Empress Dowager Xiao Ruohan was born into the Lin’an Xiao family, one of the four great families. Nowadays, she was the most powerful woman in the Imperial Harem. Before, only the late Empress Qin Feng, who came from the Grand Marshal’s Qin family and was Qin Xiao’s elder sister, was able to compete with her.
Now that the late empress had passed, most of the power in the harem had fallen into the hands of the Xiao family.
The emperor and empress had died at the same time. The incident happened suddenly, but the Qin family was well prepared and was able to control the situation in the Imperial City and stabilize the forces of all parties at the outset.
Qin Xiao used the crown prince edict drafted by the previous emperor and sent the fifth prince Bai Lihong to the throne through thunderous means.
However, there were still four princes left behind by the late emperor in the palace.
Three of them were of humble origins, and their maternal families had little influence, so they were not to be feared.
Only, there was the eldest prince, Bai Lihai. His mother was Concubine Duan, the first of four concubines during the time of the previous emperor.
Concubine Duan came from a branch of the Xiao family, and thus belonged to the same clan as the Empress Dowager.
After the late emperor ascended the throne, the Empress Dowager raised the eldest prince herself. Now, at the age of sixteen, he had been granted the title “Wang” — Jiannan-wang.
The various forces in the capital restrained each other’s power, and the young emperor did not yet sit firmly on the throne.
The Empress Dowager currently kept Jiannan-wang in the palace on the pretext that she was reluctant to be parted from her grandson. Anyone with a discerning eye could see what her intentions were.
The young Emperor Bai Lihong was only three years old. Although he was intelligent and well-mannered, he was also innocent and naive. Under such circumstances, leaving him alone in the Imperial Palace would be like making a sheep walk into the mouth of a tiger.
Therefore, Qin Xiao risked the world’s disapproval and would rather be denounced by scholars and writers as a treacherous relative of the emperor due to living in the palace. He did this firstly to be perpetually on guard against assassins, and secondly to facilitate the young emperor’s education.
The affairs of state were currently unstable, and the Imperial Guard would occasionally apprehend assassins, mercenaries, and spies.
In order to facilitate these operations and interrogations, Qin Xiao ordered a “sky prison” built in the palace.
The sky prison was built far away from the harem, in a relatively remote location next to the Ningsu Courtyard, where the Imperial Guards rested while on duty. It covered an area of about three Fengtian Halls, and the surrounding walls were much higher than those of other parts of the palace. There was only one entry and exit gate.
Upon entering the courtyard, all that met the eye was cold, hard stone.
Not only was the ground paved, but the entire row of cells facing the gate were also constructed from thick stone, and looked extremely solid.
It was raining heavily at this moment, making the already dark cells even more damp and cold.
Soaked by the pouring rain, Chu Jiubian couldn’t help but shiver as he walked toward his cell.
The two Imperial Guards following him on each side had deviated from their prior coldness, and regarded him with unconcealable fear and dread, clearly frightened by the sudden rainstorm.
An Wuji was faring better than the other two. There wasn’t much emotion on his face, but his attitude toward Chu Jiubian was completely different from before.
He personally held open the door of the cell and said courteously: “Please, these cells are newly-built and very clean.”
Chu Jiubian was currently in a good mood.
He had won the bet with Qin Xiao. Even if Qin Xiao didn’t keep his word and provide him with good food and drink, it didn’t matter. With this rainstorm, the other party would be afraid of him or even want to use him, but wouldn’t easily kill him.
Having temporarily saved his life, Chu Jiubian naturally felt relieved.
He walked into the cell and turned to see An Wuji securing the cell door with a heavy bronze lock. He asked: “Is there anyone else in here?”
“No.” An Wuji locked the door and glanced at him, saying: “You’re the first guest here.”
Chu Jiubian: “…..It’s truly an honor.”
Realizing that his words were not pleasant to the ears, An Wuji gave a dry laugh: “Then you should rest if you don’t need anything else. We’ll leave first.”
“Wait.” Chu Jiubian stopped him. “Can you get me some clean clothes? And some hot water. I would like to wipe myself off.”
Only then did An Wuji notice that the young man’s robes were a mess.
Soaked, they clung to his body and outlined beautiful curves. The white silk and soft gauze stuck to his skin, vaguely revealing the soft tenderness underneath.
