“Sorry, host, everything you want needs expensive points to exchange, you’ve been slacking on your tasks lately, your points are nearly spent, so you can’t exchange for them.”
Helian Zheng is getting more and more interested in the system, what is this magical thing? The first thing you need to do is to take a look at the newest addition to the list of products and services that are available.
The ministers, concubines, and palace staff were all kneeling on the ground, not daring to look up, and their legs were trembling. When they heard the Consort Xi screaming to be taken away by Helian Zheng, everyone was relieved and stood up, wiping cold sweat and looking at each other, and decided to put what they saw and heard today in their hearts.
He Qing stood up and he was still shocked… Is this the surprise that the Noble Lady Lin said? If this is a surprise, then Noble Lady Lin is aware of Bai Xi’s abnormality. Tonight, with the Consort Xi’s nervousness, she obviously had no idea what was going on. So can he be sure that Noble Lady Lin was the one who did it? If it’s Noble Lady Lin’s doing, then he’s afraid this Noble Lady Lin isn’t a simple person.
“Guard He, what do you think?”
A plain voice sounded from behind, and He Qing had cold sweat all over his body, before he quickly calmed down, “I will listen to you, Noble Lady Lin.” He Qing said. He didn’t care whether Noble Lady Lin is a person or a devil, as long as she can help him to avenge the Empress, ensure that their son won’t be killed, and even inherit the throne of Helian Zheng, he clearly realized this is his only chance.
“Good.”
He Qing turned his head to say something to her, and found that there was nothing in front of him, no one was present, and the chill rose again. He couldn’t help but think of the legends of the Cold Palace, which said that ever since Noble Lady Lin was sent to the Cold Palace, she had been abnormal, Gods appear and devils vanish – constantly appear and disappear unpredictably[1], frightening people. Now he wondered if Noble Lady Lin had died long ago, and it was her soul who was staying in the Cold Palace for revenge, this belief made him shiver in fright.
“Noble Lady Lin, are you back?” The moment Helian Fu saw Ah Xin pushing the door open, his small face was relieved and his beautiful eyes widened as he asked, “What happened at the banquet?” What he really wanted to ask was what big gift his mother has given to Helian Zheng.
Ning Zhiqing also came up and grabbed Ah Xin’s hand, she was also curious.
“Helian Zheng and Bai Xi had a falling out.” Ah Xin said calmly as she looked out the window, “The moonlight is nice tonight, it’s a good time to read, if you two aren’t sleepy, stay up late to read the memorials.”
Ning Zhiqing and Helian Fu looked at each other, ‘Is it too late to say that we’re sleepy now?’ They saw that Ah Xin had already moved the discarded memorials to the table, they slumped their shoulders at the same time, their eyes a little tired, it was obviously too late, right?[2]
“Soon, you two will really be going head to head with those old foxes in the royal court, so if you don’t want to be pressured by them at that time, you should read more of the memorials here, which I have carefully selected to cover almost any issue that will come up in the court.”
Ning Zhiqing was curious, “Noble Lady Lin is both literate and talented, why don’t you take control of this authority yourself?”
Ning Zhiqing and Helian Fu were both curious. They both thought that it would be easier for Ah Xin to control the authority with her skills than to push it away to them.
Ah Xin’s eyes fell on Ning Zhiqing’s face and looked at her for a long time, making her a bit uncomfortable, “Noble Lady Lin, why are you looking at me all the time?”
“Do you want to know?”
Ah Xin asked with a smile on her face, a smile as soft as the spring breeze, Ning Zhiqing has always seen a straight-faced Noble Lady Lin, but when she suddenly saw her beautiful smile, she couldn’t help but became a little dazed. After she came back to her senses, she thought to herself, ‘As expected of the capital’s most talented and famous girl, her smile is different from other women. Seeing this woman’s smile is like winning the lottery.’
“Of course, naturally, I want to know.” Ning Zhiqing was busy averting her eyes, it was really strange, why was it when she looked at Noble Lady Lin, her little heart has been beating quickly non-stop.
