Chen Suhui was silent for a moment, and then analyzed:

Later, Gu Xu chose to marry Zhao Yan as his wife, also because Zhao Yan helped him when he was the enemy of the world and had no way out.

Not only did it save his life, but it also provided him with resources to practice.

"In my opinion, although Great Xia is now gaining momentum, it lacks a foundation after all, and the current resources such as pills, magic weapons, and spiritual grass are all plundered from Daqi, and there is a lack of specialized production and supply lines.

Presumably, Gu Xu was also feeling a headache about this.

"The two of us went to him, not only with a large number of magic weapons, pills, and funds, but also with dozens of refining craftsmen and alchemists.

"This should ...... It can be regarded as a charcoal in the snow! ”

In the end, Chen Suhui hesitated for a moment, and a trace of unconfidence flashed in his calm eyes.

She is rational by nature and good at analyzing interests, while feelings are a completely foreign field to her.

"Perhaps, things are not as simple as you think."

In fact, Chen Yanping himself has no experience of talking about feelings.

Ever since Ahei's death, he has become an extremely utilitarian person.

He once asked Shi Lei to marry Shi Xiaohan because he coveted the Shi family's pill workshop and hoped that the Shi family would become a help for him to fight for the inheritance of the family.

After being rejected by Shi Lei, he immediately married Yao Sirou of the Yao clan in Longxi, obtained a large amount of mineral resources from the Yue family, and recruited a large number of craftsmen by using the Yue family's influence in refining weapons.

However, he has no feelings for his wife Yao Sirou.

They lived apart for a long time, saw each other only once in a few months, and rarely wrote letters to each other.

And now, when Gu Xu occupied the Longxi area, copied the Yao family's home in Longxi on the charge of "oppressing the people and monopolizing resources", and demoted their whole family to commoners, Chen Yanping also wrote a letter of resignation, announcing the severance of relations with his wife.

…………

Soon, the carriage stopped at Cuiwei Palace in the north of Daxing City.

This palace was originally called "Yongqing Palace", which was the summer palace of the emperor of the Great Chu Dynasty.

After Gu Xu came to Daxing City, he lived in it and renamed it "Cuiwei", which means "Qingshan".

Ancient book cloud: "Where the mountain, the distance is green, and the near is the green is gradually fainting, so it is said that the green is also micro." ”（1）

This Cuiwei Palace, which stands in the mountains, has been exposed to the sun and rain for many years, and no one has repaired it, and it has long been dilapidated.

The walls of the palace have peeled away, the bare masonry is covered with cracks and moss, and the splendid paintings of the past have long been lost to the erosion of time.

The tiles on the eaves were in tatters, some of them were already dying, and there was the crunch sound of falling tiles from time to time.

The ground is potholed and overgrown with weeds, many of which are towering weeds, covering the courtyard in a verdant landscape.

Gu Xu purely liked the quiet, cool, and cultivation-friendly atmosphere here, so he brought Zhao Yan in.

However, Gu Xu did not repair Cuiwei Palace with great fanfare, but conjured dozens of paper figures, and with the help of spells, he restored four or five main houses to their original state, which was enough for him to rest, cultivate, discuss matters, and deal with government affairs.

The main hall of Cuiwei Palace is called Yichun Palace.

Chen Yanping and Chen Suhui waited outside the hall for a while, and then stepped into the palace gate under the guidance of the paper guards.

Gu Xu didn't sit on that high throne.

He was just like when he was a small official, wearing a green cloth shirt and a scarf, standing by the wall of the main hall, looking intently at the faded map drawn on the wall.

At this time, his aura was constricted, and he did not exude the slightest majesty of a saint powerhouse, and he looked no different from ordinary people.

But the Chen family did not dare to slack off at all.

"Grass man Chen Yanping meets the emperor!"

"Grass people Chen Suhui greets the emperor!"

When he leaned over, Chen Yanping's heart was mixed.

The last time they met, he and Gu Xu could still call each other "Taoist friends" and compete on the same stage.

But only a few months have passed, and the other party has chased the north, slaughtered the world, torn the earth as the king, and shocked the world, but he is still unknown and has an uncertain future.

After the two of them finished talking, Gu Xu was still staring at the map and pondering, ignoring them.

The two members of the Chen family didn't dare to open their mouths to interrupt his thoughts, they only dared to stand motionless.

At this time, the silence in the hall was as deathly as death, and it was undoubtedly an unbearable torment for them.

