Chapter 213 - Chapter 213: Chapter 212: The Three Cardinal Rules

Chapter 213: Chapter 212: The Three Cardinal Rules

Translator: 549690339

Dream River Dynasty, Chaotian City.

Beyond the Dream River Imperial City, this is the most bustling city teeming with ceaseless human activities.

Jiang Li left the Red Dust Pure Land and came here.

Dream River Dynasty was adjacent to the Red Dust Pure Land, and there happened to be one person in Chaotian City whom General Liu was scouting.

Jiang Li couldn’t find anything from face-to-face investigations conducted by General Liu, so he decided to approach it from the surrounding environment.

“Candied haw, various kinds of candied haw.”

“I’ll have a skewer of candied haw, not the hawthorn one, but the strawberries next to it.”

“Here you go, sir.”

“I’ll have one of each kind… skip the silkworm pupa.” Jiang Li plans to bring some snacks back for the Red Dust Fairy.

“I am from Da Zhou. I’ve heard that there’s a teacher Dong in our Chaotian City.

I came especially to visit him.”

“Da Zhou, eh? That’s really quite far.” The candied haw seller was surprised. The Dream River Dynasty was on the west side of Jiuzhou, while Da Zhou was in the east, implying the customer must have come to Dream River Dynasty through the recently popular spatial channel.

Teacher Dong’s fame was such that it attracted people from other dynasties to Dream River Dynasty. The vendor felt proud.

“Teacher Dong can be said to be the pride of our Chaotian City. He is knowledgeable about Confucianism, he is deeply erudite, he is courteous and treats his students equally regardless of their household background, whether it is a prestigious household or a poor family. Teacher Dong teaches everyone the same thing, it doesn’t matter who pays more.”

“Teacher Dong also imposes strict requirements on his descendants, warning them to not be arrogant or to look down on others. If they dare to do so, they will be kicked out of the house.”

Jiang Li listened with a smile. The peddler, noticing that a wealthy person like Jiang Li actually bothered to listen to him, became more talkative.

“Teacher Dong is undoubtedly a highly cultivated individual. Some of the city’s noble households and gangs who thought of themselves as influential tried to force him to become a private tutor for their forces. No one knew what happened afterward, but the noble households and gangs stopped causing trouble and peacefully sent their children to Teacher Dong.”

The vendor lowered his voice and said, “It’s rumored that Teacher Dong is a god-transformation stage cultivator!”

Jiang Li responded with an appropriately surprised expression.

The vendor was pleased with Jiang Li’s reaction and gave him an extra skewer of candied haw.

Jiang Li firmly refused: “I really don’t eat silkworm pupa.”

Jiang Li continued to stroll around other stalls, buying goods and asking questions, with the answers he got more or less the same.

Teacher Dong, who had been teaching for over a decade, was a disciplined and excellent teacher.

However, nobody guessed higher, they all speculated that Teacher Dong was a seclusive god-transformation stage cultivator.

Body Integration Realm was too remote to ordinary citizens. Although Chaotian City was known as the second largest city in the dynasty, it didn’t even have a single Body Integration Realm cultivator.

Who would choose the second largest city if they could go to the largest city?

Body Integration Realm cultivators from the Dream River Dynasty either held official positions in the court or joined a sect. Not one of them was in Chaotian City.

Of course, Teacher Dong was Body Integration Realm, the only one in Chaotian City.

“What a reclusive personality.” Jiang Li had a good impression of Teacher Dong. “It must have been hard for General Liu to find a seclusive Body Integration

Realm cultivator.”

“So, your son is the rumored student of Teacher Dong?”

Jiang Li looked at the man in front of him, a humble farmer with a plain appearance. His family could even be said to be poor.

It seemed Teacher Dong truly didn’t care about social status and was willing to teach anyone.

“What’s all this about rumors?” the old farmer laughed. “Teacher Dong is approachable and doesn’t have the airs of a cultivator.”

