Upon the back of the Elephant God, a small Buddhist temple had been built, faint incense curling skyward from within.
The pairing of temple and white elephant was far too strange, pressing steadily toward Hunzhou Island with overwhelming momentum.
Sensing its approach, Jing Qian paused his cultivation and watched intently, ready at any moment either to flee or to fight.
Yet despite the elephant's growing silhouette, its true distance was still far.
By the time Jing Qian returned to the underground harbor, the figure had only grown to the size of a man.
At such a pace, several more days would pass before the giant beast truly reached Hunzhou Island.
What was more vexing was the ceaseless drone of the sutra-chant echoing in everyone's mind, endlessly repeating.
Suddenly, a clear eagle's cry rang out. From the body of the Li Dragon lying upon Hunzhou Island surged a vast tide of spiritual power that swept into the heavens, clearing the skies of clouds for a thousand miles.
Ling Mingji had finally completed his advancement, stepping into the Spirit-Suppressing Realm as the new six-rank power who would suppress and govern the Hunzhou Prefecture.
Without hesitation, he devoured the Li Dragon, the spirit nurtured by Hunzhou for three thousand years, making it the foundation of his cultivation. It was an act that utterly changed the destiny of Hunzhou.
Once consumed and refined, the Li Dragon's form transformed from a terrifying giant serpent into a two-meter-long one-horned purple snake coiled around Ling Mingji's right arm.
The next moment, the snake dissolved into a streak of spiritual radiance and merged into his body. Around him manifested a Divine Roc Armament eagle's head, serpent's scales, wings unfurled that sealed him in a resplendent armor of power.
An aura vast and mighty surged forth.
At once, Ling Mingji drew upon the Hun River, lifting the suspended torrent that plunged into the ocean and slowly raising it until it once again ran level with Hunzhou Island.
The river bent into a vast lake that hung suspended before the cavern harbor.
Armored in the Divine Roc, Ling Mingji descended to hover above the waters. His voice resounded across the harbor:
"Fellow prefecture officials join me in receiving our guest!"
Jing Qian guided the Dingyuan vessel into the lake with the rest of the fleet, deliberately taking the rearmost position. Suspended quietly in the air, he waited to see how the matter would unfold.
Though merely one member of the prefecture, he carried a sense of ownership. With a flick of power, he left a small ghost avatar to helm the ship, while his true self slipped into the dimensional layer to stand invisibly at Ling Mingji's side.
Zhu Shou, Li Yuan, and Wu Liuyuan also took flight, arriving beside Ling Mingji.
Zhu Shou was first to speak:
"If I'm not mistaken, the one approaching should be Master Xiangyu of the Monastery of Impermanence. Has some change arisen in the Divine Court?"
Ling Mingji replied calmly:
"Whatever comes, soldiers, we resist with arms, and floods we block with earth.
The She Dizang Monastery, as a branch under the Monastery of Impermanence, was wiped out without a single soul surviving. For someone to come and investigate is only natural.
And with the Court's merit-bestowing ceremony only three days away, their timing is deliberate. Most likely, they seek to use Hunzhou's war achievements as leverage, demanding reparations for the loss of She Dizang."
Zhu Shou nodded.
"So be it.
With our Prefect dead, Hunzhou is despised on all sides, and everyone will take a chance to trample us.
Once Fellow Ling succeeds the prefect's seat, you must think carefully about how to raise our prefecture's standing."
Ling Mingji gave a curt nod and fell silent.
Time passed. The giant elephant loomed ever larger until even the portion of its body above the waves rose a full thousand feet.
The strange chanting that had droned in every ear steadily weakened, until at last it faded into nothingness.
After the appointed three days, the great elephant parted the ocean and stood before Hunzhou Island.
It was a sight unlike anything Jing Qian had ever seen: a living mountain of white flesh and divine majesty.
The beast's massive forehead came level with the island itself. The small shrine upon its brow opened, and out stepped a figure like a child-sized novice monk.
His robe was pure white as carved jade, his bearing lofty and unsullied, not at all like a mortal.
He walked to the elephant's forehead and spoke, his voice resonant as a bronze bell, utterly at odds with his slight form:
"Fellow cultivators of Hunzhou, let us first complete the reckoning of the Yin-Year battle merits.
I have come from afar without hostility. Once the reckoning is done, matters can be judged fairly."
Ling Mingji clasped his hands and bowed slightly.
"As Master wills. Then let us commence the seven hundred sixty-fifth Hunzhou Yin-Year Merit Ceremony.
This time our prefecture has suffered misfortune, and the setting is meager; colleagues, I beg your indulgence."
As Ling Mingji finished speaking, the Divine Roc Armament upon his body suddenly stretched forth a massive serpent's head.
The head grew larger and larger until it became an entire isle hanging down toward the lake's surface.
