Chapter 263: The Demon Lord's Attendant and the Old Prime Minister's Grievances
Chapter 263: The Demon Lord's Attendant and the Old Prime Minister's Grievances (Part 3)
During the communication with Xu Qing, Fu Xuan discovered that his lifespan had been strangely restored.
The reason why it felt strange was that his injuries still existed, but the rate at which his vitality was lost had slowed down significantly, and his remaining lifespan had been extended accordingly.
At the level of Martial Saint, one has an accurate estimate of how long he can live.
He originally estimated that he only had a little over a year to live, but now that number is two years, and it's trending upwards.
Of course, before he was injured, he had at most five years left to live. If he could prolong his life through tortoise breathing, he could live another ten years.
Given his condition when he first arrived in Jiangning, even if he entered the tortoise state, it would not be able to delay his injuries, and he would still have to die.
Now, his condition was beginning to change towards the normal old age of a martial saint, and there would not be the ominous ending that was expected before.
It's just that there seems to be something different in his life.
...
...
Xu Mansion, Wutong Courtyard.
Xu Qing sat under the paulownia tree with her long hair loose, having the unique temperament of a Buddha attaining enlightenment under a bodhi tree.
In fact, the Heavenly Demon Power in his body is in a wonderful process of "transformation".
Ripples appeared in the bronze mirror.
There is a new line of comments in the evaluation text of the Heavenly Demon Art "Transformation into Freedom".
"He is the free Fu Xuan, the demon lord and guardian, the Vajra Demon King..."
Xu Qing suddenly felt enlightened.
This is a deep combination of the Five Great Demon Gods Visualization Method and the Heavenly Demon Skill.
The Buddha has five great incarnations of the Vajra Kings to protect him.
Now Xu Qing is practicing the Heavenly Demonic Art of Transformation and Combining the Vajra King, who represents the fighting spirit among the five great demon gods, with his Transformation towards Fu Xuan, to form a demon king guardian.
This is equivalent to the advancement of the five great demon gods.
And unlike the previous five great demons, this Vajra Demon King is actually a reflection of Fu Xuan, like another "me" of Fu Xuan.
Just like the image left by Fu Xuan under Xu Qing's primordial demonic energy.
If there was no Fu Xuan in the world, then Xu Qing would not be able to rely on this to transform into Fu Xuan.
"The primordial demonic energy, the transformation of all living things..."
A flash of enlightenment came to Xu Qing's mind.
It turns out that the appearance of all living beings that he transforms into freedom has this underlying color.
It is like a mirror reflecting an image.
If there is no Fu Xuan in the world, there will be no Vajra Demon King.
The devil takes pleasure in playing with living beings, not in killing them.
Because sentient beings are the root of the devil.
If there were no sentient beings, there would be no demons.
This naturally corresponds to Xu Qing's previous idea that as long as all living things are immortal, even the demons will not be destroyed.
"I wonder if my magic power has reached its peak and I can transform him into the Black Mountain Old Demon?" When Xu Qing thought of the horror of the Black Mountain Old Demon, he felt that the difficulty of this matter was beyond his imagination.
Of course, he is not afraid of difficulties.
"Let's try Old Monster Fang?" Xu Qing had a bold idea.
Well, thinking of the slap from Lao Fang, Xu Qing came to his senses again.
But the Black Mountain Demon...
He thought of his eldest son, the destined fourth generation Black Mountain Demon!
"Son, you don't want to disappoint your father and mother, do you?" Xu Qing had an absurd thought.
The devil’s distracting thoughts are really scary.
Xu Qing quickly suppressed his strange thoughts.
For Xu Qing now, the value of his transformation is quality rather than quantity.
It is enough to have a Vajra Demon King to contrast with Fu Xuan.
If there are more, the evil thoughts will become stronger and it will affect his self-esteem.
Xu Qing felt that if he used his ability of transformation recklessly, it would definitely not be a good thing for him.
Unfortunately, he became a demon, and the luck warning was no longer effective.
To be precise, the demons treat danger as a game. The dangers that others try to avoid are commonplace for the demons, so there is no need to warn them.
At this moment, he couldn't help but envy Lao Fang. At least his Yuanshen righteous path was solid step by step and he could see the way forward clearly.
He is now simply crossing the river by feeling the stones.
But if the Heavenly Demon can really refine the forms of all living beings, then the righteous path of the primordial spirit is actually a part of his righteous path of the Heavenly Demon.
Moreover, if Xu Qing became the person with the highest spiritual achievement in the world, who could say that he was a demon?
Isn't that still a fairy?
Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes. Once the King Kong Demon King was formed, his transformation into the Martial Saint Fu Xuan came to an end. The rest was nothing more than accumulating more Taichu Demon Qi to make this Martial Saint-level Demon King Guardian last longer.
In fact, Xu Qing’s current demonic body, or more accurately, is Xu Qing in disguise, so he retains Xu Qing’s original abilities.
