For his performance in the Trial, the prince had been awarded the position of Lord of Red Sword City. Moving his new retinue to this city took several weeks, and when it was finished, I was exhausted, but I didn’t have any time to rest. As soon as everything was settled, the prince called for a meeting of his council to determine how to proceed.

“As I am only a Martial Grandmaster 1, I need to spend my time cultivating. Chancellor Fang will take charge of the council in my absence. Your only goal is to improve the city's prosperity sufficiently to allow me to swiftly advance through the Lord realm. Do whatever you need to do to make this happen.”

After giving everyone a firm look, he departed the room, leaving the council to rule in his stead.

I drew in a deep breath to help me concentrate. “Ministers, you are the experts, and I will defer to your judgment on most things, but I need to be sure everything proceeds with the prince’s best interests in mind. Let us take the rest of the day to assess the city and look for areas in need of improvement. We will reconvene tomorrow at noon.”

The ministers all agreed with this, so the council was dismissed. This began my stint as a city planner and manager. It wasn’t a role that I had trained for, and it made me regret delegating away all my responsibilities in my last life, but I was determined to do my best to learn. These skills would be essential in the future.

My main vision for improving the city’s prosperity wasn’t too dissimilar to that of my last life. I wanted to raise up the lowest level of society. I viewed the city as a pyramid, and the mortals were its base. They were the foundation that everything else was built upon. If we improved the lives of the mortals, then we improved the lives of everyone.

Pulling out my designs for a pill factory would have been exceptionally foolhardy, so instead, I worked with several low-level alchemists to set up an Alchemy Association. Its goal was to train as many people as possible to make low-Rank pills. It was unlikely we would be able to find many people who were both willing and able to make a substantial number of Rank 0 pills, but I convinced the ministers to grant various benefits to anyone who did so.

I could not focus my efforts on this task alone, however. I had to be involved in every area of the city, from planning celebrations for various festivals to making decisions on who to appoint to a myriad of important positions. The ministers were the experts, but they needed a firm hand to ensure that everything they did was to the prince’s benefit and not just their own.

For me, the most difficult task was working with the Minister of Justice. I didn’t have the cultivation level needed to power through situations, and while the minister was a Grandmaster, there were several powerful clans in the city that had Grandmasters as well. I had to learn to negotiate these situations as best as possible to prevent fights from breaking out.

I wished I had a blessing that would guide me through these situations, but I didn’t. My ability to know how the slave technique would have me react had been causing problems ever since the prince’s Trial. It constantly tried to compel me to do things such as slapping the prince’s tutor when he couldn’t help with the pill toxin issue, so I had begun ignoring what it told me to do.

I considered using some of my credits to boost my aptitude for city management, but in the end, I held off. While it would have been beneficial to learn my job faster, I didn’t feel like the purchase was necessary. This was something that I could learn to do without the crutch of the System.

During this time, I completed a task that I had put off for far too long.

My storage space was stuffed with pages from Emperor Li’s book, and I needed to get them transferred to my mental library.

“System, upgrade my library to be able to hold Rank 4 books.”

Purchase confirmed. Cost 900,000 credits. 135,760,775 credits remaining.

I then tried to carefully read these pages, but I found that they were nearly incomprehensible. Without the cultivation base of a Martial Lord, the information didn’t just slip from my mind, it rejected me entirely. I hadn’t planned for this situation, but it only made another purchase that I had been considering more important.

“System, I want to upgrade my library so that the information it records is always accurate. Even if I misread a passage, I want the stored copy of the book to be correct.”

Host’s current mental library is capable of storing information up to Rank 4. Upgrading the library to perfectly store information at Rank 4 and below. Cost 10 million credits.

It was expensive, but it would save me considerable time in the future, since I wouldn't have to reread each book several times to make sure my copy was accurate.

“Purchase.”

Purchase confirmed. 125,760,775 credits remaining.

I then read through Emperor Li’s book again, and although the information still rejected me, I found a perfect facsimile of Emperor Li’s book waiting for me in my mental library. The pages that I had read had been copied, and there were blank pages for the sections of the book that had been lost.

Once I was convinced that all the information was safely stored away in my mental library, I burned what remained of Emperor Li’s book so that no one would ever be able to find it.

The council and I spent nearly two decades managing Red Sword City on the prince’s behalf.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

There were issues—that was unavoidable—but I felt like we were slowly making progress. I didn’t know how much our efforts had improved the prince’s karmic energy gains, but looking at the city, I could tell that we had made a difference.

One of the most important projects that we had implemented was installing a new sewage system throughout the entire city. Since we didn’t have anyone with knowledge of how to properly design a waste management system, it wasn’t perfect, but it dramatically improved the welfare of the city’s poorest districts.

The Alchemy Association was also starting to bear fruit, and the city had become the home of many new Disciple Alchemists. They couldn’t do much, but they could produce simple pills and powders. This put money in their pocket while also boosting the health and strength of the city’s citizens.

The development of the city was on a good track, and I was optimistic about what it could become in the future. However, that was when the prince called a meeting of the entire council. He had just broken through to Martial Lord, and he needed karmic energy to continue advancing.

“Accumulation of karmic energy in this remote border village is too slow. We need to increase it,” the prince announced.

My body, weary from work, sagged. “My prince, we are doing everything possible, but increasing karmic energy production takes time.”

