If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 241 A combination of kindness and power
When Dongfang Shuo arrived in Luodu as an imperial envoy from the state, the King of Shu and a group of civil and military officials knelt down to greet him.

Since the King of Shu has already knelt, he will naturally not be stingy with his own palace.

However, Dongfang Shuo did not live in the king's palace, and also refused the royal villa given by the Prince of Qinghe.

He lived in the "Wenhui Pavilion" built by a Confucian scholar from the Celestial Empire.

Confucianism was not the "national study" of the Qin Dynasty, but Dongfang Shuo himself was a serious Confucian scholar.

He moved into Wenhui Hall not to pretend to be cultured or to act noble.

He had the desire and ability to promote Confucianism in the Xisha region.

Of course, promoting Confucianism was not the purpose of his trip; it was just something he did out of convenience.

After arriving in Luodu for nearly two months, he had given lectures at Wenhui Hall many times, but his main focus was still on training the "Qin Army."

Training Qin troops in the Xisha region, tens of thousands of miles away from the Qin Dynasty, sounds a bit abstract, but the troops he trained were all genuine Qin people, and many of them were noble sons of the upper states.

That evening, he returned from the parade ground outside the city, riding a tall horse as usual, accompanied by two young generals in full armor.

As soon as I entered the courtyard of Wenhui Pavilion from the side door, a young man dressed as a scholar came over. He bowed to Dongfang Shuo and the two young generals, then smiled and said, "Sir, there is news from Yu Fengxian. As expected, a tiger demon went to Tianmen Town to seek revenge on her, but was killed by her."

Dongfang Shuo jumped off his horse, took the wet towel handed over by the maid, and asked while wiping his face, "She can't kill the tiger monster by herself, right? Who helped her in Tianmen Town?"

“No one wanted to help her, so she dragged others into it.”

The scribe quickly recounted the news he had received at noon.

Dongfang Shuo sighed, "The Shu people were ruined by the 'Eight Trigrams Heavenly Master Talisman' and the Great Qin! If a monster appeared in Xilu and attacked the city, not to mention the warriors in this city, the immortals in the nearby counties would rush over without stopping once they received the news.

Even if there was hatred in the past, they would join forces to destroy the evil first."

Then he turned to the two young generals and said, "Ying Lei, Ying Hong, don't take off your armor yet.

Ying Lei, you go back to the northern suburbs camp and inform officers at all levels that half a month later, the "Suppressing Demons Army" will set out to leave Western Shu.

Ying Hong, go see the King of Shu and tell him what I mean."

Ying Lei looked suspicious and said, "Sir, the more useless the Shu people are, the more we can't leave easily!"

Ying Hong said: "We need to give them at least half a year to prepare. Now that we don't have the Bagua Tianshi Talisman, and you take the 'Demon Suppression Army' with you, the Demon King is likely to launch a surprise attack on the Shu Kingdom city."

The young scholar also advised: "Sir, please don't be angry, the immortals in Tianmen Town are not completely uncultivable.

Not to mention the turmoil of the Thirty-Six Kingdoms last year, they all contributed quietly, and recently they held the "Shudong Martial Arts Conference" to prepare to wipe out the Eight Kings Heavenly Palace in Guaizi Mountain."

At the end, he showed hesitation and said softly: "The King of Shu also wants you to stay in Tianmen Town until the threat of the hidden soldiers in Guaizi Mountain is completely eliminated."

Dongfang Shuo said calmly: "If Li Jingxuan or Li Jingyu came to me personally before today, I might agree to go to Tianmen Town.

There is no way I can go there now."

The scholar said: "Although they did not help Yu Fengxian——"

Dongfang Shuo raised his hand to interrupt him and said, "Hanhai, I don't care about Yu Fengxian at all.

You know, in a few years I will go to Yao Chi to attend the Peach Banquet, and I don't want to have anything to do with Yu Fengxian.

What I care about is the attitude and awareness of the people of Shu."

The scholar took a few steps closer, his eyes twinkling as he said, "Sir, isn't this the kind of virtue that the Shu people have, exactly what we in the Qin Dynasty want to see? If only they were as brave and strong as the people of Xilu."

There is no need to say the rest.

No one at the scene was stupid, and by this point everyone understood what he meant.

Anger flashed across Dongfang Shuo's eyes, but was quickly replaced by helplessness. "Today is different from the past. Shu must become stronger!"

