Chapter 132: Clash of Ideals

I never expected… in the end we actually have to rely on you!

Mu Yi's eye twitched as he watched Dong Hui skillfully handle the wild boar spirit's corpse; at a glance it was clear he had studied a similar dissection ability.

The entrails, intestines, bones, and everything else were taken apart by Dong Hui and tossed aside.

Mu Yi was quite impressed; butchering is a technical job, and one must not fear the stench, yet the proficiency shown by this Confucian gentleman Dong Hui was like that of a butcher steeped in the trade for years.

"Isn't it said that gentlemen stay away from the kitchen? How come you look so skilled?" Mu Yi asked curiously, looking at Dong Hui.

"This saying means that a gentleman, upon seeing birds and beasts alive, cannot bear to see them die; hearing their cries, he cannot bear to eat their meat. Therefore, gentlemen always keep away from the kitchen."

Dong Hui clapped his hands, set down the odd jobs he was doing, then turned solemnly to explain to Mu Yi.

"Thus staying away from the kitchen is the utmost expression of benevolence."

"I've been enlightened!" Mu Yi nodded upon hearing this; this is what they call a benevolent heart.

"However, my proficiency has nothing to do with that; it's just because I was poor as a child and needed to find work to make a living!" Dong Hui laughed as he continued explaining.

Mu Yi nodded in understanding upon hearing that.

"How's the situation now? What should we do next?"

"Liuli Monk is impressive; he's basically healed all the patients. Mingxin Daoist said he calculated that there are tribes elsewhere, so he went ahead to scout!"

Dong Hui briefly reported to Mu Yi the others' movements, then looked at him and asked.

"The food you brought back is enough for the tribe to eat for three days. I want to have a feast today, then tomorrow move them to the canyon you mentioned. If Mingxin Daoist hasn't miscalculated, gathering the tribes within dozens of miles together will also lay a good foundation for future development!"

Dong Hui's train of thought was clear; he grasped the core point: population.

People are born with different talents; if we want the tribe to continue developing after they're gone, and even to win in later wars and competition, we need to cultivate a qualified leader.

"Once we're settled, I'll screen out the able-bodied youths and teenagers for training, trying to cultivate their combat ability as much as possible. Do you have any good plans?"

Dong Hui hesitated before asking, after all, Military Family Descendants come in varieties; if we truly encounter a martial-focused fierce general who knows nothing else, he feels it's more reliable to personally handle the training.

After all, the Hundred Schools are not completely opposed to each other; in their development they also start from their own core and absorb the essence of other schools.

Not only the Confucian school, but also the Legalist, Daoist, and Buddhist schools each have their own combat methods; however, compared to the Military Strategists, they all have some limitations, after all their core does not lie in combat.

"Leave it to me; I should be decent at this!" Mu Yi, having actually practiced a few times, still has some insight into training.

Earlier, when Sun Wuzi gave his lecture, he gained a new understanding; now is a good time to try it out.

When they had settled the tribe in the canyon, Mingxin also brought a group of new tribespeople over.

After that, things became simple; Dong Hui took charge of educating the tribespeople, burying the seeds of culture in their hearts, and at the same time carving classics onto stones, hoping to leave as many cultural traces as possible in the tribe.

He established preliminary tribal laws, directly dragging the tribe's social structure into the feudal framework, and through educating in benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust, he mediated conflicts between different tribes, striving to make the tribe's interior as stable as possible.

Mu Yi, meanwhile, according to the results of Mingyue's divination, eliminated all the relatively strong beasts near the tribe and brought them back to the tribe.

Mingyue and Liuli, meanwhile, followed the divination results to gather the scattered nearby tribes and bring them back.

In less than a month, the tribe had already grown to several thousand people.

The result of this large-scale concentration was that the tribe's food reserves began to run low.

Although Dong Hui taught the tribespeople various curing and smoking methods, preserving a large amount of jerky, and with Mingyue's help clearly marked the nearby fruit groves, the food reserves were still decreasing at a visible rate.

The biggest reason for this, naturally, is Mu Yi's training of the able-bodied; high-intensity training further aggravated the food consumption.

