Chapter 62: The Ten Thousand Year Princess

  The relatively leisurely days seem to be getting more and more, especially after the renovation of several palaces in Weiyang Palace was completed. Liu Xuan took Cai Yan and Diao Chan to visit these palaces again. Among them, the Qingliang Palace, which is specially used for the emperor to cool off, not only is Liu Xuan's current favorite place to stay but also his current residence.

  The emperor moved to the Qingliang Palace to live, and accordingly, handling affairs and some related things also had to be moved over - Liu Xuan would not think that there was anything laborious or disturbing about it. After all, those people in the palace were doing just this kind of work; could it be that Liu Xuan was supporting a group of old men with his grain?

  Everything was moved over, Liu Xuan sat in the Qingliang Palace, although Han clothing is slightly thicker than many clothes of later generations, but sitting here didn't feel a bit stuffy.

  Even if it is a vast training room, it is the same.

  Watching Zhang Liao demonstrate his knife skills here, and then practicing qigong according to the methods he taught himself, Liu Xuan had a high opinion of this future general who had already crossed the threshold after being taught only a few times.

  Liu Xuan had also worried that if his trusted generals couldn't comprehend the true meaning of cultivation, they would never achieve great accomplishments. What was he to do then?

  Unexpectedly, it was Cao Cao first, then Lü Bu, and now Zhang Liao. They all have an extraordinary understanding of the techniques passed down by Liu Xuan. Almost as soon as they got their hands on them, they grasped the key points, and after just half a month, they were able to practice them with ease.

  "Those who can leave a mark in history are already quite extraordinary."

  Now Cao Cao is still rarely seen in the north, while Lü Bu is often seen. Liu Xuan has already seen that Lü Bu's cultivation has made great progress, and although he hasn't practiced any special strength yet, his physical strength and reaction have improved a lot, so his martial arts skills have also improved.

  If it were said that the generals under Lü Bu's command in the past could still exchange moves with him, nowadays Lü Bu can't even find anyone who can keep up with his consecutive attacks. If he didn't know that the Emperor was the one who taught him these martial arts, and if he didn't know what level his own strength had reached, it's likely that this Duke Wen would directly shout out: "I am invincible in the world!"

  At the same time, as Lü Bu's strength grew stronger and stronger, this world's number one fierce general also realized Liu Xuan's formidable power - the more he cultivated, the more he understood the power of these techniques, and Liu Xuan had been cultivating since childhood, even if it was a little less, there were still ten years of time, so how strong would Liu Xuan have become?

  There is such a powerful person as the emperor, Lü Bu thinks that the Han Dynasty's world is still very stable - especially with himself assisting him to sweep away the rebels who have no intention of being subjects.

  If Liu Xuan knew about Lü Bu's thoughts, apart from muttering to himself "That last sentence is what you really wanted to say, right?", he would be astonished that the technique was passed on to Lü Bu and still achieved such an unexpected effect, truly a pie falling from the sky.

  After unexpectedly learning about this, Liu Xuan put aside the idea of marrying his sister to Lü Bu for the time being. So...Liu's sister, Princess Wan, was standing by with a curious expression on her face.

  Liu Zi was only fourteen years old this year, younger than Liu Xuan's second brother Liu Bian. In the Guangxu period of 1880, she was granted the title of Princess Wan Ning, at that time she was just a little girl who didn't understand anything.

  The Han family has been passed down for 400 years, and the genes have been excellent from generation to generation, so they naturally look good. As the years go by, Liu Xuan even thought that if he hadn't picked her out with everyone, this girl might not have had any encounters in this chaotic world.

  With her looks alone, she could stir up a lot of trouble - let alone having the status of a princess.

  However, after living in the Luoyang Imperial Palace for so many years, Liu Xuan and this younger sister really didn't have much of a relationship. Although they occasionally met, they only nodded to each other and exchanged a few pleasantries before parting ways. At that time, it was partly because Liu Xuan thought his younger sister was too young and had nothing to talk about, and also because he himself lacked a sense of belonging to this "family".

  It wasn't until after moving to Chang'an that, because he had already ascended to the throne as Emperor and Princess Wan was still living in the palace, she would often come to pay her respects to him on her own initiative. Over time, they became somewhat closer, and Liu Xuan gradually came to realize that this little girl was absolutely not the kind of person she seemed to be on the surface.

  Liu Xuan would notice this, which was somewhat unexpected. The reason was that once, Liu Zi took the initiative to find himself and asked who could be a helper for the imperial court? He was willing to humble himself and marry down to help Liu Xuan pull in a strong ally.

  At that time, Liu Xuan's first reaction was that someone had said something to this sister, but after asking around, it turned out that it was actually the girl who made her own judgment and decision.

  The decline of the Han dynasty is no secret, and Liu Xuan's move to Chang'an was both a transfer of capital and an escape. A large group of people fled from Luoyang to Chang'an; even fools knew that the imperial court was in bad shape.

  Although Princess Wan'er didn't suffer much on the way, she quickly cleaned up her residence after arriving in Chang'an and continued to live as a princess. However, from the mouths of palace maids and some eunuchs, she could still learn about the current situation at court.

