Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 169 Today I will clean house for Confucius.

Afternoon at the Imperial College of the Ming Dynasty.

At this moment, there was no sound of reading aloud.

The air was thick with a mixture of resentment, anger, confusion, and restlessness, like a pot of soup about to boil but with its lid tightly shut.

This sacred place in the hearts of Ming Dynasty scholars has been cracked open with a bottomless fissure.

On either side of the crack are two completely different back views.

Near the entrance of Yilun Hall, bathed in sunlight, stood about sixty students, their expressions solemn and upright, like rows of stubborn pine trees.

Wang Zixuan, who was in charge, not only submitted a blank paper in the "Gezhi Examination" that they regarded as a great disgrace, but also attached a lengthy and vehemently worded "Memorial denouncing heresies and sorcery", denouncing the court for "believing in Western barbarian demons and abolishing the sacred teachings of Confucius and Mencius", which would inevitably shake the foundation of the country.

Naturally, he became the first student to be stripped of his academic titles.

However, in the eyes of Wang Zixuan and the group of people behind him, this was not a disgrace, but an honor!

They were martyrs of the holy way, loyal ministers and illegitimate sons who dared to speak out against the deceived emperor and court.

They gather here every day, ostensibly to seek the emperor's judgment, but in reality, they are using the methods that scholars are best at and most self-righteous to put pressure on the young emperor.

Their shadows stretched long in the sunlight, carrying a self-righteous sense of tragic grandeur.

On the other side, there were even more students.

They are the observers, the majority wavering in this storm.

They also failed the exam and were equally angry and confused by the unprecedented science exam paper.

But the emperor's promise to give them another chance was like a thin straw, casting ripples on the lake of their despairing hearts.

At this moment, the group of onlookers surrounded several young people.

These young people were neatly dressed, with a hint of fatigue in their expressions, but also an undeniable youthful vigor.

They were once classmates at the Imperial Academy, but now they have a new identity—students of the Ming Dynasty's Royal Academy of Sciences.

They came back today only to collect a few books and clothes they had left behind.

“Wang Wei! Brother Wang! Please tell us clearly what exactly is the West Garden like?” A fellow student from Wang Wei’s hometown tugged at his sleeve and asked almost pleadingly.

Wang Wei was reluctant to say more, believing that those who walk different paths should not work together and that arguing would be pointless. However, looking at the anxious and yearning face of her former classmate, she eventually softened.

He composed himself and briefly recounted what he had seen and heard in the Wanshan Hall of the Western Garden, selecting the most important points.

However, every word he uttered was like a spark thrown into a hot oil pan, instantly causing a violent explosion.

"What?!" a student exclaimed in disbelief. "You mean... His Majesty threw an iron ball and a wooden ball down from a height right in front of you, and both balls... landed at the same time? Absurd! This is utterly absurd!"

"You think you can capture a rainbow in the sky with a piece of glass?" The other person scoffed, a thick sneer on his lips. "Wang Wei, we've known each other for years, how come you've picked up this kind of charlatan's tone? Such illusions are nothing but a smokescreen!"

When Wang Wei mentioned the hot air balloon taking off, the crowd's reaction reached its peak.

"A eunuch...flew into the sky sitting on a giant paper ball?!" A student laughed so hard he almost cried. "Spreading nonsense! Wang Wei, I think you've been blown out of your mind by the evil winds of the West Garden, actually believing such absurd tales!"

Wang Wei opened her mouth, but didn't know how to refute it.

The facts he witnessed with his own eyes, the miracles that overturned all the profound truths he had learned in the first half of his life, became ironclad evidence in the ears of his former classmates that the emperor had been deceived by sorcerers and eunuchs.

Unbeknownst to the students, countless people in the streets and alleys of the capital had already seen the "Kongming Lantern" that challenged the limits of their imagination. Rumors about "auspicious omens from the sky" or "strange signs in the palace" were spreading and engulfing the entire capital at an alarming rate!

Those who were waiting and watching were even more confused.

They had hoped to get some information from Wang Wei that would help them make up their minds, but instead they heard more absurd and frightening stories.

All of this was relayed to the ears of the martyrs not far away.

Wang Zixuan's face turned from white to green, then from green to purple, and his body trembled slightly with anger.

"Did you hear that?! Did you all hear that?!" He turned around abruptly and roared at his companions behind him in a voice that sounded almost like he was crying blood.

"Putting the ball above the ball, turning morality upside down! Making wild accusations, confusing right and wrong! A eunuch flying to the heavens, the country is doomed, there must be monsters!"