I don't know how long it was, but another man hurried into the temple.

"Emperor, the information you asked for is here!"

The person who came was Luo Chuan.

He arched his hand towards Gu Xu, then took out a few documents from his sleeve and handed them to Gu Xu.

Gu Xu took the document, frowned slightly, and looked back and forth casually. In this silent hall, the sound of paper turning is particularly harsh.

Chen Yanping always felt that Gu Xu's gaze looked through those documents, as if he had insight into the secrets hidden in his heart.

After a while, Gu Xu raised his head and looked at Chen Yanping, who was standing in front of him and didn't dare to move: "In the past few years, you have been operating the Tianhong Copper Mine in the southwest of Longxi, right?" ”

"Yes, Emperor." Chen Yanping didn't know why Gu Xu suddenly mentioned this.

"I heard that after you took over the Tianchi Copper Mine, by greatly reducing the operating costs, the annual profit has doubled, and your parents have praised you for this."

Is this an appreciation of my talents?

Chen Yanping immediately humbly admitted: "The emperor won the award, but I just used some insignificant small means. ”

However, Gu Xu's next reaction greatly exceeded his expectations.

I saw Gu Xu slam the document in his hand into his face: "What an insignificant little trick!" ”

Chen Yanping instinctively wanted to dodge, but he soon realized that the two were different from each other, and he still had to ask for each other.

So he stood still, motionless, letting the paper smash into the corner of his eye, chipping through the skin and leaving a thin scratch.

Chen Suhui, who was next to her, caught a glimpse of this scene and couldn't help lowering her head, her eyelashes trembling slightly due to tension.

She didn't know why Gu Xu was suddenly angry with her brother.

But she didn't plead for her brother - her instincts told her that no matter what she said at this point, things would only get worse.

I only heard Gu Xu pause for a moment, and said in a nonchalant-sounding tone: "Some time ago, I investigated that in the past few years, the Longxi Tianhong Copper Mine has abducted a large number of homeless people, including many children, detained them in the mine, only given them one meal a day, and let the overseers hold whips and force them to mine for a long time.

"Over the past few years, hundreds of displaced people have been beaten to death, starved to death, and exhausted in the mines. Their bones were dug haphazardly and buried, and they were known as 'missing' or 'eaten by ghosts'.

"Anyway, the government of Daqi has never cared about the lives of these displaced people.

"And as far as I know, under your name, there are several minerals similar to the celestial red copper mine."

Before Gu Xu's words fell, Chen Yanping immediately knelt on the ground with a "poof", and kowtowed again and again: "The emperor forgives his sins!" Although the Celestial Copper Mine is my property, these things are arranged by the people below themselves, and I am not involved-"

"—Do you know? Has it stopped? Gu Xu interrupted him, "Or do you think that their approach can save you a lot of operating costs, so you just let it go?" ”

Chen Yanping buried his face on the ground and did not speak.

He actually didn't quite understand Gu Xu's anger at this time - after all, in the eyes of many dignitaries and dignitaries in the Great Qi Dynasty, the lives of these homeless people who had not cultivated were like mustard, so why should they care so much about their lives and deaths?

"Feeling wronged?"

"The villain doesn't dare."

"I know that people like you have never taken the lives of ordinary people seriously," Gu Xu paced a few steps, "but you may have forgotten that my parents are just two ordinary people with no official or lord, and my great-grandfather was an exile who lost his hometown due to the invasion of ghosts. ”

"The villain is guilty, please punish the emperor-" Chen Yanping found that his fingertips were trembling slightly uncontrollably, and a layer of cold sweat appeared on his back at some point.

"Yan Ping, I know that you are a person who pays attention to practical interests," Gu Xu's tone softened, "If I tell you anything about 'loving the people like a son' and 'the people are noble and gentle', you may think that I am bragging about my virtues, so as to build momentum for myself." ”

Speaking of this, he suddenly stretched out his right hand forward and commanded, "Yan Ping, look up and guess what this is?" ”

Chen Yanping raised his head and found that Gu Xu's palm was silently bursting into a nearly transparent and colorless flame.

The flame burned silently, without a blazing temperature, without a dazzling luster.

But Chen Yanping inexplicably felt a strong fear rise in his heart.

He vaguely felt that as long as he was touched by this flame, he would be burned to ashes in an instant.

"The sinners don't know, please advise the emperor!"

