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The other party did not get angry because of the invitation to “please come in if you’re sick.” Instead, they continued to drink tea, coax the child, and keep company with the pregnant woman, chatting and smiling in a harmonious atmosphere. It truly didn’t look like they were here for negotiations.

“What are you two doing here just standing here and not going in?” Liang Shu stepped through the courtyard gate.

“We don’t dare to go in, because we don’t know what will happen,” Gao Lin replied in a whisper, pointing covertly into the room. “It looks too strange. Truly, it would be better to have a group of jungle savages clad in animal skins.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he was kicked by Liang Shu. The people in the room also stood up one after another at this time. Liang Shu glanced around. He had originally thought that the old man would be the clan leader representing them in these negotiations, but soon discovered that this was not the case. The statuses of this group of people seemed to be completely equal, and they did not rely on anyone in particular.

Unlike ordinary people, they did not salute His Royal Highness Xiao Wang, who was above tens of thousands, and only bowed slightly. The child followed suit and called “Your Highness,” in a sweet voice. She had her hair tied up in two small round buns, like a little fairy in a New Year painting, pink and white, cute and delicate. Even Cheng Suyue, who always avoided children, couldn’t help but hook her hand at her.

The little girl jumped up and ran over. Cheng Suyue held her up, the two of them looking like mother and daughter. Liu Xian’an also smiled and held one of her fingers: “May I have your name?”

The other party responded obediently: “Xiao Xun.”

Gao Lin gave his sister a silent thumbs up. You took the opponent’s treasure without hesitation, well done!

While Liu Xian’an was coaxing the child, he turned to look at her tribe. Although they were so rich that they paved their floors with gold bricks, they obviously didn’t care about dressing up. The women were not seen wearing gold or silver, and the men were all wrapped in coarse robes. This rough and unruly style of dress was very familiar to the Sleeping Immortal, who had been standing barefoot in the bamboo forest since he was young and wandering the skies.

The other party also noticed Liu Xian’an at this time, perhaps seeing a shadow of Liu Xianche in his features. One of the men asked: “Second Young Master Liu?”

“That is me.” Liu Xian’an nodded and asked, “What should I call you?”

“We are the descendants of the Silver Scimitar Moon Tribe,” the man replied modestly. “Our ancestors have lived in the deep southwest forests for generations.”

Silver Scimitar Moon Tribe. Liu Xian’an had never read these words in a book, but on the cliff of the Valley of Ten Faces, there was a scene engraved of an immoral stepping on the clouds and descending, the crescent moon like a silver scimitar. The meeting between the two parties was not as tense as expected, and there was even a bit of harmony. Liang Shu took the lead to say: “I invited you all to my camp this time because of the Baifu Sect. I’ve heard that they once hid a large amount of treasure in the forest?”

“Yes,” a woman admitted very readily. “That empty forest has no white fog like elsewhere, and the view is excellent. It was originally a place where we drank and admired the moon.”

But at some point, warehouses were built one after another surrounded by wooden fences. The people of the Silver Scimitar Moon Tribe didn’t want to confront them at first, so they found another empty forest space and existed in peace with them for a period of time. But who could have expected that the intruders would become more and more arrogant? Not only did they endlessly expand the warehouses, but they almost took away several children who were playing outside.

Therefore, everyone in the tribe decided to drive away these uninvited guests, not expecting that the other party would move faster. Perhaps it was those children who could move freely through the forest miasma that aroused their curiosity. In any case, the people of the Baifu Sect went into the dense forest again with their crossbows and torches.

The sound of logging was continuously heard, and the torches lit the dead grass, burning a path through the airtight vines. This disrespectful behavior completely infuriated the Scimitar Silver Moon Tribe. They carried longbows on their backs and rode atop elephants like gods rumbling down to earth, and drove all the bandits out. When cleaning up the battlefield, they did not forget to take away the gold and silver.

Gao Lin regarded the group of fairy-like people in front of them with admiration in his heart. He admired them not only for defeating the cult, but also for how they could seize people’s money so confidently—to be fair, since the Baifu Sect’s hands were full of ill-gotten wealth, wasn’t this like thieves robbing other thieves?

Of course, his prince didn’t count. He wasn’t a thief.

Liang Shu asked: “Where is that batch of silver and gold now?”

“It is still in scattered piles in the forest,” the man said. “That group of people were trying to plunder wealth and behaved like unscrupulous beasts, and not even the children were spared. There was no trace of humanity at all. The so-called five-color blindness^[1] is truly pitiful and abominable.”

“It is indeed abominable.” Liang Shu nodded in agreement and said, “Now they have kidnapped my commander and demand that the treasure be used to exchange him, or they will kill the hostage. As a last resort, I came up with this strategy and invited you all to the camp to discuss it.”

“There is such a thing?” When everyone heard this, they were very surprised, sighing and lamenting. That rare batch of goods just got in the way. They never thought it would drive people in the world to such madness.

Cheng Suyue didn’t quite understand, but Gao Lin beside her nodded in agreement. His sister was very puzzled and asked him in a whisper, “You actually understand?”

Gao Lin replied, ah, yes, isn’t this very straightforward? We need to send that batch of goods to the torture chamber.

Cheng Suyue: “……” Forget it, I shouldn’t have cultural expectations of you.

Fortunately, there was Second Young Master Liu next to them who could explain. He turned his head and said: “This means that gold and silver breed greed, so it is not a good thing.”

