Chapter 319: Powerful officials in chaos, a serious threat

Heaven, the Golden Palace and the Jade Palace.

The Jinque Cloud Palace is the Jade Emperor's palace. There are 360 palaces in the Cloud Palace. Among them, the Lingxiao Palace is the chief of the palaces in heaven and is the main hall where the Jade Emperor meets with court officials.

The Yuxiao Palace is a side hall adjacent to the Lingxiao Palace. It is where the Jade Emperor summons a small number of important ministers to discuss important matters behind closed doors. It is similar to the imperial study in the Yangxin Palace of mortal emperors in later generations.

The Jade Emperor sat behind the jade table, resting with his eyes closed in a calm and peaceful manner.

Li Jing bowed slightly and reported the progress of the mission to Lishan carefully.

In the Yuxiao Palace, besides Li Jing, Taibai Jinxing was also present.

Li Jing's report had, of course, been embellished many times, completely concealing the details of his recklessness, incompetence, and humiliation.

Li Jing spent half a year just to work on the draft report. It took him half a year to finalize it before the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, the day when the Jade Emperor patrols the sky every year.

If it drags on any longer, when the Jade Emperor comes to the Lishan area during his annual celestial inspection and sees Wen Rui still happily jumping around in the mortal world, he will think of summoning Wen Rui to be deified and ask him about it. If Li Jing makes the report again, he will be too passive.

"That Wen kid is quite smart. I underestimated him."

After listening to Li Jing's report, the Jade Emperor frowned slightly, but said calmly, "Taibai Jinxing, tell me, is it necessary to confer the title of the Great Emperor?"

In Li Jing's processing report, there was no mention of him offending the Mother of Mount Lishan and being beaten up by the fairies under the instigation of Wen Rui.

It is said that the Mother of Mount Lishan came forward and took away his exquisite pagoda, which was why he was unable to forcibly conquer Wenrui.

He also relayed Wen Rui's words, saying that he had seen through the fact that the title of "Great Sage Jie Tian" bestowed on him by the Heavenly Court was not commensurate with his great merits, and was against the principles of Heaven, so he would never accept it.

Originally, Tianting's tactics for Feng Wenrui were similar to those used by some technology companies to headhunt people. It didn't matter whether this person had the ability or not, or whether he was useful to Tianting or not. What was important was that he should not be allowed to continue to stay in a key position at a competitor.

They dig them up and give them a random job with a high salary. Even more disgusting is that they keep them for a few months and then find a reason to frame them and send them to jail.

In this way, the competitor's project will fail and key talents will be wasted, but we can continue to maintain our absolute advantage in the competition.

Ruyi's plan was going well. He sent Li Jing to the scene with the sinister intention of using force if deception failed. If they disagreed, he would cover them with a pagoda and capture them and forcibly appoint them to an official position.

But despite all the planning, a big mistake occurred. The Jade Emperor's direct descendants and favorites were extremely loyal, but their strength was far inferior to that of the immortals from the old-school Jiejiao and Chenjiao backgrounds.

Seeing the Jade Emperor asking, Taibai Jinxing said, "Your Majesty, when I first recommended Wen Rui to the Lingxiao Palace, I already said that this boy has the potential to be a great emperor and must not be treated lightly. The only solution now is to follow my advice and confer the title of 'Jie Tian Great Emperor' on Wen Rui, grant him corresponding divine power, and allow him to open a government office and officially perform his duties."

"Old Taibai!" Li Jing interrupted loudly, "Why didn't you raise any objections when the ministers in Lingxiao Palace discussed changing Wen Rui's title to 'Great Sage Jietian'? Now you are pretending to be a wise minister who is wise and considerate of the country!"

"Your Majesty, what you said is wrong." Taibai Jinxing stroked his beard and smiled, "The past was the past, and the present is the present. At the beginning, I also felt that if I could scare Wen Rui, it would be the best of both worlds. I would not be afraid of the Wen father and son becoming powerful in the court, and I could also prevent Wen Rui from continuing to accumulate merits."

"In short, there's no harm in trying. Now that the Heavenly King has tested the result, we should of course take advantage of the situation and find another way."

"It's okay to try?" Li Jing was furious and said in a hateful voice, "If you try, my pagoda will be gone! By the way, you used to call me the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, why do you feel like something is missing this time?"

