Chapter 260: His Wisdom Borders On Being Near Monstrous

“But from what I’ve seen of you, Teacher Han, your usual demeanor and the way you conduct yourself in this Dao sanctuary seem rather…” Li Shun looked at the easygoing, languid young Scholar before him, hesitating to continue.

He truly found it impossible to associate Han Qi with that extreme school of thought that advocated, “Blood for blood, and eradicate the roots so there can be no future trouble.”

Han Qi merely shook his head and chuckled.

“Anyone who has been confined to this Taixue Academy teaching for over a hundred years would have their temper mellowed.”

Li Shun was rendered speechless.

Han Qi’s gaze once again fell upon Li Shun, still carrying a hint of regret at seeing such an exceptional talent yet being unable to claim him as his disciple.

“The [Sole Righteousness] lineage has very few inheritors left in the world today. If our founding ancestor had not rendered great service during the war in which Great Qian was established, I fear we would have long since suffered the same fate as the Jun School, being completely wiped out and deemed unfit to exist.”

“Even so, having it hidden away within Taixue Academy as a concealed school of Confucianism is already the absolute limit of what the imperial court is willing to tolerate.”

A trace of undisguised mockery suddenly surfaced in Han Qi’s voice.

“The Great Qian authorities will absolutely never allow the philosophy of [Sole Righteousness] to spread freely among the common people. They will only confine it to an extremely small circle under their control, barely preserving the lineage so that it does not become extinct.”

“But you should understand that when Great Qian first raised its armies and began the campaign to destroy the Seven Nations, the army marched beneath the banner of ‘Even the vengeance of nine generations may be repaid.’ That principle was used to justify the legitimacy of conquering and annihilating the other nations.”

“Yet once His Majesty had swept across the Six Directions, unified the world, and taken that position for himself…”

“From top to bottom, everyone immediately fell silent about the matter.”

Li Shun understood the implication.

Once the millstone had served its purpose, the donkey was discarded. It was simply a matter of eliminating a potential future threat.

He did not rashly offer any opinion. He merely lowered his head and remained silent.

After a long silence, Han Qi finally brought the conversation back on track.

“Since you are so naturally compatible with the lineage of [Sole Righteousness], I would recommend that you make its classical teachings your primary path of study from now on.”

“As for how to preserve the fundamental nature of your [Spring and Autumn Brush] without allowing backlash to cause it to collapse…”

Han Qi lightly tapped the tabletop.

A spatial rift several zhang long suddenly split open in midair within the Dao sanctuary.

Li Shun looked up.

Deep within the rift was an endless succession of towering bookshelves stretching as far as the eye could see, each one seemingly reaching into the heavens. They were so vast that it was as though written words themselves had transformed into an immeasurable ocean.

A streak of azure light shot forth from the depths of that sea of books and landed steadily in Han Qi’s palm.

“This is the [Jade-Polishing Method].”

“By cultivating this method, you can slowly envelop and assimilate the violent theories of other schools, much like a silkworm devouring mulberry leaves, turning them into your own strength without harming your fundamental origin.”

“However, the price is that your originally pure cultivation theory will undergo subtle, irreversible distortions as a result of the impurities you absorb. Moreover, to a certain extent, this will greatly hinder your progress in breaking through the realms of your primary lineage.”

Han Qi offered an extremely precise analogy.

“Imagine a horse-drawn carriage charging at full speed. You can certainly forcefully attach several heavy carriages behind it so that you can carry more weapons. But doing so will inevitably slow down the carriage’s charge.”

“Thus, integrating and mastering other teachings is acceptable, but you must never become greedy for quantity. Otherwise, you will end up with a bloated tail that drags you down, bringing more harm than benefit.”

As he spoke, Han Qi pushed the ancient-looking copy of the Jade-Polishing Method toward Li Shun.

When Li Shun opened it, he could see countless layers of notes and annotations overlapping between the lines of text.

Only after carefully examining them with his divine sense could he distinguish them clearly.

