Chapter 94: The Free and Easy Young Marquis (27)
Universe Wanderer. As the name suggests, it refers to a consciousness that wanders the universe.
However, while all sorts of lifeforms and consciousnesses are born in the universe, those called Universe Wanderers are not among those born directly in the vast universe; rather, they are “cosmic fugitives.”
Countless spatial worlds are born in the universe. These spatial worlds nurture life and consciousness, and they do not interfere with one another. Normally, the laws of the world and the spatial barriers maintain order in a region. Therefore, barring special circumstances, lifeforms or consciousnesses born in a certain space cannot leave that space, nor can they leave by personal ability alone. Task-takers like Huo Yuan, who have official permission, leave through special channels and are licensed for their positions.
Universe Wanderers, on the other hand, are mostly criminals who have escaped their original worlds. There are also task-takers who are wanted for failing to complete missions or for maliciously destroying mission worlds. In short, they are fugitives who must be arrested upon being seen.
Huo Yuan hadn’t expected that Xiao Jinchi was possessed by the consciousness of a Universe Wanderer. Universe Wanderers were different from mechanical lifeforms; mechanical lifeforms could be recognized by the laws, whereas Universe Wanderers were purely illegal intruders. Once discovered by the laws, they would be expelled. If they couldn’t be expelled, they would be assimilated and devoured, becoming energy to supplement the laws.
The loopholes in the laws of this world were massive. A Universe Wanderer had smuggled himself in, and as long as he didn’t use power beyond the world’s laws, the laws wouldn’t discover him.
The Universe Wanderer before him had perhaps been wandering in the universe for a long time. His consciousness was not strong, or else he wouldn’t have needed to devour mechanical lifeforms to supplement himself and create the phenomena that nearly made Huo Xian an Emperor loathed by the heavens.
The Universe Wanderer practically ground his teeth to pieces. He was only one step away from becoming Emperor. Once he became Emperor, he would have obtained the luck belonging to an Emperor, thereby strengthening his consciousness.
He had planned for everything, but he never expected this world to have a task-takerâand such a powerful one at that. A total failure!
Toward native residents who had mechanical lifeforms, whether they were good or bad, Huo Yuan would not easily strip them away. Stripping them away would cause the native residentâs body and spirit to suffer trauma or even death. Task-takers were already subject to many restrictions, and their points were never enough; if more were deducted, heâd probably have to linger in mission worlds for his entire life.
To return to the point.
The native residents possessed by Universe Wanderers did not have that concern. The Universe Wanderer was a consciousness entity that controlled the consciousness of the person he had chosen. Even if stripped away, it wouldn’t harm the person.
Thus, Huo Yuan acted without any burden. He held the Universe Wandererâs consciousnessâwhich was so faint it was almost invisibleâin his hand. The entity had no power to resist. After he scanned it with the Management Bureau, the screen immediately displayed the other partyâs identity information.
[Wanted Number: WKIG1009240986935 Dimension: 7 Name: Aris Reason for Wanted Status: Former employee of the Space-Time Management Bureau. During missions, destroyed several small worlds. Destroyed the Management Bureau, severely injured the Supervisor, and escaped. Escaped Date: Dimension 7 Universal Calendar Year 5631, May 12.]
So… he was a former colleague?
Huo Yuan was slightly surprised, but not that much. There was truly a reason why the Management Bureau was creating more and more regulations for task-takers recently. If he and Aris had the same idea of destroying small worlds, with his strength, the destructive power would likely be immense.
It was also only today that he discovered the Management Bureau had updated againâwhen the points he consumed by using power accumulated to -12,000, his power was restricted. If he wanted to use more, a Supervisor would immediately find him and take him back to prison. This showed how terrifying the destructive power of former task-takers could be; the Management Bureau had to put in a lot of effort.
He wanted these -12,000 points back. The mission world had a massive bug outside of the mission parameters, which forced the difficulty of his mission to skyrocket. Instead of deducting his points, the Management Bureau should be rewarding him!
Huo Xian finally endured his first court session and couldn’t wait to find Huo Yuan.
In the end, he didn’t have to find him; Huo Yuan came back on his own, looking very unhappy.
“Yuanyuan, what happened?” Huo Xian only felt slightly relieved when he saw that he was in one piece and walking normally.
