Tang Changsheng heard this and put on an appropriately awkward expression.
The negotiations were over. This was now private time.
Emperor Mingde pulled rank as an elder and gave Tang Changsheng a few verbal scoldings. Having vented his frustration, he did not press the matter.
His expression turned serious. "Those cultivators keep claiming the Imperial Court oppresses them. They talk about scholars twisting the law with their writings and warriors breaking prohibitions with their martial arts. If you ask me, they all have persecution delusions.
"In today's Great Chu, even I have returned power to the people. The people are educated, and the times are enlightened. Why would I need to oppress a handful of cultivators?
"Hmph. They're courting death themselves. Every last one of them wants to destroy the Heaven-Earth Sealing Array. Even if I could tolerate them, would the common people? The scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants? Would any foreign country? They would be making an enemy of the entire world!"
Tang Changsheng's heart jolted. Emperor Mingde was absolutely right. In this day and age, anyone who tried to destroy the Heaven-Earth Sealing Array would be making an enemy of the entire world.
And that was without even considering the Outer Regions watching like tigers eyeing their prey.
The Heaven-Earth Sealing Array had stood for two or three centuries. With no Spiritual Qi left, this world had transformed into a purely material one, driven by machinery and technology.
Across the whole world, from the peddlers and laborers of Great Chu to the monarchs and nobles of Britain, and even the powerful Lineages of North America...
How many people, from top to bottom, did not benefit from this technological, material world?
To destroy the Heaven-Earth Sealing Array and return to a world of Spiritual Qi and cultivation—would that not