Ah Xin stretched out her slender fingers and landed on a memorial, picking it up and placing it in front of Ning Zhiqing, looking directly into her eyes, “I’ll tell you when you’re seated in the position of Empress Dowager and can deal with those ministers on your own.”
“Ah!”
Ning Zhiqing stared at the memorials in front of her, silently flipped them open and tried to say that if she wasn’t curious at all, could she stop reading them? She remembered Ah Xin’s words, “Do you want to know?” She felt like a kitten was scratching at her, she wanted to know the answer and she finally accepted her fate and start reviewing the memorials. After she becomes the Empress Dowager, at that time she is going to examine the court, sitting at Empress Dowager seat, competing with those old men in the royal court. She wondered what sort of answer Noble Lady Lin will give her.
If her answer doesn’t satisfy her, she will dismiss the court and stop approving the memorial.
Under the moonlight, Helian Fu and Ning Zhiqing were carefully reviewing the memorial, and occasionally they would look at each other to exchange ideas, and from time to time they would glance at the woman sitting by the window. She was still wearing a washed-out white palace dress, and her body was so slender and a little thin, but her face wasn’t as pale as it had been, and the her face that has becoming more vigorous would have looked more beautiful and elegant without the scar on her forehead. It is said that this scar is caused when Noble Lady Lin was kowtowing, pleading for leniency regarding her father to Helian Zheng.
“If you’re sleepy, go to sleep.”
Ah Xin turned her face back and saw Ning Zhiqing was busy looking at the memorial, indicating that she was reading the memorial carefully and had only been distracted for a moment.
Ah Xin walked up to Ning Zhiqing and glanced at Helian Fu who was about to doze off, “Go take a rest.” She patted Helian Fu’s head, and Helian Fu stood up and bowed to the two of them, quietly walking out.
The Water Hall was quiet, but in contrast, it was very lively at Helian Zheng’s dungeon.
“Ah-“
The sound of Bai Xi’s screams resounded throughout the dungeon, and her gorgeous palace dress was already stained with bright red blood. From the beginning, she knew that Helian Zheng is a selfish and cruel person, so even though he has been pampering her, she never thought of giving her heart to him. She won’t forget that in her previous life, Helian Zheng coldly opened his mouth and said, “Pull her down and beat her to death with a stick.”
He even ordered someone to beat her stomach first, when she was already five months pregnant. She was dead staring blankly as her stomach was smashed painfully.
After she came back, she used the pampered consort system to calculate everyone, including Helian Zheng, and she would not let go of any of the concubines in the harem. She always thought that the pampered consort system was something she could rely on, but she never thought it would also bring misfortune to her.
“No more, I’ll say it! Tell Helian Zheng, I’ll say everything.” Bai Xi didn’t want to die, she didn’t know if she would have a chance to start over if she died this time, only if she lived would she have a chance for revenge.
Not long after, Helian Zheng came.
“Is Xi-er willing to talk now?”
Faced with the gentle Helian Zheng, Bai Xi trembled with fear, and Helian Zheng was more frightening than she had imagined. He stroked Bai Xi’s pale face, which was covered with cold sweat, “Xi-er, tell me honestly, and you will still be the most favored Consort Xi”
Bai Xi was terrified inwardly, no, she didn’t want to be his favorite consort Xi at all.
“The one I favoured the most is Consort Xi, if you can honestly explain about that thing, you can rest assured, I won’t kill you.” Helian Zheng held Bai Xi’s face and kissed her lips, “After all, since childhood, only Xi-er is willing to risk her life to save me, and asked nothing in return.”
Bai Xi’s heart became cold, she understood, apparently Helian Zheng valued her simply because she had known about Helian Zheng’s assassination in advance and sacrificed her life to save him, and was remembered by him.
“Concubine will say.”
Bai Xi explained the history of the system, but didn’t say that she was reborn, nor did she say that the time she went to save Helian Zheng was because she expected it in advance and had the system guarantee, so she dared to block the knife. If it wasn’t hidden, she knew that Helian Zheng won’t blink an eye, draw the blade and cut her head off.
Obviously, her bet was correct, because Helian Zheng was more interested in the system.
