Chapter 82: Teacher and Student, Senior and Junior

Leaving the narrow, gloomy Mud Jug Alley and stepping onto the wide, bright Erlang Lane, the quick-witted young man walked with a light step, his sleeves swaying, holding the couplet he had stolen from the wall of Mud Jug Alley.

A tall man, who should have been in the official residence of the Supervisor, stood outside the door, waiting for a long time. He had kept his eyes closed and concentrated, but upon hearing the footsteps, he opened his eyes, saw the familiar yet unfamiliar youth, quickly stepped aside, stood with his hands clasped, and respectfully said, "Master."

The youth, named Cui Chan, grunted in acknowledgment. He casually handed the couplet to Wu Yuan, took out the key to open the door, but just as he was about to step over the threshold, he suddenly retreated and pulled the two courtyard doors shut again.

Wu Yuan almost bumped into his Master's back. This magistrate of Dragon Spring County quickly retreated a few steps, wondering at his Master's actions.

Cui Chan, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, nodded towards the painted door gods, "Your father-in-law's ancestor is hanging right there. Impressive, isn't it?"

This extremely awkward way of putting it made Wu Yuan's head ache.

Although he didn't get along with his father-in-law, who held the title of Pillar of the Nation, he was truly in love with the unmarried daughter. They were a well-known, loving couple in the capital, especially since a handsome, impoverished scholar, well-versed in literature, had traveled to the capital, failed the imperial examination, but won the heart of a beauty. Despite everyone's doubts about their relationship, he became the personal disciple of the Great Li State Preceptor, shocking the court and becoming a legendary tale, even alarming His Majesty, who summoned Wu Yuan to the Yangzheng Study.

After that, his future father-in-law turned a blind eye to Wu Yuan and no longer threatened to break his legs.

Cui Chan stepped over the threshold and casually said, "I've been pondering a question: will our Confucian ideal of 'sincere trust, clear justice, reverence for virtue, and rewarding merit, leading to governance without action' ever have a chance to be realized?"

Wu Yuan softly asked, "Has Master found an answer?"

Cui Chan curled his lips, "It's difficult."

Wu Yuan was speechless.

Cui Chan smiled and asked, "Do you think it was a pointless question?"

Wu Yuan honestly replied, "A little."

Perhaps because the dialogue between master and disciple was always so frank, Cui Chan was not annoyed, but glanced at Wu Yuan, regretting, "Many things in the world are precious not for their results, but for the process."

Wu Yuan mustered his courage and asked, "Could Master give an example?"

Cui Chan led Wu Yuan towards the vermilion square table under the plaque in the main hall, saying, "For example, you and the daughter of Yuan, the Pillar of the Nation, are now deeply in love, inseparable, and holding hands makes you happy for days. But when you finally marry her properly, and after a night of passionate lovemaking, you'll soon feel disappointed, realizing it's nothing more than that."

Wu Yuan grimaced, unable to respond to that.

Cui Chan gestured for Wu Yuan to find a seat himself, while he continued to stand, looking up at the plaque, saying, "But would you give up the chance to share a bed with Miss Yuan because of this uninteresting result? Obviously not."

Cui Chan himself felt that this way of putting it was not very refined, "Then I'll put it another way. For example, cultivation. Ordinary Qi refiners aim for the Middle Five Realms, while more talented ones choose the Upper Five Realms. Or, for example, serving as an official. Those with small ambitions are content with entering the ranks, while those with great aspirations aim to become high-ranking officials. Then, on the long journey up the mountain, many people will always look up at the scenery at the summit, ignoring the lush trees and blooming flowers along the way. Even if they see them, they won't stop to admire them, wasting the sage's earnest teachings that heaven and earth possess great beauty that remains unspoken."

Wu Yuan fell into deep thought.

Cui Chan suddenly laughed loudly, "You even believe such nonsense? The most meaningless thing in the world is reason."

Wu Yuan helplessly said, "If it were before, I definitely wouldn't have pondered such questions. But since Master emerged from seclusion, first changing his 'outfit,' and then inexplicably wanting to come to this small town to see an old friend, I'm really at a loss."

After laughing, Cui Chan lazily slumped into the wide chair, "Speaking of which, this grand theory isn't all nonsense. Although I value practical achievements over academics, it doesn't mean that academics don't need to be taken seriously. To put it bluntly, ordinary people who don't put in hard work and effort to accomplish something don't even have the right to talk about talent."

