Divine Brilliance

“Musician Xuan? Xuan Yunlan? I have heard about her. She was a musician in Qingyun Pavillion in the past. Not only were her music skills top in Shili Ling Xiangding, but I also heard that she was extremely beautiful–extremely enchanting, a crowning beauty.”

“I heard about her! I heard about her! 2 years ago, when the ruler just inherited the throne, he was interested in her beauty. Hence there was a preposterous government decree to lock down Shili Ling Xiangding only for her. Only after she went on the mountain to request an audience with him, did he create a satellite city–to give those poor girls a place to live at. Sigh, sigh!”

Li Zhile’s brows rose, thinking that he was truly an immoral ruler. So at the start of his reign, he had already done the same thing. So this was the reason why Shili Ling Xiangding was abandoned.

Speaking of which, wasn’t the monster king just 14 2 years ago? What an animal!

His ears rose as he listened closely. He heard one of them speak, “The ruler is truly lustful! I heard that beside his side, there is a girl known as Zhao Yanran who follows him every moment. I heard that she is a female beauty exceeding that of the natural world, ice muscles jade bones. Her skin was like that of lamb fat. Her beauty is even better than that of musician Xuan. Who knows where ruler snatched her from…”

“…Si! There is such a matter? Creamy skin, how snow white and smooth must that be. The ruler is fortunate and blessed!”

Li Zhile was also really envious and jealous, filling furious whilst thinking to himself why wasn’t he so lucky too.

“The ruler is so lustful at such a young age. In this year, he has not dealt with administrative matters, this isn’t a blessing for the country.”

“However, after all, she is a governor commander of the central dynasty. Is it appropriate to forcefully take her as a concubine?”

“The heavens are high, and the emperor is so far away. What are you afraid of?”

“No wonder, recently on the market some resources are on low supply. Is the ruler preparing the gift for the concubine?”

“Hehe! I heard about this matter. However, there is another explanation of the matter. It isn’t the ruler forcefully wanted to take her as his concubine, but that she was impressed by his talents. That day on the mountain, she failed to snatch him, which was why she now willingly gave herself to him…”

Li Zhile’s eyes turned red, and he couldn’t take it anymore, strongly hitting the table with a palm.

True qi brimming, instantly there was a loud “hong” sound and the wooden table was smashed into pieces.

It caused the entire restaurant to turn silent. The gazes all-around all focused on him, filled with a weird expression.

Li Zhile coldly swept around. He wanted to rage against these people, but he knew that most of them were ignorant commoners.

He scoffed coldly, throwing down a gold piece as compensation before he strolled out of the place.

The silver armored cavalry followed directly behind him, persuading anxiously, “Capital commander, I think we should plan for this matter. We can’t be rash! I think we should first inform the capital, ministry of war and the various generals to come up with a plan. The governor commander is someone in the heart of the emperor. He would not let Gantian Mountain off…”

Li Zhile didn’t speak, taking several deep breaths before he managed to calm down his emotions.

In the next instant, he looked towards the sky in shock. He saw snowflakes drifting downwards.

Was it snowing? Snow in the 6th month, how was that possible?

Li Zhile’s expression turned dim, filled with a sad feeling.

He thought to himself, did the heavens also know of his sadness? His heart realm was tragic and cold like snow.

※※※※

It was also snowing in the Great Shang capital city. The ground and the roofs were all covered in 2 inches of snow, dyeing the entire city white.

WIthin the Fenghua Palace State Affairs Hall, the yellow-robed old man wasn’t dealing with administrative matters. What a rare sight. Instead, he walked out of the building, standing under the walkway of the roof and looking at the snow scenery. He saw that the entire imperial garden was white. Those various flowers which were in full bloom seem to be like flowers carved from ice, giving off a different feeling.

“Snow in June…”

The old man didn’t have the mind to admire it. Instead, his brows furrowed tightly, “Did my rule have loads of grievances which the heavens sensed?”

Beside him stood the internal affairs junior supervisor Gao Ruo. When he heard that, he was instinctively shocked. Then he smiled, “How is that possible? Your majesty has spent all your effort on your rule, giving rise to so many great men who are in your court. In terms of purity of the rule, apart from Taizong and Taizu, there aren’t many rules on your level. The internal affairs department, censorate, and ministry of justices’ ministers are all famous for being clean and honest. How can there be any grievances? Didn’t imperial teacher already sent a message to say that this is a sign from the heavens and have nothing to do with our Great Shang. It seems like the source of our cloud world was interfered with which caused the heavens to change. As for what the specifics are, he is still investigating…”

The emperor robed old man’s face was dark and sunken, not feeling at ease even after hearing Gao Ruo’s consolation.

“2 inches of snow. If it continues, it might become a snow calamity. I am afraid people of the dynasty might not be able to harvest anything this year.”

Gao Ruo was startled, and his entire face was filled with a touching expression.

“Your majesty, after your majesty took over we have surpluses every year. Our granary is filled and has 3 years of amassed grain, billions of gold. Even if there is a calamity, we will be able to face it easily, we will also have enough to provide disaster relief. Your majesty always thinks for the people, what a kind and moral ruler. If those people find out, they would worship you.”