“Can I talk to the system?”
Bai Xi bit her lip, although she was reluctant, she had to communicate with the system in order to stay alive, “System, the Emperor wants to see you.” Knowing that Helian Zheng was likely to hear their conversation, Bai Xi had to use honorifics, and then she noticed that Helian Zheng was looking at her in confusion, and even said, “He can’t hear you?” She carefully communicated with her system in her mind, and indeed found out that Helian Zhe wasn’t responding, and several thoughts were spinning in her mind.
“System, is there a way to help me escape?” Bai Xi asked expectantly.
“Host, you don’t have enough points.” The system’s icy voice replied.
Bai Xi was a little annoyed, “Can’t you accept credit?”
“I’m very sorry, host, the system doesn’t accept credit, you’re going to die and can’t pay it back, I’ll lose points.”
“Then what’s the use of me having you,” Bai Xi was furious, blaming this useless system, “He wants to talk to you, since you can’t help me, you go talk to him.”
The system waited for this moment, and he talked to Helian Zheng, “Helian Zheng.”
“You are that system?”
“Right.”
“What are you doing?” Helian Zheng was curious, he wondered if he could get his hands on this thing for his own use.
The system’s voice is very cold, as if emotionless, “I am currently bound to Bai Xi, after my analysis, I developed the pampered consort path, without my explanation, you should understand what is the favored consort path, right?”
“So what’s your purpose?”
The system’s thought circled around, “The higher the status of the host, the greater the benefit I will get, which is harmless to the host, and the host needs to use his own efforts to complete the task if he wants to get the benefit. In short, the host and I are in a cooperative relationship, and it’s a win-win situation in the end.”
The system could sense that Helian Zheng’s heart was already moved, and it was just as the mysterious God said, Helian Zheng would not let him go.
“Who do you think is more important, this Emperor or Consort Xi?”
“Naturally, you.”
Helian Zheng asked again, “Then why didn’t you choose me?”
The system program was in disorder before it quickly found the answer, “Because you are the Son of Heaven, I can’t approach you unless you are actively willing to be bound to me.”
“So this time it’s because I want to see you, so you can approach, what does that have to do with me being the Son of Heaven?”
Then, the system was silent for a long time before it replied, “You have heavenly luck and it will protect you, so naturally I am not allowed to get close to you.”
Helian Zheng was relieved, so if he was bound to the system, he didn’t have to fear the other party would be able to harm him at all.
“System, there is a saying, a genius can adapt to the circumstances, working with me is more beneficial than working with Consort Xi, what do you think?”
The system considered for a while this time, before replying, “Okay, I can work with you, but I can’t help you do bad things, like harming people or something.”
Helian Zheng was even happier when he heard this, he was afraid that this system would be dangerous, but apparently it has a lot of restrictions, its no different than an assistance tool.
Between the two of them, an agreement was quickly reached. Bai Xi also felt that the system had unbind her, and she fainted before she had time to be scared.
Helian Zheng looked at Bai Xi and waved his hand, “Bring Consort Xi back to the palace, Consort Xi is seriously ill, take good care of her, she doesn’t need to come out until she is well.”
Then he returned to his bedchamber and communicated with the system, “You start to analyse, what path is suitable for me.”
“Currently there are two paths suitable for the host, one is the path of the emperor, which can be called the Emperor’s dominance system…”
Helian Zheng didn’t wait for the system to finish and he immediately slapped his thigh and very excitedly said, “I like this Emperor dominance system.” But he didn’t forget that there was another path, “What else?”
“The second choice is the path of immortality, according to my analysis of the host, you are already an emperor, besides fighting for world domination, the most suitable for you should be immortality path.”
After the system finished speaking, he felt that the excitement of Helian Zheng rose and he asked, “Can’t you choose both paths together?” He liked both world domination and longevity, it was really hard for him to choose.
“No.” The system’s voice was cold, “You can only choose one, host, please determine as soon as possible, the binding time is limited, and then you can’t make a second choice.”
