Chapter 510 — Teacher of Sages (Auspicious Year of the Dog!)
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 5
I once ran a small experiment to test the hearts of the people. I built a little temple outside the capital, then enlightened a filthy mangy dog and set it on the altar inside the temple. Guess what happened? " He sighed: "A few days later, the Temple of the Mangy Dog was bursting with incense and flame; old men and old women came in an endless stream to burn incense and present offerings, and the donation chest before the mangy dog was stuffed full of money.
Let alone a mangy dog—even if you set a toad upon the altar, people will still stuff in money and burn incense! " Shen Mu roared with laughter—and laughed until he could laugh no more. "Therefore, open the economy, and the people's wisdom must also be opened, and only then can the idols in the temples and the idols in the heart be broken.
" The Young Grandmaster said, "And to open the people's wisdom, you must continue the reform: make the empowered more numerous, make magic powers more common, let the empowered become gods.
The empowered who become gods continue to serve the people, and the people will cease to worship the temple idols.
When wisdom opens, the empowered grow ever more numerous. " He went on: "Open the economy and open wisdom—that is the way of reform. What you are doing now is very good: magic power in the service of the people.
But time is still needed before wisdom opens and the people stop kneeling to the temple idols. The road is hard; first it touches the interests of the schools and sects, and next it will touch the interests of the Upper Gods. " "High Heaven is only a running dog of the Upper Gods; behind it there may be an even greater calamity. " Trimming the branches, he said: "The Jingping Imperial Teacher's reform added three postures to the sword art and set in motion the transformation of the Dao arts of Heaven and Earth.
You spread the method of attaining godhood by mending the Divine Bridge, pushing the reform one step further.
Not long ago the little lass Yunxiang burned incense and prayed, and told me that you and Princess Yuxiu had opened the method of the Six Harmonies Primordial Spirit; many of Jingping's empowered, on that foundation, have added bricks and tiles to the Six Harmonies and opened up a host of arts and powers. All of these are excellent things. " He straightened up: "As Dao arts and magic powers grow daily more refined, Jingping's gods will grow more and more numerous, and then the temple idols of the common folk will be broken. Once the temple idols are broken, the breaking of the heart's idols is not far off! " Shen Mu's heart shook.
He threw down his shears and bowed all the way to the ground: "Grandmaster is truly the Sage Teacher of my Heavenly Sage Sect! " The Young Grandmaster hastily dropped his shears and hurried to support him, laughing: "You are the Cult Master and Sage Teacher—how can you call me Sage Teacher?
Rise, quickly!
" At that very moment, Cult Master Zuyang, Cult Master Yulian, and the other successive Cult Masters all bowed to him at full length and cried in one voice, "Sage Teacher! " Only then did the Young Grandmaster notice them, and could not help losing his composure.
Shen Mu said with utter sincerity: "A Sage Teacher is the teacher of sages.
Every successive Cult Master has been unworthy of the name—only the Grandmaster truly deserves it, and deserves the bow of every Cult Master!
" Panic rose in the Young Grandmaster's heart, and then, suddenly, emotion surged from its depths, and tears streamed down his face beyond his control. He had never been a Cult Master; he had always been shut out of the circle of power of the Heavenly Sage Sect, and only in the sect's hour of peril had he shouldered the heavy burden of the Heavenly Sage Sect.
He had never imagined that he, like the Woodcutter Sage, would receive the bow of all the successive Cult Masters!