As a reward for his performance in the Trial, the prince had been awarded the position of Lord of Red Sword City. Moving his entire new retinue to the city took several weeks, and when it was finished, I was exhausted, but I didn’t have any time to rest. As soon as everything was settled, the prince called his council to determine how to proceed.
“As I am only a Martial Grandmaster 1, I need to spend my time raising my cultivation. Chancellor Fang will take charge of the council in my absence. Your only goal is to improve the city's prosperity sufficiently to allow me to swiftly advance through the Lord realm. Do whatever you need to do to make this happen.”
After giving everyone a firm look, he departed the room, leaving the council to rule in his stead.
I drew in a deep breath to help me concentrate.
“Ministers, you are the experts, and I will defer to your judgment on most things, but I need to be sure everything proceeds with the prince’s best interests in mind. Let’s take the rest of the day to assess the city and see where we can find places to improve. We will reconvene tomorrow at noon.”
The ministers all agreed so the council was dismissed. This began my stint as a city planner and manager. It wasn’t a role I had trained for, and it made me regret delegating away all my responsibilities in my last life, but I was determined to do my best to learn. These skills would be essential in the future.
My main vision for improving the city’s prosperity wasn’t too dissimilar from that of my last life. I wanted to raise up the lowest level of society. I viewed the city as a pyramid, and the mortals were its base. They were the foundation everything else was built upon. If we improved the lives of the mortals, we improved the lives of everyone.
Pulling out my designs for a pill factory would have been exceptionally foolhardy, so instead, I decided to work with several low-level alchemists to set up an Alchemy Association. Its goal was to train as many people as possible to make low-Rank pills. It was unlikely they would be able to find many people willing and able to make a substantial number of Rank 0 pills, but I convinced the ministers to grant various benefits to anyone who did so.
I could not focus my efforts on this task alone, though. I had to be involved in every area of the city, from planning celebrations for various festivals to making decisions on who to appoint to a myriad of important positions. The ministers were the experts, but they needed a firm hand to ensure that everything they did was to the prince’s benefit and not just their own.
For me, one of the most difficult tasks was working with the Minister of Justice. I didn’t have the cultivation level needed to power through situations, and while the minister was a Grandmaster, many families in the city also had Grandmasters. I had to learn to negotiate situations as best as possible to prevent fights from breaking out.
I wished I had a blessing that would guide me through these situations, but I didn’t. My ability to know how the slave technique would have me react had been causing problems ever since the prince’s Trial. It constantly tried to compel me to do things such as slapping the prince’s tutor when he couldn’t help with the pill toxin issue. I had begun completely ignoring what it told me to do.
I considered using some of my credits to boost my aptitude for city management, but in the end, I held off. While it would have been beneficial to learn my job faster, I didn’t feel like the purchase was necessary. This was something I could learn to do without the crutch of the System.
----------------------------------------
During this time, I completed a task I had put off for far too long.
My storage space was stuffed with pages from Emperor Li’s book, and I needed to get them transferred to my mental library.
“System, upgrade my library to be able to hold Rank 4 books.”
Cost 900,000 credits. Purchase Confirmed. 135,760,775 credits remaining.
I began trying to carefully read the pages, but they were nearly incomprehensible to me. Without the cultivation base of a Martial Lord, the information from the book seemed to reject me. I didn’t plan for this situation, but it only made another purchase I had been considering more important.
“System, I want to upgrade my library so that the information it records is always accurate. Even if I misread a passage, I want the stored copy of the book to be correct.”
Host’s current mental library is capable of storing information up to Rank 4. Upgrading the library to perfectly store information Rank 4 and below. Cost 10 million credits.
It was expensive, but it would save me considerable time in the future since I wouldn't have to reread each book several times to make sure my copy was accurate.
“Purchase.”
Purchase confirmed. 125,760,775 credits remaining.
I began to read Emperor Li’s book again, and although the information still rejected me, checking the library showed that perfect copies of each page I read had been made. There were even blank pages for the parts of the book where information was missing.
Once everything was safely stored away, I burned the remains of the book so that no one would find them.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
----------------------------------------
The council and I spent nearly two decades managing Red Sword City on the prince’s behalf.
There were issues, that was unavoidable, but I felt like we were slowly making progress. I didn’t know how much our efforts had improved the prince’s karmic energy gains, but looking at the city, I could tell that we had made a difference.
One of the most important projects we implemented was installing a new sewage system throughout the entire city. It wasn’t perfect since we didn’t have anyone with knowledge of how to properly design such a thing, but it dramatically improved the welfare of the city’s poorest districts.
Beyond that, the Alchemy Association was starting to bear fruit, and the city housed many new Disciple Alchemists. They couldn’t do much, but they could provide simple pills and powders. This put money in their pocket while also boosting the health and strength of the city’s citizens.
The development of the city was on a good track, and I was optimistic about where it could go in the future. That was when the prince called a meeting of the entire council.
He had just broken through to Martial Lord, and he needed karmic energy to continue advancing.
----------------------------------------
“Accumulation of karmic energy in this remote border village is too slow. We need to increase it,” the prince announced.
