Xu Yuan's walk to the Beixuan Courtyard was far from peaceful.
A dense crowd trailed closely around him as he went.
The moment Xu Yuan stepped down from the top floor of Moyin Pavilion, senior stewards and shopkeepers of the Prime Minister's Manor who had been waiting for ages swarmed forward like parched men sighting rain. Feng Fangming, possessing only an Iron Body Realm cultivation, was instantly elbowed aside into obscurity, trailing far behind the bustling entourage.
Every single one of these stewards had come to report their work to Xu Yuan.
Reports of every imaginable kind.
Once again, Xu Yuan was reminded of just how warped the administrative apparatus of the Prime Minister's Manor truly was.
What Hua Hong had described regarding his future duties had been no joke.
Sitting in this position meant preparing oneself for a 007 schedule, day in and day out, all year round.
The supreme leader of the Prime Minister's Manor actually had to finalize decisions for a town-level merchant guild.
Not a province, not a prefecture, not even a county—a rural township!
Naturally, that was his old man's responsibility.
Whether it was him now or Xu Changge in the past, they were mostly still in a learning phase. The vast majority of dossiers submitted had already been reviewed and annotated for their reference.
Some were annotated directly by his old man, some by Hua Hong and his peers, and some even by stewards a few ranks further down.
Over the past several decades, his father's supreme authority had solidified, so he would often loosen control over the middle and lower tiers.
After all, water too clear yielded no fish.
If you wanted people to risk their lives for you, you had to give them benefits.
Once the hardest years had passed, excessive pressure would only drive people to rebellion.
Especially with the great enemy of the sects looming.
The stewards surrounding him were all secretariat scribes whose duties resembled those of the palace's Directorate of Ceremonial. They would consolidate and refine the information, compiling it into bound volumes before presenting them.
Though there were many of them, everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.
Yet in the eyes of Feng Fangming trailing behind, the antics of the circle surrounding the young master looked bizarrely comical.
The group walked at an unhurried pace, yet their hands moved so fast they blurred into afterimages.
A dossier was proffered, the Third Young Master swept an eye over it, the scribe's lips flapped for a few breaths, and then with a bow, the scribe departed to make way for the next.
As they walked along, the breeze stirred incessantly from the flurry of movement.
To avoid wasting the time of the Prime Minister's Manor's crown prince, every single one of these secretariat scribes had been appointed with at least a Grandmaster cultivation. Churning dedicated cultivation techniques to deliver their reports, their mouths rattled off like Gatling guns; to an ordinary mortal, it would probably sound like listening to a film played at thirty-two times normal speed in his past life.
Upon arriving before Xiangqin Court, a scribe was just about to step forward to report when Xu Yuan raised a hand, interrupting the casting of his technique. Looking at the remaining seven or eight people, Xu Yuan smiled faintly.
"Gentlemen, are you planning on accompanying me into the living quarters of a female retained elder?"
As the scribes took their leave one after another, the two female scribes among them were also sensible enough not to exploit their gender and brazenly follow along.
When Xu Yuan stepped into the waterside pavilion where Su Jinxuan stayed, he discovered Xiao Bai was actually in her boudoir as well.
Seeing Xu Yuan enter, both women showed pleasant surprise in their eyes and rose from the square table.
"Young Master, why have you come?"
"Young Master, you have come."
One a question, one a statement.
Though similar in meaning, comparison breeds misery.
After their greetings concluded, while Su Jinxuan was still kicking herself over her poor choice of words, Bai Muxi had already swayed forward gracefully, her eyes curving in a smile.
"Muxi was just speaking of you with Little Sister Su, Young Master, never expecting you would arrive right on our heels."
Su Jinxuan shot a mildly irritated glance at the woman surnamed Bai.
This woman truly fabricated lies without blinking; they had clearly been discussing the Dao and cultivation just moments ago.
However, with those words already spoken, she could hardly contradict her. Suppressing her annoyance, she noticed the young girl behind Xu Yuan and asked with mild surprise, "Young Master, who is this?"
Xu Yuan reflexively glanced back toward Feng Fangming, but his gaze met empty air.
This chit was truly painfully shy around strangers.
The second she saw someone unfamiliar, she would shrink behind the person she knew.
Feng Fangming peeked out with half an eye, stealing glances at the two devastatingly gorgeous women inside the room.
She was mainly afraid of the woman named Bai Muxi.
Their brief encounter at Mount Qifeng had left a deep impression on her.
