Chapter 1102: Stimulating Growth

The officials were satisfied that the Emperor had returned to the right path, but the Daoist Priests were not.

Even Zhang Liuzhen couldn't help telling Pan Yun: "The world deeply misunderstands us Daoists."

"Cultivation, cultivation—what we cultivate is our true self; we seek the Great Dao, the ultimate truth of this world."

Pan Yun: "Isn't the ultimate goal immortality?"

Zhang Liuzhen choked, then said: "But they think of us far too crudely—immortality isn't for pleasure."

He paused, muttering softly: "I've always felt we shouldn't aim for immortality, but for the Great Dao; immortality is merely a byproduct of attaining the Dao."

Pan Yun: "Go ahead and preach that—within three years, the number of Daoists will plummet to zero. That'll perfectly align with the imperial court's policy of suppressing Buddhist and Daoist populations."

Zhang Liuzhen: …

"Enough, let's talk about something else," Zhang Liuzhen said. "I plan to travel and lecture across the land, explaining the essential principles of the heart method."

Pan Yun: "Go to the military. The heart method cannot yet be opened to the common people."

Pan Yun introduced him to Minister of Military Affairs Yu Qian.

Yu Qian welcomed Zhang Liuzhen warmly.

Since the soldiers began cultivating Zhang Liuzhen's heart method, combined with their sword techniques, spear techniques, and battle formations, their power increased dramatically.

In the previous Northern Campaign, the carefully selected vanguard made outstanding contributions.

Because of this, the military began widely promoting his heart method—even spreading it among military household youths not yet enlisted. Now, the Ministry of Military Affairs plans to extend it to military colonies, beginning cultivation and screening at age eight.

To cultivate this heart method, the Ministry of Military Affairs, through the Daoist Records Office, hired many Daoist Priests as instructors across military garrisons.

But the Daoist Priests recommended by the Daoist Records Office varied widely—some were graduates of the Imperial Academy, others were wandering cultivators from the martial world who received the heart method and immediately began teaching.

Even with a single text like "Free and Easy Wandering," a thousand people see a thousand different Zhuangzis—how much more so with a heart method?

The teaching of the heart method in the military was thus wildly inconsistent.

To address this, Pan Yun personally compiled a commentary and delivered it to the military; the publishing house printed it as a booklet, circulating it only within the military.

Yet, due to a shortage of instructors, conditions varied greatly among different units.

Zhang Liuzhen's arrival made Yu Qian overjoyed.

After all, he was the original creator of the technique—could anything be more aligned with the method than his own instruction?

Yu Qian eagerly arranged for Zhang Liuzhen to lecture, planning a touring circuit: first teaching in the Five Military Commissions and Imperial Guards of Jingcheng, then radiating outward from the capital region.

The Zhang Zhang Tian Shi was rarely so active—Yu Qian was determined to make full use of him.

The Emperor, having stepped away from cultivation and returned to his proper role, was also fully devoted to his duties.

Looking at this matter objectively, after stepping out of his own self-imposed role, the Emperor could rationally judge: the new cultivation method, for the common people, was merely a way to strengthen the body.

The soldiers' physiques were far stronger than his own, and they had begun cultivating the heart method earlier; through them, it was confirmed that the method did raise soldiers' physical qualities generally—but only from the lowest levels of Wu Gong to the third or fourth tier.

Only a tiny fraction had the chance to reach the top tier of martial arts masters, roughly one in a thousand.

Among those top-tier experts, only a hundredth had any hope of breaking through into the Dao and reaching the First Marquis Realm.

And those who could bypass all these limitations, directly converting celestial qi into yuan qi—so far, the military's reports listed only one hundred and eight individuals.

The Ministry of Military Affairs treated these one hundred and eight as precious seedlings, and the imperial court already planned to cultivate them into a dedicated corps of cultivators.

They would become the Great Ming's strongest fighting force.

And as the method spread, such individuals would grow in number.

How many strong-bodied men are there in the world? If they cannot achieve it, how could a weak-bodied Emperor possibly do so?

He was not skilled in combat, perhaps not even in strategy—but he could be skilled at being Emperor.

The Grand Tutors said: a ruler must know how to employ men, how to weigh and balance.

Employing men… and weighing and balancing…

The Emperor approved the Ministry of Military Affairs' application: not only allowing Zhang Liuzhen to preach in the military, but also permitting more disciples from the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion to serve as instructors.