Chapter Twenty-Eight: Ribbit! It’s a Lunatic!

"There are actually honest officials left in the Great Ming Dynasty?!"

Seeing the words of the new Provincial Administration Commissioner, Ning Bufan, Zhou Liang felt, for a moment, as if he were trapped in a dream. Truthfully, this was nothing short of a miracle. In his more than fifty years of life—and the twenty-plus years he had experienced as "the other him"—everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but vermin. There were simply no clean, upright officials to be found.

In reality, it was normal for the Great Ming to lack honest officials. Greed is human nature; everyone harbors desires deep within, and it is merely a matter of whether one can restrain them or not. When the potential gain reaches a certain threshold, most people lose that restraint. Take the officials of the Great Ming: as people who stood truly above the common man, possessing power and authority that dwarfed the masses, it was only natural for their egos to inflate.

Furthermore, the atmosphere of the officialdom was such that corruption had been rampant throughout both the Ming and Qing dynasties. Even after Zhu Yuanzhang instituted the punishment of "flaying the skin and stuffing it with straw," he could not reverse the tide of graft. One could say that in the Great Ming, being corrupt was the norm; if you weren't corrupt, you were the one who would be ostracized. Given such an environment, how many honest officials could emerge? It was merely a question of whether one was greedy for more or for less.

Finally, and most importantly, the Divine Emperor’s supervision was lacking. To stop corruption, one needs an effective anti-corruption mechanism to deter the greedy and warn the others. But the Divine Emperor... it seemed that because of some past trauma, He was filled with profound distrust toward His entire court. The sole criterion for His patronage was not capability, but loyalty. As long as you were loyal, competence was a trivial matter. Consequently, a horde of monsters and demons seized the opportunity, roaring "loyalty" to curry favor, turning the court into a foul, miasmatic place.

Although the Divine Emperor had purged many truly rebellious elements over the decades, this faction remained tightly clustered around Him, regarding Him as their sole core. They were truly loyal—so loyal that the Divine Emperor could not bring Himself to remove them. On this basis, even if they were corrupt or lawless in the provinces, the Divine Emperor turned a blind eye. As long as the incident wasn't massive, He wouldn't prosecute. The Embroidered Uniform Guard, as the Emperor's personal troops, understood His will perfectly, and thus, they generally didn't interfere while conducting their inspections.

It was precisely for this reason that Zhou Liang had been so reluctant to have his simulation avatar report the corruption of the Provincial Administration Commissioner to the Embroidered Uniform Guard: they were all cut from the same cloth! If it weren't for the fact that the severity of the "Chuang Rebel" affair had exceeded the threshold of what the Divine Emperor and the Guard could tolerate—making any report a guaranteed bombshell—Zhou Liang would never have chosen to act as a suicide bomber.

Yet now, in the midst of this hellishly dark officialdom, a new Provincial Administration Commissioner had appeared who seemed like an upright official. He was a lone sprig of green in a vast field of flowers; Zhou Liang could not help but be astonished.

"An honest official... could it be an act?" Zhou Liang couldn't help but speculate darkly. "Perhaps he sees that I am too old and have no value to harvest, so he is using me to build his own reputation. That way, he doesn't have to sacrifice anything and can still reap my gratitude. Just as he said himself, what official doesn't want to build a network? If I truly accept his favor, hasn't he pulled me into his camp?"

Though it wasn't right to judge others so harshly, Zhou Liang found it truly difficult to believe that he was a good official. "As for whether he is actually a good official... it doesn't matter to me. The most important thing for me in this simulation is to quickly acquire legitimate transcendental knowledge, establish a complete worldview, and then pass the Jinshi examination. Whether this Commissioner is honest or corrupt, it is none of my business for now."

...

Having reaffirmed his future direction, Zhou Liang set his mind at ease and continued the simulation.

[You left his study filled with complex emotions, ending this private meeting between the Jieyuan and the Provincial Administration Commissioner.]

[Regardless, you have passed the examination.]

[And since you have become a Juren, you should naturally go and collect the rewards that are rightfully yours.]

[The following day, the "Juren Banquet" hosted by the Provincial Administration Commissioner officially began!]

[More than twenty new Juren from across Shaanxi province participated in the banquet with radiant expressions. They were the pride of the province, with bright futures ahead, and naturally, every one of them was all smiles.]

[Upon confirming that you were the Jieyuan of this year, they approached you one after another to pay their respects, their faces filled with reverence.]

