Emperor Xiangxing fell ill and even his brothers who had been imprisoned in the palace were released as regents. It was obvious that the end was approaching.
The last time the Jin army invaded, they could still hold on to hold a great court. Now Dongtai has launched a rebellion that swept dozens of counties in three states, but he didn't even show his face.
It's not like he really has any strength at all. He just relies on the imperial doctor and the great inner secret method to maintain his vitality, but he can't waste any of it.
Emperor Xiangxing had already taken a few steps back when facing the elders of the royal family, and used the condition of Prince Rui's regency in exchange for him being able to arrange his funeral affairs calmly. Even the most favored prince did not take charge of the supervision of the country.
The funeral arrangements include how to arrange your children, whether the mausoleum arrangements are complete, and whether the merits and demerits recorded in the history books have been repaired in place...
Otherwise, Emperor Xiangxing actually wanted to die quickly so that he might still have a good ranking in Longting. He was afraid that the peaceful world that had been maintained for more than forty years would collapse before his eyes.
In the palace, in front of and behind the palace where Emperor Xiangxing was recuperating, there were many guards, and the guards were extremely strict. All kinds of mysterious and powerful auras were everywhere.
There are thousands of purple energy inside, and an old dragon is dying, but it is still closely connected to the Daxu Tianzhu and holds great power.
"How did the transfer of my eldest son to Dongtai go?" The old emperor, who described himself as dry and tired, asked feebly on his sickbed.
Beside the bed, the great eunuch Liu Zhen and the first assistant Zhang Xu were respectfully listening to the holy teachings and reading the instructions.
After hearing the emperor's question, Zhang Xu quickly stepped forward and whispered: "Back to your majesty, the clan has agreed that the Prince of Ruyang County will transfer the title of Dongtai and use the royal family to control the place. However, including the regent, no one agrees to be promoted to Zhuge Liang. The prince is a prince, and it is said that the fortune of the court cannot be wasted at will."
"It doesn't matter. The prince and the prince are both princes. It's up to them whether they can control their own lineage. As long as they agree to transfer the title, it will be a matter of course for the remaining prince to sit in the place." The old emperor breathed a sigh of relief and felt that this result was okay. accept.
"Have all my daughters found husbands?"
At this time, it was the turn of the eunuch Liu Zhen to reply: "Your Majesty, there are suitable candidates for several princesses. It's just waiting for you to finalize them. They are..."
"No Jinshi is willing to take my daughter. It's great. I want to see how many of them can live forever." The old emperor's face looked a little ugly now. His original intention was to find a few heavenly beings to take care of his descendants. Unexpectedly, none of them succeeded.
"Your Majesty, I heard that there are several daughters of kings who can practice Taoism and have the idea of marrying this generation of Jinshi. What do you think?"
The world king, that is, the meritorious prince who was entrusted to the internal territory when Daxu was founded, lived in the world and died with the country.
Today, of the forty-eight states, only the King of the World can stay.
Even Emperor Xiangxing took advantage of the turmoil in the country to reach an exchange condition. The mission of continuing the Daxu Ancestral Temple was left to the previous emperors, and his sons did not need to go out to found the country.
The old emperor's mind flashed through the palaces of the princes. He frowned and said, "No need to intervene. This is my brother's concern. Whether the prince can be an emperor again depends on his fate."
"I will do my best to prevent the imperial line from being deflected!"
"The reincarnation of dynasties is destiny! As for those old guys who want to take advantage of the great changes to forcefully continue the country's destiny for a hundred years, it is nothing more than idiotic dreams."
…
Zhou Bai was eager to return home, but it was conceivable that he had so many people. He received hundreds of invitations just from the inner city to the outer city.
These invitations from such-and-such ministers and such-and-such Hou Bo are easy to pass up.
But now in Shenjing City, the news that the eldest prince Ruyang County Prince will leave Dongtai has spread. Many princes can no longer hold back and are recruiting their team with great fanfare.
As a heavenly being, Zhou Bai is even more delicious.
If you don't want to be an official in the imperial court, you can become their guest and enjoy a large amount of spiritual stones, elixirs and other resources. This way you won't violate any taboos.
In the past, when many Jinshi did not have the resources to practice, in addition to traveling around for experience, many accepted the recruitment of noble people.
After all, most of the time you only need to show your name, you will get extra rewards for completing the task, and there is no punishment for ignoring it.
Originally offending a sixth prince, Zhou Bai didn't take it seriously, because sooner or later he would be enfeoffed to the wilderness and found a country, which would not have any interference with what he wanted to do.
But now there is clear news from the court that this generation of princes will no longer be sent to expand overseas, but will instead entrust local areas to serve as guards.
From the perspective of luck, this is to use orthodox dragon energy to suppress the early rise of local hidden dragons and try to extend the life of Daxu.
If he doesn't even do superficial flattery now, then if any prince sits in Dingzhou or a nearby large state, it will definitely disrupt his strategy.
Of course, there are only eleven princes in total, and there are so many rich and important states. Under normal circumstances, Dingzhou, a border state, should be looked down upon.