But this conflicted with his previous understanding.
There is no "Xu Qing" in the world, so how can he become Xu Qing?
Therefore, there must be a difference between his heavenly demon body and the transformed body of the heavenly demon art.
But he still couldn't figure out the difference.
But if the Heavenly Demon Body was destroyed, he could still live in the dreams of those who missed him. The problem was that there would no longer be so much Primordial Demon Qi and Primordial Demon Qi to reshape a Heavenly Demon Body for him, so the influence and interference on reality would naturally decrease a lot.
It can be said that the demon body is a medium that connects him to reality.
"Husband." Feng Wu saw Xu Qing open his eyes but remained silent for a long time, so she called out tentatively.
Xu Qing came back to his senses, and immediately used Fu Xuan's experience as a martial saint to teach Feng Wu the Supreme Free-Hand Fighting Technique.
Although Feng Wu lost the state of "Taishangwangqing" due to Xu Qing's resurrection, it does not mean that Tai Shang San Shou can no longer be used.
Xu Qing lacked knowledge of martial arts before, but now with his transformation into Fu Xuan, his knowledge of martial arts is on par with Fu Xuan's, and combined with his own foundation, he is even better.
Therefore, he actually figured out a way to let Feng Wu perform the Tai Shang San Shou technique.
Feng Wu couldn't help but laugh and cry after hearing Xu Qing's solution, but it was indeed feasible.
Xu Qing’s opinion is to change Tai Shang San Shou from an active skill to a passive skill.
Once Feng Wu encounters life-threatening danger, it will trigger the mood of separation from Xu Qingsheng. In this way, the magic of the "Taishang Wangqing" state of Tai Shang San Shou can be brought into play naturally.
This is a bit like the "Sad Palm" in the novels of my previous life.
However, how to trigger it and how to use qi and blood require great consideration.
This requires the guidance of a Martial Saint.
With the general framework in place, Xu Qing and Feng Wu knew each other well, so the couple worked together to implement the matter smoothly.
Moreover, as a demon, he is best at playing with people's hearts, so he does have an advantage in this regard.
In short, in extremely dangerous situations, Feng Wu who triggers the "Taishang Sanshou" will be the most top-level combat force under the Martial Saint, which is far beyond the reach of ordinary martial arts masters.
...
...
Yingdu Mansion.
This is the hometown of the former Prime Minister Zhang Tai'a.
After returning to his hometown to mourn his father's death, the old prime minister focused on the high-yield crop experiment mentioned by Xu Qing. At present, the per-acre yield has indeed increased, but it is still far from the high yield described by Xu Qing.
The Prime Minister was very satisfied with this.
Because Middle-earth has a deep farming culture, as long as continuous improvements are made, the potential of these high-yield crops can always be stimulated.
In fact, many of today's crops were taken from other places by the Central Plains dynasty and then improved.
In his opinion, once the food problem could be solved and combined with the policy of reform, the revival of the Dayu Dynasty would have great hope of success.
The national dynasty could even continue for more than a half century.
This is a remarkable achievement.
Even though the Prime Minister didn't care about his reputation after his death from the beginning.
But if he could really succeed, he would definitely go down in history and his family would be safe. This was definitely a happy ending that he had never dared to think of before.
At this point in life, there are no more regrets.
However, the old prime minister's joy did not last long, because a troublesome matter arose.
After listening to his eldest son's narration, the old prime minister looked very calm.
But things are indeed worse now.
Because mistakes could always be made in the implementation of the Single Whip Law in his hometown.
No hesitation in giving him a loud slap in the face.
The eldest son of the Zhang family thought his father would be furious, but he didn't expect his father to be much calmer than he imagined.
In fact, my father still has a great influence in the hearts of people all over the world.
Neither the former Liang Ge Lao nor the current Huo Jing is the prime minister in the minds of the people of the world.
Because the old emperor would write to Zhang Tai'a every now and then to discuss state affairs.
These are all open secrets.
Old Zhang's influence on the government is still very great.
But the Prime Minister knew clearly that he might not be able to return to the central government.
Because now the Prime Minister understands very well that his significance in the local area is far greater than when he was in the central government.
It's funny to say that when he was in the central government, local gentry had many complaints against him. Now most of the resentment is directed at Xu Gongming, and these gentry actually hope that the old prime minister will be reinstated as soon as possible.
There is no way, there is no harm without comparison.
Now the local gentry think that Huo Jing is also a paper minister. What’s the difference between him and Minister Liang?
A dignified conservative leader, he has now become a complete puppet of Xu Gongming.
If I had known this would happen, I would have done it when the old Prime Minister was still around. At that time, the old Prime Minister would at most give a severe reprimand, but Xu Gongming would never really resort to violence.
In fact, there are also smart people among the gentry. They know that no matter whether the old prime minister returns or not, Xu Gongming will not be lenient. The situation is already determined.
But given Zhang Tai'a's personality, when the old Prime Minister returns, he will not be a yes-man.
