Chapter 243

Hebe could tell from Karna's expression that she had misunderstood.

"No, I'm not talking about me and Kama."

Hebe spoke calmly, as if discussing what to eat for dinner, "I'm talking about your biological parents."

"My biological parents?"

Karna's usually expressionless face finally showed a hint of humanity, "They—"

"Yes. Your father is not human, but the sun god Surya."

Hebe smiled. "As I told you before, Surya is just a pure influence. It has no personality and no fixed form. If I had to describe it, Surya is sunlight."

"Well--"

Karna hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

She clearly found it hard to imagine how sunlight could impregnate a woman.

"Your mother's Kunti. To put it simply, you were born in an accident."

Hebe shrugged. "Having a child before marriage is dishonorable. Besides, Surya is an unknowing and unconscious influence. How could she manifest like Indra Agni? That's why Kunti, as a noblewoman of the royal family, ultimately chose to abandon you."

"... Then the golden armor I'm wearing."

Karna reached out and touched his own skin.

A faint golden halo radiated from her pale skin.

This is the Golden Armor, and like the sun-shaped golden earrings, it is a divine manifestation of her as a side of the sun, and is part of her body.

For Karna, the Golden Armor is his true skin.

"This has little to do with your mother."

Hebe said, "Surya is an unknowing influence; its ability to respond to spells and give birth is instinctive. Where does Kunti get the power to command it to make you golden armor? It was originally yours."

"So you have the right to use it to save your life and protect yourself, and you also have the right to give it away—but in any case, the power to do so is yours, not Indra's, the Great God's, or your mother's."

Hebe spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and of course, she did everything as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Karna thought to himself that what she said was absolutely right, and that he should do just that.

So she nodded naturally.

At this moment, beggars came to beg by the roadside—they were all Brahmin.

After Drona's antics at the execution ground, the lord and residents of Pelican Town all believed it was due to Drona's own illusionary power.

In other words, he really was a Brahmin.

After this precedent was set, the lord lost his appetite and lived in constant fear. Merchants and officials also began to treat Brahmin who were begging with great respect.

Arrogant at first, then obsequious – that's the way it is.

But Hebe remained calm, seeing Brahmin and Shudra as the same people.

Hebe picked up a silver coin, but his gaze was not on the Brahmin, but on Karna.

"Now, would you like to give this coin to this beggar monk?"

The Brahmin was somewhat embarrassed; he felt he had been used as a teaching example by Hebe.

Karna nodded. "Because he does look pitiful, I want to give him money."

"Excellent."

Hebe placed the coins into the Brahmin's bowl, saying, "You see, all of this is due to your own will. So are vows and asceticism."

As darkness fell, Hebe led Karna home.

At the doorstep, Kama had already prepared three packages of different sizes.

"Mother, this is—"

Karna stared blankly at Hebe.

"This is something your mother and I discussed a long time ago."

Hebe said, "You have learned a lot, but we have not yet truly traveled in this era—so for the next two months, we will be traveling and studying throughout the Kuru Dynasty."

Karna will be fifteen years old in two months.

"Ggogogo, let's go!"

Humming a little tune unknown to anyone in this era, Hebe nonchalantly shouldered his bag and led his family of three into the boundless night.

Chapter 304 Immortals are lined up like hemp.

The Kuru Dynasty were still nominally a unified empire, the supreme ruler of Bharata.

But by now, those feudal lords and vassals have long harbored ulterior motives.

This is normal.

Tianshi is indeed invincible among men, but he is the only one of his kind.

We can't just use some general from the Baekdu Mountain lineage to Shukuchi and single-handedly form an army to wipe them out, can we?

Furthermore, the nominal king of Elephant City is blind, leaving ample room for outward compliance while inward defiance.

For example, taxes; or laws.

For ordinary people who couldn't read or write, these things were simply like looking at flowers in a dream or trying to catch the moon's reflection in water.

How could they understand that they had been exploited three times without anyone explaining it to them in detail?

—Once Kuru Dynasty, once during the reign of a feudal lord, and once during the reign of an official under a local lord.

In fact, this situation remained unchanged until the time of Bharata.

Pelican Town is located in the southeast of the Kuru Dynasty. Hebe is currently traveling with Kama and Karna along the main road connecting the various vassal states of the Kuru Dynasty.

They witnessed mass lynchings in the first town.

The Dalit and Shudra were forced to kneel in the center of the square. Some of them looked like they were struggling as they sipped the brownish-yellow, thin soup made from excrement. Their throats would occasionally twitch as if they were about to vomit, but they forced themselves to hold it in.

Some had their hands pinned down, and their fingernails were pulled out one by one, causing them to let out terrible screams, leaving twisted, bloody marks on the ground.

As Hebe led Kama and Karna past, the onlookers smugly told Hebe that it was just some public lynching.

