In the dead of night, Ji Xia, as usual, was diligently cultivating his spiritual essence in his room.
Due to his palace being completely filled with grain, the doors and windows were bulging, letting the wind in from all sides, making it uninhabitable. He had no choice but to move to the palace he used to live in during his time as crown prince.
Both palaces, due to Taicang's poverty, were constructed in very similar ways. The only differences were the furnishings and the size of the palaces.
Ji Xia didn't mind much. Before he crossed over, he had lived in a cramped apartment of just a few dozen square meters and never found it uncomfortable. Now, he was even more indifferent to such matters.
His cultivation had already firmly reached the Third Heaven stage, with the spiritual essence capacity of the Great Snow Mountain being considerable. However, there was a downside to this progress.
With the increase in spiritual essence, the Great Snow Mountain kept expanding, and the benefits of the Spiritual Gathering Runes were no longer as effective as before. Although Ji Xia's cultivation speed was still far ahead of any other cultivator, he was not completely satisfied.
"The Spiritual Gathering Runes combined with the Starry Secret Scroll have seemingly reached a limit. Both the speed of spiritual essence refining and gathering have already hit the peak of the Third Heaven stage."
"But even so, I still need at least two months to break through to the Fourth Heaven. It's too slow."
Thinking about this, Ji Xia couldn't help but smile wryly, shaking his head as he muttered, "I'm being too greedy. With my current cultivation speed, I'm already the fastest in Taicang's history. I shouldn't ask for too much."
"Let me continue cultivating steadily, first storing the seeds of the Immortal Decaying Tree. It would be best if I could exchange them for the Heavenly Saint Right Guard's military camp. With that, Taicang would finally have true survival prospects and no longer need to worry about the surrounding crows and dogs or the threat of Zhou Qing."
He sensed that his talent, like that of most of Taicang's royal offspring, wasn't particularly extraordinary. If the Spiritual Gathering Runes were used by someone with exceptional talent, they might already be close to the Fourth Heaven stage by now.
With this thought, Ji Xia became even more determined in his training. He believed that diligence could make up for any shortcomings. Aside from dealing with state affairs and reading books to understand the Boundless Wilderness, he spent nearly all his time cultivating with the Starry Secret Scroll and honing his martial skills.
Although his Hundred Layer Waves could not yet reach the higher levels due to the limited spiritual essence, the sense of obscurity that had once hindered him had completely disappeared. When sparring with Jing Ye, he no longer fell behind; all he lacked was real combat experience.
"Your Majesty, the late-night snack has arrived."
The maid who attended to his daily needs brought a bowl of porridge. Thanks to the Wanshi Bao Ping, Ji Xia was able to enjoy an extra bowl of rice porridge every night.
The miraculous nature of the Wanshi Bao Ping was beyond anyone's imagination. At first, people thought it could only produce enough food to feed a thousand, expecting it to yield just a few thousand pounds of grain per spirit crystal. To everyone's surprise, the bottle could produce an entire room full of rice with just one spirit crystal.
Fearing the news would leak and attract the attention of other powerful countries who might want to steal such a terrifying treasure, the officials quickly transported the rice to the granaries, where the warehouse officers worked through the night, weighing, bagging, and storing it.
The final results were astonishing: one spirit crystal yielded 80,000 pounds of rice!
With 138 spirit crystals, Taicang could produce 11 million pounds of rice.
Adding in the 48 million pounds already in storage, the people of Taicang finally had enough to eat, with two meals a day assured.
How could anyone not be excited by such news?
The ministers of Taicang danced in joy, tears flowing freely. They kneeled and cried out, thanking the great wind for the bounty, and bowed to Ji Xia, expressing their deepest gratitude.
For the entire day, Ji Xia was showered with compliments, and even Ji Qianqing, with her bewitching, soul-stirring eyes, never took her gaze off him.
Eventually, Ji Xia, feeling overwhelmed, had to excuse himself, claiming he needed rest, to finally send the crowd away for a brief respite.
This led to the nightly bowl of porridge. Although it was simple, with just a few red dates added to the rice porridge, it was far more than he could have ever expected. In the past, such luxuries would have led to ministers trying to persuade him not to indulge in extravagance, warning him that it could lead to the downfall of the nation.
Ji Xia appreciated their concern but was glad to accept their gifts. After all, the rice from the Wanshi Bao Ping tasted much better than the grain grown in Taicang's fields. Each grain was plump and round, with a faint fragrance when eaten—much better than anything they had produced before.
Thus, Ji Xia decided not to exchange the more than a hundred spirit crystals for rice just yet. Instead, he planned to wait until the Day of Silence to do so. Given the terrifying and desolate atmosphere during that time, the people of Taicang would undoubtedly feel a sense of hope if they were able to eat such delicious rice.
He mused over this for a while before taking the bowl of porridge from the maid, his right hand picking up a cultivation manual to read while eating.
In his distraction, he didn't notice the familiar maid standing beside him, her head lowered and her face pale with distress.
Ji Xia drank the porridge in two or three gulps and handed the empty bowl to the maid.
She bowed and quickly took the bowl, leaving in haste.
"By the way, Kong Ying."
Ji Xia continued reading, speaking casually.
The maid froze, her body trembling slightly. She stiffly turned around and saluted, "Your Majesty."
Ji Xia said, "I overheard you talking to Guan Xi last time. Your father has some leg trouble, right?"
The maid, Kong Ying, replied shakily, "Yes, Your Majesty."
"I've already informed the Apothecary House, and they've prepared the medicine. It's late today, so I'll give you the day off tomorrow. You can go to the Apothecary House to pick up the medicine and take it back home," Ji Xia said.
"Wh...what?" Kong Ying raised her head, her face flushed, beads of sweat dripping down.
Ji Xia finally looked up, noticing her unusual expression, and asked, "What's wrong? Are you sick as well?"
Kong Ying nodded numbly.
Ji Xia furrowed his brows. "Then go rest. You and Guan Xi were always very close, right? Let her serve me for now. We don't want things to get worse."
Kong Ying bowed again and stood up to leave.
"You and Guan Xi need to take care of your health. As for the other servants, I'm not used to them. Let your father take the medicine for now. If it doesn't work, I'll have the Apothecary House send someone to see him when I have time."
Kong Ying quickly nodded and bowed before leaving.
Ji Xia watched her leave, his mind filled with confusion. "What happened? Why is Kong Ying acting like this? She's never been like this before."
His suspicions grew, and he stood up, intending to follow Kong Ying to get to the bottom of it.
Suddenly, he felt the prince's palace expanding!
The world seemed to spin, and the ground beneath him began to sink like a deep pit opening up beneath him. Panic surged in his heart as he tried to remain calm, but it was futile.
It was as if he was sinking into an endless swamp, being consumed and swallowed deeper and deeper.
Until he perished!
A cold, eerie voice echoed through the strange, distorted world: "You dared to kill my daughter? I'll make sure you accompany her in death!"