We have fought to the Arctic Circle, and you want me to inherit the throne?

Chapter 1024 Trip to Yunmeng Mountain (4)

Li Che finally gave his judgment; let's continue reading.

From then on, I became silent.

I completely shut myself off, no longer concerning myself with worldly affairs, and declared to the outside world that I was in seclusion.

I took over the position of Guiguzi from my master, but my heart was ashen. I buried myself in piles of paper all day long, frantically reading the classics collected by Yunmeng Mountain over the generations, trying to numb myself with knowledge and also trying to find answers in them.

At that time, I once thought that I would spend the rest of my life in endless repentance and silence, until I turned into a handful of yellow earth in Yunmeng Mountain.

But... I'm not willing to accept this!

In the dead of night, the young and passionate faces of my disciples and the desperate and worried look in my master's eyes before his death alternate before my eyes.

Were their sacrifices so utterly worthless?

Was my arrival merely to bring disaster?

Is all the knowledge I possess destined to be nothing but a mirage?

At that time, I was unaware that a more obsessive thought was quietly taking root in my lifeless heart.

To make up for my first mistake, I embarked on an even more extreme path.

They made a bigger mistake than all their previous mistakes combined.

Looking back now, it feels like my personality was torn apart.

A part of me remains forever frozen in the moment I traveled here, stubbornly believing that I do not belong to this backward world, but am merely a tormented bystander.

Another part of me has taken root in Yunmeng Mountain, carrying the legacy of Guiguzi.

I started writing frantically.

It no longer involves any ideas, but only records pure scientific knowledge.

Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine...

I recorded all the knowledge I had.

It's like a form of atonement, and also like a preparation.

I regard these as a legacy I leave to the world, and I hope they can bear different fruits in the places where I failed.

At the same time, an even crazier thought began to grow in my mind—how did I get here?

I kept replaying the last moments before I traveled through time: the severe natural disaster, the persistent hunger, and the people around me constantly collapsing...

Many, many people died.

As luck would have it, it was at that moment that everything went black, and I was born into this world.

A terrifying association crept into my mind like a venomous snake.

Is it because enough people died that some kind of barrier between space and time was broken?

Once this idea takes hold, it can never be dispelled.

It coiled around my reason like a vine, drawing upon the despair and obsession deep within me.

I began to read extensively from ancient books and discovered that whenever the world was in chaos and there were mass deaths of humans, some events would occur that defied common sense.

This further confirms my conjecture.

If we create large-scale deaths in this world, could we reopen the path home?

As for the people of this world? Ha... They are ignorant and numb, trapped in an eternal cycle without realizing it.

They are natives of another world, not my compatriots, so what does it have to do with me?

This world, from top to bottom, exudes a nauseating stench of decay.

Do not break or stand!

Since my path to my ideals is blocked, I might as well destroy it completely! I'll wash it away with fire and blood!

If I succeed, I may be able to return to my beloved motherland.

If we fail... what does it matter if this wretched world is destroyed?!

Anyway, dynastic changes are inevitable. Perhaps the next dynasty's ruler will be more wise, and the people's lives will be better.

Of course, although I thought so at the time, I didn't immediately put it into action.

I stayed in Yunmeng Mountain for forty years. When I reached the age of forty, I also took on a generation of personal disciples.

Unlike the Yunmeng Mountain disciples I taught before, they were about my age and more like like-minded companions.

These disciples were mostly children, innocent and naive, at an age when they knew nothing of the world.

I began to teach them, imparting only scriptural knowledge and scientific principles, without touching upon any thoughts of past lives.

If I am destined to fail, at least they won't repeat my mistakes.

At the same time, I turned my attention to the border troops on the northern frontier of the empire.

The court was corrupt and rampant with greed. The border troops' food and pay were being embezzled at every level, and they were already full of complaints.

But most of the soldiers at the lower levels were simple, honest peasants who still held a simple loyalty to the imperial court.

They are just dissatisfied, not yet to the point of utter despair.

The soldiers are loyal, but what about the general?

They held military power, suffered many grievances, and their ambition and discontent were often separated by only a fine line.

What I need to do is very simple.

That was to persuade those generals to rebel!

For a moment, I felt extremely ashamed.

In the end, I didn't use the 'advanced ideas' from that world, but rather the scheming and political maneuvering of Yunmeng Mountain, which I despised the most.

I used sharp words to analyze the current situation, used precise calculations to amplify the general's resentment towards the court, and used grand slogans like "cleansing the court of corrupt officials" to paint a picture of a future where they would hold absolute power after the chaos was rectified.

The generals were not immediately convinced, but none of them reported me to the court.

