The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 258 The Orthodox Status of the Immortal Court

The Immortal Emperor was suddenly interested and asked, “What do you mean?”

Li Changgeng replied without missing a beat, “A wicked person will be harassed by another of like, and since Li Ye is a devil, then let him face the real devil.”

The Immortal Emperor went quiet, and he seemed to in a muse.

Li Changgeng continued to add, “For thousands of years, the Immortal Court ruled the cultivators of heaven and earth. The mortal cultivators must be recognized by the Immortal Court before they could ascend to heaven. And outside the mortal humans, the creatures in the mountains and lakes that have been blessed by the heavens and earth could also cultivate. And after a millennium of cultivation, there have been many that have reached the immortal status. If your Majesty could promise them that they could ascend to heaven they would be willing to do your majesty’s bidding. Especially if they could become immortals and be promised a spot in the Immortal League.”

Tota King’s face changed, and immediately stopped him. ”This is absolutely not feasible! Since ancient times, only cultivators of the Taoist sect could become immortals. Even if these scattered cultivators in the mountains and plains have powerful cultivation, they cannot be placed in Immortal League This is the iron law. It is also the most important means for the Immortal Court to maintain the orthodox status of the Taoist sect! If the Immortal Court allows these scattered cultivators into immortals, then the orthodox status of the Taoist sect will be in jeopardy.”

Immortal Emperor fell silent again.

Orthodox.

The weight of those two words was very important.

What was the most important thing from between the heavens and earth?

Resources.

For the cultivators, the cultivation resources were the most important. The Dan Pills, magic treasures, Spiritual Qi of the heavens and earth were the future for the cultivators.

For ordinary people, resources were land, food, and property. People could not survive without these. With more resources, people could live better. “What is the basis of resource distribution? Power. Who had the power? The government officials. Why do government officials have this kind of power? Because they are officials of the imperial court. The imperial court is the orthodoxy of the world.”

“What is orthodoxy? The justification to rule the world.”

In the mortal world, the emperor ruled the world, and the weapon in his hand was the official career. All the talents, no matter how their intelligent they were, they must pass the assessment of the imperial court in order to become an official. Once he became an official, he had gained power, held the right to allocate resources, and became the ruling class. The power of his own status would rising, and he would also live a better life and become a noble person.

Without passing the imperial court’s examination, it was impossible to be an official and grasp the right to allocate resources no matter how talented he was. The imperial court used the bureaucratic selection system to control the official career and the distribution of resources. This was orthodoxy.

The Immortal Court ruled the cultivators of the heavens and earth through controlling the path of cultivators becoming immortals. Even if your cultivation had reached to a high enough level, you could not become an Immortal without recognition by the Immortal Court. Eventually you would end up like smoke and dust. The Immortal Court would only select candidates from Taoist cultivators. The Taoist sect had always been the private school, the college and the military academy of the Immortal Court. Thus it was also the only channel for the Immortal Court to select cultivators. You couldn’t become an Immortal if you did not join the Taoist sect and make meritorious deeds under the system of the Taoist sect.

At present, the imperial court only selected government officials through civil examinations for government degrees. The only way for the Immortal Court to select immortals was through merits of the Taoist sect. Ruling the path that scholars and cultivators ascended was to control the world’s scholars and cultivators. And we could maintain the orthodox status through the uniqueness of the ascension path.

Of course, in addition to this approach, the children of high-ranking officials could also become officials through their birth right. It had always been the privilege of the ruling class. The ruling order had always been to serve the ruling class. Let’s put that aside for a moment.

If one day, those who had not passed the imperial court examination could also become officials, what would happen? The orthodox status of the imperial court would be challenged, and people no longer feared the imperial court. Then the world would be in chaos.

The general trend of the Tang Dynasty had been like so. If those butchers and jungle heroes that did not pass the imperial court examination had gathered a group of people and took over the state and county. The imperial court would then be forced in that situation. They would have to recognize their status, and seal them as officials. As a result, the only way for status ascension would have been broken, and the imperial court orthodoxy would be questioned.

