"How is this possible?" Changsun Wuji exclaimed. Although the Changsun family was not a Confucian family, they knew the difficulties faced by Confucian scholars.
The others were also surprised, but they knew that since Fang Xuanling had brought it up, he would definitely give a reason, so they all stared at him with wide eyes.
“How is that impossible? Princesses Pu’an and Dongyang also became Confucian scholars, didn’t they?” Fang Xuanling said, looking at Changsun Wuji.
“This is different…” Changsun Wuji stopped halfway through his sentence.
Fang Xuanling understood what he meant. The two princesses were normal people, but his own son was notoriously stupid. Many people in Chang'an said that his son was only growing physically, not mentally. Fang Xuanling didn't care about this.
"Xuanling, are you referring to Qin Huaidao?" Li Shimin asked, his eyes wide.
"My son has been working at the Six Doors for the past two weeks as a guest constable," Fang Xuanling replied, seemingly unrelated to the question.
It goes without saying that only Qin Mu could pull off such a thing within the Six Doors.
Li Shimin was not surprised. The Six Doors only needed to register the recruitment of guest officials and constables. It was such a trivial matter that he, as the emperor, would not pay attention to it.
Upon hearing Fang Xuanling's words, he also recalled something: Qin Yue, the eldest son of the Qin family head of the Three Passes, had escorted a batch of medicinal herbs to Qin Mu. He knew about this, but hadn't paid much attention to it, since the refined pills were currently sitting in his drawer.
Although Qin Mu's elixirs were of good quality, the royal family did not lack them, and even had elixirs with better effects.
Of course! Qin Mu only gave the pills to Li Chengqian and the other two; he didn't give them the other medicinal powders. This wasn't because he was deliberately hiding anything. Using them together would be extremely painful, which was why Qin Mu didn't give them the powders. He didn't want to waste time explaining; if something went wrong, who would take the blame? After all, the three Li brothers were just children; it was impossible for them to endure such great pain.
The group exchanged glances and quickly understood Fang Xuanling's concerns. After a moment of silence, Li Shimin smiled and said, "Xuanling, don't worry. Qin Huaidao is a man of principle. Even if there are any aftereffects, it won't be a big problem."
"Your subject understands!"
"Alright, everyone, disperse. Keep this to yourselves, don't spread it around," Li Shimin said, waving his hand.
"I obey the decree!"
The group of people, each with their own thoughts, left the imperial study. Although Li Shimin had instructed them not to spread the word, it was unavoidable that he would pay even closer attention to Qin Mu.
Actually, Qin Mu was also a bit confused about this matter. He thought about it all night before he roughly figured out the reason.
Last night, he wanted to use Fang Yi'ai as an experiment. He remembered another world where, according to legend, martial arts masters could infuse their own internal energy into the bodies of their descendants, guiding them to circulate it and thus step into the threshold of cultivation.
So Qin Mu also wanted to give it a try. He first experimented with spiritual energy, but he found that Fang Yi'ai's meridians were too thick. Not only were they thick, but they were also incredibly rigid, making it impossible for spiritual energy to circulate within them. Even he couldn't get spiritual energy to circulate in Fang Yi'ai's body, so even if Fang Yi'ai cultivated spiritual energy in his dantian, he wouldn't be able to open up his meridians.
So Qin Mu began experimenting with the Righteous Qi again, which was his initial idea. Who knew that this experiment would be so extraordinary? Fang Yi'ai's blood surged like a turbulent river, his blood and qi were surging, and he easily integrated with the Righteous Qi. Moreover, his heart beat strongly and was exceptionally clear.
Fang Yi'ai not only had large meridians, but also very wide acupoints. Qin Mu's righteous energy was like entering a bottomless abyss, consuming almost half of his righteous energy before filling the Tanzhong acupoint. Then it helped Fang Yi'ai form a circulation between his heart, the acupoint, and his hands and feet.
This process was far from easy, consuming a tremendous amount of vital energy. Qin Mu even took out his own collection—a paperweight given to him by Li Gang and a wine manual given to him by Wang Ji—to completely deplete his vital energy before Fang Yi'ai could stabilize.
