Forty millenniums of cul.., p.895
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 895
"Not only did Wang Xi run away, he also stole tremendous magical equipment, secret arts, and medicines from the emperor's personal treasury, as well as all the wealth that he had accumulated in the past decade. More importantly, the secrets about the major sects that he had collected through the espionage agency 'Ghost Character' were still under his control!
"The magical equipment, secret arts, medicines, and wealth might not be important, but the stinky, clandestine secrets in Wang Xi's hands were like daggers pressed against the backs of the major Cultivators!
"Therefore, Wang Xi is now the public enemy of every Cultivator in the Great Qian Dynasty. No sect does not want him dead! It's a shame that they do not even know where Wang Xi is hiding!
"Wang Xi, the Lead Eunuch; Wan Mingzhu, Mother White Lotus; Qi Changsheng, the Heaven Battering King; and my brother Han Baling, regent of Cloud Qin. They are the four greatest headaches for the Great Qian Dynasty known as the Four Rapscallions! In fact, if the Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty were not divided and asking for their own doom, what could the Four Rapscallions do however brutal they were?"
Li Yao pondered to himself for a long time before he asked, "Are the Purple Pole Sword Sect and the Ling family really Wang Xi's subordinates?"
Han Yuantai smiled. "Too many things were involved in Wang Xi's fall. The Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty started their internal strife again with the court as their battlefield. They are accusing each other of being the 'eunuch's conspirators', in exactly the same way as they barraged their dissidents before!
"If they are talking about the eunuch's conspirators, which of the sects were absolutely not connected with him during the ten years that Wang Xi was in power? The sects that were determined to go against him have long been annihilated by the sects that were working with him!
"As for the Purple Pole Sword Sect, they are just not very lucky!
"Wang Xi was an extraordinary swordsman. Naturally, he was interested in the mysteries of the sword. The Purple Pole Sword Sect is the best sword sect in the world. Naturally, there are countless sword art classics and famous sword Cultivators in the sect!
"Therefore, when Wang Xi was in power, he often visited the Purple Pole Sword Sect to discuss sword arts with them. With his power and Cultivation at that time, could the Purple Pole Sword Sect turn him down?
"Therefore, on the surface, the Purple Pole Sword Sect was more intimate with Wang Xi than other sects were.
"But after Wang Xi's fall, it became the Purple Pole Sword Sect's greatest sin!"
Chapter 1373: Wolf, Sheep, and Grass |
Han Yuantai paused for a moment and observed, only to discover that the 'old monster' was deep in thought, apparently hooked by what he was talking about. Excited, he grew even more confident. "As the saying goes, if a man falls once, all will tread on him. The major sects went through all the trouble to crush the eunuch and his conspirators, but before they split the gains left by the eunuch and his conspirators, Wang Xi had packed up all the treasures, leaving absolutely nothing for them! At this moment, if they did not kill a scapegoat and enjoy its blood and meat, everybody would be starving!
"If we get to the bottom of it, it doesn't matter whether or not the Purple Pole Sword Sect is Wang Xi's conspirator. What matters is that it boasts astronomical resources as the best sword sect in the world. If the Purple Pole Sword Sect is defeated, its body will sustain the other major sects for quite a long while!
"It's just like after a blizzard on the northern prairies, the cold, hungry wolves warm each other in a pack while observing their companions. If any of their companions show any weakness, they will attack them immediately and feed on their flesh and blood until the next companion shows weakness!
"However, the Purple Pole Sword Sect is the best sword sect in the world after all. It is not so easy to deal with.
"That's why the major sects began with the Ling family, a family affiliated with the Purple Pole Sword Sect. They gave the Ling family a mission that was barely accomplishable. If the Ling family did fail and even raise a riot in the Southland of Sorcerers, it would've been a great excuse to attack the Purple Pole Sword Sect. They could even blame the Purple Pole Sword Sect for 'conspiring with Wang Xi and rebelling in the Southland of Sorcerers'. In that case, the Purple Pole Sword Sect would certainly be doomed!