  Liu Zi felt that as a princess of the Han dynasty and the emperor's sister, she had an obligation to help the Han dynasty - but leading troops in battle was not her forte, and governing the imperial court seemed unlikely for a girl like her. Moreover, since she was the emperor's biological younger sister, even if girls were allowed to participate in politics, she would be unsuitable, and instead would likely be sent away to become a "princess" of some distant region.

  The remaining road is not long, choosing a capable person and then marrying him to pull him over to the imperial court's side seems to be the only feasible way. Liu Zi thought of this and immediately ran to Liu Xuan, expressing her willingness to 'contribute to the country', but Liu Xuan, who had inquired about the reason, was left crying and laughing at the same time.

  Of course, he secretly admired this sister who was not very important to him. After all, she was different from himself, he had ulterior motives, while Liu Zi really wanted to help the Han Dynasty - although helping the Han Dynasty was also helping her own family.

  Liu Xuan comforted her for a while, telling her that the imperial court's situation had not yet deteriorated to the point where they needed a woman to sell out her own marriage to save it - even if it really came to that point, it was estimated that the officials of the imperial court would not be able to do such a thing. At this time, although women's status was not as low as in the Ming Dynasty, it was absolutely not high enough to reach the sky. This era was still an era dominated by men, and ordinary people had some masculine complexes, let alone the officials in the imperial court who considered themselves elite among men?

  Even if Wang Yun used the beauty trick in the original 'history', it was actually Wang Yun who ran around, and it was also Wang Yun who provoked back and forth. In the end, it was Wang Yun and Lü Bu who accomplished great things, while Diao Chan played a more like a prop role, so Wang Yun naturally didn't think it was inappropriate.

  If things are done according to what Liu Zi said, then everyone would be too ashamed to show their faces. What's the point of being an official? They might as well just go back home and become a local officer.

  But Liu Xuan explained for a while, and Liu Zi didn't believe it. She thought that her brother was just trying to reassure her, so she intentionally made the situation sound better than it was. Helplessly, Liu Xuan had no choice but to reveal a bit of his extraordinary abilities, which finally calmed down his sister.

  It must be said that at this time, there is still a certain degree of reverence for these absurd theories. Even the imperial court, which ruled the world, had a special department dedicated to worshiping heaven, earth, and spirits, headed by the Taichang Temple, one of the nine ministers.

  Only from Taichang's position as one of the nine nobles can we see people's attitude towards heaven, earth, ghosts and gods at that time. So when Liu Xuan said he had learned the magical methods of the immortals and was a person favored by heaven, Liu Zi also put away her own thoughts - this girl's stubbornness made Liu Xuan look sideways, if not for bringing up spirits and ghosts, I'm afraid she wouldn't have been convinced.

  However, from today's incident, Liu Xuan also knew that this younger sister was not an ordinary woman, so he had a mind to cultivate her for the time being. He called her to watch Zhang Liao practice, and he himself pointed out beside him, which can be considered as letting her know roughly first, and then he will have time to start teaching this younger sister.

  It wasn't long after that Zhang Liao finished his practice for the day - he wouldn't normally be practicing here, but rather would accumulate a lot of questions and then come to ask the Emperor all at once before continuing his own practice. Today was the day Liu Xuan had designated for him to come and ask questions, and having just resolved his doubts, he immediately began to practice. After resolving these questions one by one, he felt invigorated and refreshed, and sprang up from the ground in an instant.

  Originally, when a military general wore armor, they couldn't sit casually because it was inconvenient to get up, but Zhang Liao found that after his training, his strength grew stronger and his control over his body became more agile, even with the armor on, there wasn't much hindrance.

  At this moment, he jumped up and even had a long whistle of impulse. Fortunately, he remembered that the emperor was beside him, so he didn't dare to be presumptuous. After standing up, he stood there in an orderly manner.

  Liu Xuan didn't mind these things, after glancing at Zhang Liao and seeing that he was in high spirits, he knew that his cultivation had taken another step forward. If he continued at this speed, perhaps he would soon be able to catch up with Lü Bu - this thought surprised Liu Xuan, it would be interesting if such a situation really occurred, he wondered what Lü Bu's reaction would be?

  Actually, many officials in the imperial court did not agree with Zhang Liao being appointed as the Central Lang General of the Feathered Forest, after all, Zhang Liao came from Lü Bu's camp, who could guarantee that the Feathered Forest Army would not be swallowed up by Lü Bu? But Liu Xuan didn't care about that at all, and directly issued an edict to appoint Zhang Liao as the Central Lang General of the Feathered Forest. As a result, he provoked a lot of gossip, and even two or three impulsive ones did not care about Lü Bu's ugly face, and spoke ill of Liu Xuan on the court, which made Liu Xuan unhappy, and directly stripped these people of their official positions and drove them out of the imperial city.

  This matter caused a stir at the time, as Liu Xuan had been on the throne for less than a year and this was already the second such incident. Among the scholars, there were already whispers that the current emperor was an autocratic ruler who did not listen to good advice, and it was feared that he would not bring blessings to the Han dynasty.

  Even such rumors have reached the palace in recent days, causing Cai Yan to frown. On this day, when she returned to her bedroom, she saw Cai Yan waiting for her with a furrowed brow.

  I've fallen off the list~ I've fallen off the list~ The bitter days have arrived, so please throw some more recommendation tickets to comfort my fragile heart.