From a refugee to a martial artist

Chapter 366 In the City
Another day passed, and the group saw the Kingdom of Xiangji.

The towering city walls connect the two valleys, and a river flows into the city. Outside the city gates, a dense crowd has already gathered.

At noon, the north-south oriented canyon was bathed in sunlight.

The slaves of Xiangji Kingdom were already prepared and stood on both sides of the city gate, with the slave Old Stone guarding the front.

Upon seeing Meng Yuan and Mingyue arrive hand in hand, Old Stone shouted loudly and then knelt down.

As Old Stone knelt down, all the slaves of the Xiangji Kingdom also knelt on the ground, regardless of age or gender, and dared not even raise their heads.

When Abbess Liaocun returned, she had already seen the lone people from Xiangji Kingdom. She knew that these people had been slaves for thousands of years, and their obedience to those in high positions was ingrained in their bones. They were even a hundred times more humble and obedient than people from foreign countries. Not to mention the mere act of kneeling, even if those in power made stranger requests, no one would object.

"The Peacock Venerable's theory about the plague does make some sense." Master Liaocun originally didn't want to talk too much with Jie Kaiping, but Jie Kaiping was always cheerful and ended up chatting with Master Liaocun for a long time, also telling her about the plague.

"Mental illness is hard to cure." Jie Kaiping's face showed neither the compassion of those great monks nor any sorrow.

“Indeed.” Master Liaocun nodded slowly. After traveling with him for the past day or two, Master Liaocun found that this Peacock Venerable did indeed have some knowledge, and perhaps because he had seen many great things, he often had profound insights and understandings about many things.

Looking at the countless slaves kneeling on the ground, and seeing Meng Yuan leading Mingyue forward without telling anyone to rise, yet calmly moving forward as if he were about to become the king of Xiangji Kingdom, Abbess Liaocun said, "Fortunately, Xiangji Kingdom is too small. Though called a kingdom, it's only the size of a town, with a mere tens of thousands of people. With a few years of training, and after a generation, things will change. In another fifty or sixty years, or even a hundred years, the distinction between superiors and inferiors will no longer be so clear, and new customs will emerge."

“It might also give rise to a new plague.” Jie Kaiping said earnestly. He patted his chest, pointed to Meng Yuan who was walking forward, and looked at Master Cun with a serious expression. He said, “Meng Feiyuan is a disciple of the Ying family. He has always been of noble character, generous and ambitious. Naturally, he can bring a good medicine to the Xiangji Kingdom.”

At this point, Jie Kaiping sighed and said, "However, Meng Feiyuan cannot stay here for long. In the future, we will have to rely more on Junior Sister Suwen. But Junior Sister Suwen is too young and has little hair, so I'm afraid she will have difficulty winning people over."

Master Liaocun shared this concern and asked, "What insightful opinion does Venerable Peacock have?"

Jie Kaiping touched his chin, wanting to speak, but then shook his head and remained silent, as if he was troubled.

"Senior brother, stop pretending!" Dugu Kang, who had been listening from the side, had become quite familiar with Jie Kaiping's methods over the past two days, and immediately said, "You just want to get Junior Sister Suwen to return to secular life and become a princess or something!"

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Jie Kaiping immediately changed his expression and said honestly, "Senior brother, I also thought about it carefully before coming up with a foolproof method!"

Without saying a word, Abbess Liaocun glared at the two bald-headed fellow disciples and then led the nuns forward.

"You're quite knowledgeable!" Su Xin said, giving Jie Kaiping a thumbs-up as she passed by.

At this moment, Meng Yuan had arrived at the city gate and then stopped.

Looking back, one could see that only one road was left under the city gate, with many slaves from the Xiangji Kingdom kneeling on both sides.

These people were all dressed in tattered clothes and had a frail appearance, yet they were incredibly devout as they knelt and chanted, as if these lowly slaves had only respect and obedience for their superiors and had no desire to rebel whatsoever.

Meng Yuan summoned the slave Old Stone and first asked how many people lived in the city.

Old Stone wasn't a bad worker, but he didn't know either, only replying, "It's probably around 30,000."

Meng Yuan then asked him how he dealt with the nobles, and Old Stone replied that, in accordance with Meng Yuan's orders, he had imprisoned all the members of the two upper families and the eleven lower families in the library.

However, this was the first time the slaves of Xiangji Kingdom had done something like this, so they didn't dare to show the slightest disrespect to the nobles and served them well with good food and drink.