“Dad, I’m going to school.” A young boy carrying a cloth bag said goodbye to the old farmer.

“Wait a moment, could I also attend one of Teacher Dong’s classes?”

There was hesitation in the boy’s eyes.

Jiang Li seemed young but looked older than a teenager, there was nobody his age in Teacher Dong’s school.

“It’s never too late to start learning.” Jiang Li did not think there was anything unsuitable about attending a class with a group of children at his age.

The boy thought Jiang Li made sense and thus brought him along.

“Teacher Dong, this elder brother would like to sit in on a lesson.”

“Hello, Teacher Dong. My name is Ding Li, from the Da Zhou clan. I have been traveling and heard of your reputation, and I’d like to disturb one of your classes.”

The students in the tutor’s school laughed quietly seeing Jiang Li, who was much older.

Teacher Dong frowned and tapped the lectern with his ruler: “Laughing, what’s so funny! This is the attitude towards learning, you all should learn from Ding

Li!”

“Your parents sent you here not to loaf around or slack off. Don’t think just because you are from good families you can skip learning. The ancient Saint once said, ‘My life has its limits, but knowledge has none. To use the limited to pursue the unlimited is a peril.”

“The Human Emperor also said, ‘Learning is endless.’”

“Are you better than the ancient Saint or the Human Emperor, thinking that you no longer need to learn?”

Scared of Teacher Dong’s iron ruler, the students dared not laugh anymore.

Jiang Li didn’t say anything and took a seat in the back.

“Today, we are going to learn about ‘The Three Cardinal Guides.”‘

“The king guides his subjects, the father guides his son, and the husband guides his wife. These are the Three Cardinal Guides.”

“Being the subject, it is innate for one to be obedient to their king. If the king wants the subject dead, the subject must die; being the son, it is innate for one to be obedient to their father. If the father desires the son dead, the son must die; as for the husband guiding the wife, the rule is the woman obeys her father at home, her husband when she gets married and her son when her husband dies.”

“Take for example, the Dream River Emperor is the king and a Ninth Rank Official is the subject. By nature, the subject must obey the king. Even if the official is a body integration realm cultivator, it can’t change the fact that he is a subject. Whatever the Dream River Emperor tells the subject to do, the subject must do.”

“What if the king is wrong?” Jiang Li asked.

“Silence! I’ve just explained the Three Cardinal Guides, and you show such disrespect. The teacher hasn’t finished talking; how could a student interject?” The Dong who was on the lecture platform was much stricter than before, sternly reprimanding Jiang Li.

Seeing Jiang Li put down his hand and stop speaking, Teacher Dong was pleased and answered Jiang Li’s question.

“How can the king be wrong? The founding emperor of the Dream River Dynasty was a wise ruler. His sons inherited his bloodline, naturally possessing the demeanor of a wise king. The founding emperor chose his most talented son as the second emperor, thus the second emperor was surely a wise one. This continued through generations, hence the current Dream River Emperor is undoubtedly a wise ruler.”

“I know you might have doubts, thinking sometimes the Dream River Emperor makes wrong decisions. This is not the emperor’s fault but due to some officials not fulfilling their duties honestly, leading the emperor to make wrong judgments, perhaps some officials having ill intentions to misguide.” “If all officials performed their duties, how could the king make a mistake?”

Jiang Li remembered the occasion where the Dream River Emperor and Emperor Wei almost initiated a national-scale war over the Red Dust Fairy.

This had nothing to do with the subjects.

“If you can’t understand the example of the Dream River Emperor, let me give you another typical example, the Human Emperor.”

“What is the Human Emperor? He is the ruler of the human race, the ruler of all beings. All beings in Jiuzhou, regard the Human Emperor as their ruler.”

“Whether ordinary cultivators or dynasty emperors, all are subjects of the Human Emperor.”

“The Human Emperor is the king, and everyone else is the subject.”

Jiang Li’s brow furrowed little by little..