Because back then, that woman had initially intended to kill.
However, seeing these two older sisters, she finally understood why the Third Young Master called her a beanpole—especially that alluring woman with the peach-blossom eyes.
Those were curves that even loose robes could not conceal.
Xu Yuan had no intention of lingering inside. Standing at the doorway, he got straight to the point.
"This is Feng Fangming. She possesses the Yin-Yang Profound-Pattern Physique, and I need you, Jinxuan, to help siphon away the cultivation within her."
"The Yin-Yang Profound-Pattern Physique?"
Having cultivated the Great Joyous Union Yin-Yang Art, the succubus Su blinked in surprise, her eyes shifting slightly. "Young Master, what do you mean...?"
"Can Little Sister Su not even see something so obvious?"
Bai Muxi glanced at the foolish succubus. Remembering this young girl from the ancestral grounds of the Feng family, she smiled sweetly and said, "The Young Master brought her here in person, so naturally, it is for you to preserve her life."
Targeted by this sarcastic barb, Su Jinxuan did not lose her temper this time.
"Of course I know that, but Elder Sister Bai, if you understand nothing about it, you had better keep quiet."
"..." Bai Muxi choked on her words.
Su Jinxuan gave a teasing snort, then asked Xu Yuan, her clear voice seductive and ethereal, "Young Master, do you wish for Jinxuan to forgo the Charming God Dao Charm?"
The instant he heard that voice, Xu Yuan realized this little succubus seemed to be preparing for Dao fusion as well.
Her cultivation progress shot up as if she were cheating.
After a brief silence, Xu Yuan abandoned his initial thought and shook his head.
"I merely brought her to you. The specifics are up to your own choice. Just remember not to harm the girl."
The Yin-Yang Profound-Pattern Physique required dual cultivation reaching the lower yin acupoint to comprehend its Dao charm, whereas Su Jinxuan's Bewitching Soul Fiend Physique could bypass dual cultivation, directly using Charming God Spores to extract the Source Qi containing the Dao charm.
Yet for Su Jinxuan, this was indeed a difficult decision.
The Charming God Dao Charm better suited her unique physique.
Whereas the Lunar Dao Charm and Solar Dao Charm better suited her cultivation art.
With these thoughts in mind, Xu Yuan took the hand of the girl behind him, brought her forward, and said gently, "Fangming, you will stay with that big-chested big sister from now on. She will help treat your physique's condition."
"O-okay."
Feng Fangming whispered as softly as the buzz of a mosquito, her hands clutching the hems of her martial tunic like a frightened little white rabbit.
With that done, Xu Yuan prepared to take his leave.
Bai Muxi noticed and quickly spoke up, "Is the Young Master about to leave the manor?"
Xu Yuan paused and looked back over his shoulder. "What? Do you want to come along?"
Bai Muxi's bright eyes flickered as she chose her words carefully. "Muxi heard from the female officials next door that many people have died in court recently."
"Oh?" Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow.
"You did not know, Young Master?"
Bai Muxi breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Unlike Su Jinxuan, an idiot who knew only how to shut herself inside her boudoir, she had befriended several female officials in Xiangqin Court over the past few days.
Relying on her identity, she had subtly pried into the matters handled by Moyin Pavilion and the scope of work undertaken by the crown prince of the Prime Minister's Manor.
Moyin Pavilion did not concern itself with court politics, handling only the internal affairs of the Prime Minister's Manor.
Once she knew that, she had made it a point to gather major recent occurrences in the imperial court for her young master, just to be prepared.
Even if Xu Yuan needed only a single word to access all of this, she still did it, because nothing demonstrated one's attitude better than such attentiveness.
During these days, Bai Muxi had seen through the situation clearly.
When it came to competing for favor, she could never beat that block of ice or the Saintess.
As for that female god of slaughter, Bai Muxi shuddered from head to toe at the mere memory of her.
And over time, even Su Jinxuan, who started from the same baseline, could leave her in the dust with that vixen physique.
She had to pursue differentiated competition.
Thinking it through, aside from Li Qingyan, none of the other beauties by the Young Master's side seemed particularly sharp.
And Li Qingyan's status as a princess destined that she could never assist the Young Master in handling his affairs, meaning no one could rival her on the track of being a capable helpmeet.
Her mind set, Bai Muxi continued, "Yesterday, someone submitted the memorial regarding taxing the sects onto the imperial desk once again, Young Master."
Chapter 721