Chapter 18: Getting Promoted
3
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The two dozen or so bodies of those from Clan Dugu were taken away and minced by the eunuch from the Library Tower and then fed to the fishes in the ponds of the Imperial Gardens.
The warriors in the palace who knew about what had happened naturally kept their lips sealed.
None of them wanted to get on the bad side of someone like Li Mu.
The royal army set up camp before dawn.
The Shouning Palace was as quiet as it had always been.
Li Mu was still busy with all manner of menial tasks like he had always been.
His mind would only quiet down when he was busy with these tasks.
His bottleneck had finally had a breakthrough last night.
The 500,000-man army that once served Clan Dugu was taken over by the emperor.
His forces saw an enormous spike with the addition of such a huge fighting force.
He went on to fabricate rumors to cover up the news of the elders of Clan Dugu having been killed in the royal palace.
The secret police spread the idea of Clan Dugu having sided with the royal family and published this news everywhere.
The entire country was shocked.
No one had thought that Clan Dugu, which had just revolted a short while ago, would side with the emperor so quickly.
More had yet to even be able to take in the news about the revolt of Clan Dugu, before they were told that the revolt had failed.
They all wondered just how the emperor had managed to do all of that.
The battle between Lord Ning and the alliance of the northern n.o.ble clans stopped for a good many days because of all this hubbub.
It was stopped for the express purpose of verifying and taking in such shocking news.
A group of eunuchs appeared in Shouning Palace one day.
A purple-robed eunuch who was in charge took a look around the place and walked up to Li Mu.
“Are you Li Mu?”
“Yes, sir,” Li Mu answered.
He wondered why those eunuchs were here.
According to convention, Concubine Jing was the one in charge of Shouning Palace, so they should have deferred to her if they needed anything.
Yet, they were looking for him instead.
Li Mu wondered what was going on, recalling that he had not done anything wrong lately.
“Congratulations, you’ve been promoted. You’re now a blue-robed eunuch. Do your job right, and you may be wearing a green or red robe in the future. You may even become a purple-robed eunuch,” the purple-robed eunuch narrowed his eyes and grinned.
He seemed to be in a good mood lately.
The regime had gotten even more secure.
The gang led by Eunuch Huang who had betrayed the emperor was done for.
He himself was promoted days later.
For all these reasons, he was being nicer to the eunuchs of lower ranks.
The reason why a lot of eunuchs were getting promoted was because there had been a lot of eunuchs attempting to flee during the fighting. All of those eunuchs had been demoted, and now there was a shortage of blue-robed ones.
The princess often appeared in Shouning Palace.
The emperor was there once in a while as well.
As such, the Imperial Household Department thought it over and decided to take the occasion to promote Li Mu.
“Thank you, sir!”
It took him quite a while to react to what had just happened.
He’d just gotten promoted.
“Work hard!”
The head of the eunuchs waved good-bye.
Another eunuch came over with a set of blue robes in his hands.
Li Mu was only able to take in what had just happened quite a while after the group left.
The promotion had come out of nowhere.
It had happened all of a sudden.
The old eunuch came several days later to see him.
“Xiaolizi, wear the green robes proudly. Work hard, and you’ll get the chance to have patterns embroidered into it.”
His words of encouragement didn’t sound very different from those of his superiors back in his past life.
He had been promoted yet again.
It was quite a surprise.
Since when did a janitor eunuch in a “cold” palace get promoted?
Furthermore, consecutive promotions, man!
He took the new clothes and looked at the ones that he hadn’t been wearing for more than a few days.
He looked into it later and found out that there had been quite a number of eunuchs who had been allied with Clan Dugu alongside Eunuch Huang.
Those eunuchs had been central figures in the palace.
All of them had been executed.
The Ceremony Directorate had even found a good number of spies from the n.o.ble clans lurking in the palace.
A good number of said spies were high-ranking figures.
After getting rid of all those eunuchs from the high ranks, those of lower statuses who hadn’t done anything wrong were naturally promoted to take those positions.
Li Mu was one of those people chosen to replace others.
“If things go on like this, I guess I’ll become a purple-robed one before long, eh?”
He dreamed about that for a bit.
He knew that his opportunities at promotion were running out.
But then again, there would be no problem adding two more stripes to the sleeves of those new green robes.
That was how things worked.
Green-robed eunuchs were divided into several ranks as well.
Those with stripes on their sleeves were of higher ranks.
