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Chapter 187 Three Years

There was a very slight and short rustle. He walked softly to the pearl curtain and looked into the outer room of the personal maid. When he saw the scene in front of him clearly, he shook his head slightly and sighed softly.

The Junior Priestess sat curled up on the couch, her head rested on her knees, and her gaze fell in front of her feet. The quilt was kicked to the ground. She was silent, and her thin shoulders were shivering slightly like a wounded kitten. The moonlight came in through the window, and the light fell on the couch, making her seem more forlorn.

Li Ye had witnessed this scene for three years.

He could understand the Junior Priestess’ state of mind. She was alone in the enemy camp, facing the opponent she couldn’t defeat. She was not thinking about how to assassinate Li Ye, but rather felt a little sense of security by following Li Ye. Although Li Ye was her enemy, he wasn’t a bad guy. That day in the woods, Li Ye didn’t kill her or paw at her, proving his noble character.

The Junior Priestess had no tomorrow because she didn’t know when she would die. She didn’t even know where her future was because Penglai couldn’t save her. Although she had outstanding cultivation, it was useless now. She had no experience, so in a sense, she was just a child. When she arrived at Qing Prefecture, what could she do other than following Li Ye? Maybe she could only know that she was still alive when she followed Li Ye like a shadow. At least, she had a goal. She could be sure that she was indeed alive for a day only when she watched him treat people and do things.

In such a situation, no matter how indifferent she was in the daytime when she faced the moonlight alone at night, vulnerability always came to her by surprise. Whether because of loneliness or fear, she was overwhelmed by the cold, negative emotions and unable to resist. Perhaps, she was looking forward to the sunrise, but after the sunrise, what would be different?

Li Ye walked to the couch, picked up the quilt, shook off the dust, put it on the Junior Priestess, and sat down on the couch. She didn’t look up or make a sound.

Li Ye didn’t know if a person who never spoke would feel lonely. If he didn’t talk for a long time, he would probably go crazy. In that case, the Junior Priestess who never spoke was maybe a pessimistic person deep within. It was not easy for a pessimistic person to live without hope. When there was no sunshine in life, death was not terrible but a destination.

Li Ye whispered, “The men of Penglai will come today.”

The Junior Priestess looked up in surprise, then looked at Li Ye blankly.

Li Ye smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s a good thing. It is good for Penglai and me and the same for you. In the area of Pinglu, since the leader has been identified, there will be no more disputes.”

Li Ye was right. Three years had passed by. Pinglu was firmly under his control.

Soon it was daylight, and they had breakfast together as usual. It was summer again. The sun was shining as brightly as the previous year, and everything was full of vitality. Li Ye first came to the political hall. Every morning, he would deal with the military and political affairs of Pinglu here. The Junior Priestess was still standing behind him, still very quiet and ethereal.

The first person to arrive was Li Zhen. Now he was the Secretary General and in charge of the political affairs of Pinglu. His group was the former followers of Prince An’s Manor, very capable. After his governance, Pinglu was stable and in harmony.

“The easiest way to gain popularity is to clean up the bureaucracy and punish the corrupt officials. The ordinary people always applaud when they see bullying officials being thrown in jail and executed. These three years in Pinglu, more than 300 officials have been punished. Now all the important officials of all states and counties belong to our force. None of them would usurp a high post without doing a stroke of work. Even the squires dare not run amok but do good every day because they don’t want to get a black mark on their merit books. The people’s praise for the commissioner has reached an unprecedented high.”

Li Zhen talked tirelessly. The merit book, he said, was a kind of benevolent supervision system which was established by Li Ye especially for the local forces without official positions. Good deeds would be written down with the red pen, while evil deeds would be written down with the black pen. When it reached a certain amount, it would be squared up.

