Mythical Three Kingdoms

”Since she hasn’t done anything wrong, of course I’ll protect her.” Lub Su said it very naturally, while thinking to himself, [Never mind that she herself is blameless, even if she were at fault I’d still protect her. Without her, the Lub Family might well end up with no heirs.]

”All right then, I’ll tell you another explanation of the School of Mind. What Ji Xiang calls the School of Mind is taking other people’s cognition, other people’s Will as the object of study, then using external force to forcibly twist another’s Will, making them absolutely approve of one’s own words.” Chen Xi looked calmly at Lub Su, then spoke.

Lub Su was directly stunned. After a long moment he spoke with a hideous expression, ”Are you sure you’re not joking? How could there be such a discipline?”

”How could there not be? Ji Xiang herself comes from this discipline. She takes all the Miscellaneous Hun we captured and forcibly twists them in this way into absolutely approving Han Empire rule, denying their own origins, believing they themselves are guilty, and from the bottom of their hearts feeling they must repay their mistakes with twenty years of hard labor.” Anyway, now that the lid had been lifted, Chen Xi no longer cared.

”How is that possible? She only had that little bit of time; how could she turn hundreds of thousands of Miscellaneous Hun into that in such a short span?” Lub Su did his best to steady his mentality, arguing on Ji Xiang’s behalf.

”Mm, in fact, she spent even less time than that. There are some things that are hard for those who can’t, but easy for those who can. Though it’s hard to believe, barring accidents, in this school of thought she’s already standing at the very peak.” Chen Xi spoke with a certain helplessness; Ji Xiang had certainly surpassed the self who wrote the content.

”So that means as long as she’s willing, she can actually twist people’s hearts, and twist them to whatever extent she wants.” Lub Su said, somewhat trembling.

”Yes. And for her, this sort of thing isn’t all that difficult.” Chen Xi nodded, then after a moment, ”Under these circumstances, you still want to protect her?”

Lub Su fell completely silent, and Chen Xi’s heart also started sinking lower and lower. Well then, in this era it really is that everyone who encounters this kind of person is filled with the desire to kill them. Which, frankly, makes sense.

”Tell me, what is the meaning of this school of thought’s existence? Any school of thought that can be handed down has its good side. What is the meaning of this school of thought? I don’t believe it exists purely for the sake of twisting human hearts.” After rushing all the way, when he could faintly see the Mountain Gate Ji Xiang had built in the outskirts, Lub Su slowly raised his head, his eyes icy as he spoke.

”Actually, what I just described is one of its positive uses; she simply applied it in a rather exaggerated fashion. As for the rest—erasing our side’s psychological shadows, firming up other people’s confidence, dispelling negative psychology—basically anything related to Will can make use of it.” Chen Xi knew Lub Su had already made up his mind to protect his elder aunt, he just needed a reason that sounded presentable.

”You’re sure all that can be done?” Lub Su’s eyes lit up at these words, and suddenly he felt more assured. Very clearly he had already prepared himself to accept that Ji Xiang was just causing trouble for him, that this school of thought itself was a pit, only for Chen Xi to rattle off a whole string of benefits.

”You know as well as I do, if a school of thought were prepared purely for destruction, it should have been finished long ago. As for Will-related matters—heh, if you can twist human hearts, then accomplishing those later things is even simpler.” Chen Xi said blandly, ”Your elder aunt is absolutely skilled in this area.”

As Chen Xi’s group spoke, they had already arrived at the small Mountain Gate of the School of Mind that Ji Xiang had constructed. After it was built, the gate had been open for less than a month. This school of thought previously had no reputation at all, and the big shot of the school was a woman, so till now the number of students joining this school had remained extremely small.

Simply put, up to now the School of Mind, counting Ji Xiang herself as well as Zhang Chunhua, amounted to only three to five cats in all, and not a single one had truly joined the School of Mind. People like Xin Xianying, Li Yuan, Jia Yun, Sunx Min—honestly, they were mainly here to give Ji Xiang some face.

Of course another reason was that the Eldest Miss and the Second Miss had recently been busy taking care of children, and had no time at all to lecture this group, so everyone ran over to Ji Xiang’s place.

”Mountain Chief, Mountain Chief!” Just as Ji Xiang was indulging her teacher’s itch, a servant rushed into the lecture hall from outside in a panic, shouting loudly, directly cutting off Ji Xiang’s lecture.

Ji Xiang’s face immediately fell. As she sent the girls listening to the lecture off to take a break, she looked at the servant unhappily and asked, ”Didn’t I tell you, don’t rush around in a panic, and don’t interrupt my class? If this turns out not to be anything major, I’ll send you back to the Ji Family.”

”The army has surrounded us.” The servant said in a fluster.

”Huh?” Ji Xiang froze, then immediately remembered what had happened. ”And you’re only reacting now?”

”Our school’s Mountain Gate has been surrounded by the army. Do you all want to go take a look?” Ji Xiang tilted her head and spoke to the students who’d come to attend class. She wasn’t stupid; of course she knew that after making such a mess, she herself would surely be exposed. However, as long as Li Youu and Jia Xu weren’t the first wave to come, she wasn’t afraid at all.

