Chapter 1377: The Superior Class Has No Poor Families [Seeking Monthly Tickets]
The stronger a martial artist is, the more arbitrary and powerful they become.
Gongyang Yongye, too lazy to wait for the enemy's response, hurriedly gave his orders and disappeared without a trace. Luo San was so angry that he almost blew his beard out and glared at them, cursing Gongyang Yongye in his heart as a reckless old man: "If he gets captured and killed, I won't care. I can't afford to lose face like that."
Luan Xin became engrossed in his own world.
When I came to my senses, I heard Luo San complaining, "This man's skills are commendable, but he acts haphazardly and without any method. Only Lord Shen's magnanimity can tolerate him. If it were my soldiers..."
Luo San was determined to loosen the opponent's skin and bones.
Luan Xin's allergies had almost subsided, but he still looked somewhat listless. The murky atmosphere of the place made him feel unwell from the inside out. After giving a few brief instructions, he went to rest and recuperate—the enemy was intentionally giving them a hard time and would likely keep them waiting for a day or two; he wasn't worried about delaying important matters. When he woke up again, Luan Xin felt an extremely heavy head.
It felt like my neck was about to be crushed.
It took him a while to calm down before he felt a little better.
At this moment, the sky outside the tent was as dark as ink, and the faint sounds of Luo San and Gongyang Yongye talking in hushed tones could be heard coming from outside the screen.
"...Xiang Laiqu wasn't imprisoned here...that descendant of the Yuan family is...thank goodness, he was almost discovered."
"I knew you were useless."
"Robert, you try if you dare!"
The two argued in hushed tones until Luan Xin emerged, still without reaching a conclusion. Seeing Luan Xin, Gongyang Yongye ended his pointless debate and asked worriedly, "What's wrong with your complexion?"
So pale he didn't look alive; it was obvious at a glance that he was weak inside and out.
He looks like he's been seriously ill and hasn't fully recovered.
Gongyang Yongye paused, thinking to himself, "Luan Xin was just seriously ill, wasn't he? That quack doctor Robert is a scoundrel!"
They'll prescribe anything!
"Give me your hand, let me take another look."
Luan Xin shouldn't still be so weak. Is there something wrong with the prescription?
Luo San sneered, "You quack doctor aren't much better than me. When you prescribed the medicine, you said it would cure the disease instantly, but now you've made the person even more weak. What if something bad happens to them..."
It's true that everyone has their own area of expertise, but Gongyang Yongye specializes in andrology.
What kind of strange diseases like rubella can he treat?
Gongyang Yongye examined Luan Xin's pulse but found nothing wrong. He asked Luan Xin if he felt no other discomfort besides fatigue, and was somewhat relieved. Luan Xin straightened his sleeves and asked Gongyang Yongye what he had discovered during the day.
"Just as we guessed before, the central forces formed an alliance to eliminate potential threats, and the loss of the Kangguo enclave was the result of their planning."
Luan Xin was somewhat numb to the word "alliance".
"An alliance?"
This happens to be Kang Guo's area of expertise.
Gongyang Yongye, however, was not optimistic, saying, "This situation is different from any other in the past and cannot be compared with it."
The Southwestern Allied Forces were a coalition of states in the southwest continent resisting the enemy. Nominally a unified entity, they were in reality fighting independently, each with its own agenda regarding supplies and logistics. The fierce "Dragon-Slaying Scheme" in the northwest was also characterized by each warlord harboring their own ulterior motives. They were only slightly better than a disorganized mess.
The strategy of sowing discord is always effective against such fragile relationships. Once a weak point is found, the entire alliance can be dismantled.
Luan Xin asked softly, "What's different?"
The northwestern and southwestern kingdoms were not united, but the kingdoms of the central continent were? If they were united, they wouldn't have been in chaos for so many years. Gongyang Yongye originally thought so too, until he discovered a clue: "The flags of the camps are not the names of the kingdoms."
No single country is in charge of manipulating the situation.
Gongyang Yongye said, "They are from a prominent family."
Aside from a few small countries with little expansionist power, most of the powerful nations in the Central Continent are controlled by a dozen or so aristocratic families. The so-called rulers are merely pawns used in their power struggles. This group largely overlaps with the core of certain factions within the Gods' Society! Centuries of intermarriage and cooperation have created a tangled web of interests. The alliances they spearhead are far more robust than the military alliances formed by the various Central Continent nations.
Kangguo's opponent is not the seemingly unified but actually fragmented Central Continent, but the entire power of the Central Continent!
Luan Xin was quite surprised: "Is that so?"
It sounds tricky, but it's not entirely unsolvable.
Looking at the state of the world, as long as one is human, one is capable of committing inhumane acts of evil. How often are there struggles like brothers fighting each other and family members killing each other? It is clear that no matter how deep the entanglements of interests among these so-called powerful families are, they are not a unified whole.
He then asked, "Which family is in charge?"
Gongyang Yongye said, "The Zhao family."