The system is secretly wiping sweat, ‘Is she really is an Evil God? She even knew the emperor’s mind so thoroughly, knowing that the Emperor will definitely be suspicious if I speak directly about the immortality system. He gave Helian Zheng two choices, he didn’t doubt the system at all, and begins to make the hard choice.
Getting some fake medicine for the emperor, isn’t a difficult task for him. Anyway, he isn’t a good system, Helian Zheng wants to cultivate, so the system doesn’t care if She is an Evil God and he is a crooked system. The reason is because the system can feel that the emperor’s luck is weakening fast, and he doesn’t know if it’s because of the Evil God.
In the end, Helian Zheng chose the path of immortality.
The system started issuing him tasks, for example, to stay away from women for a month, and when the task was completed, he could get a pill to slow down the aging process. This was too easy for Helian Zheng. A month passed and he got a pill, which he didn’t swallow and threw to his personal eunuch, Eunuch Yu. After Eunuch Yu took it, he looked five years younger. Helian Zheng observed him for half a month and there was nothing wrong with him at all. Eunuch Yu looked at him with more loyalty and gratitude.
After three or five attempts by Helian Zheng, he found out that the system was really just giving him a task and completing will get rewards. Finally, Helian Zheng really started on the road to immortality.
The ministers on the royal courts were shocked. After the Chengtian Festival, people found out that Helian Zheng ‘s temper had improved a lot, his whole body looked a little more ethereal, as if he was about to become immortal. Helian Zheng, who used to like to hold the power, was becoming more half-hearted in approving the memorials.
The royal court wasn’t aware at all of why this was happening, until later on, when many things came up, he wasn’t so concerned about it, he simply waved his hand and told them to take care of it. The ministers were a bit frightened and couldn’t help but think of the Consort Xi’s incident during Chengtian banquet, had Consort Xi bewitched Helian Zheng?
“I heard people were talking about it, that Helian Zheng hasn’t been to the court for several days.” Ning Zhiqing looked at Ah Xin and said, “He is a person who likes to monopolize the authority, what makes him to stop liking his authorities?”
“But that’s good, that way, he won’t be thinking about getting my father killed.” Ning Zhiqing celebrated, “Noble Lady Lin, how is your plan to vindicate the Prime Minister?” Even if her Ning family is safe for the time being, it’s still temporary, and Helian Zheng is unpredictable, just in case he remembered about it one day. There were really quite a few old generation of meritorious officials who had died at his hands.
“Soon.”
Ah Xin was writing with a brush on her hand, Ning Zhiqing looked at her very natural and flowing calligraphy, the face flushed in shame. Her writing, if being compared to Ah Xin’s, looked like a scribble, although she thinks it’s pretty good, she still can practice more.
“Noble Lady Lin, what are your plans for the future?” Ning Zhiqing asked, “You are still very young, do you want to go out of the palace if…” Ning Zhiqing stopped and said nothing else, she was unwilling if Noble Lady Lin left the palace ah, she frowned and changed her words, “You stay in the palace! I’ll protect you, okay?”
Ah Xin gazed back at Ning Zhiqing, a smile spread across her face, and replied, “Ok.”
“Then it’s a good choice,” Ning Zhiqing was happy, “You’re a woman, if you really leave the palace, in fact, life isn’t so good, might as well stay in the palace, there’s someone who will wait on you, I can also take care of you, outside world is more dangerous ah, no one would protect you. If you really want to go out and have fun, you can bring more people with you.” Ning Zhiqing completely forgot that Ah Xin in front of her was mysteriously powerful, she only wanted to keep her close, she didn’t understand why either, she just felt right staying beside her.
Helian Fu who was sitting at a small table reading a memorial shook his head, Noble Consort Mother’s way of keeping someone was both coaxing and threatening, he didn’t know from whom she learned it, fortunately the person she wanted to keep was Noble Lady Mother. He thought that Noble Lady Mother wouldn’t leave the palace, his intuition tells him that it is related to Noble Consort Mother.
At that moment, a man jumped down from the wall, and Ning Zhiqing was so shocked that she stayed silent and forgot to scream. She stared at him, but before she asked who he was, Ah Xin spoke up, “Guard He?”
