Chapter 131 — The Mystic Gate's True Heir

Strike at the heart of the people's allegiance!

Wei Yong felt somewhat chilled. The Jingping Imperial Preceptor had reformed the sects, taking the peerless arts of every school, every sect, and every great house under heaven into the hands of the state, establishing primary schools and academies throughout the land, founding the Scholars' Lodge in the capital, and, in the martial world, striking hard against every sect and school. If, with so vast a hoard of resources gathered, still no good disciple could be taught - if the disciples brought up were no match for the disciples of the various sects - then of what use were the Imperial Preceptor's reforms at all?

This Daoist Heir's power had to be tremendous - absolutely a genius among geniuses - or the Daoist Sect would never have sent him here to slap the Lodge in the face! The face of the Scholars' Lodge was the face of the Jingping Imperial Preceptor, and the face of the Emperor. To block the gate was to slap the face, and whether the Preceptor and the Emperor could keep their faces was still very much in doubt.

Wei Yong's heart gave a great jolt, and he suddenly laughed aloud: "The Scholars' Lodge gathers all the talent under heaven - can it really be inferior to a lone Daoist Heir of a paltry sect? " Shen Mu shook his head.

Recalling that most of these scholars cultivated one and the same method, he could not feel hopeful. Although the scholars of the Scholars' Lodge practiced many different arts, they could hardly attain mastery in any of them; they required instruction from an Academy master who had made a special study of that art before a scholar could grasp its essence. In his view, the Daoist Sect had come fully prepared, and he feared the Lodge's scholars would simply be penned up on the mountain.

If the scholars of the Lodge could not defeat this Daoist Heir, then every sect under heaven would rise against the Imperial Preceptor with a just name. At that time, even if the Emperor did not execute his Preceptor, the Emperor would still lose virtue and lose the people's hearts, and every sect under heaven would revolt entirely!

The struggle between the Daoist Heir and the scholars of the Lodge was to be a contest upon which the great order of the world turned, and it could not be taken lightly. "Come, let's go see what this Heir is made of!

" Wei Yong said eagerly. Shen Mu went down the mountain with him. Beneath the Jade Cliff, before and behind the mountain gate, scholars of the Lodge were everywhere.

The scholars were by no means few - the Scholars' Residence took in only ten men a year, but the Spirit Adepts were many, and so were the princes and princesses of the Princes' Court.

Shen Mu stood on the Jade Cliff and peered ahead. Sure enough, two Daoists sat before the mountain gate. One was an old man with features so ancient and lofty that he did not seem a man of this age at all, but rather one who had walked out from antiquity.

He wore gray Daoist robes; his bearing was antique and plain, and he had an air of being utterly beyond the world, sitting there as though the affairs of men had nothing whatever to do with him. A man of such bearing was no common mortal.

This old man should be a personage of the very highest rank in the Daoist Sect, the sect that bore the name of the foremost orthodox great school.

Beside the old man sat a youth of clear eyebrows and bright eyes. Over the crook of his elbow lay a horsetail whisk, snow-white, with a handle of vermilion; his robes were blue, and he sat in such stillness that the scholars crowding around him seemed to have no effect on him at all. Shen Mu silently approved. Old and young alike looked like Daoists who had cultivated their natures, with an air that soared free of the common stream.

The two Daoists sat in the middle of the road before the mountain gate. The gate was very broad, and they took up no great space. But if these two could not be driven off, it would be a humiliation beyond bearing. Blocking a gate was not a common thing in the martial world; only a grudge of the deepest blood would drive a man to such a means - to let all the world know that the gate of your sect is blocked by me, to strike at the sect's face, to shave away the sect's confidence, to declare the other's arts not worth a single coin. Such affairs generally ended only in death.

And now the Daoist Sect's old man and youth were blocking the gate of the Kingdom of Jingping itself - blocking the kingdom's face, slapping the kingdom's face, slapping the face of the Jingping Imperial Preceptor, and seeking to destroy the Imperial Preceptor's reform while it blazed with fire and spread like a prairie conflagration! Not far from Shen Mu, a prince in yellow robes said in a low voice: "The Daoist Sect was once the foremost great sect, standing level with the Nether Demon Cult.

Only in recent years has it languished, and it vanished without a trace together with the demon cult, with no word of the Daoist Sect to be heard. Now it appears again, and its first move is no small matter! If the Scholars' Lodge cannot force these two back, I fear that once the two leave, the Daoist Sect will rise in revolt. And should the Daoist Sect revolt, with its prestige.

. .

" Shen Mu looked at the prince and thought: "This man's insight is out of the ordinary. " The prince suddenly felt his gaze, turned his head, and saw him.

His eyes brightened.

He quietly slipped away from the other princes and squeezed up beside Shen Mu. "Cowherd. . .

" The prince's cheeks had a little baby fat.

He smiled and whispered: "Did you really come to the capital to see me? " Shen Mu looked "him" up and down and found the prince oddly familiar. He blurted: "You are.

. . the round, plump Fat Seventh. . . " No sooner had he spoken than it came to him - that "round, plump Fat Seventh Young Lord" was none other than Ling Yuxiu, a girl disguised as a man! At these words the prince flew into a violent rage, snatched a great iron hammer from behind his back, and swung it at Shen Mu!

Shen Mu hastened to change his tune, laughing: "Good sister, I simply didn't recognize you!

Brother Wei, this is the Seventh Princess, Ling Yuxiu. Sister Yuxiu, this is Wei Yong, of the Duke's mansion.

" Ling Yuxiu could not very well smash him dead in front of everyone, so she put the great hammer away.

Wei Yong leapt in fright and muttered inwardly: "Seventh Princess? Where did Brother Shen pick up a Seventh Princess?

Can a girl of the imperial house be touched? You'd lose your head.

. .

They say this Seventh Princess has surpassing talent and great ambition - but why is even her weapon so crude and unbridled? " Shen Mu did not know his thoughts; he looked Ling Yuxiu up and down.

The girl had grown prettier by the day. Disguised as a man though she was, she had a brave, rising, upward-striving spirit, and uncommon bearing. And although she wore a man's clothes, her bosom swelled round and plump just like any other girl's, and she made no effort to hide it.

In the old days at the Barren Ruins, her bosom had not been nearly so plump. Shen Mu caught a familiar fragrance about her, surely the scent of Celestial-Fragrance Silk, and said: "Sister, you've changed in these days apart. When I was at the palace, I nearly failed to recognize you. " Ling Yuxiu's eyes moved; a little shy, she laughed softly: "Where have I changed? " Shen Mu raised a hand and measured beside the top of her head, saying honestly: "Taller than before - taller than me - a bit prettier, and sturdier. The muscles on your face and your bosom.

. . " Ling Yuxiu flew into a rage and kicked him off the cliff. Shen Mu, in midair, felt greatly wronged and muttered peevishly: "I never said she was fat. Why is she angry?

" Snow Fox gloated: "Quite right, Master!

This woman is making a fuss over nothing; let's not mind her! " Thud. Shen Mu landed on both feet and stood steady, then looked up.