"The Purple Pole Sword Sect understood the situation clearly.
"However, most of the experts of the sect had to stay in the headquarters to keep an eye on the covetous sects nearby. Therefore, they could only spare two young, inexperienced Cultivators, one at the peak of the Core Formation Stage and the other in the beginning level of the Nascent Soul Stage, for the mission!
"Their arrangement was within my brother Han Baling's expectations. That is why he was bold enough to ask me to infiltrate the Great Qian Dynasty's territory and reach the Southland of Sorcerers!"
Li Yao bulged his eyes and asked in disbelief, "Even the issues of national importance can be taken advantage of for the conflicting sects?"
Han Yuantai burst into laughter. "You may not know this, Master, but what I spoke about was just the first clue of the shameless deeds of the Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty. If I elaborate on them, three days and three nights will not be enough!
"Not just a tiny Southland of Sorcerers, do you think that the White Lotus Cult, the Heaven Battering Army, and even Cloud Qin are not backed by the major sects?"
"What!" Li Yao rose in utmost shock.
"What's to be surprised at?" Han Yuantai replied matter-of-factly. "You will understand everything very quickly if you consider it carefully, Master. Assuming that the White Lotus Cult, the Heaven Battering Army, or Cloud Qin takes down a certain sect, who will get the greatest gains?
"The White Lotus Cult is made of wandering ghosts, and the Heaven Battering Army consists of homeless peasants. Cloud Qin is based on the Dark Cloud Prairies and cannot stay in the central plateaus for long. Even if we truly break into a sect, the only thing that we can do is run away after we plunder something.
"How much can we plunder in a hurry? Also, no matter how much we plunder, it is impossible to bring the sect's natural paradise away with us!
"After we evacuate, or after we are 'eliminated' by the coalition army of the major sects, whom will the natural paradise and the remaining resources of the broken sect belong to?
"If you understand the question, you will understand why the White Lotus Cult, the Heaven Battering Army, and Cloud Qin have never been eliminated and are growing stronger after every elimination!
"Honestly speaking, many noble sects in the Great Qian Dynasty regard us as knives and hungry dogs. They're worried that we are not sharp and voracious enough!
"Hehe. Last year, the light cavalry of Cloud Qin crushed the heavy cavalry of the court of three hundred thousand soldiers. We swept across the north and marched toward the capital city, trampling upon the headquarters of more than fifty Cultivation sects in the north on our way. If I tell you that certain southern sects were behind the battle and that it was an extension of the conflicts between the northern sects and the southern sects in the Great Qian Dynasty, would you believe it, Master?"
Li Yao felt chilly. He mumbled, "Are the Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty not scared that the tigers will grow uncontrollable after they are fed too much?"
"Hahahaha!" Han Yuantai laughed aloud. "In the eyes of the spectacular Cultivators, people of Cloud Qin and people in the Southland of Sorcerers are just a bunch of wild dogs. They throw a few bones to us and ask us to bite someone, and we will. We are quite useful tools. Are we 'tigers' at all?"
Li Yao was rendered speechless.
"Master!" Seeing that the timing was appropriate, Han Yuantai beamed with sincerity and declared, "Heed my words! All the Cultivators of the Great Qian Dynasty are shameless, cunning, pretentious, and treacherous! A great expert growing up in the jungles in the southeast who has been secluded for training will absolutely be no match for them in terms of schemes and deception!
"The Great Qian Dynasty is a dirty swirl right now. Should you get involved, you will not even know how you get killed!"
Li Yao glanced at him and smiled. "We are finally getting back to the main topic now, aren't we? You are belittling the Great Qian Dynasty with all your talk about dynastical cancer, public hatred, and internal strife. Is Ghost Qin of the Dark Cloud Prairies any different? Is it able to cure the 'cancer'?"
"Of course!" Holding his head high, Han Yuantai replied confidently, "Cloud Qin is not at all similar to Great Qian. We are unifying all the Cultivators with the 'Eight Units System', the most advanced system in the history of the Ancient Sages Sector!
