Ideological Education

"Hao Xiangtong?" Qiao Zhi recalled her. She was the woman he had once introduced to Chu Qiguang. "Oh, her! That woman is quite something. To bide her time on the grasslands for twenty years and still manage to enter the Dao—she's a true prodigy of cultivation." Qiao Zhi sighed in admiration. "If she were given a proper environment to cultivate, she would have soared straight into the clouds." Chu Qiguang nodded. "That's why I plan to build a friendly rapport with her and guide her in cultivation. It's thanks to you, Master Qiao, telling me about her talent that I can invest in such a high-potential stock." "Naturally!" Qiao Zhi said smugly. "You'd better listen to my guidance more in the future. Everything I say makes total sense." Chu Qiguang nodded in deep agreement. "Master Qiao is a visionary, after all. You must continue to direct our work going forward." Chu Qiguang spent the rest of the day focused on his martial arts training. By now, he could unleash two hundred and fifty consecutive explosive punches, putting him right on the verge of reaching the second realm. *Sigh. The two younger brothers Chen Gang brought along eat quite a bit too. Now I only have three hundred-odd taels of silver left.* Watching his household assets dwindle day by day, with so many cats, dogs, and people all crying out to be fed, Chu Qiguang felt worn to the bone fretting over this family. *Given my current relationship with the Hao family, it's time to sell them some truly good stuff.* ... That evening, Chu Qiguang and Qiao Zhi planned to administer the Heavenly Demon Foundation Establishment Method to Chen Gang's two younger brothers as well. Naturally, Chu Qiguang had other business to attend to, so he delegated the specifics of the task to Qiao Zhi. After all, only this way could Chu Qiguang place greater trust in them down the line. It would also increase their stamina and potential, giving them a brighter future, allowing them to create more value for society, and turning them into people useful to the world. At that moment, Chen Gang was comforting his two younger brothers, who were about to undergo the Heavenly Demon Foundation Establishment Method. "Don't worry. It hurts a bit at first, but it feels great afterward, and once it's done, you'll be full of energy. If you don't believe me, just look at me..." With that, he lifted a stone lock used for training beside him. "See how strong I am now? You'll be like this too in the future." Chen Erdi, however, kept glancing nervously at the cat monsters undergoing military drills. "But Brother... this means colluding with demons." Chen Sandi nodded along. "Do you think... he who does unrighteous deeds will surely perish?" Enraged, Chen Gang swung his hand and delivered two sharp slaps, smacking both brothers across the face. "You useless cowards! Do you want to stay in Wang Family Village farming for the rest of your lives?" Chen Erdi and Chen Sandi hastily shook their heads. "We don't want to farm! Farming is bitter and exhausting, and there's no money in it." "Exactly," Chen Gang lectured them. "Do you know how much silver Brother Gou and I made after coming to the county seat?" He gestured with his hands. "Over a thousand taels! More than you'd earn in ten lifetimes of farming!" "Do you know about the Bloody Corpse Case that shocked the whole county? Brother Gou and I handled that together!" "And because of that, the eldest young master of the Hao family, the Daoist priests from the abbey, and the magistrate's son all chat and laugh with us like old friends!" Hearing this, both brothers' eyes lit up with longing and admiration. Chen Erdi asked, "Brother, so what will we be doing?" Chen Sandi asked worriedly, "They won't make us kill people, will they?" Chen Gang looked at his brother with utter contempt. "Kill people? Look at you, you gutless wimp!" He stood up and walked over to a flower bed. "What you have to do every day is clean up all the cat shit here." Chen Erdi blinked. "Just that?" Chen Sandi said dejectedly, "We might as well have stayed home and farmed." From the distance, Baimi shouted, "What are the three of you standing around dazed for? There's barely any place left to step! Hurry up and clean it up!" Leaving the three Chen brothers to start shoveling cat droppings, Chu Qiguang sat before his desk, practicing calligraphy with a brush. On one hand, he needed to practice his brushwork for the martial examinations; on the other, he was preparing an ideological and political lesson for the cat monsters. Over the past few days, Chu Qiguang had pored over various documents from the county yamen, associated with second-generation officials like Hao Yongtai and He Xian, and continually absorbed information from Qiao Zhi. As a result, not only had he grown increasingly familiar with the workings of officialdom in the Great Han Dynasty, but he could also pull up a vast amount of data to back up his arguments at any moment. As the saying went, no investigation, no right to speak. Now, armed with theory, data, and first-hand accounts from key players, Chu Qiguang was largely confident in reshaping the cat monsters' thinking. Especially after these cat monsters had killed people alongside him... they identified with Chu Qiguang far more than before and were much more receptive to what he had to say. *Time to teach these cat monsters a proper lesson.* ... That night, the cat monsters sat together in a circle, their eyes fixed on Chu Qiguang at the front, every single one of them wearing an attentive expression as if attending a serious lecture. Chu Qiguang wore a sorrowful expression. "...And so, Black Cat A'de was pinned to the ground by ten Daoist priests. He cried out desperately that he couldn't breathe, but no one cared. The priests pressed down even harder to suppress A'de's struggles, while the crowd gathered around cheered, shouting to kill the cat monster." "In the end, A'de suffocated to death." "The priests didn't know whether A'de had done anything wrong. They and the surrounding commoners only wanted to kill a cat monster..." Chu Qiguang looked at the white cat, Baimi, and asked, "Why did the commoners all want to kill the cat monster?" The white cat Baimi froze for a moment. Chu Qiguang frowned. "Hmm? I just explained this earlier. Were you not paying attention?" With that single hum, the temperature in the courtyard seemed to drop by several degrees. Shivering, Baimi instinctively leaped to his feet and blurted out, "Because the Daoist abbeys tell them that all monsters are evil and love eating humans! Because the imperial court wants to eradicate all demons and monsters—they fear our potential, and they fear monsters joining forces with the common people!" He recited fluently from memory, "If we want to transform the status of demons and monsters, we must remove the two great mountains of the Heavenly Master Sect and the imperial court! We must be cat monsters of the new era who possess convictions, discipline, integrity, and enterprise..." As he sat back down, Baimi subconsciously felt a phantom ache in his rear end. He cursed inwardly in frustration, *Catdammit... have they beaten me so badly that I'm getting phantom pains now?* Chu Qiguang nodded in satisfaction. The beatings over the past few days had truly not been in vain. Regardless of whether they genuinely embraced these principles in their hearts, their obedience was at least far higher than before. As for genuine ideological change, that was never something achieved overnight. At the very least, as blank slates who had never read books, these cat monsters were far easier to reform than the common folk of the Great Han Dynasty. And seeing the pensive looks in the eyes of several cat monsters, a flicker of gratification surfaced in Chu Qiguang's heart. At least these cat monsters were no longer consumed by simple, blind hatred toward humans and other races as in the past. Under Chu Qiguang's guidance, they had begun contemplating the root causes of that hatred and questioning why the cat monster clan found itself in such dire straits today. Chu Qiguang thought to himself, *Still, Da Tou and that pack of dog monsters are so much easier to manage. Just feed them every day, and they obey submissively, clinging to my leg and calling me daddy. These cat monsters, on the other hand... require daily training, a balance of benevolence and intimidation, and sharing food and quarters to thoroughly overhaul their minds.*