Chapter 16: Grand Construction

The palace where Black Steed resided in Pengcheng was named the Dragon God Hall.

Though the name was settled, construction of the main hall had only just begun.

“This is the blueprint for the main hall of the Dragon God Hall. Please, Your Majesty and Lord Jin, review it.”

The minister in charge of construction presented the plans.

Xiang Ning hadn’t yet taken them, but even at a glance from afar, the buildings looked resplendent and magnificent.

“It’s almost as grand as my own imperial palace,” Xiang Ning mused inwardly, though she didn’t mind much. After all, Black Steed was a grandmaster of the Nascent Soul stage and had attained the form of a dragon. With the current balance of power—three kingdoms, one strong and two weak—having such a powerhouse anchoring Chu was reason enough to grant her honors on par with the emperor. Xiang Ning could accept this.

“Let me have a look,” Fan Li interrupted, snatching the plans with his usual domineering air, never forgetting the persona he embodied.

Xiang Ning seethed with irritation. She had only recently begun to see him in a better light, yet he remained incorrigibly cunning and manipulative.

“Your Excellency, the Dragon God Hall is being built to the highest standards, matching those reserved for our royal princes,” the minister explained deferentially.

Royal prince? That was certainly a lofty standard.

Fan Li found himself envying Black Steed, who, having just joined Chu’s ranks, was already being gifted such an opulent mansion.

“The Fan family is prosperous now, but that came only through generations of effort since our ancestor Fan Zeng. Truly, people are outshone by dragons,” he thought wryly.

As he was about to speak, a chime sounded in his mind.

“New mission: Initiate grand construction.”
“Mission details: Surpass imperial authority by building a hall of unprecedented grandeur.”
“Mission reward: A Tenfold Training Chamber.”
“Reward details: A portable chamber where spiritual energy condenses ten times faster than normal cultivation.”

Another mission? A training chamber? What a prize!

Although Fan Li had his avatar cultivate in his stead, who would refuse more efficient training? Still lingering at the first grade of the Body Refining stage, the Tenfold Training Chamber was exactly what Fan Li needed.

“If Lord Jin is satisfied, we can begin construction immediately,” the minister flattered.

“I am not satisfied,” Fan Li replied, tearing the blueprint into shreds.

The minister fell to his knees with a frightened thud. “Spare me, my lord!”

Xiang Ning watched in bewilderment. “What’s your dissatisfaction?”

“The hall is too small, the beams too thin, the walls too low. In short, there’s nothing I’m satisfied with!”

To fulfill the system’s task, Fan Li had no choice but to continue playing the villain.

The minister stammered, “Lord Jin, with the current standards, if we further expand the hall and raise the walls, it would become… it would become…”

He dared not finish the thought.

“It would reach the imperial palace’s standard,” Xiang Ning filled in silently.

A treacherous minister, through and through.

Fortunately, she had braced herself for this. Sighing, she said, “Redesign the plans to match the standards of the emperor’s traveling palace.”

Fan Li was genuinely surprised by Xiang Ning’s concession. He cast her a look of astonishment; she returned his gaze with quiet melancholy, no longer as angry as before.

“Imperial standards aren’t enough. Raise them one more level,” Fan Li insisted.

“One more level?” The minister was utterly lost. Did such a standard even exist in Chu?

Guessing his confusion, Fan Li helpfully added, “Base it on the ancestral temple of the state. That should suffice.”

He needed to ensure the mission’s completion, so he had to be even more extravagant. After all, opportunities to build such grand halls didn’t come every day.

“You…!” Xiang Ning was so angry she could hardly speak.

She had already made a generous compromise, but Fan Li’s demands were outrageous. The guardian beast’s residence, equal in grandeur to the ancestral temple of the emperors—what did that make the past sovereigns? Mere equals to a divine beast?

The Dragon God Hall was being built for Black Steed, so why was Fan Li so invested? He wasn’t even going to live there…

Suddenly, Xiang Ning recalled that when Black Steed took human form, she was a stunning, extraordinarily beautiful woman.

“Are you perhaps infatuated with Black Steed’s beauty?” she blurted out.

Fan Li flushed with embarrassment. If Xiang Ning hadn’t reminded him, he would have forgotten Black Steed’s gender altogether. What an injustice! But he couldn’t be bothered to explain, and replied coldly, “Your Majesty is young. For matters of state, you should listen to your ministers more often. Remember what the ‘Memorial of Departure’ says: ‘The emperor should consult widely and heed honest counsel.’”

“Don’t bring up the ‘Memorial of Departure’—it was hardly your original work!” Xiang Ning retorted.

Fan Li only smiled. “It is, after all, the wisdom of the ancient sages. All the more reason for Your Majesty to listen, or else…”

“Or else what?” Xiang Ning grew ever more incensed, her mind conjuring images of Fan Li and Black Steed secretly meeting in the Dragon God Hall built with the people’s labor and taxes—a gilded house for a traitor to hide his beloved?

“Three days without discipline, and the house will be in chaos,” Fan Li thought privately.

How quickly the young emperor forgot that the Fan family now held sway over all of Chu. Did the mere emperor dare raise her voice at him?

“Otherwise, I’ll be very displeased,” he said coolly. “If I’m displeased, the Fan Trading Company will be displeased. If the Fan Trading Company is displeased, the national treasury’s tax income will plummet, and then there’ll be no money for military salaries. Without pay, the hundred thousand garrison troops in Pengcheng will be most displeased. And when the soldiers are displeased, there will be trouble. By then, if I’m in a bad mood, I may not bother to intervene.”

Fan Li finished and gazed quietly at Xiang Ning.

She said nothing. Her eyes grew red, then moist, and finally tears began to fall.

The construction minister watched with his heart in his throat. Truly, the land of Chu had long since become the domain of the prime minister—no, Lord Jin.

“When will Lord Jin stage his coup? I’d like to serve the dragon,” the minister thought to himself.

Fan Li figured the young emperor had been sufficiently cowed. He turned to the minister. “Redraw the plans as I said and commence work. Is that clear?”

“No problem at all, my lord!” The minister, having found a new purpose, kowtowed three times and nine times more to Fan Li, not sparing the emperor a single glance.

Fan Li scratched his nose. How many times had the fellow bowed just now? Surely that was excessive.

“All right, off you go. When the palace is finished, I’ll inspect it personally.”

With cultivators at their disposal, construction would proceed swiftly. He reckoned it would be done before the Tri-Emperor Summit, in time to complete the mission and claim his reward.

Back at the Fan estate, he encountered Black Steed, who was temporarily residing there.

“Work on the Dragon God Hall will begin soon. It won’t be long before you have your new home,” he remarked casually.

“Oh,” Black Steed replied with a nod, showing little interest in anything besides life-extending pills.

Fan Li muttered, “Today I scared the young emperor into tears again. I can’t understand why she cries so much.”

“At her age, it’s quite normal for a woman to be prone to tears,” Black Steed replied.

“Oh,” Fan Li responded absently, before pausing.

“Wait… What did you just say?”