The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 403 Return
The pillars are made of gold, the walls are made of white jade, green vines are flying around, and white flowers are dotted around.

The green water turns into waterfalls, and the red brocade dyes the clouds into colorful clouds.

The celestial maidens danced and played the harp, while the holy child played with deer and monkeys.

There are also generals wearing golden helmets and armor, riding giant dragons with silver-blue scales; warriors wearing green vine armor, leaning against majestic elks; archers holding bows, with eagles with outstretched wings resting on their shoulders...
Ergou wandered around like an ant entering a giant's temple. He had to look up at everything with inexplicable awe.

Of course, what Ergou was in awe of was not how magnificent this place was, but that what he saw represented the most beautiful wishes of a civilization and was an indelible historical mark of the Aidari civilization.

As long as there are heirs of the Eldari civilization in the world, this place will exist forever.

Ergou didn't know how long he had walked deep into the temple. He even witnessed millions of years of history of the Aidari civilization from the carvings on the white jade walls, but this was just a drop in the bucket in the entire history of the Aidari.

But Ergou no longer wanted to go deeper, because he found that as he browsed more historical secrets of the Aidari civilization, his thinking and cognition seemed to be distorted towards the Aidari.

This kind of transformation at the soul level is subtle and silent, and a normal soul cannot perceive it.

But Ergou is not like that.

Every time he witnessed a period of history of the Aidari civilization, Ergou felt as if his soul was twisted by some external force, giving him a strange and awkward feeling.

As this awkward feeling accumulated more and more, Ergou discovered that his soul body had been twisted into a very abnormal shape. Imagine that every part of your body began to dislocate, twist, and do their own yoga.

This is the chaotic appearance of the soul due to distorted cognition.

An ordinary soul is basically doomed if it encounters this situation.

When such souls return to the real world, they are basically all kinds of scum such as traitors, betrayers, turncoats, and traitors. Moreover, they are the kind of bootlickers who are not ashamed of it but take pride in it.

It is neither difficult nor easy to solve the problem of soul distortion. It all depends on whether the distorted soul has anchored its original soul belonging and whether its will is strong enough.

Fortunately, Ergou's soul anchor is more secretive and profound than any other soul in the world, and his will has long been tempered to be almost indestructible.

When Ergou realized that he was being twisted, of course he didn't know what this meant. He just instinctively felt that this state was very bad.

So he set out to try to reverse this distortion.

This is a very difficult process, and most people don’t even know how to start.

In fact, Ergou couldn't think of any other good solution.

The only thing he could think of was the secret method of tempering the mind passed down by the demon-suppressing master.

In fact, the Mind-Refining Method is not something mysterious. Its core structure has long been written into articles by our ancestors and spread throughout the world, and is widely known to the world.

It’s just that most people hold this treasure without knowing it, thus wasting the painstaking efforts of their ancestors.

The method of tempering one's mind can also be called "the method of examining one's mind three times a day."

That’s right! It’s the content of Confucius’ Analects: Learning.

The Master studied under Laozi, summarized the experience of his predecessors, and established the Confucian theory of self-cultivation. This self-cultivation should actually be called self-cultivation of the mind and the cultivation of thoughts.

Of course, this does not mean that there were no people who achieved the state of mindfulness before Confucius. It’s just that before Confucius, the practice of mindfulness was not systematic and there were many errors, so there were only a few who succeeded.

After the Master founded the method of cultivating mindfulness, he taught three thousand disciples, among whom seventy-two were sages. This means that seventy-two of the three thousand disciples successfully condensed their own mindfulness.

Perhaps many people don’t understand how terrifying this success rate is?
We can make a comparison.

In the Zhou Dynasty before Confucius, there were nearly ten million people in the Nine Provinces, but only a few heroes who could gather their own thoughts and values ​​appeared in a hundred years.

Of course, once such a person appears, he is basically an earth-shaking great man, such as Taigong Wang, Zhou Gongdan, King Mu of Zhou, Guan Zhong, etc.

It was because of these outstanding people who fought one after another to protect the Nine Provinces that the later Chinese heritage came into being.

After the Master established his school, he selected three thousand talented people, of whom seventy-two achieved success, which was more than the total number of successful people in the world in the previous five hundred years combined.

What does this mean? It is equivalent to selling a rare and precious book at a low price.

Even if we take out any two of the Master's seventy-two wise disciples, they are still far inferior to the outstanding people who had their own ideas and were great successes.

But what if there are ten, eight, or twenty or thirty of them?

If it can be promoted and widely adopted, and all the people in the nine provinces study Confucianism, instead of just 72 sages among 3,000 people, how about 72 sages among 30,000 or 300,000 people?
Quantitative change leads to qualitative change, and it is not only latecomers who understand this truth.

