Living Where the Sage Once Lived

"This staff..."

Before Li Shun's eyes flashed countless vast, strange and dazzling afterimages.

In a daze, he seemed to stand among dozens of towering figures, traveling by carriage through the boundless kingdoms.

Preaching the Way, teaching, dispelling doubts.

Debating governance, defending the Way, vanquishing demons.

At the same time, countless fervent voices rose beside his ears, reciting and chanting with the thunderous resonance of great bells.

A sharp pain stabbed deep between Li Shun's brows. His soul shook, and only when he heard Kong Changqing calling to him with a hint of urgency did he wrench himself free of that mysterious vision and plunge back into reality.

"How do you feel?" Kong Changqing asked urgently, his eyes full of concern.

Li Shun looked down at the Sage's Staff in his hand, now brimming with life and restored to its former state. He frowned slightly. "I..."

"Speak freely!"

"Just now, I... somehow felt as though I had become the Confucian Sage himself. I led his disciples on that long journey through the kingdoms, preaching the Way and teaching, as if I were walking it all over again."

Li Shun could scarcely believe his own words.

"So it was as I thought..." A startling gleam flashed through Kong Changqing's clouded eyes.

He had kept that broken staff in his treasury for centuries and handled it countless times, yet it had never shown the slightest trace of anything extraordinary.

So this young man truly was chosen by the Confucian Sage's will to inherit his mantle!

Kong Changqing drew a deep breath and suppressed the excitement churning through his chest like overturning rivers and seas.

Then his expression turned grave. "What happened to this broken staff today stays between us. Heaven knows, Earth knows, you know, and I know. Remember: not a word to