Volume One: Youthful Encounters in Humble Times Chapter 124: The Great Righteousness of the Confucian School Revealed

The Confucian Sect came to Heaven’s Gate Town with specific goals and schemes; had they no agenda, they would not have set their sights on this place for so many years.

Heaven’s Gate Town originally had no schools. It was not until a thousand years ago, when an old scholar arrived to preach and teach, that the town began to foster scholars of its own, with the most accomplished among them annually selected to join the ranks of the Confucian Sect. Meanwhile, the Sect plotted to transform the town into a Confucian domain. The only way to achieve this was to imprint the Confucian Great Dao upon the town while it was still a "Land Without Dao," thereby carving it out as their own sphere of influence.

The Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist sects all coveted Heaven’s Gate Town. Yet, after so many years, none had found an effective way to claim it as their own, an obstacle undoubtedly rooted in the legacy of the Sages from ages past. Consequently, it remained under the administration of the Great Cheng Empire. The Buddhist Sect, finding the town too distant and its doctrines ill-suited for propagation there, eventually withdrew. Whether deeper reasons lay behind this remains unknown. The Daoist Sect followed a similar path, abandoning their efforts to develop influence in the town for reasons known only to themselves.

The Confucian Sect alone remained. By logic, the three sects should have advanced or retreated in unison, yet for once, they failed to reach a consensus. The Confucian Sect had been laying its groundwork for a millennium, finally finding a viable path: to make the townspeople believers and, through the act of study, slowly erode the town’s foundations with the Confucian Great Dao. This was a process requiring a thousand years, with success never guaranteed, but for the sake of claiming the town, they had no other choice. Heaven’s Gate Town was simply too unique—the Heaven’s Gate itself, the Nether Sea, the suppression by the spirits of five Sages—these mysteries kept the Confucian Sect tethered to this place.

With the Heaven’s Gate opening, they knew this was their one and only chance to permanently imprint their Great Principles onto the town. To this end, they initiated the second phase: not only having the people recite Confucian texts, but introducing the "Book Fortune" and scattering it throughout the town, hoping to transform it into a "Land With Dao" while the town’s suppressive power was at its weakest.

But man proposes, and heaven disposes.

Their schemes were uncovered by the Daoist, who, upon undergoing "Dao-Transformation," severed the hopes of the Confucian Sect, forcing their Great Principles and the manifesting Book Fortune into the open. What would the Daoist do next?

Liang Hui watched the Confucian principles emerging in the sky and the Book Fortune spirit floating before him. His hands were clenched, his body taut with extreme tension. He had exhausted every method, yet could not shake them. Just as he sank into despair, a summons echoed from the void: "Liang Hui, the matter here is concluded. You may return."

Upon hearing this, a sense of clarity washed over him. Relieved, he bowed and replied, "As you command, Master."

The one capable of being called "Master" by a high-ranking Confucian scholar was surely no ordinary figure. To project his will across the void, piercing the barriers between worlds to reach Heaven’s Gate Town, required cultivation at the absolute pinnacle of the mortal realm. Even if he did not surpass the Daoist, the gap could not be vast.

In a village within the Confucian world, a thatched cottage stood. Six scholars were gathered before it—some writing, some chanting, some painting, some playing chess, some burning incense and playing the zither, others lost in silent meditation. Amidst the winding streams and mountain forests, their minds were at peace. Inside the cottage, an old master sat on a straw mat, clutching an ancient text. His hair and beard were white, his expression gentle, his presence like a spring breeze. His gaze pierced through layers of mist, leaping from one end of thought to the other. Only he knew where his mind had wandered. He addressed the void before him: "The Confucian Sect has lost. At the Lotus Forum ten years from now, we shall withdraw from hosting."

No sooner had the master finished speaking than another voice resonated from the void: "I warned you years ago that the waters of Heaven’s Gate Town are deep—so deep that even the Sages of old could not fathom them. Yet you insisted on forcing your hand to make it your own."

Hardly had those words faded when a third voice replied, "What is destined will be yours; what is not, should not be forced. Your Sect has always believed in forcing the impossible. How could you not fail?"

This was no longer a simple admission of defeat; it was a clash of their respective Great Daos. Neither would admit their path was inferior, and the old master immediately retorted. The three engaged in a debate across the void, ripples of Dao-essence spreading outward, bathing all three worlds in a sacred light that left onlookers in awe, their hearts filled with longing. They showed no surprise; as these changes occurred, they sat in silence, grasping at the sounds of the Great Dao, each unwilling to miss a single opportunity. Clearly, this was not the first time they had witnessed such a sight.

The ripples of Dao-essence lasted for days. When they finally subsided, the people awoke as if from a dream, each having gained some measure of enlightenment.

On the other side, after receiving the message, Liang Hui composed himself. He took one last look at the Book Fortune spirit, then bowed to the sky. "If you desire it, Senior, then take the Book Fortune. Consider it our gift for the rebirth of Heaven’s Gate Town."

As he spoke, the Book Fortune spirit flew from the white light and merged into the Confucian principles in the sky. Instantly, golden light surged; the characters composed magnificent essays, sinking into the void to fuse with the town’s new path. With the existing spirit of the old scholar and the addition of Confucian classics, the town’s "Haoran" aura of righteousness surged. Any devout scholar arriving here would be stunned to find such a dense concentration of righteousness in a place with but a single school. It was a holy land, a blessed realm.

Yet, the transformation did not stop there. The Daoist, having cultivated the Path of the Primordial, had practiced many other Daos in his youth. Upon his transformation, he scattered all these paths throughout the town, bathing it in the Great Dao. Together with the Daoist spirit already present among the five Sages, the town’s current Dao-essence surpassed that of any ordinary small world. Supported by the foundational energy of the Primordial Path, Heaven’s Gate Town would only grow more prosperous in its essence.

The transformation was a rebirth through fire. The sky rang with the sound of bells, mingled with the clear, bright reading voices of youths, the fervent chanting of scriptures, and the faint sound of swords being practiced in the wind. These myriad sounds blended into a base melody of celestial music, harmonious and devoid of clutter. In the chaos lay unity; in the noise, harmony. The meaning of the Great Dao was revealed to Heaven’s Gate Town from the very start.

Heaven’s Gate Town was now a "Land With Dao." However, for those aspiring to break through their current realms, the Daoist had already stripped away half of their cultivation. They were destined to miss out on this grand gift. Had Lu Ming attempted his breakthrough to Sword Immortal here and now, it would have been far simpler. Li Yu’s dragon spirit, though at a critical juncture, lacked the final key, and so its breakthrough had to be suppressed.

The Li family had always been outsiders in the town, largely because their "Spirit-Controlling" path was so aggressive that it clashed with the town's original state of "No-Dao." Now that the town possessed its own Dao, the suppression upon them would be much lighter. Li Xiyan felt the shifting of the Dao within his body and knew his moment had arrived. He no longer concealed himself, floating into the air to silently absorb the energy of the Dao.

Li Zhonghong, having had half his cultivation stripped to serve as nourishment for the town’s rebirth, watched Li Xiyan with a glimmer of hope. Their family had suffered heavy losses—three ancestors dead, and the survivors crippled. It was a humiliation that would see their status plummet upon their return. But amidst the despair, Li Xiyan’s breakthrough was a singular ray of hope. It had to succeed; failure was not an option.