For seven hundred years, Luo State had done only two things: drive the feudal lords to repel the barbarians, and Venerate the King, eliminating all who sought to threaten the Zhou State's Mandate of Heaven.
At the heart of both lay Ji Zhao's need for the Zhou State to exist and for All Xia to flourish.
Now, repelling the barbarians no longer required Luo State. The frontier states had all become towering powers capable of handling matters alone, and no new barbarians capable of challenging All Xia had yet appeared beneath heaven.
As for venerating the king, the Royal House was now very powerful. This was the last afterglow of the Zhou State's Mandate of Heaven.
Luo Chang watched the sun rise in the east and shine upon the Academy of Luo State, understanding that this was the Luo Clan's future path.
Ever since the great war of All Xia began, debate within the Academy of Luo State had never ceased. The more brutal the war, the more schools of thought sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain.
Within the Academy, two groups were locked in heated debate, their understandings of war utterly different.
One side consisted of Confucius's disciples, who declared loudly, "What have five years of war brought the world?
"Death, hunger, disease, and the absence of trust, righteousness, and benevolence.
"A petty man like Marquis Qing of Wei actually usurped the throne of a great state. Is that not laughable?"
The Confucian School despised Marquis Qing of Wei to the utmost. He was a ruler who met none of its criteria for a sage king.
Members of the Legalist School, long at odds with the Confucian School, retorted mockingly, "Marquis Qing of Wei has invited worthy talents from across the world to Wei State. He adopts