My brother is so cunning

Chapter 997 The Ideal World in the Dream of the Tongtian Cult Leader

The scene of the robust tiger spirit being verbally abused by a skinny, thin, and mean-spirited human is just a microcosm.

According to Yun Zhongzi's observation, the demons in the city all displayed extremely high levels of civility, which was far higher than the residents of many so-called "simple and honest" human settlements he had visited.

Cities have large populations, and conflicts and disputes are bound to occur in densely populated areas. However, despite encountering many scenes of arguments, Yun Zhongzi never witnessed a single fight.

This completely overturned his preconceived notion that demons were either reckless and ferocious or cunning and treacherous.

Yun Zhongzi also overheard the conversation between the demon race and the human race, and found that there was really no barrier between the two sides. The communication was very smooth. He closed his eyes and withdrew his divine sense to listen, and thought that they were just two ordinary mortals talking.

Humans have completely ignored the physical differences of demons, and demons will not use their superior talents and physical strength to oppress humans.

At the same time, Yun Zhongzi discovered that almost everyone in the city, whether human or demon, was knowledgeable and eloquent. When chatting, they could talk about anything from astronomy to geography, and were well-versed in various crafts and arts.

You know way too much!
Yun Zhongzi was not a deity detached from all living beings. He enjoyed observing them and would travel to the mortal world to understand their plight after a period of seclusion.

The people of the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty, and the vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty, compared to the citizens here, were like a bunch of squeaking monkeys.

Two hundred years ago, the literacy rate among the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty was less than five percent, and reading was a privilege reserved for the nobility.

Ordinary people in ancient times, who were illiterate, relied on word-of-mouth from roadside gossip for all their information. Their knowledge and conversational skills were inferior even to those of the most remote and backward black men in modern society.

The citizens of the cities under the Demon Alliance's rule, many of whom are demons themselves, are a new generation who have received systematic compulsory education since childhood.

The general level of education among citizens has reached junior high school or above.

Even if there are a few people who are "out of touch" (meaning they lack knowledge but still have experience), they can still afford a TV.

The percentage of households with televisions in the Demon Alliance has already reached over 90%. The amount of information people gain from watching television every day is several times greater than the amount of information that people in ancient times could obtain from hearsay in a year.

The more Yun Zhongzi eavesdropped, the more alarmed he became. He realized that any random passerby in the city was probably more knowledgeable than him, and knew many novel facts and principles that he did not know.

Are immortals less cultured than mortals, especially mortals randomly pulled from the roadside?

If it were just one or two people, Yun Zhongzi wouldn't find it hard to accept. After all, true masters often live in seclusion, and it's not unusual to occasionally encounter a few exceptionally talented individuals.

But since almost everyone does this, Yun Zhongzi really couldn't understand it, because it was just too exaggerated. If King Wen of Zhou encountered these people who were giving advice on state affairs in their idle chatter, he would probably think that Jiang Ziya was not so appealing.

In the Immortal Palace of Creation, Wen Rui said that he used the Jie Sect to teach all living beings. At that time, Yun Zhongzi did not scold him on the surface, but in his heart he was very contemptuous.

He had seen firsthand what kind of people the group of Ten Thousand Immortals of the Intercepting Sect trained by the Tongtian Sect Master were; they were nothing except for a little bit of broken cultivation.

The founder of the Jie Sect was only so-so in terms of education, so what kind of disciples could his grand-disciples produce?
The Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect looked down on the Immortals of the Jie Sect from the bottom of their hearts. On the one hand, the Jie Sect Immortals were "clothed in fur and horns, born from eggs and moisture," and on the other hand, their cultural literacy was too low, their inner qualities befitting their animalistic origins. They were neither human nor anything else, so how could anyone respect them?

Now the situation has completely reversed. These people have very low cultivation levels. The vast majority of humans have not yet broken through to the Qi Refining stage, and the demons have just reached the Core Formation and Transformation stage. Their cultural level has already made Yun Zhongzi feel a sense of crisis in comparison.

What shocked Yun Zhongzi even more than the fact that the cognitive levels of humans and demons were similar and equally high was that he also witnessed many cross-species relationships between men and women.

In the eyes of the immortals of the Chan Sect, a love affair between a human and a demon is utterly immoral, contrary to moral principles, and absolutely unacceptable.

But in this city, especially in some bustling commercial streets with many shops, Yun Zhongzi could easily spot many young couples of both human and demon races walking hand in hand and constantly engaging in intimate interactions.

These humans were not picky; they formed bonds with monkey demons, dog demons, and deer demons of similar size. Yun Zhongzi even saw humans who became lovers with centipede demons and scorpion demons.

Interracial relationships that are openly and undisguised in public are already commonplace in the eyes of the citizens. Couples of the demon race and the human race can freely and passionately fall in love without any outsiders jumping out to criticize them.

Besides interracial couples, Yun Zhongzi also saw interracial couples taking their half-human, half-lady children out for a stroll. No one seemed surprised, indicating that this type of marriage has long been accepted by society.

If this had happened in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the couple would have been considered outcasts by both the human and demon races, subjected to suppression from their respective races, and ultimately separated, destined for a tragic end.

In the past, Yun Zhongzi, out of the compassion of a monk and the sense of responsibility of an immortal to uphold human ethics and natural law, had separated human and demon couples who wanted to be together.

At that time, he stood on the moral high ground and earnestly advised the human men who were bewitched by the demoness, warning them that humans and demons are different paths, and that if they were to remain obstinate and harm themselves and others, they would surely bring great disaster upon their families, neighbors, and even their homes and country.

Moreover, mixed-breed female offspring born from the union of humans and demons inherit demonic traits in their bloodline, which is like a curse, making them unacceptable to the world and bringing misfortune to their descendants.

At the time, he also used King Zhou and Daji as counterexamples to provide concrete evidence of the great harm caused by the love between demons and humans.

Looking back now, it doesn't seem as terrible as he described. On the contrary, it makes him seem very ignorant back then, with subjective assumptions full of loopholes, ruining a good marriage and creating a sin greater than destroying a temple.

As he secretly observed along the way, Yun Zhongzi felt increasingly conflicted. What he saw were strange phenomena that he could never have imagined before, yet reality was so harmonious, peaceful, prosperous, and stable.

The citizens living in this city, whether human or demon, regardless of their status or wealth, at least have a place to shelter from the wind and rain, and are able to eat their fill and stay warm.

This minimum standard already exceeds 90% of the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Even during the prosperous era of the Great Zhou Dynasty under the rule of famous ministers such as Jiang Ziya and the Duke of Zhou, the people were far from being able to eat and stay warm; they could only be said to be able to survive.

The city was too big, and there were too many novel things. Yun Zhongzi was overwhelmed and wandered around from day to night, but he had only seen the tip of the iceberg.

As dusk settles, the streetlights along the roads illuminate the city's public spaces, and the windows of the surrounding buildings light up with countless lights. The commercial streets are ablaze with neon lights and bustling with people, even more vibrant than during the day.

The difference at night was something that the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty could not compare to. In the Great Zhou era, even without a curfew, there were not many candles for lighting, and Haojing was pitch black at night with no one on the streets.

(End of this chapter)