Cui Chan lightly tapped the chair arm with one finger, his expression calm and composed, and smiled, "Only those who have truly worked hard will feel despair when faced with truly talented people. At that time, they will suddenly realize, with tears in their eyes, that they are truly inferior to that genius."

Wu Yuan smiled, "In the art of Go, all the national masters and chess attendants of the entire Eastern Treasure Bottle Continent must be facing Master with this mindset."

Cui Chan twitched the corner of his mouth, "But in some things, even a prodigy like Master, I also look at some people with this kind of gaze."

Wu Yuan shook his head, "This student doesn't believe it!"

Cui Chan pointed a finger at the upright Supervisor, Wu Yuan, and said with a playful smile, "Little Supervisor Wu, that attempt to provoke me was clumsy."

Wu Yuan laughed heartily, clasped his fist in a bow and begged for mercy, "Master's eyes are like torches."

The corner of Wu Yuan's eye occasionally swept over a dull boy with crystal-clear skin. He was sitting blankly on a small stool next to the courtyard well not far away, his hands gently placed on his knees, his head slightly raised, his posture like sitting in a well and looking at the sky.

In fact, Wu Yuan had seen him as soon as he entered the house and felt uncomfortable, but since Master didn't want to take the initiative to speak, he didn't want to ask anything.

Wu Yuan looked at the Spring Festival couplet on the table, took one back for careful inspection, and asked, "Master, who wrote this couplet? This person is very interesting."

Cui Chan yawned, changed to a more lazy and comfortable posture in the chair, "For now, he's still called Song Jixin, but I guess in a few years, he'll change back to that old name that was crossed out in the Clan Affairs Office files, Song Mu."

Wu Yuan immediately felt that this light couplet was very hot to the touch.

He couldn't help asking, "What does Master want this Spring Festival couplet for?"

Cui Chan smiled, "To broaden the horizons of your precious senior brother, so he doesn't always say that I'm only able to write better calligraphy because I'm older. Now it's good, this Spring Festival couplet was written by his biological brother. I don't believe he can find any excuses now."Wu Yuan pondered for a moment, suppressing a smile, and softly said, "For example, Song Jixin, being in the countryside with nothing to do all day, only focuses on practicing calligraphy. So, diligence compensates for clumsiness, and that's why his writing is better?"

Cui Chan looked surprised. "That works too?"

Wu Yuan smiled and nodded. "Little Senior Brother could do it."

Cui Chan shook his head. "A thousand words, ten thousand words, it still comes down to not enough beatings. Rules always come from the rod."

Wu Yuan placed the Spring Festival couplet back on the table and casually said, "Your teacher, sir, must have had very strict rules."

Wu Yuan had never known where his teacher came from, or even the general lineage of his teachings. Probably, in the entire Great Li, there were only a handful of people who knew about this.

Cui Chan suddenly sat up straight. "Wrong. The teacher taught me pretty much the same way I teach you, the same. That's why my teacher raised a student like me, ungrateful, forgetting the roots of being human, and, um, even betraying the teacher and destroying the ancestors."

Wu Yuan thought he had misheard.

Cui Chan said calmly, "You heard correctly."

Cui Chan stretched languidly. "When I was studying, I wasn't as radical as I am now. I only dared to propose the idea of 'scholarship and practical application going hand in hand.' The teacher rewarded me with the eight characters 'the main culprit for the decline of morals.'"

Cui Chan sat up straighter and stared into the eyes of his student across from him. "Do you know what the most infuriating thing is? It's that my teacher interrupted me before I could finish my proposal. The teacher, who was always known for his rigorous scholarship, wasn't even willing to think about the problem for another day, an hour, or even a stick of incense. He just threw those eight characters at me. I had a junior brother who, whenever he asked the teacher about difficult classical questions, the teacher would always ponder deeply, teaching him meticulously, fearing the slightest deviation. Do you know how long my teacher thought about one of those questions before giving his answer?"

Cui Chan held up one finger.

Wu Yuan tried to think of the longest possible time and tentatively said, "A month?"

At that moment, the Great Li National Preceptor, appearing as a delicate young man, had a bizarre expression, half-smiling, half-crying. "Ten years."

