The fake prince was exposed at the beginning, and I took office as emperor on the spot

Chapter 221 Eternal Unity (Part 2)

Gu Fangchen had secretly come to Fancheng, so of course she couldn't just swagger around and expose her whereabouts.

Before entering, he first set up a "mirage array" for himself. With his current cultivation level, the array he set up was a complete illusion array with the characteristics of the "emotion" path.

Moreover, due to the collective betrayal of the "Love" Path, Gu Fangchen, a fourth-rank cultivator, could even sense a faint wisp of incense power emanating from the "Love" Path.

The number of people in the "path of love" is not very large, totaling around a thousand, so the incense offerings are not very strong, only a faint thread, but they do exist after all.

This shows that Gu Fangchen's scheme back then truly shocked the "path of love," to the point that their faith in Gu Fangchen had reached a fanatical level.

The Demonic Sect was originally called the Demonic Sect because its followers revered the "Master of the Dao" as a deity and regarded him as the guiding principle of the Dao.

It's simply because there aren't enough people to create an incense offering realm. Of course, most "Dao Lords" already have cultivation levels of Rank 3 or higher and don't need this fake incense offering.

However, the incense offerings can indeed increase one's strength.

Therefore, the current popularity of the "love" path has naturally brought some benefits to Gu Fangchen.

For example, he did not originally cultivate the "path of emotion," so even though he caused such a large-scale emotional fluctuation, it could not become part of his own cultivation.

But now, because the incense of the "path of love" is on him, it is equivalent to indirectly giving him the external "path of love".

In other words, Gu Fangchen himself doesn't repair things, but now that a USB port is connected, he can still access the files inside.

Therefore, Gu Fangchen's "Mirage Formation" is not only complete, but also imbued with the power of "emotion".

Let alone a third-rank official, even a second-rank official, as long as they are more than ten miles away, will not be able to detect any clues. Unless they are face to face, being careful is still risky.

It can be described as divine skill.

Therefore, even though Gu Fangchen was already clinging to the windowsill, Xiao Yinghao still had to look down to notice him.

Xiao Yinghao was taken aback at first, then her expression changed. She immediately reached out and pulled him in, closed the window, and activated the array in the bedroom.

Then, she turned around and asked in a low voice:
"Why aren't you serving as a great hero in Qingman? Why are you suddenly here with me?"

Gu Fangchen patted off imaginary dust from her clothes and said with a grin:
"I thought the princess would arrest me as soon as she saw me, but she just asked me why I came."

Xiao Ying chuckled.
"Why would I take you down? To lock you up in the basement and make you my gigolo?"

She walked back to the table and tapped on the stack of battle reports:

“I know Xiao Sheng very well. I only saw his ambition, but I never expected that the Confucian scholars would be even more insane than him, daring to put such an incompetent person on the throne and behead my father in the Ziji Palace.”

Xiao Yinghao's gaze was deep and thoughtful.

Gu Fangchen walked over, shook her head, and said:

"Then I'm afraid... Confucianism is even more insane than you imagine."

"What they want is not a hundred years of peace, nor a thousand years of prosperity, but 'eternity under the same sky'."

Xiao Yinghao's brow twitched.

She only recently discovered that Yaoshan Academy had a plan about "eternal harmony," but she didn't know what it meant.

"What exactly does 'eternal unity under the same sky' represent? As far as I know, this is the only thing that will prevent people from entering the cycle of reincarnation..."

Gu Fangchen didn't say it before because no one would believe her even if she did.

Now that the situation has been completely ignited by the death of Emperor Yong'an, this murky water has turned into a complete cesspool.

Because the actions of Confucianism have already begun to show signs of wrongdoing, the more outrageous the claims made now, the higher their credibility becomes...

Gu Fangchen stared intently at Xiao Yinghao, and said, word by word:

"It is not that one is immune to reincarnation."

"That's just them deceiving themselves."

Gu Fangchen turned to look outside again and asked:
"Your Highness, in your opinion, how is the world developing? Or rather, in which direction is it developing?"

Xiao Yinghao pondered for a moment and said:

The Dao of Extinction believes that the world's path from order to disorder, from birth to destruction, is a one-way street.

Buddhism believes that the world is a continuous cycle, like a roulette wheel, rolling ever forward.

"Regardless of which one, the world is moving forward endlessly, just as people must experience birth, aging, sickness, and death. This should also be the view of most practitioners."