My body, weary from the work we had put in to improve the city, sagged a bit at his words. “My prince, we are doing everything possible, but increasing karmic energy production takes time.”
He looked at his ministers. “Do you all agree with this assessment?”
They all bowed their heads.
“Very well, if you can no longer increase the prosperity of this village, then it is time to appoint a Minister of War.”
My head jerked around, and I stared at him. “My prince?”
“Chancellor Fang, appoint a Minister of War. We will begin attacking nearby settlements and pillaging their resources.”
Without saying another word, he turned and left the room.
I didn’t know what to do. I looked at the Minister of Rites.
“Can you explain the situation to me?”
The minister bowed his head. “While the empire doesn’t explicitly encourage war among its cities, it is an accepted practice for boosting a Ruler’s karmic energy. With a Minister of War, we will attack others, and we will be attacked in return. When we bring back spoils, the prince will gain an energy boost from it. When our lands are destroyed, he will get a boost from repairing them. I do not have a complete understanding of the principles behind the practice, but I can say that war is considered a valuable tool for boosting a Ruler’s karmic energy gains.”
I closed my eyes. It might help the prince, but how would it affect the lives of his people?
“Alright,” I took a deep breath, “if we are going to do this, we need to be smart about it. Let’s ensure we take as little damage as possible.”
----------------------------------------
Ju DaoRong was appointed as Minister of War. He was a Martial Lord who had served as the prince’s personal bodyguard. With the prince’s advancement to Lord, Ju DaoRong was now able to spend time on other assignments.
Once the appointment was made, the prince began a bloody crusade against the surrounding towns and villages. Slowly, he worked his way up to attacking small cities.
I did my best to guide these attacks, trying to minimize the damage they caused, but my efforts were futile. The prince wanted destruction. That was the quickest route to more energy for himself.
With the boost he was receiving from pillaging the empire, the prince quickly rose through the Lord realm and hit Peak Lord in only 12 years. However, that was where he was blocked. Without a kingdom, he couldn’t advance any further.
The council was gathered in the prince’s throne room when he laid out his next plan. He had servants bring out a large table, and he spread a map on it for us to see.
“Minister Ju, you have done an excellent job as Minister of War, but now it is time for your real test. I mean to forge a new kingdom.”
I quickly sucked in a breath.
“My prince—” I began but was cut off.
“This is a map of the surrounding territories. If we slowly absorb the marked cities, we should be able to gather enough of a population to forge a new kingdom.”
“My prince, if we do this, we will be facing Martial Kings on the battlefield.”
The prince nodded. “Minister Ju, select a group to be raised to Martial Lord. Then, I want to begin working to raise you and your most promising subordinates all the way to False King. That will allow us to hold off any enemy Kings. We don’t need to be able to defeat them right now, we just need to be strong enough that they don’t want to attack us directly.”
----------------------------------------
We followed the prince’s plans. We assembled our armies and marched to war to forge a new kingdom.
At first, it worked. Kings were reticent to spend too much effort defending small border cities, but over the years, as the prince’s nascent kingdom grew, the opposition we faced grew as well.
Every day, I had to read reports of the toll his war was taking on our population. Every day, I regretted that I didn’t step in to stop him from this madness.
I didn’t know how it would all end, but I expected it to be with the prince’s execution. His war had angered several powerful Kings, and once we were defeated, I doubted any of his council would survive the aftermath.
That was when something happened that had the power to change the entire course of the war.
A messenger arrived from the imperial capital. The Du Clan ancestor, Du XiongMing, was nearing the end of his life, and all direct descendants were required to return.
----------------------------------------
The prince assembled his entire cabinet to discuss the situation.
“This is our opportunity,” he said, fervor blazing in his eyes. “The old ancestor’s death is the solution to all of our problems.”
I could tell that the prince’s words made the entire room uneasy, but everyone did their best to hide their reactions.
“The empire relies on the old ancestor for its protection. I learned as a child that he has a powerful object in his possession that can determine the fate of the entire dynasty. If I take control of it when he dies, there can be no question of my ascension to Emperor.”
I looked at the ministers and saw that none of them were excited. Everyone was simply afraid.
“My prince,” I said, deciding to be the one to voice everyone’s concerns. “Even if that is the case, it will be difficult to acquire such an item. If it is so important, the Emperor will surely seize it before anyone else has a chance.”
When the prince looked at me, I saw a cunning glint in his eyes that frightened me.
“That is where you come in, Chancellor Fang. The old fool is a formation specialist. Stealing anything from him directly is suicide. We need to take it from his corpse. The imperial family has already agreed to a truce. No one is allowed in the room with the ancestor when he dies in order to prevent an immediate battle from breaking out between the different factions within the clan. However, since you are only a Martial Master 1, and you were trained as a servant, I will convince my family to let you serve the ancestor in his final moments. When he dies, steal his treasure, and bring it to me.”
I was stunned by the prince’s brazenness. “Will the others agree to this?”
“If they don’t, then I will make them,” the prince responded, gnashing his teeth.