Proving His Innocence, Slapping a Million Scholars in the Face, and Killing Scholar Peng!

"Know the Heavenly Mandate, follow Heaven's principles, and let all things take their natural course."

"Today, I, Xu Qingxiao, have understood the Heavenly Mandate."

"All things are predetermined, everything follows nature. Humans have seven emotions and six desires, joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. What is natural? Where does nature lie?"

"There has never been such a thing as a natural course, nor has everything ever been predetermined."

"Unity of Knowledge and Action. Success Depends on Human Effort."

"Where there is a will, there is a way."

Within the Great Wei Imperial Palace, Xu Qingxiao's voice rang through the clouds, reaching the entire Great Wei Dynasty.

Yes, the entire Great Wei Dynasty, not merely Great Wei's Capital.

Xu Qingxiao had understood the Heavenly Mandate.

He had been trapped in a loop of thought, racking his brains over "follow Heaven's principles" while overlooking "heed your own heart."

People always believed that Heaven's principles stood above everything, that Heaven and Earth surpassed all else. Xu Qingxiao had thought the same.

That was why he had remained trapped in this misconception.

If he were to obey Heaven's principles, then nothing he had done had followed its natural course.

Every predicament had been a certain death trap, and every time, he had won through all manner of means.

Under these circumstances, Xu Qingxiao understood his own "central philosophy."

Success Depends on Human Effort.

Nothing in this world was absolute. It all depended on whether you made the effort.

A Grand Confucian had ordered an arrest. Could an Eighth Rank Confucian Student like him turn back the raging tide in the eyes of ordinary people?

Impossible. That was their instinctive answer. Yet he had done it, not because he was so outstanding, but because he had acted and made the effort.

In every matter afterward, Xu