Chapter 2405: Jingchen

“Even to the Sui ruler, in that year, with the Six Harmonies Emperor as the great cause, he later ascended Jade Capital Mountain, but he didn't even reach the last segment of the road.”

Ji Yumin looked coldly at Wu Daoyu: “Reverend Heavenly Master, today’s Purple Void Daoist, when he failed, did he also become guilty? Cannot he be considered a hero?”

He looked at Yu Xi again: “Little Yu, what do you think?”

History is a cycle.

Just as Yu Xi had initially pointed out Lou Yue’s cultivation.

When Yu Xi was initially only seven years old, the first time he ascended Jade Capital Mountain, Ji Yumin was also a guest on the mountain. As figures of the same era, although Ji Yumin was not among the most top-tier of that generation's proud talents, he still had some words to say with Purple Void Daoist Zong Dezhen. He also often represented the imperial family and had the most direct communication with Jade Capital Mountain.

In reality, the majestic and noble Jade Capital Mountain and the ruling dynasty of Jing Kingdom have had a very intimate period of time. This intimacy was more than with the other two veins. Yet today, the Heavenly Master of Jade Capital Mountain is the first to stand out.

Daoism and Jing Kingdom as one, Daoism’s three veins as one family—this is what is said, and it is also what is presented to the outside. But Daoism and Jing Kingdom are, after all, different matters, and Daoism’s three veins also have their distinctions.

If they could truly merge into one body, there would be no need for each to have affiliated countries.

Within the Dao countries system under the Dao affiliated countries, which one worships Great Roster Mountain, which one worships Jade Capital Mountain, which one worships Penglai Island, and which one solely belongs to Jing Kingdom, are all clearly divided.

Even blood-related brothers and sisters, when doors are closed, have their closeness and distance.

In short, Ji Yumin once touched that little Daoist’s head and praised him as polite and spiritual.

Even if the little Daoist grew into Heavenly Master Yu, he still had to endure this “Little Yu.”

As for the question Ji Yumin asked him...

What question?

“Common people often judge heroes by success or failure. But you all stand in this hall; you are the governors of various places, shepherding one side, with high and broad vision, seeing clearly for ten thousand li. Will you also cheer for eternity when you win and slander in court when you lose?”

Ji Yumin’s voice in the hall had its own high and broad heroism: “How many heroic matters have there been throughout ancient and modern times? But as long as one has the courage to change heaven and earth, one is a hero whether they win or lose!”

Who dares say Ji Yusu is not a hero?

He personally created the national system and almost started a new calendar, pushing the human way torrent to such a height.

All the people after the entire Dao calendar’s new beginning live under his influence.

Who again dares say Emperor Jingwen Ji Furen is not a hero?

Even if they don’t agree in their hearts, they cannot say so aloud.

He may still be alive, precisely one of the eternally free transcendents, eternal and indestructible, whose thoughts are known and heard.

As for Purple Void Daoist Zong Dezhen...

A Heavenly Master is almost the noblest person in Daoism. The reason it is “almost” is because there is still the Daoist above.

Jade Capital Mountain’s Heavenly Master pretended not to hear.

Can the Heavenly Master representing Great Roster Mountain, in conversation, truly point fingers at Jade Capital Mountain’s Daoist?

Ji Yumin bringing up these few people and asking if they can be called heroes upon failure is truly taking an unassailable position.

There are always such voices evaluating Ji Yumin, saying he only knows how to hide behind Ji Yusu, raise the tailwind flag, and chop the peaceful sword. This evaluation is truly biased!

Wu Daoyu sneered in his heart. Ji Yumin clearly uses the kung fu of borrowing force to strike force, possessing a set of fists that are impervious to wind and rain!

He looked at this ‘Taizu’s Imperial Brother,’ seriously examining the emperor party’s determination and measuring the intensity of the slaughter. Too heavy is easy to fall into a stalemate, cutting without biting. Too light, again, risks disappointing the opportunity.

That Luqiu Wenyue coming up to ‘beg for death’ almost means not wanting to talk.

Plainly using life to force them to let go, how can he let these emperor party members get what they want?

Luqiu Wenyue wants to beg for death, but Luqiu Wenyue might not be able to die!

