The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 104 Fame

When Li Ye and the others were outside the city, Wei Baoheng had no chance to intercept them, and now they had already arrived at Chang’an City, so he was even less likely to do so. Therefore, Li Ye and the others arrived at the Chang’an Office successfully.

Wang Li took the members of the Changhe Gang to the cells and Xu Shaomu went to arrange heavy guards. Because Wang Duo and Lu Yan were in the Chang’an Office, Li Ye went to meet them first.

Currently, Wei Baoheng, Lu Yan and Wang Duo were the most powerful ministers in the court with great prestige. Apart from Wei Baoheng, the other two people waited in the Chang’an Office in advance, which showed that Li Ye and his trip this time weighed a lot.

“Duke Wang. Duke Lu.”

“Your Highness.”

The three people greeted each other in the room and then they took their seats one after another. None of them went to the Host’s Seat, because none of them were suitable for it. Wang Duo and Lu Yan were of equal official positions and their official positions were higher than Li Ye’s, but Li Ye was the Grand Prince, so even if they met in the office, Wang Duo and Lu Yan were unwilling to be arrogant.

“Your Highness, your trip was so dangerous. We all feel relieved as we see you come back safely.”

Wang Duo had a close relationship with Li Ye, so he spoke first. He was very resentful. “No one could ever think that the Prime Minister in the court would instruct cultivators in his Manor and force the Jianghuers to ransack the Autumn Gifts of the imperial court in order to exclude a colleague! Such behavior is outrageous!”

Different from Wang Duo’s denouncing Wei Baoheng and expressing his hatred of the chaos of the treacherous ministers, Lu Yan praised Li Ye’s behavior instead.

He said with admiration, “Wei Baoheng set an ambush in Huangli County. If you were not wise enough, he would succeed. Fortunately, you turned bad luck into good. Not only did you get out of danger, but also found out the evidence of his crime. I really admire you!”

Lu Yan was very happy that Wei Baoheng was going to be defeated, so he was generous with compliments.

Wang Duo deeply agreed with Lu Yan’s words, so he temporarily put aside his hatred of corrupt officials and said to Li Ye, “You have arrested the criminals and made contributions to the country. If people know, they will praise you for your virtue!”

Speaking of this, Wang Duo recalled his memories. “In the past, when the old Prince An was famous all over the world, all people said that he was a hero of saving the country in the hard times. Nowadays, although the old Prince An has passed away, you have inherited the Royal Title of the old Prince An so that everyone will see the hope of the revival of Tang Empire!”

Li Ye didn’t intend to say more about that, so he went straight to the point. “Since the criminals of the case in Huangli County have been captured, what’s your next plan?”

Wang Duo was so angry that he patted on the table heavily. “Wei Baoheng has controlled the court for many years. He is the Prime Minister, but in fact, he is a treacherous minister, who deceives the emperor and breaks the law of the court. We tried to impeach him before, but we couldn’t find any evidence. If we cannot impeach him with this evidence this time, we’re useless!”

Lu Yan also said, “Your Highness, rest assured. We’ll hear the case with the Criminal Department immediately in order to close the case as soon as possible and remove Wei Baoheng, the moth of the country, from the court!”

Li Ye nodded. He was still in a low official position, so he couldn’t take the lead in these things and he could only let Wang Duo and Lu Yan take charge of the case. Since Wang Duo and Lu Yan were very confident, Li Ye felt a little relieved.

After a while, Xu Shaomu also arrived. They conferred on the details of the trial. Li Ye brought up the question of Liu Zhiyan and the others. They promised not to embarrass them and to give them a chance to make up for their mistakes.

After much discussion, Li Ye got up to leave because he was of little use here. The interrogation was a rather technical task, so Li Ye didn’t intend to intervene. After all, it was a great success that he had brought back the attackers and Liu Zhiyan and the others.

In the matter of bringing down Wei Baoheng, he couldn’t do all the things by himself so that the others would have a chance to perform. If they had no chance to perform, they would have no credit, so they wouldn’t get promotions and benefits when Wei Baoheng was overthrown in the future. Li Ye wouldn’t do thankless things.

Wang Duo and Lu Yan made allowance for Li Ye’s hard trip, so they advised Li Ye to go back to rest. Li Ye was happy to be free.

Back to Prince An’s Manor, Song Jiao and the others had gone to rest.

