Chapter 697: Fighting Chao Li (Part 11) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]
"The Hundred Schools of Thought?"
Everyone present was naturally familiar with this term.
I just don't know what the lord's dream has to do with the various schools of thought, and why the lord said that this dream was a good thing.
They all stared at Shen Tang, waiting for her to reveal the secret.
Shen Tang seemed quite satisfied with their cooperation. She intended to clear her throat with a fake cough, but instead let out a loud burp in front of everyone. That moment of utter embarrassment made her want to disappear into the ground. Fortunately, she was naturally thick-skinned and no one noticed anything amiss.
“Wangchao, do you still remember the last time I was unconscious? At that time, I said I had a dream in which my literary palace resembled a sacred place of mountains and seas? I had a similar dream this time, only this dream was longer and clearer than before.”
In order to quickly get to the point and attract everyone's attention to ignore her earlier social fiasco, Shen Tang abandoned her usual habit of rambling. Before she lost consciousness, she was exchanging passionate words with Ning Yan, when suddenly her body abruptly shut down.
When she regained consciousness, she found herself in freefall. The blurry images that had passed by her were now much clearer. She looked closely and saw that these fragmented scenes spanned time and space: crisscrossing paths, the sounds of chickens and dogs, and the concrete jungles of cities. There were ancient battlefields and the ruins of modern warfare.
Having learned from her previous experience, Shen Tang knew that this descent wouldn't end anytime soon. Bored, she tried to touch the images. As her fingers passed through the fragmented images, ripples spread out slowly and orderly.
The unfamiliar memory flashed through her mind.
I watched it, but not completely.
Why do I say that?
Because she discovered that images couldn't stay in her mind; they were forgotten as soon as they passed through her mind—when Shen Tang woke up, she could only remember the general style and era of the images, but she couldn't recall the specific content at all. She didn't know how much time had passed when she stood under that giant tree once again.
The familiar fragrance, the familiar rare herbs.
This time, the mysterious person we had seen before was also standing under the tree.
Shen Tang dusted off the hem of her sleeve. That tree was so huge, with such lush foliage; who knew how much dust and insects had accumulated on it? She nimbly jumped down from the trunk, landing in front of the mysterious man, and teased, "Did you wait for me especially, buddy?"
The mysterious person was dressed exactly the same as last time.
He nodded very seriously: "Yes."
Shen Tang was startled, a bold guess flashing through his mind: [So you really were waiting for me? Wait—bro, this body of mine keeps forcibly shutting down, is that your doing too? If so, we need to have a serious talk. Normally it's fine, after all, I am indeed like a tenant in this body, but don't pull this stunt during wartime.]
She didn't want to lose because of a forced shutdown.
The mysterious man explained: "This matter has nothing to do with me."
He seemed to see through Shen Tang's thoughts and added, "You're not a tenant, you're the master, the true master."
Shen Tang pointed to herself: [Really?]
Mysterious Man: [Deceiving God is a taboo that violates faith.]
Shen Tang: [? ? ?]
The mysterious man spoke significantly more this time than before. He bowed slightly to Chen Tang, gesturing for her to follow him. Still preoccupied with the previous misunderstanding, Chen Tang said, "You said this place was my Literary Palace, but why is it different from others? A Literary Palace, shouldn't it be a palace? I see thousands of peaks here, layer upon layer of mountains, far removed from the word 'palace'... Are you lying to me?"
Deceiving God is a taboo that violates one's faith.
The mysterious man repeated this sentence.
His attitude was clear: he had never deceived Shen Tang.
Shen Tang asked him, "Is this the Sacred Land of Mountains and Seas?"
The mysterious man chuckled: "[The name given to me by the outside world?]"
Shen Tang: [...]
Her observational skills were astounding; she keenly noticed that although the mysterious person was leading the way along the same path as before, the area covered was significantly larger. Upon arriving at the familiar location, Shen Tang shielded her eyes with her hand, gazed into the distance, and pointed: "That mountain, and that one… last time I saw it, it was shrouded in mist…"
This time, their shapes could be clearly seen, instead of being half-hidden silhouettes and shadows. Was it because the weather was different, and the mountain mists over there had dissipated? Shen Tang always felt that it wasn't that simple.
