Ye Que remained in the Southern Encampment for three days.

Ye Que began to hypothesize on the third day the reason that caused the strange phenomenon within his Spiritual Sea.

With the aid of the soldiers, Ye Que was finally able to come to a conclusion. The Divine Sect Seminary disciples and the soldiers had practiced the Mountain-Splitting, Water-ceasing and Heaven-Splitting techniques, and there was no reaction from his Spiritual Sea if there were 100 or less than them.

If there were more than 100 of them, however, his Spiritual Sea would begin to froth, but only when seminary disciples who had learned the Divine Sect’s cultivation technique were present. It did not react when soldiers from the Southern Encampment practiced the Mountain-Splitting stroke. Also, if the energy and spirits of the disciples were not in sync, and they were training at their own pace, there would not be any reaction from his Spiritual Sea.

Four criteria had to be met.

The practitioners had to already been learning the Divine Sect’s cultivation technique along with its fundamental saber technique. Their spiritual and energy levels had to be in sync, and there needed to be more than 100 practitioners present.

The more the people present, and the stronger their cultivation base, or the more in sync their energy and spiritual levels were, the more it benefited Ye Que. However, his Spiritual Sea seemed to be a little distant to all these feelings, and there was no effect on it if they exceeded a certain limit.

He had arrived at a conclusion, but Ye Que was still unclear for the reasons why. He could only credit it to the amazing effects of the Divine Book. After all, it was a divine artifact that had been created as long as the Heaven and Earth; it would only be natural for it to have some wonderful effects.

He returned the token to Li Jianqi.

Ye Que only realized that Luoyang City had secretly undergone many changes within the last three days after he heard the imperial bodyguards term of address to Li Jianqi.

Li Chunzhi held an extremely large scale commemorative ceremony at Xuanwu Ceremonial Platform to honor the souls of the 20000 Ye Army soldiers who had died in battle. He also overturned the verdict against the General’s Manor and took on all responsibility for their deaths on himself, proclaiming that the imperial court failed in monitoring the situation, causing the valiant soldiers to die in vain.

For two entire hours, Li Chunzhi knelt before the military monument and did not move. He represented the royal family and the imperial court in apologizing to the soldiers.

The warriors of the Glorious Tang Empire!

Their souls will live on forever!

The tens of thousands of citizens who were watching immediately gained a deep impression of Li Chunzhi, the ex-Crown Prince, while the military officials in court teared up right away. They dared not voice their displeasure when the late Emperor was still alive. The case of the General’s Manor was obviously a job to silence Ye Zhengru’s family, and who was not to say that the slaughter of 20000 soldiers who were not under the Emperor’s command was not an attempt at intimidation?

Which general did not have his own trusted lieutenants?

Which general did not have soldiers who reported directly to him?

If the late Emperor was unable to accept them because of this simple fact, the other generals needed to think of an escape plan. Would they give up their posts in a banquet, or should they rebel? Perhaps they should just lend their services to other nations?

This was not alarmist talk.

Did Li Chunzhi not care about saving his own face? He was the Crown Prince of the Tang State and about to be coronated as Emperor. He would definitely be unwilling to harm his own authority and image like this. If he wasn’t being besieged from all sides now, he had other ways to slowly remove the harmful side effects of how the General Manor’s case was handled. He had not went through the path of rising to become an Emperor for nothing.

However, principles changed according to the times.

No matter how unwilling he was, he had to do it, and he had to show his willingness and sincerity when kneeling before the monument. He had to shush all the generals and citizens up by his actions.

After the ceremony, Li Chunzhi personally announced that his coronation would be done as simply as possible, and that he would prioritize national matters above everything else. He proclaimed that if the citizens of Luoyang were able to donate their resources for their nation, the royal family would lead by example as well.

Li Chunzhi ascended on the throne in silence. The Tang State welcomed its new Emperor.

Li Jianqi had also officially been recognized as the Tang Empire’s Princess; its sole one.

