Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1533 Valuable Goods Should Not Be Accumulated
"But Wudang Mountain has more monks than the Imperial Palace, and Southeast Asia has more monks than the Imperial Palace. What exactly is the Imperial Palace doing?"

"Be careful what you say, be careful what you say. This is a problem of the Pill Cauldron Sect, and more broadly speaking, it's a problem of the Imperial Ancestor. It's not something I can solve. But don't underestimate our efficiency; our quality is very high. Doesn't the Pill Cauldron Sect also have someone like me, a Celestial Being?"

"But you can't cultivate this alchemy cauldron on your own, can you?" Shang Luo remembered that although Zhu Xianxi was indeed cultivating it on his own, he had also received assistance from many other aspects to achieve his current level of cultivation.

"No one said you can't use money to cultivate the Tao. What kind of Tao can you cultivate without money? Cultivating the Tao requires spending money. Of course, I hope things will change, and now is a very good opportunity."

"So, you think Phaethon can be changed?"

"I don't know. I can only say that I hope she can make an effort in this regard. As for whether such an effort will be useful, I don't know, after all, I can't devote all my energy to the Dan Ding Sect. But judging from Master Sanfeng and Mr. Zhang San's performance, it seems that the old men all think she can do it."

"That's strange, what exactly makes her so amazing?"

"I'd like to ask you, since you live with her, have you noticed anything unusual?"

"If there is anything to say, there is indeed one—the pills she took seem to continue to maintain their effects for a long time afterward."

"What do you mean?"

"Senior brother, do you remember when Patient Special No. 95 was truly incurable? In order to prevent the evil energy from entering the Earth's atmospheric circulation, we sent Patient Special No. 95 outside the atmosphere. At that time, Master Lan led the team. It was at this time that several of us took the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill to establish the Small Heavenly Circuit, right? As a result, for a long time after that, Fa'e Tong remained in the state of the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill, only gradually losing its effectiveness when the Lesser Rejuvenation Pill truly took effect."

"Huh???" Zhu Xianxi was taken aback. "There's such a usage?"

"Yes. The overall potency of the medicine seems to have remained unchanged, but she seems to be able to store the potency and use it when it's crucial."

"Is she a hamster? She can't finish her food and then takes it home? I've never heard of anything like that."

At this moment, Phaethon was distributing today's lecture notes, and he was almost at this point.

"Senior brother, you think this is amazing, right?"

"It's less impressive and more outrageous. Suddenly I started to wonder if giving her two different kinds of pills would cause some kind of fusion reaction."

"what?"

Zhu Xianxi himself was taken aback for a moment: "This... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. After all, you can't just do experiments on people. I was just making a guess based on my research habits."

"Actually, what you're saying to her might not be a bad idea. Besides, this isn't an experiment; she's actually taken similar pills before, and two kinds at the same time more than once, but we just haven't kept track of it. Can I ask her what she thinks for you?"

As they were talking, Phaethon had already arrived at Shangluo.

She glanced at Shang Luo, then finished sending messages to everyone else before finally speaking to Shang Luo: "There's something strange about your gaze."

"It's alright, it's alright, we'll talk about it when we get back." Faeton quickly lowered his voice: "At work, please use your job title, don't always say 'go back, go back.' It's easy for people to misunderstand."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Zhu Xianxi covered his mouth, suppressing his laughter. After all, the scene was indeed somewhat exciting, a story that the teaching assistant had to tell the students after school.

This is definitely a bit too exciting.

Fortunately, they were sitting at the very back, so not many people noticed them. Only Han Xingzhi, who was sitting not far away, showed a look of admiration—he didn't dare sit next to Shang Luo because he was still quite afraid of Zhu Xianxi. After all, that was the emperor, and he couldn't very well respond to anything the emperor said. He could only listen to the lecture.

The handouts were handed out, and today's content was roughly presented to everyone.

Just like the first class, this class was equally exciting. As Zhu Xianxi had guessed, the topic naturally shifted to the Yellow Turban Rebellion. However, Mr. Zhang San's discussion of the Yellow Turban Rebellion was clearly not from a historical perspective, as outlined in the Records of the Three Kingdoms. After all, this economic history course primarily focused on economics.

And sure enough, the reference material for this lesson was the original Taiping Jing (Scripture of Great Peace).

The lecture notes provided the original text of this passage from the Taiping Jing:

Some people accumulate boundless virtue but refuse to teach others how to escape ignorance and seek survival. Others amass billions in wealth but refuse to help the poor and needy, leaving others to die of hunger and cold.
This wealth, which is the means by which Heaven and Earth practice benevolence, is now being gathered up and then cut off, preventing it from being distributed widely.
Humans are born with the natural strength to provide for themselves, yet those who refuse to do so forcibly seize what belongs to them, thus becoming enemies of harmony and balance. Their sin deserves death. These are six great sins, abhorred by Heaven, and their sins cannot be absolved. Does the True Man know this?
"Ahem, fellow students, let me first give a brief overview of the meaning of this material—it says that Heaven creates all things to nourish man, but man has nothing to repay Heaven with. If man forcibly seizes or plunders, he commits six great sins and should be killed, killed, killed, killed, killed!"

"Oh," everyone nodded.

"So, this passage was propagated by Zhang Jiao, the Heavenly General, within the Way of Great Peace. But what is the basis for this Way of Great Peace? Which passage from Laozi and Zhuangzi does it cite? We discussed this in the second lesson. Does anyone know?"

“Yes, expensive goods don’t accumulate?” Zhu Xianxi interjected.

"Correct answer. But Professor Zhu Ye, it's one thing for you to come here and audit classes, but don't try to steal the students' chance to answer questions."

"Ahem, sorry, I'll keep my mouth shut." This question was indeed too easy for him.

Simply put, Laozi and Zhuangzi believed that everything in the world is inherently abundant, and the root of all chaos lies in the disorder of people's hearts. However, if you try to resolve these disturbances by rectifying people's hearts, you are going against the very principles Laozi and Zhuangzi taught.

Laozi and Zhuangzi are saying that valuable goods do exist in the world, but the problem with them is not their high price, but their accumulation. It is because some people are accumulating valuable goods that many contradictions arise. If valuable goods are prevented from accumulating, and wealth and capital are allowed to circulate, then the whole world will benefit.

Zhu Xianxi was taken aback. He lowered his voice and said to Shang Luo, "You're not going to say you oppose Taoist cultivation today, are you?"

"It is indeed possible. Look at those immortals in the Investiture of the Gods, they don't actually have any spiritual power or anything like that. And now, relying on colored power to cultivate immortality is not very reasonable."

"Wanla, he just called my name? And he was talking about the Way of Peace in class? Could he be after me?"

(End of this chapter)