When the serpent's jaws opened wide, they revealed the hidden ruins of the Prefecture Hall within.
With a flicker of movement, Ling Mingji stepped out from his Armament and entered the Prefecture.
Channeling his power, he swept away collapsed walls and broken tiles, uncovering the buried Military Affairs Hall at the core.
He strode inside and, before long, carried out a finely wrought copper chair, a spiritual artifact.
At that moment, Li Yuan, head of the Civil Affairs Division, approached, cradling a large silver-bound register.
That register contained the power marks of every active cultivator registered under the prefecture.
He opened the tome and declared:
"Our Hunzhou Prefecture officially registers forty-six members.
All fought bravely against the ghosts, safeguarding our borders and our people.
We hereby petition the Divine Court's Office of Merit Records to recognize and reward these deeds.
As in years past, let each colleague take the Merit Chair in turn, and receive their reward."
"Qiao Li, you may begin."
An experienced Dragon-Elephant cultivator from the Prefecture stepped forward first, sitting down upon the copper chair.
Instantly, a golden radiance enveloped him.
Following behind the others, Jing Qian opened his Worldly Insight to observe closely. Through the hazy spiritual light, he faintly perceived the cultivator within, eyes closed, communing directly with the Merit Chair.
This was Jing Qian's first time witnessing a merit ceremony.
So-called "Merit Recording" was the Divine Court's official system of military honors, a structured ladder for every registered cultivator.
At the end of each Yin Year, the ghosts and wraiths slain were tallied through the Merit Chair and recorded in the official registers.
When enough merit was amassed, promotion was immediate, bypassing layers of announcements and bureaucratic delay.
But only a tiny fraction of cultivators across the continent ever secured a formal post within the Divine Court's register, and thus access to the Merit System.
This system, incorruptible, impartial, and absolute, was the foundation upon which the Court ruled all realms.
Through the memories of Luo Yaozhi's remnant soul, Jing Qian had already absorbed much about the Divine Court. Though a first-time participant, he understood the process thoroughly.
The Divine Court's hierarchy of offices was labyrinthine: from Ninth-Rank clerks like Attendants, Scribes, Yellow-Gate Guards, and Gate Commanders, all the way up to First-Rank pillars such as Grand Tutor, Grand Protector, Ministers, and the Central Secretariat.
Eighteen ranks in all, with hundreds of titles together called the Lingguan System.
It encompassed cultivators from the lowest "Fatebinding" novices up to "Star-Seizers," even the "Heaven-Menders."
Yet posts were scarce, promotions arduous, and merits hard to earn. Even a Seventh-Rank Longevity cultivator, without family backing, might never climb high enough to secure even a lowly Ninth-Rank post.
Hunzhou's weakness was notorious. Though one of the twenty-four military prefectures, its treatment was pitiful.
In the Prefecture itself, aside from the Prefect who held an Eighth-Rank title as Deputy of the Waterworks Bureau, only the heads of the Three Divisions and Two Inspectorates held official Ninth-Rank offices.
As for Jing Qian, a new entrant, he was barely a registered junior clerk, not even touching the outer circle of the Lingguan system.
Below the Lingguan stood the clerkly stratum, divided into four grades: Gold, Silver, Copper, and Iron.
Jing Qian had only just squeezed into the lowest tier as an "Iron Clerk," and that itself was a stroke of great luck.
In the Divine Court's rigid system, even such a post was rare and precious.
Only registered officials were eligible for merit ceremonies; they could truly claim to be "fed from the Emperor's grain."
In his former life, Jing Qian's ancestral roots had been far from Shandong, with no great desire for bureaucratic office.
But here and now, if the system could advance his cultivation, he had no reason to resist using it.
One by one, the Prefecture's cultivators stepped forward, each sitting upon the Merit Chair and exchanging their merits.
This year was a rare "great year" for Hunzhou: countless ghosts and wraiths had been cut down.
And with more than half of the registered cultivators dead, there were fewer left to divide the spoils.
As a result, nearly half the survivors advanced in rank.
Several new Gold Clerks were minted on the spot, filling vacant mid-level posts in the divisions.
But to rise further from Gold Clerk to even the lowest Lingguan post, a Ninth-Rank official, was another mountain entirely.
Jing Qian waited patiently until Li Yuan finally called his name.
The Civil Affairs head glanced at him and said:
"Jing Qian, you are new to the Prefecture, with shallow seniority.
And in this Yin Year, you did not sail with us.
If your merits prove lacking, do not be disheartened. You are still young; many more Yin Years await."
Jing Qian bowed.
"Thank you, Master Li, for your kindness. I understand."
He stepped forward and sat upon the copper chair.
In an instant, spiritual radiance enveloped him. A peculiar divine sense began scanning his entire being.
Through Worldly Insight, he peered past the glow and glimpsed the distant source in Yingdu, at the Office of Merit Records itself.
