148 I Know That He Will Never Be Hones

"Very well then, let’s have Zhan Ziye demonstrate the effectiveness of this Gate of All Living Things to everybody. As for the background story for the illusion… here are some ready made scenarios; you can choose whatever you want."

Before the Gate of All Living Things, Yuan Chaonian, with a wooden expression, revealed more than ten simple jades and handed them over to the Spirit Sword Sect Elders. Liu Xian and his Junior Brothers and Sisters exchanged glances and then randomly picked one of them.

Yuan Chaonian said, "Insect poison outbreak… very interesting scenario. Ziye, are you ready?"

"Yes, Master!"

While talking, Yuan Chaonian opened the Gate of All Living Things and sucked Zhan Ziye into it, and then, with a loud crashing sound, the door was closed.

Yuan Chaonian then cast a spell so that what happened within the door was projected outside for other people to see.

The content of the illusion was simple: in order to collect people’s soul and flesh, a group of demonic people from a devil sect spread out an insect poison in a country. This kind of insect poison was extremely sinister. Once contracted, the poisoned person would be reduced to a living corpse and would develop a deep-seated hatred towards the living. At the same time, the poisoned person’s body would turn into the breeding ground of the poison. Once ordinary people were wounded by the direct attack from this poisoned person, that person would be similarly poisoned, turning into a walking corpse.

Zhan Ziye appeared at the city threatened with this insect poison, which was the City of Chu [1], the second largest city in the Black Country after its capital. The villages and small towns at the outskirts of the city already have signs of a large number of infections. Currently, the City gates were already closed, however, it still couldn’t guarantee the safety of the city. On the corners beyond the guards’ line of sight, the poison seemed to have begun to spread.

Zhan Ziye didn’t appear as a commoner that suddenly dropped from the sky, but directly became the City Magistrate, facing this dangerous situation head on.

Once he entered this illusion world, Zhan Ziye, without too much hesitation, directly went out of town towards the nearby villages and small towns to collect samples of the poison. He was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator with amazing strength and thus, he simply didn’t care about the insect poison’s infection.

After collecting the samples, he returned to the city, mobilized all the resources at his disposal, and began to develop the antidote.

As one of the most outstanding cultivators of the young generation in the Ten Thousand Arts Sect, he was also the most gifted scholar. For him, the difficulty of this illusion scenario was not too high; although the wanton spreading of the insect poison was terrible, it was still within the scope of his ability.

Of course, researching for the antidote took a certain amount of time. During which, he issued several edicts, imposing the entire city under a high degree of martial law, which conformed with the norm of the society; although this wasn’t an original idea, it was unblamable either. Half a month later, when the insect poison had inevitably massively spread in the city, and any edicts or decree couldn’t stop the city from falling, Zhan Ziye finally succeeded in developing the antidote.

The city was already hopeless, therefore, he mercilessly left and sent the antidote to the capital. After using the resources in the capital, he began the long and painful but inevitable march to victory. During which, the devil sect had repeatedly evolved the insect poison, however, Zhan Ziye developed the antidote for each of the poison variants. In the final battle, Zhan Ziye, with his Ten Thousand Methods Comprehension, personally defeated the leader of the devil sect and ensured the complete victory!

In the illusion world, time quickly flew. When the Kingdom’s last infected person was cured by the antidote, the illusion world scenario automatically ended and Zhan Ziye, with a weary look, came out of the Gate of All Living Things and smiled at his Master.

"Done."

Yuan Chaonian nodded in satisfaction, very pleased with the result.

To say that this illusion scenario was difficult, it actually wasn’t; however, it wasn’t easy to smoothly go through it. The leader of the devil sect was a Jindan Cultivator, and the brave subordinates under him were as many as clouds. Thus, it would be like going against the heaven or courting death if one wanted to defeat them just by relying on cultivation alone! However, without cultivation, no one would survive in this crisis-ridden world. By relying on his brilliant academic ability to develop the antidote to the insect poison, as well as being the commander-in-chief of the army in confronting the brilliant cultivators of the devil sect, Zhan Ziye neatly completed the whole scenario of insect poison outbreak; he was indeed worthy to be the Eldest Brother of the young generation of the Ten Thousand Arts Sect.

Yuan Chaonian turned his head and gloomily looked at Wang Lu. "Your turn."

Wang Lu smugly smiled. "Behold, prepare to witness the miracle."

Then the Gate of All Living Things was opened, and Wang Lu strode in.