However, there are also those who do not want the old prime minister to have a good life.
Huo Jing became the Prime Minister, and his honest subordinates did not like Lao Zhang very much, and were always on the alert for Zhang Tai'a's resurgence. Moreover, Huo Jing was good at acting, and he kept appeasing his old subordinates in the Inspectorate. He said that he would endure the humiliation for a while and wait for the day when the clouds would clear and the sun would shine.
In short, he was in Cao's camp but his heart was with Han, and he was definitely not on the same page as Xu Gongming.
In addition, Lao Huo is always corrupted by the company of bad people, and he also learned the way of dividing the spoils from Xu Qing. A lot of the income from this bidding was distributed to Qingliu. Lao Huo's popularity in Qingliu's heart is now even higher than when he was the head of the Inspectorate - the Left Censor-in-Chief.
There is simply no way to reason with this.
He used to try his best to persuade everyone and explain the righteousness of the cause, but in the end he got nothing in return.
After the money was divided, the effect was immediate.
It can be seen that although the upright people usually talk about righteousness and the right way of the world, in their hearts, they actually only care about money!
In this way, Huo Jing will not have the psychological burden of betraying Qingliu.
He is now the real "Prime Minister". He can use both the clear stream and the turbid stream. How can he sacrifice public interest for personal gain?
He is public-spirited, but the upright people are selfish.
This time, the Qingliu secretly colluded and prepared a big surprise for the old prime minister, which finally exploded during the summer tax period.
...
...
After the old Prime Minister understood the whole story, he had to admit that these people were good at doing bad things.
This matter is not about anything else, but the issue of the implementation of the Single Whip Law.
In fact, the old prime minister implemented the "One Whip" system, which added a lot of rules and regulations to prevent chaos at the lower levels and increase the burden on the people.
All in all, the Yitiaobian method is very complicated and detailed.
It is precisely because there are so many rules and regulations, and they are so complicated and detailed, that there are many loopholes.
In Yingdu Prefecture, which was under the nose of the old prime minister, these officials of clean origin deliberately took the complicated provisions of the Single Whip Law and threw them to the subordinates, allowing these cunning petty officials to give free rein and come up with various pretexts.
As a result, many ordinary people were actually subject to a lot of additional levies and miscellaneous taxes after paying their taxes honestly according to the Single Whip System.
The key point is that those petty officials still used the provisions of the Single Whip Law to deceive the common people.
Moreover, the old Prime Minister is now in Yingdu Prefecture, and the petty officials are threatening them, saying that the Single Whip Law was formulated by the Prime Minister himself, and if you dare to disobey, you will be risking your life.
As a result of this series of moves, the common people had to pay more taxes, and naturally they had a lot of complaints and hated the Zhang family.
Especially the Zhang family members, they paid taxes normally, which made many people resentful and caused conflicts.
All in all, the Zhang family's reputation in Yingdu Prefecture is ruined.
"I originally intended to make these provisions so that the common people would not be exploited, but I did not expect that it would become their death warrant. No matter what, I was wrong, and I will confess my crime to the court. You take my letter to Jiangning Prefecture and inform Xu Gongming. I want him to help me deal with this matter."
Young Master Zhang felt inexplicably sad.
My father clearly had good intentions, how could he end up like this?
And aren't those petty officials and runners the ones who should be punished?
Why didn't the father take action?
Seeing his eldest son's expression, the old Prime Minister knew that he did not understand, so he explained: "Yingdu Prefecture is like this, which shows that in the process of implementing the One Whip Law, these loopholes can be exploited everywhere in the country. If I only act for my own reputation, what benefit will it bring to the world? Wrong is wrong, and as a father, I cannot shirk this responsibility."
In fact, the careful implementation of the Single Whip Law depended heavily on the court's supervision of local areas.
However, strengthening supervision itself requires greater financial expenditure.
It was difficult to get these money and grain from the imperial court which was in need of money everywhere.
Now that the old emperor and Xu Qing have joined forces, they are able to strictly enforce the One Whip Law in the fertile land of Jiangnan, which is already good. It is inevitable that other places will deviate from it.
However, the old Prime Minister also wanted to know how Xu Qing could properly deal with this matter.
Moreover, his action was undoubtedly telling Xu Qing that he would not go back, so he could do it with confidence.
Because the old prime minister is pragmatic.
He saw that Xu Qing was doing a better job, so why should he go back?
He had been holding a grudge for a long time because someone blocked his way. Now that he was old, would he do the same and stop young people from making a name for themselves?
What's more, Xu Qing's situation has already been established and he doesn't need to give in to anyone.
In his view now, the little eagle of that year has become a roc in the clouds, soaring through the clouds, carrying the blue sky, and traveling through the universe.
He just watched quietly and did his best to help!
This is indeed unfair.
But compared with the success of the reform, he would be happy to suffer ten or a hundred times more injustice.
(End of this chapter)