Wu Yuan swallowed hard and didn't dare to say another word.

Cui Chan let out a heavy breath and mocked himself. "Old people, old stories, old papers, it's all meaningless now. Besides, even if it wasn't meaningless, what could I do?"

Cui Chan stood up, put away that rare complex emotion, and said to Wu Yuan, "I asked you to come here today to meet someone. I need to take care of something first. Wait for me at the door."

Wu Yuan was relieved and got up to leave.

Cui Chan walked to the delicate, mentally impaired young man, squatted down, and rubbed his chin, as if looking for flaws.

In the twilight, Wu Yuan led a man wearing a bamboo hat into the hall. Cui Chan then stood up and said to the two of them, "We're all on the same side. Make yourselves at home."

After the man sat down, he gently took off his bamboo hat, revealing a handsome but sickly pale face. His whole spirit was extremely poor, as if he was seriously injured, constantly coughing, and emitting a faint bloody smell.

Wu Yuan's expression became solemn. "Cui Minghuang from Guanhai Academy?!"

Then Wu Yuan quickly looked at his teacher.

Cui Chan, Cui Minghuang. The Great Li National Preceptor, Guanhai Academy.

Could it be?

Wu Yuan's scalp tingled, and his heart trembled. He began to worry about whether he could leave this house alive.

The teacher's favorite saying when killing people was "follow the rules."

But the problem was that almost no cultivator in the Great Li Dynasty could understand the teacher's rules.

Even a direct disciple like Wu Yuan never dared to think that he truly understood the teacher's thoughts.

Cui Chan moved a chair to the side of the wooden young man, turned his back to Wu Yuan and Cui Minghuang, and smiled, "Don't be nervous. One is a family descendant that I rarely admire, and the other is a promising student who will inherit my mantle. So, you two don't need to guess. You can think of things in a positive light."

Wu Yuan mustered his courage and asked, "Does Teacher come from the Cui family?"

Cui Chan ignored him.

Cui Minghuang said with a bitter smile, "Grand Teacher Uncle was long ago expelled from the Cui family, and they even ordered that he not be buried in the ancestral tombs, nor worship in the same hall when alive."

Wu Yuan's expression was uncertain.

Cui Chan, who still hadn't turned around, said with a smile, "Don't worry, our wise and martial Emperor knew about these dirty old things from the beginning. By the way, Cui Minghuang, answer any questions that Wu Yuan asks next. Know everything, and say everything."

Wu Yuan had a flash of inspiration and directly asked the biggest question. "Was Qi Jingchun's death the teacher's doing?"

Cui Chan didn't want to speak.

Cui Minghuang's expression was normal as he replied, "Qi Jingchun had previously received a secret letter from Cliff Academy. The writer told Qi Jingchun that their teacher, who had imprisoned himself in the Merit Forest of a certain academy, was truly dead."

Wu Yuan frowned. This was a huge secret that he had never heard of. It was estimated that only the heads of the three major Confucian academies and the seventy-two academies were qualified to know the inside story. However, like many scholarly seeds from aristocratic families, Wu Yuan had heard rumors about other things.

In just a century, the statue, once revered as the fourth in the Confucian Temple, was first removed from the position of Literary Saint and moved to the ranks of the seventy-two sages. Then, it was continuously moved back from the position of the leading accompanying sage until it was at the bottom. This year, during the spring, it was completely removed from the Confucian Temple. Not only that, but someone tried to secretly enshrine it in a Taoist temple, but was discovered. In the end, it was pushed down and smashed by a group of so-called ignorant people. Throughout the court and the countryside, the saint's lifelong efforts, the classical articles he wrote, were all banned and destroyed. The laws and policies he promoted were all overturned by the major dynasties. His name was deleted from the official history.

First, it declined gradually, then it waned, tottering, and finally, it disappeared overnight without a sound.

Cui Minghuang narrated an astonishing conspiracy, "Cliff Academy has now been stripped of its status as one of the seventy-two academies. Although your Great Li is unwilling to accept this, after all, Qi Jingchun and the academy have made great contributions to educating the people and helping Great Li escape its status as a northern barbarian. Moreover, without the academy attracting northern aristocratic scholars from Treasure Bottle Continent East, Great Li's civil service system will inevitably suffer a huge impact. But the trend is irreversible, and Great Li will not be able to stop the tide. The Great Li Emperor will not be foolish enough to provoke so many powerful forces on and off the mountain for the sake of Qi Jingchun.""With external support proving unreliable, the monumental task of preventing the Mountain Cliff Academy's dissolution, which had landed on Qi Jingchun's desk along with that confidential letter, now rested solely on his shoulders."

