Chapter 18: The Great Li Dynasty Stands Unrivaled

“Such a little Meng Yuxi, a wild child abandoned by both father and mother—just reciting half a line of poetry and you’re already scared off. Damn it, no wonder you can’t hold office with such little courage. I spit on that.”

After Chang Yushu had left, Wang Lingxin paced back and forth across the room, hands behind his back, occasionally cursing out loud. The connection to the Eighth Prince through Chang Yushu had been severed again. After Qing Lian lost her virginity, there was no way to send her away anymore. What was he to do now? He truly wanted to advance.

“Damn it, no matter how I calculate it, it’s all Meng Yuxi’s curse!”

In the prison cell, Meng Yuxi sneezed.

Throughout history, many talents have been found in prison, but unfortunately, Meng Yuxi was the son of Meng Hongchang and was locked in a single cell without a single cellmate to talk to. According to the laws of the Dali Dynasty, immediate family members of officials ranked third grade or above could not be subjected to severe torture or coercion during interrogation.

“So boring... Someone, anyone, come out and chat with me.”

Meng Yuxi had nothing to do in the cell and was bored to the point of anxiety. He despised this kind of situation—purely a residual affliction from a past life.

He gazed absentmindedly at the thick wooden bars on the cell window.

“There isn’t even a clock here—I don’t even know what time it is.”

Suddenly, with a soft thud, something like a paper ball hit the back of Meng Yuxi’s head.

He quickly turned to see who it was.

Only to find the white-bearded old man from the Biyun Pavilion last night had appeared inside the cell again.

“Senior? How did you get in here?”

Looking again, the steel door of the cell had silently fallen inward onto the floor.

“Nonsense, of course I came looking for you. Do you think I was caught and locked up here too? You’re really hard to find.”

The old man chuckled.

“May I ask, senior, what brings you to see me?”

Meng Yuxi bowed his head respectfully.

“Come, let’s go out and talk. This place is uncomfortable and doesn’t suit our image as twin stars of the literary world.”

The old man snapped his fingers, and the thick iron chains, as thick as arms, snapped like dry noodles.

---

“Senior, I have a meeting at noon tomorrow... no, there’s a public trial. Please remember to bring me back in the morning.”

Meng Yuxi smiled. Upon first meeting the old man last night, he found him intriguing and carefree—turns out he was truly a master.

“Ah, what a bother, what’s so fun about meetings and public trials? Why are you so troublesome, just like Xiaozi? But he’s the emperor, are you?”

The old man frowned and rolled his eyes, then circled Meng Yuxi twice, feeling something was amiss.

“Tsk tsk, you two are both quite inhuman.”

Meng Yuxi was baffled by this comment. If not human, then what else? A gibbon?

“You said emperor? You know the emperor?”

Meng Yuxi asked, stunned.

The old man pointed behind him. “There he is, right behind you!”

Meng Yuxi turned to look, only to see a sun hanging outside the window before a sharp pain in his neck made him faint.

——

“Seriously? Did I hear that right? Are you insane? Why would you just hand over the Thousand Immortal Snow Lotus for no reason?”

Inside the Water Lotus Cave, a man in a gray robe embroidered with clouds and dawn mountains radiated immense pressure, his teeth clenched in anger. The “old man” he spoke of was the one who had just knocked Meng Yuxi unconscious.

Meng Yuxi lay sleeping at his feet.

“Shi Wenshan, who are you calling old? I’m but a little over two hundred years old—still in the prime of youth! Not old at all. Come on, say it again, and I’ll hit you.”

The old man puffed his beard and rolled up his sleeves, revealing plump, pale arms ready for a fight.

Suddenly, the air in the Water Lotus Cave grew scorching hot. The pond’s ripples layered and trembled, steam rising thickly, turning the cave into a sauna.

Shi Wenshan’s face twisted as if invisible hands were pinching and squeezing it relentlessly.

He dared not slack off and repeatedly formed hand seals, then forcefully pressed down, causing a vast golden mountain shape to appear above his head.

---

“By order of Mount Nanyue, protect my body, shield my soul—descend!”

The golden mountain crashed downward but stubbornly failed to touch the ground, as if a barrier of energy held it aloft. Shi Wenshan pressed harder and harder, cursing in frustration.

“Damn it, just fall already!”

With all his might, he pushed down, and with a thunderous boom, the golden mountain shattered into countless fragments.

“Wrong, wrong! I was joking, Patriarch! Let’s call it even this time! Next time, I’ll fight you!”

Shi Wenshan immediately knelt and begged for mercy, his speed so swift it was seamless.

The old man chuckled, “First tell me where I’m wrong, then I’ll decide.”

“Patriarch Zhang, just now I was a bit regretful for you, so my tone was a little off. Please put your sleeves down and listen to me carefully. You’re already 299 years old, the founder of the Supreme Peak sect of the Dali Dynasty, Zhang Tiantai. With your reputation, no one in the martial world of Dali wouldn’t treat you like a god. And at your youthful age, you should be the happiest person in all of Dali, not shouting for a fight at every turn.”

Shi Yiluo, the illustrious Supreme Peak sect leader, was blowing Zhang Tiantai’s praises sky-high just to avoid a beating.

But Zhang Tiantai seemed to enjoy it. “No doubt I’m unmatched in Dali, but beyond Dali, there are still three old immortals who rival me. But of course, they’re all just slightly inferior—just slightly.”

Zhang Tiantai shook his sleeve, restoring the Water Lotus Cave’s calm. He held up two plump fingers, showing a tiny gap between them.

“So, Patriarch, if you consume this Thousand Immortal Snow Lotus, the gap between you and those three old immortals will suddenly widen—not just widen, but by this much!”

Shi Yiluo exaggerated the distance with his fingers, the greater Zhang’s power, the more secure Supreme Peak’s position in the Dali Dynasty.

Zhang Tiantai glanced at him and rolled his eyes. “If it’s so powerful, why don’t you eat it?”

Shi Yiluo shook his head shyly. “Haha, Patriarch, what a joke. Only true martial realm experts or ordinary people with no cultivation can eat this. I just advanced from the Grandmaster realm to the Divine Transcendence realm. If I ate it, I’d probably explode.”

“If you won’t eat it, who else do I have to give it to? I officially entered the Dali literary world last night and have already made a milestone achievement. This kid lying on the ground is my first disciple in the literary world. So from now on, when you see him, call him ‘Senior Uncle,’ understand?”