Gu Fangchen nodded and gestured a straight line:
"Indeed, no matter what, the world is always moving forward in an unknown direction, never stopping, and just continuing like this."

"However, the world is finite."

“Ancient cultivators have already tried it. If you fly along the direction where the sun sets, you will eventually encounter a blurry boundary, and then you will return to the original place in an instant. That is ‘heaven’.”

Yes, this world is not a planet, but a flat surface.

The present world and the netherworld are two sides of the same coin.

However, one side was completely blacked out, so no light could be seen at all.

The sky, however, is spherical, with a horizontal plane running through the middle, and the sky revolves around these two planes day after day.

In other words, this world is actually a geocentric world, where all the celestial bodies revolve around the land.

It is precisely because there is a real "heaven" that one should "open the gates of heaven" even after a long life, which will become a real thing.

Otherwise, what kind of heaven would he have opened...?

And such a world is also an important source of the "revealing the way of the furnace" theory.

"Since the world is finite, if people never reincarnate and continue to reproduce indefinitely, then the world will become overcrowded, which will lead to even greater chaos."

"And what Confucianism least desires is chaos."

Xiao Yinghao nodded, agreeing with the statement.

"But then... what do they mean by 'not entering the cycle of reincarnation'?"

Gu Fangchen paused for a moment, then said:

"It's very simple. Since the original world always moves forward, it means that entering the cycle of reincarnation will cause damage. One day, a person's soul will disappear at the end of that cycle."

"And that's exactly what Confucianism aims to do—"

He just made a straight line by bending the two ends of his hand towards the middle, connecting them to form a circle.

"They want to turn the endless end into a cycle that is both a beginning and an end."

"This is 'eternal unity under the same sky'."

Xiao Yinghao's pupils constricted as she watched his gestures, a look of shock on her face.
"This is Yaoshan's plan? The so-called 'avoiding reincarnation'?"

Once there truly is a node that can connect the beginning and the end of the world, then everything within it will indeed no longer disappear in the cycle of reincarnation.

Because inside, it's always the same few people...

The soul merely moves back and forth between the Netherworld and reality, but its total amount remains unchanged.

The meaning of "not entering the cycle of reincarnation" is that everyone is like being inside a washing machine, going around and around, but always returning to the starting point.

Therefore, everyone will meet again one day, no one will truly die, and it is even possible to return to the timeline where they originally lived and live it again.

Naturally, if a practitioner lives long enough, they may be able to meet someone who looks exactly like them.

You can see the same sky!
Therefore, in the original game storyline, if a player chooses the Confucian path without understanding its true meaning, the "Four Symbols Calamity Master" will say before his death that the player knows nothing and follows Xie Qian to the eternal prison called "Eternal Heaven." Isn't that exactly a prison?

He would keep all of them under house arrest, cultivating Xie Qian's ideal Shangri-La, a prosperous dream of "eternal harmony under the same sky."

In this way, no matter how dynasties change or how they split and unite, they will eventually come to an end, return to that unified beginning, and start all over again.

Therefore, there is no need to worry about any demonic sects or the Qingman tribes; everything is part of a predetermined script.

This is Xie Qian's ideal, a grand cause he has been planning for over 1,300 years.

Even Xiao Yinghao was shocked by this idea.

For a moment, she couldn't tell whether doing this was good or bad...

Because it's estimated that no one would do that, and no one has ever succeeded in doing it. Nobody knows what the world will be like after "eternal unity of heaven and earth".

If we detach ourselves from ourselves and view this plan from the perspective of an eternally powerful being, it seems that it is indeed feasible.

But once you start looking at it from your own perspective, you'll find that it's a real nightmare.

Now that the Confucianists support Xiao Sheng's ascension to the throne, they probably don't care how the people suffer afterward, because the stability they desire has already been determined.

No matter how much suffering and death followed, someone would eventually emerge to unify the land, and then... the Great Wei would once again become the Ancient Zhou.

From the ancient Zhou Dynasty to the present day, not only have dynasties changed, but customs, language, and systems have also become completely different.

For example, the ancient Zhou dynasty was rife with illicit worship, while the Great Wei dynasty had long since banned incense offerings.

It's hard to imagine how chaotic the world would become then...

It's as if we're already in the 21st century, and modern people are going back 5,000 years to become primitive people and develop tribal civilization.