She turned to look at the mysterious person standing behind her.
Can I visit that palace again?
Last time she caught a small handful of textual light orbs; this time, she'd have to take off her outer garment to collect them! Shen Tang rubbed her hands together, eager to try, but the mysterious man indicated that the process this time was different from last time. He led Shen Tang to a pavilion nearby, hidden behind a riot of flowers.
Inside the pavilion, two figures sat.
Judging from their figures, one is large and the other is small.
Shen Tang stopped in her tracks, looking at the mysterious man: "Brother... no, sir, didn't you say you wouldn't lie? And that this place is my literary palace? It's one thing for you to be in my literary palace, but why are there others here? Two of them?"
The mysterious person simply said: "Go and see for yourself, and you'll know."
Shen Tang rolled up his sleeves and strode over.
She wanted to see who else was still hiding in her heart.
Hey, you two at the pavilion up ahead...
She stormed over, and the two men, hearing the commotion, turned to look. Upon seeing their faces, Shen Tang froze.
There's no other reason than that the two men's eyes and eyebrows look too much like hers!
The younger one looked to be only three or four years old, with a tender face, chubby cheeks, and a candied hawthorn in his mouth.
The older one looked composed and was about twenty years old. His features showed no trace of boyishness; he was calm and aloof.
They and Shen Tang are like three different phases of the same person.
"You...are I?"
The aloof Shen Tang retorted: "Otherwise what?"
The naive Chen Tang tilted her head to look at her, her cheeks puffed out by hawthorns, and mumbled, "You're a young pear, and I'm a young pear too."
Even though Shen Tang found the scene bizarre, she inexplicably felt no wariness. Awkwardly lowering her rolled-up sleeves, she sat down in an empty spot in the pavilion. Looking at the older children, then at the younger ones, she suppressed the urge to pinch their chubby cheeks. Um… what should she talk to herself about now?
Do you... know what happened at the Wen Palace?
The aloof Shen Tang shook her head: [I don't know.]
The naive Chen Tang swallowed the hawthorn and eagerly raised her hand.
Even the young pear doesn't know!
Shen Tang: [...]
I don't know what they're so excited about?
Shen Tang racked her brains for a topic to try and warm up the atmosphere: "[Was my account hacked and ranked up without my knowledge? Was that your doing too?]"
Aloof Shen Tang: [You're too weak.]
The naive Chen Tang sighed: "You're both weak."
Shen Tang: [...]
Although she confirmed that all the victories so far were achieved by herself, she felt no joy whatsoever. Were these two women seriously ill? How could anyone be so heartbroken?
Because the two versions of herself had killed the conversation, Shen Tang felt the atmosphere became even stranger—the aloof self sat with her arms crossed, in a corner far from the two, a posture that usually signified resistance to communication; the childish self was talkative, but she preferred eating to chatting. Until the mysterious person brought over tea, the childish self jumped off the stone bench to go over.
Please have some tea.
As the mysterious figure appeared, the aloof Chen Tang reacted, coldly stating: "Why must the High Priest personally do such a thing?"
It sounded sarcastic, but she politely accepted the drink offered. The childish Chen Tang practically jumped to snatch it, but seeing Chen Tang's aloof attitude, she said, "Youli won't allow you to bully a little kid!"
When it was Shen Tang's turn, she noticed that the three cups of tea were different colors.
Not all of them are tea.
A glass of wine, a glass of brown sugar water, and a glass of regular green tea.
"How should I address you? They both seem to know you..." Their completely different attitudes left Shen Tang bewildered. Both Shen Tangs were herself, yet she didn't recognize this mysterious person. This was truly bizarre...
What is the connection between this mysterious person in front of me and myself?
The mysterious figure said: [I can't say.]
Shen Tang was filled with question marks: 【What?】
The mysterious person explained: "It's forbidden; I can't say."
As he spoke, he pointed to his neck.
