Within the Hall of Clouds, the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Crown Princess Ding Yun held a blank copy of the Book of Life and Death. She clearly saw everything happening in Luoyang Commandery, thousands of miles away. She was moved by the spirit of King Ning, who, despite repeated failures, persisted in his ideals.
Too much effort, foolishly persistent, and diligent.
He had failed in the succession struggle for centuries, only to rekindle his ambition to seize the throne again, and he was still so dedicated. It was truly a prime example of an old man starting a new venture, unable to learn from his mistakes.
Of course, besides this, Ding Yun also gained a thorough understanding of the situation with the King of Zhenxi by writing his name into the blank copy of the Book of Life and Death. She greatly admired such a pioneering spirit.
This was not sarcasm, by the way.
She was genuinely impressed.
Constantly focusing on internal strife within one's own small territory was clearly far inferior to expanding outward. The vast territory from the era of hereditary enfeoffment to the present was not gifted by others; it was all fought for.
This world was too vast, and the population too large.
Although the Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty was the most powerful nation and occupied the entire Central Province, compared to the Nine Provinces of the world, the land and population it currently possessed were far from enough for Ding Yun to gain sufficient influence to inscribe her mark upon the World Origin. Therefore, even without the King of Zhenxi, the first thing Ding Yun would do after ascending the throne would be to expand the territory and increase her influence.
Thus, after much deliberation.
That very night, Ding Yun specially activated another minor function of the blank copy of the Book of Life and Death, which she had recently discovered: she directly entered the dream of the King of Zhenxi.
Ordinary ghosts could send dreams.
Holding the Book of Life and Death, sending a dream was only natural.
In Luoyang Commandery, the King of Zhenxi slept uneasily. His dreams were directly divided into two areas.
One was a joyful scene of founding the dynasty and ascending the throne.
The other was a scene of being captured and dismembered.
Clearly, he himself lacked much confidence in success. In his sleep, he simultaneously fantasized about the glorious moments of success and worried about the dire consequences of failure.
After watching for a few minutes, Ding Yun unceremoniously shattered his dream with a palm strike. Then, using her spiritual power, she forcibly pulled him into the dreamscape she had reconstructed in his mind and made him regain consciousness immediately.
"King of Zhenxi, please sit!"
The dreamscape constructed by Ding Yun was simple. She recreated her Hall of Clouds and placed the King of Zhenxi opposite her, serving him a cup of tea.
At this moment, the King of Zhenxi was undoubtedly still somewhat dazed and confused, not entirely sure whether he was dreaming or awake. Especially when he pinched himself and felt no pain, yet clearly touched the teacup before him, could see Ding Yun's face, and discovered that his martial will could not break through the confines of the room, he became even more bewildered.
Because his current situation seemed to align with some aspects of dreaming, yet not others.
It was truly perplexing.
"I am the Imperial Crown Princess of the Yunxia Dynasty.
You need not worry about your current predicament, nor should you doubt whether you are dreaming. The current situation is that I have pulled you into a dreamscape constructed by myself.
I am aware of everything that has transpired today. You refused him admirably. That King Ning is the mastermind behind the assassination attempt on me. I have not killed him yet simply because I have not found sufficient evidence. However, he is doomed to die.
Furthermore, I am also fully aware of your plan to expand the territory, and I am quite pleased with it. You need not be overly cautious in this regard. Proceed with confidence, and I will speak to my father, the Emperor, on your behalf. You need not be too fearful.
But there is one thing you must remember.
The outward migration of population cannot be too excessive; it must be restrained.
Concurrently, in the coming years, you must actively encourage childbirth within your jurisdiction to compensate for the population you have relocated. Otherwise, I will not be as lenient as I am now. I implore you to keep this in mind!"
Ding Yun wasted no words. She directly explained the situation from the outset and articulated her thoughts and basic requirements for the King of Zhenxi.
That is, he could expand his territory and relocate people outward, but he could not go too far. It was like the rules of logging: for every tree cut, another must be planted.
Translated into population terms, for every person taken away,
He must find a way to ensure that the local population gives birth to that many more people.
Otherwise, if all the people are taken away, when Ding Yun herself ascends the throne, she will have to spend more than a decade replenishing the population before she can continue to expand outward and claim new lands?
Some reforms and policies can only be implemented after ascending the throne, but some preparatory work that can be done in advance can be started now. Waiting until she ascends the throne will be too late.
It would needlessly delay her by many years.
Ding Yun's encouragement of the King of Zhenxi to expand his territory was a trial run. If the results were indeed satisfactory, she could fully encourage ambitious individuals within the realm to expand their territories once she ascended the throne.
This way, when she initiated large-scale reforms within the realm, she would face fewer obstacles, avoid excessive bloodshed, and reduce the need for personnel, thus achieving a peaceful evolution.
Once her reforms were complete and her strength accumulated sufficiently.
She surmised that those ambitious individuals would likely have expanded their territories considerably, while their own strength would have been greatly depleted.
At that point, would they not still be at her mercy?
Of course, these thoughts did not need to be revealed to outsiders. After conveying the aforementioned information, Ding Yun smiled and waited for the somewhat bewildered King of Zhenxi to process the information.
Although the King of Zhenxi was greatly astonished and not entirely convinced by Ding Yun's words, after repeatedly testing his current state and recalling the general appearance of the legendary Imperial Crown Princess of Yunxia,
He finally became half-believing.
He bowed and began to communicate with Ding Yun normally.
And the more they conversed, the more he realized that this individual, who was potentially the Imperial Crown Princess, knew him intimately. If she was indeed the Imperial Crown Princess, and she knew him intimately, could Emperor Gan Yu not know him intimately as well? Then, his actions over the years...
Had they all been observed by them?
The more he thought about it, the more he trembled with fear.
The more he thought about it, the more fortunate he felt that he had rejected King Ning earlier and had never harbored any thoughts of rebellion.
If he had, he would have been killed long ago. He even vaguely suspected that the previous two Kings of Zhenbei and Zhen Dong, who had died under abnormal circumstances, had harbored inappropriate thoughts in their hearts and were thus eliminated.
It must be said that Ding Yun's intelligence was terrifyingly extensive. Regardless of who it was, upon learning that someone knew all their secrets, they would feel fear and apprehension, and even be reluctant to resist.
After this conversation, the sky had already grown late. Moreover, the spiritual power of a Martial Saint was sufficient to ensure that he would not forget what happened in his dream upon waking.
Therefore, Ding Yun did not deliberately try to deepen his impression.
She waved her hand, dispelled the dreamscape, and left.
At the same time, the King of Zhenxi immediately woke up.