“Yes.” He Qing excitedly looked at Helian Fu, yet he controlled the urge to walk over, Noble Lady Lin said that now was not the time to just let him come and take a shot, “This section of palace guards is basically under the control of our people.”
“In addition, I heard that Helian Zheng gave the order to recall General Ning, which is why I specifically came to inform Noble Lady Lin, this is the newest report.”
Ning Zhiqing was so anxious that she was spinning in place, and wondered what he meant.
Ah Xin held Ning Zhiqing’s hand and gently reassured her, “Don’t worry, General Ning will come back to help us sooner or later, and this is also a chance.”
“What if…” What if Helian Zheng disregarding everything and insisted on killing her father?
“There is no if.”
Ning Zhiqing wasn’t anxious anymore, and she didn’t know why, but Noble Lady Lin’s words always calmed her down.
“System, this new function of yours can really help me pick out loyal people?”
“Don’t worry, host, you just saw it, didn’t you? Eunuch Yu’s loyalty to you is ninety-five, over fifty is considered to be on your side, over seventy is someone who is loyal to you, and if it’s over eighty, he basically won’t betray you, over ninety, means he’ll only listen to your orders.”
“Then I’ll go and meet Consort Xi.” This new feature, which Helian Zheng was very interested in, was said to show the loyalty value of his subjects and the true value of his concubines. He also wanted to go and see how much is Consort Xi’s loyalty value.
When he arrived at Consort Xi’s palace, he appeared directly in front of Bai Xi, who recoiled in shock and kneeled in reaction. Helian Zheng also saw that Bai Xi’s true value to him was zero, and at that time, he brushed off his sleeves and left, furiously sealed off Consort Xi’s Palace.
He has recalled Ning Wuyuan, and if Ning Wuyuan’s loyalty value is less than 50, he will let him stay in the capital forever. When he goes to court tomorrow, he will also check the loyalty value of his courtiers.
The system is secretly wiping sweat, that Evil God in the cold palace, She really knows how to play with people.
Helian Zheng had nothing to do, so he went to see the other concubines in the harem and found that none of them has loyalty values higher than 50, and he felt unwell. Finally, he remembered that there were another concubines in the Cold Palace, Noble Lady Lin and Noble Consort Ning, and went there without thinking much about it.
She was shocked by the sudden appearance of Helian Zheng, and remembered that earlier Noble Lady Lin had told her not to read the memorial and hid it. Does she know that Helian Zheng would come? Does she really have great magical prowess?
Helian Zheng stared at Ning Zhiqing, pursed his lips, and communicated with the system, [Noble Consort Ning’s loyalty value is surprisingly 89?]
[It seems that the host didn’t pamper her for nothing before.] The system was busy making things up, after all he was about to be played as a toy by that Evil God.
Ning Zhiqing noticed that Helian Zheng’s gaze at her was becoming more gentle, and he even smiled at her, which scared her to death, [If Ning Wuyuan is loyal to me, I would let her stayed as a noble consort.] Helian Zheng also took a look at the thin and frail Noble Lady Lin next to him, and couldn’t help but be shocked, [how surprising, her value is 75.]
[It really is unexpected,] Helian Zheng narrowed his eyes. [It’s rare to meet two people who are really loyal to me. If you had bound yourself to me earlier, I wouldn’t have been in a hurry to get rid of Imperial Teacher Lin. We can check his loyalty value first. But it’s true that Teacher Lin is too noisy. He thinks that because he was my teacher, he dared to tell me what to do and how kool to take charge of everything in the capital. As matter of fact, to me, his conduct is simply no good. Its really bothersome. I was going to teach him a lesson, but he fell ill and died on the road, how disappointing.]
As Ah Xin heard these words from Helian Zheng, she looked down and smiled.
After Helian Zheng left, Ning Zhiqing patted her chest and grabbed Ah Xin’s hand, “I’m scared to death, is he sick or what!? He was just staring and smiling at me.”
Three months later, the Great General Ning Wuyuan, who had been guarding the border, returned.