Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 414 - 336: The Orthodox Confucianism (Seeking monthly tickets and subscriptions)_1

Chapter 414: Chapter 336: The Orthodox Confucianism (Seeking monthly tickets and subscriptions)_1

Inside that golden membrane, panic and confusion had begun to flicker in Kong Xiude’s eyes.

He found that no matter how much Hao Qi he mobilized and how much more power he drew from the surroundings of the Guozi Bureau, it was all in vain. His Pillar of Haoqi would crumble the moment it came within one zhang of Li Xuan.

At this juncture, if it were merely a matter of purity of the Hao Qi, he could still exert raw power to overpower his opponent.

But now, the two of them differed fundamentally in terms of their grasp on the great Dao itself.

If he had to make a metaphorical comparison, his Hao Qi was like mud and sand, while his opponent was an unmovable stone mountain.

No matter how much mud and sand there is, how could it compete with solid stone? No matter how much rotten wood there is, how could it harm sharp iron?

"The great principle of the Dao originates from heaven, and as heaven does not change, neither does the Dao! The Transform into Dragon by Vast Energy, fends off all evil."

At this point, Kong Xiude pointed in mid-air at the bamboo slips of "Chunqiu Fanlu". All his boundless Hao Qi was channeled into them. The thousands of bamboo slips instantly transformed into a gigantic Azure Dragon, coiling around him, fending off the Yi of the sword that Li Xuan remotely locked onto.

At this moment, Li Xuan sheathed his "Bixue Leique Sword" entirely and opened his Tao-protecting Eyes, staring at Kong Xiude like a predator eyeing its prey.

"Interesting. Is the text you’re cultivating the Chunqiu Fanlu?" He asked, a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"So, tell me, to which king are you loyal as a subject? Have you ever been unwaveringly loyal to your king, dedicating yourself entirely? As a son who should be obedient to his father, have you fulfilled your filial duties towards your parents?"

His every word carried the Grand Air Thunder Sound, shaking Kong Xiude’s heart.

Although the opponent was the Duke Yansheng, and despite his owning original editions of "Chunqiu Fanlu" and treasures like the "seal of the Great Sage King Wenxuan", Kong Xiude found himself helpless against Li Xuan. Still, with the Hao Qi of the various Guozi Bureau students at his disposal, he was more than able to defend himself.

But this didn’t mean that Li Xuan had no methods at his disposal against Kong Xiude.

One of the core tenets in "Chunqiu Fanlu" is the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues.

Li Xuan speculated that Kong Xiude could not fulfill the genuine bond of monarch and subject, or of father and son, nor could he stick to the Five Virtues — benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. Even if he were an individual of flawless character, this would be difficult to achieve — let alone for someone like Kong Xiude?

In the records of history, if the past Duke Yanshengs were all of virtuous character and deeply loyal to their kings, then why were they criticized as ’slaves for 72 generations and disloyal subjects for 25 dynasties’?

This was where Kong Xiude’s weakness lay, and if leveraged correctly, Li Xuan could vent his frustration.

Kong Xiude felt as if choppy waves were surging relentlessly within his Shenpo, and no matter how hard he tried, they wouldn’t subside.

As Li Xuan hammered his spirit word by word, faint cracks began to appear in the passages of "Chunqiu Fanlu" deep within Kong Xiude’s Shenpo.

Kong Xiude opened his mouth, intending to declare his unwavering loyalty to the emperor, his thorough dedication, his dutiful filial piety towards his parents, and his never-ending reverent thoughts about them. However, he realized he couldn’t say a word under the scrutiny of Li Xuan’s Thunder Sound.

Because speaking now would only make things worse.

At this moment, he has realized that Li Xuan was intending to disrupt his Wenxin Haoyi. This scared Kong Xiude, causing his pupils to contract slightly, revealing a trace of fear.

"How dare you touch my Wenxin’s foundation, Li Xuan?"