"This is the power of the 'incense', which comes from the worship and worship of others," Gu Xu smiled and explained, "For ordinary cultivators, after being promoted to the Eighth Realm 'Nine Hells', they will be able to feel its existence.

"But 'incense' is the name of Taishang Haotian. Personally, I prefer to call it 'people's hearts'.

"Because I found that I could gain more power than forcing people to go to the temple to burn incense and worship an ethereal idol, and to do something beneficial to the people of the world and gain their heartfelt support."

Now Gu Xu is strong enough to compete with Emperor Tianxing, so naturally there is no need to hide the existence of "incense" and dare not talk about it as before.

I saw that he suddenly extinguished the flame in his hand, raised his voice and said, "Yan Ping, do you know? What you are doing is digging the foundation of my strength! ”

Chen Yanping suddenly understood why Gu Xu was so angry.

Just like the Taoism practiced by the Chen family in Xiangyang from generation to generation, it is the way of "entering the country with talent and governing the country with a family". For the Chen family, secular affairs and spiritual practice are not contradictory to each other, but complement each other.

Being an official and running a family business will not slow down the Chen family's cultivation, on the contrary, it can be regarded as another form of experience.

As their power increases, they gain a deeper understanding of the world and human affairs, and their spiritual efficiency will become higher.

Because of this, if a certain son of the Chen family is deprived of the authority or property at hand, then he will immediately jump up and fight with others, as if he has a grudge against his father.

Chen Yanping didn't know that "incense" was a ladder to the realm of "returning to ruins".

In his understanding, "incense" should be some kind of rule that can help Gu Xu improve his strength.

It's just that Gu Xu's ambition is much greater than that of the Chen family.

He cultivates the way of kings, and what he wants is for the world to return to the heart and be supported by all the people.

"According to my rules here," I only heard Gu Xu then speak, "Oppressing the people and poisoning the living beings are to be sent to have their heads cut off." In Xijiang, Hedong and other provinces, I have cut down more than 100 of those 'big people' who think they are invincible. ”

"The emperor spares his life! The emperor spares his life! Please give the villain a chance, the villain is willing to atone for his sins! Chen Yanping knelt on the ground, knocking his forehead with pain, and his voice was already mixed with crying, "I can donate all the properties under my name to Daxia!" The emperor can dispose of it at will! ”

He came to Daxia to defect to Gu Xu, thinking that he could seek a way to survive for his family, but he didn't expect to send himself to a dead end first.

"However," Gu Xu paused for a moment, and then changed his words, "I see that you have brought a large number of pills, magic weapons, and other resources to Great Xia, as well as skilled alchemists and refining craftsmen.

"These are really things that we need right now.

"Many cultivators in Great Xia need a weapon to improve their actual combat ability; There are still many people who are only one step away from breaking through the realm, but because of the lack of a pill to break through the realm, their cultivation has stagnated for a long time.

"You really solved our urgent need, which can be regarded as a great achievement."

When Gu Xu spit out the word "but" in his mouth, Chen Yanping couldn't help but hold his breath, and a glimmer of hope suddenly rose in his heart, which was already filled with fear, like a person who was about to fall into a cliff, and suddenly grabbed a protruding vine next to him.

When Gu Xu said "a great achievement", the big stone hanging in his heart finally fell back to its original position, and his eyes became blurred due to tears.

He couldn't help but think of the first time he and Gu Xu met at the Tongfu Inn in Jiaodong Province last winter.

At that time, he absolutely didn't dare to imagine that Gu Xu, who was younger than himself and cultivated lower than himself, would bring himself such a strong and terrifying sense of oppression a few months later.

With just a few words, his emotions fluctuated between the peak and the valley, which was more exciting than the life-and-death struggle with the fierce god-level ghosts.

"Thank you...... Emperor Xie's grace of not killing......"

"Your merits can barely cover your capital crimes, but you can't escape the living crimes," Gu Xu continued, pronouncing Chen Yanping's fate, "In the next few years, you will go to the Wuyun Mining Area of Hedong Province to mine, and have a good experience of the life of the laborers who have been persecuted by you noble children before, and it will be regarded as labor reform."

"Don't live a life of fine clothes and food for a long time, and think that you are superior to others and can ride on the heads of ordinary people to show off your might.

"When you think it through, and feel that the fruits of your labor can atone for your crimes, come here to me again."

………

Concentrate:

(1) Yang Shen's note "Erya Shishan".