"Fields opened by slash-and-burn still need time to mature; Mingyue is calculating the seasons to determine the solar terms, so we probably have to pause training for a while! I need to put them into production!" Dong Hui sought out Mu Yi to discuss.

At this rate of consumption, they'll likely have to tighten their belts, destined to let some tribe members live a life of hunger one day, full the next, possibly even forced to abandon some tribe members… especially those who are already elderly.

This conflicts naturally with Dong Hui's upheld benevolence and righteousness, so he sought Mu Yi, hoping Mu Yi would pause training, free up that portion of food, and give it to other tribe members.

"You should also know the consequences of giving up halfway!"

Mu Yi's attitude was very firm; having just barely achieved some results, if we now disband these able-bodied, to later retrain them into elites we'd have to start from scratch.

Farmer-soldiers aren't impossible, but their combat strength compared to regular troops is worlds apart.

Although these able-bodied's combat strength currently isn't worth mentioning to us few, this is still laying a foundation for the future.

Dong Hui wants to leave behind a complete social system to help the tribe develop after they depart; Mu Yi likewise wants to leave a sound military system to guarantee the tribe's combat strength.

Mu Yi isn't sure if he'll have time, after solving the tribe's food problem, to rebuild the military system from scratch.

"Kindness does not command troops, righteousness does not handle wealth; present hardship is for future better development. Moreover, the threat is close at hand; if we don't make distinctions, the future will bring only the calamity of military disaster."

Now the good life will be plundered by another tribe.

And at this moment, the conflict of Mu Yi and his group's choices also caused the spectators, who originally watched from high above, to begin to erupt with the smell of gunpowder.

Not only Mu Yi's group's match; in several other team contests, the disciples of each school also showed clear ideological clashes.

"Excessive militarism leads to ruin; the warlike will perish!"

"Born in adversity, die in ease!"

"Empty talk of benevolence and righteousness, corrupt Confucians mislead the state!"

First came fierce debate; upon discovering that words could not persuade the other side, it turned into actual conflict.

The Hundred Schools—there is not a single one that is purely theoretical, or put another way, any school that has survived to the present must cultivate both literature and martial arts.

"How dare a corrupt Confucian bluster here, letting you know what truth is!" The hot-tempered Military Strategist officer had already drawn his weapon, intending to begin physical persuasion.

"Boor! Afraid you won't succeed!" The great Confucian aimed at by the weapon kept his composure; his righteous aura shot up to the heavens, and individual golden, radiant characters appeared around him.

Each school's leaders are eminent figures, but it's not only them; some who have reached the Legend realm—great Confucians, officers, and great artisans—also followed each school's leaders to the venue to watch.

They will appear at the Jixia Academy; right now it's also to observe each school's disciples' performance, so that later we can make targeted suggestions.

This Hundred Schools Assembly, although the theme is competition, for each school its greater role is to promote the progress of the younger generation, letting their schools flourish.

"All of you, stop!"

Just as the gunpowder barrel was lit and the schools were about to melee, Shang Yang, expressionless, rebuked.

At the same time, an intangible restraint fell; the rules agreed upon by the assembly descended now, suppressing them all back into their seats.

On the premise that the contract had been signed in advance, even a group of high-level Legends could not resist Shang Yang's mobilization of rule-power; they could only glumly return to their own places.

"What's all this racket? What manner of conduct is this!" Shang Yang coldly rebuked; precisely because he knew such a thing would happen, he deliberately had the Legalists take charge.

Otherwise, trying to quell such a melee of high-level Legends would be no less difficult than slaying a god.

"Keep watching, if you have any ideas, we'll talk about it when we get to the Jixia Academy!" Shang Yang glanced around at the silent leaders of each school, feeling quite troubled.

……

The clash of beliefs, accompanied by contradiction, accompanied by compromise.

In the end, Dong Hui and Mu Yi each chose to step back; Dong Hui continued to supply sufficient food for Mu Yi's trained troops, while Mu Yi would have all those troops engage in hunting.

"In the end, we still have to resort to some other means!"

After seeing Dong Hui off, Mu Yi sighed; he had originally planned to try to solve the problem through purely Military Strategist methods.

But it was obvious that, without a clear enemy target, his training results were less than satisfactory.

