Chapter 1227: Changes in the Imperial Court

Just as the Old Sword Cultivator had expected, it wasn't long before commoners in Shangjing City began to die inexplicably. During the attacks, people reported hearing strange shrieks mixed with agonized screams.

When the officials arrived, they would find the rooms soaked in blood, the floors scattered with severed limbs and minced flesh.

Yu Hongdou stood in the gathered crowd. Through the doorway, he had a clear view of the scene inside.

The sight made him somewhat uncomfortable.

However, the residual Demonic Power was obvious at a glance.

It was the work of a demon.

Yu Hongdou sought out Jing Wuya to ask why this was happening.

Jing Wuya explained, "Human essence and vitality are tremendous tonics for a demon, capable of rapidly increasing their Cultivation Base. In the past, constrained by the karma of the Human Dao, eating a person wasn't worth the cost. Now that the restrictions are gone, why wouldn't they feast? And swallow them alive, at that..."

Taking a sip of his wine, he added, "Just watch. Things like this are only going to become more common."

Yu Hongdou's expression shifted slightly as he sank into thought.

Sure enough, such tragedies continued to occur. They happened inside the city, and even more frequently outside of it. An entire village of commoners was slaughtered overnight, leaving not even their bones behind.

Through various clues, the Imperial Court also realized that demons were behind the slaughters.

Yan Nantian personally went to the City God Temple to offer incense, beseeching the city god proper deity to intervene.

Secondly, he issued an edict commanding the celestial officials to punish the wicked demons.

Although the celestial officials each governed their own regions, this was considered a chance to accumulate incense. If they encountered a demon that was easy to deal with, they would take action. If they ran into a powerful monster, however, they mostly gave it a wide berth. Fighting to the death for such a paltry amount of incense simply wasn't worth it.

While the incidents of demons eating humans were somewhat alleviated, monsters continued to wreak havoc across the realm.

The endless stream of incidents sparked widespread discussion among the commoners, leaving them fraught with worry.

Because of this, Quanshan Disciples also descended the mountain to exorcise demons. For a time, the atmosphere was like the wind in the trees and cries of cranes, filled with endless turmoil.

Yet no matter what they did, the rampaging demons could not be entirely eradicated.

Yan Nantian suffered a massive headache over this. Consequently, he drafted a letter and had it delivered to the Demon Market.

Today, the place with the highest concentration of demons in the world was none other than the Demon Market.

The Badger Demon read the letter, casually tossed it aside, and muttered, "He was a hair's breadth from pointing right at my nose and cursing me for being useless."

Hearing this, Zhao Lin blinked and reached out to take the letter.

After reading it, his expression changed as well.

Zhao Lin paused for a moment and said, "Perhaps the emperor is simply ignorant?"

"Ignorant?"

The Badger Demon shook his head. "He knows everything. He orchestrated all of this himself, turning the world completely upside down, and now he wants others to clean up his mess. He certainly dreams beautifully. He wants to become an immortal and remain an emperor—where in the world are there such good deals? He is reaping what he sowed and deserves zero sympathy."

Hearing this, Zhao Lin sighed inwardly and asked, "Ward Lord, should we reply to this letter?"

The Badger Demon said, "No need to reply, and no need to bother with it."

Zhao Lin paused for a moment before saying, "If we don't help, wouldn't that be somewhat bad? After all, the Quanshan Daoist Gate is also quite troublesome."

"Those Dao cultivators from Quanshan aren't so senile that their vision has blurred."

The Badger Demon continued, "By now, who doesn't know about the shameful deeds Yan Nantian has committed? He covers things up as if people are too stupid to understand."

The Demon Market remaining indifferent meant that the situation in the Mortal World would only grow worse.

Lacking restraint, the actions of the demons became increasingly rampant.

Once there was a first, a second soon followed. One after another, more demons resorted to eating humans to advance their Cultivation Base. It was far faster than bitter cultivation.