Although these nobles did not know what had happened at the end of the canyon, they saw strange phenomena in the sky, and none of the nobles returned. The high priest was also nowhere to be found, so they knew that something terrible had happened.

Moreover, the remaining nobles in the city were either old, young, or women who could not travel for long. Seeing that the slaves had a new king and that the slaves did not overstep any boundaries, they obediently went to the library tower to wait for the new king's arrival. After all, no matter who was in charge, it was these nobles who would lead the tens of thousands of slaves in the Kingdom of Xiangji.

Seeing that Old Stone was reliable and had some talent for adapting to situations, Meng Yuan asked, "Do you have any descendants?" "This old servant only has one daughter, who is sixteen years old." Old Stone immediately knelt down, his face and eyes showing joy, and waved vigorously to a girl in the crowd, "Little Stone Ball, come and pay your respects to the King!"

The girl was very obedient. She stepped forward blankly and knelt beside the old stone, but she didn't even dare to raise her head.

Old Stone was overjoyed, "This old servant is willing to offer my daughter to Your Majesty!"

The little stone ball was actually quite good-looking; although it was dressed in coarse cloth, it had specially washed its head and face.

This land of Xiangji is located deep in the mountains and has a tradition of eating fragrant herbs. These slaves are no exception. Most of the people here are good-looking, but the slaves are poorly fed and have hungry faces, but the beauty of the young girls is still undeniable.

For a moment, looking at the girl named Xiaoshiqiu, Meng Yuan was reminded of Jiang Yatou at home.

Meng Yuan looked at the crowd, trying to find a woman similar to Nie Qingqing. There were many women of similar age, but none with the same mindset.

“No need for that.” Meng Yuan wasn’t interested in the small stone ball. Instead, he looked at Jie Kaiping, who was staring at it, and asked, “Brother Jie, would you like to leave the monastic life here and start a family? And perhaps become a nobleman?”

Meng Yuan asked the question sincerely.

Unveiling the screen, he immediately shook his head, "It's all empty. Women are empty, power and position are empty, and wealth and honor for children and grandchildren are also empty."

"Where is Master Liaokong?" Meng Yuan asked Dugu Kang again.

Dugu Kang shook his head repeatedly, "They're all just a handful of yellow earth. Nobles and slaves are no different. They're all just illusions caused by unresolved greed, anger, and ignorance."

"You two are indeed disciples of extraordinary talents, having already grasped the profound truths of life!" Meng Yuan clapped his hands in praise, and finally gently raised his hand, a wisp of flame rising softly to lift the small stone ball kneeling on the ground, and asked, "What is your name?"

The young girl, Xiao Shiqiu, shook her head blankly, "This servant's name is Xiao Shiqiu."

“From this day forward, your surname will be Shi, and your name will be Shi Huaiyu,” Meng Yuan said.

The people of Xiangji Kingdom are mostly simple and honest, lacking in cunning. At this moment, Little Stone Ball still doesn't understand the meaning of the name bestowed by the king, and is still bewildered, "Slaves can have surnames and names?"

"If I say it's possible, then it's possible." Meng Yuan smiled, turned to Su Wen, and said, "Junior Sister Su Wen, would you be so kind as to accept her as your disciple and let her learn medical skills from you?"

Everyone looked at Suwen, and saw that Suwen blushed for some reason, and only lowered his head and said, "I will listen to my senior brother."

"Alright, from now on Shi Huaiyu will be your first disciple." Meng Yuan smiled.

The slave, Old Stone, was just overjoyed that the king had bestowed a name upon him, but now he was being asked to become the disciple of that bald woman. He was bewildered and didn't know whether to be happy or worried.

Meng Yuan looked at the little stone ball and said, "In the future, you will follow your master to learn your skills. When you succeed, I will promote your status and you will no longer be a slave."

"Not a slave?" the little stone ball asked blankly. "Then what should we cultivate in this life? What will we be reincarnated as in the next life?"

“What I say is more accurate than your cultivation in this life, and you will not need to reincarnate in the next life,” Meng Yuan said.

The little stone, who had just been given a name, was still bewildered and clearly hadn't figured it out yet.

But the slave, Old Stone, had already understood that their new king possessed extraordinary abilities, allowing him to become a nobleman directly without having to toil as a slave in this life to be reborn as a nobleman in the next.

"Isn't this taking a shortcut?" Old Stone thought to himself, but he still felt it was a good thing, so he quickly knelt down again. In any case, even if his daughter had to become an apprentice to a bald man, his family was already close to becoming nobles.

(End of this chapter)