A Clear Conscience

Golden Ao Mountain, in the Octagonal Pavilion.

Su Yao looked up at the increasingly scorching sun in the sky, his eyes filled with worry.

"Yunhe, how long has it been since Nanzhao last had rain?"

"It's been three years." Liu Yunhe's voice was a few decibels lower than usual.

Su Yao remained silent for a moment, then asked:

"During my nine years of seclusion, besides what you mentioned earlier, has anything else major happened outside?"

Liu Yunhe sorted out his thoughts and slowly said:

"Oh, right, I forgot to mention something. Three years ago, the True Person Ciyuan of the Yang Palace sought gold in the border region between Annan and Southern Frontier, and perished and his cultivation vanished."

"But you cultivated the path of the Great Yang?" Su Yao pressed.

Liu Yunhe nodded.

Su Yao sighed softly, "No wonder. Nanzhao is a land with spring-like weather all year round. When I came out of seclusion earlier, I felt that the climate was much hotter than in previous years. In addition, there has been no Subterranean Water for three years, and a True Person who cultivated the Way of the Great Yang has scattered all his Daoxing here. Even the abundant Fu River cannot withstand such evaporation." He paused and continued, "The reason why Nanzhao has so many lakes today is entirely due to the fact that when the Orthodox God of Soil and Grain passed through this place, he was ambushed by the Ancestral Witch, and the Subterranean Water went out of control. Later, it was nourished by the Orthodox God of the State, so that the water veins could not be cut off. But now the Fu and Fu Rivers are almost dry, and with the Great Yang's influence, this drought will probably last a long time, and the people will suffer."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yunhe seemed to understand something:

"That True Person... could it be that he came here on purpose because he had no hope of getting gold...?"

Su Yao nodded slightly:

"It's almost certain! Once the reincarnated True Lord emerges from the grotto, all that's needed is a spark to ignite the uprising. Ten thousand miners can't shake the millions of people of Nanzhao; only continuous natural disasters and the destruction of families will truly bring chaos."

Liu Yunhe's expression changed drastically:

"The ruler will certainly not sit idly by... but who dares to bear the consequences for the millions of people? The Heavenly Court will definitely investigate, and none of the three sect leaders, the Buddha, the Confucian School sage, or His Majesty will stand idly by..."

Su Yao stood up, took two steps forward, turned his back to Liu Yunhe, and gently changed the subject:

"Yunhe, what do you think morality is?"

Liu Yunhe hesitated, then lowered his head.

"The Daoist patriarch could not explain it clearly, the Buddha could not clarify it, and even the Confucian sages, the various philosophers, and the Heavenly Venerable of all ages could not fully explain it. I dare not speak presumptuously."

Su Yao nodded slowly:

"Yes, no one can figure it out. Since no one can figure it out, no one can use this yardstick to measure others. My Jade Pure One sect expounds the Way of Heaven, cultivating one's own nature; Supreme Purity speaks of the harmony of Yin and Yang, the unity of all things; Highest Clarity sect speaks of the Way of Intercepting Heaven, where power resides in one's own body. It is precisely because my sect never binds itself with morality that it has been able to prosper to this day. On the other hand, when the Heavenly Court was first established, it had more than three hundred Orthodox God, the lowest of whom were Human Immortal Supreme True Person high-ranking immortals. Later, it wanted to establish morality as the guiding principle, but as a result, the Investiture of the Gods of the Divine Dao was shattered, the divine way declined, and the Heavenly Court remained empty for a long time. Then there was the Qin Emperor. Although my Mysterious Gate sect disliked him, his ideal of establishing morality in the immortal kingdom and making everyone like a dragon was something even my sect was ashamed of. So he failed, precisely because the Qin Emperor truly wanted to clarify morality. The Confucian School was the same in its early years, so it was always just a prominent school of thought and never really took off; later, it only talked about it, but it flourished."

He turned around and looked directly at Liu Yunhe:

"Morality is nothing but a fig leaf. I dislike Beichen because he almost betrayed Jade Pure One, so in my eyes he has no morality whatsoever; but in the eyes of the Dipper Department's own people, their actions are exactly in line with their morality."