Seeing Chen Xi and Lub Su slowly walking in at the doorway, both with gloomy faces, Ji Xiang let out a long breath in her heart. These two showing up was the best possible outcome; there was absolutely no need to worry about her personal safety.

And just at that moment, the sound of hooves pounding the ground came in a series, as a great plume of dust surged up from the Northwest. At the head of it was Li Youu.

”Judging from the look on your face, you already know what you’ve done.” Chen Xi looked at Ji Xiang, speaking rather speechlessly. Earlier he’d still been entertaining the notion that Ji Xiang had simply gone overboard playing around, but seeing her expression now, he knew she’d definitely done it on purpose.

”Of course. Isn’t it just brainwashing a few hundred thousand people? What I did, you think I don’t know?” Ji Xiang casually brushed her hair behind her ear and turned her head to look at Lub Su, and the look in Lub Su’s eyes toward his own elder sister-in-law was clearly a bit complicated—he had never realized his elder sister-in-law was this dangerous.

”Are you an idiot?” Chen Xi snapped, on the verge of losing it. ”Do you not understand that doing this is basically courting death? If you weren’t Lub Zijing’s elder sister-in-law, we wouldn’t be sending troops to surround the mountain gate to protect you; we’d have sent people straight in to take you down.”

”Lub Zijing said it himself—told me not to dangle in front of him, and that whatever mess I stirred up in Chang’an, he’d cover it.” Ji Xiang said indifferently.

”I never said that to you.” Lub Su’s face was a little strained.

”Oh, then I probably heard you say it to someone else. Anyway, you definitely said it. The way you were looking when I left, that was exactly what you meant.” Ji Xiang tilted her head, a hint of teasing in her voice.

”Enough, enough, stop showing off. It’s me and Zijing who came; you obviously mean something, so just come with us.” Chen Xi turned his head to look at Li Youu, who had also entered through the mountain gate at this time, and spoke immediately. He couldn’t help but feel a bit thankful—if they’d been any later and Li Youu had arrived first, what he’d be seeing now would likely be Ji Xiang’s corpse.

”Father!” Li Yuan saw Li Youu come in and bowed to salute him. For a split second, Chen Xi even saw the veins pop on Li Youu’s forehead.

Given Li Youu’s disposition, he’d definitely wipe them all out—everyone connected to this school of thought would be killed. Then he’d personally copy every single classic book inside the mountain gate and secretly hide them in the Library Pavilion, and burn everything else. Teacher, students, it didn’t matter—anyone who had learned this kind of thing ought to be eliminated. In short, by the time Li Youu came here, he’d already decided: this matter must never spread.

”Good. Very good.” Li Youu looked coldly in Ji Xiang’s direction as he spoke.

”All of you go back first.” Chen Xi shot Xin Xianying a look. At this time Guo Jia, who had just entered, also put on a smile and waved for everyone attending the lectures here to leave.

Once the others had left, the habitual smile on Guo Jia’s face also faded. None of these people were stupid—Ji Xiang had pulled off something this big; how could they not realize how dangerous she was?

”Zichuan, you and Zijing want to protect her?” Li Youu looked calmly at Chen Xi and Lub Su as he spoke.

”No point playing coy in front of you. Besides, you share the blame for this too. You all never even asked what kind of experiment it was before approving it.” Chen Xi nodded, then half-changed the subject.

”I think you understand even better than I do just how dangerous what she did before was.” Li Youu had no intention of following Chen Xi’s lead; he went straight for the heart of the matter.

”I also think we’re dangerous. Honestly, so what if she twisted the Will of a few hundred thousand people? And it’s not even being used on our own. Turning those Miscellaneous Hun into the state we want—what’s wrong with that?” Chen Xi argued back on principle, entirely unmoved by Li Youu’s stance.

”By the time she uses it on our own people, it’ll be too late.” Li Youu said coldly.

”You can’t just kill her over some hypothetical possibility like that. In several thousand years this discipline has produced only one such person. If you eliminate her, who knows when the next one will appear.” Chen Xi said irritably.

”Master Li, if you’re going to strike at me based on such a suspicion, then everyone present here has a mind worth suspecting...” Ji Xiang hadn’t finished speaking when Lub Su directly reached out, pulled Ji Xiang to the side, and signaled for her to shut up.

”She’s got a sharp tongue, but she’s not wrong. We all possess stratagems capable of toppling an era. From your point of view, shouldn’t we all be dealt with as well?” Chen Xi actually felt Ji Xiang had a point.

Li Youu was speechless; this was not a line he could follow—they were all traps.

”Zichuan, if you went to the POW camp and saw those people whose hearts had been twisted like that, you’d probably make the same choice we did.” Guo Jia said slowly.

”They’re just some Miscellaneous Hun anyway. Compared to how we used to trick them into pits and slaughter them, this way at least they get to keep their lives.” Chen Xi said calmly. ”Moreover, using this method on the Hu People is in itself an extremely proper way of handling them. At least for now, none of you can come up with anything better.”

”The problem is that with this method in my hands, you people don’t feel at ease, right?” Ji Xiang shook out her wide Embroidered Robe, the Splendid Palace Attire setting off that hint of coldness in her eyes. ”But this isn’t like a Spiritual Talent that only one person can possess. This is knowledge, wisdom that can be learned and mastered.”