How did I, who just ascended to heaven, become an evil spirit?

"Go, go stand at the back of the lecture hall and read. The teacher will come to give you lessons later. You can go back to your seats when it's lunchtime."

The superintendent calmly announced his punishment. Li Hu tried to explain, but his body was completely out of his control, and he could only politely reply, "Yes."

Li Hu obediently went downstairs and walked on the stone slabs of the academy. He stood tall and walked with a composed gait. A scholarly air emanated from his posture, making him look no different from the ordinary scholars here.

But only Li Hu himself knew that he was not controlling it at all, but that his body was being forcibly controlled by an invisible force. Ever since he was punished in the library, he had been unable to control his body.

He tried his best to mobilize his inner energy, attempting to circulate it throughout his body to resist this external, coercive force.

The result was that the true energy circulated through his dantian, brain, and a few acupoints to refresh his mind, as if preparing for studying, rather than helping him regain control of his body.

This strange power even controlled the true energy that Li Hu trusted most.

Li Hu walked into the lecture hall with a calm and composed gait, head held high, but inwardly terrified.

Here, every scholar was hunched over their desks, reading with all their might. Each of them was flushed and on the verge of breaking down, reading their textbooks in unison.

"Things have their roots and branches; affairs have their beginnings and ends. To know what comes first and what comes last is to be close to the Way!"

Just now, when Li Hu was in the library, he remembered that the voices were clear and pleasant to listen to, and they also created a great atmosphere. But when he walked into this lecture hall, he found that this place was like hell on earth, and his eardrums were about to be pierced.

Were all these people also controlled?

A chilling thought suddenly popped into Li Hu's mind, but his body still involuntarily took a copy of "The Great Learning" from the shelf, turned to the page that everyone was currently reading aloud, and joined in this dizzying morning reading session.

"What Heaven ordains is called human nature; to follow one's nature is called the Way; cultivating the Way is called education. The Way cannot be separated from for even a moment; if it can be separated from, it is not the Way!"

"Therefore, the superior man is cautious about what he cannot see, and fearful of what he cannot hear. Nothing is more visible than what is hidden, and nothing is more manifest than what is minute. Therefore, the superior man is watchful over himself when he is alone!"

Soon, Li Hu's face turned red and his voice became hoarse. With the help of his inner energy, he even became the loudest reader here.

Gradually, everyone's reading pace even began to align with Li Hu's.

Out of the corner of his eye, Li Hu noticed a scholar sitting above the podium. He had a white beard, wore plain clothes, and had deep-set eyes, looking like an old pedant.

He stroked his long beard and looked at Li Hu, who was leading the reading, with a look of satisfaction in his eyes, as if he were a promising young man.

Li Hu read anxiously for two hours, his whole body almost numb. What on earth were the supervisor and teacher up to?!

The Master glanced at the sundial from afar, calculated that the morning reading should be over, and waved his hand, at which point the reading aloud stopped in unison.

Li Hu saw it clearly: everyone was hunched over their books, yet it was as if they could see the teacher's gestures, all in an orderly fashion, without the disorderly rhythm that a regular classroom should have.

Li Hu's own voice also stopped at this moment. He tried to swallow to moisten his throat, but he still couldn't.

The Master looked at Li Hu, who was standing at the back as punishment, with some satisfaction and said with a smile, "Your voice is like a booming bell, your form like a soaring crane, and your spirit is complete and full of energy. You have done very well in the way of self-cultivation in the Great Learning. You may sit in the third row."

After saying that, Li Hu bowed slightly again, then walked to an empty desk in the third row and sat down cross-legged.

"Fuck your mother!" Li Hu cursed inwardly. Everything here was wrong. Not only was his behavior controlled by the supervisor, but even the teacher in front of him could say a few words. Although he hadn't seen any malice from them so far, the feeling of being manipulated was still very unpleasant.

"Come on, let me begin the lesson."

Confucius stroked his beard and sighed, "A ruler should treat his ministers with propriety, and ministers should serve their ruler with loyalty."

"Today we won't discuss national affairs, but only the concept of loyalty. Before we begin, I'd like to know how you all view the attitude of 'loyalty'?"

"Ziyou, you're in the first row, you go first."

The Master pointed, and the person sitting in the first row stood up like a puppet, bowed to the Master, and mechanically began to speak:

"Master, loyalty means serving others wholeheartedly and not deceiving oneself. A subject should be loyal to his ruler until death."