He did not agree at all with the "Great Qin National Policy" of "nurturing and abandoning Western Shu".

He didn't even think it was a national policy, because "nurturing and destroying Western Shu" was only the opinion of a small number of people in the court.

He knew that at least Emperor Renhuang Zheng really wanted to make Western Shu stronger.

The stronger Western Shu is, the better.

Because fifty years ago, the Emperor Ren Huang Zheng had planned to use Western Shu as a base, continue to expand the territory westward, cross the Tongtian River, and push all the way to Lingshan in the west, so that the Buddha and Bodhisattva on Lingshan would become "people of the Great Qin."

Dongfang Shuo did not agree with this crazy strategy of Emperor Renhuangzheng.

He felt that the current territory of the Qin Dynasty was too large.

He advocated using Confucian culture to educate the barbarians. He did not need a huge army, but just a few Confucian scholars and a few racing cars.

Unfortunately, the Emperor of Qin did not like the Confucian scholars of the Qin Dynasty very much, let alone let the Confucian and Taoist masters represent the Qin Dynasty to "conquer" the barbarians.

Now that the Emperor's rule is dead, the national policy of "conquering Lingshan and turning Buddha into Qin's subjects" has long since vanished.

Dongfang Shuo hopes that Western Shu will become stronger because he is an immortal and knows the will of heaven!
——Daqin will soon perish, and Xishu can no longer rely on Daqin. It must make Xishu strong and powerful as soon as possible. Only when Shu itself is strong can it stand firm in the next great catastrophe of heaven and earth, and eventually become the fulcrum of the future "New Chinese Dynasty" in the Xisha region.

If it weren't for the unclear relationship between Xilu Ji's family and certain forces, Dongfang Shuo even hoped that Xilu would eliminate Xishu and become the overlord of the Xisha region.

The Ji family is also a direct descendant of the Chinese family. Xilu's persistence in and promotion of Confucian culture makes him extremely satisfied.

However, he couldn't express these thoughts directly.

He is the imperial envoy of the Qin Dynasty!

He should have tried his best to preserve the destiny of the Qin Dynasty instead of making rebellious remarks like "the Qin Dynasty will surely perish".

"Your Majesty has passed away, and there are endless unrests in various parts of the Great Qin. It is impossible for the officials in the court to send another 'Marquis of Lieyang' to Xishu. Even if Marquis of Lieyang stays in Xisha, it will be useless.

If Marquis Lieyang could solve the trouble in Xisha, you and I wouldn't have to come here. Marquis Lieyang's conquest of the thirty-six kingdoms was only a temporary solution, it's our turn to solve the root cause.

So it is impossible for us to stay in Luodu forever.

We must go to the Western countries to help the people eliminate the evil spirits, eliminate the unrest, and restore the peaceful days we once had." Dongfang Shuo said.

Marquis Lieyang killed people and massacred cities, which was a show of power; Taoist Qingsong cut off the dragon vein and captured the hidden dragon, which was a conspiracy that could not be seen from the light; Dongfang Shuo's crossing to the west was a favor, which made the people of the Xisha region loyal to the superior country, which was the upright way of kingship.

Only by combining kindness and severity, and combining the strange and the orthodox, can the great Qin Dynasty achieve its current dominance over the four continents.

"We will definitely leave, it's just a matter of time." The scholar hesitated and said, "The Prince of Qinghe is still secretly sending people to look for the Bagua Tianshi Talisman.

From what I heard from him, he hopes to find the Heavenly Master Talisman before leaving Xishu."

"Do you think he can find it?" Dongfang Shuo asked.

The scholar's eyes flickered. "Of course you can't find it if you just look everywhere. The 'Eight Immortals of the West' took the Heavenly Master Talisman out of the territory of Western Shu long ago.

I heard that he was sent to Jinyang.

But Prince Qinghe was full of confidence because he was about to inherit the ancient Dragon Palace.

If there is a treasure in the Ancient Dragon Palace that can replace the Heavenly Master's Talisman, there is no need to look for it.

If you don't have a powerful magic weapon, you can use the treasures and magic of the Ancient Dragon Palace to exchange for the Heavenly Master Talisman from the Eight Immortals of the West.

The 'Eight Immortals of the West' are willing to fight against the Qin Empire for the sake of illusory loyalty and righteousness, but they certainly cannot resist the temptation of becoming immortals."

