The young Kong ng bowed to an altar representing Heaven and Earth before bowing to his teacher, Master Shang. He did serve the latter tea, concluding the master-disciple relationship. Master Sheng nodded in satisfaction, while Kong ng had a wide grin.
"So, master, what are you going to teach ?"
Master Shang did not an the latter's slightly impetuous actions. On the contrary, he had always admired the boy's desire to pursue knowledge. 'I must ensure he's not led astray by the cultivation world and starts to pursue power instead of knowledge,' Master Shang reminded himself.
"Let's start with a brief history of our school," Master Shang uttered. "My master was a young scholar nad Cang Yu. He was an upright and righteous man, loved by the people and the king. Unfortunately, officialdom is cruel; no one could not tolerate my master's 'rigid' views and conduct. So, countless ministers worked together to fra him.'
Kong ng had a look of indignation. How could these people do such a thing to a righteous scholar? Is the world so cruel? No, Kong ng had seen the world's cruelty, but he thought this resulted from poverty in this small town. He thought a place like the dynasty's capital would be a bright place full of sages and n worthy of respect.
Master Shang noticed his apprentice's emotional fluctuations. Truthfully, he told him their school's origin to eliminate this young boy's naivety. He even plans to take him around the world to truly experience the darkness of the world. Of course, he'll also show him the light.
"As I said, the king loved my master," Master Shang continued. "So, he secretly let him escape. The master was blessed by fate and soon had a fortunate encounter and started his cultivation journey. He retreated for decades, hoping to return to the dynasty with newfound strength and rectify his na."
"As he should, Kong ng nodded with a clenched fist.
"Unfortunately, by the ti he returned, the king had fallen, and the dynasty had already collapsed with countless warlords fighting for powers. The master wanted to support the remains of the royal family to re-establish the dynasty, but another competing group had already massacred them."
Master Shang sipped his tea, taking this mont to allow his young apprentice to digest his words.
"The master felt lost, so he returned to the cultivation world. However, that side was also not peaceful. The human race and the Myriad Emperor World as a whole had suffered trendously at the hands of the Devil Race, leaving the Cultivation World full of hatred, resentnt, and cruelty.
"The master grew ambitious, wishing to use the Literary Way's ideas of rule, etiquette, righteousness, and respect to establish peace throughout the world." Master Shang secretly shook his head. His master's ambitions were too grand. In fact, he was extrely conservative with his words. His master directly wanted the Literary Way to dominate the world, even overwhelming Taoism, the Sword Path, and many other schools of thought.
"Sadly, his talent could not bear his ambitions. He died during his Supre Realm Tribulation."
"Master, don't worry. I promise to fulfill the grand teacher's ambitions," Kong ng promised.
"No need for that," Master Shang said. He knew that even if his apprentice could beco an Eternal Emperor, he could not make the Literary Way the dominant school of thought in the world. Such a goal requires countless generations of success; even then, the chances of success were not high.
"You can form your own path, goal, and ambition," Master Shang said. "As for how far you can go? That'll depend on you and fate."
"I understand," Kong ng nodded.
Master Shang waved his hand to summon three things: two books and a bamboo bookbag.
"These two techniques will be the foundation of your cultivation journey," Master Shang said. "The first is called [asuring the World With Your Feet]. It's a body-refining technique that can draw Earth Energy from the ground and temper your body; you only need to walk. The more you walk, the more energy you can gather, and the more powerful your body will beco. Sadly, it's incomplete, but maybe you can finish it."
"I'll try my best," Kong ng nodded.
"The second one is related to this bamboo bag," Master Shang continued. "This technique is called [The Weight of Knowledge]. It's a unique technique of our Literary School that combines cultivation with weapon refining."
Master Shang pointed at the bookbag. "The technique will allow you to fuse condensed Righteous Qi and fuse it with your Origin Qi. Additionally, it will also convert the power of [Knowledge] into a tangible force to nourish the bookbag. The more you know, the more powerful of a weapon the bag will beco, and one day, you may use it as a Proving Dao Artifact or a Luck Condensing Artifact."
Master Shang saw the confusion in his young disciple's eyes, realizing the latter knew nothing about the cultivation world. "First, rember these techniques, and we'll start training tomorrow."
The next day, Master Shang and Kong ng started their journey. Kong ng had the bookbag on his back, reading a book while walking. He was also breathing in a strange manner as he walked, and if soone of decent cultivation observed him, they would have discovered his breathing was following a certain rhythm of the earth, allowing him to draw energy from it.
"Master."
"Is there sothing you don't understand?"
"It's hard for to be walking, reading, breathing, and visualizing," Kong ng said with a wry smile. He did not want to complain since this was a rare opportunity, but such a daunting task was too much for him.
Master Shang was slightly embarrassed. This was his first disciple, so he was not good at this kind of thing.
"Let's do this. While we're on the road, you focus on tempering your body. At night, when we rest, you can read, and before going to bed, you can visualize the Sages. It would be best for you to condense your Righteous Qi as soon as possible. I can then teach you a thod of dividing your mind."
"I'll try my best."
…
Emperor Kong woke up from his mories and sighed. In his life, he has felt powerless four tis. The first ti was when he first t his wife and accidentally injured her. He tried to apologize, but she was not having it, making him feel powerless. The second ti was after entering the Saint Realm. He beca arrogant and tried to use Righteous Qi to purify the Blood Earth. His action resulted in an accident that almost eradicated Master Shang. He took action and nourished the latter's spirit with his law, even cracking his Dao Tree in the process. Many historians say that Emperor Kong was not talented enough, so he needed Heavenly Dao's help to give him the final push to beco an Eternal.
But that was not the complete truth. The truth is that Emperor Kong's foundation was injured after he cracked his Dao Tree to prevent Master Shang from dying. Although he later did everything he could to fix it, his foundation was always imperfect and thus needed the extra boost. He only completely fixed the problem after experiencing Dao Re-establishnt.
'The third ti I felt this powerless was when Bai Han started hating due to miscommunication, and the fourth ti was today,' Emperor Kong thought. He suddenly felt outraged.
Boom!
His right hand crushed the table next to him, creating a small black hole in the process. His aura was grand and agitating, making the room tremble under his pressure.
"Master!"
"Hmm?" Emperor Kong finally noticed his two new favorite disciples were in the room. He sighed: "I'm sorry you had to see like this."
"What exactly happened with your conversation with Wang Wei to have you so riled up?" Lin Fan asked.
"Nothing to be concerned about. Don't worry about it," Emperor Kong replied. Lin Fan could tell sothing was wrong but also detected that it may not be wise to talk about this now. anwhile, Xu Shi frowned. She had seen this kind of look countless tis before.
The anger and frustration of having your pride and arrogance trampled on, the subtle fear mixed with respect and reverence, followed by envy and jealousy — she'd seen countless tis in the Heavenly Court.
She sighed: "Master, the last thing you can do right now is to let Wang Wei's rhythm affect you."
Emperor Kong looked at her.
"I've seen him doing it countless tis. He'll use his words to beat you down, suppress your arrogance, and corner you until you agree with him or he destroys you.
"The trick to his thods is the mindset and rhythm. He has conditioned your mind to work in a certain way, making you overlook things and, more importantly, make you predictable. What you need to do now is break the mold he placed you in.
"Replay your conversation from a bystander standpoint. Analyze every word, action, micro expression, intonation, and even the way he breathes. Analyze everything to see if you miss sothing and break away from the shackles he placed in your mind."
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