The moment he saw Huo Xian, Huo Yuan couldn’t help but pout. He buried his head in Huo Xianâs chest and said gloomily, “The Management Bureau is too shameless!”
Huo Xianâs ears twitched. “The Management Bureau?”
Huo Yuan then told him about the special situation with Xiao Jinchi, including the previous thunder and lightning, which were all Arisâs doing. “…Now Aris has been taken away by the Supervisor. After reporting to the headquarters, the Supervisor only said they would erase those ten extra missions I gained, but the points are still up for debate.” The more he spoke, the angrier he became. “Why did I use the points? Based on what are they deducting so many? Ten thousand! We have to earn them back over two worlds with double rewards!”
Huo Xian recalled the thunder and lightning, as well as the massive golden dragon, the rainbow clouds, and the spiritual rain. He asked with a strange expression, “Yuanyuan, can a Universe Wanderer control wind, rain, thunder, and lightning?”
“They can. Itâs very simple. Want me to perform for you?” Huo Yuan nodded, eager to show off his skills.
“Don’t…” Huo Xian hurried to stop him. He wasn’t worried about him using more points and calling the Supervisor back; he was just worried about creating another phenomenon that would make the officials and citizens gossip. He diverted his attention: “The golden dragon, rainbow clouds, and spiritual rainâhow did you think of those?”
At this, Huo Yuanâs face became full of pride. “Because Iâve watched a lot of dramas! An Emperor is the True Dragon Son of Heaven, so making a giant dragon is so majestic! And rainbow clouds are such a good omen!”
Huo Xian laughed. “Then what about the final spiritual rain?”
“Uh…” Huo Yuan felt a tiny bit guilty but still answered honestly: “I switched channels and accidentally turned it into a Xianxia script.”
Huo Xian: […………]
He was both angry and amused. He pinched Huo Yuanâs face, not daring to use too much force, and then asked, “When did Aris possess Xiao Jinchi, and what is Xiao Jinchiâs situation now?”
Huo Yuan could answer this. After the Supervisor arrived, they performed a time reversal, and he tagged along to watch. He explained it clearly to Huo Xian: “The node was when Xiao Jinli was reborn. He entered this world behind the mechanical lifeform. The mechanical lifeform chose Xiao Jinli, while he picked Xiao Jinchi. Only after possessing Xiao Jinchi did he discover that Xiao Jinchiâs optic nerve was damaged. He had to treat himself first. He didn’t dare make a big scene; once the laws discovered him, he would be immediately expelled. So he wasn’t in a hurry to take the throne, but instead used a low-level hypnosis technique he stole from a mechanical lifeform to push Xiao Jinli up.”
“And the Mind-Bewildering Grass…?” Huo Xian asked.
“Low-level hypnosis doesn’t work against people with strong wills, so Mind-Bewildering Grass was used as an aid. However, the fact that those consorts in the inner palace grew vegetables and Consort Yan grew leeks was all a coincidence. The first person he hypnotized was the Noble Consort.”
“Why her?” Huo Xian was slightly surprised.
“Consort Yan doesn’t like this son. To show brotherly affection, Xiao Jinli would bring him along whenever he went to the Palace of Celestial Music. The Noble Consort used this to build her persona as a virtuous wife and loving mother. She never expected to invite a wolf into the house; both mother and son became Arisâs pawns.” Huo Yuan had followed Huo Xian through two worlds. It was only in this world that he realized human hearts were actually so difficult to fathom, even scarier than in dramas.
However, there was still one thing Huo Xian couldn’t understand: “Since Aris wanted to obtain luck by becoming Emperor to supplement his own strength, why did he suddenly raise taxes and cause the court officials to oppose and be dissatisfied?”
“Because he craved pleasure,” Huo Yuan gave the answer. “Even if he obtained the Emperorâs luck, it couldn’t fill his consciousness. In a low-dimensional world, unless itâs the consciousness of the laws, the combined luck of a whole world isn’t enough to cross a spatial barrier onceâno, it wouldn’t even be enough to cross the barrier of the laws. He was already at the end of his rope and just wanted to enjoy himself once before his consciousness dissipated.”
Huo Xian was speechless. He really wanted pleasure more than his life.