"So what crimes did they commit?"

"That untouchable man learned a curse word from another place, and the Kshatriya and Brahmin heard it from afar."

The people said, "How can this be tolerated? The men should feed him excrement and make him wash his mouth properly."

Before he could finish speaking...

As if to corroborate his statement, the low-ranking officials supervising the executions asked loudly, "Was the treat the masters gave you delicious?"

"Very fresh! Very delicious!"

The answer came from a lowly person who eats excrement and drinks urine.

"What about the civilian whose fingernails were pulled out?"

Karna asked.

"What commoners? Those are lowly people!"

The speaker was half annoyed, "We Vaishya are the commoners, you should watch your mouth... Where were we? Oh right, this Shudra pulled out his nails accidentally touched the Brahmin's wheel while he was farming."

How does one get involved with someone else's car while farming?

The answer is that when the common people finished planting in the paddy field and were about to climb out, they reached out and pressed their hands against the roadside with great force.

At that moment, the Brahmin drove by in his chariot and crushed the man's hand to pieces. The Shudra screamed in agony, Brahmin sent men to get out of the chariot to check on him. They dragged the man over and demanded compensation for "polluting the Brahmin's clean chariot wheel with dirty hands."

Where Shudra get money? Naturally, he was dragged here to be subjected to private torture.

On the other hand, the land didn't belong to Shudra himself; he was a serf of another Kshatriya lord.

Those who were caught and publicly punished were extremely lucky—because most of the commoners died before they even reached the square.

Hebe only showed them the scene, and left the small town before the lynching was over.

But after they left, a thick fog suddenly rose up over the square.

The mist rolled over the wounds on the lowly people, healing them completely, and then a spring gushed forth, washing away the filth from their bodies.

Dalit, who had been forced to eat excrement, knelt on the ground and vomited violently until all the filth in his intestines was emptied.

In this "miracle," a fat immortal holding an earthen pipa appeared alongside a divine general clad in golden armor.

"Narayana, Narayana— "

But then he smiled and plucked the strings, enveloping the small town in a soothing, languid melody.

Then the god reached out and took these lowly people—and their entire families—away.

These people must leave this place.

Otherwise, after the "miracle" ends, these lowly people and their families will still be subjected to even more brutal vigilante justice.

All of this was, of course, Hebe's intention. Kama vaguely sensed it, but Karna remained completely unaware.

They continued their journey.

In the second village, they witnessed a bizarre incident—a young farmer, clearly still alive, was listed as "dead" in the land register held by the officials, and thus his land belonged to his brother.

No matter how he appealed to the officials, they only recognized the written records in their hands.

"I'm perfectly alive and well, I'm perfectly alive and well!"

The farmer patted his chest, bowed his head, and stamped his feet, asking, "How did I 'die'?"

The reason was simple: his elder brother coveted his land and bribed the official with five silver coins to register him as "dead."

The farmer had nowhere to turn for help; proving he was still alive proved to be such a difficult task.

This matter is easy to handle; there's no need to Bewitching Immortal or the "Yellow Turban Warrior" to clean up after Hebe.

Hebe snapped her fingers and used illusion magic to summon the local officials to handle the matter for the farmer—but the outcome was unexpected.

The farmer believed that Hebe must be a high-caste Brahmin to be able to summon local officials.

Why would Brahmin help a commoner like me? Is it because they are kind-hearted? No, these people must have their eyes on something of mine.

As the farmer looked around, he noticed that his youngest daughter had turned ten.

So when Hebe returned to her temporary lodging, she found a little girl wrapped in a thin veil squatting by her bed.

Hebe was silent for a moment, then smiled and said to the Yang Pill in her palm, "Look, this is Bharata."

The Yang Pill rolled slightly, emitting faint sighs and sobs.

As a result, the illusion had several targets.

By the time Hebe left, the farmer had been reunited with his daughter.

They will not leave their homes because they belong to the Vaishya caste—even a low-caste Vaishya is entitled to own their own land.

Hopefully, they won't suffer another accident.

The next destination was known for its wealth—the princes who ruled there were described by bards as the embodiment of benevolence and kindness.

When Hebe brought Kama and Karna to this place, the first thing that caught their eye was the mine that was emitting thick smoke.

The densely packed low-class people built structures around the mine like a colony of termites clinging to each other. The overlapping buildings looked extremely ugly and dangerous. When you see these buildings, one word easily comes to mind.

— Hive City.

These shacks that are exposed on the surface and close to the mines are already the most desirable locations in the Hive City.

The real slums are even deeper underground.

"Is this the richest northern province?"

Karna said softly.

"Yes, Your Excellency 'Sur'."

The local official accompanying him was full of pride. "This is our northern province. Thanks to our abundant mineral resources and unique mining and smelting technologies, we have always maintained our most important position, no matter how the political situation changes."