He paused slightly, his gaze falling on Liu Yunhe's somewhat pale face, but his voice remained calm as always:

"I refuted that Tiannu earlier, and I spoke with righteous indignation, but I have to admit that what he said was true. If my Dao is to flourish, then Human Dao cannot be too rampant. This is the root cause of the Proclaiming Earth incident. In order to bring this to fruition, someone must ultimately sacrifice. The world is in turmoil, all driven by self-interest. I am not a saint, and I do not have such high moral standards. I only wish for the prosperity of the Qixia lineage, and I only wish for myself to attain the Dao. That is all."

He looked at Liu Yunhe, who opened his mouth but couldn't speak, and smiled softly:

"Yunhe, as long as you have a clear conscience, that's enough. All we need to do is clean up this mess."

After saying that, he turned his head away again and said softly:

"Let's proceed as previously agreed. After May, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, I will hold a grand banquet at my Purple Mansion. You may go and invite all the guests."

After saying this, Liu Yunhe accepted the order and left.

After Liu Yunhe disappeared, Su Yao headed towards the cave abode in the back mountain.

This was the third day since he broke through to the Purple Mansion realm. He and the others had been drinking and reveling in the mountains for three days. Today, he came out to relax and discussed the Purple Mansion Dharma Banquet with Liu Yunhe in the pavilion.

Upon entering the cave abode, his gaze swept over the three birds curled up in a ball, fast asleep. He asked Liu Yunhe, who explained that the three little ones had been sleeping ever since he entered seclusion in his seventh year of seclusion.

After emerging from seclusion, he used the Prism to check and found no serious injury. He figured that upon waking up, he would at least be at the Foundation Establishment Peak Stage, or perhaps, like the five dragons before him, already at the Holding the Profound Realm.

After settling the three birds, he sat down deep inside the cave abode and mentally recounted everything Liu Yunhe had just told him.

After nine years of seclusion, the world outside had changed drastically.

The Crown Prince has not yet returned to Jiankang.

The carriage remained parked in Qingzhou for nine years.

During this time, the Grand Secretariat, princes, and many nobles repeatedly urged them to act, but there was still no response.

With the coronation ceremony still far off, many matters in the court were left hanging in the air.

This matter was suspicious in many ways, but since it was too far from Nanzhao, Su Yao put it aside for the time being and turned his attention to what was closer.

The title of the Prince Mu's Manor in Southern Frontier has been abolished, leaving only the title and mansion of the first Mu Wang, while the rest have been demoted to Duke of Dian.

The imperial court's patience with Nanzhao was clearly running out.

In conjunction with the severe drought that lasted for three years, the Grand Secretariat issued a series of edicts reprimanding the Nanzhao Royal Family, the Prince Mu's Manor, and local officials, as if all the blame should be borne by this land itself.

Furthermore, as Liu Yunhe had previously mentioned, True Person Ciyuan's attempt to obtain gold failed, and almost simultaneously, Five Laws True Person, a Earth Witch practitioner from the Langcao Wu Tribe, also quietly perished.

Strangely, there has never been a single word about this True Person in the outside world, as if his traces had been deliberately erased while he was still alive.

Su Yao placed these two matters side by side, pondered for a long time, and thought to himself that in the end it was still about Proclaiming Earth.

Let's look at our colleagues.

After he had been in seclusion for three years, Zilin also entered the cave abode. Right under the octagonal pavilion, facing the direction of the rising sun, she cultivated her Purple Qi, precisely to borrow that ray of morning sun.

Yang Xiu then went to Longchuan.

The people from Golden Court temporarily set up an array and created cave abode there, allowing him to break through at the place where the world was facing the greatest calamity.

Xuan Yan, Ying Qi, Mo Li also went into seclusion around the same time as Zilin.

What surprised Su Yao the most was the Flower-Shifting Palace under the Highest Clarity Sect. They had been running a villa in Nanzhao for hundreds of years, but five years ago, they suddenly disappeared, leaving nothing behind without even a word of explanation.

If he hadn't instructed Han Ziyi to use talismans to command the surrounding mountain gods and land deities, and to report any changes immediately, he probably wouldn't have known this news until he personally descended the mountain.

Fortunately, since he went into seclusion, Liu Yunhe has hardly left his house except for occasionally sending Zhang Ziyan to White Sand Mountain; otherwise, he would have truly become deaf and blind.