Chapter 810: Original Body's Obsession

He Lingchuan turned his back, and his smile vanished.

Last night, he had unleashed the nightmare to invade Steward Wu's dream, successfully gleaning some information. It seemed it wasn't Steward Wu, but rather He Chunhua, who also knew how to use nightmares to kill. The old man from the Dunyu Li family was likely dealt with by his own father.

He Chunhua's absence at the moment conveniently allowed He Lingchuan to proceed with his plans. He had already learned:

Firstly, Steward Wu did not know Sun Hongye's whereabouts, nor did he know about the book "Commentary on Yao Hua." Did this mean He Chunhua was also unaware, and Sun Hongye truly left on a whim, by herself?

Secondly, He Chunhua had indeed performed a divine offering, and had indeed summoned Naraka, using his eldest son as the price! With Steward Wu's testimony, everything became clear.

A surge of inexplicable indignation welled up, and He Lingchuan instinctively pressed his hand to his chest. He could discern the restless emotions of betrayal, resentment, and disbelief, but they reached his mind with weakened effect, as if filtered through thick frosted glass.

These were the emotions of the original body. They were the instinctive reactions of the original body, having heard firsthand what his beloved father had done to him.

He Lingchuan hadn't expected that as his control over this body grew stronger, the original body's lingering instincts wouldn't completely disappear and could still react to external stimuli.

"You should give up hope," He Lingchuan murmured. "You are just a sacrifice. If you didn't perish when you fell off the cliff, you would have been sacrificed someday. Rest in peace."

A long sigh echoed in his mind, and he felt a new sensation: complete despair.

He instinctively stopped.

Shan Youjun asked, puzzled, "Young Master?"

Qiu Hu, standing nearby, hushed him, "Don't disturb him!"

Qiu Hu sensed that He Lingchuan's internal energy was shifting around his body, dispersed rather than concentrated, and his gaze had suddenly become vacant. Clearly, his consciousness had sunken into his sea of consciousness. For people like him and He Lingchuan, whose souls were highly condensed, such emptiness was rare. In layman's terms, he was distracted. However, this state was different from an ordinary person's daydreaming.

Fortunately, they had not yet left the He Residence, so whatever Young Master He did on his own property was not considered out of line.

Shan Youjun glanced at Qiu Hu and remained silent.

The side garden suddenly grew quiet, as if even the blowing wind had softened.

After more than ten breaths, He Lingchuan finally let out a long sigh, his internal energy settled, and his eyes regained their vitality.

Under the trials of Panglong City, his soul had grown stronger. Just now, with an internal scan of his mind, he had actually caught a trace of the original body's lingering instincts. Or rather, a persistent mental block.

The original body was unwilling, unable to understand why its biological father would be willing to sacrifice it. The original body also harbored a certain obsession, or perhaps a contradiction, hoping He Lingchuan would spare He Chunhua's life and not kill him, after all, there was the grace of raising him for over ten years.

If this mental block remained unresolved, this body could not be considered completely under He Lingchuan's control. In the future, this obsession, this awkwardness, buried in his heart and sinking into his subconscious, could even damage his rationality and influence his future judgments.

What is the subconscious? It's when a thought naturally emerges, but its origin cannot be traced. If it reached this point, he might not be able to discern whether his future judgments were based on his own transmigration soul or the original body's obsession. That would be far too dangerous.

The path of cultivation is rough and arduous; a single mistake could be fatal. He had to find a way to resolve this issue, and the simplest, most effective method was to satisfy it and resolve it.

Upon understanding this, He Lingchuan felt not worry, but joy.

After the Battle of Mount Xu, whenever he recalled the dangers he had faced, although he had gained much, he always felt something was missing, and his progress had been stagnant. It was as if he was just a step away from a breakthrough, yet he couldn't find the entrance day after day.

Now he understood that as his cultivation reached this level, what he lacked most was "wholeness" at his very core. It was a mental deficiency, like his soul-boat sailing in the sea of consciousness without a ballast stone, profound and mysterious.

Now that he had found the root cause, his subsequent actions had a clear direction. This was a good thing.

"Come on, let's go to Juxiang Restaurant!" Young Master He, full of vigor and in high spirits, declared, "Order whatever you want, don't save me any money!"

Twenty-five days passed in a flash.

He Lingchuan remained in Yuandu, overseeing the flow of funds and the allocation of supplies. Every expenditure of grain, fodder, and supplies obtained through loans, sent subsequently by Mount Rong, had to be reviewed by the special envoy from Mount Rong.

He Lingchuan's managing deputy envoy, Hu Qin, rejected more than a dozen expenditure items. Some accounts were disguised as military expenses, siphoning off a bit here and taking a portion there, scattered and piecemeal.

He Lingchuan was unfamiliar with these tricks, and his subordinates were swamped, so he simply roped in his second brother, He Yue, to help.

He Yue had been assisting his father with finances and itemized expenses for years, making him well-versed in such shady dealings. He took one look and chuckled, "A piece of cake! I'll just expose them."

He Lingchuan slapped him on the shoulder, making his second brother wince. "It's all on you."

"Just don't say I helped, or the higher-ups will resent me to death!"

"Don't worry, I wouldn't betray you."

As it turned out, the first problematic expenditure He Yue uncovered was the salaries of officials in Shihuan City.

Any suspicious expenditure, once uncovered, was immediately submitted to King Yuan.

The next day, Magistrate Wu of Shihuan City came calling, a wide smile plastered on his face as he addressed He Lingchuan: "Lord Envoy, Shihuan's salary expenditures are all clearly itemized; not a single one is exaggerated or fabricated."

"Magistrate Wu is an honest man," He Lingchuan said. "Deputy Envoy Hu has audited these expenses, and indeed, none are exaggerated."

Hu Qin, sitting nearby, nodded repeatedly at this. "The problem lies in the excessively large expenditure. A mere county office like yours has four salary tiers and a staff of eighty-seven people!" In simple terms, too many people were living off the state.

He Lingchuan also stated, "When Chief Steward He served in Xiazhou back then, the entire provincial government had only about twenty people."

Magistrate Wu let out an "Ah," saying, "Shihuan is an auxiliary city; there are many officials, their families, and royal relatives, which means more affairs. If we don't assign more staff..." He secretly grumbled to himself: "He Chunhua's Xiazhou Prefecture only had twenty-odd people? Could that be normal? Which prefecture or county office doesn't grow in staff numbers the longer it exists? Come back in seven or eight years and see, will Xiazhou Prefecture's headcount be less than two hundred? Shihuan City is a decades-old county and an auxiliary city; how could there be few people there?"

He Lingchuan picked up the ledger, glanced at it twice, and cut in, "Why does your county office maintain three carriages and four stablemen? Besides you, Magistrate Wu, who else uses carriages and horses to get around every time they enter or leave? Are their legs broken, unable to walk?"

Magistrate Wu stammered, "One of the stablemen was a veteran of the battlefield who lost a leg and found it difficult to make a living, so the county arranged a job for him..."

He Lingchuan extended his hand towards him. "Did you bring the county office's staff roster?"