Infinite Professions from a Pearl Collector

Soon, the three carefully selected, stunningly beautiful women were sent into the Emperor’s bedchambers, their hearts a mix of anxiety and anticipation.

They were the top talents of their respective Sects, shouldering the heavy responsibility of bringing glory to their Sects.

However, it was only when they truly stood before Chen Ye that they understood why their Sects had placed such importance on this matter.

The man’s aura was simply too powerful.

Just by getting close, the formless pressure caused their True Qi to stagnate and made it difficult for them to breathe.

"Your Majesty!" The three women forced themselves to remain calm and bowed in salute.

Chen Ye simply waved a hand. "You may rise."

After the three women rose, Chen Ye studied them for a moment, and a sudden interest sparked within him.

"What do you usually specialize in practicing?"

The three women were a bit stunned, not understanding why the Emperor would suddenly ask such a thing, but they still hurried to answer.

"I specialize in swordsmanship."

"I practice a Palm Technique."

"I mainly practice Qinggong."

Chen Ye nodded, then with a grand wave of his hand, he said, "Come. Let’s go outside and have a spar."

The three women were completely dumbfounded.

’Spar? With the Emperor?’

But they had no choice but to obey Chen Ye’s command, so they could only brace themselves and follow him to the training grounds outside.

Once there, Chen Ye stood with his hands behind his back and said with a smile, "All three of you can attack me at once. Don’t hold back. Attack boldly and let me see what you’re capable of."

The three women exchanged a glance, but none of them dared to make a move.

"Don’t worry. If I tell you to attack, then attack. You don’t need to worry about hurting me. What’s more, whoever manages to even touch me, I will make them the Empress." Chen Ye played his trump card.

As expected, upon hearing this, the eyes of all three women lit up.

’Become the Empress!’

That was the very thing their Sects had repeatedly instructed them to achieve before they left. Instantly, the three women cast aside their reservations. With a sharp cry, they charged forward in unison.

But Chen Ye just stood there quietly. Without even using his hands, he evaded their wave of attacks relying purely on his footwork.

Unwilling to give up, the three women turned and attacked again, but the result was the same.

In the end, they collapsed to the ground in exhaustion without ever managing to touch the hem of Chen Ye’s robes.

However, it was not a total loss for Chen Ye.

Thanks to his heaven-defying Talent, the Martial Dao Celestial Heart, Chen Ye’s attainments in the Martial Dao were growing ever more profound. Even though the three women were far weaker than him, their ways of exerting force and their habits in executing moves were completely different from a man’s. This allowed Chen Ye to gain some useful insights and experience from them.

Looking at the three women panting on the ground, Chen Ye smiled faintly. "Not bad. Your stamina is lacking, but for women, it’s quite good."

With a wave of his hand, Chen Ye ordered the eunuchs to carry the three women back to his bedchambers. Then, another great battle commenced.

This battle was even more intense. Chen Ye took on all three at once, fighting until the women begged for mercy without end.

The next day, when the Palace Maids gingerly pushed open the doors to the bedchambers, the three Ladies were lying on the bed, their pretty faces deathly pale. They didn’t even have the strength to lift a finger.

As for Chen Ye, he had long since left for the morning court session, feeling refreshed and invigorated.

After this battle, the three women finally understood that the rumors were true.

An ordinary woman probably wouldn’t even have the right to beg for mercy.

Even they had to join forces, all three of them, just to barely withstand the Emperor’s "Dragon Mighty."

The results, however, were astounding.

Just a few short months later, the three new Ladies became pregnant one after another with the Emperor’s child.

After ten months, the time came for them to give birth.

Two Princes and one Princess were born, one after another.

When the news spread, the entire imperial court, especially the Generals in the army, erupted with excitement.

They had all followed Chen Ye, fighting their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They were his most loyal supporters, so now that His Majesty had an heir, they were naturally happier than anyone.

After all, the Imperial Family having an heir meant the foundation of the nation was stable. It meant the empire they had fought to build would have a successor!

Even old General Meng Yi, who was enjoying his retirement back in his hometown, had a few extra drinks after hearing the news.

Chen Ye was also very happy.

He issued an imperial decree for a nationwide celebration, to share the joy with all his people.

From then on, however, Chen Ye began to gradually reduce his appearances in the imperial court. He delegated more and more political affairs to the Cabinet, while he himself retreated behind the scenes, steering the course of the great ship that was Great Chen.

「In the blink of an eye, twenty years passed.」

During this time, several more Consorts of equally extraordinary backgrounds were added to the imperial harem, bearing Chen Ye over ten more Princes and Princesses.

After observing all his children in secret for many years, Chen Ye finally chose the most intelligent and decisive of them, the Second Prince, and named him Crown Prince in his tenth year.

Now, the Crown Prince was a grown man.

Under Chen Ye’s meticulous guidance and personal tutelage, the young Crown Prince not only became exceptionally capable but also accumulated enough prestige both in the court and among the public to command the respect of the arrogant, fierce generals and the cunning old civil officials.

And Chen Ye, at last, felt a trace of weariness.

It was not the decay of his physical body.

After he advanced to the level of a Divine-Seeing Grandmaster, time seemed to have lost its effect on him. Twenty years had passed, yet his appearance was almost unchanged from the day he ascended the throne.

But after staying so long in this gilded cage, dealing with similar court memorials day after day, seeing the same faces, he had truly grown tired of it all.

One day, Chen Ye summoned all his ministers and announced that he had experienced a sudden insight in his Martial Dao and needed to enter secluded cultivation to seek a breakthrough.

Then, ignoring the tearful pleas of the Crown Prince and the ministers, he resolutely passed the throne to the Crown Prince.

After a grand abdication ceremony, the founding Emperor vanished from everyone’s sight.

In reality, Chen Ye did not go into seclusion. Instead, he changed into a set of plain clothes and quietly left the Imperial Palace.

After twenty years of arduous Cultivation, Chen Ye’s power had become even more unfathomable. His control over his physical body had reached the Realm of Micro, allowing him to compress his height and build to that of an ordinary person, making him completely inconspicuous in a crowd.

Chen Ye wanted to see with his own eyes what the empire he had built with his own hands truly looked like.

And so, from east to west, from south to north, he traveled every inch of Great Chen’s lands like the most ordinary of travelers.

He tasted the boat snacks of the south and gnawed on the roasted lamb of the Northern Land.

He would visit the Martial Dao masters hidden in the mountains and forests with great interest, politely sparring with them to exchange pointers.

With Chen Ye’s current insight into the Martial Dao, he had no need for deliberate Cultivation. Merely by sparring with others, he could glimpse the essence of their Martial Arts, using it as nourishment to continuously enrich his own foundation.

He traveled at a leisurely pace, enjoying the sights, and his gains were substantial.

Along the way, Chen Ye also secretly observed whether the systems he had established were functioning well.

The results left him quite satisfied.

Although there were inevitably officials who held their positions without contributing and preyed upon the common people, the existence of the supervisory system prevented them from becoming too brazen.

More importantly, the common people were truly living more peaceful and stable lives than they had in centuries, their faces filled with smiles that came from the heart.

In truth, Chen Ye was well aware that any system, after running for a long time, would inevitably breed corruption and other problems. But he had already laid a sufficiently solid foundation for this dynasty.

As for the future, that was a trial for his descendants to face.