Chapter 1818 - Crumbling of Convictions!

Li Junxian had already lost the battle, but the Confucian Sect would continue to pass down its ideals and dreams. It would never lose!

“Rotten! The Great Tang has been harmed exactly by these rotten ideals of yours!”

Wang Chong’s eyes flashed with rage. Even at this stage, Li Junxian did not give up and was still thinking about staging a comeback and starting another militarist-Confucian conflict. Just how many times would this empire have to be destroyed, the hearts of its people torn asunder, before it could be put on the right path?

Crack!

No one saw how Wang Chong did it, but in a flash of light, he suddenly appeared in front of Li Junxian, his hand closing like a steel vise around Li Junxian’s neck and raising him into the air.

“Senior Brother!”

“Young Master!”

“Wang Chong, release him!”

The members of the Confucian Sect cried out in panic.

But Li Junxian remained firm. Even though Wang Chong had him by the neck, he showed no sign of backing down.

At this moment, when the tension was at its maximum…

Bong!

The ringing of a bell came from the depths of the Imperial Palace. Unlike other bells, this one had an extremely urgent tone to it.

“Something terrible has happened!”

Grand Tutor Pei Guangting stood up in alarm and turned around to look north to the Imperial Palace.

There were two bells in the Imperial Palace that were rarely rung. The first was the Bell of Mountains and Rivers, rung only when Kings or Great Generals died. But very few people knew about the other bell, the Bell of the Gods of Land and Grain.

This bell was even larger than the Bell of Mountains and Rivers, and even louder. A single strike of the bell could be heard from several hundred li away, and everyone in the capital region could hear it. It was only rung for the most urgent of crises and was a way for the Sage Emperor to summon his ministers.

“This is the first time in the Sage Emperor’s reign that the Bell of the Gods of Land and Grain has been rung!”

Grand Preceptor Zhan Zhongmi and Minister of War Zhangchou Jianqiong also stood up.

Fifth Prince Li Heng was also alarmed. The Great Tang was at peace and its armies strong. Just what had happened that would make his father ring this bell?

“Reporting!”

As the crowd grew uneasy, a Golden Guard of the Inner Court rode out from the distance and began to make his way through the crowd.

“Fifth Prince, Grand Tutor, Grand Preceptor, terrible news!” the Golden Guard called out as he dismounted and rushed into the training ground. “We’ve just learned that Caliph Mutasim III of the Arabian Empire has formally declared war against the Great Tang, summoning the soldiers of the ten-some countries around Arabia and combining them with his own for an army of three million, eight hundred thousand soldiers that is marching toward the Great Tang. Samarkand has been lost and Talas has been taken. Moreover, the Arabs secretly sent their vanguard ahead of them, disguising them as caravans, and infiltrated the Anxi Protectorate. The Anxi Protectorate army has been completely wiped out, and the Western Regions have been completely occupied by the Arabs!”

Bang!

This news immediately sent an uproar through the training ground, and as the spectators outside received the news, they also grew restless.

“How could this be? Wasn’t the Arabian Empire already defeated?”

“An army of three million, eight hundred thousand soldiers?! How could the Arabs have such a massive army? How are we going to stop such a massive force?”

“The Anxi Protectorate army has been completely wiped out? How? I don’t believe it! That’s impossible!”

The crowd began to panic.

Too sudden!

Whoosh!

The flapping of wings came from the west. Wang Chong looked up and saw an energetic and agile messenger bird with golden claws descending toward him.

The golden hoop around this messenger bird’s leg indicated that it carried an urgent report. His heart shivering, Wang Chong instinctively released Li Junxian and received the messenger bird.

Upon opening the letter and reading the report, he felt his heart sink.

The mood of the training ground instantly turned somber and tense.

“Impossible! We signed a peace treaty with the Arabian Empire. Arabia disbanded several hundred thousand soldiers, and even Mutasim III’s sons and daughters became disciples of our Confucian Sect! How could Arabia declare war against the Great Tang and attack the Anxi Protectorate? There must be some mistake!

“It can’t be Arabia!

“I don’t believe it!”

No one was more shocked than the leader of the Confucian Sect, Li Junxian. His instinctive reaction was to deny the veracity of the report. Amongst the foreign countries, Arabia had been the Confucian Sect’s greatest supporter. He had even personally met Caliph Mutasim III, and had seen his eagerness to be friends with the Great Tang and his approval for the idea of the Harmonious World.

How could Arabia have attacked the Great Tang?

