Chapter 371: Medicine Is Not Effective Unless It Passes Through Zhangshu

"You are a Heavenly God descended to the world, while I am a mere mortal."

The soul of the Nanchang Prefect said: "If you speak of studying to become an official, I did not truly desire to be one; yet without being an official, one cannot exercise their ambitions. To change the rules, one must first integrate into them, but once integrated, it is like being trapped in a quagmire, always unable to act according to one's own will."

"To integrate into the rules is to identify with them and uphold them; that is yet another theoretical system. You could not accomplish things while alive and were forced to integrate. Now that you have died and returned, is your obsession deeper, or have you had a great awakening?" Xu Jia inquired.

"I do not understand," the Nanchang Prefect said. "Why expect that what could not be done in life can be done after death? Life and death are inherently two different sets of rules. The living do not deceive the dead, and the dead do not deceive the living; yin and yang are separated. I have never believed in the cause and effect of the afterlife, only in immediate retribution in the present world."

Xu Jia thought for a moment and said: "But yours was a foolish death; a foolish loyalty is merely pulling the carriage of history backward."

"Perhaps. There must always be someone to die for this, to pay the price for this, to bear the responsibility for this. You have your ideals, and I have my obsessions. My thoughts and my vision may not be far-reaching, but in terms of the ideology of 'ruler-ruler, minister-minister, father-father, son-son' that I was raised with, my actions—aside from not fighting to the death—can be considered a form of accountability, like committing suicide to die for one's country."

"The books I read are like this; what of the common people in the future? I fear all scholars will find it hard to change. The imperial examination was established to maintain rule. What about you? Will you select officials from it? If you do not select from it and instead choose from ordinary people, what they do will be even more lawless and without a bottom line."

"We scholars have one trait: having read through history and knowing the ends of history, we have misgivings. But I fear those who think they can tamper with history, acting without any method or influence; they have too few misgivings."

"New ideas will not be so hard to accept," Xu Jia said. "A single spark can start a prairie fire. Before, they did not know; now, everyone still has plenty of time to learn and accept. This is not some heterodox thought; it is merely a shift from 'the ruler is light and the people are heavy' to completely removing the ruler."

"Without preserving a ruler on the surface—an orthodoxy—countless people will want to be the ruler. Dragons and snakes will rise together. What you will have to deal with is not just a decaying Great Ning Dynasty, but all the awakened local warlords and noble families everywhere. They will not eat your gentle blade."

"Since ancient times, whoever enters the capital first claims the throne. You are still in the provinces, so you are also just a dragon or snake. Even if you do not admit it, reform requires you to occupy the supreme authority, and it must be taken completely from the hands of the previous dynasty."

"You do not need to remind me." Xu Jia heard him rambling on about things predecessors had already done, and simply said: "When the time comes, you will know what the trend of the times is. What I worry about is only the matter after founding the nation. Some change their will, some seize the will, but what I want to build is at least something that can continue. At least in terms of productivity and technology, no one will starve, and it will leave an upward path for everyone. The highest among them will not stop there either. I will go to the top first, then create a Daoist orthodoxy, letting them know that only by following me can they obtain eternal bliss; the pleasures of the Desire Realm are all fleeting."

"I do not understand."

"There are many things you do not understand."

Xu Jia had already decided what position to bestow upon the Nanchang Prefect: "You shall be responsible for compiling history; no other official post can be given."

Having said this, Xu Jia waved his hand from the bamboo forest, producing a string of bamboo slips. With a touch of golden light, he transformed them into a knife and pen, and the soul became somewhat more stable.

Xu Jia waved his hand, and a Ghost Immortal Register gave him a bit of power: "Go to Poyang. The Shunji Little Dragon King will arrange for you to do work, recording yin and yang. In the future, if any so-called loyal ministers or virtuous ministers die and their souls drift by, you shall write their biographies. I will see if your knife and pen are truly accurate."

The Nanchang Prefect became a Knife-Pen Clerk with a complex expression, and a gust of wind sent him to Poyang.

After the Nanchang Prefect left, Xu Jia calculated secretly. In truth, the time left for him was not much. He had already attained the fruit of a God Immortal; in fact, he could have ascended long ago. This world, after Xu Jia obtained the Immortal Sword, also faintly imposed restrictions, just as Earth Immortals reside long-term in a Blessed Land, and God Immortals or Heavenly Immortals, if they do not ascend, can only reside in a Cave Heaven.

If Xu Jia had not been causing chaos, it would actually be fine. With the Body God governing ten thousand gods, plus Xu Dayuan, no amount of Dharma Power would be too much. But because he had disturbed too much cause and effect, destiny, and even the world line, restrictions gradually appeared. At least for now, Xu Jia chose an "agent," which was Father Xu; otherwise, Xu Jia would certainly have entered the fray himself.

"America is still better. The laws of the Demon Kingdom are newly built by me. Even if there is a world will, I am not afraid. It is a manifested Dharma Body, not the true body..."

"Zhang Gong and Zhang Po of the Zhangshu tree request an audience with the Lingbao Heavenly Master."

Zhang Gong and Zhang Po?

Previously, the Thunder Law Seal had urged Xu Jia to use the Thousand-Year Wood Core, which was obtained from Zhang Gong and Zhang Po. They were already local deities receiving sacrifices, possessing Merit, and protecting the region. Xu Jia could not bear to do it, so he took the Voodoo Wood core from the American Voodoo religion. Now that Voodoo Wood had become the "Spirit Root Treasure Tree" of the American Cave Heaven Blessed Land, undergoing another transformation. Why had these Zhang Gong and Zhang Po come? Xu Jia then spoke into the Dharma Realm, his movement following his thoughts: "The two of you, please enter the Cave Heaven to talk."

Mingxin Cave, Liaozhen Heaven.