“Minister Zongzheng, you want to say that Taizu, Emperor Wen, not to mention the failure of Purple Void Daoist, this seat finds it difficult to agree.” Wu Daoyu said seriously: “Six Harmonies Emperor’s cause is the greatest since the opening of heaven and earth, transcending the three generations of human emperors, with countless heroes sacrificing themselves for it, yet none have succeeded eternally. How can these present matters compare?”

Ji Yumin met his gaze: “Has there ever been an eternal achiever in the matter of pacifying the vast sea? Now the emperor sits in court and looks at the vast sea, placing a piece and moving the clouds. One morning, the heavenly road spans, and the sea races flee in panic. I think, this manifests extreme military merit!”

Wu Daoyu only asked: “But the result?”

“The result was failure due to transcendent interference, so what? Do you, Wu Daoyu, not have the courage to start over? I, Ji Yumin, do! I think today’s emperor has it even more!”

Ji Yumin said loudly: “In the past, South Chu Huai Gong, twice proved absolute peak and leaped above it, ending in the fallen immortal forest transcendent. That was also an external cause, calculating external consequences. Can you say Zuo Xiao is not a heroic figure? But Zuo Xiao did not have the qualification to come again. We, Jing Kingdom, still do! We both have the courage to start over and the qualification to start over. I ask, why call it tragic, why uneasy, how can this state be?”

His posture was already extremely severe: “Wu Daoyu, you are younger than me, yet more decrepit than me!”

“Hahahaha!” In this central great hall, Wu Daoyu laughed: “I am more decrepit than you! Yes!”

He restrained his smile: “Because of what? I am outside the heavenly gate, you are at Zongzheng Temple. I am for the matters of the world, you are for the matters of one family! Just as the South Chu Star Witch will exhaust her life, it is precisely because of approaching worries urging people to decay. Is it not natural that I age faster than you?”

“Courage, qualification, these are such beautiful words. I face them squarely, do you face them squarely? Where do they come from? Is it your one word spoken, one word gone, or four thousand years of accumulation, the dedication of billions of people, countless blood and sweat piled into such chips? ‘Start over’ these four words, Minister Zongzheng, you say too lightly! You can start over, His Majesty can start over, but what about those who died at Que? The Dou’e army is gone, can they start over?!”

Finally, he spoke to the current Jing Emperor Ji Fengzhou.

In the mouth of North Heavenly Master Wu Daoyu, these two words, “His Majesty,” finally appeared.

Everyone’s breathing was tense.

And Ji Yumin said: “It is not that I say too lightly, but that you see too frivolously!”

He stood in this great hall, receiving the gazes of a hundred officials, spreading his large hand: “The heavenly monarch of the upper country, eternally illuminating the six harmonies, the central emperor, first among the various heavens. The Ji surname imperial clan has ruled for four thousand years, Zongfu matters are matters of the world, but matters of the world are not necessarily matters of Daoism. You seem not to understand, we stand in the central great hall, beneath our feet is Jing Kingdom!”

“Is it I who do not understand?” Wu Daoyu took a big step forward and confronted him, his beard and hair fluttering: “I think it is you who have forgotten how the central great hall came to be, how Jing Kingdom was established!”

This...

The entire hall of civil and military officials were already shocked.

How could the argument escalate to this extent?

To say such serious words?

The undercurrents at the bottom of the river had already rushed out of the water’s surface, and the cracks left on the day Tianjing City was established were to be torn open again today?

Over the past four thousand years, the power of Daoism and imperial power have been intertwined and complex. They have contended and fought, and there have been several instances where they have directly torn off all pretense.

Essentially, every time has brought about huge power changes.

Some people welcome it, some people are uneasy.

How will this grand boat leading the human way torrent turn today?

Ji Yumin’s attitude is indeed strong, and Daoism this time seems unwilling to yield even half an inch.

Everyone has a bit of a regardless attitude.

It’s just that they don’t know what roles Great Roster Mountain, Jade Capital Mountain, and Penglai Island will play, respectively?

