CHAPTER 164: CHAPTER 139 ZHAO MING (4K)_2

"Being alive is the greatest luxury."

Ya Jiu paused, then continued, "There are also slaves. The Yu Country prohibits slavery, but it does not forbid owning slaves who lack Yu Country nationality.

In those great noble households, there exist slave families whose status is passed down through generations.

They live their entire lives within the estate, never stepping beyond its gates. From birth, they are indoctrinated with the idea of being good slaves and serving their masters diligently.

In appearance and lineage, they are already indistinguishable from the people of Yu Country. Yet, they always live in the woodshed and sleep on the floor. Their masters can beat and scold them at will to vent their anger. Even if a slave is tortured to death, no person or organization will hold the master accountable.

Decades ago, there was a General Xiahou. A slave in his household, desperate for his son to survive, stole a small pinch of salt from the kitchen. When this was discovered, General Xiahou ordered flies and other insects to be caught and fed to the slave and his son.

And when it comes to experience in torturing slaves, that General Xiahou was far inferior to the true Nobles.

The most ironic part is that, to ensure noble families have a continuous supply of slaves generation after generation, those nobles occasionally exchange slaves among themselves."

Ya Jiu revealed a cruel smirk. "Risheng, you should understand what this means, right?

A single slave family, or even a few, can easily produce children with congenital defects. They must exchange slaves to prevent inbreeding.

Heh, the Academic Palace’s proven theory against marrying within the same surname is ironically used by these Nobles to circumvent Yu Law. As long as both parents are slaves, their offspring are also considered Innate slaves of foreign nationality."

Ya Jiu shook his head. "Besides these, there are the women in the Teaching Bureau, Pingkang Square, and various State Mansions who have fallen into lives of disrepute;

old government troops abandoned due to crippling injuries or disabilities;

laborers in the workshops of Luoyang, Yangzhou, and other places...

Risheng, you must have also witnessed how those workshop owners, who lease patents from the Academic Palace, exploit their laborers, haven’t you?

Otherwise, when licensing your patents, you wouldn’t have voluntarily forsaken the exorbitant buyout fees. Instead, you insisted on adding a host of cumbersome conditions to protect laborers—conditions that seem utterly unnecessary to others."

Seeing Li Ang remain silent, Ya Jiu then laughed. "Is the Academic Palace really that good? Indeed, it is good.

Compared to the Former Sui and even more ancient eras, the Academic Palace ensures that, at the very least, the survival of hundreds of millions of people can be secured. No matter how hard or impoverished their lives, they at least have a chance to live.

But couldn’t the Academic Palace do more?

Cultivators and officials with Academic Palace backgrounds are spread throughout Yu Country.

Ostensibly, the garrison and the Academic Palace are rivals, but everyone knows the Academic Palace’s infiltration of the Yu Kingdom’s Court far surpasses that of the garrison.

As a whole, the Academic Palace could easily dictate Yu Country’s national policies, amend its laws, eliminate a minister or a group of dissenting ministers, and, if necessary, even replace the Emperor at will.

Imperial power, stripped bare, is merely strength and status.

Whoever possesses these two things is the ruler of Yu Country.

But the Academic Palace, pointedly, has not done so.

Of course, those Doctors, Masters, and Sacrificial Officers can proudly tell their Disciples that non-interference in court politics is the Academic Palace’s pride and self-restraint.

But has it always been right, just because it has always been so?

The Academic Palace merely needs to hold a few internal meetings and reach a consensus to reshape the fatuous and incompetent Yu Kingdom’s Court. It could save those common people at the bottom of Yu Country society, whose suffering goes unseen. Yet, the Academic Palace consistently refrains from action due to its damned pride and self-restraint.

Even when that Holy Empress massacred members of the Li Family, court officials, and scholars who submitted petitions opposing her; even when some Emperors of Yu before the Holy Empress were fatuous, incompetent, and greedy for pleasure, causing the common people of Yu Country to endure even greater suffering.

The Yu Kingdom’s Court and the Emperor of Yu are nothing but bullshit!

A Candle Cloud Realm Cultivator can be more effective on the battlefield than ten thousand Fierce Soldiers.

If they were to carry out assassinations, then apart from a very few individuals in the world, almost anyone could be killed.

The Academic Palace is like a giant, possessing immense power, yet allowing its authority to be manipulated by a mere child.

