Chapter 1 - Zhao Li

Min Li was standing in the summit of a valley, looking at the back of a girl. There were many mixed feelings swelling inside his heart as he looked at her.

“Fiery Spear, do… you hate this world?”

Min Li discerned the faint quiver from her body — she was reluctant to ask the question, but at the same time, she wanted to know the answer. Her action caused him to reconsider the importance of his answer as he fell into deep thought.

“To be honest, I hate this world.”

Min Li replied, his eyes fixed on her back. He couldn’t see her expression, but for a strange reason, he was certain that she was a little depressed after hearing his answer.

“But I don’t hate this world as much as I used to.” He said, revealing a pleasant smile as he remembered about the adventures he had since arriving on Soaring Sword.

“I’ve encountered a lot of dangers, escaped death a lot of time, but I’ve also made a lot of friends and had a lot of good times too.” It was his true feelings. He had hesitated to confess his love, saying, “This world allowed me to meet you which was the reason why I don’t hate this world anymore.” but he had refrained his feelings — he was afraid of ending the relation he had with her because of that.

Turning her head towards Min Li, tears were flowing out from her delicate eyes, falling on her pure snow-like cheeks. The smile on her face was like a beautiful painting mesmerizing him.

“I—“

The moment she was about to open her thin delicate red lips, Min Li’s surroundings suddenly started to shatter into pieces like a mirror that broke upon falling into the ground — the world was collapsing in front of him.

“Little Snow!” Seeing the girl, Little Snow falling into the darkness, Min Li tried to grab his hand — but it was too late. The moment he succeeded to move his body, Little Snow already had disappeared into the darkness.

“Uh?”

It was only at this moment that he found himself lying on a bed, looking at a ceiling. Everything that had happened a few minutes ago was only a dream Min Liu had. Rising his upper body, he looked at the surroundings.

“Where is this place?”

The room felt unfamiliar to him. It was not his bedroom on Earth, but it was not somewhere he was familiar on Soaring Sword either. Min Li couldn’t understand what was going on.

“I should explore this place. Staying there won’t get me the answer.”

After giving some thought, Min Li had made up his mind. He decided to look for the owner of the house to grasp the reason why he was there. If the latter had saved him, then he needed to thank him.

“Your Highness! You are finally awake!”

Leaving the room, a well-dressed middle-aged man ran towards Min Li with a relieved expression. The man then politely saluted and said, “Your Highness, please come with me. I need your signature for taxation’s reform.” hurrying Min Li to follow him.

But Min Li Stood still. He was looking at the middle-aged man with a dazzled look. He was going to ask him if he was the owner of the house but before he could open his mouth, he heard an unusual word — Your Highness.

“Aren’t you mistaken me for someone else? Why are you calling me ‘Your Highness’?”

Min Li asked, but this time, it was the middle-aged man who was staring at him with a confused look. They were now both looking at each other with a strange atmosphere around them.

The man then suddenly thought about something and asked, “Your Highness, do your head still hurt you?” in a concerned tone. He then stated, “Worry not, your Highness. We have beheaded the hooligan who threw at you the stone.” exposing his infuriated feeling as he emphasized the word ‘hooligan’. Even though the prince he had been appointed to was an incompetent scoundrel, he was still the one whose fate was the same as him. To throw a stone at the prince was the same as throwing a stone at him.

Min Li wasn’t listening to what the middle-aged man said. At the moment, he was looking at an empty space lost in his thought. His brain was in the process of recollecting the someone else’s memories. It was a weird sensation, like watching a film in fast motion. The brain had a lot of data to convert, thus, it automatically rearranged the information and only twenty percent of the information had been read while the rest information was moderately updating. And from the little information, Min Li had obtained, the essential had given him a slightly better understanding of the situation he was in.

This world was called The Ancient Realm and Min Li had transmigrated into the body of the 12th prince of The Myriad Empire, Zhao Li. He was currently in Flowing River City, a town on the northern border of The Myriad Empire’s territory. He had been assigned as the lord of the town by his father, the actual emperor, and the mission he had, was to improve the city. Unfortunately, the remaining data were vague and apart from the names or the faces of the other princes, he didn’t know anything else about Zhao Li such as his personality, his attitude, nor the way he behaved.

Seeing the prince who was always frivolous and easy-going with such a serious face stunned the middle-aged man. He couldn’t help but ask, “Your Highness, is there something that is bothering you?” attempting to expose Min Li’s thought.

“Uncle Jingyi, can you lead me to my office?”

Instead of answering to Jingyi, the middle-aged man, Min Li asked as he politely smiled. Although he didn’t know how Zhao Li behaved when he was talking to Jingyi, from his memory, this person was one of the pupils of the emperor’s minister of finance. And even if he wasn’t, Min Li had always been respectful to the elderly.

Jingyi’s mouth twitched as his mouth was slightly opened from the shocking words he just heard. He hadn’t even noticed Min Li’s polite way of talking which demonstrated how shocked he was.

