Bearing the blue sky

Chapter 343 An Honest and Upright Official!

尺！

Zhu Ge dismissed most road construction methods and only mentioned one point: measurement.

The key to building roads lies in careful consideration.

What kind of road do you build in sandy areas? What kind of road do you build over water? What kind of road do you build in saline-alkali soil? What kind of road do you build in permafrost? What kind of road do you build in high mountains?

As for those illusory paths, they're pretty much the same.

The core issue lies in measurement.

After considering the starting point and the end point, we can then discuss other aspects.

"good."

Bai Luguan couldn't help but praise him, her eyes showing a hint of understanding.

But seemingly realizing immediately that this wasn't her usual persona, she reverted to her cold demeanor and continued, "Tell me again—how do you judge whether a road is good or bad, right or wrong?"

Is the road good or bad, right or wrong?

This is an easy question!

It's a life-or-death question!

Of course, that applies to normal people.

After all, choosing a road is extremely dangerous.

One wrong move and you could find yourself on the opposite side of Bailu Guan.

The often-discussed debate over the Great Way is actually a debate over the paths to success.

For example, if someone believes that human nature is inherently good, then he will inevitably stand on the opposite side of the idea that human nature is inherently evil.

If there were only two people left in the world, sharing a bowl of rice noodles, then the difference between liking and disliking cilantro would be similar.

The battle for the Great Dao!

So, how do we judge whether a road is good or bad, right or wrong?

Zhu Ge almost instantly came up with the answer in her mind.

"The path I'm on right now is the right path."

"The path that humanity wants to take is the right path."

The blessing song was calm, yet its melody resonated deeply.

In an instant, countless divine senses swept across this place, stirring up a thousand waves.

The path I've chosen is the right one!

The path that humanity has taken is the right one!

Just two sentences, but they convey so much!

Bai Luguan was momentarily stunned, and then blurted out instinctively, "How do you know your path doesn't conflict with the human path? How do you know it's the right one?"

Bai Luguan's voice echoed in the gray sky, like ripples spreading outwards in circles after a stone is thrown into deep water.

Her questions were more pointed, closer to the core, and harder to answer with platitudes or vague responses than any of the previous ones.

How do you know that your path doesn't conflict with the path of the human race?

How do you know it's correct?

Zhu Ge stood before the opened gap in the array, feeling the wind from Shengjing blowing in from the other side of the city gate.

The wind carries a temperature different from that outside the city.

It is drier and more complex, as if it has been repeatedly heated by the breath of countless people and the smoke from countless stoves.

He paused for a moment, not because he had no answer, but to allow the answer to take full shape in his mind, to ensure that it could be clearly articulated, rather than merely vaguely perceived.

"I just know," he said calmly. "As for why? I think we shouldn't look for the answer today. Looking at it from the perspective of history, the rights and wrongs of the past have already been answered, haven't they?"

Bai Luguan's gaze sharpened slightly.

She clearly hadn't expected that answer.

She hovered in mid-air, the hem of her gray dress still held taut by the wind, but her posture underwent an extremely subtle change.

"The long river of history?" She repeated those words, looking up at the sky above Zhu Ge's head.

Zhu Ge also went to see.

It's estimated that the Lantern-Carrying True Lord was standing there, but had no interest in showing himself.

However, this did not stop Zhu Ge from continuing to say: "Different standards of measurement will lead to different interpretations of right and wrong."

When Zhu Ge said this, her tone was as calm as if she were stating a fact that had been repeatedly verified.

His gaze did not leave Bai Luguan.

But he could sense that the moment those words were spoken, several of the observing divine senses around him showed extremely subtle fluctuations.

Like fleeting ripples left on the surface of water after being rippled by the wind, they are gone in an instant, but they do exist.

Given Zhu Ge's current level of cultivation, which is about to break through in battle, it's not surprising that he could sense divine consciousness.

Bai Lu Guan did not respond immediately.

She hovered in mid-air, her gaze still fixed on Zhu Ge, trying her best to integrate that sentence into her existing cognitive framework.

"So what are your standards for measurement?"

After a moment, she finally asked, "If you know that right and wrong depend on the standard of measurement, which standard are you using?"

Standards system?

Good question!

