91: Chapter 91 Mortal Emperor

Xie Feng followed the little eunuch through the gravel path of the imperial garden, turned several corners, walked past a moon gate, and traversed an extremely narrow bamboo path, finally arriving at a refined little pavilion.

A few clusters of spotted bamboo were planted in front of the pavilion, and a plaque hung on the lintel, inscribed with the two ink characters "Hanxuan Pavilion".

The name sounded quite elegant, but when his Spiritual Qi perception swept into the door, the layout was clear at a glance: a chamber pot, a hand-washing basin, and an agarwood incense burner. What was this if not a toilet?

Even the toilets in the imperial palace had such fancy names.

The little eunuch stopped at the door, lowering his eyes and looking submissive as he made a gesture of "please".

Xie Feng leaned his cold crystal blind staff against the doorway, pushed open the carved wooden door, and walked inside.

The interior was very spacious, with smooth bluestone slabs paved on the ground. An agarwood censer was burning in the corner, emitting a faint wispy smoke mixed with the bitter fragrance of bamboo leaves outside the window. There was no stench of an ordinary outhouse; instead, there was a very clean scent of woody incense mixed with old books.

Then, Xie Feng's Spiritual Qi perception swept across a person.

Someone was already inside.

A middle-aged man was standing in front of the chamber pot, lowering his head to relieve himself. He was wearing a dark blue plain robe made of extremely fine material, but without any emblem or insignia. A black belt was tied around his waist, hanging with a white jade pendant of ordinary quality.

He had a beard on his chin that was trimmed quite neatly.

Xie Feng's first thought was: He has a beard, so he's not a eunuch. The second thought was: He's probably some outer court official, or perhaps a Sect representative invited into the palace to wait for an audience.

Anyway, as long as it wasn't the emperor.

Nonsense, could the emperor possibly come to use this toilet? How unreliable would such an emperor be?

Xie Feng had also been holding it in for half a day. He walked over to the chamber pot one space away from the man, stopped, and started chatting while relieving himself.

Chatting with a stranger in a toilet was something he never did back on Blue Star, but after his Transmigration, Xie Feng had become a bit unreliable now.

The emperor of this world was about to grant him an audience; what could happen if he chatted with a bearded middle-aged man about tea leaves in the imperial palace toilet?

"This imperial palace is truly winding; walking from the imperial garden to here took seven or eight turns." Xie Feng lifted the hem of his robe and began to relieve himself. The sound of water appeared abrupt in the quiet space.

The man next to him grunted a sound, neither loud nor soft, with a hint of the low and husky tone typical of middle-aged men in his throat. He was clearly someone accustomed to grand scenes, completely devoid of the awkwardness of being chatted up by a stranger in a toilet, and simply continued doing whatever he was doing.

"The tea is indeed not bad," Xie Feng continued. "It's just that drinking too much is unbearable. That little eunuch at the waterside pavilion refilled my pot no less than six times."

He was telling the truth. The celadon teacup looked small, but the little eunuch refilled it diligently, topping it off the moment he drank down to the bottom of the cup, until eventually, his miniature sun was reflected with a red glow in the water.

The man turned his head to glance at him. Through the shadow of the hood, the man probably couldn't see Xie Feng's face clearly, but Xie Feng's Spiritual Qi perception saw him crystal clearly.

The middle-aged man's face was very clean, with some fine lines at the corners of his eyes. His lips moved slightly, as if holding back a smile. He spoke a few words.

The way he spoke was very interesting—unhurried and leisurely, like an old farmer, completely lacking the polite sense of distance when strangers talked to each other.

"How much did you drink?"

"I can't remember clearly," Xie Feng answered truthfully. "Anyway, it got cold and was refilled, refilled and turned cold again. Now my stomach is full of water."

The sound of water gradually subsided, and he lowered the hem of his robe to adjust his belt.

The man had already tied his belt, walked over to the nearby hand-washing basin, and immersed his hands in the clear water, saying as he washed: "That tea is a tribute item produced from the Cloud-Capped Mountain in the north, yielding only a few catties each year. We usually can't bear to drink it, but you instead gulped down half a pot in one breath."

Xie Feng's fingers tying his belt paused on the belt for several breaths.

"We?"

Did I just ask the emperor in the toilet how much tea he drank?

Xie Feng's Spiritual Qi perception swept across the dark blue middle-aged man before him once more. There were no Spiritual Qi fluctuations, no Cthulhu-esque aura, nothing at all. This person was no different from the old man selling sesame flatbreads on the streets of Cangyun City or the innkeeper handing over keys in Ranhuo City.

