Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 158 The Immortal Sect establishes itself on its own
The situation in Zhou was even worse than Zhang Chengdao had imagined.

Nearly 10% of the central government officials in the court became corpse puppets.

However, the victims were mainly among some of Li Renshun's closest officials, primarily military officers and generals, including the Grand General of the Imperial Guard, who served as the emperor's "personal guard." They were all turned into corpse puppets, resulting in heavy losses among the high-ranking military personnel in the Zhou court. All the third and fourth-rank military personnel died, and only a few less important deputy officials survived.

The situation was even more tragic in the imperial harem.

Apart from the foolish Crown Prince Li Chunxiao and a few concubines in the cold palace, all the other concubines, Empress Zhao (Li Renshun's wife), all the palace maids and eunuchs, and the guards of the palace all became corpse puppets.

Zhang Chengdao had his men count the deaths, and it turned out that as many as five thousand people had died because of the Mingjing that turned into corpse puppets!
The Zhou state valued simplicity, and the entire palace had only a little over three thousand maids and eunuchs!
The more statistics Zhang Chengdao compiled, the more he sighed in his heart.

Only now did he realize that the "spiritual energy revival," which at first glance seemed like a "good thing" that would lead to a "comprehensive upgrade of the world," actually brought disaster first.

A group of courtiers huddled nervously in the Daxing Hall. The corpse puppets that filled the palace were more convincing than anything else. No one dared to question any of Zhang Chengdao's decisions. Some who had already sensed something was wrong remained silent. What difference did it make if the Mingjing National Preceptor died and the White Stone Immortal came?
Zhang Chengdao first arranged for people to clean up the corpse puppets in the palace little by little, and then concentrated them to be burned with the Six Jia Yang Fire.

This was done not only to prevent the Grand Preceptor Mingjing from resurrecting the corpse puppets, but also because Zhang Chengdao was unsure whether these corpse puppets would have any negative consequences if they were buried normally. If they turned into zombies or something, it would be even more troublesome, so he simply burned them all.

"The Ministry of Personnel will review the vacant positions, draft a list to fill them, and then issue an imperial edict to all prefectures to maintain the status quo for the time being. Local issues will be discussed later when the court has more time to address them..."

Zhang Chengdao did not sit on the dragon throne, but stood below it, looking around to identify the faces of the officials of the Six Ministries. He slowly said, "From now on, there will be no emperor. For the time being, the Chancellor, the Minister of State Affairs, and the Grand Councilor will be in charge of the government. All memorials from the Six Ministries and the Court of Judicial Review will be submitted to me. All other matters will be discussed later..."

Since most of the imperial court was still functioning normally, Zhang Chengdao did not make any rash changes.

The reason why "reform" is in line with social development is that many policies rely on corresponding infrastructure and economic development levels. The Three Departments and Six Ministries system inherited by the Zhou state was relatively complete, and now, in a sense, it is a critical moment of "dynastic change." Rashly changing it could easily lead to further unforeseen changes.

More importantly, he didn't have the energy or the talent to immediately take over the governance of a country.

After appeasing the court officials, the group began to discuss Li Renshun's posthumous title.

Normally, such matters would take a long time to reach a conclusion, but Zhang Chengdao did not want to waste his time on it. With so many corpse puppets outside the palace as a deterrent, how could the officials dare to offend the "immortals" on this matter? After only a short discussion, they proposed the characters "Min" and "Lie," and added prefixes such as "Ping," "Huai," "An," "Kang," and "Yi."

The characters “慜” and “烈” are both quite fitting. The Book of Posthumous Titles says: “When one suffers misfortune in the country, one is called “愍”; when one encounters difficulties in the country, one is called “愍”.

It is also said: Uprightness is called "fierceness," and meritorious service in bringing peace to the people is called "fierceness."

Although Li Renshun's political achievements were mediocre, he did indeed come during a time of national crisis. Furthermore, the imperial edict he issued circulated among the court officials, causing many veteran ministers to weep and lament incessantly, which can only be described as a great act of heroism.

Zhang Chengdao finally made the final decision: "Let's take these two characters, and posthumously name him 'Liemin', with 'Huaiyi' added before it, so he will be known as 'Huaiyi Liemin Emperor'."

The posthumous title is somewhat contradictory, but still quite fitting.

The character “怀” (huai) subtly suggests that he was ambitious but lacked talent, while “毅烈” (yilie) is a posthumous title praising Li Renshun for his unyielding spirit in writing the imperial edict. The character “慜” (min) expresses regret for his fate. Subsequently, Zhang Chengdao ordered the dismissal of the surviving concubines in the harem, established a system of “grain allowance” for those who died in the disaster, renamed it “compensation allowance,” and made it available from the Zhou state treasury.

By the time all this was done, the sun was already setting. Many ministers had been invited to the palace without having eaten. Zhang Chengdao thought for a moment that he wasn't some inhuman boss who would force people to work on an empty stomach. So he simply took out some food he had saved in his backpack and distributed it to the officials. The Imperial Guards who had been temporarily transferred carried the food to the tables in the hall. Because there were too few tables, many low-ranking officials had to share a table to eat.

Fortunately, I had several hundred servings of [vegetable noodles] in my backpack, and with some [pickled radish] as a token gesture, it was more than enough to feed the ministers a vegetarian meal.

After all, Li Renshun had just died, and Zhang Chengdao had no intention of going against the ancient moral values ​​of "ruler, father, subject, and son," so he still expressed respect for the appropriate mourning attire.

Thanks to the fact that since the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, the monarchs have always advocated for simple mourning periods, using days instead of months, and requiring their ministers to abstain from meat and alcohol for only three days, vegetarian noodles like [vegetarian noodles] were still edible.

If it were a few hundred years earlier, people wouldn't even be able to eat for the first few days (they would not eat for three days in mourning and two days in full mourning), which was extremely inhumane.

After the meal, the court officials gradually came to terms with the fact that "the dynasty had changed."

The head of the Imperial Secretariat, Liu Dai, finally took the initiative to bow to Zhang Chengdao and asked, "May I ask, Immortal Master, now that all the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace have been lost, should we select new ones from the common people? If there is no emperor, how should we address you as Immortal Master?"

Zhang Chengdao carefully examined Liu Dai, an old minister with a goatee, about fifty years old, who looked much younger than Li Renshun back then.

They're also quite cunning.

"From now on, no eunuchs or palace maids shall be appointed, so as not to disturb the people."

"As for how to address me..."

Zhang Chengdao thought about it and realized that it was indeed inappropriate to equate the White Stone Immortal Sect with the martial arts sects in the Jianghu, especially since he had just received a reward from Murong Zhen. He also needed to find an opportunity to inform the various countries and make the White Stone Immortal Sect "stand on its own".

Since it's a "Celestial Sect," let's just call it a "Sect."

Thinking of this, Zhang Chengdao replied: "I am a celestial being descended to earth. I am saddened by the impending chaos in this world, so I set up a Taoist temple in Baishi Mountain, established a sect, and spread the immortal way to bestow immortal opportunities upon all living beings."

"It is a pity that such a wicked person as Mingjing still managed to wreak havoc on the country, leading to such a tragedy. It is truly lamentable."

"From this day forward, you may all address me as Sect Master. The White Stone Immortal Sect will be established as a sect, to purify the world, spread the great cause of immortality, and bring peace to the people and the nation."

Upon hearing this, Liu Dai bowed and agreed, daring not to say another word.

(End of this chapter)