Shen Tang then noticed that the mysterious man's fair and delicate neck was encircled by a strange pattern forming a ring. At first glance, it looked like a black neck ring, but it was actually a "tattoo" that penetrated deep into the skin.
According to the usual storytelling formula, this thing should be some kind of ban, and if the person who is banned says something they shouldn't say, they will explode on the spot.
Having come this far, Shen Tang couldn't press the matter further.
If she is the original form of the sacred object of the Gongxi tribe that lay in the coffin two hundred years ago, and the two split-personality Shen Tangs in front of her are also herself, as long as she regains her memories, she will eventually remember who the mysterious person is.
The mysterious man served tea and then retreated outside the pavilion.
The three Shen Tangs were left looking at each other in bewilderment.
The liquid in the bowl seemed endless, automatically refilling itself after being finished. Shen Tang watched helplessly as her aloof self downed cup after cup, showing no sign of intoxication. The childish Shen Tang licked her lips, looking like she wanted to drink but dared not drink too much.
Shen Tang was embarrassed and didn't know what to do.
I buried my head in my tea, thankful that my dreams wouldn't cause my bladder to explode.
"Um, let's be frank—how can I make the three of us become one?" Shen Tang asked her two selves, forcing herself to answer. "According to the usual storytelling formula, you two should represent fragments of memory from different periods? Only by absorbing you can I return to being the complete 'Shen Tang'?"
The aloof Shen Tang asked Shen Tang in a very aloof manner:
Why are you confident that you are not a fragment of memory?
Shen Tang patted his chest, offering a reason that was absurd yet somehow reasonable: "Just the fact that I've been logged in the longest, while the other two only have access under specific conditions, isn't that enough to prove it?"
She pointed at the aloof Shen Tang.
The condition for you to log in is that I drink alcohol.
Then he pointed to the immature Chen Tang.
[Your login requirements are even higher; you'll need to employ the ridiculously inept "quick-witted" scholar's methods. If I'm just a fragment of memory, then who's the main account? Enough talk, sisters, merge with me! Let's become one, and I'll carry you to godlike status! Don't you want to be logged in all the time? Isn't it boring sitting here?]
Aloof Shen Tang: [I don't want to.]
The naive Chen Tang pouted and shook her head: "You Li doesn't want to."
Shen Tang: 【…You guys are outrageous! Why?】
She was about to explode with rage at the sight of her two versions of herself, so she rolled up her sleeves: "If you don't want to, I'm going to force myself on you!"
The aloof Shen Tang sneered: 【With you?】
The naive Chen Tang glanced quickly at the mysterious person, and seeing that the other person wasn't staring at her, she quickly downed a cup of sugar water. Wiping her mouth, she thought to herself, "【Youli can't beat Youli.】"
Shen Tang gritted her teeth and said, "[Who said anything about fighting? Absurd! Outrageous! Vulgar! Barbaric! Civilized people naturally fight with reason!]"
Three people, just the right number for playing Dou Dizhu (a popular Chinese card game).
Shen Tang was the landlord being struggled against; two peasants pinned her to the ground and rubbed her against the wall. Luckily, they had no "Happy Beans" (virtual currency) or gambling money, otherwise she wouldn't even have her underwear left. She also sadly discovered that she seemed incompatible with her two selves. They could know each other's thoughts and feelings, including Shen Tang's, but Shen Tang had no idea what cards they held…
[Damn it, what the hell are you guys doing?!]
He was playing cards with himself and kept losing.
Unable to afford to play along, Shen Tang chose to overturn the situation.
(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Shifting the blame again—
I'll lose; it must be Kang Jishou who infected me again!
I can't beat them in a fight, and I always lose at Dou Dizhu (a card game)...
She felt it was better not to merge the three into one. If they couldn't win the battle, they could just force the others to log in. Why not use readily available thugs? In this situation, even the GM wouldn't be able to determine if she was cheating!
When the mysterious man came a second time, the three Shen Tangs were each doing their own thing, each staying in a different corner. The aloof Shen Tang was still drinking and admiring the scenery, the childish Shen Tang had a candied hawthorn in her left hand and sweet soup in her right, while the master Shen Tang was squatting in a corner with her knees drawn up, looking at the other two versions of herself with a resentful and sinister expression. A complete split personality.
