“Perhaps it’s because of that Lao Wei’s teachings.” Li Shun pondered silently.
Li Qing, too, had begun to notice that his elder brother, whom he had not seen for so long, was far from ordinary.
No one understood better than he just how terrifying Lao Wei’s strength truly was. Yet his brother Li Shun had actually received from him the evaluation, “I cannot teach him.”
“It seems that for Brother to return from Lengshan, he must have encountered some kind of opportunity of his own.”
Li Qing did not dwell on it further.
After all, everyone had their own secrets.
As long as he was still his brother, that was enough.
Li Qing arranged a table full of fine dishes and pulled Li Shun into a long conversation that lasted through the night.
Meanwhile, on Fang Xun’s side, he had already become buried in a mountain of official duties.
Though Dongshan Town bore the title of a “town,” its sheer size even surpassed that of Lengshan County.
Departments such as the Household Office, Granary Office, Constabulary Office, Judicial Office, Market Office, and the Office of Works were all present and fully established.
Nearly half a year’s worth of accumulated affairs had gone entirely unhandled.
Even with Fang Xun’s lifetime of experience as an official, he found himself overwhelmed for a time.
Yet as he gradually worked through these matters, his understanding of Imperial Mausoleum Commandery and Dongshan Town grew increasingly clear.
“The Imperial Mausoleum Commandery uses the land of a single commandery to mirror the thirteen provinces and one hundred and eight commanderies under heaven. These commanderies contain no actual population. Only mountains, rivers, rare beasts, and spiritual flora exist within them. All of these have been transplanted from the outside world, to accompany the Qian Emperor in eternal rest.”
“The eight towns guarding the mausoleum each oversee thirteen of these ‘false commanderies.’ As for the remaining four commanderies, they form the central core of the imperial mausoleum, filled with countless mechanisms and densely layered restrictions.”
“One hundred and four commanderies surround and protect it, while the central four raise high the burial mound.”
“And at the very center of those four commanderies lies the true [Mausoleum], the future resting place of the Qian Emperor. What it looks like, no outsider knows.”
“Though Dongshan is called a town, it governs thirteen false commanderies. At a ratio of ten to one, this is equivalent to a mid-sized commandery in the real world.”
“To think I’ve been demoted in name, yet promoted in truth.” Fang Xun mocked himself lightly.
Of course, he knew it was only a joke.
Though he oversaw thirteen commanderies, they held little population. The difficulty of governance could not be compared to that of a real commandery.
“The Imperial Mausoleum has remained tranquil for a thousand years. The previous Dongshan Garrison Commander served for over five hundred years, living an exceedingly leisurely life. He did not even remain within the mausoleum for more than half the year. But ever since that group of intruders attempted to breach the tomb, that peace has been shattered.”
“They must be the tomb intruders Shen Qinghe mentioned earlier…”
Fang Xun flipped through the case files and soon came upon the appearances of the two individuals.
A sharp glint flashed through his eyes.
“So it’s him?!”
“A remnant of the Xiang Kingdom… Jiang Chongguang!”
“What audacity.”
At this moment, however, Fang Xun was no longer the same county magistrate of Lengshan who had been desperate to return to the capital. He was now a puppet who had lost his self-awareness, controlled entirely by Li Shun.
In just a brief instant, the excitement and anger within him vanished without a trace.
“Fate truly works in strange ways. In Lengshan County, Fang Xun let you escape. Let’s see if you can escape again in Dongshan…”
“As for the other one…”
“He must be the one who used a paper effigy to impersonate a Black-Robed Envoy, deceiving Fang Xun and rescuing Jiang Chongguang. Transforming paper into a mysterious soldier… this is a Daoist method.”
Li Shun’s gaze flickered slightly as he carefully examined the details within the records, soon realizing that these two would not be easy opponents.
Back in Lengshan, Fang Xun had already crossed hands with Jiang Chongguang.
Jiang Chongguang, while still in the Mortal Physique realm, had been able to withstand a Spirit Resonance upper-tier cultivator without defeat. His body was tough as iron, and his strength immense.
