Reborn In The Three Kingdoms

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(A/N: Don’t forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)

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The three men bowed again, chorusing their unworthiness of the Emperor’s praise. Lie Fan then turned his attention back to his son. ”And as for you, Muchen. A spectacular performance demands a spectacular reward. You have honored your family and your empire tonight. Name your reward, and if it is within my power, it shall be granted.”

Muchen’s eyes widened slightly, deeply moved by his father’s generosity. He brought his hands together, sinking into a deep bow. ”I thank Imperial Father for the reward. Your praise and the peace of the realm are all the reward I truly seek, but I shall accept your grace with utmost gratitude.”

With the emotional climax of the performances concluded, the banqueting resumed. Muchen returned to his seat among his siblings, heavily praised by his mothers, while the guests returned to their roasted meats and aged wines.

The music transitioned back into a lively, celebratory hum, and the frantic, joyous energy of the festival reclaimed the hall.

Lie Fan sat back upon the Dragon Throne. He took a sip of his wine, his sharp eyes scanning the room. The mood was perfect. The vassals were awed, the nobles were relaxed, and the foreign kings were intoxicated by the sheer majesty of the Hengyuan court.

The trap was primed.

Lie Fan caught the eye of Chancellor Jia Xu, who was seated at the head of the civil tables. The Emperor offered a single, almost imperceptible nod.

Jia Xu immediately caught the signal. He turned his head slightly, locking eyes with Mi Zhu, the Minister of Revenue, who sat just across the aisle. Both men offered a microscopic nod in return.

​Mi Zhu stood up smoothly, gesturing discreetly to the grand chamberlains stationed near the heavy side doors of the banquet hall.

​Suddenly, a new procession of servants entered the room. They did not carry silver platters of food or jade jugs of wine. Instead, hundreds of beautifully dressed attendants walked in perfect synchronization, carrying small, exquisitely carved cedar boxes resting on velvet pillows.

​The guests, their curiosity instantly piqued by the sudden shift in the service, paused their conversations. The servants moved through the aisles, stopping at every single table. With profound reverence, they placed one of the small cedar boxes before every high ranking noble, vassal lord, tributary king, general, and strategist in the room.

​The boxes were magnificent, stamped with the golden imperial seal of the Hengyuan Dynasty.

​Lie Fan stood up once more, raising his hand to draw the attention of the sprawling, curious assembly. The music slowly faded into silence.

​”My honored guests,” Lie Fan called out, his voice smooth, commanding, and laced with a subtle, predatory charm. ”Tonight, we have shared wine, we have shared poetry, and we have shared the joy of a unified world. But a celebration of this magnitude requires a physical token of our gratitude. A gift, from the throne, to all of you.”

​The nobles and kings looked at the cedar boxes, their eyes wide with anticipation. An imperial gift was always a matter of immense prestige, usually taking the form of gold, jade, or rare silk.

​”I invite you to open them,” Lie Fan smiled broadly.

​A cacophony of small wooden hinges creaking echoed through the hall as thousands of guests simultaneously opened their cedar boxes.

​The moment the lids were lifted, the atmosphere of the grand banquet hall fundamentally changed.

​The air was instantly flooded with a fragrance so pure, so intensely beautiful, and so incredibly concentrated that it caused men to physically gasp.

The heavy smells of roasted meat, wine, and the sweat of thousands of bodies were entirely banished, replaced by the heavenly, overpowering scent of blooming jasmine, rich sandalwood, pure lotus, and crisp, crushed mint.

​Inside each box rested the pristine, perfectly molded, brightly colored bars of luxury soap, alongside the small, sealed ceramic vials of the herbal shampoo.

​”By the heavens...” a wealthy merchant lord from the south whispered, picking up a pale pink bar of jasmine soap. He brought it to his nose, his eyes rolling back slightly in absolute ecstasy. ”What is this? It smells like a divine garden...”

​The King of Goguryeo, sitting near the front, stared at the green bar of lotus soap as if it were a magical artifact. The foreign dignitaries from the deep jungles murmured excitedly among themselves, completely overwhelmed by the olfactory miracle resting in their hands.

​”What you hold in your hands,” Lie Fan announced, his voice projecting clearly over the rising, frantic murmurs of awe, ”is a revolution in human living. These are the very first creations of a brand new, highly classified imperial industry. They are called ’Soap’ and ’Shampoo’.”