When Heaven offers a gift and it is not taken, retribution will surely follow."

Ya Jiu’s emotions, initially agitated, calmed. He spoke faintly to Li Ang, "Risheng, as an Academic Palace Disciple, you must have read a great many books, right?

In his later years, Du Gongbu lived in such poverty that he had to join the ranks of the destitute who ate subsidized grain from the state granaries.

A friend treated him to a meal of ’Chang’an’s winter pickles, sour and green; Jincheng’s earthen potage, smooth as silk,’ which moved him to exclaim, ’If only I could eat my fill for the rest of my days, I would wish only for us to meet often without worldly cares.’

Du Gongbu is my favorite poet. But the common people, who are even poorer and endure greater hardships, never have the chance to voice their suffering. Being illiterate, their only way to ’speak out’ is to erupt in rebellion just before death.

My teacher, Jun Qianzi, believed that since the Academic Palace clearly possessed the power to change the current state of Yu Country, not using it was a dereliction of duty, a betrayal of the Dao."

"So he defected from the Academic Palace?" Li Ang finally spoke, his tone declarative.

"The process was a bit more complicated."

Ya Jiu nodded. "He once held a high position in the Academic Palace. However, he came to realize that, much like Doctor of Science Su Feng, continuing to invent and create was merely channeling a ceaseless flow of wealth to the powerful and noble. It helped them profit more effectively and efficiently, but these benefits rarely reached the common people at the bottom of society or tangibly improved their living conditions.

On the contrary, it would be like the workshops that mushroomed in places like Luoyang and Yangzhou, which used every means conceivable to exploit and bleed their laborers dry, causing even more common people to suffer.

He tried to promote change from within the Academic Palace, but the resistance was too great.

Not everyone shared his view that the Academic Palace should reform, or even completely replace, the Yu Kingdom’s Court. For many Doctors in the Academic Palace, simply remaining within its walls allowed them to enjoy resources funneled from all over Yu Country, along with status and power. Naturally, they felt no need to risk overthrowing the court.

This extended to the use of Dongjun Tower. Dongjun Tower houses Mutated Objects collected by the Academic Palace over three hundred years, many of which could be used to improve the common people’s livelihood. Yet, all of them were sealed away due to entrenched, conservative thinking.

Only a handful of Mutated Objects, such as the Nearby Worm and Chang’an Micro-View, were permitted to be used.

Thoroughly disillusioned with the Academic Palace, he finally decided to defect. It was during this process that your teacher, Pu Liuxuan, became implicated."

Li Ang’s eyes narrowed slightly. He didn’t know if Ya Jiu was telling the truth. But if it was true, then given Pu Liuxuan’s way of thinking, he must have had a decisive break with that Jun Qianzi.

"The outcome of the defection was that my teacher fled Yu Country, gravely injured and on the brink of death. Meanwhile, your teacher, for failing to prevent Jun Qianzi’s escape, incurred the wrath of the Yu Kingdom’s Court. He was forced to undergo a Sealing of his Cultivation, leave Chang’an, and return to his old home in Yizhou."

Ya Jiu said, "Let’s set aside the rights, wrongs, and grievances of the previous generation for now. Risheng, what I want to know is, are you willing to join us?"

Li Ang voiced, "Hmm?" Ya Jiu used the word ’us.’ Could it be that Jun Qianzi hadn’t died? Had he even recruited more followers over these years?

"The Haotian Taoist Sect only knows how to offer Tribute to mindless idols. The Yu Kingdom’s Court only knows how to preserve itself. The officials of Yu Country only know how to prey on the common people. The Academic Palace only knows how to remain aloof."

Ya Jiu smiled. "Only we can truly change this world."

"Who are you?" Li Ang asked, a sharp glint in his eyes. Ya Jiu was finally showing his hand. Everything he had said and done before was merely a prelude to this recruitment attempt. However, even considering his personal interests, as a Founding County Marquis of Yu Country and an Academic Palace Disciple, it would take an exceptionally high price to persuade him to defect.

"You can call us Zhao Ming."

Ya Jiu smiled. "My teacher, Jun Qianzi, already a high-level Candle Cloud Realm Cultivator, is merely one member among us.

The power we wield is unimaginably vast. The future we can create is far beyond the world’s imagination. And the benefits we can offer you are by no means inferior to those of the Academic Palace."