[That reverence was inevitable; after all, you were a famous figure: famous in Northern Shaanxi at three, passing the Xiucai exam at four, aiming for the Juren at five... and then failing the provincial examination eight times in a row, yet returning every single time to take it again... This genius! This perseverance! They were well aware of it!]

[You smiled and returned their greetings, gradually steering the conversation toward the classics and the eight-legged essays. Your profound foundation left these "juniors," who averaged twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age, exclaiming in awe. Those who had been somewhat unconvinced that you had snatched the Jieyuan title were now truly won over.]

[In their admiration, they naturally began to look to you as their leader, addressing each other as "classmates." A small clique had effectively begun to form.]

[After all, the Great Ming is a society that favors provincial ties. Since you were all Juren from Shaanxi and passed in the same year, you were natural allies. If managed well, this could become a significant political force.]

[Before long, the new Provincial Administration Commissioner, Ning Bufan, arrived. Everyone bowed respectfully, and he, looking quite pleased, gestured for you all to be seated.]

[And so, the banquet began!]

[However, no one really had much of an appetite, as everyone present knew there was another main event to come...]

[Sure enough!]

["Gentlemen!"]

[As the banquet drew to a close, the Commissioner suddenly turned solemn: "Since you are now Juren of the Great Ming, you naturally know of the Divine Power..."]

["Now, I shall bestow the Divine Power upon you, but you must prepare yourselves mentally... The Divine Power originates from His Majesty and inherently contains His divine might. Therefore, everyone who receives it will be plunged into an illusion."]

["Within the illusion, you will see the scene of His Majesty slaughtering the rebels in those days. Anyone who witnesses it will feel terror under the weight of that divine might. If you can withstand it, the Divine Power will be yours to command!"]

["However, if you cannot withstand it..."]

[He paused for a moment: "I am afraid you will have no affinity with this path... I won't hide it from you: in the Great Ming, your academic knowledge can be lacking, but you absolutely cannot fail to withstand the Divine Power. The foundation of the imperial court lies in this power; if you cannot bear it, you cannot become an official..."]

[Once he said this, everyone felt a shiver of dread: compared to the exams they had taken previously, this test was the true "provincial examination!"]

[Failure would mean not only losing one's path to an official career but also losing all connection to the extraordinary. No one could bear that result.]

["Very well, let us begin."]

[The Commissioner spoke in a deep voice and waved his hand. More than twenty golden lights, as dazzling as the sun, flew up from thin air, and then, under your expectant and anxious gazes, they fell directly onto the heads of each Juren...]

[In an instant, a familiar yet alien illusion appeared before your eyes.]

[A golden giant shadow looming above the nine heavens, the people crying out amidst the ruins, collapsed cities, rising mushroom clouds, and the toppled banners of the "Chuang" and "Xi" factions...]

[The illusion from when the Magistrate bestowed the Divine Power upon you had appeared once more... However, compared to the blurriness and brevity of last time, this illusion was clearly more realistic, vivid, and lasted much longer.]

[You could clearly see the terror and confusion on every face, the flesh and corpses scattered among the ruins, the blood, the viscera, the limbs... every detail was incredibly real!]

[But for some reason, you, who should have been filled with terror, felt only anger and pity instead.]

[You glared resentfully at the tyrannical Divine Emperor in the sky, then rushed into the ruins to help the wounded. Although you knew these were all hallucinations, under an inexplicable mental impulse, you still wanted to save them with all your might...]

[A moment later, you opened your eyes.]

[The moment you did, the surging, powerful new Divine Power within your body made your spirit soar: it was immense!]

[The magnitude of this Divine Power far surpassed that single wisp the Magistrate had given you; compared to the two, this was more than a hundred times greater...]

["You were the first of this batch to wake up!"]

[Before you could fully appreciate the strength of the power, the exclamation beside you caught your attention. You turned to look; it was the Commissioner.]

[He smiled: "I was right about you. Not only is your knowledge profound, but your adaptation to the Divine Power is also this fast... You are indeed a genius!"]

["Unlike them..."]

[As he spoke, he couldn't help but sigh and point toward the distance, where the other new Juren were still trapped in the illusion...]

["Quack! Long live the Divine Emperor!"]

["The Divine Emperor has struck the Chuang rebels to the ground; He must be forcing them to become slaves, quack!"]

["Quack! Your Majesty! We all adore you, quack!!!"]

["Loyalty!"]

[...]

[You: ???]

[Holy cow! There are lunatics here!!!]