Chapter 382: Guangming Xiu Enters the City

"Xiaofan, the Era of Calamity is arriving soon.

If you want to get a piece of the pie, you must at least have Legendary strength.

Keep it up."

Jiang Ruoyu spoke, and after finishing, he also smiled.

This is a game, not reality.

Moreover, this game might not be simple, but so what?

Things obtained in the game cannot be brought into reality.

Of course, Jiang Ruoyu was not that short-sighted; he realized that this game indeed had many aspects that were helpful to his reality.

For instance, in terms of combat power alone, he in the game had long since surpassed he in reality.

This could very well temper oneself and was of great help in improving strength in the real world.

"Legendary?" Ye Di lowered his head, "Legendary is very difficult, but I will work hard!"

Legendary is truly very difficult!

Today's Ye Di had already become a High-level Professional.

Now, the Experience Value he needed to advance further was far more than before.

It could be said that the time and energy spent to raise each level was ten or a hundred times that of the past.

"Mm." Jiang Ruoyu nodded, "After a while, I plan to travel the world."

"Master, you wouldn't happen to know where treasures are hidden and plan to go dig them out, would you?" Ye Di asked.

Master knew a lot about this game.

"You could say that." Jiang Ruoyu smiled.

Indeed, he knew of quite a few places where treasures were buried; since he possessed an informational advantage in this game, he needed to make use of it.

"Master, how about I accompany you?" Ye Di was eager to try.

Today's players were not the same as when they first arrived.

Now, one only needed to apply to change their resurrection point.

Heiniu was one such example.

Otherwise, it would be too troublesome for these players training outside to die and reappear at Tieshi Mountain every time, only to have to run back out again.

"That works too." Jiang Ruoyu nodded.

On the other side, Guangming Xiu rode on his horse, his gaze calm.

Beside him, quite a few young Holy Knights had expressions of disappointment in their eyes.

In their hearts, nobles and merchants were the most evil people in the world.

They had prepared themselves, excitedly waiting to hear the accusations of those people and to Purify Koya City.

However, they had not expected that those who made the accusations were also evil people, which dealt them quite a blow.

The elder Holy Knight said earnestly: "Guangzhan, Motu, you two still have little experience.

The world is mostly evil.

Do you believe that if I were to run to the Temple now and use Array Detection, the red light... would be even more than what we detected today?"

The elder Holy Knight's words caused these young Holy Knights' hearts to tremble.

"How is that possible!

The Light Temple is the brightest place in the world, so how could evil exist there?"

The education they had received since childhood made them believe that the Light Temple was the only pure land in the world.

Everywhere else was full of evil.

"And why wouldn't it?" The elder Holy Knight smiled, "After all, in order to realize the light, some masters will always feed themselves to evil.

You all, don't be too impulsive in the future, otherwise, you will let others use our light and use our justice.

In this world, there are still many poor families and many bottom-tier Commoners being bullied by evil; those are the people we Holy Knights should save."

"But... the Light Holy War Army was annihilated here; there must be the greatest evil in the world hidden here!

This group of people even killed the Light Holy War Army; they must be even more vicious when dealing with Commoners." The young Holy Knights were young after all, and for a moment, they could not understand or accept this.

"What if... the Light Holy War Army does not represent the light?" The elder Holy Knight was profound.

Looking at this group of young Holy Knights, he seemed to think of his own youth.

When he was young, he was also like this, full of justice and vowing to wipe out evil.

But in this world, where is it like they imagined, clearly divided into black and white?

Most people are in the gray, swaying between black and white.

Kind people might also hide evil thoughts in their hearts.

Evil people might also have a glimmer of tenderness in their hearts.

Of course, this is not to excuse the wicked, nor to smear the kind.

For those who do evil, even with a thousand reasons, wrong is wrong.

The young Holy Knights remained silent, thinking carefully about the elder Holy Knight's words.

Guangming Xiu lowered his head, carefully pondering Jiang Ruoyu's words.

"If... light is not just light?"

This sentence made people feel chilled, and even, feel a lingering fear.

What he admired most was the light.

Although he knew that the Light Temple was full of filth and evil everywhere.

The matter of the Sea Pearl last time was also the Light Temple using him to scheme against the Bauhinia Empire.

However, he also understood that those who achieve great things do not concern themselves with trifles.

The Light Temple doing this was sacrificing the small self to achieve the greater self.