——

It was the same Insect poison outbreak scenario. Under the same crisis in the twilight of the bustling city, Wang Lu, as the City Magistrate, arrived at the Magistrate’s official residence. Aside from him, there was also Magistrate’s team of aides and advisors, as well as the city’s bureaucrats.

"Sir, the situation is getting worse…" A middle-aged, gaunt man expressionlessly reported the latest progress to the City Magistrate. The situation was indeed getting worse and worse, however, he wasn’t worried about that. As a noble bureaucrat, he didn’t have to stay in the city together with the peasants. Once the situation worsened, he could quickly flee in a brisk carriage. In fact, most of the people present had the similar idea. In his view, the City Magistrate would be of no different.

However, Wang Lu simply listened to the report and then laughed. "The situation is not so bad. Currently, including the outskirts villages and small towns, the percentage of the people infected is at most less than ten percent."

One of the aides added, "But it’s spreading really fast."

"So? You guys want to persuade me to make two kinds of preparation? Oh, you guys are simply naive; do you guys think you can simply leave behind the mess and walk away? Do you think there would be a place for you in this big country after you left such an important matter? You want to say you have a strong background and could shoulder this disaster? Yes, decades later after you retired in the capital, you would be laughed at by the upper-class and cursed by the lower-class; as long as you can treat those mocking with indifference, you can indeed barely manage to maintain a feeble existence. Unfortunately, even if you want to be a dog, I don’t. On the contrary, to me, this disaster is a heaven-sent opportunity. As long as we properly dispose of this poison outbreak, our future would be filled with glory and not limited to this city walls!"

A bureaucrat knitted his brows. "But this matter is extremely strange. The poison is so fierce; we don’t have the ability to find its cure."

"What does it matter? Just do whatever you can, that’s it. Old Li, you are in charge of the health care in the city, I want you to do the following in the next few days…"

Then, Wang Lu, like a seasoned City Magistrate, assigned the task to every bureaucrat present. After receiving the order, the people present finally felt like they have just seen the light. Wang Lu’s work arrangement demonstrated his brilliant ability. A lot of these works were original and ingenious, which was like a breath of fresh air. It was just that, even if it were so, could it really defeat the insect poison? After all, under the city’s current atmosphere, everyone was in a precarious state, and there was a complete disunity among people; no matter how good the policy was, it would be very difficult to quickly implement it.

Hence, the crowd hesitated. Wang Lu then said, "Very well, next, everyone with official position will come together with me to go on a trip."

"Go on a trip?"

"Yes, to the area most severely affected by this disaster, to give a sympathy speech to the locals. At this time, if all the officials just hide in the government office, how do you think those people would think?"

"But, Sir, the area most affected by the disaster is…"

"If you’re willing to go, then come. If not, then let’s find the nearest practice field and have a go with me."

After Wang Lu dropped this sentence, he directly pointed to the guards and left the Magistrate residence.

The situation was really chaotic because of this sudden throngs of important people going out of the Magistrate official residence. The crowd of bureaucrats, aides and other people who were present at the meeting in the Magistrate official residence felt helpless and frightened as if they were following Wang Lu to the death’s door.

Eventually, Wang Lu went to the refugee-gathering area in the city. There were more than ten abandoned homes and hundreds of paled face people lying or sitting. All of whom were fleeing from the insect poison calamity on the outskirts of the city. Haunted by the nightmarish experience, these people saw no hope for the future.

The arrival of Wang Lu and his throng of retinue caused them to panic; which of these lowly peasants had ever seen such a large number of officials and high-ranking people? Some were rooted on the spot, not knowing what to do; some simply prostrated themselves; and some wailed in fright.

Wang Lu ignored all of these and directly found a sickly looking kid who just stared blankly at him, hugged the kid and, revealing a deeply moved look, immediately shed silent tears. "Sorry, I’m late!"

…

Later, as he delivered an emotion-steering speech, Wang Lu gestured with his hands as he showed his best acting performance to date. Every word that came out of his mouth, every facial expression, and every movement involuntarily attracted the people present, and their mood gradually fluctuated along with it. The content of Wang Lu’s speech was very simple. It included that the government would not give up any of the people, the city’s officials would live or die together with the people, the insect poison would just be a temporary danger that would eventually pass, how to maintain health and order in a short period of time, and so on...

Each of the contents struck the heart of the refugees, for they ignited the spark of hope in them. Before long, a thunderous cheer ensued and all kinds of thankful voice one after the other appeared like a tide. Wang Lu’s speech was like a magical spell, which instilled hope in this feeling-hopeless refugees. When all of them were filled with excitement and reverence toward him, Wang Lu, feeling pleased, left the place.

