of the palace.
He wanted the Imperial Sword and served as an inspector at the same time, not to scare people.
He had made the plan as early as on the way back to Chang'an from Zhao State.
Chang'an has limited resources for cultivation. Daxia has more than a hundred states and a thousand counties. There are so many corrupt officials who can be killed and sentenced, and so many students who can be trained. Whether it is for Confucian cultivation or Legalist cultivation, at this point, one needs to go out.
If Confucians want to make their mark, they must spread their ideas to more people.
In the later stages of Legalist practice, it was inevitable that they would patrol the country, handle cases and redress grievances.
When passing by the entrance of the Criminal Department, Li Nuo walked to the fortune-telling stall, greeted the old fortune-teller and said, "Hello, senior."
Dongfang Xuan looked up at him and said nothing.
To be honest, he's not very good.
In the past, he could still calculate some things about the boy in front of him.
But now, he could only barely calculate his lifespan.
The Confucian spirit of righteousness is indeed not in vain. Even if his cultivation is two major realms lower than his, he can still conceal the secrets for him.
Of course, this is also related to his own cultivation.
There are too many and too diverse powers in his body, and several of them have reached high levels. Naturally, it is not as easy to deal with them as before.
For the Yin-Yang School, who have always had everything under control, not being able to see their fate clearly is a very uncomfortable thing.
After greeting the fortune teller, Li Nuo said to the girl, "Do you want to come to my house for dinner?"
Dongfang Qing immediately stood up and said happily, "Let's go..."
Watching his granddaughter follow Li Nuo away, Dongfang Xuan shook his head and flipped through an ancient book in his hand.
Is the longevity pill real?
If it is true, why has there never been any record of this elixir before?
If it was fake, how did the Great Xia Emperor prolong his life? There was no need for the emperors of small countries to give up their power...
Not only him, but also the strong men from various countries on the continent were questioning the same thing.
During this period, the matter of the longevity elixir was widely spread, and even caused many deaths, but no one had ever seen it. More and more powerful people began to doubt this.
There are even rumors that this incident is an outright lie.
There are strategists who use this to stir up the situation on the continent, forcing the royal families of various countries to give up their thrones. By changing the situation in various countries, they break through the bottleneck of their own cultivation.
Just as this statement was becoming more and more true.
Wei State, Imperial Palace.
In the Imperial Garden, a figure in a dragon robe, with his back to a middle-aged man, asked, "Why did you take so long to come back?"
The middle-aged man said, "We were originally going to hunt down an official from the Xia Kingdom. That person was ruining our country's plans in the Zhao Kingdom. If we can't recruit him, we must not keep him. But we were delayed on the way by something."
The figure admired a flower in the garden and asked, "Oh, what is it?"
The middle-aged man said slowly: "I met a mysterious man on the road. He gave me something and asked me to give it to Your Majesty."
The figure looked suspicious and asked, "What is it?"
The middle-aged man said, "Longevity pill."
The figure in the dragon robe suddenly raised his head, revealing an old face. Two sharp rays of light shot out from his cloudy eyes: "What, the longevity pill is real!"
The middle-aged man took out a porcelain bottle from his sleeve, handed it to the old man in the imperial robe, and said, "I can't tell whether it is real or fake. Your Majesty, please take a look."
The old man couldn't wait to take the porcelain bottle and poured out a blood-red pill from it.
He placed the pill in the palm of his hand and looked at it carefully.
This pill looks ordinary, but it does have a strange power.
The old man was about to put it into his mouth when the middle-aged man said, "The origin of this pill is questionable. Your Majesty, please think twice..."
The old man waved his hand and said, "It's okay."
With his cultivation level, no poison in this world can harm him.
The pill melted in his mouth, and the power also merged into his body.
The next moment, the middle-aged man's eyes suddenly focused.
Just after taking the pill, the old man opposite, whose almost completely white hair, quickly turned black at an extremely fast speed.
At the same time, the wrinkles on his face were disappearing rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, he changed from an old man to a middle-aged man.
Emperor Wei looked down at his hands, his eyes shining brightly. Although this change was more of an external manifestation, he could feel that his lifespan had indeed increased a little.
The life-extending elixir is real!
He immediately looked at the middle-aged man and asked, "Besides giving you the elixir, what else did that man say?"
The middle-aged man regained his composure and said slowly, "He said that if he could be given enough royal blood essence, he would be able to refine more longevity pills, but he would take half of them as a reward..."
Emperor Wei narrowed his eyes slightly.
Taking half as a reward may be a bit greedy, but the other party has the right to be greedy.
Currently, he is the only one on the continent who is known to be able to refine this kind of elixir.
If he doesn't want any reward, I will instead doubt his motives.
Emperor Wei looked into the distance, his eyes flickering, and I don't know what he was thinking...
…
As the end of the year approaches, the countries on the mainland are not at peace.
First, the royal families of small countries were destroyed one after another. In order to protect themselves, the royal families of various countries had to give up power to save their lives.