When one become a red-robed eunuch, those with embroidery on the chest area were higher than the other red-robed ones.
“One way or another, I guess I’m no longer a bottom feeder.”
He was excited for quite a while, before realizing that he was still the only eunuch working in Shouning Palace.
He was still the one doing all the work.
His promotion had made no actual difference.
Time pa.s.sed.
With a Saint-level warrior and an army numbering more than 1 million, the royal family was deemed peerless throughout the entire state.
Lord Ning was also able to keep a good many n.o.ble clans in check.
Several major n.o.ble clans actually sided with the royal family at that moment anyway.
The power balance had tipped to the royal family’s favor because of the entire fiasco.
It took almost three years, but the State of Great Xia was truly unified once again. The regime was secured, and the people were living peaceful, productive lives.
Back in the Shouning Palace…
Li Mu, who was now dressed in green robes, was watering the plants in the compound.
Things would have been different in other palaces.
Green-robed ones would be the ones who would order the blue-robed and gray-robed eunuchs around.
His powers had gotten to the peak of the Saint level after checking in for three years.
The Xuan Sect still lingered in his mind throughout these three years.
He had visited every single place there was to visit in the capital throughout all that time, looking through ancient texts all over the place and still was unable to find anything regarding the Xuan Sect.
Judging from the expression of that Saint-level warrior from Clan Dugu, he was able to tell that the other man hadn’t been lying to him.
He had had his guard up all the time throughout the past three years, trying diligently to discover information about the Xuan Sect.
He had even covered distances of hundreds of miles in a single night at times, for the express purpose of doing check-ins.
Anywhere that was deemed to be renowned and of importance, he would go to great lengths to visit.
He had even paid visits to battlefields where battles between the major clans had taken place years ago.
All of that meant that he had gained quite a lot.
It was a pity, however, that he was only allowed to check in once at these battlefields.
The greater the battle, the greater the rewards gained. In fact, he had made considerable progress in the center of those battlefields.
It was a pity that he had yet to discover the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
“My G.o.d, just where else could they hide the Imperial Ancestral Temple, huh? Should I just ask the emperor instead?”
He’d learned just how important this temple was throughout the past several years, so much so that it was deemed a place of greater importance than the royal palace.
Being able to check in even once at such a place would no doubt bring him lucrative rewards.
As such, he had thoughts about asking the emperor many times throughout the years.
He had even watched the emperor in secret many times, hoping to catch the emperor saying something that he shouldn’t.
Unfortunately, the emperor was always surrounded by a huge group during the day, and he would be busy making babies back in his harem during the night.
There was no way he would easily divulge such secrets with people around him.
Li Mu had instead heard the dirty talks he had with his concubines in the palace.
It was especially so when the action was taking place in bed.
It got him very, very aroused.
It had gotten so bad that he felt he was about to lose control several times.
He was waiting all this time for the emperor to finally be left alone and mumble things about the temple.
“So, perhaps the new emperor doesn’t know anything because his dad died too early and too suddenly?”
One day, he speculated about this as he finished his work.
“Check in.”
“Congratulations to the host for successfully checking in at the “cold” palace. Three months’ worth of powers rewarded.”
His body warmed up for a bit before digesting all of those powers in mere moments.
He was unable to see any hope for making further breakthroughs.
He flashed and appeared at the Library Tower.
He toured around the place just like he always did.
His gains were meager.
The rewards were hardly useful in enabling him to make further breakthroughs.
…
Two middle-aged men and a das.h.i.+ng young man appeared in the capital city one day.
“While younger brother Dugu joined the sect late, his talents were exceptional. However, he has left the mountain for three years, and there has been no news of him.”
The das.h.i.+ng young man looked well-mannered and handsome.
He attracted the gaze of many girls as soon as he entered the capital city.
He was so good-looking that even some men would be unable to help but check him out.
“No way that anything could have happened to older brother Dugu, right? He was a Saint-level warrior after all, and there shouldn’t be anyone in this country capable of killing him,” a stout man behind the das.h.i.+ng young man said in disbelief.
“We don’t know anything right now. The survivors of Clan Dugu simply knew that their elders came to the capital city. I wonder if younger brother Dugu is here among them,” the other middle-aged man added.
“Hmph~ Just who the h*ll in this city would be able to do him in? Couldn’t he at least run if he was unable to win? He had the backing of the Xuan Sect, man! Who would even dare to make a move against him?”