I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 163 Zhao Yu Unleashes His Ultimate Skill, A Night of Dragon and Snake Dance
...

There are five unbreakable bonds in life: studying together, fighting together, visiting prostitutes together, sharing stolen goods together, and serving time in prison together.

Zhao Yu's logic in helping the five women reconcile was simple: he artificially created a large iron barrier for them, bringing them closer together and helping them let go of their previous prejudices.

It's definitely not possible to share a classroom or fight alongside someone else.

The former, needless to say, they have long since passed the school age and it is impossible for them to be classmates again;
The latter, women, especially those who have become imperial concubines, how could they possibly join the army?
Did you share the spoils together?

They were all high-ranking imperial concubines, none of them lacked money. Living in the palace all their lives, they didn't need much money. The monthly allowance and rewards given to them by Zhao Yu were enough for them.

Want to spend time behind bars together?

To be honest, they were trapped in the palace from the moment they arrived here, so in a way, they had all spent time behind bars together.

The problem is that going to prison together means going through hardships together. They were all waited on hand and foot, enjoying wealth and luxury. They didn't experience the desolation and helplessness behind bars, so the deep friendship born from adversity was out of the question.

Looking at it this way, all that's left is that they both frequented prostitutes.

Zhao Yu did not have the vice of cuckolding himself, so naturally he would not give them such an opportunity.

With no other option, Zhao Yu had to take matters into his own hands.

—Although doing this might seem like he's a "prostitute," in order to reconcile the five women and fulfill his long-held dream of sleeping together in the same bed, Zhao Yu decided to sacrifice himself to help them build this deep friendship.

And so, Zhao Yu unleashed his power, and a dragon and phoenix danced together all night…

The next morning.

Zhao Yu, feeling refreshed, went to practice health-preserving skills with Zhang Xubai and the others, leaving only Zhang Chun, Li Lin, Ye Shiyun, Ma Xiaojiao, and Yuan Qingcheng, who were too tired to get out of bed.

After Zhao Yu left, Zhang Chun, who had been made to apologize to the other four women one by one by Zhao Yu, said in a hoarse voice, "Is Zhao Yu really that fierce when he goes all out?"

Li Lin, who was in the best physical condition, was in much better shape. She said calmly, "That's why I told you, with your weak body, you can't possibly outlast Zhao Yu. With Zhao Yu's current physical strength, he's much stronger than the best special forces soldier I've ever seen. You think you can outlive Zhao Yu and become the Empress Dowager? No way."

Zhang Chun actually thought the same thing, but she stubbornly said, "It's true that he's in good health, but with all the womanizing he does, it's no wonder he'll live a long life."

Upon hearing this, Ye Shiyun said leisurely from the side:
According to the New York Post, veteran actor Warren Beatty had numerous affairs. Biographer Peter Biskin estimated that Beatty had slept with 12775 women, either willingly or unwillingly. He was born in 1937, and he was still alive before we traveled through time; he was almost ninety years old then.

"NBA superstar Wilt Chamberlain claimed that he slept with an average of 1.2 women a day. Many of Chamberlain's friends believed that he had an alluring charm. He once slept with 23 women in 10 days. He slept with 20000 women, so he also had a nickname in China, "Zhang the Two-Thousand," and he lived to the age of 63."

"Castro, the immortal ruler, needed at least two women every day, one for lunch and one for dinner, and sometimes an extra one in the morning. Over forty years, reaching 35000 was not a problem. Someone once asked him how many children he had, and he replied, 'About a tribe.' He also lived a long life, reaching the age of ninety."

At this point, Ye Shiyun asked Zhang Chun, "After hearing these statistics, do you still think you can outlive Zhao Yu?"

Zhang Chun knew this data, but she still stubbornly insisted, "What you're saying are all speculations. Maybe they or someone else are just bragging on their behalf?"

Ye Shiyun said, "Have you heard of Shimizu Ken? Since entering the industry in 1998, he has filmed more than 11,000 movies. This number has been confirmed by multiple sources, including authoritative platforms such as Baidu Encyclopedia and Weibo. In addition, other sources also mention that he appears in about 500 works every year, further corroborating this astonishing output. Moreover, this data is still being updated. Before we time-traveled, he was already 45 years old and still active in the film industry. It is said that he has communicated with more than 9,000 actresses."

Zhang Chun was speechless.

After a long silence, Zhang Chun said reluctantly, "Alright, alright, stop wasting your time. I admit that I'm no match for Empress Zheng, and I might not even outlive Zhao Yu. If I really don't have the chance in the future, I will definitely never mention becoming Empress or Empress Dowager again."