“Kind and moral?”

The old man mocked himself as he looked at his palm. A ball of energy rose from within, showing a golden yellow color.

The emperor path secret technique of Great Shang was called the dragon emperor nine defense art. It had 12 grades. He was the 2nd person out of all generations of Great Shang to cultivate in the 12th realm. His cultivation depth was deep, and even exceeded that of his father–when he was alive.

Even god realm experts need to bow down and acknowledge him!

He was also praised by people as a resurgent ruler, a saint ruler.

These few years, when he was on the throne, he went all out. He focused on politics and as a ruler, never neglected it a single bit. When he ascended at a young age, he gritted his teeth. Finally managing to fix this large boat of Great Shang dynasty which was leaking all over.

However, even so, the old man knew that he was far from being a saint ruler.

He was too far away from the so called saint emperors of the ancient era.

Although he couldn’t see it, he knew that there were many other colors in the emperor’s path energy that he gathered. He was even stronger than his ancestors, but there was a limit to it.

There were even several times where he saw the imperial teacher, as well as the several devotees who had special abilities, look at him with pity.

“Imperial tutor, imperial tutor, in the past you taught me the way of the ruler. The comprehension of absolute integrity, genial development of the common people and endless pursuit of the perfection of humanities. Distant myself from despicable people and be close to smart ones. To believe in the way the Confucians rule the country. To be diligent, to understand the lives of the commoners. If I am a good leader, the people will respect me and treat me sincerely. If I am trustable, people will serve me well. Asking myself about it, I have done all of this. However, why in the eyes of the heaven path am I not better than an ordinary lord Why are Great Shang’s foundations still shaky? Was I wrong or was the Confucian path itself not right?”

His gaze was dark, and his expression also slowly turned sharp. He clenched his fists as one heard a “peng” sound.

In that instance, snow flew upwards in the land a full 100 thousand feet in front of the emperor robed old man. All flowers and plants were all crushed into dust.

When the internal affairs junior supervisor saw that, his pupils constricted, his head covered in cold sweat. However, he didn’t dare to walk away. Instead, he bowed, “Your majesty, please calm down!”

The old man seemed to be in total focus, and his expression was vicious. When he heard the words of Gao Ruo, he came back to his senses and calmed down,

“Rise! I lost control of myself!”

He waved his sleeves. It seems like the snow was slowly stopping. It only then did the emperor robed old man slightly at ease. He didn’t want to remain here any longer. Just as he was about to turn around to step into the hall, he saw that at the corner of the imperial garden laid several broken corpses.

Amongst the scattered snow in the garden, there was some blood within. It was like their bodies were crushed into dust too.

The old man’s brows furrowed and stopped caring about it. These people were just servants of his family so if they died then so be it.

“Bury them and compensate their families greatly.”

Such an arrangement was already showing great kindness.

He casually instructed some words before he made his way into the building. He saw that there were tens of golden-colored documents hanging on the windows at his 2 sides.

Gao Ruo didn’t even need him to instruct as he took those documents. Right as he was about to place them on the table, the old man waved his hands in exhaustion.

Gao Ruo instantly understood, flipping open one of them. Just one look and his expression became weird. Following which he flipped another one, his eyes looking even weirder.

At this moment the old man also noticed that Gao Ruo’s eyes were unusual. His brows rising as he said flatly, “Why aren’t you reading the documents?”

Gao Ruo didn’t reply, flipping over several more documents. It wasn’t until impatience appeared in the eyes of the old man, did he bow and reply, “Your majesty, the contents are mostly similar. Within our Great Shang border, tens of states all snowed at the same time. Not only us, the other parts of the central continent, the 4 continents and the 12 islands all had snow. Even the 10 shrines, 19 spiritual houses, even 5 vast habitats are no exceptions…”

When the emperor robed old man heard that, he was shocked. He didn’t understand what was going on.

If it was just the 5 continents and the 12 islands, then it was still okay. Even the shrines and spiritual houses, even the vast habitats which were half independent away from the land. There was snow there too?

Although the imperial teacher had mentioned this wouldn’t affect the luck of the country but how wouldn’t he be worried?

Just as he was in deep thought, Gao Ruo flipped to another document. His pupils constricting, “Your majesty, today Jianan Cave, Two world Shanming Temple, White Horse Temple, Xiangguo Temple, etc many temples. The Buddha statues like the Vairocana, Dipamkarara, Ksana, Loka, etc all shook continuously, shining out brightly. All the north walls of the temples all collapsed with no exception.”

The old man was startled once more. A moment later he calmed down, “Which means that this change is due to the Buddhists?”

The official within had started to quietly jot down, in his book he wrote “Yuanchen 27th year June 13th, emperor capital snows, his majesty is worried the snow would cause a disaster which was why he lost his composure. When the snow stopped and he heard that the cloud world snowed, weird things happening in the temples, the emperor started to be at ease” a few lines of words.