Resurrection

When he heard this, Qin Ning turned his gaze towards Zhu Di. "You want to revive Empress Xu?"

"Yes."

Zhu Di looked solemn, staring at Qin Ning. "I wonder, sir... can it be done?"

To bring the dead back to life.

Such a thing had never even crossed the mind of this Yongle Emperor before.

But during this time, after repeated interactions with Qin Ning, he seemed to see a glimmer of hope.

"Yes." Qin Ning looked at him, uttering just a single word.

Hearing this, Zhu Di shuddered all over, and then a look of immense joy spread across his face.

He knelt directly before Qin Ning. "Sir, can you help resurrect Miaoyun? Whatever the conditions, just speak them out, and I, the Emperor, will grant them without exception!"

Qin Ning did not answer immediately, but calmly fixed his gaze on the other man.

After a long while, Qin Ning finally spoke. "The cost of resurrecting someone is considerable for me."

In truth, this was a method Qin Ning had only recently worked out.

As an Immortal Emperor, despite his divine powers reaching the heavens, bringing the dead back to life still required extremely harsh conditions.

First was the problem of the physical body.

A new body had to be refined for the deceased.

The refinement of such a body required an extremely rare and special material.

Since returning to Earth, he had been searching for it continuously, but had yet to find any.

However, some time ago, when the Saxons invaded Wei Star, Qin Ning went to relieve the siege and brought back a batch of raw stones.

Among that pile of rough stones, he happened to spot this special material.

It was a piece of multicolored jade, only about the size of two palms. With Qin Ning's skills, a piece of multicolored jade of that size would be enough to refine ten bodies.

But this was the only jade available for now.

In other words, Qin Ning would not casually use it for just anyone.

After all, there were currently only ten chances for resurrection.

Once the body was refined, the next step was to perform a ritual to gather the soul, which required a drop of blood from the closest relative.

This step was the simplest, since Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Zhanji were descendants of Xu Miaoyun—a drop of blood from either of them would suffice.

And it was precisely because of this step that Qin Ning felt a pang of regret.

He had once considered reviving his own parents.

But when he tried, he found it impossible.

His own blood was entangled with too much karma; when he attempted to condense the soul with blood, the Heavenly Dao prevented him.

This Heavenly Dao was not the one from Qin Ning's original world.

With his current cultivation, the Heavenly Dao could no longer impose any restrictions on him.

That force of the Heavenly Dao blocking him seemed to originate from some higher-dimensional existence.

"What is the cost? Please speak plainly, sir." Zhu Di said.

Qin Ning looked at him, pondered briefly, then smiled. "I need all the mineral and resource deposits of this secondary realm."

Hearing this, Zhu Di was taken aback, then furrowed his brow. From the expression on his face, he seemed to be struggling intensely internally, ultimately letting out a sigh. "Forget it, forget it... If that's the case, then I'd rather not resurrect Miaoyun."

"Oh? Why?" Qin Ning narrowed his eyes.

"If it were anything else, I would agree without hesitation. Even if you wanted this imperial throne, Zhu Di would willingly present it to you with both hands. But resources..."

"These are finite things. If I give all the resources of this world to you, sir, then the future descendants of this world will have nothing left to use."

Zhu Di took a deep breath and said with utmost seriousness, “To sacrifice the future of generations for the sake of saving one person, to cause the development of later descendants to be hindered—such a deed, I truly cannot bring myself to do. If Miaoyun were to know, she would definitely not allow it either.”

After hearing these words, Qin Ning couldn’t help but laugh. “For those words alone, I’ll save your Empress Xu.”

“If you had nodded and agreed just now, willing to trade all your resources with me, I certainly wouldn’t have saved her.”

This was, in fact, a test Qin Ning had cast for Zhu Di.

The request for resources was merely a pretext; the true intent was to gauge whether the man truly possessed the vision and wisdom of a great ruler.

Now it seemed that Zhu Di was indeed worthy of receiving this rare opportunity.

“Find me a quiet room, then wait outside,” Qin Ning said.

“Yes, sir.”

Zhu Di, excited, promptly made arrangements.

Soon, inside a secluded courtyard, Qin Ning entered a room alone.

Zhu Di led a large group of guards to secure the courtyard from all sides, allowing no one to approach or disturb.

Time crawled by, and Zhu Di’s heart was filled with anxiety, burning with impatience.

He paced back and forth, careful not to make even the sound of footsteps.

No one knew how long had passed.

The setting sun slanted to the west. Zhu Di gazed into the distance at the sunset, his hands clasped behind his back. “Such a magnificent land, how could it not make one…”

“Fourth Brother.”

Yet, before he could finish his words, he heard that voice from the courtyard behind him.

Zhu Di’s body trembled violently. Without a moment of hesitation, he turned around.

Then, Xu Miaoyun walked out from within.

Her appearance looked roughly the same age as his own at present.

This was Empress Xu, who had passed away from illness in the fifth year of Yongle.

Using secret arts, Qin Ning had gathered her soul and newly forged a physical body, allowing her to live again in this life.

“Miao… Yun…”

Zhu Di was stunned for a long while before he reacted, embracing her in excitement.

“Fourth Brother!” Xu Miaoyun was equally moved, crying tears of joy.

Her memories had stopped at the moment of her death in the fifth year of Yongle.

“Sir! Thank you, sir!”

The elderly couple held each other for quite a while. When Zhu Di came to his senses, he knelt before Qin Ning, overwhelmed with gratitude.

“That’s enough, no need for this.”

Qin Ning waved his hand lightly, signaling for him to rise. “I need to tell you this: this newly forged body cannot undergo cultivation. That is to say, after many years, she will still die.”

Earlier that morning, during a meal with Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di had learned about cultivation. He knew that around Qin Ning were many cultivators, and that his father, along with Li Shimin and the First Emperor, had also begun to learn cultivation under Qin Ning.

Once they achieved success, living four or five hundred years wouldn’t even be a problem.

He too wanted to cultivate, to live for centuries and bring the Great Ming Dynasty to an unprecedented height of glory.

“Sir, being able to bring Miaoyun back to life is already a peerless kindness. How dare I ask for more?” Zhu Di said.

Qin Ning smiled. “Rest assured. She will die, but not anytime soon. This body has a very long lifespan. At least a hundred years. Since she cannot cultivate, she can still nourish her health. I’ll give her some tea leaves later; if she brews and drinks them regularly, living two or three hundred years is entirely possible. In any case, she will certainly outlive you as you are now.”

Hearing this, Zhu Di was overjoyed. “Wonderful, wonderful! That puts my mind at ease. Then I shall also learn cultivation from you, sir, so I can accompany Miaoyun for several hundred years.”

"I'm very busy and don't have time to teach you, but if you want to learn, you can go to your father, the Emperor. He has already mastered the incantations and cultivation methods. Alternatively, I can send someone over in the next couple of days to help you develop the Great Ming, and you can also seek advice from him," Qin Ning said.

Apart from Wang Er, Xia Fei, and Wang Yousheng, there were still many idle people at the villa, such as Zhou Ping'an, Liu Silin, Cai Cheng, and Zhong Mingyuan. They could all be assigned to a realm later on.

Thinking about it this way, Qin Ning suddenly felt that the available manpower might not be sufficient.

Because, aside from the four timelines of Great Qin, Great Tang, Hongwu, and Yongle, there could very well be more timelines in the future.