I thought that as no one in the small country claimed to be emperor, this matter would gradually calm down. However, I didn't expect that those people would actually dare to target the royal family of the big country.
In the four major dynasties of Chu, Wei, Zhao, Qi..., royal families began to die due to various accidents.
This makes the rumor that the longevity elixir is a rumor self-defeating.
If that kind of elixir didn't exist, why would so many people take such a risk?
This time, it was the turn of the royal family of the great country to panic.
Those royal family members who were far away from the capital moved to the capital to seek refuge as soon as possible.
Compared with several other countries, Chang'an of Daxia seems particularly peaceful.
The rich and powerful left Chang'an in the first place to escape for their lives, so of course it was impossible for them to move back. Some people even found that some of the rich and powerful who had moved to other places had just built magnificent mansions, but they were deserted overnight.
The identities that they once were proud of have now become a butcher's knife that takes their lives. Perhaps the only way to survive is to abandon everything, find a place where no one knows them, and hide their identities.
Chang'an.
Yunmeng Academy.
"Hello, sir!"
"Hello sir!"
Li Nuo walked out of Yunmeng Academy, and students bowed to him from time to time.
After finishing the tutoring classes, he was not idle, and when he was free, he would visit various colleges to inspect, give lectures, etc.
Not long ago, he appointed himself another official position.
Director of the Imperial College.
His situation in the court now is very different from last year.
Basically, below the third rank, he can fill in the letter of appointment to determine what official position he wants to hold. He can apply in the morning and take office in the afternoon.
The Imperial College was different from the Ministry of Justice and the Secretariat. It did not have much power and was only responsible for supervising education and training. All academies in Daxia, including the four major academies, were under the management of the Imperial College.
As the Dean of the Imperial Academy, Li Nuo often visited various academies to inspect their teaching situation, whether they were serious about cultivating talents for Daxia, whether there were any campus bullying or insults to teachers' ethics, and it was normal for him to give a few open classes and encourage students...
After leaving the academy, Li Nuo went to Yuyin Pavilion to pick up Fenghuang and go home together.
Since Fenghuang took over the financial power of the Li family, he has done a lot of things.
The Li family's original business was only the bookstore opened by Li Nuo. After Fenghuang took over, it not only expanded the original bookstore, but also opened several branches to sell his previous poetry collections.
In order to support her, Li Nuo had to publish several new collections of poetry.
The price of poetry collection is not cheap, but people who can afford to read books will not be short of money.
The Li family made money from the rich, and then took out a portion of the profits to provide porridge and charity, and built several shelters to accommodate the homeless.
Phoenix also provides them with job opportunities in its newly opened stores.
Those who are willing to earn money through their own labor will get a job. Those who are unwilling to work can get two bowls of porridge every day. Although they will not be full, they will not starve to death.
However, not many people are satisfied with just two bowls of porridge.
Those displaced people are not lazy. People rely on the weather for their livelihood. If there is a natural disaster in one year, they may lose their land. If there are two natural disasters, they are likely to lose their houses and have to beg for food.
In addition to bookstores, Phoenix has also expanded its business to many areas. The wages in Li's shop are generally several percent higher than those in similar shops.
Fenghuang took his arm, rested her head on his shoulder, and said, "You said you want to help the world, so I will help you..."
Li Nuo held her hand tightly. He had to say that he was lucky to have such a capable wife.
…
For the people of Chang'an, being able to work in Li's shop is undoubtedly a lucky thing.
Not only are the working hours short and the wages high, but during festivals, you can also get free rice and flour.
Apart from the Li family, only the Chen family's shop has the best treatment.
It can even be said that the Chen family's shop is treated better than the Li family.
With six days off every month, the wages are more than three times that of other shops, and food and accommodation are provided. It is simply the dream shop of all the employees.
Unfortunately, the Chen family shop doesn’t accept everyone.
Their previous shop was not short of people, so they could only hope for the new shop that the Chen family would open in the future.
Shanzhou, Chenjia Village.
Chen Tieniu was surrounded by the crowd. He handed out heavy copper coins to the villagers and said, "Don't worry, everyone will get some. No one will be left out..."
After distributing all the copper coins, he looked at all the villagers and said, "Listen to me, everyone. If you are willing to stay and farm, I will give you some money to buy land. You can farm your own land in the future and no longer have to suffer the landlord's bullying. If you are willing to go to Chang'an with me, I, Chen Tieniu, guarantee that I will pay you at least three taels of silver every month..."
Upon hearing this, the villagers of Chenjia Village all showed excitement on their faces.
This is undoubtedly a pie in the sky for them.
An old man held Chen Tieniu's hand tightly and said, "Tieniu has made great progress. I want to thank you on behalf of the villagers!"
Chen Tieniu patted his hands gently and said with a smile: "Don't say that, Village Chief. Without everyone's help, I, Chen Tieniu, would not be where I am today. I swore at that time that if I, Chen Tieniu, became rich one day, I would definitely bring everyone with me to become rich and live a good life together..."
(End of this chapter)
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