"He knew full well that once the sixty-year cycle concluded and he emerged from the Pear River Paradise, the shocking truth of his hidden cultivation – his realm not diminishing, but astonishingly rising – would inevitably draw even greater suppression from influential figures within the Confucian school. Of course, not only the Confucian school, but also the Daoist school, and other major figures from various schools of thought would be eager to act, as it would be absurd to suppress an old threat only to have a new one emerge."

Cui Minghuang revealed a hint of a smile, instinctively glancing at Cui Chan, the family elder who was still intently observing the young man.

Cui Minghuang's eyes were filled with admiration as he said, "At this moment, Ruan Qiong's early arrival became a crucial turning point. It completely severed Qi Jingchun's most likely escape route."

Cui Chan, who had risen to his feet at some point, was gently prying open the young man's eyelids with his fingers. Hearing Cui Minghuang's words, he murmured, "Where's the wine? We should have bought a few jugs when we passed the tavern."

Seeing Wu Yuan's confusion, Cui Minghuang explained, "Ruan Qiong's early arrival in the Pear River Paradise, while the military strategist refrained from interfering in the town's affairs and maintained absolute neutrality, his very presence was significant. It meant that Qi Jingchun could no longer bargain with the Four Sages of the Three Teachings to propose that he remain in the town for another sixty years, essentially confining himself to prolong the Mountain Cliff Academy's existence."

Cui Minghuang smiled faintly, "His own teacher had died, his teacher's moral essays were no longer read, and his policies were no longer implemented. And the Mountain Cliff Academy, which Qi Jingchun had painstakingly built in this barbarian land after coming to Eastern Treasure Bottle Continent, was also gone. He had lost his foothold in the mortal world, and the place that had supported him to this day seemed to be gone as well. What was the point of not dying? Only Qi Jingchun's death would make some people feel that the threat was completely gone, and they would naturally be too lazy to take another look at the fragmented Mountain Cliff Academy. In fact, if it weren't for Qi Jingchun, let alone becoming one of the seventy-two academies in name, the Mountain Cliff Academy within Great Li probably wouldn't even have half the foundation of our Lake View Academy."

Cui Chan commented, "Lake View Academy has ample foundation but lacks vigor. If it weren't for the existence of Mountain Cliff Academy, forcing Lake View Academy to make many changes, it would be even more unbearable. In the upcoming era of great change, it would only be slow step by slow step, gradually disappearing."

Cui Minghuang praised sincerely, "Grand Uncle Master is insightful and hits the nail on the head!"

Cui Chan finally stopped bothering the young man who had no "vitality" and stood beside the pool, which had no accumulated water, looking up at the blue sky with the young man. After retracting his gaze, he made a strange conclusion, "So I meticulously arranged a grand exam. There is only one examinee, and that is the orphan named Chen Pingan from Mud Bottle Lane. He has a very ordinary background, but a very interesting growth experience."

Wu Yuan was even more confused. What did this mean?

Cui Chan began to slowly pace around the pool, his hands behind his back, muttering to himself, "Logically speaking, Qi Jingchun, facing certain death, would struggle desperately. Then, there are three people we must pay attention to: his junior brother Ma Zhan, who suffered with him in the Pear River Paradise; his book boy Zhao Yao, who he personally taught; and Song Jixin, with whom he seemed to have a casual relationship. Because these three people are most likely to have Qi Jingchun place his hopes on."

"Hoping to let Ma Zhan continue the lineage of the Mountain Cliff Academy, even if there is only one disciple, it doesn't matter."

"Hoping to let Zhao Yao carry forward the teachings of the sect, whether it is in the Great Li Dynasty or even on the Eastern Treasure Bottle Continent, it doesn't matter."

"At first, when I learned that Qi Jingchun had left all the books to Song Jixin, I thought Song Jixin would be one of his inheritors, but soon I discovered that it was a smokescreen."

When Cui Chan said this, he fell into a long silence, as if he was step by step reverse deduction, confirming that there were no errors.