"I'm currently using two sets of standards."

Zhu Ge said calmly, "The first set is short-term. My standard for judging whether something is correct is whether it can bring about actual improvement in the present."

"For example, if building a road makes it faster and safer for pedestrians, then it is the right thing to do in the short term."

"For example, if building an academy can help more children learn practical knowledge, then it is the right thing to do in the short term."

"What about the second set?" Bai Lu asked thoughtfully.

"The second option is long-term."

Zhu Ge stated matter-of-factly: "My standard for judging whether something is right is whether it can lead to the construction of more roads, the establishment of more schools, and the continuation of good deeds after they are done."

"The short-term standard measures whether this thing is useful, while the long-term standard measures whether this thing will lead to more good things happening in the future."

Long-term or short-term!

We can't just focus on one thing!

"What if short-term and long-term standards conflict?" Bai Luguan frowned. "What if something brings practical benefits in the short term, but makes it harder for more good things to happen in the long run?"

"Then we need to reassess whether that thing has really brought any real benefits." Zhu Ge shook his head: "If something seems like a good thing in the short term, but it's actually undermining the conditions that allow more good things to happen, then it's not a good thing in the long run."

"If you only look at one of the short-term benefits and the long-term benefits, you won't see the complete answer."

"Then how do you know your standards aren't biased?" Bai Luguan frowned even more.

Zhu Ge smiled and said, "So we need to keep measuring, not just measuring once and then stopping, but continuously measuring."

What seems right today may turn out to be wrong in some ways tomorrow. What seems wrong today may turn out to be right in some ways tomorrow.

"Continuous measurement and continuous adjustment are all I can do; I call it dynamic."

Bai Lu Guan did not respond immediately.

She hovered in mid-air, her gaze fixed on Zhu Ge, her mind focused on the final step of an evaluation process that had been going on for a long time.

After a moment, she turned around and said, "Go into town."

She didn't say anything more.

Her figure began to slowly fade in the gray sky, like mist blown away by the wind, her edges gradually blurring, and finally disappearing among the low-hanging clouds above.

Zhu Ge stood there, gazing in the direction where the figure had disappeared, for a while.

Then he turned around and continued walking towards the city gate.

However, he also had doubts in his heart.

Does Bai Luguan mean he approves of him or not?

The next moment, a faint echo resounded in the air, like smoke and illusion: "I am the White Dew Official, and the Holy Emperor has ordered me to oversee the navigation of the world."

"As long as I live, your path will always be under my watch."

"Don't let me discover the day when your path diverges from the path of humanity—"

A few words are like wisps of smoke, rising into the sky and soon dissipating.

If it were an ordinary person, they might think they were hallucinating.

However, these few words made Zhu Ge's lips curl up slightly.

He cupped his hands in greeting to the empty space in front of him, and then strode forward.

"Jianjian, let's go! Next level!"

Zhu Ge waved.

Liu Jianjian quickly pulled the carriage forward.

As a third-realm demon beast, Liu Jianjian is inherently very powerful; she's just lazy most of the time.

Otherwise, she could carry a mere carriage and fly tens of thousands of miles.

"Master, do you consider those answers to be acceptable?" Liu Jianjian was very clever; her usual absent-mindedness did not prevent her from understanding the witty remarks just now.

However, she didn't hear the few words Bai Luguan left for Zhu Ge, so she was still a little uneasy.

"Of course." Zhu Ge smiled. "Let's go, let's see the second level."

The first level has a formation and the White Dew Official.

But what about the second level?

The second level is actually not difficult.

Normally, the first screening step only checks whether the visitor is a human.

To prevent demons, ghosts, monsters, and spirits from infiltrating.

However, the second checkpoint examines three generations!

Does he/she have a history of treason or criminal record?

But that's the normal way to put it.

Judging from the current trend, Zhu Ge estimates that he will encounter the next Heavenly Official in the second level.

"It feels eerie."

Liu Jianjian pulled the carriage behind him, looking left and right, but there was no one there.

Her pace quickened slightly, as if adjusting her rhythm to adapt to the city, which was larger and more densely populated than she had anticipated: "Master, where is our second level?"

"I don't know," Zhu Ge said, also looking around. "But we should know soon."