"What a fine example of 'dying only after exhausting one's strength'!"

The Master remained expressionless and continued, "Then let me ask you, what if your ruler orders you to do something unjust?"

The girl named Ziyou suddenly froze. Logically, she should have spoken, but she couldn't say anything. She mechanically uttered words like, "Injustice... Loyalty to the emperor and love for the country... Die for it, injustice..."

It looks like a machine whose program has frozen.

"Your thoughts are not clear, your breath is not flowing smoothly; this is blind loyalty!"

The teacher reprimanded without hesitation, "Ziyou, I thought so highly of you, but you only deserve to sit in the fifth row. Switch seats with the people behind you."

With a wave of his wrinkled hand, the scholar named Ziyou gathered his books, bowed, and moved to the fifth row.

Li Hu, who was originally in the third row, was moved to the second row due to the change in seating order.

"Come on, Tang Yao, you're in the first row now, tell us your thoughts." As usual, the teacher called on someone to answer the question.

There were five rows of students in the lecture hall, but he only called on the person in front of Li Hu. It seemed that the train was about to arrive in front of Li Hu. With this expectation in mind, Li Hu couldn't help but feel uncomfortable all over, as if ants were crawling on him.

Tang Yao stood up straight and bowed to the Master, saying, "Master, I believe that if a ruler treats his ministers as his own hands and feet, then the ministers will treat the ruler as their own heart and soul; if a ruler treats his ministers as his own dogs and horses, then the ministers will treat the ruler as a fellow countryman; if a ruler treats his ministers as his own dirt and weeds, then the ministers will treat the ruler as an enemy."

Upon hearing the words "Kou Chou," the Master's face trembled slightly, as if it had struck a chord with him. He even curled the corners of his mouth slightly, looking quite satisfied.

But then, as if deliberately making things difficult, he frowned and deliberately showed a displeased expression.

Li Hu clearly saw these subtle changes in expression, but he managed to deceive all the scholars in the audience.

The teacher, outwardly stern but inwardly weak, slammed his hand on the table and then reprimanded the student:

"How can a subject regard his ruler as an enemy? How dare you, Tang Yao, utter such rebellious words, a mere scholar!"

"Go sit in the last row!" the teacher yelled.

"Yes." Tang Yao didn't argue, but just packed up his textbooks and went to sit in the last row.

So Li Hu took the opportunity to go to the first row.

"You look unfamiliar. What's your name?" the teacher asked with a smile, stroking his long beard.

Li Hu rose and bowed, saying, "In reply to your question, Master, I am Feng Cong, a native of Dengzhou."

Alarm bells rang in Li Hu's mind. He had no intention of revealing his family background, but he had exposed it because of the teacher's words. His uncontrollable state was simply incomprehensible.

"Tell me, what is your view on the word 'loyalty'?" Confucius then asked.

"In my opinion, loyalty should not be spoken of to one's father, emperor, heaven and earth, or the country and its people. The only people in this world who should be treated with loyalty and trust are the common people, the workers, peasants and their children."

At this moment, Li Hu's mouth was out of control, and he naturally blurted out his innermost thoughts, showing no intention of stopping. No matter how hard Li Hu tried to force himself to shut up, it was useless at this point.

Then, more of their most genuine thoughts were revealed, each word spoken with force and conviction.

"What the ruler eats and uses, what the officials eat and use, what the clerks eat and use, is nothing but the people's blood and sweat. Without the people, how could there be a ruler? If I were an official, the only thing I would need to be loyal to is the people!"

"Not only am I unwilling to be loyal to the emperor, but if the emperor treats the people cruelly, I am willing to draw my sword and kill him!"

"Then behead his dog's head, hang it on the city gate, and proclaim to the world that the wicked ruler has been eliminated. The people will surely celebrate for three days without ceasing..."

"Enough!" the teacher suddenly slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "You, you, you..."

The master pointed at Li Hu, momentarily at a loss for words, his face showing a hint of shock.

"Are you trying to destroy my Xiazhu Academy?!"

The Master's beard nearly bristled, but then Li Hu bowed and said, "In reply to the Master, it is not that I intend to destroy Xiazhu Academy; it was you who asked me first."

"Go, go, go..." the teacher hurriedly waved his hand, "Go stand in the back row as punishment!"

