Chapter 1858: 506: The Path to Corruption, Headache

As for the reason, it was because he had once been betrothed to the daughter of the No.3 big shot in that eastern rebel faction. Empress Qian listened to her younger brother complaining about this engagement; he couldn't make the decision himself, and he had never even seen that big shot's daughter.

Unfortunately, the political situation was complicated; even the slightest flaw could change the outcome.

Empress Qian soothed her younger brother a bit, and after sending him away, she sat alone in silence for a long time.

Things had changed again, and even the reasons behind them had changed.

She even began to wonder whether what she remembered, what she thought, was truly her own—or if that, too, had been arranged.

She began to enter the next stage, the stage of doubting her whole life.

Still, she remembered why, today, her brother could return safely, and why the maid who had grown up serving him could come back alive.

She rose and went to the Daqian Imperial Family's Royal Book Library.

The other side had only asked her to do something very simple.

She arrived at the library and, as instructed, found a volume of Classics that, judging by the title, was just a travelogue.

She couldn't resist glancing inside; it was indeed an ordinary travelogue and didn't seem to record anything important, except that the author was a Ninth Tier Strong.

It wasn't anything important, so she took the travelogue away and, after returning to her palace, destroyed it.

That was the price she had to pay.

She didn't understand why, but if something this simple could prevent the tragic ending she'd seen in her dream from coming true, she was of course willing to do it.

Only, she had no idea that once this was set in motion, as long as the Ancient Sea God did not choose to stop, there would never be a clean end to it.

Because a unique kind of connection had already been fully established.

The deeper it went, the more things could be altered.

Unless Empress Qian could, like the Old Emperor Qian back then, soar to the heavens on her own and turn herself into an existence that could no longer be rewritten.

Unfortunately, that kind of peerlessly mad genius like the Old Emperor Qian—if you traced back all the way to the Ancient God era—there had only ever been one like him.

Day after day passed, and Empress Qian, under instructions, began to do more and more things that seemed utterly baffling to her.

She didn't know that even for the Ancient Sea God itself, to alter a record required considerable effort.

Yet for her, it actually wasn't that hard.

Certain unique records hadn't spread widely; it was enough to destroy the channels with the highest probability of transmitting them onward.

For example, the Daqian Imperial Family's Royal Book Library.

Those parts already circulating outside didn't need to be bothered with at all.

After some years, they might be lost, or in the process of transmission they might naturally get distorted, growing more and more ridiculous with each retelling.

In the past, some things that had been erased by the Ancient Sea God, when they were eventually dug back up, were all found in places similar to the Daqian Imperial Family's Royal Book Library, unearthed from some dark corner.

The method with the highest success rate for the Ancient Sea God was not to destroy them completely, but to let them sink forever into some corner where they would never again be discovered.

But now, by directly destroying them in the place where their chance of being preserved and passed on was highest, the result was naturally even more thorough.

No one suspected Empress Qian; it was only a few records. Even if someone did realize they were missing, if they weren't particularly important, it would just be reported as normal loss.

And during this process, Empress Qian discovered that her brother's life had become much easier.

The identity of outside relatives had, for some unknown reason, suddenly become very popular.

Empress Qian wanted to stop. Even if she didn't understand what meaning those little tasks had, she knew things couldn't be that simple.

But after a few days, she realized she couldn't stop anymore.

Because her brother's personality had improved.

When things happened, he no longer came to her in gloom to complain; he was courteous, cheerful, generous in his actions, and even the small regrets left behind by a weak foundation in his childhood had completely disappeared.

Her younger brother was even closer to her than before, and especially respectful and polite.

The palace maids and guards all seemed to have a particularly good impression of this outside relative.

In their words, there was much praise: her brother truly lived up to his reputation, a once-in-a-millennium genius of the Xu Clan.

In private, whenever people brought him up, they all felt regret—it was a pity he was an outside relative.

If he weren't an outside relative, with her brother's qualities in every aspect, he would have long since soared to the sky.

Watching her brother grow better and better, more and more perfect in her eyes, in just a few days she knew she couldn't stop.

She could not accept the disappearance of this ever-more-perfect younger brother.

This time, the Ancient Sea God had learned its lesson and handled matters with great precision.

First give you the benefits, then have you do the work.

The regrets that were once impossible to mend, it filled in for you; after letting you regain what you had lost, you can no longer bear to lose it again.

For example, flaws in temperament are not formed in a day or two.

Once grown, for a Cultivator, they are almost impossible to remedy.

But the Ancient Sea God could.

Empress Qian sank deeper and deeper, unable to extricate herself. The sunk cost rose higher and higher, until it reached a point where she simply could not accept losing it all.

At that moment, a new task appeared, still asking her to destroy some records.

This time, however, it wasn't just the Daqian Imperial Family's Royal Book Library, but also some records in the Langya Academy.

In the Daqian Library, Empress Qian destroyed those without any difficulty; she even followed instructions and didn't look at their contents at all.

As for the Langya Institute, it wasn't much harder.

With her status, borrowing some Classics that weren't particularly sensitive wouldn't even be reported up to the duty Dean.