Chapter 43: Spiritual Rice (Seeking Follow-up Reading)
Ok Hee Palace.
The bright sunlight outside the hall shines through the gaps in the doors and windows, forming rays of light like knives and axes, shining into the slightly dim hall.
At this time, Lu Fang's voice outside the door sounded again.
"Your servant Lu Fang, respectfully reports to... Your Majesty the Master..."
"Qingliu has messed up things, and things are out of control. The Yan Party is targeting Qingliu again. Please give me some instructions, Master..."
Lu Fang was still praying devoutly.
Jiajing's mind moved, and he picked up the bronze chime hammer beside him and swung it casually, and the bronze chime made a buzzing sound.
Outside Yuxi Palace, Lu Fang was praying devoutly.
"Your servant Lu..." Lu Fang was stunned when she heard the voice, and the second prayer that was about to come out of her mouth stopped abruptly.
"The master has come out!" Lu Fang was suddenly delighted and was about to knock on the door, but suddenly stopped.
"Huh." He took a deep breath first, waited until he calmed down, and then tidied his appearance from head to toe. Then he raised his hand and knocked on the door gently. After waiting for a moment, he pushed the door open and walked in.
As soon as he entered the door, he knelt down to congratulate.
"Your servant Lu Fang congratulates the Supreme Daluo Celestial Immortal/Purple Extreme Immortal Saintly Wisdom and Spiritual Spirit/Tong Sanyuan/Zheng Ying Yuxu/General Manager Wu Lei Great Immortal/Xuan Du Realm/Wanshou Emperor, your Majesty, on coming out of retreat!"
"Your Majesty, may your immortal body be safe and sound, and may your cultivation be improved!"
"Good servant," Jiajing smiled when he heard Lv Fang's sincere obedience, "Take a bath and change your clothes."
"Yes, I'll arrange it right away!" Lu Fang smiled and went out immediately. After a while, she called the eunuchs to prepare bathing supplies.
I haven't taken a bath for a month and a half. Although I have the 'cleansing talisman', which can clean the whole body with one talisman and no longer requires mundane water, washing with water and having someone massage me are two completely different feelings from the dry talisman.
Liu Quan also said that even those female cultivators like to take off their clothes and wash their bodies in a deserted place.
It is obvious that water washing is better than dry cleaning after all!
Soon, Jiajing lay comfortably in the bathtub with Lu Fang's service.
"I already know about what happened in the southeast. Let's talk about something else." After a long while, Jiajing said slowly.
"Yes," Lu Fang knew that Jiajing could see and hear the whole world, so he was not surprised. However, he still gave a general explanation and said:
"In addition to the newly appointed Dinghai County Magistrate Hai Rui, who will continue to investigate the smuggling case and cause a stir in the cabinet, there is also the Imperial Master."
"Not long ago, there were a lot of negative comments about the Imperial Master among the people, saying that..." At this point, Lu Fang paused slightly, glanced at Jiajing who closed his eyes and said nothing, and then continued:
"The evil ways bring disaster to the country, and the evil women seduce the king."
"They also said that the Imperial Master used the name of "overcoming the tribulation" to falsely claim that it was a punishment from heaven, so the Western Factory suddenly arrested officials from the capital, many of whom were loyal and honest but were wrongly imprisoned. This was done by the Yan Party to crack down on dissidents."
"According to reports from the Royal Guards, these rumors were heard in various places. Most of them originated from the folks, but they were quickly suppressed by the local government, so there wasn't much of a stir."
(Note: The Jianghu here does not refer to the Jianghu in martial arts novels, but refers to the place where marginalized groups in society live.
In historical documents, Jianghu often refers to places far away from the imperial court center and outside the bustling city.
It is the gathering place for all kinds of marginalized people in society, such as wanderers, hermits, knights, artists, and vendors.
These people often live in areas where official control is weak, forming a unique social ecology.
"Does that girl know?" Jiajing asked casually.
"The Imperial Master has a Taoist boy sent by the Yan Mansion. After receiving the news from outside the palace, she was in a low mood for a few days," Lu Fang said with a hint of smile in her voice, "But after I told her what the master said before she went into seclusion, the Imperial Master seemed to have realized something."
"My mood has improved a lot."
"Heh," Jiajing thought of Qingfeng's clear and innocent eyes, and couldn't help but chuckle and opened his eyes, "It seems that our Qingfeng Xuanling Shouzhen Huiwu Zhenren is also very talented?"
"The national teacher is able to receive enlightenment from the immortal master, so he must be very lucky." Lu Fang immediately flattered him.
"There's a good sentence in Sima Guang's letter to Wang Anshi," Jiajing sat up from the bathtub, took the clean Taoist robe handed to him by Lu Fang and put it on, saying in a deep voice, "The scholars and officials in the court and those who came from all over the country all criticized Jiefu."
"Are they attacking my Imperial Master?"