He discovered that only a small portion consisted of profound annotations left behind by the great sages of Taixue Academy. The overwhelming majority were actually cultivation insights recorded by generations of Taixue students while practicing this method.

Li Shun quickly flipped through it once, then solemnly put it away.

Afterward, he asked somewhat perplexedly, “Teacher Han, if that is the case, then focusing exclusively on cultivating one’s own school and avoiding impurities would obviously allow one to break through faster.”

“Why, then, does your intention, and even the fundamental purpose of the entire Taixue Academy, encourage or even force students to cultivate the teachings of other schools, forcibly attaching these so-called additional carriages to themselves?”

Han Qi did not answer directly.

Instead, he stared intently at Li Shun and asked in return:

“You elite disciples of the Hundred Schools have been summoned by Great Qian to Taixue Academy for further study. What is your ultimate purpose?”

Li Shun was stunned for a moment before answering without hesitation.

“To resist the Outer Gods.”

Han Qi nodded slightly and let out a long sigh.

“Exactly.”

“The Outer Gods are terrifying existences that cannot be contemplated, cannot be seen, and cannot be understood.”

“Not to mention you or me. Even a cultivator at the Creation realm would be as insignificant as an ant before them, utterly incapable of resisting.”

“Even if one of them merely sends down a projection, it is by no means something an ordinary cultivator can withstand. One can easily be corrupted by it, losing all sense of self and becoming a puppet that submits to it in both body and mind.”

“All these years…”

“Or rather, ever since the primordial wilderness was shattered, this has been the only method we humans have been able to find in the midst of endless despair.”

“We must condense the thoughts of humanity to the utmost extent possible, using them as wedges driven into the Great Dao. There, they become [anchors] that preserve our minds and resist the spiritual corruption of the Outer Gods.”

“The Hundred Schools of Thought are the crystallized essence of the wisdom accumulated by countless human sages throughout the ages.”

“The classical teachings of the Hundred Schools faintly point toward the underlying truths of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Thus, they can serve as anchors as firm as the Needle of the Sea, becoming absolute anchors that stabilize the human mind.”

“But…”

Han Qi’s gaze became distant as he stared at Li Shun and asked another question.

“The Great Dao of Heaven and Earth is boundless and stretches endlessly. Even the Sages of the Hundred Schools who have reached the Heaven-Earth realm, despite founding doctrines of such magnificence, have merely touched upon a tiny portion of the complete Great Dao.”

“Strictly speaking, the more thoughts you drive into the Great Dao as anchors, and the broader the range of principles you comprehend, the more stable your mind and spirit will become when facing the Outer Gods. The less susceptible you will be to their influence and corruption.”

“Unfortunately, the philosophies of the Hundred Schools are inherently incompatible with and antagonistic toward one another. Even with the forced support of the [Jade-Polishing Method], no one has ever managed to truly cultivate multiple schools without experiencing any rejection.”

“So we can only settle for the next best thing.”

“Under the philosophy of our own lineage, we continually broaden its scope.”

Hearing this, Li Shun had another question.

“I’ve heard that there is a Miscellaneous School in the world, said to be capable of embracing and integrating the various philosophies of the Hundred Schools…”

Han Qi gave a scornful laugh.

“The Miscellaneous School has no Sage who has reached the Heaven-Earth realm. Even those who reach the Creation realm appear only once every few centuries.”

His words immediately exposed the hidden truth.

The Miscellaneous School had indeed achieved a certain degree of cultivating multiple lineages simultaneously.

But they had merely learned the surface of each.

They were fundamentally incapable of truly touching any single Great Dao.

Such 'anchors,' lacking any core depth, were no different from rotten wood floating upon the surface of the water.

Their upper limit was simply too low.

Before the Outer Gods, they would collapse at the slightest touch.

They were utterly meaningless.

…

In the time that followed, within this tranquil Confucian Dao sanctuary, Li Shun devoured the Classic of Sole Righteousness and the Jade-Polishing Method with ravenous enthusiasm while raising every question that arose in his mind on the spot.

And Han Qi, meanwhile, displayed a foundation of knowledge so profound that it bordered on being Near-monstrous.