“You do not even consider it. We cultivators are all busy with our daily practice. Where would we find the time to pursue scholarly knowledge?
Moreover, the mysteries of the ‘Dao’, how could ordinary cultivators comprehend them?
Besides, your requirements are even more outrageous. Preaching to demons is already quite perverse, yet you come up with preaching to unawakened beasts. Who the devil could manage that?
I reckon only those great beings who have achieved sainthood or ancestral status could truly accomplish such a thing!”
Bing Jiu advised him earnestly, hoping to make Mo Fan abandon this absurd notion.
“Of course, if you do not mind, I could actually give it a try. At most, I would just earn a bit of spirit stones from you!”
As he spoke, Bing Jiu winked at Mo Fan and grinned. “So, shall we give it a go?”
“Give your sister a go!
Do you truly take me for a fool?!”
Mo Fan rolled his eyes irritably at the fellow.
In the end, Bing Jiu did not get his way.
It was simply that Mo Fan found the chap utterly unreliable. Yet from Bing Jiu’s mouth, he learned that there was likely no such great scholar in the entire market who could preach to beasts.
This left Mo Fan deeply disappointed and somewhat troubled.
“Must preaching necessarily require those great beings?!” Mo Fan could not help but frown.
“Not entirely. Great beings would naturally be better, but if there is truly a person of vast learning to teach and lecture, it could still produce remarkable results!”
Bing Jiu thought for a moment and said, “I once heard a story.
There was a band of little demons who were famished to the bone, so they banded together and ran off to the Southern Frontier to devour humans.
And guess what?
That band of little demons ended up trapped in a village for a full half month!”
“Were there powerful human cultivators in that village?” Mo Fan asked.
“No. What trapped those little demons was just an ordinary man, an old scholar!”
Bing Jiu shook his head, then looked at Mo Fan gravely. “It was because that old scholar lectured to those little demons, attempting to change their minds. And so he lectured for a full half month!”
“That old scholar was so formidable?”
Mo Fan was mildly startled and asked further, “And then? Were those demons reformed? And what of the old scholar? Was he hailed as a hero by the humans and made an official in the court?”
“No. The old scholar died!” Bing Jiu said with a sigh.
“What?!”
Mo Fan was stunned, then frowned once more.
The story’s plot seemed rather off!
“You heard right. The old scholar died, and of starvation at that!”
Bing Jiu smiled wryly. “I was shocked too, but stories often turn out so dramatically.
It turned out the old scholar, to prevent those little demons from wreaking havoc on the village, began reasoning with them.
Oddly enough, those little demons had come in a ferocious rush, yet they were utterly confounded by the old scholar’s sharp tongue and silver words. For the moment, they did not strike but instead started debating with him. The precise content of the debate is unclear.
In any case, after a day of fierce debate between man and demon, the little demons were thoroughly convinced, yet they could not fend off their hunger, so they waited patiently.
And so the debate turned into a one-man lecture by the old scholar, with an audience of demons.
The old scholar persisted for half a month. Meanwhile, the villagers slipped away in secret during that time. In the end, the old scholar was starved to death.
After the old scholar died, the little demons grieved deeply, but hunger won out. They searched the entire village and found not a soul, not even a single grain of rice.”
“And then?”
Mo Fan drew a deep breath and pressed on, though he dimly sensed the answer in his heart.
“Then… that band of little demons, in a fit of rage and shame, wept as they devoured the old scholar’s corpse!”
Bing Jiu also drew a deep breath, then looked at Mo Fan.
“This… surely it is just a story. In reality, how could there be such a melodramatic turn?”
Mo Fan murmured with a wry smile. In his view, the tale was riddled with holes.
First off, why would those little demons be cowed by an old scholar without the slightest magical power?
If such a thing had truly occurred, the old scholar would likely have been torn apart and eaten by the little demons on the spot, let alone any debate thereafter…
Secondly, if those little demons were truly moved by the old scholar’s preaching, how could they eat him out of hunger?
And if they could not endure the starvation, why wait until he was dead to do so?
It simply contradicted itself from start to finish!
“This is indeed a story, but a true one, for that band of little demons did not survive in the end either. They were all slaughtered to the last by humans!” Bing Jiu said earnestly.
“Er… truly?”
Mo Fan frowned. He had not expected this to be Bing Jiu’s personal experience.
“Yes, truly, because the one who slaughtered those little demons stands before you.” Bing Jiu nodded, then added after a thought, “Later, upon careful analysis, I reckoned the debate between those little demons and the old scholar was about who could hold out the longest.
They were all starving, and demons can endure hunger better than humans, after all.
Though the old scholar died, those little demons were moved by his perseverance, so they did not eat him right away.
Yet no matter how much they admired and were touched, they remained demons. When pushed to the brink of starvation, they would even devour their own kind, let alone an old scholar?”
“That does make a certain sense when put like that!” Mo Fan nodded, then looked at Bing Jiu. “You tell this story to say that even mortals can preach?”
“Precisely. The old scholar lost, but in a way, he also won.”
“It is hard to find great scholars among cultivators, but in the mortal world, there is no shortage of pedantic Confucians who flaunt their learning. Perhaps your opportunity lies in the Southern Frontier.” Bing Jiu smiled.
“The Southern Frontier, eh…”
Mo Fan smiled wryly. He knew full well what the Southern Frontier had become now, but Bing Jiu’s suggestion was evidently the best option available.
“By the way, I once heard you studied characters among humans. You could count as half a teacher yourself. Why not try preaching on your own?” Bing Jiu laughed.
“Do I look like a teacher in this form?”
Mo Fan pursed his lips. He knew his own limitations. Though back in Pingyao Town’s private school he had bested Fang Ru in scholarly debates time and again, those were not his original works.
If he truly had to preach to a crowd of demon cultivators or wild beasts, it would not be long before cauldrons appeared before him…
“Now that the Heavenly Wolf Holy King of Moonwatch Valley has waged war on the Southern Frontier, that place must have turned into a living hell. I do not recommend you go there.
After this great calamity, your Black Wind Mountain should focus on recuperation, not on expanding territory like some power-mad fool?”
Bing Jiu advised him earnestly once more. “As a friend, I urge you to set your mind on cultivation. Only by growing strong yourself can you avert many disasters and thereby protect those around you.”
Yet no sooner had he spoken than Mo Fan fixed him with a fierce stare. After eyeing him for half a moment, he frowned and said, “How do you know so much about my Black Wind Mountain’s affairs? Are you spying on us?!”
“Do not look at me like that. When you went to that Crimson Fire Peak before, my eighth brother and I helped your Black Wind Mountain once. Otherwise, do you think that Lei Yuchuan would have needed months to recover?”