Xu Jia gave a slight thought, and a portal appeared. Inside the portal was light, with faintly visible hundred gods arrayed in formation; it was the Inner Scene Blessed Land merging with the External Scene. Zhang Gong and Zhang Po were two elders in green robes; Zhang Gong had crane-white hair and chicken-skin, and Zhang Po was five feet tall.

People in the world say they are husband and wife, but in fact, the two are brother and sister.

Zhang Gong held a Long-headed Cane, and Zhang Po held a Crane-beak Hoe, carrying a medicine basket on her back and walking barefoot.

There were many medicinal herbs in the medicine basket.

"Two virtuous elders, I wonder what advice you have?"

Seeing that Xu Jia was young but not at all arrogant—completely different from the legendary figure who was overbearing, punching the Long Life Sect Leader, kicking the Poyang Dragon King, and killing at the slightest disagreement—Zhang Gong and Zhang Po breathed a slight sigh of relief.

He said: "We have come for the people of Zhangshu."

"I have heard that Lord Xu is promoting the Equal-Field Edict; this is a benevolent policy. But our Zhangshu is a medicine capital; the common people are mostly herb farmers, and the landlords are medicine merchants. Annexing land to plant and harvest medicine is mostly to keep the market from becoming chaotic. Otherwise, if the price of this medicine is high this year and that medicine is high next year, everyone will plant that medicine and not plant others... that would be another turmoil. We two old ones also work in medicine. To tell the truth, Zhangshu worships the Medicine God, and they worship the two of us. This is the foundation of a Heavenly Immortal, a Longevity fruit position, which we dare not decline. Therefore, we have come to pay our respects, hoping to obtain a good outcome and a good beginning and end."

Zhangshu was the Blessed Field that these two had deeply cultivated, and it had become the prophecy that "Medicine is not effective unless it passes through Zhangshu." They also explicitly stated that they cultivated the path of the "Medicine God."

Xu Jia felt he was not a professional, but he did not want to go against the great cause of Equal-Field. He also thought of the expected universal free medical care, so he said: "I have also had expectations for this matter in my heart. There is a Bai Xian who came from the Qilu land; she is a fruit of an Earth Immortal and is skilled in administering medicine. I will invite her to come and discuss it together to come up with a plan."

Hearing this, Zhang Gong and Zhang Po were already thinking about how to speak. Xu Jia did not look like he was unwilling to discuss, and he had found a professional demon immortal, which showed he still valued this matter quite a bit.

It would still take some time for Bai Laotai to arrive, so Xu Jia spoke to them about the Equal-Field matter: "Equal-Field is the trend of the times; it will not change because you plant medicine. Otherwise, all the landlords in the world would plant medicine and not plant grain. You might have other ways, and I actually believe in the market, but the market is too easily manipulated. In the end, it is the common people who get hurt. Why don't you two join us? It is actually more extensive than the Merit of guarding one place."

Zhang Gong said: "We do not want to participate in the replacement of dynasties. To tell the truth, we are grass and wood spirits. We lived for hundreds of years before we had some spirituality and began to cultivate. Before becoming Earth Immortals, we had no power to fight back. Now that we have become God Immortals, we only know some methods of escaping and hiding. It was only because when we were young, a child prayed to the heavens and gods, and my sister and I felt compassion. We personally picked herbs, saved his mother's life, and planted a seed of good cause. He sacrificed to us, and later made a vow to become a doctor, often giving away good wealth. The common people built shrines for us, and we also received some Incense Fire... maintaining it for a thousand years until now."

"But the world is not just Zhangshu, where there are children begging for gods and Buddhas; there are also parents begging for gods and Buddhas. There are many such existences who are not unsavable, just without medicine."

Xu Jia said: "The soul of the Nanchang Prefect just came by and asked how I would solve the problem of ghosts and gods. It is nothing more than a matter of life and death. The dead are helpless, while the living are often generous and tragic. To maintain life, there is only the benevolent heart of a doctor."

"I have heard that a great doctor is sincere, first developing a heart of great compassion and pity, vowing to save the suffering of all living beings. If someone comes to seek help for illness or disaster, one must not ask about their status, wealth, age, beauty, ugliness, resentment, friendship, nationality, or intelligence. Treat them all equally, as if they were one's own close relatives. One must not look forward or backward, worrying about one's own fortune or misfortune, or protecting one's own life. Seeing their suffering, it is as if one is suffering oneself, feeling deeply sorrowful. Do not avoid danger, day or night, cold or heat, hunger or thirst, or fatigue; go to save them wholeheartedly, without any trace of seeking personal gain."

These are the words of Sun Simiao, the virtue of the medical profession since ancient times.

Zhang Gong and Zhang Po heard this, their hearts and minds shaken, and for a moment they could not help but be lost in thought.

"Equal-Field is to ensure that the common people of the world can stand up, but it does not necessarily guarantee that they will not starve or die of illness. In fact, land annexation can still happen in the future, liberating labor and distributing people to factories, but it will not be that kind of annexation. At least land trading must not be allowed."

Xu Jia said: "Medicine is the second guarantee built upon Equal-Field, so that the common people will not return to poverty due to illness, or lose their dignity as human beings due to illness, going out to sell themselves, becoming slaves or prostitutes."

"But there are not so many doctors, and besides, medicine does not make money. Who would be willing to be a doctor? If medicine makes money, and it is not earned from medicine, where else can it be compensated?"

Zhang Gong and Zhang Po, two thousand-year-old tree demons, after all, had some experience and had seen many things, and understood some principles, so they said: "If you cover the bottom for everything, how much money will this cost? But it is inevitable that the wool still comes from the sheep; it cannot appear out of thin air..."

"Do not worry about these things; I will consider them myself."

(End of chapter)