With such "opportunities" falling right into their laps, why wouldn't they take them?

And while this demonic scourge erupted all across the realm...

Yan Nantian was currently deep inside the palace, poring over the Art of Cultivation. He cultivated with a clear mind, meditating to comprehend the Dao.

As the heavenly cycle circulated, rolling currents of heat surged through his meridians. The profound sensation left Yan Nantian completely engrossed.

He had completely forgotten the grand affairs of state.

For half a month straight, he had not even attended the morning court, merely using the excuse of poor health to brush off the officials.

In just a few days, the backlog of memorials became innumerable.

Unable to get any responses, the officials were burning with anxiety.

Delaying state affairs for even a single day was an incredibly serious matter.

Eventually, all the officials petitioned together, pleading with His Majesty to attend court and handle the nation's affairs. Under such pressure, Yan Nantian finally pulled himself away from the wonders of cultivation for a brief moment.

But the ultimate result was that he handed all these matters over to the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet to manage, while he only needed to give the final red-ink approval.

There was a process to these red-ink approvals as well. At first, after the cabinet reviewed everything, the documents would be piled up for three days before the emperor reviewed them all at once.

But Yan Nantian felt three days was too short, so he changed it to five days.

At one point, he even pushed it back to ten days.

This situation, however, threw the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet into a panic.

They should have been happy about His Majesty delegating power, but this was simply too much. They were terrified of getting burned.

In the end, several Grand Secretaries sought an audience with the emperor together, finally convincing him to change his mind.

Taking a step back, the timeline was changed to a batch approval every five days.

During his cultivation...

Yan Nantian found state affairs increasingly bothersome. These trivial matters even prevented him from focusing on his practice, to the point that he always carried resentment when reviewing memorials, or just brushed them off perfunctorily.

He ignored the small matters and gave the major ones a cursory glance.

This allowed rot to set in at the heart of the Imperial Court.

Some people had been restless from the start. Seeing that His Majesty didn't care in the slightest, they lost all their reservations and began acting boldly. Bribery and corruption became increasingly brazen.

When the Imperial Court lost its rules and the emperor lost his majesty, this world would turn into a puddle of mud.

Far away in Chunhui Prefecture, two old friends sat together, discussing recent events.

Xie Huan had come to the region on official business and made a special trip to visit Tong Nianyi.

"If it weren't for those Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet, this court would have rotted through long ago."

Tong Nianyi picked up where he left off, saying, "The cabinet is quite rotten too."

She had always been cautious with her words, but this time she spoke bluntly, showing that she was also somewhat disappointed in His Majesty.

Xie Huan continued, "Rotten as it may be, this court is at least being propped up by those few people. Although those Cabinet Elders have some selfish motives, they are still deeply committed to the major affairs of state. His Majesty has neglected his administrative duties lately, so the Cabinet Elders have been the ones handling almost everything."

Tong Nianyi asked, "What on earth has happened to His Majesty?"

Xie Huan paused for a moment. "Rumor has it that His Majesty is gravely ill and has been resting, taking medicine daily while confined to his bed. But others say he isn't sick at all, merely indulging in women and forgetting the state's affairs."

Tong Nianyi waited for him to say more.

Seeing the look Tong Nianyi gave him, Xie Huan said, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You definitely know," Tong Nianyi replied.

Xie Huan waved his hand dismissively. "What could I possibly know? I can't even get an audience with His Majesty."

In truth, he did know some inside information.

This was all thanks to Shen Qiuyue, whom he had planted in the Imperial Harem.

Shen Qiuyue had been highly favored before, fundamentally because her charm arts had left Yan Nantian completely infatuated.

It was just that Yan Nantian had not visited the Imperial Harem much lately.

Shen Qiuyue had not thought much of it at first, until she saw Yan Nantian again later and distinctly felt Spiritual Energy flowing through the meridians in his Dantian.

Only then did Shen Qiuyue finally understand.