But whether something was good or not depended on whose hands it fell into. For example, Liang Shu was at the stage where gold and silver were pleasing to the eye. He asked politely: “I wonder if you can return it all to me?”

The man said: “Return it?”

“Return it.” Liang Shu nodded. “You have lived in the south for a long time, so you may not know much about foreign affairs. The Baifu Sect has been operating throughout Dayan for many years, and all the property obtained was plundered from the hands of the common people. If this batch of gold and silver can be returned to the national treasury, even if it cannot be returned to the original owners one by one, it can at least do some good for the people in the southwest. It would be a pity to leave it to pave the forest paths.”

“Our tribe avoids the outside world, but we are not completely ignorant of it.” The old man had been eating the snacks made by the Jiangnan chef for a long time, and now finally had time to speak. He said slowly, “As the saying goes, a sage has no fame if he has no knowledge. Although the prince has traveled all over thousands of li, can his knowledge be fresh if he heard it from far away?”

Gao Lin: “……”

The old white-bearded man says words that normal people couldn’t understand and is walking back and forth on my prince’s inverse scale. He won’t be convinced.

Liang Shu remained calm: “How much does this elder know about the Baifu Sect?”

Gao Lin patted his sister’s arm. Are you learning? As expected of the prince, he not only chose and answer that can be understood, but he also threw the question back in such a noble tone.

“Much.” The old man said, “Although I haven’t seen it with my eyes or heard it with my own ears, there are only a few ways that cults control people’s hearts. They are certainly evil, but with all due respect, even if this batch of gold and silver is returned to the hands of the prince, it may not necessarily be a good thing for the people in the southwest or the country.”

Liang Shu raised his eyebrows: “How so?”

“Everyone is praising today’s emperor for governing the country with clarity, and praising the prince for his strict management of the military. But at the root of it, various harsh methods are used to prevent people from speaking out, in order to create an illusion of peace in the world. If this batch of gold and silver fills the national treasury, it will be distributed to more officials and soldiers. Then the power and weapons in the hands of the officials and soldiers will intertwine into a network to make the common people more silent and afraid to speak. Can this be called a good thing?”

Liu Xian’an stood forward slightly. Before he was forcibly pulled out of Baihe Mountain Village, he often went to the Three Thousand Worlds to discuss with the sages whether a country should be ruled with wisdom, but today was different from the past. Both the breadth and depth of his thinking had changed slightly. He was about to refute, but Liang Shu had already spoken: “This lord thinks it is a good thing.”

Gao Lin also thought, it is a good thing, but we must at least make up a few smooth reasons. He had originally expected Second Young Master Liu to come forward to help, but never expected that the prince himself would be able to do it.

Liang Shu said: “There is no fixed formula for good or bad. Everything needs to be discussed in its current environment. You all admire the wisdom of sages, as do I, but the territory of Dayan stretches for hundreds of thousands of li. Its people have multiplied into hundreds of millions, and among them are many who have no food to eat and no clothing to cover their bodies. If the rulers do nothing, and the strong can casually rob property from the hands of the weak, then who will work hard? If no one wants to work, the world will soon fall into endless turmoil. Can this be called a good thing?”

The little girl seemed to like the sound of his voice. She stared at him without blinking and giggled.

Liang Shu continued: “When the people are still worrying about their livelihoods, the power and weapons covering the entire country’s border are definitely not bad things. This lord will do his utmost to ensure that they have houses to live in, clothing to wear, and food to eat, so that they can live safe and decent lives. As for the beautiful world we pursue, although this lord will not be able to see it with his own eyes during this lifetime, after death, my soul is willing to linger between heaven and earth to await that day.”

Liu Xian’an was very moved when he heard this. In fact, he often described the universe and the flow of the stars and moon to Liang Shu, and described the laws and development of all things. But most of the time he just talked to himself without expecting the other person to listen, because the dao of heaven was too abstract and vague, like a beam of light hidden in the clouds, or a speck of dust.

Liang Shu would often be busy with the matters at hand and occasionally respond with a few perfunctory words. At most, when his imaginings grew a little too excessive—for example, if it vaguely included changes to the dynasty, he would frown and remind him not to say such words easily. Apart from that, he would not express any other opinions, so Liu Xian’an always thought he had forgotten it as soon as he turned around. But he didn’t foresee that the other party actually remembered it all. Not only did he remember it, but he was actually willing to believe it and await the arrival of a new era.

Sending his soul to the mountains and rivers, quietly watching the years change. It sounded like the ultimate loneliness and romance….but in fact, it was not that lonely, because there would at least be a forty-eight thousand year-old Sleeping Immortal beside him. And that Sleeping Immortal knew many annoying old men who had ridden cranes into the afterlife and were now running around the Three Thousand Avenues.

With that, it didn’t seem equal to loneliness.

But this was something that needed to be considered in a few decades, or if both of them tried to live longer, then a hundred years later. Currently, it was too early to discuss those old men riding cranes, and the top priority was to convince the old man in front of them who could ride an elephant.

Liu Xian’an stepped forward and said: “The prince has always made the hearts and lives of the common people his priority. The reason he wants that batch of gold and silver is to save the people and the country. Everyone, please join forces to help.”

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[1] “Five-color blindness” refers to the Warring States era poem “Dao De Jing.” The five colors refer to the multitude of ways greed can twist a person. ⮐

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Chapter One Hundred One << Table of Contents >> Chapter One Hundred Three