I know perfectly well that's enough. They're not loyal to the court; they're just waiting for an opportunity.

As for the consequences, it doesn't matter...

This dynasty was destined to perish eventually; what difference would it make if it came a few decades earlier or a few decades later?

The opportunity came quickly.

An old general, who was highly respected on the frontier, died in despair, and his son succeeded him.

The young general was hot-blooded and resentful of the court's long-standing mistreatment of the border troops, and it was at this time that I found him.

I didn't try to persuade him with any ideals; I just told him the facts: the court was corrupt and treacherous, embezzling military pay and treating border soldiers like dirt.

We are not rebelling, but rescuing the deceived emperor and seeking justice for the countless comrades who died unjustly on the frontier!

I'm not lying; this is simply the truth.

I simply refined this fact into the sharpest poisoned arrow.

The young general was persuaded.

Or rather, I ignited his inner ambition.

He raised his arms and, under the banner of "purging the emperor's corrupt advisors and securing the country," launched an uprising.

The border troops, who had been suppressed for a long time, were like dry wood meeting a raging fire, and followers flocked to them.

With a sense of tragic heroism, they believed they were eliminating traitors for the country and waging a just war.

Chaos has begun.

When these loyal border soldiers rushed to the battlefield, they saw government troops carrying the same dragon flag and wearing the same uniforms.

The other side was shouting at them: "Traitor! Traitor!"

Traitor?

You traitors are the ones who collude with wicked and evildoers!

Both sides firmly believed that they represented justice and were fighting for the Huan Kingdom in their hearts.

The war was extremely brutal.

There was no compromise, no retreat, only a life-or-death struggle.

Ultimately, victory belonged to the imperial court.

But it was a Pyrrhic victory.

The empire's most elite northern border troops were almost entirely wiped out in this internal strife.

The nation's strength was greatly diminished, and the people's livelihood was in dire straits.

The old emperor died in fear, and a new emperor ascended the throne.

Although the new emperor was wise, he inherited a mess that was in ruins.

Many people died.

So many corpses covered the fields, and the rivers turned red with blood.

So many that for miles there is not a rooster's crow, and white bones are exposed in the wild.

Standing atop Yunmeng Mountain, I could almost smell the stench of blood that permeated the entire empire.

but......

I am still here.

I couldn't go back.

Hu Qiang saw his emperor shiver, then slowly press the half-read letter onto the table.

He couldn't help but look around; there was no wind in the secret room, so it wasn't cold.

The secret room wasn't cold, but Li Che felt a chill run through his body and his heart was filled with coldness.

If Wang Yuanshan's previous experiments still carried a touch of idealistic naiveté, then the rebellion described in the letter has completely transcended the realm of radicalism.

"He's lost," Li Che murmured to himself.

At this point, Wang Yuanshan was no longer a pioneer with ideals but flawed methods, but a soul completely alienated in despair.

Essentially, Wang Yuanshan no longer sees this world as real.

His mindset is more like that of those players who were immersed in virtual games in their previous lives, treating all living beings as NPCs.

Why feel guilty about killing NPCs? They're just a string of virtual data.

He no longer cared about the border soldiers, their wives and children, or the human tragedies that occurred wherever the flames of war raged.

All he needed was the result of 'mass death' to validate his insane conjecture.

He lost his faith.

Li Che sighed. The once passionate Wang Yuanshan was dead, replaced by a vengeful man twisted by homesickness, a schemer who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals.

He abandoned the humanistic spirit he came from his homeland and instead used the ruthless and manipulative tactics he despised most.

This is not progress, but utter depravity.

However, what complicated Li Che's mind even more was that Wang Yuanshan's heinous crimes had objectively become a key stepping stone for his rise to power.

Without the civil war instigated by Wang Yuanshan, which exhausted the previous dynasty's national strength, the foundation of Huan Dynasty's rule would not have been shaken so quickly.

Without that great upheaval that led to the collapse of central authority and the rise of local powers, Emperor Qing would have found it difficult to seize the opportunity to contend for the throne.

Thus, when he transmigrated, he did not have the status of a prince, and his situation might not be much better than that of Wang Yuanshan, who had just arrived.

So, by this calculation, Li Che's ability to rule the world today is actually built on the very steps that Wang Yuanshan paved with countless corpses.

"Perhaps... without his crazy move, I would be the second Wang Yuanshan."

Li Che stared at the frantic handwriting on the letter, as if he saw himself on another timeline, equally desperate, driven to extremes by his predicament.

This realization prevented him from morally criticizing Wang Yuanshan's behavior, and instead filled him with an indescribable sense of pity.

The irony of history is perhaps the greatest.