Chapter 228: Meeting the Emperor Again
In the sacrificial formation, the portal that integrated the power of space was half real and half virtual, and Zhou Tieyi's mind was filled with thoughts.

Why is the wild world a one-way passage? Is it because it is sealed, or is there some other reason...

To be precise, the wild world is not a completely one-way channel. At least one can bring intangible things such as knowledge and divine authority into the wild world. The power of dreams and divine authority can also be transmitted to oneself through the wild world.

When he thought of this, Zhou Tieyi's spiritual sense strongly warned him not to continue exploring, or at least not to explore it now.

Zhou Tieyi stretched out his hand, dissolved the half-real and half-virtual portal, and the white jade chessboard fell back into his palm.

He stroked the white jade chessboard and laughed to himself, "I didn't expect that I would start to pay attention to metaphysics now."

The blessing of the mind or the blinding of spiritual perception is a very mysterious thing.

But in this world where one can practice, it is something that objectively exists.

At least Zhou Tieyi himself had made several choices that came to him based on his luck and divine connection. All of them were good choices that helped to increase his strength during his practice.

Now my spirituality warns me not to explore right away, but to explore later.

Then it is best to choose from your heart.

Fortunately, this time was not completely fruitless. I was able to teleport materials from the wild world. Next time, I can experiment to see if I can teleport living things. If this experiment is successful, it will be another objective and huge improvement in my strength, which means that I can raise a group of unknown and powerful troops in the wild world.

In addition to experimenting with the method of sacrifice, Zhou Tieyi took out the shackles he had exchanged from Yueqin.

As before, he reached for the shackles and stole the power within.

[The soul-catching ghost].

The authority this time is completely different from the powers he stole from the Five Demons, the Blood God, and the Mirage.

It is very similar to stealing the power of the mountain lord.

The biggest difference between the two is that the former are scattered authorities. Even if they are very powerful, they are not systematic. Especially the authority of the Five Gods is too scattered.

Like the [Soul-Binding Ghost] and the [Mountain Lord], [Soul-Binding Ghost] consists of several different magical powers that constitute a complete divine position. They can work together to achieve a certain status upgrade that one cannot understand for the time being, rather than simply applying magical powers.

For gods, the powers are integrated with each other and then their status is improved. This should be the hidden condition of Shinto practice. I still need to learn more about Shinto knowledge.

Zhou Tieyi was thinking this way. In fact, he had opened up the Zhushen Division and began to master its authority, as well as participated in transactions at various levels in the Taixu Illusion Realm. He was learning Shinto knowledge very quickly. In just one month, he found the ninth and eighth grade cultivation methods and fully understood the general description of Shinto.

Return to the authority of [Soul-Binding Ghost].

There are two core magical powers.

The first magical power is [Walking in Yin and Yang]. By finding the cracks in the Yellow Springs, one can freely travel between the two worlds of Yin and Yang. And because of the special nature of the Yellow Springs and the underworld itself, if one can find two cracks leading to the world of the living, then the speed of traveling in the underworld will be much faster than the material world of the living.

However, there is a huge limitation, that is, it is limited to one's own soul and golden body. At least the seventh-rank soul-binding ghost has only this level of magical power.

The second magical power is [Capture the Soul and Take the Spirit], which is almost a magical skill that can bypass the practitioner's physical defense and directly attack his soul.

Moreover, because it is an authority bestowed by heaven and earth, it will not be restrained by forces such as Confucian righteousness. At most, it will form a tug-of-war, which is equivalent to a hard control skill.

At the same time, this skill has an absolute restraining effect on ghosts that have no physical existence. It also has a strong restraining effect on strange beasts that do not know how to practice and rely on their innate strength.

The most powerful aspect of this authority is that it can strengthen its own power through the "Underworld".

Unfortunately, there is no underworld in the entire Daxia now, and it is impossible to strengthen [Soul Capture].

Zhou Tieyi took out the Qiankun Seal that carried his authority as the Mountain Lord, and used it to absorb the priesthood of the Soul-Binding Yin Messenger. The absorption process went very smoothly, proving that the two were highly compatible.

After absorbing the authority of [Soul-Binding Yin Messenger], a faint gray mist appeared at the bottom of the Qiankun Seal, forming a sharp contrast with the colorful clouds above.