"Even His Majesty... even the Emperor of our Great Ming Dynasty has been so deceived by such sorcery! We are disciples of the Sage, we eat the Emperor's food and read the books of the sages. If we do not speak out, if we continue to allow such treacherous people to mislead the Emperor's ears, how are we any different from those beasts who wag their tails and beg for mercy?!"

"How are we any different from beasts!" he shouted, raising his arms and straining his voice.

"How are we any different from beasts?!" The dozens of students behind him were completely ignited by his tragic emotions, and roared in unison, their voices shaking the heavens.

……

Just as the atmosphere inside the Imperial College was electric, as if it were about to erupt into a storm, an old figure appeared at the entrance of the Imperial College.

Xu Guangqi.

The elderly man, well past sixty, came to the library to retrieve some rare mathematical and astronomical books he had deposited there years ago, as well as several precious observational instruments he cherished and had purchased from Western missionaries. These would form the initial foundation of the "College of Science."

He was not accompanied by any entourage, but only by four men dressed in ordinary blue cloth short shirts, but who were muscular, walked steadily, and had wary eyes.

Xu Guangqi's appearance was like a boulder thrown into an already turbulent lake.

Instantly, all the students' eyes were focused on the white-haired old man.

In the eyes of Wang Zixuan and others, Xu Guangqi was the "culprit" who introduced Western learning into the Ming Dynasty and defiled the sacred way!
This is the root cause of all this chaos!

"It's him! It's him!" someone beside Wang Zixuan growled in a low voice. "It's this old scoundrel who presented His Majesty with Euclid's Elements and Western cannons! He's a spy sent by the Westerners!"

Wang Zixuan's eyes instantly turned red.

He strode forward, leading dozens of Martyr's students behind him, forming a human wall that blocked Xu Guangqi's path.

"Xu Guangqi!" Wang Zixuan's voice, like a knife chilled to the bone, pierced the old man. "You, as a disciple of the sage, have received the imperial favor of three generations of the Ming Dynasty, yet you willingly become a lackey of the Western barbarians, aiding and abetting their evil deeds! You have led those barbarian's base doctrines to disrupt the millennia-old moral order of China! You... how can you possibly have the face to step into this sacred land again?!"

Xu Guangqi looked at the young face twisted with anger before him, a trace of sorrow flashing in his cloudy old eyes.

He straightened his slightly hunched back and spoke slowly, his voice hoarse but still clear: "What I have learned is to explore the principles of heaven and earth and all things, the study of investigating things to acquire knowledge. This is in harmony with the great path of 'cultivating oneself, regulating one's family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world' spoken of by the sages, both for the sake of making my Great Ming Dynasty strong and prosperous..."

"Shut up!" Wang Zixuan didn't listen to any explanations at all. He only had one logic in his mind: those who are not of our kind must have different hearts; those who do not follow the teachings of sages must be heretics!
In his rage, he suddenly reached out and shoved Xu Guangqi in the chest!
"Today, I will cleanse the house of Confucius!"

This push was a direct hit from the elbow! Xu Guangqi was already old, how could he withstand such a collision? He was about to fall backward.

In the blink of an eye, four cyan figures moved simultaneously, like ghosts!
They instantly moved between Xu Guangqi and Wang Zixuan, forming an unbreakable human wall that firmly protected the old man behind them.

The leader grabbed Wang Zixuan's wrist with one hand like an iron clamp, and supported Xu Guangqi's back with the other.

Shen Lian, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had an unremarkable face that was expressionless at the moment, except for his eyes, which were as cold as the deepest part of the Northern Garrison Prison.

"Insolence!" Shen Lian shouted in a low voice, but it struck Wang Zixuan's heart like a heavy hammer.

However, madness is contagious.

"Attack! Attack all these lackeys too!"

"Protect my brother!"

The students who were stopped were so enraged by this sudden turn of events that they rushed forward!

They were scholars, not skilled in martial arts, but they had inkstones, paperweights, and sticks they could grab at will!
In an instant, fists and feet flew, and debris flew everywhere, all aimed at the four Imperial Guards and Xu Guangqi.

The four Imperial Guards were far more skilled than these frail scholars; elsewhere, they could have easily taken them all down in just a few moves.

But at this moment, they had only one mission—to protect Xu Guangqi.

They couldn't move much, nor could they launch a heavy counterattack; they could only form a small, impenetrable formation, using their own bodies to block and withstand all attacks.

