Scholars on both sides of the mountain road had never experienced such a scene.
One by one, they were knocked to the ground by iron fists, then dragged to the side by the accompanying guards, tied up like rice dumplings, and thrown by the roadside.
For a full one to two hundred meters of the mountain road, in the thorny bushes and weeds on both sides, scholars were strewn everywhere, three to four hundred in total, all groaning, their faces beaten into pig heads.
Fang Er and Li Xiaogong took the lead, crossing the last flight of stone steps to reach the platform at the mountain's summit.
Buildings stood in rows before them. The Níshān Academy, the Temple of Confucius, and the Library Pavilion surrounded a bluestone statue – the statue of the Master.
The place that should have been bustling was now deserted, with all the scholars thrown along the sides of the mountain path.
"What do we do?" Li Xiaogong asked Fang Er, looking at the empty mountaintop.
"Let's offer a stick of incense to the Sage first. After all, the Sage is the Sage, and his descendants are his descendants. Their faults should not be attributed to the Sage."
After speaking, Fang Er put his pistol away at his waist and walked towards the Temple of Confucius.
Li Xiaogong stood where he was, scratching his head.
"It seems, it really is like that, isn't it?"
"Alright, since we're here, let's burn three sticks of clear incense. Let's see if Old Master Kong can bless my unpromising family to be a bit more ambitious."
Entering the temple, there was an incense burner on the low table, and behind it, a statue of the Master in a different pose from the one outside.
Fang Er glanced at the incense and candles nearby. "Too inferior."
Thinking he had exchanged for this item before, he quickly rummaged through his warehouse.
Before Li Xiaogong came in, he had indeed found them.
They were three bundles as thick as eggs, each stick being two meters long!
He took out two bundles and placed them beside him. He took three from one, lit them with a candle flame, and looked at the incense burner. They couldn't be inserted at all!
He scraped the ground with his foot, found the seam of the bluestone floor tiles, took out a cordless drill, and drilled holes in the gaps between the tiles. Only then could the tall incense be firmly inserted.
Just as he finished, Li Xiaogong walked in.
Seeing the three tall incense sticks, taller than a man, he was stunned.
"Brother, could this be the legendary 'burning tall incense'?"
Fang Er ignored him, took out three more sticks, lit them, and walked towards the statue of the Master outside.
After doing this, he still had to search for the bandits. He had no time to chat.
He used the electric drill again to make six holes at the base of the statue of the Master, three for himself and three left for Li Xiaogong. He also left three small holes inside the temple for inserting incense.
At this moment, only he was around. The three tall incense sticks were inserted into the ground in front of the statue of the Master. Looking at the curling incense smoke rising straight up, Fang Er looked up at the statue of the Master and said,
"Sage, if you have a spirit, have you ever imagined that your descendants would monopolize education, stand above all people, manipulate court affairs, and disregard the lives and deaths of the common people?"
"I suppose this is not the Confucius family you wanted, is it?"
"Since Heaven has allowed me, Fang, to come to the Great Tang, I will do my best to avoid those tragic events in the future."
"Let me tell you about historical trends. These are all related to Confucianism."
"One hundred and thirty years later, corrupt scholars manipulated power and amassed wealth, blinding the monarch, causing the Great Tang to decline from prosperity to ruin. In five years, fifty million people died in war!"
"Six hundred years later, the powerful Song Dynasty was destroyed by corrupt scholars. With phrases like 'traitor general' and 'unsubstantiated,' nomadic cavalry ravaged these vast lands, nine million people were massacred, and the Chinese bloodline was almost extinguished!"
"A thousand years later, the Great Ming fell due to factional strife among corrupt scholars. On this land, one hundred and twenty million people died in turmoil!"
"What is hateful is that after the fall of the Ming, Confucian disciples, who always valued integrity, turned around, ignored the bones of their dead compatriots, and traded their knees for wealth from the new rulers!"
"To drive these barbarians from the White Mountains and Black Waters off the imperial throne, the Chinese people paid the lives of a full one hundred and seventy million!"
"The soldiers on this land have never feared foreign races, even if their bodies were dismembered or their families died, they, as warriors, never forgot their mission to protect their homes and country."
"However, there are always corrupt scholars who stab them in the back at critical moments."
"They deceive the ruler from above, fool the people from below, manipulate power, and live a lifetime of wealth and honor!"
"Yet, they made innocent commoners pay the price of broken families and ruined homes to preserve the continuation of China!"
"You tell me, should Fang prevent this before it happens?"
"Therefore, I ask the Sage to move his spirit elsewhere, to play chess with Duke of Zhou, or to discuss the Tao with Laozi. Do not blame me for my ruthless methods in the upcoming events!"
"For the sake of the common people of this world, for the sake of a hundred schools of thought contending, if there is sin, it is mine!"
His words were sonorous, and unknowingly, Fang Er's eyes reddened. Every time he recalled the records of the Chinese descendants narrowly escaping extinction, his heart felt as if it were bleeding.
After kowtowing three times at the feet of Confucius, he stood aside and quietly waited for Li Xiaogong.
Old Li didn't know what he was discussing with the Sage in the temple and hadn't come out yet.
Suddenly, a signal arrow shot up into the sky, in the direction behind them!
Fang Er immediately turned and ran to the edge of the stone steps to look down. Several guards were kicking and punching a scholar. Afterwards, they searched his sleeve and found an arm crossbow, evidently the signal arrow was shot into the sky with this.
"What happened!" Li Xiaogong also heard the signal arrow and rushed out of the Temple of Confucius, still holding a newly lit tall incense stick.
Fang Er pointed down the mountain, his face unfriendly, and said, "Someone is courting death!"
Then