Seeing that Zhang Chun had finally given in, Li Lin, Ye Shiyun, and Ma Xiaojiao thought to themselves, 'Our sacrifices last night weren't in vain.'

Only Yuan Qingcheng was lying in the corner, feeling bored.

She was the last person who wanted to participate in that ridiculous incident last night.

Unfortunately, Zhao Yu went on a killing spree last night, and she became an innocent bystander.

The key point is that, although she initially found this kind of thing extremely objectionable, she later seemed to become quite involved in it...

'Do I have some kind of weird gene in me? How could this be...?'

Yuan Qingcheng was secretly surprised and her cheeks flushed slightly, a complex mix of shyness and confusion about what had happened the night before.

At this moment, Ma Xiaojiao noticed that Yuan Qingcheng had remained silent, and she said, "Haven't you gotten used to it yet?"

Then, Ma Xiaojiao continued to advise, "You'll have to face this sooner or later. I used to be just like you, but after giving birth to Wanying, I asked Xiduo and the others to help me. I really couldn't withstand Zhao Yu's mischief by myself. Besides, having help would save me some energy and make me more comfortable. Sigh, you'll get used to it."

Ye Shiyun also said, "That's right, his physical strength and endurance are so abnormal. We are not Sister Lin. Without anyone's help, we simply cannot withstand it."

Unexpectedly, Li Lin also said, "In order to have a baby, I have given up Convict Conditioning and only practiced Yoga. My physical strength and endurance are not as good as before. Now I have to ask Nianyue and the others for help."

After a pause, Li Lin continued, "What's strange is that Zhao Yu's physical fitness is even stronger than mine at my peak. I guess it might be related to his practice of Taoist health cultivation techniques."

To everyone's surprise, Zhang Chun said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid he practices more than just Taoist health cultivation techniques."

Hearing Zhang Chun's words, Li Lin, Ye Shiyun, Ma Xiaojiao, and Yuan Qingcheng all looked at Zhang Chun. Li Lin asked directly, "What do you mean?"

Zhang Chun didn't hide anything and voiced her concerns: "Zhao Yu's health is too good, almost unbelievably so. I suspect he might have taken some kind of elixir." "Took some elixir?!?"

All four women, including Li Lin, were utterly shocked.

As a modern person, I know very well that taking elixirs is not a good thing, but rather a death wish.

Zhang Chun continued:
"You might think that Emperor Yongzheng was a workaholic who eventually died from overwork, but that's not true. There was another reason for his death."

"It is undeniable that when Yongzheng first ascended the throne, he was indeed a workaholic. He didn't go anywhere else and stayed in the Hall of Mental Cultivation all day reviewing memorials. Sometimes, the number of memorials he reviewed each day could reach tens of thousands of words. If some ministers didn't submit memorials to him for a long time, he would issue a special imperial edict asking the minister why he hadn't submitted a memorial. The minister would say, 'I have nothing to report.' Yongzheng would say, 'Then you still have to submit a memorial, even if it's just a memorial to pay your respects to me.' That's how far he went."

"But in the eighth year of Yongzheng's reign, the situation changed dramatically because Prince Yi, Yinxiang, died that year, which was a huge blow to Yongzheng."

“You can see from the daily records of Emperor Yongzheng that from that year onwards, Yongzheng was like a different person. He was no longer the most diligent emperor in history who worked day and night.”

“First of all, from the eighth year of Yongzheng’s reign to the thirteenth year of Yongzheng’s reign, the number of memorials Yongzheng reviewed each day had decreased significantly. Moreover, at that time, Yongzheng’s replies to memorials were no longer often hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of words long. Instead, they were often just three words, ‘I understand,’ or sometimes just one word, ‘I’m done.’”

“Starting from the eighth year of Yongzheng’s reign, Yongzheng moved from the Forbidden City to the Yuanmingyuan because it was much more comfortable to live there than the Forbidden City, and also because he rarely saw outsiders.”

"In the last five years of Yongzheng's reign, he stopped being diligent in his duties and started to focus on health and wellness. Apart from necessary work, he mainly did two things."

"The first thing I did was play with porcelain, and even fire all kinds of exquisite porcelain myself."

"The second thing is related to his death. You've probably guessed it already. It's about his obsession with alchemy."

"How obsessed was Emperor Yongzheng? According to the records of the Imperial Household Department, he ordered the Imperial Household Department to build an alchemy room in Xiuqing Village in the southeast corner of the Yuanmingyuan Garden. He personally consulted ancient books to prepare medicine prescriptions and ordered the Imperial Household Department to purchase large quantities of alchemy materials such as charcoal, cinnabar, and copper. He also personally supervised the alchemy process and named the resulting pill 'Jiji Dan' (Already Achieved Pill)."