And now, it seemed that Jiang Chongguang had already broken through into the Primal Simplicity realm.
Facing the siege of several hundred Tomb-Guard Blood Armored Guards, they were still able to retreat with ease.
As for the other, a youth named Su Shu, he possessed profoundly mysterious Daoist arts.
The two worked in tandem, appearing and vanishing like ghosts.
They were truly difficult to deal with.
That, however, was only what appeared on the surface of the records.
Having personally experienced the catastrophe of Lengshan’s transferred tribulation, Li Shun could not help but think deeper.
“Jiang Chongguang and Han Sushu are not weak, but neither are they truly strong. After all, they are still young. If the court were to dispatch a Celestial Phenomena expert, they could be captured in an instant.”
“Great Qian has no shortage of Celestial Phenomena cultivators.”
“And yet, these two brats have been allowed to wreak havoc in the imperial mausoleum for over half a year…”
After pondering for a while, Li Shun gradually grasped the reason behind this absurd situation.
“The Qian Emperor remains deep within the palace, unseen for a hundred years. Even the Left and Right Chancellors have not beheld his presence for a long time.”
“No one knows what condition the Emperor is truly in.”
“They need an incident as a pretext. A chance to request an audience and personally test the situation.”
“This matter cannot be too large, nor too trivial. It must not be too light, nor too severe.”
“And just at such a critical juncture, Jiang Chongguang and Han Sushu trespassed into the imperial mausoleum…”
Li Shun suddenly recalled Shen Qinghe’s instructions before his arrival.
“Remember this well. You must not allow the intruders to break into the imperial mausoleum. At the very least, they must not breach it from Dongshan Town. Otherwise, even master will not be able to protect you…”
Li Shun’s gaze darkened.
“So even that sentence carried hidden meaning. It shows that both court and officials are already prepared for the imperial mausoleum to be breached.”
“One could even say… Jiang and Han must succeed in their intrusion.”
“If anyone fails to grasp the situation and truly captures them, they may appear to gain merit on the surface, but in truth, they would be inviting disaster!”
“Yet it cannot be ignored entirely either. They must not be allowed to enter the most core section, the true ‘mausoleum.’”
…
Li Shun let out a long breath, inwardly lamenting, “Being an official in Great Qian is truly difficult.”
“If one cannot see the bigger picture, a single misstep is all it takes to fall into the abyss.”
“With that in mind, my duty as the newly appointed garrison commander is actually quite simple. I only need to strengthen defenses and drive those two elsewhere.”
“As for capturing them… best not to consider it for now.”
Li Shun shook his head slightly.
Setting aside the relevant dossiers, he began reviewing other pressing matters.
“This year requires the submission of two hundred laborers?”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
This was an official document from the court, detailing the destinations where these two hundred laborers were to be sent.
“The Eight Tomb Guarding Towns not only bear the responsibility of guarding the Imperial Mausoleum, but must also dispatch young laborers every year.”
“Because time flows nearly seven times faster within the Imperial Mausoleum Commandary compared to the outside world, the population replenishes much more quickly. Each town submitting two hundred laborers annually may not seem like much.”
“But in reality, the entire commandary supplies over ten thousand laborers to Great Qian every year!”
“The art of time manipulation is truly profound beyond measure.”
After a brief calculation, Li Shun could not help but marvel inwardly.
“I wonder how this difference in time flow is achieved. If such an effect could be replicated within the Fangcun space…”
At present, although Li Shun was able to cultivate Lengshan Venerables, the source of materials, Lengshan Grass—remained severely insufficient.
After all, he only had the Fangcun puppet “Li Shun” capable of cultivating it.
An output of five stalks per year was simply too low.
“The Fangcun puppets neither live nor die. Even if time flows faster within a region, there is no risk of aging to death.”
“Yet the yield would increase exponentially!”
“It seems I must find a way to investigate this further.”
A flicker of thought passed through Li Shun’s eyes.