Spiritual Construct: Merit Abacus
Suppression Requirement: Blood of the Ying Clan
Lifespan Burden: one quarter-hour per day
It was a spiritual device shaped as an enormous abacus.
Its length seemed endless, its rows crammed with countless beads that clattered and clicked without rest.
Here, all the battle achievements of cultivators across the thirty-six prefectures of the Divine Court were recorded.
The Merit Abacus judged only objective deeds utterly impartial, beyond corruption.
And now it drew forth the record of every ghost and wraith Jing Qian had slain in the past year.
The tally appeared, perfectly precise:
3,454 ninth-rank ghosts
2,142 wraiths
16 seventh-rank ghosts and wraiths
1 fifth-rank ghost
It was a staggering count greater than the combined total of all forty cultivators who had sat before him!
Especially that Fifth-Rank wraith, such a thing was rare across all thirty-six prefectures of the Divine Court.
Jing Qian remained silent, patiently waiting for the Merit Abacus to finish its tally.
It took twice as long as for the others before the final result flickered before him:
Battle Merit: 7 great merits, 56 minor merits
(100 minor merits = 1 great merit)
World Merit: 92 minor merits
Total: 8 great merits, 48 minor merits
This "World Merit" was a special category, drawn from the collective tally of all ghosts and wraiths slain within Hunzhou's territory. It included kills by cultivators outside the Prefecture's ranks, redistributed downward according to each official's grade.
In this Yin Year, thanks to Wu Jian's rampage and ascension through ghostly slaughter, Hunzhou's "World Merit" was ten times higher than usual.
Even as the lowest-ranked Iron Clerk, Jing Qian received nearly a full great merit just from that portion.
Combined, his eight and a half great merits were an astonishing record.
Among all present, only Ling Mingji and Zhu Shou, once their own World Merit was counted, could surpass him.
In the Divine Court's system, ten great merits were enough for even a clerk to be promoted into the Lingguan hierarchy, taking a sub-ninth rank post.
An achievement many Gold Clerks could not manage in an entire lifetime.
Jing Qian had reached it in just one Yin Year.
Already, his record was enough to be promoted to Gold Clerk.
But just as the Merit Abacus was about to finalize his tally, Jing Qian quietly drew from the Void Realm a clean jade tablet.
Carved upon it were two ancient characters: "Patronage."
A Jing clan heirloom, buried deep in his memory.
As the jade token entered the radiance of the Merit Chair, the Abacus immediately altered its tally.
A stream of force rose from the tablet and was consumed by the Chair.
The numbers on the Abacus shifted at once:
Battle Merit: 7 great, 56 minor
World Merit: 92 minor
Patronage: 5 great
Total: 13 great merits, 48 minor
Jing Qian's tally now exceeded the threshold for promotion into the Lingguan system.
And the Abacus, bound by its inviolate rule "Merit must be rewarded," did not hesitate.
The instant his total surpassed ten great merits, a peculiar spiritual light condensed into his palm.
Ten great merits were consumed, and in their place appeared a small bronze seal.
Sweeping it with his divine sense, Jing Qian immediately understood he had been promoted!
He was now a recognized official in the Divine Court's Lingguan hierarchy: a Sub-Ninth Rank Yellow Gate Attendant.
In Hunzhou, that vaulted his standing to just beneath the division heads themselves. He had leapt directly into the governing circle.
Lifting the Yellow Gate Seal, he found his own mana already interwoven with its core; it had become part of him.
And the moment he received this Lingguan post, his status shifted again.
Another wave of power surged through the Merit Chair.
The seal in his hand flashed, and with it came a formal appointment.
Jing Qian, once a mere minor clerk of the Maritime Division, was now installed as Head of the Scholarly Inspectorate of Hunzhou Prefecture.
An entire prefecture's Academic Director.
In that instant, his rank stood alongside Ling Mingji, Zhu Shou, and the other great figures.
No one had expected the final candidate in the merit ceremony to unleash such a thunderbolt!
When Jing Qian rose from the Merit Chair, every eye in the hall locked upon him.
All were wondering the same thing: where had this boy gotten such a powerful Patronage token?
Did the Jing clan have such a hidden legacy?
To the onlookers, it was clear enough that he had relied on patronage to secure his Lingguan advancement. The precise merits were unknowable.
So they assumed he had stumbled into incredible luck, and fortune alone had catapulted him forward.
They did not realize that, in truth, it was sheer slaughter. His one Yin Year's tally of kills surpassed what most Longevity cultivators could not amass in several cycles.
Li Yuan finally spoke:
"Congratulations, Jing Daoist, on your unexpected success in the Merit Ceremony.
With Daoist Tao Qian's untimely passing, the position of Scholarly Inspector is vacant.
Your talent and potential are extraordinary. To entrust you with this post is most fitting."
