Chapter 1399: Hot Blood and Rashness
Chapter 1399: Hot Blood and Rashness
Qi Xuansu quickly finished a new draft. Once he knew what to write, everything else was easy. The real difficulty was deciding on that “what.”Then Qi Xuansu had Chen Jianchou deliver the draft while he went to see Sage Cihang. He did not hurry to see Sage Donghua first because meeting him carried great significance. It would mean giving him a clear answer about becoming his disciple, so Qi Xuansu intended to leave that for last.
Nominally, Qi Xuansu was paying a visit to his future mother-in-law, so no one could object to that. Normally, one must show greater attentiveness to the mother-in-law before marriage. After marriage, it became a different matter entirely.
After a few pleasantries, Sage Cihang did not even glance at the gift Qi Xuansu had brought. Instead, she went straight to the point. “You ran into trouble with Sage Qingwei, didn’t you?”
Qi Xuansu sighed and did not hide anything, recounting the entire conversation he had had with Sage Qingwei.
After listening, Sage Cihang commented, “Sage Qingwei knows perfectly well what he’s doing. He’s only playing dumb.”
Qi Xuansu asked, “What do you mean by that, Sage?”
Sage Cihang said, “You’ve been to Fenglin. Sage Qingwei personally directed the war there. Not to mention, the Taiping Sect has managed Fenglin for years. Have you ever thought about why the Taiping Sect uses the Wa people to govern the locals?”
Qi Xuansu thought for a moment and replied, “The first reason is convenience. The second is that it creates a buffer mechanism. If the Wa commoners are dissatisfied and grievances arise, their first target is the Toyotomi Government, not the Daoist Order. The Toyotomi Government is our buffer. To put it rather bluntly, isn’t the relationship between the Daoist Order and the Great Xuan Court similar? By not directly handling livelihood issues, we lose a great deal of power, but we also shed a great deal of responsibility.”
Sage Cihang said, “That’s not the real key. In fact, the Daoist Order has always operated this way from the very beginning. Aside from the Kunlun Daoist Mansion and the Sahul Daoist Mansion, in the vast majority of Daoist territory, we preserved the existing courts and government offices, creating a dual-structure system. In the Central Plains, there is the Great Xuan Court. In Nanyang, there are the Yu, Jawa, and Funan Kingdoms. In Fenglin, there is the Toyotomi Government. In the Western Region, there are many small nations as well. Why do you think that is?”