"A demon is ruining the country? A demon woman is seducing the king? What kind of king can let a demon ruin the country? What kind of king can be seduced by beauty?"
"Stupid emperor!" Jiajing said, turning around to look at Lu Fang, and then walked towards the hall without looking back. "They are telling me in disguise that if you want to reform the law and touch their interests, you are a stupid emperor!"
"Master, calm down," Lu Fang waved his hand to signal the eunuch to clean up the tub quickly, then hurriedly followed and said, "How can ordinary mortals understand the master's ambition to be an immortal?"
"I hope the master won't worry about this."
"Let's not talk about this anymore," Jiajing said, waving his hand. He came to the stove, pointed at the clay pot on it, and said, "Go get a new one. I said I would reward you with something good!"
Hearing Jiajing say that he had something good to reward him, Lu Fang was immediately delighted. The "magic pill" that his master gave him and Lu Bing last time made them as strong as young men.
This time the master said there would be a reward, so it must be something from the immortal world.
With excitement and anticipation in his heart, Lu Fang did not waste any time and immediately took down the casserole, then took out a new casserole from the cabinet next to him, carefully washed it twice with water before presenting it to Jiajing.
"Put it on the table." Jiajing raised his hand as he spoke, and then under Lu Fang's astonished gaze, a package the size of half a fist appeared out of thin air in his palm.
A faint fragrance emanated and flowed into Lu Fang's mouth and nose.
Just this faint fragrance made him feel refreshed all over, and the coldness of winter and the fatigue of the body were swept away!
Lu Fang greedily inhaled the fragrance, afraid that it would leak out and be wasted, and stared at the small package in Jiajing's hand.
"Master, what kind of magical object is this?!"
"This thing is called spiritual rice, and it is the food of those who practice Taoism," Jiajing said as he unwrapped the small package and handed it to Lu Fang, "See how it is different from the rice we usually use..."
As Jiajing was talking, he saw Lu Fang staring at the ounce of spiritual rice in his hand with his eyes dull and his mouth wide open. He immediately kicked the old man with a smile and cursed, "Tsk, you useless thing!"
"Hehe!" Lu Fang, who had come to his senses, raised his sleeve to wipe his saliva and said with a flattering smile: "This is the first time for me to see such fairy things. I was fascinated for a while. I hope my master will forgive me..."
"This magical rice seems to be rice?" Lu Fang licked his lips, his eyes fixed on the magical rice in Jiajing's hand, observing it meticulously, constantly inhaling the aroma of the magical rice.
Unlike the simplicity of ordinary rice, from the surface, each grain of this magical rice looks more refined than ordinary rice.
The color is as warm as jade, with a light white luster. Each grain is full and well-proportioned, as if it is the condensation of the essence of heaven and earth, carefully nourished by the sun and rain.
Especially under the sunlight outside the window, it emits a faint silver-white luster, and there seem to be subtle lines flowing on the surface.
"The planting method is the same as that of ordinary rice, but the soil is not ordinary soil. It is spiritual soil nourished by spiritual veins." Jiajing said, feeling quite emotional in his heart. This thing is also a kind of resource for cultivating immortals.
The price of one liter of spiritual rice is ten taels of spiritual source.
"Lu Fang, what is the current price of rice?" Thinking of this, Jiajing suddenly asked again.
"My Lord, the general price of rice in the Ming Dynasty is now between six and seven cents per stone," Lu Fang said, and after a moment's thought, he added:
"In some disaster-stricken areas, prices have risen, and the price of rice has increased slightly. One stone of rice costs between two and five taels of silver."
Lu Fang was the seal-holder of the Imperial Household Department and was responsible for the cabinet's approval. So he was naturally aware of the prices and so on.
"Shua!" Jiajing casually threw the bag of spiritual rice in his hand into the casserole, thinking to himself: "The prices in the two worlds are calculated differently, but the general weights and measures are similar."
"One shi is roughly equivalent to ten dou, and one dou is roughly equivalent to ten liters. One liter of spiritual rice is worth ten taels of spiritual energy..."
"If this were in the Ming Dynasty, it would really be a sky-high price."
Thinking of this, Jiajing raised his hand, took out another talisman, injected spiritual energy into it, and then under Lu Fang's gaze, the talisman suddenly turned into a clear stream of water and sank into the casserole.
"This is Lingquan," Jiajing said, turning and walking towards the Jingshe, "Put the pot on the stove and turn the heat to cook porridge."
"Yes!" Upon hearing this, Lu Fang carefully covered the lid, then held the casserole with both hands and placed it on the stove to start cooking porridge.
Soon, the Yuxi Palace was filled with fragrance.
The fragrance wafted out from the palace, making the eunuchs waiting outside the door salivate with excitement.
For one and a half months, apart from a month of seclusion, Jiajing only ate spiritual rice in the sect for half a month.
Now that I'm back, I naturally no longer look down on the vulgar things in the palace.
"..."
(End of this chapter)
