The Cold Palace sat deep within the imperial compound, dark and desolate.
The Great Qian Dynasty was a martial empire. Every generation of royals practiced the secret art of Yan-Locking Yin-Harvesting, allowing them to bed multiple multiple women in a single night without breaking a sweat.
Naturally, when it came to selecting concubines for the emperor, the more, the better.
Each emperor kept a vast number of concubines. Maybe not exactly three thousand beauties, but having three to five hundred was considered pretty normal.
And with so many concubines, many were bound to end up in the Cold Palace.
The entire Cold Palace was organized using the traditional Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, forming six courtyards with seventy-two wings in total.
In previous years, it had been always overcrowded. But since Emperor Taikang had only recently taken the throne and hadn't taken many concubines yet, about half the rooms in the Cold Palace remained vacant.
There were usually only three fates for women sent to the Cold Palace: they were either pardoned and released, died from despair, or took their own lives.
Li Qing looked over at the woman standing before him. Consort Min.
She came from a humble background and had entered the palace during the final years of the founding emperor's reign. She bore him a son, Qian, and was one of his most favored consorts in his twilight years.
And yet now, under Emperor Taikang, she had been cast into the Cold Palace.
She won't be getting out of here, Li Qing thought. He had already guessed how this would end for her.
Consort Min chose a room in the Bing-Si wing.
After registering her room, Li Qing passed through two courtyards and arrived at the Jia-Mao wing.
He bowed at the door. "Greetings to Consort Qi."
This was where Consort Qi stayed.
"Ah, it's Little Li. Go ahead and clean up," came a lazy voice from inside.
Only after hearing that did Li Qing enter the side room to take out her night soul.
Consort Qi was nothing like Grand Consort Min.
Qi was one of Emperor Taikang's favorites. She'd only ended up in the Cold Palace after the Empress Dowager caught her playfully bantering with the emperor and scolded her for being improper. The emperor, unwilling to argue with his mother, sent her away for the time being. In a situation like this, there was a good chance she might be released eventually. Best not to offend them.
So Li Qing treated her with extra care.
After taking care of her night soil, Li Qing made his way to the Ji-Zi wing.
"I didn't kill the princess! I didn't! Noble Consort Li never even gave birth to a princess!"
"Give me food! I want to eat!"
"I want a man! Hahaha!"
A crazed voice echoed from the Ji-Zi wing.
That was Consort Meng. Rumor had it she'd tried to poison the newborn princess of Noble Consort Li during a power struggle in the harem. She lost her mind after being sent to the Cold Palace.
Whether she actually did it or not, no one really knew.
But the charge was set in stone. She was as good as dead. There was no coming back from the Cold Palace.
Li Qing went straight into her room, picked up the night soil, and left without saying a word.
After emptying it and washing his hands, he stepped out of the six-courtyard compound and entered the side duty room just outside the Cold Palace gates.
"What a crafty move! You've cut off my dragon!"
The room was full of noise. The other eunuchs were all gathered there.
Four were playing Go, two were bragging, and five more were busy with a game of dominoes.
"Little Li, come take a round," called out Eunuch Wang Li, holding a black stone in his hand.
"Sure thing." Li Qing grinned and sat down to play black.
There were twelve eunuchs stationed at the Cold Palace. They were all equal in rank, without titles or positions. With no power to fight over, they got along pretty well. Most of their free time was spent playing games, swapping stories, or just passing the time.
They didn't gamble with money; the stakes were taking out chamber pots.
Wang Li actually knew what he was doing. The others had learned from him, but their skills were poor, so he rarely lost. Which meant he almost never had to help the concubines with their night soil.
After about a hundred moves, Li Qing, who was average at best, lost by a dozen points. His big dragon group got captured before they even reached the endgame, and he was cleanly defeated.
"Ming Consort's night pot is yours tomorrow," Wang Li said cheerfully as he stood up, clearly pleased.
As the group dispersed, Li Qing found an old rocking chair, laid back in it, and started thinking about his cultivation.
The Monument of a Hundred Lives spoke of "seeking immortality in the dust of mortals." That was his ultimate goal.
From what I can recall, the Great Qian Dynasty doesn't mention cultivation or immortals. Or maybe it exists, but I just haven't reached that level yet.
For now, martial arts should be my focus…
Once I'm strong enough to protect myself, I can search for the path to immortality. It's possible that martial arts and cultivation might lead to the same destination after all.
In the martial cultivation path, there was a distinction between the Houtian and the Xiantian realms.
Li Qing's first priority was to find a Postnatal cultivation method.
Inside the imperial palace, there was an official division called the Martial Supervision Bureau, staffed entirely by eunuchs trained in martial arts. They even had a dedicated Martial Pavilion. New eunuchs entering the palace were first screened by the Martial Supervision Bureau. Those with talent for martial arts were kept and trained; the rest were assigned to other departments.