There was no other way, so Zhou Bai could only stay in Shenjing City for another five days. He didn't have a few meals, but he still used all the etiquette and visited everyone one by one.
During this period, no matter how many ministers and nobles wanted to marry their daughters, no matter how favorable the terms offered by the princes, they were all declined by Zhou Bai in the name of seeking Taoism.
If you don't accept any of the conditions, that means no one will be offended.
Moreover, when Zhou Bai visited the exchange room, he pointed out some minor problems to several princes with the help of Qi-gazing method.
In addition, he talked from the perspective of local management and guarding, and many of his views were mature and mature, which won the princes a lot of favor, and they wanted to invite him to talk at night.
After walking through all the palaces, Zhou Bai already had a lot of tokens in his hand, a gesture of welcome at any time.
However, these were all people who wanted to befriend Zhou Bai, and only one of them was someone he took the initiative to invite.
That was Wang Xiu, the eunuch who had announced the decree to him earlier. Over the past year, the Zhou clan had never lost contact with him.
To be precise, it was a special allocation from the inner government, and people were sent to Shenjing to give gifts to Wang Xiu during every year and festival.
Today, the political situation in the upper echelons of the imperial court is unpredictable. If someone in the palace comes forward with a message, Zhou Bai, who is far away in Dingzhou, will not be caught off guard.
Regarding the financial sponsor, Wang Xiu will not show off at will.
Especially when the imperial examination was the king and the previous dynasty had the final say, there were not many nobles who really valued eunuchs, and even the whole society did not value eunuchs.
Wang Xiu has now climbed up to the rank of eunuch of the sixth rank, accompanying the emperor in shifts, and is aware of many turbulent inside stories.
The more he knew, the more he worried about his future. Now Zhou Bai, the newly promoted Jinshi, clearly extended an olive branch, and he accepted it immediately.
The celestial being is still a restless celestial being, so maybe he can be his backing.
So Wang Xiu formed an alliance with Zhou Bai very frankly, and established more covert and frequent contacts with the Xuanyi guards in Shenjing City.
On April 3rd, Zhou Bai took care of everything in Shenjing City and left the capital on horseback.
Looking back, the National Fortune Tianzhu in the center of the sacred city still stands majestically, with a five-clawed red dragon clinging to it.
Most people who have practiced the method of observing qi will think that the fortune of the country is prosperous when they take a look at it.
But those methods of looking at luck are all castration or incomplete methods, which can only look at the surface but not the essence.
Even if there is an ancestor of any major sect who has the true method of observing one's destiny, he will not directly observe the nature of the country's fate, otherwise the backlash will be too great.
Zhou Bai is different. Even if his Qi-gazing technique is not perfect and he cannot observe the Great Xu Dragon Veins and the destiny of the country in detail, he will not suffer backlash when he takes a rough look at the destiny of the country.
At that moment, Zhou Bai's vision showed a scene that was different from that of other qi watchers.
He saw the luck dragon elephant representing Daxu. It was indeed a five-clawed red dragon. It was the only humane true dragon in the entire world, including other vassal states.
But there are other things, such as the dragon scales that are falling off the red dragon's belly, and the fifth toe on the dragon's claws that is significantly smaller and seems to be fading.
In addition, deep in the National Fortune Tianzhu, the dense gray and black spots are clearly revealed for a moment, which means that the foundation of Daxu is broken.
However, the red dragon seemed to be supported by the dragon court. The dragon scales fell off, but the spirit was still high, and the dragon's energy was not depressed much.
Coupled with the vast ocean of luck, this old empire is still supported, and it will not fall easily.
It's a pity that Zhou Bai didn't dare to take a closer look, otherwise he might be able to use this to determine what the Daxu royal family is doing and how long Daxu has to live.
Of course, now that Zhou Bai has sufficient magic power to support him, the mastery of Qi-gazing Technique can also allow him to spy on many things.
All in all, Emperor Xiangxing will collapse within a year.
In addition, although the foundation of Daxu is decayed, the overall destiny is still there, and the people's hearts have not been lost, so they cannot easily raise the flag of rebellion.
The methods you use after returning must be firm and soft, don't be too eager, and just wait and see what happens.
To be strong is to strive for the interests of one's status, and to be soft is to build walls high, accumulate food widely, and be king slowly.
The Jiaojing Jiaoma has digested all the spiritual food fed before, and its body has further grown. In addition, Zhou Bai continues to feed the spiritual fruits brought out by Jinting Dongtian, which makes its speed increase a lot.
It only takes less than a month to ride on a starry night from Shenjing City to the Tianjiang River Ferry.
During this period, nearly a dozen major states and hundreds of counties and counties reported disaster warnings. The situation in various places became increasingly unstable, and the imperial court officially ordered the coastal people to move inland.
On May 1st, Zhou Bai took a dragon boat to cross the Tianjiang River.
There were no accidents on the Tianjiang River, and there was no incident where the Dragon Palace Ancestor discovered that he had ranked first in the second class exam and wanted to forcibly betroth him to the Dragon Girl.