Taibai Jinxing remained silent, turned to the Jade Emperor and explained: "I originally thought that the Mother of Mount Lishan and the Ancient Buddha Dipankara were both powerful beings of the same realm, and the treasure bestowed by the ancient Buddha could not be deciphered by the Mother of Mount Lishan." He sighed and continued: "Now it seems that none of the direct descendants of the Holy Mothers of the Jiejiao are simple. The Ancient Buddha Dipankara is one of the Three Buddhas of the Western Religion, but he is slightly inferior to the Mother of Mount Lishan."

The Jade Emperor's expression finally changed, and he looked worried. "The eight gods of heaven are Wen Zhong of the Thunder Department, Jin Ling Shengmu of the Fighting Department, Lv Yue of the Plague Department, Luo Xuan of the Fire Department, Lv Yue of the Plague Department, Lu Xiong of the Water Department, Yu Hualong of the Smallpox Department... Among the eight departments, the chief officers of seven departments are either former generals of the Shang Dynasty or disciples of the Jiejiao. Only Yang Ren of the Tai Sui Department is from the Chanjiao."

"If Wen Rui is named the powerful emperor, wouldn't his connections be prosperous immediately?"

Taibai Jinxing said helplessly: "Your Majesty, the arrow is on the string and must be shot. If Wen Rui is not ennobled for one day, his merits will increase a lot. If it is delayed any longer, it will be against the will of heaven to ennoble him as the Great Emperor. Do you want to see the situation where the Wen family has two great emperors?

Thinking of something, Taibai Jinxing said, "The Western Church is willing to offer the Buddhahood to recruit him, so why should we in Heaven be reluctant to give up the position of the Great Emperor? We should make a decision when necessary and not let it mess things up."

"After listening to the Heavenly Official with Superb Ears talking about Wen Rui's resume, I realized that he is definitely not someone that can be easily dealt with. He has been very erratic throughout his life. To put it bluntly, he is a troublemaker."

The Jade Emperor narrowed his eyes and said in a serious tone, "I'm not afraid of him making trouble, but I'm afraid he has evil intentions and is planning something big. Which good person would spend all day accumulating merits for nothing?"

With a sigh, the Jade Emperor whispered, "For five hundred years, I have tried my best to maintain harmony in the court, which is why I gradually suppressed the immortal officials from Jiejiao and promoted and cultivated other factions to balance them. Now that a catfish like this has been released into the pond, no, a shark, I don't know how big a storm it will stir up."

"The poisonous sore has already appeared. Whether you stretch your head or shrink it, you will be cut off. It is better to suffer a short pain than a long one. If the poison dares to break out, this is the opportunity to remove it!"

Taibai Jinxing said with a gloomy face: "At worst, there is also the Saint Laojun in the Heavenly Court. Even if Wen Rui really has the ability to cut through the sky and slash the way, he can't turn the world upside down!"

Li Jing was still very angry and was thinking about filing a complaint against Taibai Jinxing in front of the Jade Emperor, and then asking the Jade Emperor to intercede for him and get the Linglong Pagoda back.

After listening to the conversation between the emperor and his minister, Li Jing was shocked and felt a chill on his back.

He was just a military man, so how could he understand the complicated interests in the court? After hearing just a few words, he realized how complicated Wen Rui's background was and that he had become a major concern for the Jade Emperor.

The seven chief officials of the Eight Gods have a special relationship with him.

The Thunder Department and the Fighting Department are where his relatives and clans are located.

If Wen Rui was still an ordinary person, these relationships would be meaningless, and the ignorant monks in the lower realms might not buy into his account.

But if he were to ascend to heaven and hold a position of real power, he would be a giant in the court of heaven, with connections strong enough to influence the overall political situation.

Li Jing couldn't help but think of many years ago, when he was still a mortal merchant general. He went to Chaoge to attend the court meeting, mixed in with a group of officials, and looked up to the young Grand Tutor Wen Rui, who was able to call the wind and rain in the court, had tremendous power, and sidelined King Zhou, governing the country on behalf of the king.

Generally speaking, such an arrogant and powerful official would surely arouse the anger of other officials and create chaos in the court.

But King Zhou had no intention of attending court. Wen Rui, on the other hand, had no selfish motives. Instead, he restored order and governed the country in a good way, so that all the ministers were convinced, and the court and the public praised him, and his reputation as a wise man spread far and wide.

Thinking of this, Li Jing had a bad premonition. His mind suddenly moved and a strange and disrespectful idea popped up in his mind.

Could it be that the situation in the Shang Dynasty's court five hundred years ago is going to be repeated in the Lingxiao Palace?

(End of this chapter)

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