Confucian Cultivator Under One Person

Wang Anshi put away his official seal and said with a smile, "I'm not a high-ranking official, but I'm more than capable of commanding a few hairy gods in an uninhabited place."

As he spoke, he recited the sacrificial text on the spot and then lit the incense.

Fu Yuan was astonished. When he was deified, he fasted, bathed, and meditated for several days before he was deified. He didn't expect that Wang Anshi could deify him so easily.

Is it because he is an official?

The sacrificial text burned out and turned into a mysterious light.

Wang Anshi dipped the tip of his pen into the mysterious light, looked around, then selected a large rock near the entrance and wrote with a flourish: "One thought weighs a pound, seals away all evil!"

These words are vigorous and powerful, revealing a feeling as heavy as a mountain, sealing off everything.

It’s not the Conferred God, Fu Yuan realized in his heart, and suddenly, a powerful force pressed down on him.

This power is like a mountain, vast and heavy, but also like an illusion. Although you can feel it, you cannot truly experience it.

In other words, he could feel a mountain pressing down on him, but this feeling was illusory and not real.

Wang Anshi suddenly said something so loud and inaudible that even Zhang Boduan beside him couldn't hear it clearly.

Fu Yuan, however, heard it clearly across thousands of years of time and space.

"Come forward and receive the title!"

It was clearly not a deification, but Wang Anshi acted as if it was. It was clearly impossible to confer the title, but he let Fu Yuan come forward to receive it?

Fu Yuan chose to accept it and walked up to the huge stone with the words written on it.

"what?"

This time it was Zhang Boduan who exclaimed in surprise. He stared at Fu Yuan and said, "Why is this mountain god dressed so strangely? He seems to be so righteous and upright, yet he's a monk?"

Fu Yuan lowered his head: "Can you see me?"

Zhang Boduan stepped forward and circled around Fu Yuan, exclaiming in amazement, "Who are you? When did you die here?"

In Zhang Boduan's view, the illusory figure before him was clearly the little Mao God who had just been ordained by Wang Anshi.

When a person dies, the remaining soul will dissipate and turn into nothingness within a few days. If the soul has "intention", it will be a ghost. If it can obtain the method, it can give birth to its true self, become a ghost immortal, enjoy the power of incense and wishes, and become a god.

The shadow before his eyes was a soul with intention, which was ordained by Wang Anshi as a Mao God.

That is why Zhang Boduan asked, "When will you die here?"

Fu Yuan thought for a moment and said, "No matter who I was in the past, I am now the mountain god of this place."

Zhang Boduan marveled, "I can't tell where your accent is from... and judging by your clothes, I'm afraid you've been dead for a long time. Your noble spirit has survived through the centuries. I admire you!"

Fu Yuan smiled but did not answer.

Wang Anshi said, "Now that you have become a god, the entrance to this valley will be under your control. You must not allow man-eating beasts to enter. Do you understand?"

Fu Yuan bowed slightly: "As ordered!"

Zhang Boduan was about to ask more, but Wang Anshi urged him, "Alright, alright, let's go into the valley and explore it first!"

As he said this, he couldn't wait to push Zhang Boduan into the valley.

Fu Yuan stood at the entrance of the valley, looked at the backs of the two men, thought for a while, then turned and walked out of the valley.

With every step I took, I felt a weight growing on my body. After walking more than ten steps away from the valley, the false mountain that I had felt before seemed to really appear and press down on me.

One thought weighs a pound!

How strong is Wang Anshi’s noble spirit?

It’s hard to explain, but Fu Yuan couldn’t move more than a hundred steps even with his own great will to resist!

In other words, he couldn't leave the valley... But Fu Yuan was not worried, because he knew that the throne of God did not actually fall on him.

Wang Anshi could canonize the souls of those who had died in the past as gods, but he could not canonize living people who had not yet appeared as gods.

Fu Yuan was also deified. There are three steps to deification: first, conferring the title of god, second, accepting the title of god, and third, rectifying the title of god.

Wang Anshi's deification was only one-third complete. Not only was the deity's position still not determined, but even its name had not been "rectified".

This is not "conferring gods" but "conferring towns"!

The target of the suppression is not Fu Yuan, but... the "will" of everything!

If someone becomes an immortal here, then the one sealing the town is the immortal, and that is the "Five Supreme" will after becoming an immortal!

The moment he becomes an immortal, he will be sealed in the valley by this "one pound per thought" sealing stone. At that time, if the godhood is given to him, and then his name is "rectified"...

He was supposed to become an immortal, but ended up becoming a god?

Fu Yuan seemed to know what Wang Anshi was up to, but he didn't know why...

Chapter 98: Dharma Rectification

Since he couldn't get away from the valley and everything in the valley was within his sight, Fu Yuan simply sat on the huge rock at the entrance of the valley.

"One intention weighs a pound, suppressing all evil!"

The words on the boulder seem to be written directly into the stone, three-tenths into the stone. The majestic meaning contained in them is heavier than the mountain. Not to mention writing on a boulder, even if it is written on paper, just looking at these words and feeling the majestic meaning in the words, I am afraid that few people can pick it up.