But Zhou Bai still noticed that something was wrong with the Tianjiang River, not anything else, but the water level was wrong.
The Tianjiang River runs from west to east. It is said that it rushes to the sea and never returns. Like other smaller rivers, it also merges into the boundless ocean.
The mouth of the Tianjiang River is the East China Sea. Zhou Bai found that the water level of the Tianjiang River had risen by at least a hundred feet, and after he dived into the water, he discovered a hidden countercurrent.
It’s water from the East China Sea, and the East China Sea is actually pouring into the Tianjiang River!
He was pretty sure it was still seawater because the salt content was too high.
Even if the water level rises by hundreds of feet, it will not threaten the embankments on both sides, but it is still an obvious sign.
Within three months, neighboring states and counties to the north and south of the Tianjiang River may be hit by irresistible floods.
Tianjiang burst its banks? Zhou Bai couldn't even think about it.
He is not a saint, and he does not want to see such a devastating disaster happen.
So after changing to the dragon boat and entering the Ningjiang section of Tongzhou, Zhou Bai would take out the young dragon horn left to him by Ao Lin and Ao Xia every time the dragon boat slowed down or docked.
"Pour water from any river into the dragon's horn, and if they are nearby, they will surely come to help."
At night, Zhou Bai came to the deserted deck, cast a spell to pick up two masses of water from the river, and then poured it into the dragon's horn.
Half an hour, an hour later, just when he thought the two little dragons were still gone, two children with red lips and white teeth silently jumped onto the deck from the water.
Their eyes were full of joy and excitement, and they still bowed respectfully: "Master."
"Congratulations to Master, who is ranked first in the second grade of high school and ranked among the heavenly beings!"
Zhou Bai stepped forward to help the two children up, and said with a smile: "As a teacher, I also want to congratulate you. I haven't seen you for these two months, and you have officially received your vocation."
"Master, it's a joke. The ninth-grade water-seeking envoy just wanders around all day long and is not worth mentioning." Ao Lin seemed to have matured a lot. When he heard Zhou Bai's praise, he was humbled at first.
Ao Xia, who was more composed in the painting, is now more bright and lively. She said softly: "Humph, if it weren't for the vocation of the water seeker, how could we have received the Master's message by such a coincidence."
"That's right, the first grade of our class is to be awarded the vocation of ninth grade. You are better than me, a commoner."
"Master, I don't want you to crowd around people like this."
"You'd better tell us if you need our help first, otherwise we won't dare to please you."
Zhou Bai was stunned when he heard this, then burst into laughter, then took out two gourds of fruit wine from the storage ring and said, "I almost forgot, this is a gift from my master. It can be used to restore mana. It's good to drink without getting drunk."
Well, in order to eliminate the so-called exposure risk, Zhou Bai underwent secondary processing of all the spiritual objects in Dongtian.
He couldn't bring too much spiritual fruit, so he brewed spiritual fruit wine according to the records in the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation.
The two children couldn't wait to open the gourd. The rich fruity aroma and spiritual energy inside came out, and only a small part of it was the smell of wine.
Zhou Bai then continued: "I called you here because I wanted to see where you were assigned to work, but I didn't expect that you were traveling around.
"Also, I would like to ask, today the river is rising, water vapor is accumulating in all directions, and hundreds of millions of innocent beings are about to be flooded. Is there any warning from heaven?"
The two young men put away the gourds, looked at each other, and Ao Lin said solemnly: "Ao Xia and I are carrying out the decree of Heaven to check the water situation near Tianjiang River. Heaven is on guard."
Ao Xia then added: "This excess water vapor will probably be transferred to other places by the dragon gods. This year's rainy season may be a bit long..."
Zhou Bai nodded slowly and understood what Heaven was doing, spreading the water vapor evenly and letting Tianjiang's plum rainy season cover the whole world.
As long as the Heavenly Court is taking action, it proves that this is feasible. I still remember that in the previous life, there were no such extinction events as the Tianjiang River bursting its banks.
For the Zhou clan who had repaired the drainage facilities early, it should not have much impact. Instead, it would be an opportunity to seize the leadership in Pingcang.
Then there was another chat, and during the conversation, some boat passengers were already getting up.
The two children said goodbye reluctantly, and at the same time they found Wei Jing in the stable, as if he was lying on the horse's ears and teaching some magic.
In their words, the master is a heavenly being, so there is nothing he can give as a gift, but he can teach him how to sneak around so that he can become a better mount in the future.
In the next two months, the continuous rainy season arrived, and the days of sunny days were almost numbered.
Worried about his family situation, Zhou Bai did not accept banquets from state and county officials along the way, but only sent letters to explain.
However, he obviously underestimated the reputation of a Jinshi, and there were countless "great talents" who recommended themselves to join him. It was not until mid-August that he rushed back to his hometown in the rain.
After traveling for more than half a year, when I returned, I had returned home in glorious robes and honored my ancestors.