"Yes!" Li Hu grabbed the book in front of him, bowed uncontrollably, and then went to the last corner of the wall to stand as punishment again.

When the question came to Li Hu, the Master lost interest in asking further questions. He simply tapped the table lightly to calm himself down for a moment before beginning to teach and explain the "Great Learning" that the students had just recited.

Li Hu's seat in the first row was not taken away; he was only temporarily punished by standing. When the boring morning lecture ended, Li Hu's body once again became uncontrollable, and he returned to his seat in the first row.

At midday, the scholars here did not leave their seats. They continued to sway their heads and recite their texts, making the most of every minute.

During this time, some young servants, only seven or eight years old, came. They carried baskets of food and drink, and placed a bowl of salted vegetable porridge, a pancake, some meat, and some vegetables on each person's table before leaving in a hurry.

While the scholars were engrossed in their studies, they also hastily finished their meal. Then, a group of young girls came and cleaned up the food and tableware on the table.

Li Hu's body was out of control, and he had already eaten with everyone.

By afternoon, Li Hu was secretly alarmed. Judging from the scale, there were not only scholars, but also many young boys and girls, teachers, supervisors, servants, and kitchen staff. He roughly estimated that there were probably no less than a hundred people.

It's unclear who are acting as accomplices to the tyrant, and who, like Li Hu, are trapped here.

Thinking of this, Li Hu was slightly alarmed, but since he couldn't get away for the time being, he could only observe the environment and study countermeasures, thus spending the afternoon in a daze.

During this time, Li Hu kept trying to mobilize his true energy without letting up. Gradually, he discovered that this controlling power seemed to be weakening.

At first, he had no control over his own internal energy, from head to toe and throughout his entire body.

However, as time went by, Li Hu discovered that a small amount of true energy was gradually becoming under his control, and his little finger, ears, and other parts of his body could tremble slightly on their own, just like a paralyzed patient recovering and gradually regaining control of his body.

"If that's the case, maybe we'll have a chance to escape from here tonight," Li Hu thought.

It was evening, and the weather outside the window was perfect. Li Hu was engrossed in reading at the first-row desk.

The afternoon is when people are most prone to drowsiness. The reading became a bit chaotic, and many scholars even collapsed onto their desks, looking like they had reached their physical limit, with pale faces and purple lips.

The people around seemed unfazed, and a page laid them flat behind the desk, waiting for them to recover on their own.

Before long, the supervisor also arrived in person with a ruler to supervise whether everyone was studying diligently in the afternoon.

"Studying requires perseverance. If you don't study, others will. If you don't take the exams for officialdom, others will."

The supervisor, carrying a board on his back and in his hand, walked from the back of the lecture hall to the front, waving the board back and forth. If he saw someone who was not in a good mood, he would give them a light tap on the back of the board.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

The scholars who had been struck by his ruler seemed much more serious, and their reading voices became several decibels louder.

He finally sat down on the desk at the very front of the lecture hall, right across from Li Hu in the first row, their faces touching.

Fortunately, Li Hu was still full of energy, otherwise all the control he had regained that afternoon would have been wasted.

The supervisor stared at the group of scholars and laughed wildly. Then he waved his hand sharply towards the back of the lecture hall, and immediately a group of girls walked over and placed a bowl of medicine on each of their tables.

The bowl of herbal soup was yellowish-brown and had a slightly pungent smell. Some white flocculent matter floated up and down in it, making it look quite like a bowl of turbid wine. But Li Hu was on high alert.

"Drink this excellent energizing soup quickly."

As soon as the supervisor's order was given, all the scholars in the room picked up the bowls of soup on their desks and began gulping them down.

Li Hu was no exception, but he felt something was wrong.

Given the way people do things here, it's not like the supervisor would personally come to deliver soup, which is a small matter. Li Hu guessed that there was at least an 80% problem with the soup!

So Li Hu tried his best to resist the action of holding the bowl and drinking the soup, to the point that his joints were twisted and deformed, his little finger was turned outward and almost fractured, and his chin was crooked, trying his best not to touch the bowl of soup.

The superintendent witnessed this scene, but his expression remained cold.

He simply held out the pair of rulers in his hands and snapped them repeatedly...

The sound of the boards colliding echoed through the lecture hall, striking Li Hu like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

"Drink this soup, and you will surely pass the imperial examination," the supervisor said expressionlessly, standing with his hands behind his back.