Wu Yuan cautiously interjected, "After the smokescreen, is that Chen Pingan hidden?"

Interrupted from his thoughts, Cui Chan stopped walking and suddenly raised his head, looking at Wu Yuan coldly.

Wu Yuan immediately stood up, cold sweat seeping from his forehead, and bowed his head, "I hope Master will forgive me."

Cui Chan continued to pace, "Ma Zhan can be considered half a disciple of that person, but he is far inferior to Qi Jingchun. His ambition is higher than the sky, but his life is as thin as paper, which is what describes this person."

"I had Cui Minghuang deceive Ma Zhan, deceiving him that he could replace Qi Jingchun as the next head of the Mountain Cliff Academy. Although the title of one of the seventy-two academies is gone, the academy itself is still there, and if the academy is there, it needs a head. In this way, it is actually justifiable to Qi Jingchun's lineage and to His Majesty the Emperor of Great Li, and this was an outcome that all parties initially tacitly agreed to."

"But I don't like it. Such a complete ending is too boring. Anyway, there are some voices within the Confucian school that require the disappearance of the Literary Sage, Qi Jingchun, and the Mountain Cliff Academy, so as not to have people's hearts turn back and for embers to reignite."

"So I proposed to build a new academy on Piyi Mountain, and the three Confucian academies also agreed to promote this academy to one of the seventy-two academies within fifty years. When His Majesty the Emperor heard this, he thought it sounded good. Replacing Qi Jingchun, a tasteless thing, with a puppet who could completely obey Great Li, is of course more suitable for Great Li's southern hegemony, right?"

"So Cui Minghuang deceived Ma Zhan again, telling him that since things had come to this, it was better to take a step back and simply change his allegiance, severing ties with the Mountain Cliff Academy. After returning to the town, he could serve as the head of the new academy, and the first head of the new academy, which would be better than picking up the crumbs of others and relying on others in the Mountain Cliff Academy, right?"

Cui Chan continued to walk, but looked at Cui Minghuang, who was silently breathing and exhaling, "Did the problem arise at this time?"

Cui Minghuang nodded and said, "The suspicion should have arisen at this time, and he began to play along with me. At that time, he didn't show any signs, and although I was careful, I didn't expect that such a waste like Ma Zhan would become so desperate and exert all his strength to kill me, even at the cost of breaking his meridians and shattering his acupoints.""Indeed," Cui Chan nodded, "Ma Zhan may be far inferior to Qi Jingchun, but he has been under that man's tutelage for over a decade. We cannot dismiss him as merely a fool."

Cui Minghuang coughed, a smear of dark blood escaping his lips. He clenched his fist, and a touch of color returned to his face. "Master Uncle-Grandfather, why permit the last remaining old scholar of Cliff Academy to lead his students out of Great Li and into the enemy state of Great Sui, continuing to use the name of Cliff Academy? How could the Emperor of Great Li agree to such a thing? I have never understood it."

Cui Chan strolled slowly. "Firstly, even if Cliff Academy were to be preserved, it would be a mere shadow of its former self. Stripped of its status as one of the Seventy-Two Academies, it is but an empty shell, unable to compete with the ascendant Lakeside Academy for the most promising scholars of Eastern Treasure Bottle Continent. Secondly, once Cloud Peak establishes a new academy, the Vice-Principal of Lakeside Academy will come to oversee it. And naturally, the second Principal will be none other than the Lakeside Gentleman at your side. Thirdly, Great Sui, in accepting the stray dogs of Cliff Academy, has taken on a hot potato. We, Great Li, can find a pretext to declare war on Great Sui at any time. And then, will not Cliff Academy once again be within the borders of Great Li?"

"Everyone knows that Cliff Academy is the equivalent of the Imperial Academy of Great Li, but which emperor or ruler dares say that Lakeside Academy is his private school? Thus, for Great Li to completely control an academy is something His Majesty has dreamed of since childhood. Of course, the Emperor may also harbor a desire to compensate Qi Jingchun. During his years as Principal, even if Qi Jingchun was unwilling to bow and scrape before His Majesty, the Emperor truly admired Qi Jingchun, perhaps even held a bit of reverence for him."

Cui Chan suddenly smiled. "But the main reason is that I need it. I need this entire game of chess."

