Martial Cultivator

In the end, Chen Chao bade farewell to the old Premier and walked out of that Premier’s residence.

Standing on the steps, Chen Chao thought about many things.

First, this visit to the Premier’s residence, to see this head of the civil officials who had worked tirelessly and dedicated half his life to Great Liang, was something Chen Chao had long since decided upon. However, when he made this decision back then, he had also intended, incidentally, to ask the old Premier for one thing, still for the sake of His Highness the Crown Prince, for the sake of Wu Xinyue.

But after thinking it over, he ultimately let it go. The old Premier had labored his entire life, and now did not have much time left. It was truly difficult to ask this old Premier to do anything more.

He could not bear it.

As for why, back then, the Great Liang Emperor allowed Great General Xiao Hezheng to finally lay down his armor and return to the fields, did the Great Liang Emperor not know that the Northern Frontier needed this Great General? He knew. Yet in the end, he still nodded and agreed to the matter, and the reason was the same.

Having labored for the country for an entire lifetime, his final wish was nothing more than to die in his hometown. If even this kind of “small matter” could not be granted, that would truly chill the heart.

It could not be done.

However, when the Xie Family’s ancestor mentioned the Premier’s resignation letter at the very end, there was actually another layer of meaning. That was to remind Chen Chao that today’s Great Liang is being governed by you young people, but you must not forget the contributions these old people once made for Great Liang because of that, and must not let these old people feel disheartened.

Bringing hearts together is very difficult, but scattering them can happen in the blink of an eye.

Chen Chao rubbed his head and walked down from the steps. Weng Quan moved closer and tentatively asked, “Does Your Excellency want to make a trip to the Left Guard’s office?”

Chen Chao glanced at him and asked, “Why?”

Weng Quan chuckled and said, “Quite a few newcomers have arrived at the Left Guard’s office. They all heard that it was once Your Excellency’s place of rise, and they’ve been hoping that someday Your Excellency might revisit the old grounds and broaden their horizons. After all, Your Excellency’s bearing is passed around word of mouth among them. Now, the military officials throughout the court all admire my lord greatly!”

Chen Chao raised an eyebrow and squinted as he smiled. “Is it really just that?”

Weng Quan scratched his head awkwardly. “This subordinate... also occasionally mentions Your Excellency a few times, saying that Your Excellency must be someone who cherishes the past, and that as long as Your Excellency returned to the capital, you would definitely go take a look.”

Chen Chao could neither laugh nor cry, but then he suddenly remembered something and asked with a straight face, “During the days I wasn’t in the Divine Capital, how many rumors did you spread about me outside?”

Weng Quan scratched his head, feeling somewhat guilty, and even when he spoke, he lacked confidence. “This subordinate didn’t...”

Chen Chao sneered. “As expected, you and your second uncle truly are cut from the same cloth.”

Weng Quan opened his mouth and retorted, “My subordinate’s second uncle is famously upright, my lord. You can’t just say such things.”

Chen Chao snorted coldly and ignored this fellow, instead boarding the carriage.

Weng Quan hurriedly climbed up, took hold of the reins, turned his head, and asked, “Your Excellency, where are we going?”

“The Left Guard’s office.”

Chen Chao’s voice came from inside the carriage.

Weng Quan was overjoyed and grinned widely. “This subordinate knew Your Excellency was broad-minded and cherished the past!”

Inside the carriage, Chen Chao listened to the words “cherished the past,” examined the carriage that had accompanied him for who knows how long, and remained silent for a long time.

Your Father doesn’t want to cherish this past at all!

......

......

After autumn began, rumors gradually started circulating in the Divine Capital among the great aristocratic families and within the upper levels of the court, saying that His Highness the Crown Prince had taken a liking to a female cultivator from the foreign lands and wished to take her as Crown Princess.

As soon as this news spread, whether among the common quarters or over at the academy, there was some astonishment. Throughout the dynasties, such things had indeed happened before, but those were all acts carried out by cultivators from the foreign lands in order to control imperial authority. And those emperors who allowed such female cultivators to become empresses were mostly puppets throughout their lives. After the founding of the Great Liang Dynasty, over these two hundred plus years, such a matter had never occurred again. Now, although it was clearly not the same situation, it still made people feel it was somewhat unbelievable.

However, shortly afterward, over at the academy, the acting dean once gave a lecture. Toward the end, that acting dean explicitly joked that this matter was a good thing. A scholar asked where the good lay, and that acting dean, who was already a saint, said that times had changed. Back then, it was done under coercion and necessity; now, it was Great Liang choosing to act this way, and so it was naturally a good thing.

With that acting dean taking the lead, among the scholars the resistance to this matter was already quite low. After that, it was heard that the Xie Family’s ancestor, who had long ceased to appear in public, had also broadly sent invitations for the heads of the major aristocratic families to gather at the Xie residence, where he too mentioned this matter. The Xie Family’s ancestor’s attitude was exactly the same as that of Saint Zhou.

With these two figures, both holding extremely high status within the Great Liang Dynasty, making their positions clear, the opposing voices immediately became much quieter, though there were still some court officials who insisted that this matter was not permitted.

However, what surprised people the most was that afterward, some court officials paid visits over this matter to the Premier, who had already resigned from office but still wielded enormous influence in the court. The latter actually gave the same attitude as the previous two.

With this, there was in fact no real resistance left to this matter.

As for the military officials, they had originally been happy to see such a thing happen. The only dissatisfaction this group of military men had was that this female cultivator from the foreign lands should not actually be Crown Princess, but that it would be better if she were merely a concubine.

However, even if there were any unkind words, no one dared to say them. After all, although that Lord Warden Commander still had not attended court sessions, everyone knew that he had already returned to the Divine Capital.

Unlike the complex emotions on the civil officials’ side, among the military officials, no one would question this Lord Warden Commander whose merits were already immeasurable.

If Chen Chao’s prestige were divided up and examined, among the court’s civil officials his prestige was the lowest, among the common people it was second, and the ones who revered him the most were precisely those military officials.

After this matter, at a court session, His Highness the Crown Prince personally appointed Tutor Zhang, who was currently teaching at the academy, as the new Premier. The court officials were aware of Tutor Zhang’s learning and reputation, and so there was no resistance. However, when the edict reached the academy, it was politely declined by Tutor Zhang, and the second time was the same.

The third time, His Highness the Crown Prince personally went to the academy to invite Tutor Zhang to take office. Only then was Tutor Zhang deeply moved and decided to come forth, taking up the position of Premier of the Great Liang Dynasty.

And beneath these two matters, another affair seemed rather small. A black-robed monk entered the Ministry of Revenue and took up a post as an Assistant Director. The office was not high-ranking, and so not many people paid attention to it. However, it was heard that before entering officialdom, this black-robed monk had entered the palace and held a half-day discussion with His Highness the Crown Prince.

As for Chen Chao during these days, aside from the matters he needed to attend to, in his free time he did two things: teaching boxing during the day, and cultivating at night.

Yu Qingfeng had originally been the most expectant about his master taking the initiative to teach boxing. When it came to martial dao cultivation, he was also the most attentive among them. But when Chen Chao truly began to teach boxing with full dedication, Yu Qingfeng really found himself crying out in misery.

His own master’s methods of teaching boxing could be described as simple and direct. For the first few days, he passed on all of his own boxing techniques. After the few of them each cultivated on their own for several days, he began what was called “feeding punches.” Although he still suppressed his realm to fight opponents of the same realm, he showed not the slightest mercy. Aside from not killing people, his master absolutely did not hold back.

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