There was no Spiritual Qi circulating in his Meridians, no marks on his body, no pollution, not even the luster of skin nourished by Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi like ordinary Cultivators.

A Mortal?!

The sovereign of the Nine Provinces—Emperor Zhou Weixi.

The Third Princess had mentioned this name—the sixteenth emperor of the Great Zhou, who had ascended the throne for more than thirty years and was the nominal supreme ruler of the Nine Provinces.

He was a Mortal?!

Just moments ago, he had chatted with Xie Feng about tea leaves in the toilet and then said "you instead gulped down half a pot in one breath". There was no blame in his tone, only a faint helplessness of being taken advantage of.

Xie Feng tied his belt and took a deep breath.

"Your Majesty." He cupped his hands and bowed, executing the court ritual taught by Zuo Ciyuan in the Qingzhou Governors Mansion. It was finally a bit more standard than the formal greeting he had given Zuo Ciyuan back then.

"Your subject is blind."

He couldn't joke around carelessly anymore; when it was time to cow, he had to cow. Beating up a eunuch was one thing, but if he punched the emperor, wouldn't a few royal venerables fly out and finely chop Xie Feng into minced meat?

Bullying the soft and fearing the hard was a traditional virtue after all, and he couldn't abandon it.

Emperor Zhou Weixi withdrew his hands from the copper basin and casually wiped them on his robe a couple of times.

"You are Xie Feng? We recognize this outer robe of yours; the Third Princess picked it from the Western tributes, dismantled the royal emblem, and modified the embedded runic weaving. For this piece of clothing of yours, she argued with the Imperial Household Department for nearly half an hour." He tidied the hem of his robe. "She also said that you have a peculiar habit: as soon as you drink tea, you look for a toilet. Sure enough."

Xie Feng turned this sentence over twice in his mind, unable to find any place to refute it.

He indeed looked for a toilet whenever he drank tea. The Third Princess had handed him tea several times on the flying boat, knowing his physiological rhythms like the back of her hand.

These royals were also crafty old foxes! Speaking of which, Third Princess, why do you remember such things? I should have brought Tu Wu with me; what a miscalculation!

"How many things did the Third Princess tell Your Majesty about me?"

Emperor Zhou Weixi had already walked to the door, then paused his steps slightly, his tone still casual.

"Not much. She only said that you saved her life in Ranhuo City, and that your heart was pierced by a thorn ejected from a book. When she came back and told Us that there was a green-skinned, bald-headed blind man reading forbidden books on the flying boat, We thought she was talking nonsense at the time."

After finishing these words, he pushed open the door and walked out.

From under the eaves at the door came brisk footsteps, followed by the dull thud of the little eunuch who had led the way earlier dropping heavily to his knees, and a trembling shout of "Long... Long live".

Emperor Zhou Weixi gave a casual grunt, as if he even helped the eunuch up?

Xie Feng stood in front of the hand-washing basin, scooped up the clear water in the copper basin to wash his face. The cold water splashed against his dark green skin, and the three-petaled flame in his left eye shrank extremely lightly.

He straightened his back, picked up the cold crystal blind staff leaning against the doorway, and pushed open the door of Hanxuan Pavilion. The little eunuch was still kneeling on the ground, his forehead almost pressed against the bluestone slab, his body trembling even more violently than before.

"The emperor is a Mortal?" Xie Feng asked.

The little eunuch raised his head, his face bearing lingering panic. "Reporting to Young Master, His Majesty has been like this ever since ascending the throne, never displaying any cultivation to the public. There are rumors both inside and outside the palace that His Majesty was born with blocked Meridians and cannot cultivate Spiritual Qi."

"You dare to say such words? Will you live long?"

"It was His Majesty who gave the instruction just now, telling me to tell the truth if you asked about it after coming out." The little eunuch hurriedly lowered his head. "But these words are not something this humble one should speak; this humble one understands nothing. Young Master, please do not ask this humble one about these things."

He was scared out of his wits, thinking that he actually failed to announce His Majesty when the emperor went in just now, and hoping Young Master Xie hadn't offended the imperial carriage inside.

Cultivators in the Nine Provinces were as numerous as hairs on an ox, and experts were even more countless.

A Mortal sat upon that dragon throne, managing a group of Cultivators who could overturn mountains and seas at will, doing so for so many years, managing it to the point where Sects did not dare to openly wage war, and managing it to the point where a ninth-realm Loose Cultivator like Zuo Ciyuan willingly served as a local official within his governor system.

This Emperor Zhou Weixi...

He didn't even have Spiritual Qi, yet he could make all eighth and ninth-realm experts stand obediently before him during court assemblies. There must be something else about this person!

That was something Xie Feng hadn't touched upon yet.