"The Dragon-Exterminating Gang?"
Niu Da immediately voiced some doubt from below. "Isn't that too commonplace? Or do you mean to use a commonplace name as a little camouflage, Third Brother Zhang, to evade Imperial Uncle Cao's eyes?"
"That is part of the idea," Zhang Xing answered without thinking. "But it isn't purely commonplace. It's pseudo-common... because it isn't 'exterminate,' but 'exorcise'-as in casting down and removing..."
"What does 'exorcising the dragon' mean, then?"
Who here didn't know how to play the straight man?
"Exorcising the dragon means that the world is in turmoil, smoke and dust rise on every side, and Great Wei's decline cannot be reversed, so everyone contends to rise above the rest. With this great transformation of heaven and earth and the abundance of Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, it might not be impossible for the strongest among them to become sages and transform into dragons... at such a time, we first establish our foundations, gather heroes, and extend our influence. When we hold heaven and earth in our hands, even someone bearing the signs of a True Dragon can be cast down with a stroke of the brush... the meaning is to stand above all, transcend the mundane, and hold everything in our grasp."
Zhang Xing reeled it all off, leaving Niu Da and the others dumbfounded. Someone like Ma Ping'er felt she had learned more today than in her entire life, and could only nod, breathing heavily.
As for Daoist Wei, Li Shu, Xu Dalang, and the others, they were properly educated men. However they listened to it, it sounded like specious reasoning, even rather blatant. They went on to suspect that Master Zhang San most likely had another explanation hidden in his heart, but simply didn't wish to offer it in public.
This wasn't