Now in Prince An’s Manor, Shangguan Qingcheng led the military affairs and Li Zhen took charge of the civil affairs. Li Zhen arranged the residences of Liu Dazheng, Mo Dongli, Zhao Polu, and the others, as well as distributed daily things. He now had become the main steward of the Manor.

It wasn’t long after Li Zhen had entered the Manor. It was hard for ordinary people to get things straightened out so quickly. However, Li Zhen was very intelligent, so he got proficiency in the affairs very quickly and now he was able to do things on his own.

Next day, Li Ye rested in the Manor. At 3:15 PM, Zhang He, the Liaison of the Lulong Commissioner, came to visit. Li Ye received him in the study.

The person beside Zhang He was the middle-aged man who looked like a Confucian. He came here to report the progress of Lulong Army’s collecting the evidence of Kang Chengxun’s assassination by the Zhenwu Army to Li Ye.

According to Zhang He’s words, the evidence of slander had been collected a lot, because cultivators acted very swiftly. The Lulong Commissioner had begun to write a memorial to the throne to impeach Li Guochang, and he hoped that Li Ye could inform Wang Duo and the others to echo him in the court by that time.

This was good news, so Li Ye agreed to him. Although Wei Baoheng was about to lose, the marriage of Li Keyong and Duchess of Li might not fail with Wei Baoheng’s downfall. Not to mention Wu Hongshan would continue to promote the marriage, the emperor wouldn’t easily withdraw his order in order to tame the Zhenwu Army.

However, Li Keyong had already left Chang’an, and the Lulong Army had collected evidence. With these two things, the marriage would definitely fail.

After finishing the business, Zhang He didn’t leave immediately. He began to chat with Li Ye in order to make a closer relationship with Li Ye. These days, Zhang He had been inquiring through many parties, so he knew that Li Ye had already cooperated with Wang Duo and Lu Yan. Li Ye’s force had become extraordinary, therefore, he certainly needed to curry favor.

“A few days ago, Li Keyong suddenly disappeared from Chang’an and no one knows where he has gone, which was about the same time as your trip to Huangli County.”

Zhang He put down the tea bowl and said doubtfully, “Originally, Li Keyong came to the capital for the marriage of Duchess of Li, but now he left suddenly. Was it because he was defeated by you last time in Emperor’s son-in-law’s Manor, so he felt that he wasn’t good enough for Duchess of Li and backed off voluntarily?”

“Oh? Really? It’s possible.” Li Ye drank his tea with a smile and looked as normal as ever. Of course, he couldn’t tell Zhang He that he had beaten Li Keyong away. The Grand Prince and the general in the vassal state fought with each other? The impact wasn’t good at all.

“It seems so!” Zhang He slapped his thigh excitedly as if he had found something.

He looked at Li Ye and continued, “The matter that you have defeated Li Keyong in Emperor’s son-in-law’s Manor has been spread away in Chang’an. People on the street are talking about it. They say that you have won honor for Chang’an and treat you as a hero. Even the story-teller in the teahouse has been describing it vividly these days. He praises you for your great accumulation of strength and as the really most talented person in Tang Empire!”

Li Ye’s victory over Li Keyong was exciting news for the people in Chang’an since the arrogance of the Zhenwu Army wasn’t a secret. Li Ye had defeated Li Keyong, which gave a lesson to the Zhenwu Army for the court and great pleasure for the ordinary people.

Li Ye was amused to see Zhang He’s excitement. Zhang He was so excited just because Li Ye had defeated Li Keyong for a contest. If Zhang He knew that Li Ye had beaten the shit out of Li Keyong and forced him to leave Chang’an, what kind of reactions Zhang He would have?

Li Ye didn’t care about Zhang He’s words. He smiled and said, “It’s an overpraise for me to be the most talented person.”

He really didn’t mind these bubble reputations. Before his transmigration, he had been called the most talented person in China since he was a kid, so he felt numb.

Li Ye didn’t care, but Zhang He didn’t think so. Li Ye was calm and didn’t feel proud, so Zhang He couldn’t help but think highly of him. Zhang He said in his heart, “Your Highness is crowned in this year. In such an age, he should be young, aggressive and vain and wish that all the people in the world will know his power. Moreover, the fame of the most talented person in Tang Empire is extraordinary, but Your Highness doesn’t care about it at all. He has such a calm state of mind. Not to mention the young people in their early twenties, even some old people would cherish their reputations. They all fall far behind him.”

