Chapter 2457 Rotund Minister And Imperial Family
The revelation of just how much power the Saintess was holding back was enlightening to Lin Mu.
It also taught him about the supportive effects of the different Dao's and elements. Even though he hadn't seen the Saintess use her Poison skills, for Lin Mu imagining their usage after Xukong's explanation wasn't hard.
Lin Mu pondered over this for a bit but had to stop it as he sensed someone calling him.
"Lord Imperator!" The voice came from the gate of the Imperial Azalea courtyard.
It was far, but he could hear it clearly. ~STEP~STEP~STEP~
And just a second later, Lin Mu could hear a bunch of steps.
"As per your request, the materials have been brought over from the Treasury, Lord Imperator." A couple of servants reported while bowing their heads.
Upon getting the courtyard, Lin Mu had asked the servants to not come to the main area when not asked to other than when they needed to reach out to him for something. The servants accepted it readily as it was a common thing for a lot of immortals of their rank as they valued their privacy.
The Crown Prince and other nobles might be fine having servants around all the time, but Lin Mu was not used to it. Besides, he didn't have much of a need for the servants anyways. And it was not like the Courtyard needed much cleaning or maintenance either. There were plenty of arrays that took care of that automatically thus the servants were mostly there to carry out orders when needed.
"Allow them in." Lin Mu replied.
"At once." The servants said before quickly going to open the gate.
A minute later, Lin Mu sensed the presence of a rather rotund man and two Imperial Guards. Looking up, he spotted none other than the Treasury Minister heading his way.
The man was dressed in dark green robes that were laced with golden threads along with a ministerial cap that looked rather small for his head.
He had fat and chubby cheeks along with four chins that hung wide and proud. A thin and curly mustache hung from his face, but the rest of it was shaved smooth as if a grape's skin.
There was no way to mistake the man.
'That's the Treasury Minister for sure.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He had only seen the man once before in passing and hadn't actually talked to him properly before. Though the one impression he had gotten was more than memorable. The minister was one of the widest people he had seen in the Rust Sky world before.
While the man might not weigh more than Lin Mu, he was most certainly bordering on at least five hundred kilograms or more.
If such a man seeing without his particular clothes, people might not even take him seriously. But his cultivation base did not lie and Lin Mu placed it to be at the Fifth Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm.
'He's certainly not weak… perhaps his body is due to some technique too.' Lin Mu knew there were cultivation techniques that could result in such profound effects on the body.
"Hahah, greetings Lord Imperator!" The Treasury Minister said in a jovial voice.
"Greetings, Minister." Lin Mu greeted the man with a cupped fist.
"I must say, this is a really good day. I'm really happy that you finally called upon me." The minister said with a smile so wide, it almost made his eyes disappear. "I was sad that we didn't get to talk much earlier, but I guess heavens had this day in waiting so that we may chat and be merry!" hearing that man, Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder how this man was a minister.
"Isn't he related to the Crown Prince?" Xukong spoke in his mind.
"He is?" Lin Mu raised his brows, then he remembered the Crown Prince talking about his family back in the Bridge plane. "Ah yeah… he's technically his step uncle, isn't he?" he now recalled.
The Treasury Minister was in fact, the Brother-in-law of the Emperor. He came from a high ranking noble family that held the rank of a Marquis in the empire. As such, his sister was one of the concubines of the Emperor.
'I knew the Emperor had a lot of Consorts and Concubines.' Lin Mu thought to himself. Crown Prince Feng Shun had told him that the Emperor had four main wives and over a hundred concubines from which he had over a hundred children.
Among them, the Crown Prince was the oldest and was born from the first consort along with Princess Feng Lan. Feng Baxing, on the other hand, was born from the second consort and was thus the third prince.
There were more princes and princesses, but none of them were particularly as well as the Crown Prince or the Crown Princess.
For the most part, they stayed in their own residences and were only seen in large banquets. Majority of them might not even meet the Emperor, their father more than once in a year. This was rather common, as the Emperor was simply far too busy with his work and responsibilities. Besides, the Emperor was not light with his children. He highly emphasized them cultivating and getting stronger.
It was why the other children were rarely seen, since they were confined to cultivate in seclusion until they reached a satisfactory level.
This was one of the reasons why the Feng Dao Empire had managed to reach their level of stability; almost none of the Imperial offspring were wastrels. Even if they might not have a talent for cultivation, they were never allowed to laze around and become louts. They were trained in various administrative duties, or if they had a talent for other occupations such as alchemy or formations, they were encouraged to take that on instead.
Thinking of all this, Lin Mu reckoned the Treasury Minister might actually be quite capable, too.
"Come sit, I suppose I can chat a bit." Lin Mu reckoned it was good to develop some connections this way too.