Chapter 1106: Approaching Tide
Zhang Yuelu concealed her presence as she moved through the warehouse, not wanting the guards nor the imprisoned slaves to see her.
This warehouse area resembled a prison that was divided into numerous rooms. Some rooms held only one person, each extraordinarily good-looking. Their treatment was relatively decent, with good food and no clear signs of abuse.
After all, the Heavenly Court intended to sell them for high prices. Beating them bloody or keeping them filthy would be bad for business.
There were also common dormitories. The captives here were worse off than those in the single rooms, but not atrociously so. Some of them had superficial injuries. It was not because the Heavenly Court was kinder than the West Shakya Company. Their business models simply differed.
Zhang Yuelu glanced across the pitiful slaves without much expression. After all, she was no saint. She was cold-hearted in her own way. In a sense, many people’s description of Zhang Yuelu resembling the fifth-generation Grand Master had never been pure praise. It carried mixed meaning.
As the saying goes, merciful people could not hold armies, and righteous people could not hold finances. Yet the most crucial in governing a nation was military and financial control. After all, one could only raise troops with money, and only with troops could one govern a nation.
A soft-hearted person rarely makes a good leader, as evident in the sixth-generation Grand Master’s reign.
From the beginning, Zhang Yuelu aimed only to reform the Daoist Order, not to change the world. She was a top-down reformer, not a bottom-up revolutionary. Her upbringing empowered her and limited her.
Ideas were one thing; implementation was another.
Worldly change was never the work of one person. Only with turmoil and rising tides could heroes ride it. But before the tide arrived, even heroes had to stand powerless.
Zhang Yuelu did not attempt to free these poor souls immediately. She merely surveyed them. Even if she saved this batch, more would appear later. To end it, she would need to cut off the root. However, moving against the Heavenly Court was no simple task.
Disregarding the Taiping Sect’s support, even the Golden Patriarch alone stood as a towering obstacle.