An Wuji retracted his gaze and said: “Apologies. We don’t dare act on our own without orders.”
Qin Xiao’s order was to imprison Chu Jiubian, and he had given no further instructions.
In fact, had this been anyone else, An Wuji would not have sent him over in person, and would even nudge his subordinates to teach this person a lesson.
But Chu Jiubian was entirely different from those he had arrested before. Not to mention teaching him a lesson, he even had to consider his tone when rejecting his request.
Chu Jiubian knew he was only following orders, and didn’t make things difficult for him. He took a step back and said: “Some drinking water should be okay, right?”
“I have some here.” An Wuji quickly removed the waterskin from his waist and handed it through the cell door.
He had been in the military camp ever since he was old enough to hold a weapon, and being used to roughing it, he was accustomed to eating and sleeping together with the soldiers. But when he looked up and saw Chu Jiubian’s weak appearance, his hand froze.
He said somewhat awkwardly: “This waterskin has been used. If you don’t like it, I can get a new one.”
Chu Jiubian’s throat was dry and painful, and he wasn’t a germaphobe. Thus, he went over and accepted the waterskin. Opening it, he tilted his head back and drank in small sips. Only then did his throat feel a lot better.
He closed the waterskin and went to return it, but An Wuji said: “Please keep it. I’ll have someone bring you food and drink later.”
How considerate.
It seemed his status as a “god” was rather useful.
Chu Jiubian gave him a smile and said: “Thank you very much.”
An Wuji said a few more polite words before leading the other two away.
The three of them left at a rapid pace, and only dared to speak in low voices once they were quite a distance away. All they could talk about was the rain.
Chu Jiubian gingerly touched his burning throat and glanced around the cell, but didn’t see anything extra.
Not to mention a bed, table, or chair, there wasn’t even a single piece of straw. All that was visible were the smooth, clean walls and floors.
He walked to the corner and casually sat on the floor.
The hard surface made his bones ache, and coupled with the injuries he’d sustained from hanging on the wire equipment and being thrown to the ground by Qin Xiao, there was basically no part of his body that didn’t hurt.
But he didn’t care about these things. What he cared about most was the System in his head.
On the way here, he had tried to call it in his mind.
The System did answer, but it was different from what he had read in novels. The System had no sense of humanity to it at all, and only answered simple questions with specific answers.
If the question was more complicated, it would keep silent, as if it wasn’t able to understand at all. It was simply a semi-intelligent AI.
But there was one thing he was sure of – that the System held no ill will toward him. Instead, it had a request for him to correct some sort of causality.
But the System was mysterious about the specific causality, and only said: “Host only needs to follow his heart to correct the causality.”
There were no tasks to complete, and no requirements. It was rare to find a System that was so easy to deal with.
Since he was told to follow his heart, Chu Jiubian didn’t delve into it. Instead of focusing on such things, it was better to familiarize himself with the System functions first and see if there was any way to help him get out of this situation.
He closed his eyes, and with a thought, he “saw” a virtual screen similar to a game panel.
However, this panel was as simple as an offline game, with only four boxes on the initial page.
Each box only contained the simplest column name and explanation.
[Faith Value/Points]: According to the faith conversion points received by Host, points can be used for trading activities in the System Mall.
Current Faith Value/Points: 10
[System Mall]: In the System Mall, Host can use Faith Points to purchase any item. Please click on the specific item to view the details page for purchase rules, product usage, etc.
Current status: Open.
[System Warehouse]: Can store a variety of items (except living things).
Current status: 10 square meters, occupied space: 0. (Will automatically expand as Faith Value accumulates. When points decrease, the space will not decrease.)
These three categories were not difficult to comprehend. Chu Jiubian understood them at a glance.
Then there was the last one. He couldn’t guess its specific function just by the name, and its explanation was the longest.
Divine Realm? Chu Jiubian thought to himself. Sounds really chunnibyou.
[Divine Realm]: Host can use this function to select and connect with Believers. After a successful connection, Host and their Believers can appear in the Divine Realm together. The Divine Realm is a space independent of the three-dimensional world. In the Divine Realm, Host is the only true god and can connect or disconnect with Believers at any time.
Believer connection rules:
- Cannot connect to those with evil intentions. Cannot connect to those who have committed heinous crimes. Cannot connect to those who hinder Host’s “correction of causality.”