Then the people in the world no longer feared the imperial court. So a large number of heroes would spring up, and the world would be in chaos. They would charge into the Central Plains and whoever had power and the strongest army could become the emperor. By then, power would be the only basis for identity promotion. After the new emperor succeeded to the throne, he would rule the world and reconstruct the unique path for the imperial court to select talent—Be it the civil examinations for government degrees, or the scholar examinations, or even earning meritorious deeds for the imperial court. At the end of the day, it would all be to maintain the orthodoxy for the imperial court.

Scholars, peasants, workers, and merchants, this ranking order had never changed since ancient times. Why had the status of scholars always been so high? Why had mortal emperors always demeaned merchants? For thousands of years, there had been countless talents and countless people with lofty ideals. Could they really not see the contributions of business to the country? Why did they still put emphasis on agriculture and dampen merchants?

Quite simply, merchants had more resources when they made money. But they were not directly controlled by the imperial court. Only the scholars of government officials were the underlings for the imperial court to rule the whole world. It was the basis for maintaining the orthodox status of the imperial court.

In the eyes of the imperial court, only they were qualified to have more resources and the power to allocate resources.

It was an inevitable choice for the emperor to rule the world, maintain the order of the rule, and maintain his orthodox status.

The Immortal Court belonged to the Taoist sect. It had never recognized the status of scattered cultivators and would not let them become immortals.

Because scattered cultivators were not disciples of the Taoist sect, and they had not earned any merits for the Taoist sect. Even if the strongest cultivator would eventually end up in smoke and dust. These scattered cultivators might have done good things and made meritorious deeds for the people, but it was all useless. Making meritorious deeds for people was not the same to the Taoist sect. Just like making meritorious deeds for the common people was not the same as giving meritorious service to the imperial court.

But now Li Changgeng actually suggested that those scattered cultivators could have the chance to become immortals. That would definitely challenge the orthodox status of the Taoist sect. No wonder the Tota King would not approve.

Li Changgeng smiled and added calmly, “Relax Tota King, let me finish. I know one could not become a government official without meritorious deeds for the imperial court. And one could not become an immortal without meritorious deeds for the Taoist sect of the Immortal Court. But these are desperate times, so desperate measures are commanded. As long as those scattered cultivators could wipe out Li Ye, then they would have done a meritorious deed for the Immortal Court. Therefore it would be logical for them to have an opportunity to become an immortal. That would not threaten the orthodox status of the Taoist sect or the Immortal Court.”

Tota King was still not convinced, and he argued, “These scattered cultivators have always been hard to control. They’ve never joined the Taoist sect, thus never been educated by the Taoist sect. They’re just a bunch of riff raff, so they could never be immortals!”

Li Changgeng shook his head and added, “The immortals say that officialdom is the natural outlet for good scholars and those that master both education and martial arts could be the ruling class. Such simple logic! Under the rule of the Emperor and the imperial court, one could never become rich and gain status if they did not become an official no matter how great they were.”

“I’m not saying those scattered cultivators are easy to control. But just because of that, will we not be able to control them? All the heavens and earth are ruled by the Immortal Court. That covers all the land and all the officials! It’s now time to let those scattered cultivators know that after they’ve elevated their cultivation, serving the Immortal Court is the only way to ascend!”

Tota King was still didn’t back down, and he clasped his fist in his hand and saluted the emperor, “Your Majesty, I thought...”

“I’ve made my decision. We’ll give Changgeng’s suggestion a try,” replied the emperor. “At present, the immortals are at war with each other. Everyone wants to take over the Immortal Court. And the Immortal Court needs talented candidates. By accepting the scattered cultivators to the Immortal Court, we could replenish the Immortal Court’s strength. It’s absolutely necessary. Changgeng, you will be in charge of this proposal.”

The white-robed immortal official bowed and accepted.

