When the carriage stopped outside the Grand Secretariat, the early morning sunlight had already illuminated the entire street brightly.
Gu Chengyin lifted the curtain of the carriage. His robe fluttered gently in the wind as he stepped out of the carriage and then fell back to its original position when he stood firm.
He looked up at the vermilion main gate of the Grand Secretariat.
There was a plaque hanging on the lintel. The calligraphy on it was regular and powerful, said to be the personal work of the Founding Emperor Taizu.
On each side of the gate stood a stone beast. They were not the common lions but two xiezhi.
With a single horn and their heads held high, they stared straight ahead, symbolizing the ability to distinguish between loyal and treacherous officials and to judge right from wrong.
Of course, symbols were just symbols.
Distinguishing between loyal and treacherous officials had long become distinguishing between advantages and disadvantages, and judging right from wrong had long become making choices.
These xiezhi had stood here for hundreds of years and had witnessed more duplicity than loyal and righteous officials.
Gu Chengyin stepped onto the steps.
He was wearing the robe of the Celestial Master Mansion today, rather than the official robe of the Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince.
This choice was deliberate, especially since he had come from the Celestial Master Mansion.
The several senior officials in the Grand Secretariat were all as shrewd as foxes. Inferring from small details was their forte.
What clothes to wear, what hats to put on, and what ornaments to wear, every detail would be noticed, remembered, and chewed over.
The robe represented the Celestial Master Mansion, and the Celestial Master Mansion meant that Gu Chengyin had more than one path to take.
This signal didn't need a single word to be spoken. The clothes would speak for him.
The junior official in the duty room was stunned for a moment when he saw Gu Chengyin in the distance. Probably, he didn't expect this lord to come.
Then he quickly stepped forward, bowed, and addressed him as "Junior Preceptor Gu."
Gu Chengyin nodded slightly and walked straight towards the meeting hall of the Grand Secretariat without stopping.
The junior official followed closely beside him, walking quickly while whispering in a low voice:
"Junior Preceptor Gu, the several grand councilors are having tea in the meeting hall. May I go and announce your arrival first?"
"No need," Gu Chengyin replied casually without stopping.
"I'm not here in my capacity as the Junior Preceptor today. I just came by to see the several grand councilors on my way. An announcement would only make it seem formal."
The junior official opened his mouth, wanting to say something but swallowing it back.
The Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince came to see the grand councilors on his way?
What time was it? This so - called "on the way" was too deliberate.
But he didn't dare to say this. He could only speed up to follow behind, secretly groaning in his heart.
The door of the meeting hall was half - ajar, and the fragrance of tea could be smelled from afar.
It was the new tribute Mingqian Longjing tea of this year, the kind that only a few catties were produced in the entire Daluo Empire every year.
Gu Chengyin was very familiar with this smell. There was also this kind of tea in the Crown Prince's palace, and he had drunk it more than once.
The expenses of the grand councilors of the Grand Secretariat always followed the standards of a prince. This Mingqian Longjing tea was one of them.
He stopped for a moment in front of the door.
It wasn't out of hesitation but to give the people inside time to sense his arrival.
This brief stop was a matter of etiquette.
Then Gu Chengyin pushed open the door.
The furnishings in the meeting hall were much more simple than those in the main hall of the Crown Prince's palace, but they exuded a heavy and profound atmosphere everywhere.
A long rosewood table was placed in the middle, with several official documents spread out on the tabletop, the ink still half - dry.
There were several armchairs on each side, covered with brocade cushions.
There was a calligraphy hanging on the wall, with the words "Be loyal and serve the country" written on it, signed by Emperor Taizu.
The handwriting was powerful, as if it could pierce through the paper. Even after hundreds of years, the ink was still as dark as if it had been written yesterday.
The three grand councilors were sitting around the long table.
Cui Shifan, the chief grand councilor, sat at the upper seat. Hu Juzheng, the vice - chief grand councilor, sat on the left, and Shangguan Yuan sat on the right.
The three of them all fixed their eyes on Gu Chengyin the moment he pushed open the door.
To be exact, they were looking at his robe of the Celestial Master Mansion.
Cui Shifan, who was moving the lid of the teacup, paused for a moment and then continued to move it slowly.
The smile on Hu Juzheng's lips deepened a little, but his eyes squinted slightly, as if he had seen something interesting.
Shangguan Yuan lowered his eyebrows a bit, and his eyes showed undisguised disgust.
This was not an act; it was real disgust because he knew exactly why Shangguan Yunying had resigned from her position as the chief female official.
Gu Chengyin took all these in, but his face showed no sign.
He stepped into the meeting hall, and the hem of his robe gently brushed against the edge of the doorframe as he crossed the threshold.
"The three grand councilors have such a refined taste," Gu Chengyin said casually, as if he had met familiar neighbors in his backyard.
"Only a few catties of Mingqian Longjing are produced in the entire Daluo Empire every year, but you always have a supply here."
Cui Shifan put down the teacup.
His movement was still slow. The teacup made a crisp sound when it landed on the rosewood tabletop.
"If Junior Preceptor Gu likes it, I still have half a catty here. I'll send someone to deliver it to the Crown Prince's palace later," he said.
His voice was steady, and every word seemed to be fished out from deep down, carrying the weight of decades of precipitation.
"However, Junior Preceptor Gu's attire today is a bit of a surprise."
"What's the significance of the Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince wearing the robe of the Celestial Master Mansion?"
Here it came.
Within ten seconds of entering the door, the first move was made.
It wasn't a casual greeting or polite talk. It was a direct question about why Gu Chengyin was wearing the robe of the Celestial Master Mansion.
This question seemed casual but was actually extremely sharp.
You are the Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince, an official in the court. Wearing the robe of the Celestial Master Mansion to the Grand Secretariat, what kind of signal are you trying to send?
Gu Chengyin didn't answer immediately.
He walked to the long table and sat down on the empty chair opposite Cui Shifan.
The robe of the Celestial Master Mansion spread out on the chair, forming a sharp contrast with the dark - colored official robes of the three grand councilors.
Then Gu Chengyin said:
"There's no special significance. I'm going to handle some important business at the Celestial Master Mansion this afternoon.
"I just came by to see the three grand councilors on my way and was too lazy to change my clothes."
Gu Chengyin said it lightly. As he spoke, his eyes swept across the faces of the three grand councilors one by one.
Cui Shifan remained calm as ever. Shangguan Yuan lowered his eyebrows even more, and the smile on Hu Juzheng's lips deepened again.
Being too lazy to change clothes.
This excuse was almost blatantly perfunctory.
What kind of status did the Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince have? What kind of occasion was it to enter the Grand Secretariat? Would he come to see the three grand councilors in the robe of the Celestial Master Mansion just because of this reason?
No one in the entire capital of the divine city would believe this.
But Gu Chengyin said it, and he said it with full justification.
Because he knew that no matter what he said, the three of them wouldn't believe it.
They would only read the real meaning from his words.
I don't care what you think.
What clothes I wear to see you is my business.
You can guess, ponder, and chew over it, but I won't give you a definite answer.
Cui Shifan picked up the teacup and didn't ask any more questions.
His fingers slowly circled the edge of the teacup. He withdrew his gaze from Gu Chengyin's robe of the Celestial Master Mansion and stared at the slightly rippling green surface of the tea.
Cui Shifan didn't ask because he had already got the answer he wanted.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
