Chapter 67 Speaking of This, I'm No Longer Sleepy
The Daughter of Destiny took the initiative to approach, and there was even an achievement to be gained—how could such a good thing be missed?
Chen Chang'an immediately nodded in agreement.
The caravan leader, upon hearing that this expert who had slain mountain bandits with a single sword was willing to accompany them, was overjoyed.
That very night, he replaced their old creaking carriage with a spacious nanmu wood carriage adorned with carved designs. A bronze bell hanging from the shaft jingled with each bump, far more comfortable than the rattling old one.
Two days passed in silence along the road.
Most of the time, Chen Chang'an leaned against the window, dozing off. In truth, he was simultaneously controlling his true body to educate his daughter and guide two disciples. His constant drowsiness left Ji Lingxiu astonished.
On the third day at dusk, the silhouette of the city walls finally appeared on the horizon. Chen Chang'an suddenly opened his eyes from his feigned slumber.
"You do wake at just the right moment," Ji Lingxiu remarked with faint sarcasm.
Chen Chang'an acted as though he had not heard her.
Through the carved window, the three golden characters "Qixia City" glistened under the setting sun.
At the city gates, traffic surged like a dragon of carts and horses. Hawkers carrying goods and merchants in fine clothes pressed shoulder to shoulder. The caravan slowly entered through the gates. Shops lined both sides of the street, bustling with pedestrians. The cries of vendors and bursts of laughter rose and fell.
Several children ran with candied hawthorns in hand, nearly crashing into the carriage before being pulled back by laughing adults.
Inside the carriage, Ji Lingxiu lifted the curtain slightly with her fingertips, gazing at the bustling city. Her expression turned somewhat vacant.
"What do you think of these mortals' lives?" she suddenly asked, her tone calm.
"Is the young lady speaking to me?"
"Who else?"
Chen Chang'an, gnawing on a wild fruit as he leaned on the carriage shaft, turned his head with a grin. "It's good. Lively."
Ji Lingxiu fell silent for a moment, then continued in a rare, low voice. "In truth, before the Great Zhou Dynasty, it was not like this."
"Oh? And what was it like?" Chen Chang'an raised a brow, looking at her with interest.
"In earlier times, mortals were divided among nearby sects and noble families as their private property, to be disposed of at will by cultivators—worse than slaves." Her voice was soft but carried the chill of ice. "Only after the founding of the Great Zhou were these rules abolished."
Ji Lingxiu sighed. "If the Great Zhou falls, would these mortals still enjoy such lives?"
Chen Chang'an nodded thoughtfully.
His good impression of the Great Zhou mainly came from Ling Zhanxue. But seeing Ji Lingxiu's expression, combined with the legendary achievement that had suddenly appeared yesterday, he could roughly guess—trouble had likely befallen the Great Zhou, and this young lady before him was probably closely tied to it.
He bit into the fruit again. Sweetness mixed with sourness burst forth.
"No dynasty lasts forever," he said casually, his gaze sweeping across the laughing children by the street. "Like the sun rising and setting, the moon waxing and waning—it is all the natural order. If the Great Zhou falls, perhaps there will be a Great Xia or a Great Ming in the future. Who can say?"
Ji Lingxiu's brows furrowed. Her eyes suddenly turned sharp and dangerous. "The Great Zhou is flourishing like oil over fire. Why do you speak with such certainty of its decline?"
As she spoke, her hand drifted unconsciously to her waist…
A slip of the tongue!
Chen Chang'an scolded himself inwardly. As expected, too many words lead to mistakes.
It seemed that something significant had just happened to the Great Zhou. By saying this, he had made himself sound like an insider.
Still… if his true body were here, and the other possessed a cultivation above his, perhaps he might even feel pressured.
It was a pity that this was only a worthless avatar. The surging aura from Ji Lingxiu had less effect on Chen Chang'an than the aroma of roasted chicken drifting in from the window.
Still, if he failed to answer properly and caused some misunderstanding, the loss of an avatar would be nothing, but failing to complete an achievement would be troublesome.
After all, no one knew whether the "Youth's Journey" series of legendary achievements was limited to just four, and whether they could be replaced.
The arguments of political and economic commentators he had watched in his previous life, as well as the debates he once had on certain forums, quickly converged in his mind.
Just as Ji Lingxiu was hesitating on whether to strike, Chen Chang'an suddenly spoke. "In my view, the decline of the Great Zhou is inevitable."
"Oh?" Ji Lingxiu narrowed her eyes, her fingertips already brushing the storage pouch at her waist. "On what grounds?"
Chen Chang'an acted as though he had not noticed the life-and-death tension in the air. He raised one finger and spoke confidently. "First, though the Great Zhou rules the four corners, it does not represent all classes of the Xuanying Continent."
"…What?"
Ji Lingxiu froze.
She had already prepared herself for a refutation, but never expected such words to come from Chen Chang'an's mouth.
At once, the tense atmosphere inside the carriage turned strangely offbeat.
"Look," Chen Chang'an became more animated, sitting upright cross-legged, "on the surface, the Great Zhou allows ordinary mortals and wandering cultivators to breathe under the pressure of noble families and sects.
But in reality, the imperial clan and the great families still monopolize nearly all cultivation resources. For those at the bottom, rogue cultivators have no chance of rising. The few who excel are absorbed into sects and clans.
As for mortals, though protected, they remain weak— even the most basic right to cultivate depends on the whim of those families and sects." He counted each point on his fingers as he listed them.
"It's like… well, so in truth the Great Zhou is no different from the noble families and sects. It is more like a monopoly, a giant corporation destined to be strangled one day by rising forces united against it."
Ji Lingxiu stared blankly. Terms like "monopoly" and "class conflict" struck at the walls of her understanding like small hammers.
"Second," Chen Chang'an's eyes shone brighter as he spoke, relishing the debate he had not experienced since crossing into this world.
"The Great Zhou's strategy of 'ruling the nation by force' is fundamentally flawed. It treats the symptoms but not the root. Do you know what a 'base of support' is? The Great Zhou appears strong, but it does not even have a clear foundation for its rule…"
"Wait!" Ji Lingxiu finally found her voice. "What do you mean by 'an unstable base'?"
Though hearing the term for the first time, she instantly grasped its meaning. "My Great Zhou's Eight Pillars suppress the Eight Desolations…"
"And then?" Chen Chang'an suddenly leaned in close, so near he could see her eyelashes trembling. "Can military might crush opposition, yes—but can it crush hearts? Have the families and sects truly submitted?"
Ji Lingxiu was left speechless.
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