Cui Keli arrived after Li Zhen. This Confucian scholar was in charge of farming and mining with the same Confucian scholars. Cui Keli said, “When you first arrived, half of the good fields were in the hands of officials and the rich. Many of them were punished for their misdeeds, and the good fields were given to the ordinary people and refugees. In the past three years, the area of cultivated land reclaimed in Pinglu has reached half of the original cultivated land. Moreover, the new good fields are equipped with strict irrigation ditches and harvest every year. Many of the refugees from the war in the Central Plains have come to Pinglu, so the number of people has increased by half. I wouldn’t venture to say that every family has meat to eat, but I am sure that they needn’t worry about food or clothing.”

Li Ye nodded slightly. These things were outlined by him, and naturally, he knew the ins and outs. More importantly, taxes in Pinglu had been increased several times, and grain warehouses were piled high with millet, or else, why would he establish a new army?

As for the new army, Liu Dazheng was the next to report. “Following your instructions, I have recruited one hundred thousand strong men and formed a new army in the past three years. They practice hard every day. If chances are given, I will take them to suppress bandits to hone their masculine spirit on the battlefield. Now the elite soldiers have been trained and can go to the battlefield at any time. In addition, the industrial and mining industry in Pinglu is developing very fast, so the new army is equipped with all the fine armor and weapons which were made in the factory.”

“Military Commissioner, you did a good job.” Li Ye praised him.

The original Pinglu Army was useless. Just a group of arrogant soldiers and generals. They not only lacked training and had a problem on the style of work, but many of their human nature was also ruined and couldn’t be saved, so he set out to train the new army.

After the Huang Chao Uprising, there were famous feudal princes everywhere, but none of them was a commissioner, because the original Vassal State Armies had poor fighting abilities—otherwise, Huang Chao’s rebels wouldn’t have been able to break into Chang’an.

Of course, Li Ye didn’t abandon the old army completely and was still training them. Later on in the battlefield, they could at least strengthen the momentum.

Li Ye planned to let the new army make military achievements through the coming war, and then they could gradually replace the old army with the right titles and proper words. In the end, all the old soldiers were incorporated among the civilians and sent to farm.

Because this was the Cultivation World, it was flourishing in population, which had a much larger population than the earth. Li Ye planned to establish a new army with 200 to 300 thousand people after the Huang Chao Uprising.

The fourth one was Song Jiao. She said, “The Black Office has expanded to 800 people. According to your instructions, the Black Office is divided into the Scout Hall, the Peace Hall, the Jianghu Hall and the Internal Affair Hall. There are 400 people in the Scout Hall. They are already spread out to establish strongholds all over the world and collect information everywhere; there are practitioners of Qi techniques in the Peace Hall, and they can accept the combat missions; there are smart and capable people in the Jianghu Hall, and they lead the various Jianghu forces in Pinglu; the Internal Affair Hall is responsible for the internal training of the Black Office and miscellaneous affairs.”

Li Ye’s conception of Black Office had now been fully implemented. On the one hand, it was the agency of intelligence and assassination; on the other hand, it was the leader of Jianghu.

The former needn’t be said much. In terms of the latter, under the management of the Black Office, Pinglu Jianghu now was in good order and basically worked for the government. Those who didn’t work for the government should do good for ordinary people, or they would be banned. In a word, Jianghu also became a part of the strength of Li Ye’s construction of Pinglu.

The last one who came in was Shangguan Qingcheng. She reported the military affairs of the inner army. They were Li Ye’s personal guards and expanded from 800 to 3,000 people. They were the absolute elites and a hundred practitioners of Qi techniques.

After seeing these people, what Li Ye had to deal with today was almost done. But before lunch, he also met with the deans of the Arms Drill Academy and the Literature Academy.

The Arms Drill Academy was the military school. Li Ye wanted the new army to have powerful fighting abilities. The training was not enough, but the generals also needed to improve the military quality because they needed technical skills to fight on the battlefield. The Literature Academy was the university. In order to prosper every profession and enhance the comprehensive strength of Pinglu, he had to cultivate talents in various fields.