Jing Qian merely bowed again and stepped aside.
He bore the weight of so many gazes without the slightest change of expression.
With Luo Yaozhi's death and Ling Mingji's ascension to Venerable, Hunzhou's power structure was poised for upheaval.
Jing Qian was but the appetizer of this great shift.
Yet he trusted his own strength. Even without faction, even alone, he could defend this seat.
And the Scholarly Inspectorate was far too valuable a post to surrender.
Li Yuan's voice rang again:
"That being settled, it is time for the rest of us to take the chair. Which of you will go first?"
Wu Liuyuan did not hesitate. He stepped forward, sat firmly, and vanished into the radiance.
When he rose again, he had received his due merit.
As a Dragon-Elephant cultivator, his standing had always been lowest among the five Ninth-Rank officials.
Now, at least, he had edged up alongside Jing Qian.
But now, with Jing Qian standing in front of him as a new "buffer," Wu Liuyuan's rank no longer seemed so low a kind of indirect promotion in itself.
Then, Li Yuan closed the silver ledger, stepped forward, and calmly sat down on the Merit Chair.
His session took quite some time.
Unlike Wu Liuyuan, Li Yuan had personally taken his Six-Life Golden Toad manifestation into battle, fighting throughout the Yin Year war. He had slain several Seventh-Rank wraiths and corpses, amassing impressive battle merit.
By the time he finished claiming all his credits, his accumulation had finally reached a new peak.
From his prior sub-ninth rank, he had now gathered fifty more great merits enough to achieve another critical promotion.
He had become a full ninth-rank official of the Divine Court: Hunzhou's Sima.
Years of struggle had finally borne fruit. Li Yuan was in excellent spirits.
With his faction already triumphant, this Yin Year had become a year of great harvest for him.
Next came Zhu Shou.
He, as the pillar of the war, had wielded the Retreating Sea Lantern spiritual construct, destroying no fewer than thirty Seventh-Rank wraiths himself.
In addition, his high station alone entitled him to ten great merits in World Merit, simply for being in Hunzhou.
By the end, he was less than twenty great merits short of a sub-eighth-rank promotion.
Then he pulled a jade token from his robes, a Patronage Tablet, and activated it.
In terms of heritage, the South Sea Zhu clan was second to none.
With that maneuver, Zhu Shou successfully ascended into the sub-eighth rank Lingguan system.
But then came the shock.
He had assumed he would be appointed, like Luo Yaozhi before him, as a Deputy Waterworks Overseer.
Instead, the Merit Abacus glitched.
It assigned him to be a Defense Deputy at Beishang Pass.
Beishang was at the empire's northern extreme, as far from Hunzhou in the south as possible. The culture, climate, and politics were utterly different.
If he went to take up the post, all the networks and power he had built in Hunzhou would be wasted.
This was a promotion he would rather not have.
But the Merit Abacus did not allow rejection.
Zhu Shou rose, face dark, and exchanged a long look with Ling Mingji.
Such an aberration could only mean interference. And with the sudden arrival of that monk, Xiangyu… the seat of Hunzhou's Prefectural Governor itself might already be compromised.
And indeed, when Ling Mingji completed his merit session, he too was promoted, but as a full eighth-rank Adjudicator of Youzhou.
To take office, he would have to travel tens of thousands of li to the west.
On paper, Youzhou was one of the empire's twelve "upper prefectures," rich in resources and brimming with spiritual energy far higher in rank than Hunzhou.
But Ling Mingji, as merely an eighth-rank official, would be nothing more than middle management in Youzhou's prefectural government.
Worse still, Youzhou housed the headquarters of the Blood River Sect. In such a place, the Prefecture's authority was reduced even further.
Ling Mingji could never command there the power he had wielded in Hunzhou.
He rose from the chair, his brows furrowed, his expression shadowed and unreadable.
Just then, the jade monk Xiangyu suddenly strode in.
He walked calmly before the gathered officials and spoke:
"Daoist Ling, I trust you have already understood the result.
As of this moment, I have received an imperial appointment as the second Prefect of Hunzhou.
From here on, I must ask all my colleagues for their cooperation.
For years, Hunzhou has relied on the hard work of the two Daoists.
I, taking the mantle now, will not fail the trust placed in me.
I shall bring Hunzhou into a new stage.
The road is long, the mountains high. Two Daoists, you must prepare to depart for your posts quickly.
Oh, and this Li Dragon spiritual construct is, after all, a Hunzhou possession. Daoist Ling, I must trouble you not to take it away.
In this impoverished place, it is no easy matter to accumulate such a foundation.
And besides, our Prefectural Government itself is still built into the body of the Li Dragon. It would not do to leave us further burdened by asking you to maintain it."
Xiangyu's words stripped away all pretense, and the knife hidden in the map was finally revealed. He had come with no good intentions at all.
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