He looked at his ministers. “Do you all agree with this assessment?”

They all bowed their heads.

“Very well, if you can no longer increase the prosperity of this village, then it is time to appoint a Minister of War.”

My head jerked around, and I stared at him. “My prince?”

“Chancellor Fang, appoint a Minister of War. We will begin attacking nearby settlements and pillaging their resources.”

Without saying another word, he turned and left the room.

I didn’t know what to do. I looked at the Minister of Rites. “Can you explain the situation to me?”

“While the empire doesn’t explicitly encourage war among its cities, it is an accepted practice for bolstering a Ruler’s karmic energy gains. With a Minister of War, we will attack others, and we will be attacked in return. When we bring back spoils, the prince will gain an energy boost from it. When our lands are destroyed, he will get a boost from repairing them. I do not have a complete understanding of the principles behind the practice, but I can say that war is considered a valuable tool for increasing the rate at which a Ruler gathers karmic energy.”

I closed my eyes. It might help the prince, but how would it affect the lives of his people? I wanted to reject this order, but the prince had given me an explicit command. If I didn’t obey, then it would be obvious to everyone that I hadn’t cultivated the technique they thought I had.

I took a deep breath. “Alright, if we’re going to do this, then we need to be smart about it. Let’s ensure that we take as little damage as possible.”

Ju DaoRong was appointed our Minister of War. He was a Martial Lord who had been serving as the prince’s personal bodyguard. With the prince’s advancement to Lord, Ju DaoRong was now able to spend time on other assignments.

Once this appointment was made, the prince began a bloody crusade against the surrounding towns and villages. Slowly, he worked his way up to attacking small cities.

I did my best to guide these attacks, trying to minimize the damage they caused, but my efforts were futile. The prince wanted destruction. That was the quickest way to gather more karmic energy.

With the boost he was receiving from pillaging the empire, the prince quickly rose through the Lord realm and hit Peak Lord in only 12 years. However, that was where he was blocked. Without a kingdom, he couldn’t advance any further.

The council gathered in the prince’s throne room, where a large map table displayed the lands around Red Sword City.

“Minister Ju, you have done an excellent job as Minister of War, but it is now time for your real test. I mean to forge a new kingdom.”

I sucked in a breath. “My prince—”

“This is a map of the surrounding territories,” he said, cutting me off. “If we absorb the marked cities, we should be able to gather enough of a population to forge a kingdom.”

“My prince, to do this, we will need to fight against Martial Kings.”

The prince nodded. “Minister Ju, I no longer have need of the energy generated by this city. So, I will use it—and energy from the cities we conquer—to raise you and your most promising subordinates all the way to False King. That will allow us to hold off any enemy Kings. We don’t need to be able to defeat them, we just need to be strong enough that they won’t want to attack us directly.”

Following the prince’s plans, we assembled our armies and marched to war.

At first, it worked. The nearby Kings were reluctant to spend too much effort defending their small border cities, so we were able to snatch up a decent chunk of territory at almost no cost. However, over the years, as the prince’s nascent kingdom grew, the opposition we faced grew as well.

Every day, I had to read reports of the toll his war was taking on our population. Every day, I regretted that I didn’t step in to stop him from this madness. But by the time the wars had started, it had already been far too late. If I tried to stop him, atbest, Prince CaoHan would simply dismiss me from his service. At worst, the palace would have proof that I had defeated their cultivation technique, and I would end up being tortured and executed.

All I could do was try to mitigate the damage as much as possible. However, the prince’s war had angered several powerful Kings, and once we were defeated, I doubted that any of his council would survive the aftermath.

This was when something happened that had the power to change the entire course of the war. A messenger had arrived from the imperial capital. The Du Clan ancestor, Du XiongMing, was nearing the end of his life, and all direct descendants were required to return to Brilliant Sun City for his wake.

The prince assembled his entire cabinet to discuss this situation.

“This is our opportunity,” he said, fervor blazing in his eyes. “The old ancestor’s death is the solution to all of our problems.”

I could tell that the prince’s words made the entire room uneasy, but everyone did their best to hide their reactions.

“The empire relies on the old ancestor for its protection. I learned as a child that he has a powerful object in his possession that can determine the fate of the entire dynasty. If I take control of it when he dies, there will be no question of my ascension to Emperor.”

I looked at the ministers and saw that none of them were excited. Everyone was simply afraid.

“My prince,” I said, deciding to be the one to voice everyone’s concerns. “Even if that is the case, it will be difficult to acquire such an item. If it is so important, then the Emperor will surely seize it before anyone else has a chance.”

When the prince looked at me, I saw a cunning glint in his eyes that frightened me.

“That is where you come in, Chancellor Fang. The old fool is a formation specialist. Stealing anything from him directly is suicide. We need to take it from his corpse. The imperial family has already agreed to a truce. In order to prevent a battle from breaking out between my family’s various factions, no one is to be allowed to be in the room with the ancestor when he dies. However, since you are only a Martial Master 1, and you were trained as a servant, I will convince my family to let you serve the ancestor in his final moments. When he dies, steal his treasure, and bring it to me.”

I was stunned by the prince’s brazenness. “Will the others agree to this?”

“If they don’t, then I will make them,” the prince responded, gnashing his teeth.