"You awakened me, looking back at all the past moments now, I realized all regrets are due to struggles, the so-called Heavenly Mandate is merely man-made. Indeed, in the eyes of the royal family, I, the Emperor, am nothing but a puppet."
Ji Zichang laughed heartily, finally silent for a long time, and said:
"The Emperor’s suffering, the people’s suffering."
"But in the end, I’m much better off than the common people."
"I feel waves of suffering and pain, but can still drink to drown my sorrows, talk to you, but the common people can only struggle to live with their heads down. In this sense, my so-called suffering seems to be somewhat of a groundless lament."
"But looking back over these past thirty-plus years, each step felt heavy, everything seemed to be led by someone, the more I think about it, the worse I feel, unable to sleep all night, and when I think about the pain, I even can’t help but shed tears."
"But do you say noble sons are all bad? Yet, Noble Consort Wen is truly a good person, she is indeed wholeheartedly devoted to me, but I can’t respond, because if I do, her brothers would become rampant, and she might suffer a fatal disaster."
Ji Zichang took large gulps of wine, he had the martial cultivation of Fourth Layer Heaven, and with the help of the family-inherited Divine Weapon, he could manifest the Dharma Form of the Red Dragon, yet now he was drunk.
The wine does not intoxicate, people intoxicate themselves.
"Brother, tell me, what if I was just a poor ranger?"
"With a wooden sword, couldn’t even afford shoes, then met my ’ill-fated’ childhood sweetheart, her face shy, my heart full of heroism, eyes filled with the world, would our story be different?"
"What I said was really asking for a beating, wasn’t it?"
Ji Zichang looked at the sky and said calmly:
"In my next life, I wish not to be born into the Emperor’s family."
Li Guan nodded and said earnestly: "It’s indeed asking for a beating."
Ji Zichang was speechless.
Li Guan said: "However, following what you just said, if you were a poor ranger, the story might not unfold this way..." He stretched his body, pointing to himself, and said freely: "I’ve wandered through the Martial World, hiding around when I was a child, and I’ve seen some things."
"A beautiful girl was discovered by a small aristocratic family, they had lackeys specifically to keep an eye on pretty girls in the towns and villages, for the sake of a few silver taels, several bushels of grain, she was sold by her parents to the village landlord."
"You’re a ranger, you are dissatisfied, you seek justice, are beaten half to death and thrown out, you report to the authorities, but the officials and this aristocratic family are actually in cahoots, you’re casually charged with a crime and jailed."
"Your childhood sweetheart, for your sake, agrees to the landlord."
"You’re exiled, and when your face is tattooed, your back festers from the punishment stick, and your legs are chained as you leave the village, that girl is entering the house, she will be the seventeenth concubine."
"Saying, although you’re poor, marrying into my family, you’ll enjoy blessings."
"Later, encountering bandits, you barely escape, think of seeking a master, but the rules in the Martial World are many and grand, in the end, you lower yourself, finally learn martial arts, earn silver, and return."
"Only to find the girl has long been beaten to death by the main wife."
"Holding your sword, you kill with burning eyes, but blades dull, one person is ultimately no match for officials and soldiers, you make a big scene, trying to kill the aristocratic young master, but are shot dead by a volley from the rushing officials."
"After being killed, you’re thrown in a mass grave, wild dogs eat your bones."
"Your childhood sweetheart, that girl is in a deeper part of this mass grave."
"You could be considered buried together."
"At this time, that aristocratic family is marrying a new concubine."
Li Guan Yi’s voice halted, speaking calmly:
"Although you’re poor, marrying into my family, you’ll enjoy blessings."
This line, for some reason, carried a chilling coldness.
Ji Zichang was silent for a long while.
Li Guan Yi shook the wine jug and said: "The future you imagined is too good, the future I described is too bad, but in reality, it’s half good, half bad. The Emperor suffers due to being unable to control oneself."
"The people’s suffering is because fate is beyond their control."
"This story, naturally, doesn’t exist... But every person at every stage, buying and selling people, beating concubines, the petty gains of the Martial World, the rampant local bullies I’ve seen."
The young man’s voice was so calm it left no ripples.
The black market’s human trafficking, beaten palace maids, the deserter’s letter; Qilin Hunting Conference, Flowing Wind Returning Snow Pavilion, the martial world of Yin Yang Reincarnation Sect, the village bully seen when visiting Yuan Zhi’s mother, aristocrats gifting a million silver taels, and the people so destitute they sought the Qilin Army to open porridge kitchens.
Marquis Qin Wu tilted his head back to drink, eyes calm, black hair at the temples slightly lifted.
The hanging sleeve robe moved slightly like clouds.
This I have all seen.
These five words have said it all.
You from above see the arrogance of the aristocrats, the harshness of power balances, the bloodiness of struggles, I from below see the people’s suffering, know the aristocrats’ autocracy, understand the killings of the Martial World.
Ji Zichang suddenly laughed, laughed and then sighed: "Well said."
The young Marquis Qin Wu raised his wine cup and said: "Even in this absurd world, there’s no other way, just take it as reluctantly, considered toasting to the people in this chaotic world, you and me."
Ji Zichang lifted his eyebrow: "Toast to a chaotic world?"
Li Guan Yi said: "First courtesy, then force, after all, still a scholar."
"Then, to this chaotic world—"
He raised his drink, towards the sky, the earth, the human world, and said with hearty enthusiasm: