"Oh? You're actually angry? Immortal Yu, just what sort of relationship do you have with His Majesty the Emperor-Lord?" Seeing Yu Mei-ren block her path, Wuzhiqi could not help revealing a strange smile.
Before this, forget standing in front of someone—having anyone at her side at all had been utterly inconceivable for Yu Mei-ren.
Immortal Yu's reputation for isolation had long since spread widely among the immortals and gods.
Even with the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, she had only ever given a nod and passed by.
Even though the ancestral gods of Huaxia had, in truth, all felt pity for her.
And so, in this moment, Yu Mei-ren became inexplicably embarrassed and irritated. "How annoying. What relationship I have with him has nothing to do with you."
"It really doesn't, but I'm simply very curious..." Wuzhiqi blinked. "And you're not denying that you have a relationship with him? Then it must be quite an unusual relationship, yes?"
"Lord Wuzhiqi, it is time to attend to the proper matter," someone beside them could not help reminding her.
Wuzhiqi brushed back the pale hair before her eyes, revealing the other eye it had hidden. Her mismatched pupils flickered faintly. "Mm, true. It is time for business."
Seeing Wuzhiqi withdraw of her own accord, Yu Mei-ren turned her head aside with an expression that looked very much like victory, then slowly retreated behind Rovi.
That motion, so natural and matter-of-course, made Wuzhiqi laugh silently to herself.
But Rovi could feel that the girl's grip on his sleeve had tightened even more than before.
Because standing here, seeing a "familiar face" from the past, had made her remember what came before...
The past when she had been alone.
The past when most of the world had not accepted her.
During this time at Rovi's side, she had experienced what it felt like not to be lonely, and naturally, she had also begun to fear rejection, and to fear loneliness.
The way she unconsciously clutched his sleeve, the way she instinctively argued with Wuzhiqi—it all came from that same thought.
Rovi glanced at her, said nothing more, and instead looked ahead with a serious expression.
He was the one who had brought Yu Mei-ren out from beneath the Fusang Tree, so it would hardly be right to simply abandon her... And besides, while traveling through the six states earlier, Yu Mei-ren had helped Rovi quite a lot.
Just as Jing Ke had said, an Emperor-Lord could know heaven and earth with a single thought, and an Immortal Lord could obtain the planet's own aid in an instant. But when it came to the mortal world, to the tangled realities of the human realm, even immortals and gods found it difficult to know all its hidden places.
The "Human Order" of this world was extremely special.
Burning away Human Order could grant power that transcended the stars, and even the Inner Sea of the Planet was difficult to shake with a manifestation of power suspected to rival the scale of a star... That was not because of the planet's own power, but because of the existence of Human Order.
Because humanity possessed infinite possibilities.
Humanity was powerful.
That was why Rovi never dared look down on them. Because he himself was also human. To this day, he still retained a pure human body, yet he had reached a position no lower than any immortal or god.
And at this moment, Daoism, Mohism, Confucianism, the Military School, the Agriculturalists, Legalism... all the notable figures of the Hundred Schools had gathered here.
This grotto-heaven was blessed with fine mountains and clear waters. Though there was no sun, pure daylight still shone upon the lush land. In the distance, a waterfall could be seen pouring down from the sky. Everyone sat upon the ground amid the surrounding forest, lending the scene a faintly ethereal air, as though ancient immortals and perfected beings had gathered on Penglai.
"At last, everyone is here." Master Huangshi sat cross-legged atop a boulder, stroking his beard with a smile. "Such a gathering of the Hundred Schools is a rare sight indeed."
"No matter what, today we must decide how we are to proceed in the future," said the leader of the Mohists, the man known as the Juzi.
The elderly Agriculturalist chuckled. "Today, we have the Immortal Lord present, as well as Great Sage Wuzhiqi. Such an opportunity is rare."
Deciding the future was also deciding the policy by which they would continue Huaxia's Mystery.
To a certain degree, Rovi was already familiar with this sort of matter. Of course he still remembered helping Solomon construct the Western magecraft Foundation, thereby allowing the Mystery of the Western world to continue.
But East and West were different in the end.
So Rovi did not rush to speak and offer his own opinion. He only intended to listen first, then speak.
He sat amid the grass and slowly lifted the jade cup before him, condensed from water vapor. He took a sip of the wine inside. A trace of spice entered his lips and teeth, then erupted with a roar, sending warmth and fragrance through his chest and belly.
He could not help praising it. "Good wine."
This was far more delicate and delicious than the beer of Mesopotamia or the wine of Greece.
Yu Mei-ren also lifted her cup.
The daylight was gentle, the clear breeze slow. Everyone discussed matters... while Wuzhiqi's gaze remained fixed on Rovi from beginning to end, light shining in the mismatched pupils beneath her covering hair.
"Good wine, good wine~" Off to the side, Jing Ke was already utterly drunk. At that moment, though, Rovi rather understood her.
After all, wine this fine was indeed worth getting drunk on. If this occasion were not so important, Rovi would have liked to drink himself into a stupor as well.
Yes. Deciding the future of a grand land that had once nurtured many supreme primordial gods was likewise a rare gathering for Rovi.
To say nothing of the fact that this place was his "homeland."
"This old man's opinion is that the Dao gives birth to One; One gives birth to Two; Two gives birth to Three; and Three gives birth to all things... If we wish to continue the inheritance of our Yan and Huang line, and gather the inheritances of the Hundred Schools into a single Foundation, then there must be one Dao as its basis, as its support—independent from the world." Master Huangshi put forward his thoughts.
The Confucian successor, a middle-aged man with his hair bound beneath a tall crown, whose appearance and bearing were exceptionally neat and carried much of Yan Hui's style, rebutted him. "You wish to use Daoism as the Foundation?"
"Heh. This is for the continuation of Huaxia, but it is also a struggle of orthodox lineages. I have no choice but to try." Master Huangshi admitted it freely. "All of you may make your own proposals as well. As for the final result, that will naturally be decided by the Emperor-Lord and the Great Sage."
"Old Master Huangshi's proposal does indeed have merit, but it would easily provoke disputes. If none of us accepts the others, the 'Foundation' may not be able to remain stable," the Mohist pointed out.
The Legalist successor spoke. "Why not take law as the basis? Rule not by men, but by law..."
All people had selfish motives.
Humans were complicated, and each had their own position, their own preferences. The ideas they proposed inevitably carried their own color.
But at least they all knew the general direction, and were only "proposing." To be honest, if all of them had been wholly selfless and had no positions of their own, perhaps the four centuries of ideological collision and convergence across the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods would never have come about.
Human nature was selfish, but it was also the force that drove humanity forward.
"What does the Emperor-Lord think?" A voice suddenly entered Rovi's ears. The successors of the Hundred Schools all paused at once, then followed that voice and looked toward Rovi.
The one who spoke was Wuzhiqi, who had been watching Rovi all along. This ancient demon-god, manifesting in the form of a tall white-haired girl, still had mismatched pupils that flickered without end.
What did Rovi think?
His gaze gave the answer.
"Hoo... My head is a little dizzy. Let me lean on you for a while..." Behind him, Yu Mei-ren's head was swimming, her face beneath her falling hair full of blush and the scent of wine.
She was drunk.
Rovi swept his sleeve and set down the wine cup in his hand.
Then he gathered Yu Mei-ren over, letting her lean against his side just like that, where she began making soft sleeping sounds.
Within the grotto-heaven, mist and clouds curled faintly.
He thought for a moment, then said, "Each of the Hundred Schools has its strengths, and each has its shortcomings. Choosing any single one would be imperfect, but if any single one is not chosen, the 'Foundation' will be incomplete."
After listening for this long, Rovi had, in fact, roughly sorted out the train of thought held by these successors of the Hundred Schools.
The Mystery of this world had always originated from gods. Even though the immortals and gods of Huaxia were special, being both gods who governed nature and planetary Elementals who had formed connections with the planet itself, what could flow from them into the human world was still only the secrets held by gods—"Mystery."
And now, the Age of Gods was damaged, the immortals and gods had gone far away, and even Huaxia could not avoid the loss of Mystery. The people of the Hundred Schools could not fill the gap left in the entire world, so what they wanted to do was use the Mystery they still controlled to construct a vessel outside the world, a new source of Mystery, forming an independent "foundation stone of the Age of Gods" beyond the world that would no longer be affected by the world.
This idea was similar to Solomon's, yet also different. Solomon's Foundation had merely been engraved between heaven and earth, gathering the remaining Mystery and spreading it across the upper layer of the world. It had not stopped the decline of the Age of Gods, much less stopped the loss of Mystery. It had only allowed humanity to continue exercising gradually weakening Mystery after the gods departed.
The difference between them was not a matter of superior or inferior ability, but of different directions in thought. The original Solomon was a born king, a sage without sorrow or joy. He would not violate the planet's own laws.
But the Hundred Schools of the Divine Land, though they revered the Mandate of Heaven, would likewise resist the Mandate of Heaven.
They were still human. They were the teeming masses, and even more, people who had carved out a path of evolution from the savage wilderness through blood and struggle.
"All things are different from one another."
"And yet all things have a source." The thoughts in Rovi's mind swiftly sorted themselves clear. "Majestic Huaxia began with Yan and Huang. Three thousand years have passed since then, but no matter how the ages change, the source of Huaxia remains Yan and Huang, remains the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors."