Therefore, when the Master had accomplished his academic success, he took his disciples on a tour around the countries, lobbying the monarchs and dignitaries of various countries, suggesting that they spread knowledge widely, enlighten the people, and make everyone in the world learn this way, hoping that those who have achieved success will flourish everywhere.

The characteristic of this era is that knowledge was basically monopolized by the monarchs, nobles, and wealthy people of the various vassal states of Zhou Dynasty. They often used the method of keeping the people ignorant to rule the common people and maintain their own ruling position.

Therefore, Confucius's advocacy of spreading knowledge was tantamount to undermining the ruling foundations of the princes and nobles.

Even Confucius compromised in many aspects of his own doctrines, such as restoring the rituals and laws of the Zhou Dynasty.

But these things cannot impress the greedy and corrupt hearts of those vested interests who monopolize the academic field.

So on the surface, the Master's lobbying among nations was a failure.

But from another perspective, the Master's study tour was successful.

When the Master traveled around the states, he was not just sightseeing and visiting the princes and guests.

Ever since King You of the Western Zhou Dynasty lost Haojing and King Ping of the Western Zhou Dynasty moved eastward to Luoyi, the Zhou royal family gradually declined, the various countries were in conflict, the princes wanted to dominate, and the world was in great chaos.

The ancients said: When the world is in chaos, evil spirits will proliferate.

Therefore, during the Master's time, the world was full of demons, ghosts, and evil spirits.

The Master led his disciples on a tour of various states, subduing many demons and monsters, and killing ghosts and gods along the way.

Confucius' disciple Fan Chi once asked Confucius what method could be used to perfectly deal with those evil gods that deceive the people?
The Master said: To serve the people in a righteous way, to respect ghosts and gods but keep them at a distance, can be called wisdom.

The Master said: In order to protect the rational cognition of the common people, we should be respectful to the evil god on the surface, and then drive him away secretly. This is the smart approach.

In this era, whether a school's doctrine is good or not does not depend on how well the scholar explains it, but on whether the school's disciples are powerful enough and able to fight when facing evil spirits.

It is obvious that the Master and his disciples are really good at fighting when facing evil demons. They are very good at fighting.

Think about it, an unrivaled sage leading seventy-two great masters who have achieved great success in mind meditation. Not to mention those evil creatures, even the Demon Lord and Demon King would have to stay away from them if they saw them.

Therefore, although the Master failed in his lobbying of the dignitaries of various countries, all knowledgeable people in the world knew of his abilities and admired his theories, so they came to him to seek knowledge, including talented people from other schools of thought, who wanted to learn from his strengths and make up for their own weaknesses.

The Master wrote about his studies, taking Zengzi, who was the most pure-minded among his disciples, as an example, and described in classics the doctrine of "examining oneself three times a day".

Zengzi was the last and youngest disciple of the Master, but he was the one who could concentrate his mind the fastest among all the disciples.

Other disciples asked Zengzi what the secret was.
Zengzi said: "When I have achieved something, I examine myself three times a day: Am I disloyal when I work for others? Am I untrustworthy when I interact with friends? Am I not practicing what I have learned?"
From then on, all heroes in the world focused their thoughts and followed this path.

This is also true for the demon-suppressing warriors.

Of course, the method of "Three Daily Self-examinations" to condense one's mind is not to copy Zengzi's three questions, but to self-examine one's most taboo issues according to one's own actual situation. For example, Zengzi was most concerned about the three shortcomings that were most likely to occur in himself: not doing his best for others, not trusting his friends enough, and not having a deep understanding of the knowledge taught by the Master, so he self-examined these three questions.

What you care about most is whether you can make more money, marry a prettier wife, and hold a higher position. But you are learning Zengzi's three questions to reflect on yourself. Isn't this like trying to catch fish in a tree?!

You should reflect on yourself and ask yourself whether you have lost righteousness due to greed for money, lost morality due to lust, and lost kindness due to love of power. Reflect on yourself three times a day and cultivate your mind and concentrate your thoughts.

These are also the two most difficult parts of the "Three Times a Day Method of Reflecting on One's Body and Mind".

The first difficulty is to identify your own character flaws and then summarize and condense them.

Many people are vaguely aware of their own shortcomings, but are unwilling to admit them or face them. This kind of self-deception is the most taboo in the "Daily Self-Examination Method" and is also the biggest hurdle in the initial stage of refining the mind.

Such people are simply not qualified to come into contact with the truth condensed by thoughts, and they will be directly excluded from the threshold of transcendence.

The second difficulty is that it requires practitioners to overcome their own shortcomings and reflect on themselves every day until their mind and nature are perfect and their state of mind is harmonious.

This is also very difficult, requiring practitioners to have sufficiently firm will and determination, but as long as the way and method are correct, many people can do it, and this is also the core value of the "Daily Reflection on One's Body and Mind Method".