With this in mind, Zhang He, who had admired Li Ye, now felt more respectful to him. Cultivation talent was important for a person to succeed, but his character was also a key point. At this moment, Zhang He was certain that Li Ye would make great achievements in the future, so he determined to build a better relationship with Li Ye.

When he left Prince An’s Manor, Zhang He was still thinking about how to get closer to Li Ye. It was a difficult problem because Li Ye was distinguished in status and short of nothing. The treasures, calligraphy and paintings that he brought today were rejected by Li Ye. Therefore, Li Ye wouldn’t be a worldling.

“Magic treasures? The Lulong Army doesn’t have many of them. Beauties? Your Highness doesn’t look like a lecher... It’s hard.” Zhang He was deep in thought for a long time and got nothing. He was so involved in his thought that he didn’t even know how he got on the street on horseback. He looked up accidentally. He was suddenly enlightened and overjoyed as he heard the discussion around him.

Those people were talking about Li Ye’s victory over Li Keyong.

Zhang He thought, “Your Highness doesn’t like pleasure, so he must be ambitious and his heart must be in the official career. In this case, I should publicize the reputation of Your Highness to make him popular among the people. As a result, the Ministry of Appointments will have a big harvest when evaluating Your Highness! Your Highness will be grateful to me when he knows that this is my means...”

Zhang He hurried back to the office and gathered together his men to publicize the good name of Li Ye on the street.

Li Ye didn’t know what Zhang He had done. After sending him away, Li Ye went back to the house and sat in meditation. Although he couldn’t absorb the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, meditation was good for calming down and thinking, so he kept this habit.

At night, Li Ye was keenly aware of some abnormalities.

Wisps of white and red Qi converged from all directions, causing the Dragon Qi to swim inside his body, and they seemed to be absorbed. Most of them were white, indicating that they were ordinary people’s Luck. The Qis flew to Li Ye, most of them hovering. They looked like to be absorbed by him without actually being absorbed. Only a small part of them flowed into his body.

Li Ye was surprised and had no idea of what had happened. “Why would someone be loyal to me without any reason?”

He couldn’t figure it out. The convergence of Qis was a continuous process. Although the number was very small and the improvement for his cultivation was limited, they really existed.

Li Ye made up his mind to go outside and have a look tomorrow.

Next day, Li Ye got up early and went out with a weird look.

The convergence of Luck didn’t stop. Li Ye found that his cultivation had an identifiable improvement when he woke up. Although it was only a small step on the way to Level 6 of Qi-refining, it was also very weird.

He walked down the street into the crowd, slowed down and looked around.

He heard people’s discussion.

“Do you know that Your Highness Prince An defeated the son of the Zhenwu Commissioner a few days ago? He greatly increased our prestige!”

“I’ve known it for a long time! To tell you the truth, Your Highness Prince An is the object of my admiration and the goal of my life. I’m willing to serve him!”

“How can you serve Prince An with your low cultivation? I have already made up my mind to improve my cultivation so that I will become a follower in Prince An’s Manor and follow Prince An in the future!”

Li Ye fixed his eyes on the two young men as he heard their discussion. As the conversation went on, the white Qis above their heads did converge towards him.

“How could it be?” Li Ye stunned. He finally understood the root cause of the convergence of Luck. “These people worship me without my knowing it. They’re my fans! I see. It’s the fame effect!”

Immediately, Li Ye’s expression became a bit weird. “I only have defeated Li Keyong, which makes me famous in Chang’an City. Some young people begin to worship me. It’s another form of loyalty, so their Luck will converge to me – that’s right. This loyalty is not illusory. It is conceivable that if Huang Chao attacked the city at this time, these people would follow me to kill enemies as long as I called on them!”

This kind of thing wasn’t unusual. All famous heroes in history liked to do such a feat.

People from all directions would respond when they were called on. Heroes from all over the world would gather together to follow...

Li Ye’s gaze was gradually clear since he understood the root cause of the problem.

He thought again, “However, it is only a trivial matter to win Li Keyong. The fame is far from enough and the prestige is limited, so the Luck that converged isn’t much and is less than a thousandth of Luck that I need to achieve Level 6 of Qi-refining...”

Li Ye looked up at the direction of the Imperial City as he thought of this. “And if I can bring down Wei Baoheng... Wei Baoheng is a well-known treacherous minister and people hate him very much. If I can overthrow him this time, people will be overjoyed and they will spread my good name. By that time, I’ll be able to achieve Level 6 of Qi-refining...”