On the third year of the Jianwu era, in the month of Jiachen, on the day of Jichou.
Auspicious for: travel, worship, prayers for blessing, breaking ground.
Inauspicious for: moving into a new home, building houses, installing doors, construction, cutting timber, raising beams, or making beams.
A quarter past the hour of Chen (7:15 AM).
At the southern drill field of the capital, all was silent.
Three hundred thousand soldiers stood in perfect formation, not a sound among them.
Emperor Jianwu stood atop the command platform, clad in golden armor, a golden sword in hand.
Below the platform, 128 oxen and sheep had been prepared. Swordsmen stood beside them, swords drawn.
The master of ceremonies called out loudly, "Begin the sacrifice!"
The swordsmen raised their blades and severed the heads of the animals. Blood sprayed out, covering the 128 military banners.
The master of ceremonies shouted again, "Honor the fallen!"
Each swordsman carried an animal's head and marched around the field once.
Emperor Jianwu never moved, his eyes fixed forward from start to finish.
When the swordsmen completed their circuit, the emperor raised his golden sword and swept it through the air. His voice rang out:
"Any general who disobeys orders will be executed."
The soldiers raised their halberds and shouted as one:
"War!"
"War!"
"War!"
On this day, Emperor Jianwu personally led 300,000 troops north to campaign against the Steppe Khanate, fulfilling the promise he made when he had taken the throne.
Three years into his reign, he rode out to war himself. He was an emperor of the saddle.
With this, the Great Qian dynasty's sixty-year policy of peace and nonintervention came to an end. The state began its transformation into a militarized empire.
The people lined the roads to see them off.
For the nation, this path may benefit the empire. For the people, whether it led to good or ill, that would be for future generations to judge.
At the same time…
In a quiet courtyard tucked away in the capital, Li Qing's first lifetime was drawing to a close.
Sensing that the end was near, on the very day Emperor Jianwu rode off to war, Li Qing carefully arranged a series of safeguards throughout the courtyard, then lay down peacefully in bed.
Time passed slowly.
At some point, Li Qing stopped breathing. His heart ceased beating, and his consciousness slipped into darkness.
In that moment, the Monument of a Hundred Lifetimes within his mind gave a sudden, inexplicable tremor. A wave of life force surged out from the monument.
Li Qing's body began to reverse the course of aging.
Old skin shed itself and was replaced with new.
White hair darkened into black.
In the blink of an eye, Li Qing began to breathe again, now transformed into a child of about nine years old.
Realizing the process had worked, Li Qing's eyes flew open. He let out a long breath and said with relief, "The Monument of a Hundred Lifetimes didn't deceive me after all. It really worked. I've become young again..."
He had been preparing for this moment for the past three years.
Only by truly beginning his cycle of a hundred lifetimes could he finally feel at peace.
He looked at the monument.
[Monument of a Hundred Lifetimes]
[Monument Holder: Li Qing]
[Life 2: 9/93]
"Nine years old!" Li Qing said with delight, a bright smile spreading across his face.
A trace of sadness flickered through him, but it was drowned out by overwhelming joy.
Only by losing something do you truly learn to cherish it.
Just as Li Qing had predicted, increasing the maximum lifespan of each life also meant significantly extending the total span of all one hundred lives.
From now on, every one of the next ninety-nine lives would begin with a lifespan of ninety-three years.
That's nearly ten thousand years of lifespan.
After stepping onto the path of cultivation, one's lifespan would only grow more terrifying as their realm advanced.
Li Qing began to run through the Seven Forms of Flowing Water technique once more.
He remained a peak master, with supreme-tier constitution and all five vessels unlocked.
But....
After completing a single full circulation of internal energy, Li Qing sensed faint signs of qi deviation.
His internal energy was starting to go out of control, surging toward his internal organs.
He quickly stopped the Seven Forms of Flowing Water.
"What's causing this?"
After thinking it over, a memory came to him; when Ming Wei had first taught him the technique.
"Listen well. What I practice is called the Seven Forms of Flowing Water. It's a yin-based cultivation technique. Since you're a eunuch, it actually suits you. This technique, when cultivated to its peak, can reach the Xiantian realm."
"A yin-based technique..."
Li Qing suddenly understood. The Seven Forms of Flowing Water was a yin-type cultivation method, suited for women and eunuchs. But not for men.
And now, he had the body of a man.
He stayed silent for a long moment, then made his decision.
He gathered his internal energy and guided it downward, dissolving the source of his yan essence.
The water-based internal energy enveloped his lower abdomen. There was no intense pain. One of the technique's advantages.
And then, Li Qing ran the Seven Forms of Flowing Water once again. This time, there were no signs of qi deviation.
So it really was that
Li Qing had long made up his mind. Even without the risk of qi deviation, in this second life, he would still choose to live in the Cold Palace.
He wasn't chasing glory or disgrace in a single lifetime; only the pursuit of immortality across a hundred.
