The Mien of a Great Confucian

"The bearing of a great Confucian scholar!"

Zhang Xuezhou's voice lowered after the third recitation.

Dong Zhongshu found it difficult to understand the reasons at the time.

In the end, he could only conclude that Zhang Xuezhou was a single, older young man with admirable qualities.

Being single is one thing, but that only preserves a little bit of innate pure yang energy. It is the beauty of character that Dong Zhongshu could hardly understand.

Confucian School, the Sage Kong, believed that those who possess the virtues of benevolence, righteousness, and propriety can truly enter the Confucian school.

Sage Meng extended this to the four virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom.

Dong Zhongshu extended this concept to include benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness.

Benevolence refers to kindness between people, and less of the extreme emotions of life or death.

It refers to doing things that are just, reasonable, and ought to be done.

Etiquette refers to moral cultivation and the ability to discern right from wrong, truth from falsehood, good from evil, and truth from falsehood.

The concept of "trust" extended by Dong Zhongshu belongs to the category of "honesty and trustworthiness."

If one possesses all five qualities, a righteous spirit will surely surround them through continuous recitation.

Cultivating virtue comes before learning; this is also the most important principle of Confucianism.

Dong Zhongshu simply couldn't understand why someone like Zhang Xuezhou possessed such fine character.

Even if it's not one of the five categories of virtues associated with him, Zhang Xuezhou might still possess four or even three of them.

Whoever possesses these qualities is someone you can connect with intimately.

Dong Zhongshu did not discover many of Zhang Xuezhou's virtues and merits when they were together, but he did discover the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction".

Techniques that align with Confucian School values will never deceive, especially his improved and refined "Vast Righteous Qi Instruction."

Dong Zhongshu's eyes gleamed slightly.

If he had previously only intended to improve and reform Zhang Xuezhou, a disciple of the Yin-Yang School, he now had more ulterior motives.

"Shen Peigong and his ilk have long controlled the Confucian school. Zhao Wan, Wang Zang, Kong Anguo, Zhou Ba, Xia Kuan, Dang Lu, Miao Sheng, Xu Yan, Qing Ji, and others share almost identical ideas with his Hundred Schools of Thought, constantly criticizing my new school. Unfortunately, I have few great Confucian scholars who can truly stabilize the court; at most, I am only a Doctor, not even worthy of being Shen Peigong's student..."

Dong Zhongshu pondered deeply, clearly having taken a liking to Zhang Xuezhou, a rising star with the potential of a great Confucian scholar.

As long as Zhang Xuezhou dedicates himself to Confucian School, perhaps in ten years or so, or perhaps in a few years, Confucian School will surely gain a great scholar.

Zhang Xuezhou, who had established a connection with Dong Zhongshu, would obviously not join the camp of Shen Peigong and others, and would inevitably become his strong supporter in the Confucian school.

His gaze shifted, clearly indicating that he had given his previous thoughts more weight.

He not only wanted to rid this Yin-Yang School cultivator of his unrestrained behavior driven by joy and anger, but also to guide him into the Confucian school, and even to make him a pivotal figure within it.

"Is 'righteous spirit' effective?"

After much deliberation, Dong Zhongshu stepped out of the side room.

He took a lantern, and slowly strolled over to Zhang Xuezhou, carrying it on his back.

"What exactly is this righteous energy? I feel that my internal Law Power has recovered by 30%!"

Zhang Xuezhou initially found it difficult to determine the effect of this righteous spirit.

However, after exhausting his magical Law Power through cultivation, he recited the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction, and the resulting changes made him clearly aware of them.

Within his body, the Law Power he had previously exhausted began to regenerate continuously until it reached 30% of its original level, at which point the rate of regeneration returned to its original slow recovery state.

"Is this ability to restore Law Power temporary, or will I have it permanently?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"As long as you continue your practice, this is an ability you will always possess!"

Confucian cultivators are skilled in many Technique Method, but if they cannot release them due to a lack of Law Power, then their diverse cultivation methods would become a laughing stock.