Moreover, some people in the Light Temple had also fallen into corruption, deceiving the gods.

If the gods were to cast their gaze upon the human world, the world would surely be filled with light, and evil would have nowhere to hide.

Yet, Jiang Ruoyu's words made him doubt the God of Light for the first time.

If... light was not just light.

Then what, exactly, was that light?

Guangming Xiu thought of his father, mother, as well as his younger brother and sister.

These people all died at the hands of the Death Temple.

The believers of the Death Temple, in order to please the God of Death, slaughtered an entire village.

Guangming Xiu's parents and family were among them.

In the end, it was a priest of the Light Temple who saved him.

He became the only survivor of their village.

It was precisely from that moment on that he hated evil and became a member of the Paladin of Light.

"Commander, should we enter the city to investigate the matter of the Holy War Army?" At this moment, a Paladin of Light asked.

Guangming Xiu thought of Jiang Ruoyu and slowly shook his head: "No, I intend to enter using Stealth alone; you all shall camp outside the city.

Remember, without my order, you are not allowed to enter the city, and you are not allowed to use Array Detection!"

"Understood!"

"Understood!"

All the Holy Knights nodded in response, believing in the words of the Holy War Army implicitly.

It could be said that for these Paladins of Light, the first thing they fanatically believed in was the God of Light, and the second was Guangming Xiu; even the High Priest of the Light Temple was not as important in their hearts as Guangming Xiu.

The Paladins of Light were all well-trained; in terms of combat power alone, they definitely ranked in the top two within the Light Temple.

The first was the legendary Seraph Army.

Those were not human.

Soon, the camp was fully established.

Guangming Xiu looked at the information in his hands, a complex expression appearing in his eyes.

"The Shaya Royal Family... is indeed not simple.

This Nine Prince appears unremarkable among the many princes, even feigning weakness.

Yet, he actually built a city in Koya City.

This kind of method..."

After reading the information above, Guangming Xiu changed his mind; he would not enter Koya City, but would go to Iron Stone City instead.

Perhaps, he could find clues about the missing Holy War Army there.

Iron Stone City was bustling with activity, and the massive Golem Puppets were still building.

In the fertile fields, many laborers were watering and weeding.

The former Iron Stone Town had already become one of the three most prosperous places in the current Iron Stone City.

In the current Iron Stone City, there were four human gathering places.

The first was the place where the players were.

The second was the area where the nobles who moved from Koya City resided.

The third was the original Iron Stone Town, the place where those laborers lived.

At this time, in the school in Iron Stone Town, the clear sound of reading aloud drifted out.

Guangming Xiu had long since removed his armor and was wearing a white robe; he looked just like a merchant.

The current Iron Stone City had already attracted many people from afar to travel there, so the appearance of someone like Guangming Xiu would not cause any surprises.

After entering Iron Stone City, he paid the price of one silver coin to hire a guide, who was the Duanzhi Matong before him.

"Li En, this is the school that the Nine Prince had built.

In the school, there are many teachers, all of whom the Nine Prince hired at a high price.

Today you and I are out of luck; these are all Ordinary teachers.

Every month, there are a few days when those powerful adventurers under the Prince come to teach.

Those people are the ones who truly understand knowledge.

The running Water in our home was installed by them.

No need to go out to carry Water; just turn on the faucet and you can get Water.

Haha, mentioning this, I recall a funny thing.

A while ago, a merchant came here to buy faucets.

That's right, just faucets.

He said he wanted to take the faucets back to sell to nobles at a high price."

Speaking of this, Matong laughed heartily.

Just taking the faucet back, it wouldn't flow a damn bit of Water.

Guangming Xiu did not laugh, but asked: "Are those studying inside all children of nobles? The tuition... must be very expensive."

Guangming Xiu knew that apart from the temples, schools outside all recruited children of nobles.

After all, how could a Commoner afford to go to school?

"What noble children? Everyone in our town comes from a poor family; most of us can't even be considered proper farmers.

We are all laborers for Prince Lin, and those attending school here are all our children.

Tuition?

There is no need to pay.

Prince Lin said that since we work hard and have no time to look after our children, he built a school to let our children attend for free.

Not only is it free to study here, but there is also a free lunch to eat.

Any family with children would definitely send them here."

"Although we are all unrefined folk who don't know how to read, it is always good for the children to be literate.

