Chapter 119 — To Take the Head From Your Neck

Otherwise he could not deceive every sect and school under heaven. " Shen Mu started, and cried out, "The Imperial Preceptor did it to himself? " The young Patriarch shook his head. "It was others who struck the blow.

Three old monsters of my own generation, they say, joined hands and wounded him grievously. I saw him after he returned to the capital; his injuries are indeed grave. " Shen Mu was stunned.

He had all along believed the Imperial Preceptor was only letting the enemy run in order to catch him, luring the opposing forces into striking; he had never thought the man was truly hurt.

"He turned the trick against them, meaning to draw these people out. " The young Patriarch said, unhurried, "If those sects think that in this way they can be rid of the Imperial Preceptor and bring Jingping down, I fear they will find themselves the losers. Young Sect Master, what do you make of the Imperial Preceptor?

" Shen Mu said gravely, "A hero among men, broad of heart, a talent unmatched in a generation. " The young Patriarch smiled.

"When he came to me in those years to ask after the Way, I thought the same.

I meant to take him as a disciple, but his learning was so broad that he already showed signs of surpassing me, and so I gave up the notion, lest I hold back his future. Then, since Jingping stands above every order and sect and school under heaven, and cannot be matched by force, and the Imperial Preceptor is a talent unmatched in a generation, how should our Holy Sect conduct itself? " There was an examination in his words.

From the very first sentence he had spoken on meeting Shen Mu this time, his testing of Shen Mu had begun.

Shen Mu's sitting the Grand Academy's great examination and becoming one of its scholars had been only the first trial, a trial of his strength. Now came the trial of his wisdom: whether he had the wisdom to master the Nether Demon Sect, the wisdom to become its Sect Master. Shen Mu pondered a moment, then said, "Our Holy Sect has two roads. One is to turn the sect into a state, for the Holy Sect to found a nation. If the Holy Sect founds a nation, it must go far from Jingping. Jingping's fortunes grow ever more prosperous, and once the Imperial Preceptor has put down the disorders he will surely turn his armies outward.

Within the realm we cannot match Jingping; and being too near, we cannot match Jingping either.

Yet if we go far from Jingping, the Holy Sect loses its foundation, and I fear it would not recover for decades.

" The young Patriarch nodded. "The first road is unspeakably hard. Our Holy Sect stands upon the common folk of the market and the street; to leave Jingping would be to have its foundations broken.

That road will not serve. And the second? " "The second road is to attach ourselves," Shen Mu said. "The Holy Sect attaches itself to Jingping. " The young Patriarch's face changed slightly, and he laughed coldly. "You would be Sect Master only to see our Holy Sect wiped out?

What monstrous daring you have. I shall take the head from your neck! "