His second life would be just like the first: focused on stability.
In any case, he'd return to age nine in his third life. By then, he would likely have reached the Xiantian realm and could reclaim his manhood for real.
Maybe he wouldn't even have to wait that long. Who's to say reaching the Xiantian realm might give him a heavenly rebirth?
He still remembered clearly the day Chancellor Lu staged his coup three years ago. Without stepping into the Xiantian realm, he had no place in the martial world.
Once he reached Xiantian, the issue of cultivation technique compatibility would probably be easy to solve.
Lately, the capital had grown more and more chaotic. With Emperor Jianwu leading his army north, many peak masters had been taken with him. Ironically, the safest place left in the capital was the imperial palace itself.
Where the army stood guard, even Xiantian grandmasters would struggle to break in.
Soon after....
Li Qing pulled out twelve golden needles and began his third round of training in the Twelve Golden Needles Meridian technique.
Once this round was complete, his body would reach the absolute peak of martial cultivation potential.
Still, he reminded himself:
Practices that shorten lifespan. Avoid them if you can. The longer you live, the more likely fate will hand you rare opportunities on its own. And those may turn out better than anything gained through burning years away.
...
Half a year later.
In the Cold Palace.
Gong Yue looked suspiciously at the nine-year-old eunuch standing before him.
"You're Li Ruoshui? Li Qing's son?"
The little eunuch nodded, face full of innocent honesty.
Nearby, the Cold Palace eunuch Zheng Chun squinted at the little eunuch and stroked his chin. "He really does look a bit like Master Li."
"What are you talking about?" Gong Yue scoffed. "Master Li was a eunuch. Even if Li Ruoshui was his son, you think Lord Li could've laid an egg himself?"
"Good point," Zheng Chun muttered, suddenly realizing. "He must be his adopted son."
"How did Lord Li die, anyway?" Gong Yue asked, a little melancholy. "He was already a peak master with two vessels opened back then. Honestly, I only survived the palace coup three years ago thanks to his advice."
The little eunuch looked surprised. "Who said my father's dead? He's alive and well. He's got at least forty years left in him!"
"Huh?"
Gong Yue and Zheng Chun spoke at the same time, shocked. "Master Li isn't dead?"
"Of course not. He's out seeking immortality," the little eunuch said matter-of-factly. "He's not coming back to the capital anytime soon. It's too unstable outside, so he pulled some strings to get me placed here in the Cold Palace."
He then pulled out a letter and handed it to Gong Yue.
Gong Yue recognized a few characters, glanced over it, and grinned. "This really is Master Li's handwriting. So you are his son!"
Zheng Chun laughed as well. "No need to be formal now. You're one of us. We're all like juniors to Master Li. He looked after us plenty."
"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare." The little eunuch bowed humbly, a sly glint in his eyes.
The boy, of course, was none other than Li Qing, reborn into youth.
From the moment he returned to the Cold Palace, he felt a deep sense of safety.
When he entered the palace, he used the name of Li Ruoshui, and slipped a few coins to the right people. That was all it took to get himself assigned to the Cold Palace.
Because he'd gotten in through back channels, no eunuchs from the Martial Supervision Bureau checked his aptitude, and the eunuchs of the Imperial Household Department couldn't detect his martial cultivation. This was how Li Qing managed to enter the palace while hiding his abilities.
Even if his cultivation were discovered, he had no reason to panic. He still carried the dragon-patterned token left to him by Wei Yang, which could be passed down for three generations.
Anyone holding the dragon-patterned token could freely enter or leave the palace and was automatically considered part of the Imperial Palace Elites. Elites of the imperial palace reported directly to the emperor and were not subject to other departments' authority.
"Why are there so few eunuchs in the Cold Palace? My father said there should be twelve," Li Ruoshui asked. Today the Cold Palace was especially desolate, with no concubines and barely any eunuchs in sight.
"They're all dead."
Gong Yue sighed. "Three years ago, when Prime Chancellor Lu rebelled, a group of White Lotus cult death warriors broke into the Cold Palace. They killed all the eunuchs and concubines here and smashed the Dingyou Wing where Noble Consort Li once lived. Seemed like they were looking for something. Little Zheng and I hid in the Cold Palace kitchen and managed to survive."
Zheng Chun also let out a sigh.
"That night, the slaughter in the palace turned heaven and earth upside down. Countless concubines in the inner court were killed or wounded, and more than half the eunuchs died. So many died at once that they couldn't recruit enough replacements. Now the palace is short of eunuchs, and with His Majesty establishing the Western Depot, most new eunuchs are sent to the Eastern or Western Depot."
"You're the first eunuch assigned to the Cold Palace in the last three years."
"I see." Li Ruoshui nodded. No wonder he had noticed the Dingyou Wing was in ruins.
White Lotus death warriors breaking into the Cold Palace...
Noble Consort Li had been dead for over a decade. What could the White Lotus still be looking for?