According to Yongzheng himself, after taking this elixir, he was in excellent health and had a great appetite.

"Emperor Yongzheng also often bestowed these elixirs upon his favorite ministers, such as Ortai, who had taken them."

"After Ortai finished eating it, he even submitted a memorial to the emperor saying that it had great effects after he ate it."

"Besides Ortai, there were also ministers such as Nasutu, Yue Zhongqi, Tian Wenjing, and Li Wei, to whom Yongzheng gave elixirs."

"Even in the tenth year of Yongzheng's reign, Yongzheng specially ordered people to send the elixir to Chengde and distribute it to the Mongol princes and ministers to take together. He also issued an edict saying that this was a very good thing, and that he himself had taken a lot of it, and that it was a medicine that was beneficial without any harm."

According to folklore, Emperor Yongzheng consumed more than 200 jin of elixirs during those years.

"As a result, on the eighth day of the tenth month of the thirteenth year of Yongzheng's reign, Yongzheng suddenly passed away at Changchun Garden in Yuanmingyuan, at the age of fifty-eight."

"I certainly don't know what the effects of the pills that Yongzheng took were, but I do know that Yongzheng originally only had four concubines, but after he started taking these pills, the number of concubines suddenly increased from four to thirty-seven."

"Taking this into account, combined with Yongzheng's age and his effusive praise of the effects of these elixirs, I have reason to suspect that these elixirs have the effect of enhancing male potency."

"As for Zhao Yu, we all know from experience that he's ridiculously strong. Could he be in the same situation?"

After listening, Li Lin said, "I don't think Zhao Yu is in this situation. You haven't practiced Convict Conditioning, so you don't understand it. It can indeed train usable strength, extreme strength, and survival strength. Yoga can also improve flexibility, increase muscle strength, and improve physical fitness. The effort Zhao Yu has put into Convict Conditioning and Yoga far exceeds your imagination, so his strength is... within the normal range."

Zhang Chun keenly grasped the hesitation in Li Lin's words and bluntly said, "See, you also think that Zhao Yu is too strong. Are you unsure if his unfathomable physical strength all comes from his diligent practice of 'Convict Conditioning' and 'Yoga'?"

Li Lin did not shy away from the question. She said, "I have said before that Zhao Yu's physical fitness is still better than mine in my prime, which really surprised me. If you really want me to find a reasonable reason, the only one I can think of is that he is still practicing Taoist health cultivation. I think this should be of great help to his body."

Zhang Chun said, "If Zhao Yu only practiced 'Convict Conditioning,' 'Yoga,' and Taoist health cultivation techniques, it would be a good thing if he could have such physical qualities. But if he went astray, and we don't want to be widowed and lose our biggest support, we have to find a way to stop him, otherwise something terrible might happen."

Fearing that Li Lin and the others would not support her, Zhang Chun added, "Jiajing also loved cultivating immortality. When he refined elixirs, in addition to adding some mercury and arsenic, he also insisted on using some menstrual blood. In order to ensure that the elixirs were pure enough, he did not allow the palace maids to eat anything indiscriminately. People need food as their heaven, and cutting off people's food supply is like killing their parents. And that's not all. Every morning, the palace maids had to get up to collect dew for him to drink. The palace maids did not sleep well or eat well, and they grew older day by day. Every day, some of them fell ill. As a result, a group of palace maids led by Yang Jinying almost sent Jiajing away."

At this point, Zhang Chun looked around and asked, "You don't want Zhao Yu to go to this extent of madness, do you?"

Upon hearing this, Li Lin and the other three women quickly called their maids in to help them get dressed...

Not long after, the five women each took a telescope and climbed up to the second floor opposite Yuqing and Yang Palace, and then used the telescopes to peep at Zhao Yu practicing his martial arts.

Soon, Zhao Yu's personal guards discovered the five women.

However, He Qingyan waited until Zhao Yu finished his breathing exercises before reporting to him immediately: "Consort Zhang, Consort Li, Consort Ye, Consort Ma, and Consort Yuan are watching Your Majesty practice with binoculars from the opposite pavilion. Should we ask them to leave?"

Zhao Yu had no idea what these five women were up to, and since he didn't care if they watched him practice, he said, "Don't worry about them. If they want to watch, let them watch."

After thinking about it, since the five women were so eager to see what kind of martial arts he was practicing, he decided to give them a spectacular show.

So Zhao Yu had the female Taoist priests who served him during his practice come to serve him during the next stage of his practice.

The five women who were secretly watching from the opposite side were all dumbfounded when they saw Zhao Yu practicing his kung fu. Ma Xiaojiao, who was completely bewildered, even asked directly, "Is there such a thing as practicing kung fu like this...?"

……

(End of this chapter)