# Chapter Ninety-Nine: Civilization's Warship (IV)

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"Who are you!" Though Liu Hong felt a flicker of dread, he maintained a composed demeanor.

"I am the Son of Heaven, and this is the imperial palace of the Great Han. You have no small skill in entering alone, but this is not a place where you may run wild as you please!"

Sun Meng smiled lightly. "I mean no harm. Your body cannot hold out for more than a few years. I can keep you alive — another few decades would be no trouble at all. But I need something from you." He had not originally planned to seek out Liu Hong, yet upon reflection, he realized that as his plan unfolded, there was a strong likelihood he would eventually need the emperor to carry out a certain matter. And so he had come to the palace in the dead of night.

"Who in heaven's name are you!" The color returned to Liu Hong's face, and behind him a miniature, weakened crimson dragon materialized, roaring toward Sun Meng.

"I would advise you not to resort to such methods — it will only hasten your death." Sun Meng enveloped the crimson dragon with his divine sense. Had the Han dynasty been at its zenith, he might have exercised more caution, but in this diminished state, neither the dragon-soul nor Liu Hong posed any real threat.

"You—!" Liu Hong's face drained to a deathly pallor. He knew he had encountered someone of celestial caliber. With such power, the man could do whatever he wished, and Liu Hong would be utterly powerless to resist.

"What do you want? What is it you wish me to do?" Liu Hong steadied himself against the edge of the bed and spoke.

"Let me heal you first — otherwise you might die before any of this matters." As Sun Meng spoke, a pill appeared in his palm. With a flick of his hand, the pill dissolved into vapor and entered Liu Hong's body through his mouth and nose. In moments, the emperor's constitution was restored to its peak, his physical strength reaching the pinnacle of the acquired realm.

"What I intend to do, you will soon understand. For now, what you must do is stabilize the court, support everything I undertake, and in the end, perhaps sign a covenant. All of it will be to your benefit. Should you refuse, I would not mind having this same conversation with your son." Sun Meng spoke as he sensed the pulse of the emperor's communion with the empire's dragon-soul.

"I hope you are a man of your word," Liu Hong said. "The realm has only just weathered upheaval — it cannot endure another great convulsion."

"I prize that more than you do," Sun Meng replied, and vanished from the chamber.

Liu Hong looked all around him. Not the faintest trace of Sun Meng remained.

At that moment, the eunuch beside him fell to his knees in terror. "Your Majesty, spare this servant — I deserve death!" He had fallen asleep, and his cup had clattered to the floor.

"You—" Liu Hong stared at the kneeling eunuch, then called toward the door: "Someone come! Take him away!"

The eunuch was dragged off by the guards, and Liu Hong sat motionless until dawn, turning over in his mind the question of Sun Meng's identity and what the man intended to do.

The next morning, Liu Hong summoned the court for morning audience.

The ministers were somewhat surprised, though they found nothing particularly unusual in it. The Yellow Turban Rebellion had shaken the emperor's nerves, and for over a year now he had periodically reasserted his imperial authority.

"Have any of you noticed anything out of the ordinary?" Liu Hong began without preamble, the matter still weighing heavily on his mind.

The Three Excellencies exchanged glances in an instant. "Your Majesty, all the various rebellions have been suppressed. The realm is at peace, and the people—"

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"Enough!" Liu Hong slapped the table before him. "That is precisely what you said before the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Do you intend to fob me off with the same words now?"

All the ministers dropped to their knees and kowtowed. "Your Majesty, forgive us!"

At that moment, a guard outside the hall suddenly cried out: "A giant in the sky!"

Liu Hong's head snapped upward. He rose to his feet and made to go outside.

The ministers, led by the Three Excellencies, hurried to their feet. "Your Majesty, you must not!" Whether the phenomenon outside held any danger was still unknown, and naturally they made a show of concern for the emperor's safety.

"Do not interfere. Follow behind me — let us see what has happened." He had a premonition in his heart: this was the matter the mysterious visitor had spoken of the night before.

The entire assembly came out into the open air and beheld a vast image suspended in the heavens.

"I am a cultivator of the higher realm. Chancing upon this world, I have found its spiritual energy sparse and its methods of cultivation incomplete. I now transmit the Dao to all living beings, to awaken the spirit veins and allow this world to connect with the realms above."

The voice rang out across the entire territory of the Han and the lands bordering it in every direction. All who heard it understood it perfectly and without effort.