“How this country was established, Wu Daoyu, I am clearer than you.” Finally, Ji Yumin’s tone softened slightly: “If you want to learn about the history of that year, you can find a time to come to Zongzheng Temple, and I will tell you one by one. But today, we stand here to discuss the future of this country. The future of billions of people, the direction of the human way torrent... Wu Daoyu, do you know what it means for us to stand here?”

“Today, although you have said many arrogant words, one sentence you said is right: that high position is not for people to sit and watch the scenery.”

This founding meritorious minister, this clan elder, said loudly: “Just as Taizu said in that year, to achieve great cause, there must be great danger. If one is timid and shrinks back, what is there to talk about establishing a country! If one does not have the courage to open up heaven and earth, if one dares not do what others dare not, if one does not have the determination to achieve what others cannot, how can one bear the world and talk about benefiting the common people?”

Wu Daoyu mentioning Taizu and Emperor Wen was naturally to express that the current emperor was greatly inferior.

Ji Yumin, as the younger brother of Jing Taizu and the uncle of Emperor Jingwen, undoubtedly had more right to speak on these two. He also mentioned Taizu and Emperor Wen, yet he said that the present time was not necessarily inferior to the past, and the current emperor was not necessarily inferior to the ancestral emperors.

If the pacifying the sea plan had been greatly successful, Ji Fengzhou would have become the first emperor since the middle ancient times to pacify the vast sea, settling the regret of the middle ancient human emperors, grasping the vast sea and swallowing the near sea, putting the entire East Sea into his bag, and turning the long coastline into Qi Kingdom’s neck noose...

Then Ji Fengzhou would indeed have the qualification to compare with the former two.

The problem is, he failed.

Today, no matter how the emperor party maintains, how they retort, how loudly they speak, the failure of the pacifying the sea plan is the biggest problem.

In Wu Daoyu’s view, what he saw was Ji Yumin’s bluff.

So he only greatly praised: “Good! Today, we just say benefit the common people, just say bear the world! Minister Zongzheng, you may know—”

On the Dan platform, there was the sound of colliding bead curtains.

The sound came only because that most powerful man under heaven, on his emperor’s seat, leaned forward slightly. Thus, the bead curtains on the Pingtian crown shook.

Thus, there was this slight sound.

It was so slight, yet it made the entire central great hall quiet.

While Wu Daoyu and Ji Yumin were fiercely arguing, with everyone either tense or expectant but not once thinking of the time, the emperor finally spoke.

He opened his mouth and only said: “Prime Minister, rise. The things on your body are too heavy.”

Luqiu Wenyue, who had been prostrate on the ground for a long time, so long that she almost seemed like a confirmed corpse, lifted her head.

In such a posture, she naturally could not see the emperor; she could only see the carving patterns on the Dan platform.

And the Great Jing Emperor’s voice said: “I command you, rise.”

Luqiu Wenyue thus rose.

The emperor again said: “Lou Yue.”

Lou Yue took a step forward: “This minister is here!”

“Lou Yue, oh Lou Yue, what shall I call you?” The emperor asked.

Lou Yue said: “The name is only a reference, not important. Your Majesty can call me whatever you wish—this minister only follows orders.”

“No, this is very important.” The emperor, sitting alone on the dragon chair, said to the many ministers in front of the Dan platform: “My beloved ministers, I often think, what should I call you all? The same person, Yu Xi calls him Taiyuan True Man, Jin Wang calls him Lou Pivot Envoy. Who exactly is he?”

“Taiyuan True Man is Lou Yue, and Lou Pivot Envoy is also Lou Yue. But if one must ask who Lou Yue is—" Lou Yue immediately bowed down: “The Military Affairs Lou Pivot Secret Envoy is only this minister!”

Yes, the Military Affairs Lou Pivot Secret Envoy is only an official position, only that “minister” within the monarch-minister relationship.

This is the current most core problem. In Jing Kingdom, who are you?

“Then.” Ji Fengzhou’s voice was not high, even a little lazy. He was on the high Dan platform, on the dragon chair where people could not see him clearly, so he asked: “Those in front of the hall, are they all Jing ministers?”

Yu Xi felt astonished—what did the emperor mean by this?

It was not that he did not understand the emperor’s meaning, but that he did not understand why it had suddenly come to this step.

Was this to force people to take sides?

This was too sudden! There was no sign beforehand!

