A Peculiar Debate

(disclaimer: the debate scene does not reflect my views (as said quite extensivey by Yu Liang in the chapter) and was here purely for comedic purpose)

In Dong Fang tribe, you could leave the academy once you had achieved rank 2 upper stage. In lower clans and tribes, rank two upper stage would be the upper echelon of soldiers, but in a super tribe like this, it could only be considered as a newborn's first stumbling steps. Since the incident one month ago, Yu Liang had not cultivated much. Not of remorse, as Chang Fan's plan had seemingly worked. Yu Liang had hardened, but not because his heart became any colder. Having read the novel based on this world, Yu Liang knew of his eventual defeat at imperial court contest, of his overreliance of Dong Fang Chang Fan and his eventual demise at the latter's hands. He knew he had to harden and not let Feng Hao's death slow him, otherwise he would not pass the trials that awaited him in his life. His plan was to become a rank five peak stage before the Imperial Court contest, to help Fang Yuan win the contest and finally to profit from eighty-eight true yang building to achieve rank six, as Fang Yuan would eventually do. Yu Liang's plan was not to ride Fang Yuan's coattails, as that would be impossible because of Fang Yuan's nature as well as the number of enemies he would create himself, but he would not obstruct him in any way. Fate Gu was the enemy of every otherworldly demon and as such needed to be destroyed. Yu Liang didn't fancy going against Spectral Soul to get Sovereign Immortal Foetus gu in Fang Yuan's place, so he would leave fate gu's destruction to Fang Yuan.

No, the reason he cultivated less intensely in the last month was that he was currently practicing refinement path. Yu Liang's plan would make him leave Dong Fang tribe one day or another as he could not stay in Chang Fan's grasp too long in fear of the supreme elder's nefarious plans. Once he hit rank four, he would leave and travel the world, to experience life and gain human qi, as that would be vital to a nice Immortal Ascension. What he did not know was that he already was under close scrutiny from Dong Fang Chang Fan and leaving the tribe would prove hard, but that is a question for another time.

For now, He was but a measly rank two early stage, and could take up to ten years to reach rank four. Of course with the tribe's backing and his talent, a period of three years would be more likely.

For the last month, he had trained refinement techniques and mentally went through the process of refining Dissert Gu as well as imagining potential killer moves. He had currently 5 gus in his possession: Stealth bird gu, Water Slide gu, Water Skin gu, all three had been obtained from Feng Hao upon his death with a nice amount of mortal materials and primeval stones. The two other gu were rank one Star Thought gu, which created star thoughts, as well as the now rank two Materialize Thought gu, which could materialize thought and as such make the star thought, which could already attack, more potent. Materialize Thought gu was somewhat of a mystical gu. It was a rule path gu worm that functioned only with wisdom path gu worms. It had no known Immortal recipe, so even if its ability was mystical and incredible, as it was a rare gu, most users would abandon it upon reaching immortal status. From Dissert gu and Materialize Thought gu, Yu Liang had created the killer move "Strong arguments win a fight", the stronger the argument, the stronger the materialization of the argument thought would be, resulting in a stronger attack than the rain of stars Yu Liang was currently using. Yu Liang had to refine Materialize Thought gu to rank two for it to be able to work with Dissert gu in his killer move. The process was easy enough as Yu Liang had chosen Materialize Thought gu to be his vital gu for lack of a better choice, and also as a gamble that natural inspiration would let him peer into the rank six recipe and would lead him on a glorious path.

Yu Liang knew the importance of a strong combat system, as such he was focusing on the few gu worms he knew how to use well and put aside the worms obtained from Feng Hao's corpse.

The same evening, Yu Liang finally left the tribe for the inheritance ground, making sure he wasn't followed this time, and once he got there, started refining dissert gu. With his wisdom path attainment calming his mind and the process he had repeated in his head hundreds of times before, the refinement was not a big challenge. Once dissert gu was refined, Yu Liang finally walked up to the door.

The door suddenly started talking:

"If you can win in a debate with me in three affirmations, I will accept you and open the way"

"on what should we debate?"

"On the status of women in society!"

At this point, Yu Liang was feeling quite exasperated. He came from a society where equality already wasn't a perfect point, but to debate upon female condition with a northern plains door was like talking to a wall, and quite literally at that.

You see, the gu world as a whole wasn't misogynistic. A lot of clans and organizations were led by women, but the sad truth was that on this point, northern plains was far behind all the other regions. That was why Yu Liang was expecting the door to be misogynistic and for him to have to defend women, but what surprised him the most was what the door said next:

"I will go from the postulate that women are equal to men, you have to prove to me in a debate that the opposite is true and that men are superior." Yu Liang was gobsmacked. He never thought he would have to defend a position he himself didn't support. He understood why dissert gu was needed now. Any person pursuing wisdom path should know and understand that there was no difference in capability between men and women, even more in a world such as this where gu could take care of any of your shortcomings. What mattered was not one's gender but one's disposition. Of course, northern plains as a whole was quite patriarchal, but that was not the case for most of the wisdom path experts and gu masters. The aim of this trial was to see if the inheritor was capable of using Dissert gu well enough, to see if they could use it to defend a cause even they didn't believe in.

Facing Yu Liang's silence, the door suddenly said:

"Are you perhaps surrendering? You have to know that you will not get a second chance."

"Let me think for a minute, is it not possible to have another subject?"

"It normally isn't but we can tackle abortion is you want."

"No thank you, it's an even touchier subject and we don't want too much controversy in this fanfiction."

"What are you even talking about?"

"I don't know myself to be honest, it's as if my mouth were not my own when I said those words."

After a short time of silence, Yu Liang heaved a great sigh, put his hand in his hair and resigned himself.

"Ok, let's do this, it's between the two of us anyway, no way anyone will ever know what happened here. I postulate that men are superior to women because they naturally are stronger."

As bad as this argument was, Yu Liang had to start somewhere. As predicted, the door destroyed this argument cleanly.

"If base strength was the determiner for superiority, a lot of the venerables would not have become venerable. People who are naturally strong are not naturally good with gu worms, and being good with gu worms is not a typically male trait. Attempt one has failed."

"Let's talk about the venerables, in the ten venerables the world has known, only one was a woman! This proves that women are less qualified to achieve the same heights as men!"

"Rampant misogyny has always made it hard for women to achieve the same heights as men, regardless of skills. On the contrary, If you look only at rank eight gu immortals, there are countless female heroes that managed to make a place for themselves despite the opposition. Second attempt, failed."

"Who does not face opposition on the road to becoming a venerable? But my last point will be this:" Yu Liang had not used any argument thoughts in his last arguments, he was only buying time for enough argument thoughts to gather in his mind. He used them all in this instant. You see, argument thoughts get stronger the better the argument, but even if the argument is bad, sheer number makes it possible to influence the target.

"In << The Legend Of Ren Zu >>, Ren Zu, a man who attained freedom and won against all odds, is not accompanied by a woman, which shows that he did not need one and his strongest child, incarnating strength itself, was a man. Ren Zu was the creator of the human race, showing that men are the backbone of society!"

Yu Liang was anxious now, his argument was half-hearted and not very convincing, using the easy approach of tradition and mythology, the bulk of the work would have to be done by Dissert Gu.

The door stayed unresponsive for a long time, then finally opened showing an unwilling expression.

"So this is the power of arguments. If one is convincing enough, reality can be whatever he wants it to be." mused Yu Liang.

It was now time to approach the inheritance's second trial.