The matter was basically clear now. The Third Prince, Xiao Jinli, was the bug on the surface. The Fourth Prince, Xiao Jinchiâor rather, the Universe Wanderer Aris possessing himâwas the real bug. With both solved, the world would return to its proper track.
Although the process was a bit twisted, it was considered a successful outcome.
The most fortunate one was naturally the Fourth Prince, Xiao Jinchi. Although he lost the memories of the time Aris occupied his body, Aris had at least done one good deed before his deathâhe healed Xiao Jinchiâs eyes.
Aris didn’t want to arouse suspicion, so he told everyone his eyes were slowly recovering. In fact, he could already see normally, with his vision being slightly poor at most. Xiao Jinchi could be considered to have gained a blessing from disaster. After waking up, he happily walked many circles around the palace, finding everything fresh. The next day, he went to ask Emperor Haoyuan to let him leave the palace to establish his own manor. As it turned out, his Imperial Father had turned into the Retired Emperor, and his cousin Huo Xian had become the new Emperor. After looking into it further, he found the Crown Prince had passed away from illness and the Third Prince had committed suicide in prison after a failed coup… The Fourth Prince was completely stunned. His recovered eyes couldn’t cure his sudden social withdrawal.
Huo Xian intended to care for his younger cousinâs physical and mental health, but since he had just ascended the throne, he had a backlog of state affairs to deal with and truly couldn’t find the time.
Hmm… so he dragged out Emperor Haoyuan, who had been upgraded to Retired Emperor, to work as labor.
The former Emperor was still lamenting his life of ups and downs when he saw Huo Xian bring over two stacks of memorials. His eyelids twitched heavily. “Yi-er, you are the Emperor now.”
Huo Xian nodded to show he knew, and then said before the Retired Emperor could speak: “Uncle, I have something more important to do than reading memorials.”
“You are the Emperor now; you must call yourself ‘We’ (ć – Zhèn).” The Retired Emperor first corrected his form of address, then asked: “What thing?”
Huo Xian flashed a brilliant smile: “The grand wedding.”
The Retired Emperorâs brow furrowed. Just as he was about to speak, Huo Xian cut him off: “Uncle, my marriage to Yuanyuan was bestowed by you. Although it wasn’t what you intended, everyone in the world knows about it.”
Hearing this, the Retired Emperorâs breathing hitched. Although having his nephew marry a man indeed suited his wishes, he couldn’t help but feel guilty that marrying a man meant not opening the inner court to take consorts. To have his nephewâs lineage end like this made him feel a bit of reluctance.
But he had made Huo Xian swear an oath in the Ancestral Temple…
“Yi-er, do you blame me?” The Retired Emperor asked. Before Huo Xian could answer, he said to himself: “You should blame me. I harmed you for my own selfish desires. When I pass away… when I pass away…”
“Uncle!” Huo Xian called out, his expression somewhat serious.
The Retired Emperorâs heart tightened, and he couldn’t help but sit up straight, waiting for his words.
Huo Xian pushed the memorials forward slightly: “If you truly feel guilty toward me, then help me review more memorials.”
Retired Emperor: […?]
Huo Xian added very seriously: “You are only in your forties. You suffered during the recent turmoil, but Medical Immortal Du said you have a good foundation; youâll be back to normal after some rest.”
The Retired Emperorâs mouth twitched. In his heart, he was a bit reluctant to abdicate, but with the golden dragon appearing when Huo Xian was enthroned, he was truly demoralized. He felt he wasn’t a good Emperor, but now in front of Huo Xian, he was like a duck… being driven onto a perch by his nephew.
What exactly was Huo Xian thinking?
Huo Xian was thinking: The Retired Emperor had been Emperor for many years after all. He was a novice and lacked experience, so he might as well push the memorials out. He had other things to do. For one thing, people are the fundamental components of society. In this era where people frequently got engaged, married, and had children in their early teens, and where cousins and blood relatives married, it was very necessary to popularize healthy birth and child-rearing practices. This would be a massive project.
Translator’s Note:
Taishang Huang (太ä¸ç) is the title for a Retired Emperor. Huo Xian calling himself “We” (ć – Zhèn) is the standard first-person pronoun used only by Emperors. Huo Xian is really using his uncle as a “tool man”!Â
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