Do you know how to make the three of me become one?
Shen Tang placed her only hope on the mysterious man.
The mysterious figure tapped the ground with his wooden staff, causing the surrounding light and shadow to shift.
Shen Tang looked up and saw the plaque for "Holy Land" again.
She knew that there would be hundreds of orbs of light behind the palace.
Shen Tang raised his hand, loosened his robes, and stripped down to only his inner garment, rubbing his hands together in anticipation of seizing the light orb. Although his progress in merging his two selves was zero, he couldn't neglect his important business. Unexpectedly, the mysterious figure said: "Wait until the Hundred Schools of Thought reappear in the world..."
Shen Tang, who was about to rush in, stopped abruptly: [What?]
The mysterious figure's gaze fell upon the plaque, and he said: "This place enshrines the Hundred Schools of Thought. When their successors traverse the mountains of books and seas of learning, and personally light the fire in the temple atop the mountain, they will awaken the sages who have slumbered through the ages… to establish a moral compass for heaven and earth, to secure a destiny for the people, to continue the lost learning of the past sages, and to usher in an era of peace for all generations. Only then, [the Hundred Schools of Thought], can their merits be perfected…"
Shen Tang picked at his ear.
What are those four beeps?
The mysterious figure said: [I can't say.]
Shen Tang: [...]
So, it was this "unable to express".
She erased the slightly bloody explosion image from her mind.
Shen Tang scratched his head: [So... as long as the various schools of thought reappear in the world, I can achieve perfection from my fragmented state?]
Mysterious man: [Yes.]
Shen Tang: [It sounds somewhat reasonable...bullshit! It makes absolutely no sense! What does this have to do with me?]
The mysterious man remained silent, a silence that made Shen Tang somewhat worried: "Um, don't tell me I'm the one who made the so-called ancient philosophers and sages rest in the annals of history? That can't be, can it?"
Mysterious Man: [No, it's simply because human desires are insatiable. One side, driven by greed, instigated conflict, leading to the cataclysm of destruction.]
Shen Tang patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.
It's good that I didn't do it.
On second thought, something didn't seem right.
Why should I clean up after myself if I didn't do it?
——————
Shen Tang edited and omitted parts, including but not limited to the part about how he was defeated by his two selves.
"...That's how it went! That mysterious person said the time was about right to open the Mountain and Sea Holy Land, select the best talents from each school to go to the Holy Temple, and if we're lucky, by sheer chance, the Holy Temple fire will be ignited!" Shen Tang became more and more excited as she spoke, "So far, only the Legalist, Military, Confucian, and the recently unsealed Agricultural School have been ignited... The Agricultural School was mostly ignited because of the 'Revered Virtue.' What kind of spiritual effects will the Taoist, Mohist, School of Diplomacy, Miscellaneous School, Novelists, and Yin-Yang School have?"
"The most important thing is the doctor."
"Can many difficult and complicated diseases be easily solved?"
As Shen Tang spoke, her eyes brightened.
The current level of medical care is far too low. Doctors with superb skills like Dr. Dong are a minority. Too many ordinary people die of illness without being able to find a decent doctor, and they can only endure the pain. Families with better financial conditions can find itinerant doctors to prescribe some herbal medicine to brew and drink, but the skill level of the itinerant doctor and the effectiveness of the prescription depend entirely on luck. The infant mortality rate is even more alarming.
Because training a doctor is too difficult.
It's incredibly demanding, with a long payback period. Medical skills and experience are accumulated little by little through countless patients. This isn't like leveling up in a game; you don't level up just because your experience bar is full. They're dealing with patients, with living, breathing human lives.
If the words of a healer were to manifest in the world...
Could there be less helpless sorrow in the world?
Does a person who still has a breath left still have days and nights to live?
_(:з」∠)_
Once the sacred land of mountains and seas is opened, we'll sharpen our old knives.
(End of this chapter)
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