Nowadays, those of us laborers who are literate have all become squad leaders.

Their monthly wages are one silver coin more than ours!

It's a pity I'm slow and can't learn, otherwise I would want to come to the school to attend classes too."

As Ma Tong spoke, his eyes were filled with a look of happiness.

Guangming Xiu was somewhat moved, or rather, surprised.

He had not expected that this school was actually free and that those attending were all the offspring of laborers.

However, he suddenly thought of something, and his expression turned cold: "Besides learning to read, what else do they learn at the school?"

As a Commander of the Paladin of Light, Guangming Xiu naturally knew that many in the Temple used charity as a pretext to build schools and let children study.

In the end, the studying... was nothing more than brainwashing, grooming the children into the most loyal believers of the gods.

These things also existed in the Light Temple.

However, Guangming Xiu was not very resistant to it.

After all, the brainwashing of the Light Temple taught those children to understand right from wrong, to know good from evil, and cultivated them into kind believers of light.

"Literacy, arithmetic... they are all basic and very practical things." Ma Tong did not know what Guangming Xiu was thinking.

"Only these?" Guangming Xiu did not believe it; these could not be used for brainwashing, "By the way, what do the subordinates of the Nine Prince usually talk about?"

It must be those subordinates of the Nine Prince who came to perform the brainwashing.

"Those people are all powerful adventurers, and they are also very knowledgeable.

What they talk about is very profound; we don't understand it.

For example, last time a teacher talked about... a Pulley.

It was to let the students understand the principle of the Pulley.

That Pulley is a good thing.

We use it at the construction site all the time; it can save a lot of manpower and resources.

It's a pity that I broke a finger and am resting at home, otherwise..." Ma Tong's expression was somewhat nostalgic.

"A Pulley?" Guangming Xiu found it even harder to understand.

What is the use of talking about these things?

How do these help the Nine Prince's rule?

"The adventurers of His Highness the Nine Prince are all capable people.

Many of them can talk about things we don't understand, and they also talk about some grand principles."

"Principles?" Guangming Xiu's eyes lit up.

Principles are the most effective at bewitching people's hearts.

This Nine Prince must be using principles to bewitch these children and groom them into his own loyal house slaves.

"There are many, I can't remember them all.

However, there is one I did remember, and it left me with many thoughts.

Among all evils, lust is the worst; judge by actions, not by intentions, for if you judge by intentions, there is no perfect person in the world.

Among all virtues, filial piety is the first; judge by intentions, not by actions, for if you judge by actions, there are no filial sons in poor families.

Look, isn't this... very well said?"

Guangming Xiu was stunned; these few sentences, falling into his ears, gave him a sense of sudden enlightenment.

Judging by intentions versus judging by actions.

According to this way of thinking, light might not be light, and evil might not necessarily be evil.

If one uses a kind heart to cause an evil deed, is that evil, or is it kindness?

If a villain acts as a hypocrite for his whole life, then is he a villain, or is he a hypocrite?

"By the way, His Highness the Prince's subordinates also said some... rebellious things." Ma Tong looked at Guangming Xiu and said secretly.

Although these words were rebellious, in Ma Tong's view, they were not anything...

"Oh?"

"They said that all men are born equal, and that princes and nobles, as well as farmers and slaves, are all equal."

Guangming Xiu nodded: "Perhaps those nobles would not agree with this statement, but I acknowledge it.

That such words would come from a prince is quite rebellious; I am very surprised."

"It's not just that, they also said... that humans and the gods... are also equal."

"What?" Guangming Xiu's expression changed drastically; he had not expected to hear such rebellious words.

How could humans and the gods be equal?

The gods are high above.

"They said that the gods are merely powerful creatures."

The gods are now high above because they have become gods and hold divine offices.

The nobility have more power and influence than us because they were born well.

These inequalities exist objectively.

However, we are equal to them, and to the gods, in terms of personhood.

I can no longer remember exactly what they said, nor can I say it well, but that was the general meaning."

"Equality in personhood?" Guangming Xiu murmured, many thoughts arising within him.

Ma Tong's few words stirred ripples in his heart.

Ever since the incident at the Sea Pearl, he had been reflecting and doubting.

He did not understand why things had happened that way.

Now, in Iron Stone City, he had unexpectedly obtained a similar answer from an Ordinary laborer.

(End of chapter)