“‘Impossible’? The Arabs have already advanced to the Western Regions, and you’re still saying that it’s impossible?”

Wang Chong’s expression burned with hatred upon hearing Li Junxian’s words. His face pale, he threw the urgent report from the triangular gap in front of Li Junxian.

“Look at the fine mess you’ve made! If not for the soldiers I left at the triangular gap serving to deter them, we would have already lost Qixi as well!”

Wang Chong was filled with loathing. The Confucian Sect had singlehandedly ruined an excellent situation.

If not for them, the Great Tang would have still been garrisoned in the distant Khorasan, and everything between Khorasan and the Cong Mountains would have been Tang territory. This would have served as the Great Tang’s largest barrier, but it was all over now.

“Impossible! The Arabs can’t have gone back on their word! If they really wanted to deal with the Great Tang, why did they allow us to set up so many schools to teach the Tang language and teach Confucian classics…”

Li Junxian was still passionately trying to argue. In his heart, he refused to believe that Arabia had betrayed the Great Tang.

The Harmonious World was the dream that the numerous worthies and masters of the Confucian Sect had given their lives to realize. To reach this stage, the Confucian Sect had sacrificed so much blood and sweat. Even his master and senior brother had died for it. He himself had expended a great deal of time to meet all the various sovereigns and persuade them to accept the Confucian Sect and Confucian ideals, and the countries really had accepted them.

The countries had reduced their armies and signed peace treaties. The ultimate ideals of the Confucian Sect had been on the verge of being realized, but now, it was said that the Arabs had attacked the Great Tang and even taken the Western Regions. How could he possibly accept this?

There had to be a mistake! He would never believe it!

Whoosh!

At this moment, another messenger bird appeared from the west, and as the tension increased, the bird flew down to the white-robed girl and the other members of the Confucian Sect.

Whoosh!

Upon opening the letter and glancing at the report, the white-robed girl staggered, almost falling to her feet. The other members also turned ghastly pale. In the end, Sword Ghost took the letter from the white-robed girl and walked over to Li Junxian.

Li Junxian was the leader of the Confucian Sect, and he needed to see the letter.

“Young Master, terrible news!”

Ignoring Wang Chong, Sword Ghost handed the letter over to Li Junxian.

“Martial Uncle Zhao has sent a report. All of our schools in Arabia have been locked, and all our disciples… have been executed! Martial Uncle Zhao’s chances of survival are also very slim.”

Sword Ghost’s lips trembled as he spoke.

Arabia was the country farthest from the Great Tang, and amongst the countries, it was also the Confucian Sect’s greatest supporter, with the greatest number of schools. The Confucian Sect had held it up as a model of friendly relations.

Amongst the various sovereigns, Mutasim III was on the best terms with Li Junxian. He had even given a loan to the Confucian Sect and used the power of the imperial household to spread Confucian teaching and have Arabs learn the Tang language.

And as the model for Harmonious World, Arabia had also been the recipient of many disciples from the Confucian Sect. It had sent four of its elders, nearly one hundred other eminent Confucians, and several thousand Confucian scholars.

All of these people had been executed!

Bang!

Sword Ghost’s words were like a bolt of lightning crashing down on Li Junxian’s head.

How could this be possible?!

Li Junxian instinctively snatched the letter out of Sword Ghost’s hands. The letter had been written in great haste, its writer clearly in grave danger. At that moment, Li Junxian almost stopped breathing.

“Impossible!!!”

At this moment, tens of thousands of voices seemed to be resounding through Li Junxian’s mind.

His eyes went wide, his face went pale, and his body began to sway, almost falling down. In this battle, no matter how grim the situation had been, even when Wang Chong had taken the Crown of Confucius and battered him again and again into the dust, Li Junxian had never given up.

No matter how much Wang Chong had humiliated him, he had persisted, but upon seeing this letter, Li Junxian felt all the strength in his body instantly draining away. He could barely keep himself standing.

Crack! Something in Li Junxian’s mind seemed to break.

“Arabia… Martial Uncle Zhao… Master…”

As Li Junxian mumbled these words, he suddenly began to cry.

Li Junxian’s first reaction upon reading the letter was to deny it, to treat it as a forgery. But the letter had the special mark of the Confucian Sect, and on the last page was the unique seal of his martial uncle Zhao Wenhan. These were not things that could be forged.

Arabia had attacked the Great Tang and killed all the members of the Confucian Sect within its borders… This was all real.

Deep within his heart, those convictions he had so staunchly cleaved to suddenly collapsed into a pile of rubble.