"There were few sects in the vast northern prairies in the first place. They were never too strong.
"After my brother Han Baling unified the tribes in the prairies as per the arrangement of fate, he understood the principle that 'Cultivation sects are the cancer of a nation' with his unparalleled wisdom!
"Therefore, he swept across the Dark Cloud Prairies with iron and blood, uprooting the few sects. He restrained all the shamans, priests, and unaffiliated Cultivators with military rules and classified them into eight units!
"Behemothic Eagle, Black Tortoise, Blue Dragon, Crimson Phoenix… When the eight units are combined, they make a well-organized army where every order is executed without fail!
"Why do we call ourselves 'Cloud Qin'? The ignorant folks of the Great Qian Dynasty say that we are intentionally looking for an awesome ancestor to justify ourselves.
"Hehe. They are too shortsighted to understand our ambitions!
"We are of course the descendants of the Cloud Qin Empire in the past. However, it is not their bloodline that we have inherited but their spirit!
"The Cloud Qin Empire was the first magnificent dynasty to end the chaotic battles among the thousands of sects and unify the entire Ancient Sages Sector a hundred thousand years ago. How did they achieve that?
"Through the inviolable rules that all Cultivators were bound by. All the Cultivators of Cloud Qin were taught to focus on national fights and not personal ones. They were strictly forbidden from internal fights. Once discovered, both parties involved in the fight would be punished!
"Then, all the Cloud Qin Cultivators were divided into twenty levels. Each level corresponds to a certain quantity of training resources that was larger than the last level's. It was not one's Cultivation but one's military credits that mattered during the classification!
"Even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator was not entitled to any crystals if they had not earned any military credits. They would still be despised by other Cultivators!
"Even a Cultivator in the low level of the Refinement Stage would receive the most resources from the nation regardless of their aptitude as long as they made great contributions in the battles against other forces!
"As a result, the whole of Cloud Qin became a super sect and an invincible army, which was the foundation of the Cloud Qin Empire's cause to unify the world!
"It's a pity that…
"The Cloud Qin Empire in the past never really realized the harms of the Cultivation sects. They only discouraged the Cultivation sects from growing within the empire but never eliminated them!
"After the empire was established and the world was at peace, the leadership eased their wariness and rewarded the Cultivation sects. As a result, the Cultivation sects were rekindled, which eventually led to the doom of the empire!
"The hundred thousand years that followed were the age of Cultivation sects. The magnates in the Nascent Soul Stage decided the national affairs and manipulated the emperor. Not a single dynasty was able to eclipse the Cultivation sects!
"After a hundred thousand years, we, the younger generation of Cloud Qin, are going to finish the cause that the Cloud Qin Empire failed to accomplish in the past. We will eliminate the cancer named 'sects' forever and establish an everlasting, supreme nation!
"Right now, all the Cultivators of Cloud Qin know only the nation but not the sects. Or rather, the whole of Cloud Qin is a great sect and a super army!
"The Cloud Qin Cultivators live in peace against common, external foes. Private fights are strictly forbidden, but healthy competition among the eight units is encouraged!
"Also, like the ancient Cloud Qin, we have established twenty levels. The training resources are allocated according to the level that the Cultivators are in, and the level is determined based on military credits earned in battle!
"Therefore, although the Cloud Qin Cultivators are smaller in number and weaker in general, everything is clean and well-functioning. The dozens of Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators are united as one. We are not nearly as filthy and stinky as the Great Qian Dynasty, which is nothing more than an apple of Sodom!"
"That's just your side of the story," Li Yao said coldly. "Is the so-called 'Eight Units System' an elixir to all diseases? Are the lives of ordinary people in Cloud Qin any better than those in Great Qian?"
Han Yuantai put it straightforwardly. "It is the law of nature that common folk must provide resources for Cultivators. However, there is no internal strife among Cultivation sects in Cloud Qin. The valuable resources will not be wasted in vain. Also, we consider the ordinary folk to be our property, and we hardly would hardly kill the goose that lays eggs!