​Lie Fan gestured toward the boxes. ”They are not mere perfumes meant to mask the scent of the road. They are chemical miracles designed to purify the body. When mixed with water, they create a rich lather that completely strips dirt, heavy oils, and ailments from the skin and hair, leaving you perfectly clean, while infusing your body with the permanent, lingering scent of the rarest flowers in the empire.”

​The guests were entirely enraptured. In an era where bathing consisted of harsh wood ash or plain water, the concept of a purifying, luxuriously scented cleanser was akin to magic.

The wealthy, status obsessed nobles instantly realized that arriving at a court function smelling like this soap would elevate them above anyone who still relied on burning, choking incense.

​Lie Fan let the awe simmer for a few seconds before he sprung the lock on the cage.

​”This is my gift to you tonight. Use it in your quarters. Experience the cleanliness of the new era,” Lie Fan smiled, his eyes gleaming with the sharp, ruthless intelligence of a supreme economic predator.

​”However,” Lie Fan continued, his voice dropping into a tone of absolute, unbreakable imperial law. ”You must know that the creation of these two commodities requires incredibly delicate, highly secretive techniques. Therefore, I must announce that from this day forward, the production and distribution of Soap and Shampoo will be strictly regulated by the throne.”

​Lie Fan looked out over the sea of mesmerized, wealthy lords.

​”These commodities will be sold throughout the entire territory of the Hengyuan Dynasty, and they will be aggressively traded with all foreign nations,” Lie Fan decreed, his words sealing their financial fate. ”But they will be sold exclusively by the State. Just as the empire holds the absolute, unyielding monopoly on the production of Salt... so too shall the empire hold the absolute monopoly on Soap.”

​The realization hit the room like a thunderclap.

​The brilliant strategists and advisors of his court, instantly recognized the geopolitical masterpiece. The Emperor had not just given a gift; he had artificially created an absolute, biological dependency on a luxury good that only he could provide.

​The wealthy merchant lords and the tributary kings looked at the soap in their hands. They were already addicted to the scent, already calculating how much gold they would gladly part with to ensure their wives, their concubines, and their courts smelled of jasmine instead of sweat.

​They looked up at Emperor Lie Fan, who sat back down upon his golden throne, his smile radiant and victorious. From his elevated vantage point upon the golden Dragon Throne, Emperor Lie Fan possessed a perfect, unobstructed view of the shifting tides of human emotion playing out across the thousands of faces below him. He was a master reader of men, and right now, the entire world was an open book.

​He could see the exact, precise moment the realization struck the different echelons of his court.

​The vast majority of the minor nobles, the foreign emissaries, and the tribal kings were simply mesmerized.

They held the small, brightly colored bars of soap up to the flickering light of the crystal oil lamps, inhaling the heavenly scents with closed eyes and parted lips. They were entirely captivated by the sensory miracle, their minds swimming in the luxurious fragrances of jasmine, lotus, and sandalwood. They were hooked.

​But then, Lie Fan’s dark, piercing gaze shifted toward the tables occupied by the grand merchants of the south, the incredibly wealthy landlords of the central plains, and the brilliantly cynical strategists of his own court.

​On their faces, the mesmerized awe was rapidly hardening into a look of profound, terrified respect. They were the men who understood how the world truly operated. They understood supply, demand, and leverage.

They looked at the small cedar boxes and recognized them not merely as gifts, but as the perfect, inescapable economic snare. This was another one of the Black Dragon’s masterful moves to direct the flowing gold of the entire world straight into the imperial treasury.

​Lie Fan smiled inwardly. He had specifically designed this new industry to serve as a monopoly far more absolute and impenetrable than anything that had existed before. For centuries, empires had relied on the taxation and monopolization of salt and iron.

But salt could be illicitly boiled from seawater by enterprising smugglers on the eastern coasts, and iron could be secretly mined from hidden veins in the mountains. The merchant class had always found ways to penetrate those monopolies, siphoning wealth away from the state through black markets and bribery.

​But this? This was entirely different.

​The recipe for saponification, the exact, delicate chemical synthesis of rendered tallows, pressed plant oils, and highly purified alkaline lye, was locked securely away inside the Emperor’s mind and strictly compartmentalized within Chancellor Jia Xu’s terrifying, heavily guarded forest fortress.

No greedy noble or ambitious merchant guild could simply stumble upon the correct ratios by accident. Even if they managed to steal a bar of the soap, they could not reverse engineer it. Because the recipe was exclusively in the hands of the state, and protected by the lethal blades of the Emperor’s network, it was an economic fortress that could never be breached.