"Is this what he spoke of?" Liu Hong gazed up at the image in the sky — it was the very same man he had met the night before.

Then the image of Sun Meng in the heavens began to expound upon the methods of cultivation.

Beginning with the tempering of the body, Sun Meng's explanations were meticulous, and those who listened found they could comprehend everything with perfect clarity — and that following his guidance, they could begin to cultivate at once.

The expression on Liu Hong's face gradually grew troubled. He could see that this method of cultivation was fundamental, easily grasped, easily entered. So long as one had sufficient nourishment, one could progress through it without difficulty.

By the standard Sun Meng described for this first stage, the level of ability attained was equivalent to that of a second-rate warrior of the old reckoning.

Common people might struggle, but anyone of moderate means could complete this stage of cultivation. Most crucially, once this stage was accomplished, the cultivator's lifespan would stabilize at sixty years or beyond.

For people of this age, that was already a long life.

Those of the great clans were inwardly delighted. This method could grant those past fifty an extension of five to ten years — which meant far greater benefit to the continuity of their lineages.

Yet for them, this method could only produce cultivators of middling caliber in quantity; it could not be considered truly exceptional.

Then Sun Meng began to expound upon the cultivation of the spirit.

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This too astonished everyone. They had long believed that cultivating both body and spirit simultaneously was merely a waste of talent and time — that to break through to the first rank, one ultimately had to choose one path or the other. But now Sun Meng told them that the two were in fact mutually complementary.

Then came the section on cultivating vital energy, which stirred the crowd to even greater excitement. In their eyes, this was entirely the method of the immortals — a genuine hope of ascending to immortality.

Many among the great clans felt a private pang of regret. They felt that such a method ought to be in their hands alone, not shared with common people.

As Sun Meng's exposition reached the latter portion of the first tier, and all assumed he was drawing to a close, he proceeded to explain the method of unifying all three into one.

Step by step, with sufficient resources, every person could ascend to immortality.

This notion set many hearts ablaze with fervor. Had Sun Meng raised his arm and called out then and there, the response would surely have surpassed even the Yellow Turbans in number.

Yet many also noticed that this method of cultivation demanded enormous resources. The spiritual energy Sun Meng spoke of was wholly insufficient to carry all people through to the very end.

The further the explanation progressed, the more those who had long been stagnant in their cultivation grew agitated with excitement. They could see the road ahead. They could see hope.

Sun Meng spoke through to the level of the latter stage of the second tier, then stopped. With a sweep of his hand, a shower of luminous points scattered across the entire territory of the Han. Then a single glowing sphere descended and came to rest before Liu Hong.

"These are the seeds of spirit-plants. Once they grow, they will emanate spiritual energy and raise its concentration throughout the land. You are responsible for seeing them planted."

With those words, the vast image in the sky vanished.

Liu Hong stared at the seeds in his hand and drew a long breath. Without a word to the ministers around him, he turned and strode away with quick steps.

Sun Meng came before the three of them — Nanhua and his companions — and all three bowed in greeting. Sun Meng gave a nod, then formed his hand seals, drawing the spiritual energy from without and connecting it inward to the pulse of the mountain ranges beneath his feet.

"That is the way of it. After you draw the spiritual energy, remember to reinforce it with formation arrays. The work of awakening the spirit veins and laying down the arrays — I leave that to you."

"We shall not fail our fellow Daoist's trust!" the three replied in unison. They all understood the gravity of the matter. If the spiritual energy could not keep pace with the cultivation needs of the living, it would naturally evolve into a calamity — and when that came, the slaughter of living beings would be the lesser consequence; the further decline of the world's rank would be the greater.

Sun Meng came once more before Yueying. "Do you think this plan can succeed?"

At its heart, this was something he had devised on his own, without consulting Xu Xiao or the others, and certainly without mentioning it to Kekela and their companions. Since none of them had ever raised the question of consequences arising from figures within the contract-mission worlds, he intended to keep this as his own secret — perhaps, in time, it might become a hidden card he could play.

Yueying replied: "In terms of the flow of fortune, I still see no new path opening. Even if Liu Hong does not die, the realm will still enter an era of contending warlords and brilliant stars — which means that to some degree, the hierarchy must be decided through internal strife. I do not think that is the outcome you wish to see, my lord."

Sun Meng's brow furrowed. "Is that so? Then I can only take it one step at a time. After all, this was nothing more than an idle gambit I conceived on a whim."