"When a shepherd is herding livestock on the prairies, he can only get enough food by treating the livestock well and making them gain weight, right?
"The Cultivators are wolves, and ordinary people are sheep. First of all, there can't be too many wolves, and the pack cannot expand infinitely. The ratio of wolves to sheep to grass must be kept within an appropriate range. Secondly, the wolves cannot be too greedy. If all the fat sheep are devoured to satisfy the momentary desire, and the only things left are the lambs and the sick sheep, it won't be long before the extinction of the entire wolf pack!
"They are the ultimate laws of nature that my brother Han Baling perceived on the vast prairies in the north!"
Chapter 1374: The Birth of a Country! |
"Wolves, sheep, grass!" Li Yao chewed on Han Yuantai's words.
The relationship between Cultivators, ordinary people, and resources implied in his words, despite the simplicity and crudeness, was already much more advanced than the traditional Cultivators' attitude of regarding ordinary people as pure ants.
"Master!" Han Yuantai suddenly grew excited. He waved his hands and exclaimed, "Do you think that I risked my life visiting the Southland of Sorcerers for the simple purpose of overturning the Great Qian Dynasty and replacing it with Cloud Qin?
"If so, you've underestimated the Cloud Qin people's ambitions again!
"My brother Han Baling often says that, if this was just a regular change of dynasties, we might as well save ourselves the trouble!
"That's because such changes of dynasties have happened in the Ancient Sages Dynasty hundreds of times in the past hundred thousand years, but none of the new dynasties ever lasted more than three thousand years. Even the most vigorous dynasty, after a thousand years of ups and downs, would eventually decay and corrupt until it fell to dust one day!
"Every dynasty thrived under a different name in a different era, but the process of their rise and decline has almost always been the same!
"First of all, the world was in chaos, and the sects grew independent. The strong preyed on the weak, leading to ruthless slaughters. The population of ordinary people and Cultivators plummeted!
"When the population of Cultivators dropped to a certain point where their demand on the resources could be satisfied, the conflict among them was mitigated. They understood the importance of compromising and cooperation again. Eventually, a unified and stable dynasty was established!
"However, in the unified and stable dynasty, the Cultivators, having no external threats, began to reproduce exponentially. Also, because of their longevity, their population became larger and larger, and their demand on the sources rocketed higher and higher until it was too heavy a burden for the burden, just like present day. Therefore, the world fell into chaos again, marking the start of another cycle!
"So, my brother Han Baling wants much more than overthrowing Great Qian!
"What he wants, and what everyone in Cloud Qin wants, is to completely destroy the sect system and establish a powerful country where there are no sects or internal strife, where all Cultivators are united and train themselves under the planning of a national government, and where the world will be at peace for another hundred thousand years and even longer!
"Master, this is an unprecedented cause in the history of the Ancient Sages Sector! If an extraordinary man like yourself does not devote himself to such a glorious enterprise, what has he practiced his techniques for?"
Li Yao's eyelids were bouncing. He rolled his eyes for a long time before he said coldly, "So to speak, the Cultivators of Cloud Qin are a super army with strict military rules. Even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator will be restrained by the rules and cannot live a free life, right?"
"Exactly," Han Yuantai said resolutely. "In Cloud Qin, military rules top everything else. The Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators will be punished on equal terms as ordinary folk when they commit crimes!"
"Hehe. Ridiculous!" Li Yao sneered. "I'm a barbarian who's lived a carefree life for too long, and I hate restraints more than anything else. Why would I go to Cloud Qian and be bridled by your 'military rules' when I can live an enjoyable life in the Southland of Sorcerers and even in the Great Qian Dynasty?"
Han Yuantai looked Li Yao in the eye, with aggressiveness beaming out of his eyes. "As a high-level Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, of course you are free to choose to do whatever you want and live an enjoyable life! But as a result, you will certainly be no match for the Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators who are bound by military rules and have maximized their combat ability and fighting will because of their firm belief!
