No sooner had Hu Juzheng finished speaking than Yuan Zhengqing spoke up.
He was so quick that the end of Hu Juzheng’s sentence had not yet fully faded from the air.
So quick that, unlike usual, Yuan Zhengqing did not first exchange a glance with Hu Juzheng.
He sat upright in his chair, both hands folded over the desk.
Years of holding a brush had worn thin calluses into the knuckles of his slender hands.
Now, with his fingers interlaced and his knuckles tensed, they had turned faintly white.
“I agree to add Gu Chengyin to the list of candidates.”
He enunciated every word with perfect clarity.
When he finished, Yuan Zhengqing pressed his lips together, as though telling everyone:
I have said my piece. I have nothing to explain, and I will not take it back.
The air in the council chamber froze.
The two grand secretaries of the humble-born faction had, in a rare turn of events, reached different conclusions.
Hu Juzheng said no. Yuan Zhengqing said yes.
One opposed it; the other supported it.
One wanted to keep Gu Chengyin off the candidate list; the other wanted to place him on it.
The two men had served together at court for decades. They had always advanced and retreated as one, bound together in both purpose and loyalty.
Among a court dominated by powerful clans, the humble-born faction was already weak and isolated. It was precisely because they stood united that they had managed to make their voices heard in one cabinet deliberation after another, and win a place for scholars of humble origin amid the cracks between the great families.
Whatever Hu Juzheng supported, Yuan Zhengqing supported as well.
Whatever Yuan Zhengqing opposed, Hu Juzheng opposed as well.
This tacit understanding was known not only to the grand secretaries in the cabinet.
Any court official with even a little seniority could see it.
But now, that understanding had been broken by Yuan Zhengqing himself.
It had not been shattered by outside forces. The crack had opened from within.
Hu Juzheng had said no, while Yuan Zhengqing had said yes.
Their opinions were diametrically opposed, like two strands of rope that had been twisted tightly together only to have one of them suddenly snap in the middle.
The severed fibers trembled faintly in the air, sending an unsettling vibration through everyone present.
The vote now stood at two to two.
Cui Shifan in favor, Yuan Zhengqing in favor.
Shangguan Yuan opposed, Hu Juzheng opposed.
Two votes for, two votes against.
Above Gu Chengyin’s name, it was as if an invisible scale were suspended in the air.
The weights on either side were equal, leaving it poised at an exquisitely delicate balance.
Cui Shifan’s gaze lingered on Yuan Zhengqing’s face for a moment.
That lean face showed no unnecessary emotion. It remained as calm as ever, carrying the faint austerity and reserved composure of a man accustomed to hardship.
Shangguan Yuan’s gaze also fell on Yuan Zhengqing. His brows were still drawn together, but the expression in his eyes had grown even more complicated.
As for Hu Juzheng, he merely lifted his teacup and took a sip of cold tea.
His face showed no anger at being betrayed, nor any shock at the unexpected turn of events.
His eyes remained narrowed, and the smile at the corners of his mouth was even more composed than before.
It was as though Yuan Zhengqing’s position had been anticipated from the beginning, as though everything that had happened was part of the plan.
The final decision therefore fell to Zheng Shixing.
Zheng Shixing sat to Shangguan Yuan’s left and was the youngest of the five grand secretaries.
Compared with the old foxes seated around him, he had less seniority and a shallower foundation.
His appointment as the fifth grand secretary had certainly been made possible by the Zheng clan’s vigorous support and Cui Shifan’s backing.
But his own abilities were by no means insignificant.
To stand out among the many talented sons of the great families, and to sit securely in this council chamber, a man had to be anything but simple.
Four gazes descended upon Zheng Shixing in unison.
Feeling them on him, Zheng Shixing unconsciously straightened his back.
His hands, folded on the desk, tightened slightly. One fingertip tapped lightly against the smooth surface of the rosewood.
Almost instinctively, he turned his head and exchanged a glance with Cui Shifan.
In that brief instant, the two men completed a silent exchange.
Cui Shifan lowered his eyelids, and the lines at the corners of his mouth shifted ever so slightly.
Zheng Shixing’s pupils contracted, then slowly relaxed. His chin dipped almost imperceptibly.
This was the tacit understanding between two grand secretaries of the great-family faction. Unlike the understanding of the humble-born faction, which had been forged through mutual support in difficult times, theirs was built upon shared interests, shared status, and shared bloodlines.
Such understanding required neither words nor gestures. A single glance was enough for one to understand the other’s intentions.
Zheng Shixing gave his answer.
His gaze moved from Cui Shifan’s face and swept across Hu Juzheng’s half-smiling expression.
It passed over Yuan Zhengqing’s calm, indifferent face, then Shangguan Yuan’s shifting expression.
At last, it settled on the open document lying on the desk.
One name had already been written on the list. It was now waiting for a second.
Zheng Shixing raised his head and spoke in the clear, resonant voice characteristic of sons of the great families:
“I agree to add Gu Chengyin to the list of candidates.”
Three to two.
One vote from Cui Shifan, one from Yuan Zhengqing, and one from Zheng Shixing.
Three votes in favor.
One vote from Shangguan Yuan, and one from Hu Juzheng.
Two votes against.
Gu Chengyin’s addition to the list of candidates for Minister of Rites was now a settled matter.
Cui Shifan gave a slight nod, his face betraying little emotion.
He merely picked up the purple-haired brush resting on the brush stand and wrote Gu Chengyin’s name on the document.
None of the five grand secretaries present were surprised by the result.
After all, this was only a list of candidates. It was not a decree appointing Gu Chengyin directly as Minister of Rites.
The emperor could choose someone from the list—or choose no one at all.
He could select the first name, or the last.
He could even reject the entire list and order the cabinet to draw up another.
The cabinet’s duty was to make recommendations. The emperor’s power was to choose.
The final outcome would not be decided in this council chamber, but beneath the emperor’s vermilion brush.
So in the end, everything still depended on how Emperor Luo chose.
But the sudden disturbance stirred up by the humble-born faction left Cui Shifan more solemn than before.
He lifted his teacup again. The tea had gone completely cold, cold to the bone.
Cui Shifan took a sip. The icy tea lingered on his tongue for a moment before slowly sliding down his throat, leaving behind a trace of bitterness.
Amid that bitterness, he turned the events of just now over in his mind from beginning to end.
Cui Shifan could more or less guess what Hu Juzheng was trying to do. He wanted nothing more than to preserve the humble-born faction’s neutrality.
That old fox, Hu Juzheng, had spent so many years in the cabinet. He never did anything without a reason.
He had proposed involving the other two grand secretaries, then watched as Yuan Zhengqing openly contradicted him, laying the humble-born faction’s internal disagreement bare for all to see.
Anyone who witnessed that scene would reach the same conclusion.
The humble-born faction was not of one mind. Hu and Yuan were not completely united.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
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!
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.
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