On the way, his expression quickly turned cold and indifferent. "See, the people are actually very simple, right now, even if I told them to choose several of them to be sacrificed, I’m afraid they would do exactly that...The next step is to do just that, but in other places: to dupe them silly, so that it would be easy to persuade them. Like in those outskirts villages and small towns, those would be the key to our work. Let them know that the insect poison is not terrible because the government is fully backing them, and because we will live and die together with them! In short, to arouse their confidence so that they won’t collapse on the first sign of defeat. The current number of infected people is only a tenth of the total population. As long as the poison is properly isolated, there is nothing terrible about it! What if we couldn’t come up with the cure? The short answer is, we don’t need to. As long as we promptly suppress the spread of the insect poison, other people would bound to clean up those devil sect people! Those demonic people extremely lack in confidence, otherwise, why would they need to be so furtive in putting the poison in the villages and small towns?"

The several bureaucrats who accompanied him felt enlightened by this, while a few of them were greatly encouraged. Wang Lu’s full of confidence posture was like a beacon of light, which pushed the darkness away from other people around him and rekindle their confidence.

Perhaps what Wang Lu said was right—this insect poison disaster was not an unsolvable doom. On the contrary, if it were correctly disposed of, it would simply be a huge opportunity for them! The people who could blend in as the city’s officials and bureaucrats mostly have a little spirit; as long as the ratio of gain over risk was big enough, they wouldn’t be so timid and cowardly!

At this time, their morale had become completely different. Although the inside and outside the city were still under the same crisis as before, Wang Lu‘s work arrangement and his sensational speech successfully established the confidence in this group of government officials.

At this time, outside the Gate of All Living Things, the moods of the onlookers were varied. The Spirit Sword Sect Elders seemed indifferent to this as if this was just as they expected. However, the people of the Ten Thousand Arts Sect were so surprised that they nearly dropped their chins.

What was exactly so great about this Wang Lu!?

Since the Gate of All Living Things was refined, the insect poison outbreak scenario had been used dozens of times. However, no one has ever been able to stir up the morale of the people and officers so handily. Previously, there was a Ten Thousand Arts Sect disciple who used a bewitching spell to manipulate the popular feeling, however, the city’s residence where by the thousands and tens of thousands, so who could possibly control the people’s popular feeling just by relying on the power of one’s own will alone? Moreover, Wang Lu’s last words were not wrong either. According to this scenario, the demons of the devil sect weren’t too strong. As long as this insect poison crisis could be successfully resolved, stopping it before it spread further, the devil sect wouldn’t be as rampant, because the righteous sects weren’t weak either. If the devil sect couldn’t gain enough benefit from this insect poison crisis, it wouldn’t be able to withstand the wrath of an entire country! Wang Lu, in his first meeting and first speech, has almost ensured the victory in this illusion world’s experiential learning. The process was open and above board, without the least bit of conspiracy or trickery—it was simply breathtaking!

Zhan Ziye, who had just completed the same scenario, looked gloomy. He thought that he had completed the scenario with flying colors—developed the antidote in the shortest amount of time possible, to maximize the suppression of the insect poison outbreak, so that no devil sect people would… However, what were they compared to Wang Lu’s ability to turn over the clouds as easily as flipping a hand?

As for Yuan Chaonian, he could not help but think about Wang Lu’s audacity in evaluating the gate as: "Isn’t that just a toy?"

The Gate of All Living Things was an Immortal Treasure, not a toy as evaluated by Wang Lu. However, he indeed treated this immortal treasure like it was a toy, moreover, he played it like it was a child’s play! It was a blatant demonstration.

Ten Thousand Arts Sect people naturally didn’t know that two years ago, Wang Lu had created a sect with millions of followers and was currently the Sect Leader of a member of Union of Ten Thousand Immortals; perhaps he had even more abundant experience than other Sect Leaders of the Immortal Cultivation Sects! To him, this insect poison crisis was simply a piece of cake.

Yuan Chaonian shook his head and thought, "Next, as long as he patiently deduces the situation and grasps the big trend, he would naturally march on to victory. Against a brilliant and skillful City Magistrate, the devil sect would be powerless to reverse the situation even if they once again put the poison in circulation… I’m afraid that this time, my Ten Thousand Arts Sect would be taken cheap by him."

However, at this time, inside the illusion, Wang Lu’s awesomeness began to unfold.

[1] Meaning eliminate.