"Bang!" A heavy inkstone slammed into the forehead of a Jinyiwei guard. The man groaned and swayed, but did not take a step back. Blood instantly flowed down his cheek, a shocking sight.

Shen Lian's gaze grew increasingly cold. He could feel the old man protecting him trembling slightly, whether from fear or sorrow, he couldn't tell.

Just then, a beast-like roar resounded throughout the entire arena.

"Get out of here!!"

Wang Zixuan, with an unknown burst of brute force, broke free from Shen Lian's grip. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a madman. He rushed to the pillar of the Yilun Hall and picked up a heavy bronze cauldron that was usually used for sacrifices!
The bronze cauldron weighed at least thirty or forty pounds, but at that moment he felt as if his whole body was filled with a tragic sense of mission, and he could not feel any weight at all.

Wang Zixuan roared, veins bulging, as he raised the bronze cauldron high, poised to throw it, and howled:
"You old bastard! Prepare to die!!"

However, this was not a truly desperate fight to the death.

It was a performance, a high-stakes gamble that put oneself in the spotlight.

He was certain that in this Imperial Academy, at the feet of the sage, no one would dare to let the bronze cauldron, representing the system of rites, truly fall, and no one would dare to let the blood of the scholar-officials splatter on the spot.

What he wanted was not Xu Guangqi's life, but his own fame—a glorious name that would be remembered in history for sacrificing himself for the cause!
Like many people in history, Wang Zixuan is gambling on an outcome he believes he can never lose.

Martyrdom for the cause involves scheming against people's hearts, scheming for reputation, and scheming against the so-called rules under this bright and clear world.

But Wang Zixuan miscalculated one thing.

He was not facing a pedantic scholar who would debate with him, nor a bureaucrat who would weigh the pros and cons.

He was facing Shen Lian, the emperor's drawn sword.

For the emperor's sword, any threat aimed at the protected target, whether real or fake, has only one outcome.

In Shen Lian's eyes, the moment Wang Zixuan picked up the bronze cauldron and used it as a weapon against Xu Guangqi, the verdict had already been delivered.

That last shred of hesitation, which might have been enough to discern whether it was a show or a desperate gamble, shattered instantly under the emperor's decree of "kill without mercy"—as fragile as thin ice!

Shen Lian stopped blocking and dodging.

His body twisted and turned to the side at an angle that no ordinary person could possibly achieve! His right hand, like a venomous snake with its own life, gripped the hilt of the Embroidered Spring Blade that he had never parted from at his waist with lightning speed!
Time seemed to slow down infinitely at this moment.

Shen Lian could see Wang Zixuan's face, distorted by madness, and hear Xu Guangqi's rapid breathing behind him.

"Changlang——"

A clear, crisp sound ripped through the noisy courtyard.

A beautiful, crescent-shaped flash of light appeared and disappeared in an instant!
fast!
It happened so fast that no one could see how Shen Lian drew his sword, how he thrust it, or how he sheathed it.

To everyone else, it seemed as if they only saw a silver lightning bolt, drawing a perfect arc in the air.

Then, everything froze.

Wang Zixuan's movements came to an abrupt halt.

He remained in that forward-throwing stance, his frenzied expression frozen in place.

He blinked, seemingly confused.

Then, Wang Zixuan lowered his head slowly, incredulously.

A thin, almost invisible line of blood appeared on his scholar's robe.

Immediately, the line of blood, like a venomous snake awakening, suddenly expanded!
Blood gushed out of the crack like a flood bursting its banks!

"Ho...ho..."

He made an incomprehensible sound in his throat, and the light in his eyes vanished as quickly as the tide receded. The bronze cauldron crashed to the ground with a clang, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Wang Zixuan's tall body seemed to have all its bones removed, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Shen Lian remained standing in the same spot, as if he had never moved.

But the Embroidered Spring Blade in his hand was already drawn, the blade pointing diagonally at the ground. A drop of bright red blood slowly slid down the gleaming tip of the blade, dripping onto the bluestone slab and spreading into an eerie blood flower.

Shen Lian raised his head, his face stained with blood, and his eyes, cold and bloodthirsty like those of a hungry wolf, exuded a terrifying aura that made people feel fear from the bone marrow.

"Back off!"

He shouted sharply, his voice hoarse, yet filled with an unwavering and resolute will.

"His Majesty has decreed: Anyone who wishes to harm Lord Xu—"

"Kill them without mercy!!"

(End of this chapter)