After lunch, Li Ye came to the east study. He didn’t deal with politics in the afternoon. Apart from practicing cultivation methods and fighting skills, he mainly read and relaxed and met with some important people. Sometimes, he would leave Qing Prefecture and look around.

Now he was meeting with the men of the Penglai Taoist sect.

Li Ye was very familiar with the comers. They were Zhang Yunhe and the Senior Priestess.

Li Ye knew clearly why Penglai would send people here.

Taoist sect was the biggest Jianghu force. However, in Pinglu, Su Emei and Wei Xiaozhuang were entrusted by Li Ye with the important task of building the Quanzhen Temple. As leaders of the Taoist sect, their task was to lead the various Taoist temples in Pinglu to do good for the ordinary people around the Taoist temples, such as treating patients and removing disasters. Wei Xiaozhuang’s dream was now being realized.

After three years, Quanzhen Temple had gained a reputation comparable to Penglai. It was impossible for Penglai not to feel the crisis because they were about to be replaced and lose their survival foundation.

Li Ye held a tea feast in the pavilion. As the Junior Priestess watched with expectancy, the Senior Priestess and Zhang Yunhe finally walked in the Moon Door.

Li Ye understood the Junior Priestess’ mood, so he waved his hand and said to her, “Go to the reunion, but do not leave Qing Prefecture.”

After glancing at Li Ye deeply, the Junior Priestess saluted Zhang Yunhe and then she flew away with the Senior Priestess.

Coming to the pavilion, Zhang Yunhe saluted and took his seat.

“I am honored that Your Highness is willing to see us.” Zhang Yunhe had lost his sense of superiority. Now that the situation in Penglai was like this, Li Ye’s ability to deal with military and political affairs was beyond any doubt. As he glanced at Li Ye, he couldn’t help but tremble. He said in surprise, “Your cultivation... has achieved Level 9 of Qi-refining!”

“It’s a normal improvement,” Li Ye said casually. He was right. After three years, Pinglu was thriving in every aspect, and his popularity was growing with each passing day, so his improvement to Level 9 of Qi-refining was to be expected. If the military and political affairs were properly handled, ordinary people would really benefit from it, which was different from attracting the admiration of the people with lofty ideals in the world after bringing down Wei Baoheng and Liu Xingshen.

He only gained a part of the popularity of the people in Pinglu. Li Ye had carefully estimated that there were millions of people in Pinglu, which was enough to allow him to improve to the Spiritual Master Realm, but he needed some opportunities. For example, he made indelible contributions in the settlement of Huang Chao.

Zhang Yunhe was shocked. He knew about Li Ye’s fighting ability. When he was in Level 7 of Qi-refining, he already could defeat the Junior Priestess. Now he was in Level 9 of Qi-refining, even Zhang Jiuling would probably be unable to suppress him. In the confrontation between Penglai and the commissioner, their most proud chip was Zhang Jiuling’s cultivation. Now if they lost this advantage, they really had nothing going for them.

Li Ye said bluntly, “Taoist Zhang, why are you here?”

Zhang Yunhe opened his mouth and couldn’t say a word for quite a while. He came, of course, with goodwill this time. Penglai almost had no living space because they were suppressed by Li Ye. They had to reconcile with Li Ye if they wanted to survive in Penglai or made achievements when the world was in chaos.

Originally, Zhang Jiuling meant to send disciples to assist Li Ye. This meant that Penglai acknowledged Li Ye’s position as the commissioner, which was of great benefit to Li Ye. Accordingly, Li Ye also needed to give a lot of benefit to Penglai, for example, to dismantle the Quanzhen Temple.

But now it seemed that the Penglai Taoist sect didn’t have the chip to bargain with Li Ye because Li Ye had already achieved Level 9 of Qi-refining.

Zhang Yunhe hesitated for a while. An idea suddenly flashed across his mind. “Penglai intends to send the Senior Priestess to work with the Junior Priestess as your guards. What do you think?”