Dongfang Shuo sighed: "Li Jingyu is a hero with the potential to be a hegemon. But he has lost the opportunity to enter the Ancient Dragon Palace."

The last time he was hit by a 1,800-pound oar and all the bones in his body were broken, it was he who introduced a wisp of "fairy energy" into Li Jingyu's body to help him stabilize his injuries.

"Li Jingyu is still working hard. The Ancient Dragon Palace is destined to belong to the Li family. This is the agreement between their ancestors and the great god Bashe." said the scholar.

"He can continue to work hard, but we can't wait any longer." Dongfang Shuo waved his hand and said firmly, "Tonight I will use the List of Conferred Gods to summon all the ghosts and gods in the Xisha region and let them sort out the situation in each county of the Thirty-Six Kingdoms.

Then you will help me to decide the first goal of the 'Demon Suppression Army'."

It was not until the morning of the third day that Xiaoyu saw Chijiula again.

The old monk recuperated for two days and looked much better than that night.

"Donor Yu, you really did me a disastrous harm."

Akajura sighed as he looked at her with a look of resentment rather than hatred.

In two days, not only did his injuries improve and his complexion improve, but his mind also calmed down a little.

It's not that he has elevated his mind to a state of no anger or resentment, but two days is enough time for him to weigh the pros and cons and make the best choice: things have come to this point, openly showing anger will instead dispel Yu Fengxian's guilt, dilute her kindness to him, and will also affect his reputation as a Buddhist monk who "eliminates demons and defends the way."

Well, although Xiaoyu did not go out these days, the story of "the holy monk killing the tiger" spread throughout Tianmen Town.

That night, Chijuro and the tiger demon fought for dozens of rounds in the sky. The tiger roared loudly, the black demon was fierce, and the wind howled, alarming the nearby residents.

Everyone witnessed the old monk's magical powers with their own eyes, and naturally spread the story by word of mouth, and the story became more and more exaggerated.

Secondly, in response to inquiries from pilgrims and nearby neighbors, the monks of the Honeng Temple directly revealed the truth: Yu Fengxian took action only after the tiger demon was injured by the host master. As a result, no matter who Xiaoyu faced, he personally admitted that he borrowed Chijuro to ward off disaster.

The neighbors were all aware of the business situation of "Yu Mansion", so everyone understood her real purpose.

Although it is helpless, it is indeed a bit shameless.

Thus, Akajura became the "well-deserved" demon-slaying hero.

The people of Tianmen Town fully accepted the title of "Holy Monk Chijiula" that was first spoken by Xiaoyu.

A holy monk should have the ethics of a holy monk.

After becoming a holy monk, slaying demons and eliminating evil became a matter of course. You can complain but you cannot hate the "ungentlemanly" Yu Fengxian.

"Master, I want to apologize to you." Xiao Yu bowed and said seriously: "I should have told you my plan honestly, instead of suspecting that you were unwilling to fight against the evil spirits and quietly moved to the side of Honen Temple."

The old monk's expression froze, "Are you still planning to live next door?"

Xiao Yu said: "Master, you killed the tiger demon. If the tiger demon still has relatives and friends who want to avenge it, they will definitely come to you.

I may not be very experienced, but I have the will to fight to the death.

With my help, we will definitely slay the evil spirits.

Of course, the tiger demon destroyed several of my houses, so I might have to live out for a while."

The old monk's expression became conflicted.

Yu Fengxian reminded him that if the evil spirit came again to seek revenge, he might be the first to bear the brunt.

Yu Fengxian lives next door, and she is no longer the one who brings him troubles, but has become his right-hand man. Especially now, he is seriously injured, but he has seen the true colors of his "old friends" from the human immortals in Tianmen Town - Yu Fengxian is not reliable at critical moments.

As for the revenge of the "Eight Immortals of the West"
If it really happened, he would at most chant a Buddhist name, shout "When will the cycle of revenge end?", and then stand by and sigh. He would definitely not intervene.

It is indeed the duty of the holy monk to slay demons and eliminate evil, but the "Eight Immortals of the West" are not demons or evil spirits.

"You don't have to move. I can ask the monks in the temple to help you repair the house." The old monk said awkwardly.

Before meeting Yu Fengxian again, he never thought that he would take the initiative to keep Yu Fengxian.

Not only did he take the initiative to keep her, but he also helped her renovate the house.

It’s too absurd and too helpless.

(End of this chapter)