Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 160 This formation-breaking technique is open to anyone who wants to learn it.

While several disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect and envoys from the Zhou Kingdom were on their way to various countries, inside the White Stone Immortal Sect, in the Lingxiao Hall, all the disciples gathered together. Even An Che Hexiang, an unofficial member, came along and sat down next to her brother on a small stool.

Zhang Chengdao also sat upright in the main seat, glanced at everyone, and asked with a pleasant expression, "Among the disciples of the sect, are there any who are skilled in divination?"

The atmosphere inside the sect was always relaxed. Although the disciples admired Zhang Chengdao for his extraordinary abilities, they were not afraid of him. Therefore, when they heard the question, they all shook their heads and answered in a cacophony of voices.

"I can't even recognize all the characters!"

"I took the arithmetic exam in my younger days, but I'm ashamed to say I failed and have forgotten everything..."

What is divination?

"Huh? Our sect doesn't teach this?"

"You teach them to read, so... you should teach them this too, right?"

"My grandfather was quite skilled in the art of Qimen Dunjia, but he passed away twenty years ago! I was only five years old then! I didn't have time to learn it!"

"Then what the hell are you talking about!"

"Just say it!"

"I do know a little bit, just a tiny bit!"

Only when someone in the crowd finally said they understood did Zhang Chengdao look in the direction of the voice with high hopes.

It was his fourth apprentice, Tang Xiaoyu.

It's strange, even though Tang Xiaoyu has a gold card and has joined a sect, she still hasn't been able to cultivate Qi—several of those blue card holders have already become Qi Refining cultivators, and you, a gold card holder, are still stuck on Qi Sensing? Are you kidding me?!

For this reason, Zhang Chengdao had shown her special concern and had also subtly inquired about the "equipment" that made her appear as a "Foundation Establishment" cultivator, but each time she pretended not to understand and glossed over it, so Zhang Chengdao became too lazy to ask any further.

At such an advanced age, it's okay to have a few secrets. As long as you pass the trial and withstand the inner demon illusion, at least your mental state won't be a big problem. There's no need to push yourself too hard.

After Tang Xiaoyu finished speaking, Zhang Chengdao looked at Ye Shuyun and asked, "Shuyun, do you know how?"

Ye Shuyun cupped his hands in apology and replied, "I only have a rudimentary understanding."

Zhang Chengdao nodded nonchalantly, took out a few books from his backpack, and used his spiritual power to lift them up and send them to the two of them. He instructed, "Alright, you and your fourth junior sister, you two together, study these books carefully and learn the teleportation array as soon as possible. It will be of great use to me!"

Anyone who wants to learn this broken formation can learn it, but he absolutely refuses to learn it!
Upon seeing this, the two men showed their gratitude and bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you for bestowing the book upon us, Sect Master!"

Zhang Chengdao nodded in satisfaction, casually asked a few questions about the disciples' cultivation progress, offered some encouragement, and then dismissed the meeting.

See? They even have to thank me! Zhou Guo is not only a mess, but a very difficult mess to manage.

Zhang Chengdao could easily install a member of the Li clan as emperor and then control the entire country from behind the scenes, just like the Mingjing National Preceptor's plan. This would not only save trouble but also make it easier to completely absolve the Baishi Immortal Sect of any responsibility.

But...does he really have to be so indifferent?

Zhang Chengdao had asked himself this question more than once.

Having a prime minister or president is definitely not feasible, and a constitutional monarchy is also unsuitable. Considering that he, as a true immortal cultivator, should be the longest-lived person in the entire martial arts cultivation world, it would be better to supervise the emperor himself, abolish the "emperor" who is a bloodsucking leech who gorges on the people's wealth, and divide the entire Zhou Kingdom into administrative divisions similar to modern provinces and cities. In addition to the officials who normally govern various places, a supervision path will be set up by the disciples of the White Stone Immortal Sect, similar to "disciplinary supervision"—those who can pass at least three trials will not only have no major problems in terms of "political review," but will also be relatively more reliable in terms of character and morality.

Of course, the names of the various positions cannot be copied directly from modern ones. Putting aside whether Zhang Chengdao can remember them or not, even if he can, the local natives would not understand if the entire set of names were simply taken and used.

Therefore, Zhang Chengdao was given the title of "City Lord," and an "Immortal City Supervisory Office" was added above his name. Nominally, the White Stone Immortal Sect disciples were responsible for special matters in the city, such as disputes among cultivators and disturbances caused by demons and evil spirits. However, they also had the responsibility of supervising the normal administrative team headed by the City Lord.

In addition, military power was also established separately in the military commands of each prefecture and several important directly administered military commands. For example, the former Imperial Guard was directly changed by Zhang Chengdao to the military command of the Jingzhao Prefecture, with two thousand men.

These names are all quite intuitive and easy to understand, and there was almost no objection from officials throughout the Zhou Kingdom. However, there was unprecedented opposition to the matter of reducing the size of the central court.

Faced with this matter, the officials no longer seemed so afraid of Zhang Chengdao. Instead, they all spoke up, vehemently arguing the dangers of reducing the size of the official ranks, as if the Great Zhou Kingdom would be doomed once this policy was implemented.

Unfortunately, the Great Zhou Kingdom in reality had already collapsed.

Because they no longer called themselves a "country" but instead referred to themselves as the "Immortal Sect," Wang Yanqing, the Prefect of Jingzhao, specifically proposed to clarify the titles. For example, the "Sect Name" should be called "Baishi," and a new era name should be adopted. The "Sect Flag" of the Immortal Sect should also be made, which is to say that the character "Sect" is used as the character "country."

Although Zhang Chengdao found this somewhat amusing, upon closer examination, he realized that the rules did indeed need to be changed one by one; they couldn't continue to follow the old regulations of a dead feudal kingdom.

Therefore, he promoted Wang Yanqing to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and put him in charge of this matter together with the Ministry of Rites. He also emphasized that if a "clan name" had to be used, it should be "Baishi Immortal Clan".

After nodding in acceptance of the so-called "clan name," Wang Yanqing had an idea. He quickly suggested that they should also establish the Five Virtues and hold a grand ceremony to announce it to the world and set the record straight.
Zhang Chengdao actually knew about the Five Virtues. They were the "virtue and fortune" that each dynasty used to play with that kind of metaphysical theory of the interaction between heaven and man and the passing of the old and the coming of the new, which were divided into five categories to prove that the new dynasty was "ordained by heaven".

For example, the Shang dynasty was associated with metal, the Zhou dynasty with fire, the Qin dynasty with water, the Han dynasty with fire (which changed to earth in the middle, but reverted to fire in the Eastern Han dynasty), the Jin dynasty with metal, and the Liu Song dynasty with water, etc. Except for Liu Bang, who insisted on the fire element because he considered himself the son of the Red Emperor, the other dynasties either adopted a virtue that specifically countered the previous dynasty's virtue, or adopted a five-element virtue that the previous dynasty's virtue could generate. In short, there was some kind of inheritance relationship involved.

Because the Zhou state considered itself to be inheriting the legacy of the former Zhou state and had always maintained the virtue of earth, Wang Yanqing suggested to Zhang Chengdao that he could take metal or wood, the former being mutually generating and the latter being mutually restraining.

Zhang Chengdao immediately rejected it.

Are you kidding me? He's a cultivator, why would he believe in this stuff?

"The White Stone Immortal Sect is an immortal sect. It is neither the one that destroyed Zhou nor the one that inherited Zhou's territory. What need is there for 'virtue and fortune'? It's superfluous!"

(End of this chapter)