"I need Qi Jingchun not only to die in the Li Zhu Grotto-Heaven but also to choose the pieces I want him to choose, according to my strategy. And then, I will destroy them one by one. Before his death, Qi Jingchun was like a man clutching a few seeds, or holding a few sticks of incense, only to be entrusted to those closest to him."

"The legacy of learning values the passing on of the flame. Even if all the disciples of a school of thought were to perish, the incense might not be extinguished. Therefore, what exactly are incense and literary fortune? It is hard to say. Qi Jingchun has likely grasped a hint of it, but I still cannot quite fathom it. I need to use facts to prove my ideas."

"Therefore, setting up this grand examination, arranging this game of chess, is not only to sever that person's legacy of learning but also an opportunity for me to achieve enlightenment."

Cui Chan walked behind the boy sitting on the stool, gently patting his head. He smiled and said, "A poem once said, 'An immortal strokes my crown, and bound hair receives longevity.' Truly...full of immortal air."

The boy's joints cracked and groaned, and he slowly stood up, his movements stiff. His eyes gradually shone with brilliant light. Once he stood upright, he turned to face Cui Chan, the one who had pieced together his body. The boy could not yet speak, like a baby babbling, gesturing wildly, full of joy. Yet, at the same time, he held an innate reverence for Cui Chan.

Even Wu Yuan, who was no cultivator, was dumbfounded by this scene, not to mention Cui Minghuang.

For some reason, after hearing the master's words today, Wu Yuan felt a chill run through his entire body. His voice was weak and hoarse as he asked, "Master, couldn't you simply kill them? Was such an elaborate scheme truly necessary?"

Cui Chan laughed heartily, as if he had been waiting for this truly interesting question. He clicked his tongue. "The struggle for the Great Dao is not as simple as the worldly matters of confiscating property, exterminating families, or wiping out entire clans. To truly and thoroughly eradicate the roots is very, very difficult. Killing people often turns simple matters into a tangled mess. Therefore, we must strike at the heart. Why can cultivators reach fifteen floors high? Because they cultivate the heart. But martial artists who cultivate power are only this tall, nine realms is the limit. To ascend to the tenth realm is harder than ascending to heaven."

Cui Chan jumped into the pool in the courtyard, stepping on the colorful pebbles embedded in the bottom. He walked freely in the pool, but compared to the ground, it was clearly more cramped. He thought for a moment and said, "Then I shall tell you two frogs at the bottom of the well two publicly known facts that were originally closely guarded secrets. After hearing them, you will find that my methods are nothing more than this, nothing more than this."

"There was once a heaven-defying genius who almost helped the Strategists establish their own school. Although he failed in the end, he was, after all, a man blessed with great fortune. No one dared to deal a fatal blow to him. Do you know how the true Sages dealt with this person in the end? They threw him into a blessed land, constantly arranging pieces to be by his side, constantly eroding his strategist spirit. In one life, he was made to be a village schoolteacher, but with no worries about food and clothing. In the next life, he became a crude butcher with a weak personality, but with a beautiful woman by his side. In another life, he became a frivolous playboy, spending thousands of gold coins. In yet another life, he became a literary emperor in a prosperous era. In short, life after life, he was constantly played in the palm of their hands. It is still the same now. The Strategists' descendants are not unwilling to take action, but they only dare to act in secret, trying to awaken the strategist ancestor's mind. But what are their chances? How can they win when competing with those old fellows in cultivation, strategy, and patience?"

"There was also a Strategist tyrant whose battle prowess was astonishing. But in the end, one wrong move led to complete defeat. For the sake of a puppet woman, his soul scattered. Then, the Sages immediately seized the opportunity, divided his three souls and six spirits, and made him the top banished immortal in various blessed lands. Each soul actually ascended from the blessed land to this world, and the Great Dao was smooth for them. Everyone became a hegemon. Do you think these nine people, whose lowest cultivation is the tenth floor or the seventh realm of martial arts, would be willing to abandon their independent will and become 'one person'?"

"It sounds not too complicated, but to truly implement it will be an extremely long process."

Cui Chan said with emotion, "The struggle for the Great Dao, how cruel it is."