Each family nominated the Zhao family to be the leader of the allied forces.
This branch of the Zhao family successively supported three powerful states in the central region. Zhao family members held important civil and military positions in the court, and their protégés and former officials were scattered throughout the central continent. The Zhao family was like this, and the other aristocratic families in the allied forces were no less so. At this point, Gongyang Yongye recalled a detail.
He sighed and said, "There is something rather strange. The northwest and southwest regions are frequently plagued by war, so if they are lucky enough to survive for three or four generations, they can be called 'great families' or 'noble families.' Starting from the fifth generation, they inevitably decline due to the depletion of talent. The great families in the central continent are different. Every generation can produce a few outstanding individuals, as if they are blessed by the heavens."
Cultivation talent is completely random.
If parents are exceptionally talented, their children are likely to be mediocre.
The decline of families in the southwest and northwest regions often stemmed from a lack of talent; if one generation fails to keep up, the family inevitably faces ruin. To address this problem and mitigate the decline, figures like Chu Yao and Luan Xin emerged. Their methods included either seeking out talented children from the common people, using kindness and appeasement to win them over and get them to help the family through a difficult transition, or directly adopting sons-in-law…
Luo San: "How do you know that every generation of geniuses is their biological child? What if they were adopted from the common people as their own?"
As long as the surname can be passed down, that's fine.
Gongyang Yongye said irritably, "Don't argue!"
It's possible for one family to do this secretly, but what about a dozen families doing it secretly? Gongyang Yongye is more inclined to believe that each family produces their own offspring, but that doesn't explain the genetic lottery in every generation. Luan Xin: "The upper class has no poor families, and the lower class has no noble families."
For some reason, he suddenly remembered this phrase.
It's less a prophecy and more a divine pronouncement.
A prophecy that has sparked debate for over two centuries.
Seeing Luo San and the other two looking at him, Luan Xin said, "This incantation has sparked two debates: 'family lineage-based' and 'literary spirit-based'. The former argues that only those born into aristocratic families are considered to be of aristocratic lineage and qualified to obtain superior literary spirit and supreme talent. The latter believes that the grade of literary spirit and cultivation talent have nothing to do with bloodline or birth, and are all gifts from heaven."
No matter how good the birth of the children of high-ranking officials and nobles, they may still be good-for-nothings, while the union of common men and women may produce outstanding individuals.
Talent is random, not determined by one's birth.
The two parties have been locked in a power struggle for a long time.
Luan Xin said softly, "If the 'family lineage-based' approach wins, it wouldn't be surprising if every generation produced extraordinary talents under the influence of the Word of Power."
This perfectly aligns with the ideology of the Pantheon, these madmen.
They are masters who use all living beings as pawns for their own amusement.
"Even if we take a step back and say that's really the case, is there any justice or law if they can have children whenever they want?" Gongyang Yongye was both surprised and envious. He had worked so hard for so many years but still had no children. At his age, he still had to find a way to conceive.
Do these families not have the problem of infertility?
Why do they get all the good things in the world?!
Luan Xin: "..."
Isn't Gongyang Yongye's focus too biased?
Luo San said impatiently, "What's so difficult about having a child?"
Not wanting to be caught in the middle, Luan Xin abruptly changed the subject and steered the conversation back to the main point: "Besides that, were there any other discoveries?"
"The camp was full of hidden talents; we almost got discovered."
Originally, he wanted to find out where Xiang Zhao was, and then launch a sneak attack to kill the Yuan family descendant. If he couldn't kill him, he would at least poison him to make him vomit and have diarrhea and be weak for a while. But things didn't go as planned.
This answer made Luan Xin feel slightly uneasy.
Anyone who can discover Gongyang Yongye's whereabouts is either not stronger than Gongyang Yongye or roughly the same level, making them a formidable opponent.
"Their strength isn't that great, but their insight is top-notch." Gongyang Yongye added, "I suspect we've been under surveillance since we first entered this place. Perhaps they've overheard everything we're saying right now."
Luan Xin: "..."
Luo San glared at him fiercely.
If you had this suspicion, why didn't you say so earlier?
Fortunately, they didn't discuss anything substantial. If it had involved classified information, wouldn't this have been a leak? Gongyang Yongye said awkwardly, "As I said, this is just my personal guess..."
Before he could finish speaking, the energy of heaven and earth trembled slightly.
Then a male voice rang out: "Your Lordship's guess is true."
The three of them: "..."
Luo San jumped up and looked for the person lurking in the shadows: "Why don't you come out and show yourself instead of hiding in the dark and playing tricks?"
Clearly, the camp had been equipped with a spell to prevent eavesdropping.
If someone is spying on you, it will surely alert you.
But the power of words remained unmoved until the man spoke.
"Why are you two lords angry?" The man's voice was completely flat, sometimes clear as a whisper in your ear, sometimes indistinct as the distant horizon, sliding from left ear to right ear and then from right ear to left ear, making one feel dizzy just by listening to it. "Fine wine and delicacies are prepared in the main tent to welcome our distinguished guests."