The Cold Palace was probably the place furthest removed from martial practice. The fact that Li Qing had been sent there said a lot about his supposed lack of talent.
Other departments weren't as focused on martial arts as the Martial Supervision Bureau, but training was still allowed. So long as they reported their progress regularly to the Martial Supervision Bureau.
Cultivating martial arts wasn't forbidden in the palace. But doing it in secret definitely was.
I don't have access to any proper martial arts manuals, so I'll have to get creative.
Besides, a manual alone won't be enough. I'll need someone to teach me.
But the Cold Palace might not be a total dead end for that.
Some concubines sent to the Cold Palace had once trained in martial arts. That was Li Qing's best chance.
Take Consort Ming, for example; she was known to be skilled in martial arts, supposedly a second-rate fighter.
Her martial foundation had likely been destroyed after being thrown into the Cold Palace, but even so…
Consort Ming happened to be under Wang Li's care.
Earlier, Li Qing had deliberately lost that game of Go to Wang Li.
He was hoping to get close to Consort Ming, and helping her with her night pot in the future might be the perfect opportunity.
—
At noon, meals were distributed.
Li Qing picked up three meals for the concubines and headed to Consort Qi's quarters first.
He unpacked the three sets and laid them out for her to choose from.
The food in the Cold Palace was actually decent: three dishes and a soup.
There was meat, there were vegetables.
The meals were made by the Cold Palace kitchen. Since some concubines might one day be brought back to court, the cooks didn't dare cut corners.
Back in the day, Consort Qi had nine dishes and three soups.
After eating her fill, Consort Qi gave a satisfied smile. "Little Li, you serve me well. When I get out of here one day, would you be willing to serve by my side?"
"I'm just a lowly servant… not worthy," Li Qing replied politely, turning her down.
In the palace, only the eunuchs in the Cold Palace were truly safe; fully castrated and seen as harmless.
Until his cultivation reached a certain level, Li Qing had no intention of leaving the Cold Palace.
For someone who could live a hundred lifetimes, what he needed most was stability; especially in the first one.
Of course, that also meant missing out on the chance to bathe a favored consort.
—
Later on, Li Qing brought Consort Qi's leftovers to the duty room. The other eunuchs had already gathered.
"Little Li's here. We're all here now, let's eat, let's eat… Hey, Yongzi! You eat like a pig, slow down!"
No ceremony. They dumped together the small portions of untouched leftovers from the concubines' meals and dug in. This was the Cold Palace eunuchs' only real perk.
When they finished, Li Qing picked up two portions of now-cold eunuch meals, added in some of the leftover soup and scraps, and went to deliver food to the last two consorts.
The other eunuchs in the Cold Palace did the same.
"You're just now bringing food? Mealtime's long over!" Consort Min snapped as she snatched the bowl from him.
She took one bite. It was cold. And spat it out, cursing again. "You filthy, backstabbing eunuchs! How dare you bring this cold, leftover garbage to me!"
No matter how much she raged, Li Qing acted like he didn't hear. He simply stepped outside the room and waited.
Eat it or don't.
There was no way they could give good food to a consort with no chance of ever leaving the Cold Palace. Doing that could get you killed without even knowing how.
Consort Min had no choice but to grumble her way through the meal and eat it cold.
That night, Li Qing finally learned the full story behind why she'd been thrown into the Cold Palace.
It had been on the Grand Empress Dowager's orders.
The Grand Empress Dowager, Emperor Taikang's own grandmother, was no ordinary figure.
The founding emperor had ruled for thirty years before abdicating in his later years, passing the throne to his son and taking on the title of Retired Emperor.
The new emperor declared the reign era as Taiming, but only ruled for fifteen years before dying. At that time, the founding emperor was still alive.
It was his grandson who eventually ascended the throne as Emperor Taikang.
But in between, there had been a bit of a twist: Consort Min, favored by the founding emperor in his final years, had repeatedly petitioned him to name her son, Qian, as the next heir. For a time, the founding emperor actually considered it.
In the end, however, he was dissuaded. Thanks to the joint efforts of the Grand Empress Dowager and the court ministers.
Four years ago, the founding emperor passed away. The Grand Empress Dowager seized full control of the court and now held absolute power over the empire. Emperor Taikang had been reduced to little more than a ceremonial figure, a glorified breeding stud. His decrees rarely made it past the palace walls.
Consort Min had nearly derailed the Grand Empress Dowager's plan for succession. Of course she was going to be punished.
She'll never leave the Cold Palace… and she doesn't have long to live.
In the dead of night, word arrived from the capital:
Prince Qian had written a confession at home, admitting to moral failings, and then drank poison. He was dead.
Prince Qian—Consort Min's only son.