However, those ancient and more authentic histories were recorded in ancient texts. That’s why she was eager to develop divine consciousness to explore the information within the jade slips.

Now, she had fulfilled her wish.

Thus, she immersed herself in the sea of books for ten days.

By combining the diverse and complex records from jade slips and history books, she finally pieced together a general understanding of the historical period she most wanted to explore.

This was the relationship between monarchs and State Preceptors.

This unique relationship was something she had never encountered or heard of in her previous life, and due to Yun Ya, she was particularly curious about it.

It turned out that when a monarch performed the enthronement ceremony, and worshipped the ancestral temple and heaven and earth, besides announcing to the world his ascension as ruler of a Kingdom, he also received the continuation of elemental power from the previous generation or dynasty.

Where the monarch was, the elemental power was.

And the duty of the State Preceptor was to manage the Kingdom’s elemental power.

During the Haoli Empire period, the position of State Preceptor was mostly held by imperial family members, or simply combined with the emperor’s role, Emperor Haoli being a typical example. But whether serving as emperor or State Preceptor, one had to handle exceptionally heavy official duties. Unless one possessed extraordinary energy, it was impossible to manage everything.

Meanwhile, cultivators seeking elemental power to strengthen themselves had to lower their originally aloof stance and serve the country.

It was precisely the emergence of elemental power that bound them to the state’s chariot.

During this period, royal authority was unprecedentedly stable.

However, as natural spiritual energy rapidly declined, the world’s laws underwent significant changes. The most important change was that fewer and fewer people qualified for cultivation; only those with spiritual affinity could approach the threshold of the supreme path, and this could no longer be inherited.

In other words, a cultivator’s child might still become a cultivator, but would more likely become an ordinary person. Under these circumstances, a king’s descendants might lack cultivation talent, and the entire royal family might produce very few cultivators. With insufficient numbers, quality was hard to improve, yet the State Preceptor position demanded high standards and strict requirements.

Moreover, after one or two more generations, the royal family might completely transform into common people.

But elemental energy still existed and could still only be allocated by the strongest cultivator—the State Preceptor.

Since the founding of the Kingdom, elemental power had become one of the most important factors in a country’s survival, making the State Preceptor’s existence essential, regardless of whether the royal family could produce cultivators. An extraordinary State Preceptor could even exert additional power from elemental forces through their ability.

A new system emerged: for the Kingdom’s consideration, if the royal family lacked cultivators, the monarch had to appoint a State Preceptor to discern heavenly patterns, lead cultivators against external enemies, and distribute the Kingdom’s elemental power.

Without “blood ties” as a natural cohesive factor, the relationship between monarchs and “wild” State Preceptors became particularly delicate.

Becoming a State Preceptor was every cultivator’s ultimate dream and honor. Everyone wanted to become a State Preceptor. Despite restrictions from royal authority, one could attain higher status, receive more elemental power, and come one step closer to the supreme path—

The opportunity to commune with heaven’s will was extremely rare.

On one hand, monarchs needed State Preceptors; on the other, monarchs had to guard against them, as their power was too formidable, killing a mortal probably no more difficult than crushing an ant. History recorded iron-clad facts, proving their wariness wasn’t unfounded: there had indeed been kingdoms where State Preceptors usurped power and ruled, while the original royal families were suppressed or slaughtered.

Therefore, over many years, restrictions on State Preceptors had evolved in various ways, but generally fell into the following categories:

First, control of their relatives and family. For example, Mo Tichun’s descendants and relatives, numbering about six hundred, all lived in the Jin Capital under the Jin King’s nose. Though they enjoyed wealth, weren’t they essentially hostages in disguise?

Second, State Preceptors and their disciples couldn’t hold official positions, receive noble titles, or marry into aristocratic families; they could only marry commoners. This completely prevented State Preceptors from participating in administration, guarding against collusion with the powerful and undermining the monarch’s authority.

Third, elemental power allocation followed the principle of “controlling the major, releasing the minor.” For major allocations such as encouraging rainfall, agricultural assistance, disaster prevention, or enhancing war capability, both the monarch and the State Preceptor’s joint appointment was required for effectiveness. Only in individual combat power allocation did the State Preceptor enjoy partial autonomy.

Fourth, and most importantly, every country had secret methods to compel State Preceptors’ loyalty to monarchs. Such secrets were typically known only to two or three people in the world, generally not openly written in history books, and neither party would publicize them.

Feng Miaojun perused dozens of old books before finding a small, unverified passage: one hundred and seventy years ago, the Qi Kingdom was seized by its State Preceptor because the Qi monarch’s requirements for the State Preceptor were too lenient—upon rebellion, he would only lose his cultivation for seventy-two hours. During this time, the State Preceptor couldn’t deploy elemental power and lost self-protection abilities. However, if this person was determined to rebel and made prior arrangements, he could still survive these seventy-two hours.

Incidentally, after this State Preceptor usurped the throne, he changed the country’s name to “Yan.” Indeed, it has since developed into the current world’s most prosperous great Kingdom. Its prosperity wasn’t only due to favorable timing, geographical advantage, and harmonious governance, but most importantly:

Like Emperor Haoli, the current King of Yan served both as monarch and State Preceptor. Thus, the conflict between the State Preceptor and central power was temporarily resolved, allowing Yan Kingdom to wholeheartedly pursue development.

After successfully usurping power, that former State Preceptor, now turned monarch, established more complex and stringent rules binding the State Preceptor’s position to prevent future imitation. After more than ten generations of cautious governance, they were fortunate to produce another powerful cultivator who could serve as both monarch and State Preceptor.

Reading to this point, Feng Miaojun rubbed her tired eyes and finally closed the book with a long sigh:

The struggle between monarchs and State Preceptors ultimately boiled down to the game between humans and cultivators. After demons and magical beasts retreated, only this pair of dance partners remained on the stage of power. Despite being constrained by elemental power, how could cultivators, with their abilities and pride, be content to huddle beneath ordinary humans?

But the quantity and quality of cultivators could no longer compare with a thousand years ago. Taking Anxia as an example, with a population of over two million, there were fewer than two hundred cultivators, a ratio of less than one per ten thousand. Other countries were no different. Regarding abilities, nowadays having the strength of ten people was considered elite, strength of dozens made one a powerhouse, and State Preceptors like Mo Tichun with the power of a hundred were as rare as phoenix feathers or unicorn horns. This couldn’t compare with various historical figures who could easily overturn heaven and earth. It was precisely because they no longer possessed overwhelming advantages that ordinary people finally truly ascended to the stage of power.

Thus, instability existed both internally and externally. To truly resolve this contradiction, perhaps they must wait until the day when natural spiritual energy completely declined.