The authority of the mountain lord can be extended to the authority of the underworld, but he is missing a step in the middle, or a corresponding authority.

Zhou Tieyi smiled and said, "It seems that this trip to Taihang Mountain is even more meaningful."

If he could steal the corresponding authority from that first-rank god, he might be able to try to establish his own underworld in Daxia...

No, we still need to be more cautious when establishing the underworld. Perhaps we can first establish the underworld in the wild world as a pilot.

After the divine power was stolen, the chain-like artifact was completely shattered, and only a group of extremely corrosive underworld power remained, forming a turbid yellow cloud-like thing in the air.

Zhou Tieyi tried to seal the Yellow Spring power with talismans, but compared to the resentment and death energy left by the Five Gods, this Yellow Spring power could directly and quickly corrode the blockade of the Green Emperor's talisman. When the green talisman and the yellow mist came into contact, the two kept making a sizzling sound.

He had no way to deal with this Yellow Springs power for the time being, but he could give it to his brother to use. Zhou Tieyi decided how to use it.

Then he looked at the [Method of Creating the Golden Dragon Body].

Compared to the ordinary method of creating a golden body that he had obtained from the Wuchang God, this method not only explained in detail the compatibility between various natural treasures and divine power, but also listed several excellent formulas for matching natural treasures with golden bodies.

Unfortunately, for me, its reference value is greater than its practical application.

Because of the existence of the physical body, Zhou Tieyi is more concerned about the development potential of the golden body. Unless he can obtain the top-level spiritual material such as the skeleton of a saint to create a golden body, other spiritual materials do not have the strong concealment and great development potential of the mirage.

In the end, when I am strong enough, I can completely steal the kingdom of Lord Taixuhuan and complete the last step of shaping my golden body.

Anyway, the Taixu Illusion Realm is now ownerless. If they can use it, why can't I?

The most ingenious part of the Dragon-shaped Golden Body Sculpting Method is that it uses the "dragon" to metaphorically represent the universe and all things, and describes a smooth and prosperous road.

I do not know its name, so I call it Tao.

Faced with the objective laws between heaven and earth, the Taoist "Tao" and "Zuqi" are just a definition, one of the forms of expression of Tao, but not all.

This 'dragon appearance' is another way of expressing it.

They believe that there are dragons in humans, in the earth, in the water, and in the sky. Dragons can be big or small, visible or invisible, and are constantly moving, manipulating the destiny of heaven and earth.

Ordinary people and gods, without the "dragon aspect", are just floating beings, whose fate is controlled by the owner of the dragon aspect. They are born and die in the morning and have no control over their own destiny.

Only by condensing the "dragon appearance" can one have the ability to hide oneself and prevent others from manipulating one's destiny. Only then can one slowly plan for growth and then control the fate of everything with the appearance of a true dragon.

Beads in every word.

Zhou Tieyi commented after reading it.

By analogy with the [Five Emperors' Treasure Edicts] and [Buddhaland in the Palm], this [Dragon-Appearance Golden Body Sculpting Method] is almost certainly a Taoist tradition developed by a first-class great figure.

However, this Taoist tradition concealed the "phases of the heavenly dragon" and only specifically described the three phases of the human dragon, the water dragon and the earth dragon.

"How stingy."

Zhou Tieyi complained, but then he thought, maybe the person who spread this Taoism has not yet perfected his own Taoist authority, so he dare not spread it completely, just like his second uncle Gong Shusheng, even though he knew how to use the steam engine, he was still cautious before developing the first prototype.

Perhaps he did not fail to research the 'Appearance of the Heavenly Dragon'...

Rather, the core of the 'Aspect of Heavenly Dragon' is to control water dragons, earth dragons, and human dragons.

This technique hides half of the old silver coin!
Zhou Tieyi felt more and more that his guess was correct. He was afraid that the guy who practiced the [Dragon-like Golden Body Shaping Method] would eventually make contributions to the other party.

But that's not necessarily the case for me.

Firstly, the wild world has a very strong isolation effect, and secondly, his core divine power [Usurpation of God] contains the characteristics of Escape One.