Although he had already conveyed some simple formations and easy-to-understand military ideas to these future tribal officers, he also conveyed the Tenfold Omnipotence to these troops through elaboration.

Without an enemy, making it hard to arouse the will, Mu Yi could only choose the Tenfold Omnipotence—a talent that rewards effort with return—and this is also the war foundation he left for this tribe.

As long as they can reach the level of imitation, they will later be able to absorb other tribes' strengths and thus defeat their opponents.

This talent focused on basic qualities has obvious drawbacks: it takes effect slowly and requires a great deal of time and food to hone.

And they lack exactly those two, so Mu Yi can only choose to solve the problem through means not so strictly Military Strategist.

"I didn't expect you, Mu Yi, to have studied Buddhist teachings quite thoroughly!" Liuli, while drawing Buddhist Sect mantras, praised Mu Yi.

He was trying to improve the tribe's medical system, that is, to train some medics for the tribe.

When Mu Yi found him, he was startled; he hadn't expected Mu Yi to also be versed in Buddhist teachings.

"Just a bit of luck!" Mu Yi gave a wry smile and used his will to guide the troops in completing the initial contemplation.

Although they only need a little time to accomplish this step themselves, what they lack now is time.

So he simply took matters into his own hands, having Monk Liuli inscribe the mantra of the Long-Abiding True Dharma onto his body; after experiencing it himself, he imparted that experience to the troops who were likewise inscribed with the mantra.

Mu Yi wasn't sure what consequences this combination would bring, but at least at this stage they can mutually complement each other.

"Hahaha, Sun Wuzi, this kid's path is way too wild!" Deng Lingzi laughed until he doubled over.

After laughing a lot, Deng Lingzi wiped his tears and gave a meaningful reminder.

"Look at those big monks of the Buddhist Sect—your little guy's gaze is all silky! You'd better watch out, don't let the little guy follow in Guan Yun Chang's footsteps!"

Because he lacked the basics, Mu Yi didn't know that tattooing, theoretically originating from the Military Strategists, is used the same way as he does now—to accelerate growth.

In the process of mutual learning among the schools, the Buddhist Sect copied this, then combined it with some other things to create a Golden Body System, basically a copy of the Refined System, then adapted it for the Buddhist Sect—such as the Dragon Elephant Prajna, and so on.

And this orthodox Military Strategist, Mu Yi, now doesn't even know his own totem tattoo; instead he goes far afield to inscribe Buddhist Sect mantras, which is why Deng Lingzi laughed.

It's like spending a fortune to buy an aircraft carrier's arresting cable, only to find out it's a cheap product made and sold by one's own family—a ridiculous joke.

Sun Wuzi's face went black; if he didn't know that Mu Yi lacked the basics and that Mu Yi's combination was quite good—not only clear in priorities but also fully serving the Tenfold Omnipotence, this Elite Talent—he might really have couldn't help but drag Mu Yi out and scold him.

"Although lacking basics, this fortune is not bad—he not only possesses Wei Qing's Tenfold Omnipotence, but also Bai Qi's Iron-blooded Slaughter; perhaps the net can truly help the Military Strategists break the stalemate..." Sun Wuzi fell into contemplation.

Before, he actually had little confidence in Jiang Taigong's grand plan, but with Mu Yi's appearance, it now seems not so impossible.

But… before that, we need to find a teacher to properly instruct Mu Yi!

Once out there, will Mu Yi be considered a Military Strategist or a Buddhist? Don't really end up like Deng Lingzi said—being schemed against by Ling Mountain, directly getting the Buddhist Sect Guardian Deity's fruition bound to him, impossible to shake off.

After jointly inscribing mantras on all three hundred people with Monk Liuli, Mu Yi divided the three hundred into several squads, and, following the map drawn by Mingyue, sent them out to hunt.

Actual combat is also an indispensable part; this time Mu Yi did not follow along, although he had poured his heart and soul in, but war is cruel, and he won't let these troops harbor hope for luck—only blood can better warn them to keep advancing.

Of course, a greater reason is that Mu Yi has already killed off the stronger beings within a hundred-li radius of the canyon.

He merely wanted to test the troops, to let them transform in actual combat, not to send them to their deaths.

As long as they can flexibly apply the knowledge he taught, victory upon return should not be a problem.