Cui Chan stretched his back and rubbed his neck, laughing. "Ma Zhan died with guilt and indignation. Zhao Yao has already lost the identity of the 'Spring' seal owner. Then, next, there is only that Jing character, who broke the great rules.""A wretched orphan from the lowest alley, having tasted every hardship and desperately yearning for stability, has now seen his dreams realized. He's suddenly become the wealthiest man in town and unexpectedly stumbled upon a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to strike it rich. He's acquired all five mountain peaks above the blessed land, securing a steady stream of wealth spanning three centuries, all belonging to him."

"Besides these timely gifts, I've twice added icing to the cake. First, by helping him choose that dilapidated mountain, which I'll have the Great Li Dynasty ordain a mountain god to watch over. Wouldn't that surprise the boy? Second, the Herb Stall and the Lucky Money Shop will soon be sold at low prices, and, as expected, Chen Ping'an will 'naturally' buy them. Imagine, five mountain peaks outside town, earning gold by the bucketful each day, and two established shops within the town. In the future, Magistrate Wu Yuan will become his close friend, and Deputy Headmaster Cui of the academy will favor him. Do you think this boy will have any further ambition?"

"But…"

Cui Chan spoke these words with an especially playful smile, muttering to himself, "In this world, the most daunting word is 'but'."

He continued, "However, at this very moment, they leave with two carriages and one ox cart, but return with only one carriage and one ox cart. Gone is the gentle Cui, the scholar from Viewing Lake Academy, and dead is the teacher Ma from the village school. Then the driver will find Chen Ping'an and tell the boy that both Teacher Qi and Teacher Ma wished for him to lead those... six children to the mortal enemy of the Great Li Dynasty, to continue their studies at the Cliff Academy, which has relocated to the Great Sui Dynasty. This journey will be arduous, with dangers lurking everywhere. Finally, the driver will thoughtfully advise the boy that if Teacher Qi were still alive, he certainly wouldn't want him to risk his life to go to the Cliff Academy of the Great Sui."

Wu Yuan cautiously asked, "If those frightened children want to stay in town with their families, wouldn't that give Chen Ping'an a legitimate reason not to leave? Is that not part of your plan, sir?"

Cui Minghuang smiled, "Shortly after these children leave the town, their families will be forcibly relocated to the capital of the Great Li. Of course, the Great Li Dynasty will not deprive them of wealth and honor. However, a few people from each family will stay behind, telling the children how rare an opportunity it is to enter the Cliff Academy and how eagerly their parents and elders hope they will succeed in their studies and return."

Cui Chan stood directly beneath the courtyard's skylight, expressionless.

Wu Yuan became even more cautious, asking, "Sir, how can you be sure that this great trial will completely extinguish the flame of Qi Jingchun's lineage?"

Cui Chan raised an eyebrow, turning to look at Wu Yuan with a smile, "Didn't you realize that Qi Jingchun and I are disciples of the same master? As his elder brother, I once took the place of our master, who was traveling, to enlighten him on the Confucian classics for three whole years. So, how could I, Cui Chan, not know the path of his Great Dao?"

Cui Chan walked out of the pond, murmuring, "A righteous gentleman, a heart of innocence... that's all there is to it. It's just that Qi Jingchun is too lucky, possessing two natal characters. If he hadn't died here, he might have achieved the unprecedented feat of three natal characters. If he doesn't die, who will?"

Cui Chan headed towards the gate, "I've orchestrated such a grand scheme for such a small matter. So small."

Cui Chan raised his hand, pinching his thumb and forefinger together, clicking his tongue. "If I still lose…"

The last few words Cui Chan spoke were almost inaudible.

Just as Cui Chan opened the door and stepped over the threshold, he suddenly stopped. The Great Li Dynasty's national preceptor, who had originally intended to buy wine, suddenly felt that drinking wasn't so appealing after all.

So, in the end, he simply sat down on the threshold.

Wu Yuan and Cui Minghuang looked at the slightly slender figure of the young man from behind, exchanging puzzled glances, unsure of what had happened.

Cui Chan folded his hands in his sleeves, hunched over, looking at the house across the street, the cheap black and white door gods, the vulgar couplets, and the upside-down, ugly character for "fortune."

Cui Chan muttered to himself, "Qi Jingchun, in the end, you will be disappointed."

From somewhere, a gentle voice with a hint of laughter lightly echoed, "Is that so?"

Cui Chan remained unmoved, still staring into the distance, nodding and saying, "When that time comes, I'll drink."