Ye Que did not remain idle during this period. He came to the Divine Sect Seminary every morning to give lectures and returned to the General’s Manor in the afternoon to study the Divine Book. He examined various formations and refined medicinal pills according to the Divine Book. Renovations for the shops newly allocated to him along Yong’an Street had also been completed, and the medicinal ingredients that Qian Shuxiao had prepared for him also arrived in quick succession.

Ye Que would test out any new understanding he gained about formations in the General’s Manor. Within the short span of a fortnight, the entire manor had been set up by Ye Que into an extremely dangerous place. Even a great expert like Red Bean did not dare try taking the formations head on, much less the civilians.

At first, things still went well; even though Red Bean could not break the formations, she would not disgrace herself. As Ye Que’s formations grew stronger, however, she was once trapped in a formation for an entire night. Ye Que only got out of his cultivation during dawn and released her. Of course, he was nearly beat into a pulp by Red Bean.

From the page of the Divine Book that he obtained from the royal palace, aside from the cultivation technique that followed, the mystical text that covered it described medicinal pills, covering even the refining technique for each pill in extremely great detail. Among them were precious elixirs that had long been forgotten over the course of time.

Ye Que selected those that were needed the most urgently and directly began refining them within the manor.

When it was dusk, medicinal ingredients were sent into the manor from its backdoor, and brocade boxes were delivered out of the manor from the very same door during the wee hours of the day.

Qian Shuxiao took charge of the logistics personally. Without his appearance, the pills would not be delivered out of the manor.

When the second round of snow fell in Luoyang City, the pill shops jointly set up by the Qian Clan and the imperial court began to stock up with these truly effective pills. Normal medical halls only carried pills that were consumed by civilians, but the pills sold by these elixir shops were meant for cultivators. Even those that were the most inferior could only be consumed by a Rank 1 martial artist.

The infiltration of demon spawn into the Cultivation World had already dissipated over time and had more or less been suppressed by now. After all, the demons came from a sole source—the Mountain Valley of Pure Blackness, but there were thousands of sects in the Cultivation World. Even though the demons were aided by moles, and they caught everyone by surprise, the sects had a great foundation.

Of course, a few sects had been directly wiped out by demon spawn in the process, and many cultivators were injured.

The wounds they sustained could not be treated by ordinary physicians or medicinal pills. They could try to heal themselves or consume elixirs. There were not many practitioners who were well versed in the Cultivation World, and not all of them had inherited the skills of their seniors or were able to refine medicinal pills.

Obviously, demand would far exceed supply!

As such, the moment the pills Ye Que supplied to the shops were displayed, practitioners from the Cultivation World immediately took notice.

Naturally, the pills could only be purchased with Spirit Stones.

Endless number of elixirs were delivered out of the General’s Manor, and an endless supply of Spirit Stones was sent into the residence.

Very quickly, elixirs marked with a “Ye” emblem became popular in the Cultivation World, but the mysterious medical practitioner never revealed himself.

The Crown Prince’s Residence was also transformed overnight and officially renamed as Princess Jianqi’s Residence.

Winter’s snow finally stopped falling in Luoyang City today.

Zhang Yue, the Southern Encampment’s deputy general, arrived for a visit.

He was considerably lucky. Li Jianqi was not out and in her residence.

Zhang Yue looked somewhat awkward as he walked up to Li Jianqi nervously. He spoke in a stop-start fashion and knelt to show her his deep respect first. “Your Highness.”

“What do you have for me, General Zhang?”

“There’s something bugging me that I feel I should report to you, Your Highness. Recently, you sent someone to the Southern Encampment to borrow 1000 soldiers for a test. I later understood that Mr. Ye imparted a set of saber skills to them. Originally, I didn’t pay much attention to the entire matter, but lately, these group of soldiers had achieved numerous victories in the Great Competition of all camps in Luoyang and obtained a commanding victory with this set of skills.”