As soon as he finished speaking, a figure appeared in front of him.

The figure stood there, as if he had been standing there for a long time, or as if he had just walked to that spot from some direction he hadn't noticed yet.

He was a slender man wearing a dark gray robe with a dark red rope tied around his waist. At the end of the rope hung a jade stone about the size of a thumb, which gleamed with a warm, dark light in the grayish-white daylight.

His face was neither young nor old; his skin had a slightly dark texture typical of someone who travels a lot, but the lines around his eyes were deep, as if he had experienced many moments that required long periods of gazing into the distance to reach them.

Qingming official!

Zhu Ge remembers his face.

A few months ago, during the standoff on the Qin-Jiang border, Qingming Guan stood by the branches of that old locust tree, wearing a plain white robe, holding no object, just with his hands behind his back, as if he were standing in his own yard looking at the sky.

At that time, his presence was largely overshadowed by the brilliance of the New Year's Eve Official and the Annihilation True Lord, but Zhu Ge still remembered his words: "Heaven and earth will shed tears for you, and the human race will offer sacrifices for you."

At the time, that statement sounded like an evaluation, but looking back now, it seems more like a conclusion that he has repeatedly confirmed.

"You arrived sooner than I expected," Qingmingguan said, his voice neither loud nor soft, like a breeze passing through an open field.

"My speed has never been slow." Zhu Ge stopped about two zhang away from him. "Official Qingming, you're not waiting for me here just to chat, are you?"

"That's not true." Qingming Guan shook his head: "I heard your conversation with Bailu Guan. You know about roads, how to repair them, and how to judge the quality of roads. I'd like to hear how you understand another matter."

"What is it?" Zhu Ge raised an eyebrow.

"Sacrifice." When Qingming Guan uttered those two words, his gaze did not leave Zhuge.

But his voice deepened slightly, as if he were bringing up a topic he had thought about many times but had never fully settled.

"A sacrifice?" Zhu Ge didn't answer immediately.

He stood in the open field, the sky above him a greyish-white expanse, while the official in charge of the Qingming Temple stood two steps away, awaiting his reply.

Zhu Ge sighed: "The essence of sacrifice is remembrance."

"It's not about praying to the gods for anything, nor is it about exchanging offerings for anything, and it's certainly not about seeking so-called ancestral blessings."

"The essence of sacrifice is to make people remember those who are no longer here, remember what they did, and remember the path they walked."

"A person is truly dead when he is forgotten. Sacrifice allows those who are no longer here to continue living in the hearts of the living."

"Death is not the end, forgetting is."

"Death is not the end, forgetting is?" A very subtle change appeared in Qingming Guan's eyes.

The change was subtle, like the faint glow that appears on the surface of a thin layer of ice when touched by slightly warmer air—fleeting, yet undeniably present.

"You said the essence of sacrifice is to remember—" Qingming Guan narrowed his eyes: "Then what do you think sacrifice should remember?" "Remember those things that are worth remembering." Zhu Ge sighed: "We should remember the path that led humanity to where we are today, remember those who built the path for more people, remember those who started walking the path before it was even finished."

"Unfortunately, I can't see you doing this now."

"Whether it's the ancient philosophers or the humans fighting on the front lines, you seem to have no rituals performed."

"Oh? How do you know I didn't?" Qingming's expression hardened. "What if what those people did is controversial in the eyes of later generations? What if someone built a road for one group, but that group later became an obstacle for another?"

"Then remember everything he did." Zhu Ge met Qingming Guan's gaze without fear: "Sacrifice is not about molding people into flawless idols; sacrifice is about letting people see the path a person has walked."

The entire journey.

"Including the detours he took, the roads he repaired incorrectly, and the roads he later corrected."

"A perfect idol is meaningless, because no one can learn anything from perfection. Only those who have made mistakes and then corrected them can show those who come after them how to walk the right path."

"Sacrifice is for remembrance, to let us know where we come from and where we are going."

"I believe that everything has a beginning and an end, so the ultimate question of birth lies here—who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?"

"And sacrificial rites allow us to pay tribute to our ancestors, remember them, and know the path they followed."

His words stirred up a storm.

The official in charge of the Qingming Festival lingered for a long time at the spot where Zhu Ge had spoken.

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