This was his foundation. Without Hao Qi by his side, he would lose his qualifications to serve as the Duke Yansheng. Li Xuan wouldn’t need to make a move; even the Kong family members in Qufu wouldn’t tolerate Kong Xiude continuing to serve as the Duke Yansheng.

Once he lost this protective layer, anyone could trample on him as they wished.

"And why wouldn’t I dare?"

Li Xuan sneered coldly. Around him, not only did purple electricity spread out in a 20-zhang radius, but the thousands of threads inside the "Shenyi" also changed shape — they amplified the electromagnetic waves significantly.

Then, his gaze suddenly sharpened, and the Grand Air Thunder Sound reverberated, clear and deafening: "Can’t you do it? You, a man lacking both loyalty and filial piety, how dare you serve as Duke Yansheng, the officiant for the Saint? What qualifications do you have to take Li’s Wenshan Seal?"

The sound wave shook in all directions, and though it was blocked by the golden membrane, everyone’s eardrums still rang with the sound. Kong Xiude was too overwhelmed to even speak. His body bled from his mouth and nose and shook with dizziness. His Divine Consciousness experienced an intense pang of pain, creating a wave of discomfort and fog in his mind.

Seeing this, the blond armored girl changed her expression, raised her hand and pointed. The golden membrane suddenly shrunk, initially covering both Kong Xiude and Li Xuan but now only enclosing Kong Xiude. At this very moment, Li Xuan was activating the "Wenshan Seal", which took the shape of a huge mountain, suspended in the air and pressing down towards Kong Xiude. However, the golden membrane forcefully held the "Wenshan Seal" in the air.

Li Xuan coldly glanced at the young lady in the golden armor, then bellowed again: "Disciples of Guozi Bureau, why aren’t you helping me? Help me break this pseudo-confucianist who infiltrated the Kong’s Mansion!"

Boom!

In an instant, countless columns of energy surged from the bodies of the disciples around the Guozi Bureau, gathered by the Wenshan Seal into a pillar of purple gold, rolling towards the golden film!

This momentum was even more formidable than that of Kong Xiude before, more than ten times stronger. It caused the outer layer of the fairy treasure made of the Heaven and Earth Fetal Membrane to sprout cracks.

The girl in the golden armor frowned deeply, and had to increase her mana to repair the cracks on the immortal treasure. At the same time, her golden armor also sprinkled a faint golden phosphorescence.

Kong Xiude inside the golden membrane spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling a tightness in his chest. He felt that the hearts of the people in the Guozi Bureau were all leaning towards Li Xuan. The Hao Qi, which he extracted using the ’Seal of the Great Sage King Wenxuan’, became increasingly scarce.

"You have a lot of nerve! How dare you distort the truth and accuse me of being a pseudo-confucianist?"

At this moment, his eyes were full of bloodshot as he roared, livid: "Who is the real pseudo-confucianist? The scriptures you study, are the true deviant teachings, which have never been seen in any classics--"

Upon hearing this, Li Xuan chuckled: "Just because they have never appeared in any classics, they are deviant teachings? Has my Neo-Confucianism ever been so narrow-minded?"

The point where Neo-Confucianism suppresses people’s hearts was something that happened after the Qing Dynasty took control of the Central Plains. Even in the late Ming Dynasty, there were many Neo-Confucianists working hard to improve and perfect their knowledge.

Even in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, scholars like Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, and Zhang Zhidong, who were all experts in Neo-Confucianism, were reformist statesmen.

At this time, the original scroll of "The Song of Integrity" also flew up from the classics coffer, and as the scroll was unrolled, the golden characters revealed on its inner face, emitted purple and golden Hao Qi, wrapping around Li Xuan, setting him off as if he were a saint in the world.

"I am the direct disciple of Zhonglie Duke Wen! Master Yu and the Hufa of Neo-Confucianism designated by great Confucian scholars since the Later Zhao!"