Luan Xin calmly glanced at the sky outside: "Now?"
As he spoke, someone outside the tent relayed the message.
It was the messenger soldier who came to invite Luan Xin and the others to the banquet.
Despite the lack of enjoyment at the banquet, he still had to go, even if it meant facing perilous situations. He wanted to see the enemy's leader and how this enemy force differed from his previous ones. Luan Xin straightened his clothes and adjusted his sword, saying gently, "Wait a moment."
When Luan Xin arrived with his entourage, the atmosphere at the table was not tense.
Apart from a few who cast glances at them, the others chatted and laughed amongst themselves, seemingly oblivious to Luan Xin and the others. The man sitting at the head of the table appeared quite young at first glance, with a pair of calm eyes that belied his age: "Quickly, help the envoy to his seat."
Luan Xin glanced indifferently at everyone at the table.
He couldn't discern the martial artists' true nature, but he could easily see through the scholars' true identities. These people had arrived in an orderly fashion, saving him trouble.
Luan Xin was dazzled by the choices in his eyes.
The prominent families in central China are truly full of talented individuals.
In previous years, he had rarely seen any strange or unusual scholarly practices, but this tent was now occupied by five people. How was he supposed to choose? This one seemed alright, and that one seemed pretty good too.
Unfortunately, the number of permanent seats was limited, and he couldn't take all of these people's scholarly ways with him, which was truly a pity. Luan Xin left the limited edition behind without expression, gritted his teeth and made three empty seats, while also having to deal with the group's sarcastic and aggressive remarks.
"I heard that Lord Luan holds the position of Minister of Personnel in Kang State, yet he has no official title?" Someone, seemingly a gossip, first made a sarcastic remark about this, then added with a half-smile, "It's just a matter of bringing back a few insignificant prisoners. Is it really necessary for the Minister of Personnel, the head of the Six Ministries, to take such a risk? However, I've heard that Kang State rose from humble beginnings, and its ruler is of humble origin. It's understandable that he might make a haphazard choice in personnel matters."
However, it was very wrong of Luan Xin to let it go unchecked.
Luan Xin glanced at the man's scholarly ways.
Copy, paste, delete.
Then he said slowly, "My lord has never made a mistake in choosing people. How can ordinary people know the subtlety of his methods? As for titles, since it is for upholding righteousness for the world, we should wait until the merits are fulfilled before rewarding them. How can we be eager for quick success halfway through?"
Gu Chi made a valid point.
[Don't get cocky and relax at halftime! Gaining a huge advantage can lead to arrogance and complacency; you might get completely exposed!]
When asked what champagne was, Gu Chi said it was a type of fine wine.
Rewards for merit will naturally have to wait until last.
"Oh? I didn't know what talents Minister Luan has. Why is it that this trip is impossible without you?" The man was about to get angry after being rebuffed when a middle-aged scholar with a neat goatee and a slightly chubby face spoke up. His eyes, as cold as a viper's, stared directly at Luan Xin, scanning him up and down as if trying to see through him.
Looking at the other party's scholarly ways, Luan Xin could tell that this person was just as sinister as Gu Chi: "The royal court is full of talented people, and there are countless people who are capable of this job. It's not that I am indispensable, but someone used some dishonest means to take my student. As her teacher, of course he has to come and take my good-for-nothing student back! He shamelessly stole his colleague's job from the emperor."
Luan Xin spoke in a gentle, unhurried manner, seemingly harmless.
But what he says can instantly make the listener angry.
And the more you listen, the angrier you get.
"A student of Minister Luan?"
"Xiang Zhao, Xiang Lai Qu."
"Is there such a person?" The plump-faced middle-aged scholar feigned surprise. "There's something I'm not sure if I should say: when two armies clash, there's no such thing as honorable or dishonest. There's only the victor being king and the loser being a bandit. Minister Luan's student must be quite young. Young people don't think things through, so it's understandable that he made a mistake."
Luan Xin sighed softly, his tone helpless.
"Judging from your age, you probably don't understand my maternal love."
The chubby-faced scholar was initially only slightly taken aback, but when he realized the sarcastic tone behind the words, his features almost contorted. Luan Xin was saying that someone his age didn't understand parental love, either because he had no children of his own or no parents. Was he really going to insult him so harshly?
But Luan Xin's expression remained flawless. Perhaps the other person's words were just a casual remark, without any deeper meaning, and Luan Xin was simply overthinking it.
Just then, the man seated at the head of the table spoke. He looked at Madam Yuan, who had remained silent until now: "I vaguely remember Minister Luan's student; he seems to be a retainer of the Yuan family?"
Everyone secretly glanced at Luan Xin.
(*▽*)
This year's cherries are so plentiful I don't want to eat them anymore... Is it just me? I always get an upset stomach after eating too many?
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