...

After exterminating Li Changyan, Li Ye remained in Chencang for a couple of days. He wanted to solve the situation with the residual Fengxiang army. He also wanted to wait for the Pinglu army to arrive. After a few days, Li Ye and Li Yan would return to Chang’an with the protection of the Pinglu army.

The honor of traveling with the emperor was apparent and needed no explanation.

When Li Yan returned to Chang’an, the Vassal State Army that set up camp outside Chang’an City, including Li Keyong’s Yanmen army and Wang Chongrong’s Hezhong army, had all lined up to greet him. Countless officials lined up and waited for him fifteen kilometers away from the city.

The ensuing days were spent on awarding the armies for settling the chaos and awarding the ministers and officials. Apart from that, there wasn’t much happening.

Li Ye’s status as the Prime Minister for settling the chaos and the most valuable member was unquestionable. Li Yan asked Li Ye to award the Vassal State Armies together. For many days, Li Ye went to the Imperial Palace every day, so he was incredibly busy. And when he got back to Prince An’s Manor, he had to host the endless line of visitors. He hadn’t really much time to relax.

The Prince An’s Manor had never been so busy. Even when Li Xian was at the heights of his power, he never experienced anything like the present.

Officials of all different rankings and commissioners of the different vassal states all lined up to pay their respects to Prince An. Not only that, they gave Li Ye all their riches accumulated from all their little schemes. For one they wanted to befriend Li Ye, moreover, they wanted Li Ye to put in a good word for them so that they could earn more rewards.

Of course Li Ye rejected all the money and presents. At first, he hosted a few of the important guests, but after a while he was so busy and annoyed that he closed his doors to them.

After he earned the greatest deed that could be earned, he constricted his imposing manner. If he befriended too many commissioners, the emperor would be threatened by his power. Even if the emperor did not think about that, Li Ye did not want anyone to have something on him. He didn’t want to be manipulated by the likes of Tian Lingzi, who had tried to do him in.

Thus, after a while the awarding of the generals and commissioners was complete. Countless men had been promoted.

Zhu Wen had become the Xuanwu commissioner, Li Keyong had become the Hedong commissioner and anointed the prince. Wang Chongrong got the Prime-Minister ranking. Li Maozhen had taken over for Li Changyan as the Fengxiang commissioner, and Wang Jian joined the Regal Guards. Gao Pian was not yet rewarded because the war in Chenzhou was not yet over. But the position of the Huainan commissioner was reserved for him.

Of course Li Ye gained the most as the top meritorious deed earner.

He had been awarded the civil ranking of Chief Imperial Secretary. There had only been one Chief Imperial Secretary of the Tang Dynasty, which was the second emperor, Li Shimin. After Li Shimin took the throne, the position had been vacant since.

For the military ranking, he was awarded Military Governor for all the lands. Li Yan had clearly stated that Li Ye had the right to question all the political affairs of Guandong and he controlled all the military of the world.

It meant that Li Ye had the most power among all the ministers. His military power was unrivaled by anyone. Even Li Xian could not compete with his current status and ranking.

With all this power, Li Ye could theoretically deploy any and all of the military resources, or at least he could question any military matter from anywhere. Say for instance two vassal states were at war, he could attack at will if they did not obey his orders to stop.

However, rumors began circling among the people.

They were saying that when Xuanzong gave the dragon sword to Li Xian, it meant Xuanzong intended on giving him the crown. Well now that Li Yan made Li Ye the Chief Imperial Secretary, he now intended to pass the throne to Li Ye.

Li Ye did not think much of these rumors for he had experienced all of this before his rebirth, and thus he was not shocked at all.

But when Tian Lingzi heard these rumors, he was uneasy. He had personally witnessed Li Yan’s attitude towards Li Ye the past days. He thought Li Yan might really give the throne to Li Ye, by which time, where would he end up?

Tian Lingzi had become anxious and hesitant. After a few days, he finally decided to take the risk.