Li Xuan glared at Kong Xiude, his body covered with majestic purple Qi, shaking the heaven and earth: "And you, Kong Xiude, based on the seal given to you by Emperor Meng Wu, dare to criticize me, the proper lineage of Neo-Confucianism? This is utterly ridiculous! Moreover, ’The Great Sage King Wenxuan’ is a title bestowed by the former Yuan to the saint. There is no such gift in our dynasty. What are you intending to do with this seal? Could it be that you, Kong Xiude, still consider yourself a loyal servant of the former Yuan?"

In the past, Emperor Meng Wu courted the scholars of the Central Plains by conferring on Confucius the title of "The Great Sage King Wenxuan", collecting fine steels from all over Jiuzhou, jasper articles from the Han and Tang Dynasties, and various genuine ink treasures, and casting the "Seal of the Great Sage King Wenxuan", so that Duke Yansheng could command the scholars all over the world with this seal.

However, after Emperor Tai of Jin unified the world, he abolished the title of "The Great Sage King Wenxuan" for the saint and changed it to "The Saint King Wenxuan".

Kong Xiude felt like his head was about to explode, and his Shenpo was also in extreme discomfort.

Under the pressure of Li Xuan’s Grand Air Thunder Sound, his seven apertures were all bleeding black blood. Instinctively, he wanted to say, ’So what if I consider myself a loyal servant of the former Yuan? The Jin Dynasty is ungrateful towards the Kong family, and I naturally miss my former master.’

Not only did the Jin Dynasty remove the ’Great Sage King Wenxuan’ title, but it also abolished the "universal sacrifice to Confucius" that had been in practice since the Han and Tang Dynasties. Emperor Tai of the Jin wrote in his decree that "the biannual sacrifices in the Confucius Temple should only be carried out in Qufu, and they should not be carried out everywhere," causing countless descendants of the Kong family in Qufu to lose their livelihood.

If the Jin Dynasty was unkind, then certainly the Kong family could be unjust!

Luckily he still had some sanity left, which allowed him to control his own lips and tongue, and not to speak of these heinous words.

However, at this time, some black mist had already started to rise in Kong Xiude’s eyebrows.

Li Xuan’s pupils immediately lit up. Others might not see these black mists, but under the gaze of his Tao-protecting Eyes, they were obvious.

Just as Li Xuan was preparing to press harder and thoroughly crush Kong Xiude in one fell swoop, the girl in golden armor suddenly sighed. With a grasp of her hand, Kong Xiude was forcibly seized and flew together with her as a golden light towards the eastern city wall.

Li Xuan’s brow suddenly furrowed, his heart filled with bitterness and doubt.

He was bitter because he had just severely damaged Kong Xiude’s ’Wenxin’, and he was on the verge of defeating Kong Xiude, leaving both his reputation shattered and his Hao Qi destroyed.

What puzzled him was who the girl in golden armor really was and why she was his enemy?

He observed her cultivation; it was clearly at heavenly level. Why didn’t she directly attack him?

Li Xuan was somewhat confused, but he soon put this out of his mind, and bowed deeply towards the open sky above Guozi Bureau as a show of thanks.

Today, because of him, Li Xuan, several powerful figures in Capital City were disturbed. He owed them a debt of thanks.

After that, Li Xuan turned his icy gaze on Earl Huichang, Sun Jizong.

This national uncle held his breath, then laughed as if nothing had happened: "Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding! This must be a mistake made by my subordinate, Wu is a dancer in my house, how could she be a concubine? I was just joking. Bring me the brush and ink, Chuyun, come grind the ink for me."

Sun Jizong rolled up his sleeves and said with a stern expression: "Wu has also been raised in my house since she was a child. If she and Mr. Zhang are in love, how can I, as her uncle, not help? Don’t worry, Xiaowei Li. I, Sun Jizong, will definitely give you an explanation and make sure both you and Mr. Zhang are satisfied."