Absurd! Ridiculous!
Ordinary people might not notice it, but how could a cultivator who lives for hundreds of years not notice it?

These Confucianists have truly gone completely mad...

Xiao Yinghao, considering that Yaoshan was collecting dragon veins, realized that what Gu Fangchen said was true.

What other thing could possibly require the power of five dragon veins?

Moreover, these five dragon veins correspond to five different dynasties.

So, it is clear that these five dragon veins are the key to achieving "eternal unity of heaven and earth," and perhaps the purpose is to use the dragon veins to shift time and space.

Xiao Yinghao took a deep breath and murmured:

"This is truly... outlandish."

Her expression changed: "Then, isn't Xiao Sheng now in Yaoshan, becoming a vessel for the dragon vein...?"

Gu Fangchen nodded.

Xiao Sheng has finally gotten what he asked for.

Anyway, all he wanted was to be emperor, and he didn't care how long he would be emperor or which country he would be emperor of.

He whispered:

"Xie Qian's madness may be because he has been in contact with 'Tianmen' and the people who 'expose' him may have been his subordinates from the very beginning."

Gu Fangchen then took out paper and pen, wrote down the locations of the remaining dragon veins and the corresponding strategies, and handed them to Xiao Yinghao.

"The eldest princess must do everything she can to stop him from collecting the remaining dragon veins; delaying it is also acceptable."

"Furthermore, the one who truly killed Xiao Ding was that monk Shenxiu. If possible, please, Princess, lead troops to control Futu City, prevent him from leaving, and do not listen to a single word he utters."

Xiao Yinghao was quite surprised. She had heard of Shenxiu before, but he was just a true disciple of the Garan Temple.

How could someone possibly have the ability to kill Emperor Yong'an?

It seems there are still many malignant tumors lurking within the Great Wei...

With a serious expression, she reached out and took the paper, looked at it carefully for a few moments, nodded, and agreed.

Then, the eldest princess raised her eyes again and said calmly:
"So you came to see me just for this?"

"of course not."

Gu Fangchen shook her head, and the princess's expression softened slightly. Then she heard him say again:

"I would also like to ask if there is a man named Zhao Shi under the command of the government troops in the three nearby areas who came from the desert about five years ago and should have been admitted to the logistics department."

Gu Fangchen had previously asked Granny Meng which government office her son had joined in the army.

After roughly estimating the timeline, it became clear that he couldn't possibly have joined the army through a regular government agency, and the Xuanhuang Army wouldn't accept someone like him who wasn't registered in the military.

Desert refugees who wanted to join the army usually went to the government troops in the outer regions.

The government army was actually a part of the White Dragon Army.

Xiao Yinghao glanced at him and said irritably:

"How could I possibly remember the name of a logistics person who got in through connections five years ago? Besides, he was just a government soldier."

She reached out and pulled out a thick register.

"This is a backup list of personnel from the three government armies for the past five years. Any changes are recorded here. If you want to find it, take it and look at it yourself."

Gu Fangchen reached out and took it, smiling as she said:
"okay."

He put the backup list into his inner ring and then walked out.

Seeing that he came and went in a hurry, Xiao Yinghao felt depressed, but she didn't want to stop him. She sighed softly, lowered her eyelashes, and prepared to close the window.

Gu Fangchen suddenly stopped, turned around, and blinked:

"By the way, Princess, was the strategy guide I gave you useful?"

Xiao Yinghao paused, and upon hearing his intentions, she knew what he was planning. She gave a light snort.
"so so."

Gu Fangchen's expression turned serious, and she immediately shook her head:

"Impossible, Princess. Don't talk nonsense just because you're angry. You can insult me, but you can't insult my strategy."

Xiao Yinghao squinted her eyes:
"So, do you think it's easy to use?"

Gu Fangchen said in a very serious tone:
"It's incredibly useful, so Princess, you should give me some reward."

Xiao Yinghao was both annoyed and amused to see him asking the question when he already knew the answer, and shamelessly asking for a reward himself again.

"What reward do you want?"

Gu Fangchen smiled and said:
"Princess, come closer. What I need is no simple matter."

Xiao Yinghao leaned closer, and sure enough, this guy successfully ambushed her, grabbing her tightly and demanding a reward.

"Well……"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: Post first, edit later.

(End of this chapter)