Thinking of this, Zhou Tieyi no longer hesitated and began to practice according to the earth dragon. In an instant, the tribesmen who had just finished the sacrifice felt that the ground was shaking, and the small hill where the fire pit existed was rising at a slow but steady speed.

A towering god, half of whose body is hidden in the clouds and whose face keeps changing between old and young, male and female, exists in everyone's dreams, almost towering over the sky.

The surging power of the earth veins gradually condensed and took shape, transforming into a winding earth dragon that hovered in the illusory mirage surrounding the gods, appearing and disappearing from time to time.

On May 16th, court meeting.

This time Zhou Tieyi did not do anything weird, but instead submitted several memorials requesting the reform of the Zhushen Division and a memorial requesting instructions from the Legal Daily.

All the officials submitted their memorials to the three courts as usual, and then began to leave the court. However, this time Zhou Tieyi did not leave. Instead, he walked up to the eunuch Xue Minghao, who held the seal, and said with a bow, "Eunuch Xue, I want to see the emperor. Please inform him."

As Zhou Tieyi finished speaking, the officials who had not yet completely retreated glanced in his direction with a strong desire to explore.

Xue Minghao naturally didn't show any disdain for Zhou Tieyi, a popular figure who gradually turned from a jester to a powerful official. Instead, he bowed and said, "I will report to His Majesty right away. As for whether His Majesty will meet with Inspector Zhou, I can't be sure."

Combined with the inquiring looks from the people around him, Zhou Tieyi roughly guessed that the emperor's practice of Taoism should be related to his refusal to meet with outside ministers. Especially after the emperor became a Taoist, he did not even summon himself, a close minister, which showed that the connection should be very strong.

"I know the severity of the situation, I just want you to inform me."

After Zhou Tieyi answered, he went to Cheng'en Hall to wait for notification.

In Cheng'en Hall, the clerks and eunuchs serving the three departments became more nervous than ever, fearing that Zhou Tieyi would cause trouble in Cheng'en Hall and implicate them. So they thought of a stupid idea, which was to get a bunch of snacks from the palace, pile them in front of Zhou Tieyi, and keep recommending how delicious these snacks were.

Inspector Zhou, please eat more and don't talk.

Zhou Tieyi also noticed everyone's nervousness, so he smiled and ate heartily.

On the other hand, the three officials seemed to have other thoughts in their minds today. After all, Zhou Tieyi had successfully sowed discord between Confucianism and Legalism three days ago.

After Si Lu Qing Konggui made the decision, he had clearly informed Dong Xingshu in a letter within the past three days and began to cut ties with the Awakening Newspaper. However, Dong Xingshu held Qing Kongming back and refused to let go.

You can't just withdraw and throw all the blame onto us Confucians just because your son didn't do a good job. There's no such easy thing in the world.

Qingkong Gui also gritted his teeth and decided to temporarily keep Qingkong Ming as the chief editor of "Xingshi Bao", as a way to leave the last superficial friendship between the Confucian and Legalist schools. Anyway, he already had Mei Juncang, a capable editor-in-chief.

After communicating with Mei Juncang over the past two days, Qing Kong Gui felt more and more that his choice was right. He even thought that the decision to exchange his son for a disciple was very worthwhile, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was a huge profit.

After all, a son only inherits the bloodline, but a disciple can inherit the Taoism.

The three officials, each with their own calculations in mind, quietly reviewed the memorials in front of them.

After a cup of tea, a eunuch came in and informed Zhou Tieyi to go to the imperial study to meet the emperor.

Upon hearing the news, the three officials stopped writing at the same time and looked at Zhou Tieyi, as if they also wanted to find out something from Zhou Tieyi's visit to the palace to meet the emperor.

You guys are putting a lot of pressure on me.

Zhou Tieyi thought for a moment, then took his memorial and followed the eunuch, passing through the palaces, entering the imperial garden, and following the path directly to the imperial study.

When he arrived at the imperial study today, Zhou Tieyi felt an unprecedented sense of oppression, which was a feeling he had not felt the last time he met the emperor.

Before he could think more, the emperor's voice came from inside, "Come in."

"Yes."

Zhou Tieyi bowed and walked into the imperial study. The moment he stepped into the imperial study, he understood where his pressure came from.