This prince who was so much unwilling to approach his own office was asking him to lead him towards it. If this was not shocking, then what could be more shocking than this?

After a few seconds, Jingyi suddenly regained his sense, and quickly said, “Y—Yes! I’ll gladly lead you the way, your Highness. Please follow me.” as he hurried towards the office, worried that Min Li might reconsider his decision at any moment.

Entering the office, Min Li’s eyes slightly widened. The office was spacious and finely furnished. The typical office of a noble, but it wasn’t how extravagant the room was which surprised him, but the massive amount of paperwork accumulated on the desk.

‘This is going to take me the whole day…’ Min Li thought as he sighed in depression. However, he had to read all of these documents and thoughtfully explored them, it was the only way to understand the situation of Flowing River City without overlooking any information.

Sitting on the desk as he took a pile of documents, Min Li asked, “Uncle Jingyi, can you please tell me in detail everything that happened since my arrival to Flowing River City please?” as he bitterly smiled at him.

Seeing the incomprehension of the request showing on Jingyi’s face, he then calmly explained, “Due to the blow I received on the head, I had forgotten every bit of the memory I had before arriving there.” as he gave him an apologetic look.

A sudden revelation struck into Jingyi’s mind as he had figured out the reason why Min Li had performed such a strange behavior after waking up. Although Jingyi already knew about Min Li’s identity before he came into Flowing River City, the latter didn’t know him until they had met after his arrival. Since he had lost his memories, it was totally normal for him to react in such a way.

Nodding his head, Jingyi reported to Min Li everything that happened since his arrival. But the more he listened to it, the more unpleasant his expression became as he ascertained how alarming the actual situation Min Li and Flowing River City were.

If everything he had heard from Jingyi was true which was most likely the case, then Zhao Li’s absurd level of stupidity was questionable. Not only did this fellow worsened the financial affairs of Flowing River City to an unimaginable state, but on top of that, he had also managed to decrease the population by more than fifty percent.

Since arriving in Flowing River City, Zhao Li had increased the taxes by ten folds for the only reason because of his lack of pocket money. In addition, he had spent most of it in the brothel within the city, enjoying a lustful life, soliciting every desired woman within the town, either they were married or not. His conduct had caused a depopulation of the city and the enmity of the population, providing the lord of the neighboring town who had been anticipating, the opportunity to prepare for an offensive onto Flowing River City which had been given to him by Zhao Li.

Under such circumstances, how in the world Min Li could accomplish the emperor’s request to improve the city? The only experience he had regarding economics was from The Dream World as the lord of The Immortal City, but even with his knowledge, it was impossible no matter how talented one might be.

Scratching his head as he completed a pile of documents, Min Li moaned in displeasure as he muttered, “Why do I even need to clean his mess in the first place?” in a low voice. But it was obvious that he could only blame himself for his own personality, being overly generous and diligent — since Zhao Li had provided him a new life either he was willing or not, it was his obligation to repay the favor he had towards him by cleaning the horrible mess he had left behind him. To always repay his debt, it was one of the principles he had been following and will always follow for the rest of his life.

It was already late once Min Li finished the majority of the important documents. There were still a lot of them to finish, but it only required a stamp and his signature. It could be quickly done another day.

Stretching his body to release the revitalize himself, Min Li then noticed Jingyi who was still standing there, next to the door, waiting for him to finish his work. He felt a warmth on his heart as the impression he had for him instantly elevated into one of a genuine uncle.

“I’m sorry for making you wait, uncle Jingyi. Let’s have dinner before going to bed.”

Min Li said with an affectionate smile on his face.

Jingyi shook his head and said, “Not at all, your Highness. I should be the one to apologize that I cannot share your burden. The one to blame here should be none other than me.” in a dejected tone. One could see without a doubt that he felt wrong not being able to help Min Li. This was his true feelings.

If it was the former procrastinating and good-for-nothing Zhao Li, then Jingyi didn’t care at all to make him fill these documents. And it was only if he actually managed to compel him which was fundamentally unrealistic. But he had changed and for the better!

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he honestly couldn’t have believed it, but he had observed him the whole day and had witnessed it with his own eyes — ‘This is a blessing from Heaven!’ He had thought. He had even wanted to thank the hooligan who had thrown the stone at Zhao Li and had even thought to kneel in front of him.

It was how much he was delighted by the changes Zhao Li had. Even though Flowering River City was done for good, as long as the prince of his didn’t return from his former behavior, he believed there was still a sliver of hope for him to inherit the throne as long as he survived from the conflict!

After all, who among the other princes were even going to give a thought about such the good-for-nothing Zhao Li? As long as he could keep him remain low-key, he believed that he could successfully attain him the emperor’s throne — He was going to show to the emperor, no… to the world that he had the qualification to succeed. And if his plan was to work, then he was going to have the same or even more influence than the emperor himself!