Every word counts!

Moreover, the majestic meaning in this word can even transcend the long river of time and space, allowing Fu Yuan's will to manifest thousands of years ago. It is truly amazing!

In that dream, Fu Yuan, through Chen Duo's Qi, barely interfered with the past and Chen Duo's fate.

But Wang Anshi didn't use Qi at all, and only used Haoran Yi to achieve this...

Fu Yuan suddenly thought of a line of lyrics: "I see no ancients in front of me, and no future generations behind me. Thinking of the vastness of the universe, I am alone and shed tears."

Can you see the ancients in front of you and the future generations behind you?

For a moment, Fu Yuan was actually a little obsessed.

……

"...This valley is truly a gift from heaven and earth. This passage is like the human spine, ascending all the way up and finally reaching the back of the head... It corresponds exactly to the 'three vehicle forces' in cultivation... Seconds! Seconds!"

"Mr. Pingshu, do you think this valley can be transformed for human use?"

"It should be possible, but with my practice, I'm afraid it's far from enough..."

"..."

Wang Anshi and Zhang Boduan walked out of the valley with excitement on their faces, still discussing something with each other.

When they got out of the valley and saw Fu Yuan sitting on a huge rock, the two stopped talking and looked at each other.

Wang Anshi whispered something in Zhang Boduan's ear. Zhang Boduan nodded, flicked his whisk, and left on his own.

Only Wang Anshi was left. He walked to the boulder with a smile and looked at Fu Yuan.

Fu Yuan also looked at him, and they looked at each other.

After a moment, they both said in unison: "What do you want to ask?"

As soon as the words fell, both of them were stunned for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

Wang Anshi said, "Mencius said: 'As for success, it is heaven. What can a ruler do? He can only force himself to be good.'"

This sentence of his comes from Mencius's admonition to Duke Wen of Teng. The general meaning is that you should just do your own thing well and leave the success or failure to God.

So Wang Anshi didn't care about the future at all. He just wanted to do what he wanted to do.

Without this bit of courage, he wouldn't have such a noble spirit.

But Fu Yuan was very curious about the past and couldn't help asking, "Do you have a grudge against him?"

He refers to Zhang Boduan.

Wang Anshi smiled and said, "The Song Dynasty has only been established for a hundred years, but various problems have already emerged. First there was the Treaty of Tanyuan, then the Qingli Peace Agreement. Internally there are redundant officials and soldiers, and externally there are the Jin, Liao, and Western Xia who are eyeing us covetously. If we don't reform, the Song Dynasty will fall within fifty years!"

Fu Yuan was not very good at history, but he knew that after the Jingkang Incident, the Northern Song Dynasty perished, and the Southern Song Dynasty could only survive.

Wang Anshi continued, "Confucianism is now revived in the Song Dynasty, and there are many knowledgeable people who can recognize this point. Fan Zhongyan also presided over the reform during the Qingli period, but the reform ended in failure after only one year. What was the reason?"

Fu Yuan tried to ask, "Opposition from conservatives?"

Wang Anshi simply sat down on the boulder and, in a conversational manner, asked, "In your opinion, what is the most taboo in reform?"

Wang Anshi aimed to "establish a mission for the people", while Fu Yuan aimed to "establish a mind for heaven and earth". The two men's ambitions were fundamentally different.

Therefore, Fu Yuan had never thought about problems from the perspective of "all the people in the world." When Wang Anshi suddenly asked this question, he fell silent. After thinking for a moment, he tentatively asked, "Foreign threats?"

Wang Anshi waved his hand and said, "That's also true, but the Song Dynasty solved it with money."

Fu Yuan thought about it and finally shook his head.

Wang Anshi laughed and said, "In reforming a law, the most taboo is to be 'unrighteous'!"

Fu Yuan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized something and blurted out, "Use your own body to uphold justice?"

Wang Anshi nodded and said, "Reform means to enforce the law throughout the world and uphold the law with one's own actions! To enforce the law throughout the world, we must eliminate the unjust. The Great Song..."

Fu Yuan exhaled and said, "The literati and officials will not be punished!"

Since ancient times, has there ever been a reform without casualties?

However, when the Song Dynasty was founded, it established the ancestral law of "governing the world together with the literati and officials". The essence of legal reform is to formulate new rules. Those who do not abide by the new rules are considered "unrighteous"!

If you want to eliminate evil, the easiest way is to kill it.

However, the "improperness" of the Song Dynasty involved scholars and officials, who could not be beaten or killed, so the new laws naturally could not be implemented.

To put it bluntly, it has no deterrent effect.

Of course, those who preside over the reform often have to "uphold the law with their own bodies" in the end, but who among those who can preside over the reform is not a scholar-official?

Although the Qingli Reform led by Fan Zhongyan failed, he was still alive in the end and didn't even lose his official position. He was just relocated from place to place.

If we cannot "rectify the law", what is the point of this reform?

but……

Fu Yuan pointed to the valley and asked curiously, "Does it have anything to do with this place?"

Wang Anshi smiled and said, "I need a backup plan!"

Fu Yuan was bewildered: "What do you mean?"