Ergou has been practicing the "Three Times a Day Self-Reflection on One's Body and Mind Method" under the guidance of his master Chen Tong'e. His biggest problem is that he knows too much and has too many experiences. He has too many issues that he needs to reflect on himself, and he doesn't even know if he can truly solve many of them.

For example, when facing real terror, Ergou didn't know whether he was ignorant and fearless, or truly brave and fearless.

Just like Ergou is in the Soul Temple now, if he wants to correct the distortion of his soul, he needs to constantly question himself and reflect on himself.

In fact, all of Ergou’s problems can be summarized into the three most core soul-searching questions.

"who am I?"

"Where do I come from?"

"Where am I going?"

To others, these are just three philosophical questions.

But for Ergou, this is related to the foundation of his existence in this world.

Ever since Ergou was reborn, he has been wearing a mask of disguise.

Is he Ergou?
The body is, but the soul is not.

where is he from?
This is a secret that cannot be told.

What does he need to do in the future and where will he go in his life?

He had some plans, but he just went with the flow and was not really determined in his heart.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have abandoned everything in the Song Dynasty and come to the Lishan Galaxy to cause trouble.

Although he claimed that he wanted to find a new place for the poor people of the Song Dynasty to reproduce, but given the current situation of the Song Dynasty, is this really the most urgent need of the people?

Certainly not!

The problem of the Song Dynasty was not the lack of land, but the unbalanced distribution of resources.

To put it bluntly, there was something wrong with the ruling class of the Song Dynasty.

The emperor was foolish and greedy, the bureaucrats were tyrannical and unjust, external threats had not been eliminated, and internal troubles continued.

With such a Song Dynasty, even if Ergou got more fertile land, he could not save it.

Er Gou walked in the corridor of the Soul Temple. He shouted, "Who am I?!"

A celestial maiden in the temple responded: "You are the savior of the High Elves and the successor of the Eldari!"

Ergou shouted angrily: "No! I am not! I am Ergou! I am Chen Shen! I am ***!"

Er Gou's voice was like thunder, but the last name was one that even the Soul Temple could not absorb and engrave.

As Ergou roared, his soul body began to wriggle constantly. Severe pain like scraping bones and cutting tendons attacked Ergou's whole body, and he could not help but scream.

After the severe pain, Ergou found that the distortion of his soul body had improved a lot, but it was still far from normal.

However, the severe pain just now really made him feel frightened. Ergou trembled in his heart for several times, but he asked hoarsely: "Where did I come from?"

This time the Soul Temple remained silent.

Er Gou answered himself: "I come from the land of China, the capital of Yao, the land of Shun, and the fief of Yu! It is the Land of God!"

This answer may be considered to be acceptable in the eyes of others. After all, the Song Dynasty can also be called China, but the territory is not complete.

But Ergou himself was very clear in his mind. The "China" he mentioned was the country that was on the road to revival in his previous life. Kyushu, Shenzhou, and Central Plains were all her.

Ergou actually made a connection in this answer, a connection that only he understood.

The three sentences "The capital of Yao, the land of Shun, and the fief of Yu" are from the lyrics of Chen Runeng, a poet of the Southern Song Dynasty.

At this time in the Song Dynasty, Chen Runeng had not yet been born and had not yet written any poems, so it cannot be counted as such.

In Ergou's previous life, the Northern and Southern Song dynasties were already a thing of the past, and famous poems had been passed down for nearly a thousand years. There was no other place like the capital of Yao, the land of Shun, and the fiefdom of Yu.

As soon as Ergou finished speaking, his whole body felt as if it was being tortured. The boundless pain destroyed his reason and cognition and drowned his consciousness.

When Ergou regained consciousness, he found that he had turned back into his original Ergou, the thin little man with a pointed chin and monkey cheeks.

At this time, Ergou felt a long-lost weakness, his whole body was sore and weak, and he was very out of breath.

Ergou didn't think he was supposed to look like this.

So he asked again: "This is a chaotic world, how should I deal with it?"

The thin, weak Xiao Ergou shed tears and said, "My muscles and bones are weak, my spirit is weak, and I am powerless. How can I accomplish anything great? I just want to have enough food and clothing tonight, take care of myself, and survive."

He shouted, "I am a young man, in the prime of my youth! I see the mountains all red, the forests all dyed red! And I still ask who controls the rise and fall of the vast earth!"

After he said this, a terrifying aura emanated from Ergou's body.

Ergou's thoughts awakened.

The terrifying red light dyed the entire Soul Temple and seeped outward.

The countless terrifying giants that were peering outside the Soul Temple were all terrified when they saw the little red light coming out, and they fled away from this place.

No one knows what Ergou’s awakened thoughts are, and all the clairvoyants can only see red light all over the sky.

(End of this chapter)