Confucian Technique Method is less powerful than normal Technique Method, and the lower output also means less Law Power.

Meanwhile, the continuous emergence of the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction and numerous scriptures has enhanced the endurance of Confucian cultivators.

By conserving Law Power on one hand and restoring Law Power on the other, Confucian cultivators have developed diverse combat styles.

"So, after I exhaust my Law Power, I can recover 30% of Law Power by reciting the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction, or even more?" Zhang Xuezhou asked happily.

When Dong Zhongshu nodded, Zhang Xuezhou felt as if a gift had fallen from the sky.

The ability to restore Law Power is obviously valuable, not only because it relates to the duration of combat ability, but also because it can increase the speed of cultivation techniques.

The difference between practicing Technique Method three times a day and practicing Technique Method four times a day is small, but if this practice continues for a year, the latter will far surpass the former in terms of proficiency in using Technique Method.

"Don't you even consider how I mastered so many Technique Method, and how I cultivated Technique Method to a certain level?" Dong Zhongshu laughed. "If I relied solely on the little Law Power within my body to cultivate for one day and rest for one day, even with all my free time, I still wouldn't be able to cultivate enough."

"Your Confucian School methods of self-cultivation are so powerful, why don't others learn them?" Zhang Xuezhou said, "After all, your abilities only rely on talking, so they're very easy to learn!"

Prejudice in people's hearts is a mountain!

Dong Zhongshu smiled slightly and responded with just one sentence.

Whether one cultivates by circulating Law Power through acupoints or by speaking, the external methods of cultivation may seem different, but the underlying principles are the same.

Furthermore, because the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction relies on reciting and collecting the righteous energy of heaven and earth into the body, the process is full of mystery, making cultivation even more difficult.

It is especially difficult to get people to abandon sectarian prejudices and switch to Confucian cultivation practices.

Whether the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction can be successfully cultivated is the key point, but even more important is that cultivators from other schools may find it difficult to understand whether the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction may conflict with their own sect's cultivation methods.

The biggest problem is that if cultivators from other schools of thought practice Confucian School, then which school of thought do they belong to?

These various problems limited the practice of the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction to the Confucian school.

Wild cultivators like Zhang Xuezhou are rare. It's extremely rare to find someone who cultivates the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction just by asking around. As for someone who is so diligent as to practice other schools of thought until midnight, Dong Zhongshu felt that he had only seen one like him in his entire life.

He felt he had figured out why Zhang Xuezhou had mastered the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction so quickly.

In Zhang Xuezhou's mind, the other party seemed to have no prejudice against him and could accept the knowledge of other schools of thought with an open attitude.

If you don't feel awkward about it, and you treat the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction as your own doctrine for practice, or even practice it diligently, then things will be much more normal.

Although Dong Zhongshu still had some doubts, he was not prepared to continue digging into this meaningless answer.

Before him must be a future great Confucian scholar who has transcended sectarianism and possesses noble character.

"If you are interested in continuing to study the spirit of righteousness," Dong Zhongshu said, "There is still much I have not yet explained."

"Anything else?" Zhang Xuezhou asked curiously, "Could it be that you can fully restore your Law Power in a short period of time after learning this?"

"Give it a try. How will you know if you don't try?" Dong Zhongshu said with a smile.

"Then let's give it a try!"

Zhang Xuezhou thought about it and decided that he wouldn't lose out by making a comment.

He rarely saw the Confucian School way of cultivating oneself through words, and most importantly, Confucian School could truly generate ability through words.

This inevitably reminded him of the Upasaka Sila Sutra, which Buddhist monks recite, a sutra that also exerts its power through recitation.

However, the Upasaka Precepts Sutra and the Vast Righteous Qi Instruction have different functions; the former focuses on suppressing evil within the body, while the latter focuses on restoring the body's Law Power.

Zhang Xuezhou calculated the time; there were still two hours until dawn.

This made him think that he could spend two hours studying Confucian School before seeking solutions to his economic problems.