It was one thing to deal with outsiders, but within the internal power struggle of Jing Kingdom, did he also want to play the set of sudden thunder?

Such an enormous empire, such intertwined forces, who could achieve anything silently!

Wasn’t this stupid behavior that would split the country?

Today, inside this central great hall, there were the four great heavenly masters, the military affairs pivot ministers, meritorious nobles, the clan, and the governors of Jing Kingdom’s forty-nine prefectures, all in it.

One could say that the power of the entire Great Jing Empire was scattered in the hands of these people. When they gathered, the world gathered; when they scattered, the world scattered. This was the highest level court meeting of the present world’s central empire!

Even if he had anger in his heart, resentment hard to vent, how could the Son of Heaven be so rash?

Or was it... where did Your Majesty the emperor’s assurance come from?

But what astonished Yu Xi even more was yet to come.

Because Minister of Zongzheng Temple Ji Yumin and Jin Wang Ji Xuanzhen had already simultaneously bowed down: “This minister! Pays respects to the Son of Heaven!”

Like pushing a golden mountain and overturning a jade pillar, after these two, all the clan, without exception, bowed down: “This minister! Pays respects to the Son of Heaven!”

One of the Eight Armors, Divine Strategy Commander Xian Nanque, half-knelt in his armor, seemingly about to break the floor tiles of the great hall: “This minister! Pays respects to the Son of Heaven!”

After him were the Upper Commanders of the Capital Nine Guards of Tianjing City. Except for the two guards on duty in the outer city and the one guard in training, the remaining six guards’ Upper Commanders all bowed down in the hall.

The voices of the military officers, when they bowed, brought forth a chilling killing aura!

Prime Minister Luqiu Wenyue, who had just stood up, bowed down once again: “This minister! Pays respects to the Son of Heaven!”

After her were the Head of the Mirror World Platform Fu Dongxu and the Great Head of the Tianjing City Arrest Crime Division Ouyang Jie.

Thereafter were those capital officials of Tianjing City, all bowing down without exception: “This minister! Pays respects to the Son of Heaven!”

Thereafter were the governors of Jing Kingdom’s forty-nine prefectures. Except for the governors of Morality Prefecture, Yuanshi Prefecture, and Lingbao Prefecture, all bowed down: “This minister! Pays respects to the Son of Heaven!”

During the reign of Emperor Jingwen, only three prefectures were left for the Dao veins to self-govern, serving as nominal “places of proclaiming the Dao.”

But during the reign of Emperor Jing Qin, due to external pressure, the prestige of the Son of Heaven suffered a huge blow, and Daoism actually controlled more than just those three prefectures.

But today, in the entire central great hall, civil and military officials, a black mass bowing down in pieces, all shouted loudly, to the extent that in the hall there was only one voice, yet it surged like waves, wave after wave, the front wave surging back and chasing...

“This minister! Pays respects to the Son of Heaven!!!”

No other actions, no other words, this was the hardest stance.

In the hall, the group of ministers bowing and prostrating like waves, this was a kind of power so enormous it was impossible to describe, surpassing mountains overturning seas.

This was the first empire in the world, a representative of the extremely prosperous national system, the grandest composition of the human way torrent, the voice of submitting under the same will!

Under such power, those who were sporadically not reacting or had not received orders and did not want to express themselves, also involuntarily bowed down, all calling themselves ministers, all declaring themselves Jing ministers!

Above the great hall, for a time, only West Heavenly Master Yu Xi and North Heavenly Master Wu Daoyu were still standing.

They were powerful individuals who guarded the heavenly gate, but today they appeared so abrupt.

Yu Xi turned back, looking at Song Huai, who was still silent above the golden bridge.

Song Huai sat still and did not move, his face expressionless. Just like his mission, he just sat.

Yu Xi looked to the side, similarly sitting there, there was also one South Heavenly Master Ying Jianghong—undoubtedly a member of the emperor party, the strongest among the world-recognized four great heavenly masters, an absolute top figure who had array-killed Beigong Nantuo.

Under heaven, all is the king’s land.

In the central land, who is not a Jing minister?

Ying Jianghong stood up, bowing down to the end: “My emperor... eternal life!”