To be honest, Qin Mu was quite envious of Fang Yi'ai's aptitude. Aside from his meridians and bones, his body was remarkably well-developed. Upon becoming a Confucian cultivator, he absorbed a vast amount of righteous energy, just one step away from becoming a scholar. This step was only because the righteous energy within him didn't belong to him personally. He only needed to complete the refining process and allow his body to adapt to the righteous energy before officially becoming a scholar.
Not only that, as long as Fang Yi'ai compresses his righteous spirit and opens up the capillaries in his skin, becoming a Grand Scholar will be a natural outcome, without any obstacles whatsoever.
However, Fang Yi'ai was not without his flaws. He was not very bright, making it virtually impossible for him to become a great Confucian scholar. Moreover, he was unable to understand or use the methods of Confucian cultivation.
Using the righteous energy with one's fists, just like using the bloodthirsty energy, was taught to Qin Mu by Li Shaozhi. This was also the only method Qin Mu could think of that Fang Yi'ai could use.
Perhaps this was fate. Fang Yi'ai used the Qin family's advancing fist technique to utilize the righteous energy with complete ease, and in many ways, he was completely self-taught. His hands and feet coordinated seamlessly, and not a single bit of righteous energy was wasted in each punch and step.
Qin Mu realized something: this method only worked on someone as single-minded and young as Fang Yi'ai. Because of his single-mindedness and obedience, Qin Mu's brainwashing was extremely successful. He cultivated a righteous heart, pure thoughts, and aligned himself with the righteous spirit—the same effect as setting a firm will. Combined with external forces creating a Confucian cultivation cycle within his body, the internal and external forces worked together to achieve this result. It was entirely a matter of chance; without any one of these conditions, it wouldn't have been possible.
When Fang Yi'ai reappeared in front of Qin Mu with a silly grin, Qin Mu finally understood and, somewhat speechless, took him to the Six Doors.
“Huai Dao! Something’s not right,” Ma Zhou said to Qin Mu.
"Oh? What went wrong?" Qin Mu asked with a serious expression. He certainly took Ma Zhou's opinion very seriously.
“Originally, our investigation revealed that the Wang family’s businesses consisted only of brothels and gambling dens, which were considered to be numerous and wicked. But as we continued our investigation, we discovered that more and more people were being implicated. If this investigation continues, we might have to arrest people from most of the brothels in Chang’an,” Ma Zhou explained.
"Arrest them if you want! They're not exactly respectable establishments anyway. It would be best to shut down all the brothels." Princess Changning said domineeringly.
“This…” Ma Zhou smiled bitterly.
“You don’t need to worry about the people behind them. If we really shut down their brothel, no one will dare to show their face and cause us trouble,” Princess Changning said, raising her delicate willow-leaf eyebrows slightly.
"Binwang, do you mean that many people are involved in the case, and that the investigation has already been completed?" Qin Mu asked. The involvement in the case and the people behind the brothel can be considered two separate issues. After all, running a brothel is not a big deal; the key is whether excessive things were done, and if they were done and then investigated, that's a completely different matter.
“That’s right, it’s true. Some clues seem to have been deliberately delivered to us,” Ma Zhou nodded.
Cheng Huaimo and his men were only focused on arresting people and couldn't see these things, but Ma Zhou understood them, which was why he wanted to find Qin Mu to talk to him.
"Hmph! Arrest anyone involved in the case, and see who dares to open a brothel again." Princess Changning said with some dissatisfaction.
"This profession has existed for over a thousand years, and its existence is justified. Moreover, brothels are not without their benefits, so as long as it's not too outrageous, we don't need to eradicate it completely, and we can't eliminate it anyway," Qin Mu gently advised.
"If you dare to go again, I...I..." Princess Changning glared at Qin Mu, then looked at the others, blushing and unable to continue.
“Huai Dao is right. As long as there’s profit to be made, there will always be people who will do it. If the investigation is strict, they’ll just change their methods. It’s better to set strict rules for them, like we are now.” Ma Zhou nodded in agreement.
"Who are the people involved in the case?" Qin Mu asked, changing the subject.
"There's the Wei family, the Zheng family, and some other unidentified forces. There's also an imperial censor who seems to have connections with these people," Ma Zhou explained solemnly.
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