"And the Three Sovereigns developed the Three Changes. The Book of Changes is likewise a source of Huaxia."
The Book of Changes was an unquestionable treasure of Huaxia. If one had to describe it, it was both a magnificent undertaking of "opening heaven and earth" and a primordial canon through which humanity obtained the principles of heaven and earth.
"So my idea is to use 'change' as the source of the 'Foundation.'"
Rovi's voice echoed through the heaven and earth of this grotto, causing everyone to look at each other. Only Wuzhiqi laughed. "As expected of Donghua Dijun. Your idea is quite interesting."
"But the problem is... 'change' is only a kind of thought. It does not belong to Mystery."
"Is that not better?" Rovi smiled. "What has form is lesser than what is above form; what is above form is lesser than the formless source."
His words fell, yet they echoed like a great bell.
He said, "Only with a formless source can there be an unending flow, carrying forward what came before and opening the way ahead!"
"What has form is lesser than what is above form..." Master Huangshi murmured. In that moment, it was as if a road suddenly opened before him.
The Mohist Juzi suddenly grew excited as well. "An unending flow!"
The Confucian successor clapped his hands and laughed aloud. "Carrying forward what came before and opening the way ahead—carrying forward what came before and opening the way ahead!"
The successors of the Hundred Schools were all extraordinarily intelligent people. What Rovi was saying did not need to be spelled out. In that moment, all of them began to think, and all of them seemed to realize something.
East and West were different.
Rovi had spent a long time in the West. When thinking there, he would always unconsciously carry some of that side's habitual patterns of thought.
But returning to the Divine Land, returning to Huaxia, he had gradually regained the spirit that once flowed in his blood.
If change was needed, then why not change completely?
He wished to use the thought of "change" as the source, gather the inheritances of the Hundred Schools, and form a "Foundation."
This "Foundation" would be different from the Western magecraft Foundation. It would be independent of heaven and earth, yet rooted in the hearts of the people. The source of this Foundation would be the thought within the hearts of the people. The source of this Mystery would not be gods, nor immortals, but this vast land and its countless children of Huaxia!
"At the end of the day, the so-called Age of Gods is merely a 'membrane' covering the true face of the stars."
"At the end of the day, gods can change the world, and humanity may not be unable to do the same."
"It is only that most individual humans are too weak. With the strength of one person alone, such a magnificent undertaking is difficult."
"But what has always changed the world is the countless masses. If countless people can be gathered..."
"Their thoughts, their understanding, the traces of their existence flowing down through time, will surely be enough to overturn the world."
What was formed by countless people and countless years of history?
It was Human Order.
The unique, vast, immeasurable Human Order of this world!
The "Foundation" Rovi spoke of would be maintained by the thoughts of all people and directly linked to Human Order.
These were "thought arts," and also "Human Order arts."
"In that case, the principle of Mystery will no longer be secrecy. If thought is used as the source, then the more people know its principles, the more thought will gather, and the greater the power of Human Order it can connect to. It will become ever more capable of twisting the laws of the world!"
"Therefore, you must spread thought, and teach wisdom and knowledge to all people."
"Only then can this source remain inexhaustible!"
Rovi brushed his hand across the table, lifted a finger stained with a trace of wine, and drew a straight line across it.
From the past to the present.
From the present into the future.
Conservative rules of Mystery could only allow Mystery to linger on its last breath. From this moment onward, Huaxia would walk a different road.
A road founded on thought, one that would flourish through spreading it to all people.
"Interesting, too interesting!" Wuzhiqi laughed aloud. "I thought this was only a farce of the human world, but I never expected such a magnificent undertaking."
"No, perhaps I should call you—"
"The one who opened a new heaven!"
"The teacher of this path."
"Greetings, Patriarch!" Master Huangshi rose and bowed.
The Mohist Juzi lowered his head. "Greetings, Patriarch!"
"Yan Lu, successor of Confucianism, thanks the Emperor-Lord on behalf of all people!"
"..."
Every voice, every word, called him the founding teacher.
Only one person sat quietly. Rovi smiled. "There is no need to thank me. I am only doing this for myself."
At the end of the day, he was only doing it for himself.
So that he would no longer see thought obscured, and a nation closed off from the world.
So that he would no longer see Huaxia decline, or the Divine Land sink.
Now, that time was still far away.
This world was not the same as the world from before.
But even if it was only a similar dream... Rovi had always thrown himself forward without hesitation.
With one statement, he opened heaven. Even more, he cleaved open a new road with thought!
The scenery along this road was uniquely beautiful.
But Rovi wished all the more to join hands with all people and go there together.
---
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