​While the political and economic ramifications of the announcement sent shockwaves through the men of the court, the reaction upon the imperial dais was entirely different, driven by a much more fundamental, aesthetic desire.

​Empress Ying Yue, alongside Diao Chan, Cai Wenji, Lu Lingqi, and Zhen Ji, were the only high ranking noble ladies physically present at this specific, high stakes military and political banquet. And as women of unparalleled elegance and refined taste, they were infinitely more attracted to the physical and cosmetic implications of the gift than any of the men in the room.

​The heavy, often suffocating incense used by the aristocracy to mask the unpleasant odors of the era had always been a necessary annoyance. But the scent wafting from the small cedar boxes placed before their thrones was a revelation. It was clean, bright, and intoxicating.

As women, they possessed a natural, inherent appreciation for items that enhanced beauty and personal grace, and they instantly recognized that these products would fundamentally revolutionize the routines of the inner court.

​Ying Yue picked up a small, perfectly molded bar of pale pink jasmine soap. The surface was incredibly smooth, almost like polished jade, but it possessed a soft, waxy texture that practically begged to be used. She brought it to her nose, inhaling deeply, her beautiful eyes fluttering shut as the scent transported her to a blooming southern garden in the height of spring.

​She leaned gracefully toward her husband, the heavy golden phoenix crown chiming softly atop her head.

​”Husband,” Ying Yue murmured, her voice a soft, melodic whisper intended only for his ears, though her eyes shone with an unmistakable, eager brightness. ”This creation of yours... it is truly a miracle. The scent is absolutely divine. Tell me, would it be possible for us to have a dedicated supply of these items provided directly to the Harem Palace?”

​Lie Fan turned his head, looking at the eager, hopeful expression on his Empress’s face, and let out a warm, genuine chuckle. The terrifying conqueror of the world melted away, leaving only a doting husband perfectly willing to spoil his family.

​”Of course you can, my love,” Lie Fan smiled, his eyes crinkling with affection. He reached over and gently covered her hand with his own. ”For the Harem Palace, and for you and your sisters, you may have as much of this soap and shampoo as your hearts desire. The imperial storehouses will ensure your washrooms are never empty.”

​He paused, a playful, teasing glint appearing in his dark eyes. ”But, of course, I must caution you against taking too much at once. Moderation is key. If I find the storehouses suddenly entirely depleted, I will know you ladies are hoarding the royal stock beneath your beds like misers hoarding copper coins.”

​Ying Yue let out a light, musical laugh, her cheeks flushing slightly at the playful accusation. She nodded her head gracefully. ”I thank you, my husband. We shall be prudent, but we shall be beautifully fragrant.”

​Sitting back, Ying Yue smoothly turned her head slightly to the left, catching the attentive eyes of Diao Chan, Cai Wenji, Lu Lingqi, and Zhen Ji, who had all been eagerly eavesdropping on the exchange.

With a subtle, highly practiced motion hidden entirely by the wide drape of her crimson silk sleeve, Ying Yue flashed her sister-wives a crisp, universally understood hand signal, an ”ok” sign, curling her index finger to her thumb.

​The four concubines immediately understood. The supply for the inner court was secured. Diao Chan beamed a radiant, breathtaking smile. Zhen Ji let out a quiet sigh of relief. Lu Lingqi nodded approvingly, recognizing the tactical victory. And Cai Wenji’s eyes twinkled with scholarly amusement.

​Having ensured his family’s comfort, Lie Fan turned his attention back to the massive, sprawling banquet hall. The initial shock and awe had begun to subside, replaced by thousands of whispered, frantic questions.

How did it work? Was it truly better than water? What were the hidden properties of this strange, fragrant block?

​Lie Fan stood up from the Dragon Throne. The sheer, physical presence of the Emperor rising to his feet acted as an immediate command. The frantic whispering ceased instantly. The thousands of guests turned their faces upward, granting him their absolute, undivided attention.

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Name: Lie Fan

Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty

Age: 36 (203 AD)

Level: 16

Next Level: 462,000

Renown: 2325

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 11)

SP: 1,121,700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 1,010 (+20)

VIT: 659 (+20)

AGI: 653 (+10)

INT: 691

CHR: 98

WIS: 569

WILL: 436

ATR Points: 0