A strong sense of illusion kept impacting his mind, and the real scenery around him became blurred. He only saw a big sun and a waning moon rising in front of his eyes, shining with infinite brilliance.

And he himself turned into a slightly brighter star. When he sensed a little bit outward, he felt that there were a large number of stars surrounding him. The aura of the three brightest stars represented the three divisions respectively.

The galaxy formed by the three divisions and itself revolves around the sun and the moon, lifting them up and allowing them to rise continuously to another level.

Orthodoxy!

Zhou Tieyi finally understood why he felt so depressed before entering the imperial study.

In the battle at Tingchao Tower, Hong Shigui also used the power of Taoism to mobilize the people around him, transforming them into stars and gathering everyone's strength to connect the inside and the outside.

However, compared to Hong Shigui, the Emperor of Daxia regards all officials as stars and Yujing as the foundation, so he can reach the realm of a saint.

Although the powers of the two are vastly different, their principles are extremely similar.

But now the sun and the moon no longer want to appear in the highest position. The Emperor of Great Xia transformed into the sun and sank, forming two opposite forces with the lifting force formed by the officials.

Zhou Tieyi, one of the officials, suddenly felt uncomfortable all over.

This was because he was only a fifth-rank official, and he could not imagine how intense the conflict between the two opposing forces would be in front of the Emperor of Great Xia. Even without the Three Departments, according to Confucian calculations, just using Mei Qingchen, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue who had a Taoist orthodoxy, would be enough to force the Emperor of Great Xia to make concessions.

No wonder the emperor has not met with the three officials in the past three years, but has been hiding in the imperial study to review memorials.

However, His Majesty the Great Xia was not completely unprepared.

Zhou Tieyi looked at the crescent moon next to the sun. The light of this bright moon came from the sun. At the same time, the moon formed a barrier to help the sun attract the two opposite forces above and below and reconcile the conflict in between.

Create a new balance among the sun, the moon and the stars.

This is the Second Saint’s Reign!

Zhou Tieyi sighed in his heart.

The Great Xia Emperor elevated the status of the Queen Mother, which not only has practical political significance, but also has spiritual significance.

So now the Queen has given up her "self" to a certain extent, and let her own power depend on the Emperor of Daxia, so she can be firmly trusted by the Emperor of Daxia?

Zhou Tieyi pretended to be stunned and stood there without saying a word, as if he was shocked by the Taoist orthodoxy.

The Great Xia Emperor did not blame Zhou Tieyi, but instead instructed the eunuchs beside him, "Close the screen."

The reason why he was willing to summon Zhou Tieyi today was that he wanted to try how much power his method could share, and now the result made him very satisfied. At least neither he nor Zhou Tieyi were hurt.

The two eunuchs closed a huge jade screen. In the middle of the screen was carved a picture of the vast mountains and rivers of Great Xia. Through the faint hollow space, one could see the Emperor of Great Xia and the Queen of Heaven sitting side by side on the throne.

With the barrier of this jade screen, the impact on Zhou Tieyi was suddenly reduced, the influence of the illusory Taoism weakened, and the real imperial study came into view again.

"I have lost my temper, Your Majesty, please forgive me."

Zhou Tieyi pretended to come to his senses and apologized.

The Great Xia Emperor waved his hand casually, "It's okay, this is all normal, everything will be fine again in a few years."

Zhou Tieyi knew that this was a taboo topic, so he did not say much about it. Instead, he handed several of his memorials to the eunuch and said, "I came to the Imperial Study this time because I have something to report to His Majesty in person."

The eunuch took Zhou Tieyi's memorial and handed it to the Emperor of Great Xia behind the jade screen.

The Emperor of Daxia opened two memorials, one for the establishment of the "Legal Newspaper" and the other for the restructuring of the God-Slaying Department.

Zhou Tieyi did these two things in front of everyone. His Majesty of Daxia certainly knew the specific details. He glanced through the memorials and said with a teasing and satisfied tone, "You are a good official."

While using a "Rule of Law Daily" to limit his own power, he also split the alliance between Confucianism and Legalism. This incident really made the Emperor of Daxia very satisfied with Zhou Tieyi.

(End of this chapter)