- For every 100 points Host accumulates, he or she can add one Believer seat in the Divine Realm (When Faith Value/Points decrease, the number of Believers will not decrease).
- Believers can be connected to without distance restrictions.
- To connect to a Believer, he/she must be “sleeping” or in an “empty-minded” state.
- The content of conversations and events in the Divine Realm is known only to Host and the Believers present. Without Host’s consent, Believers cannot convey the existence of the Divine Realm or matters related to Host to the outside world.
Current Status: Not open (First opening requires accumulated Faith Value of 100).
Chu Jiubian attentively read through it twice, then clicked on the [Divine Realm] box in his mind. Sure enough, there was no reaction at all.
It was inconceivable that he could pull strangers, even people who were far away, into a space that was completely under his control.
According to the wording, if he had enough points, he could even pull hundreds or thousands of people into the space at the same time. Moreover, anything that happened or was discussed in this space was kept absolutely confidential. No one could betray him.
Furthermore, as the only true god in the Divine Realm, it would certainly be a piece of cake for him to hide his appearance and identity.
The more his thoughts diverged, the more Chu Jiubian intuited the powerful functionality of this Divine Realm.
He couldn’t wait to find out what it was like, so he had to acquire Faith Points quickly.
Chu Jiubian looked back at the Faith Value column. There were 10 Faith Points to start out with, likely because of the rainstorm.
He just wondered…..who was contributing these Faith Points?
The three Imperial Guards should own a share, and the young emperor probably had a share as well. After all, he’d called him “Fairy-gege” as soon as they met.
As for Qin Xiao and those civil and military officials, few of them would associate him with a “god.” At most, they would think he was proficient in the art of ancient Chinese divination.
However, this clear-headedness and skepticism only applied to the intellectual and cultured ruling class.
In the context of the Great Ning Dynasty, the common people were ignorant and believed that the emperor’s power was granted by divine right, and also believed in the existence of the supernatural.
This was perfect for Chu Jiubian, who needed “Believers” and “Faith Value.”
He only needed to use the System Mall or his own modern knowledge in order to display his unworldly abilities, and he would have a multitude of believers.
With a plan in mind, Chu Jiubian finally clicked on the System Mall.
Because of the excellent functions of the Divine Realm, Chu Jiubian’s expectations for the System Mall were very high. Fortunately, instead of disappointing him, the things inside the mall far exceeded his expectations.
There were gorgeous and exquisite clothing and accessories, ancient works of calligraphy and paintings from unknown dynasties, practical tool blueprints, various foods, medicines, and weapons that could be purchased directly…..
There was a dazzling array of items, and it seemed he could find anything he wanted here.
It all made Chu Jiubian’s head spin.
But very soon, he discovered the mall’s classification and pricing rules.
Daily necessities and food were the cheapest, followed by clothing, medicine, and various vegetable and fruit seeds. The most expensive categories were weapons and blueprints.
Blueprints were more valuable than weapons, because their contents were the crystallization of the wisdom and culture of different worlds and dynasties.
Chu Jiubian only gave them a casual glance and saw “fine salt extraction method,” “glass manufacturing method,” “crop encyclopedia,” “compendium of Chinese traditional medicine,” and “firearms manufacturing.”
What excited him the most was that after purchasing these blueprints and books, they would be directly imprinted in his mind, allowing him to master them without having to specifically learn them.
And he could even turn these blueprints and books into physical objects and teach them to others.
But that was all for the future. With his meager 10 points, he could at most purchase some food and drinks, and a couple sets of clothes, but those weren’t necessities for him at the moment.
However, he still had to test how these points could be used, and whether the Warehouse size would change after the points were reduced.
So after searching around, Chu Jiubian ultimately spent 0.5 points to buy half a box of cold medicine.
After a successful purchase, the value on the faith grid changed. And while the total size of the Warehouse remained the same, the occupied space changed due to the medicine being automatically stored within it.
The points value of the [Divine Realm] also remained the same. It seemed that the reduction in points did not affect their cumulative value.
Chu Jiubian felt at ease, and slowly opened his eyes. The cold, damp feeling came over him again, and he couldn’t help but shiver.
He retrieved two cold medicine tablets from the System Warehouse and took them with water.
And then he turned his head to look toward the cell door.
Thick wooden bars tightly enclosed him within.
Now, he needed to find a way out of here.
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Neon Dragonfly Translations 