Chapter 139 — The Green Ox in the Vegetable Plot

Danyang Zi and the Daoist Son Lin Xuan walked out of the capital one behind the other, unhurried, and came some hundred li beyond the outskirts, where the Tu River rolled on in flood and an old monk and a young monk were treading the waves downstream. Danyang Zi and Daoist Son Lin Xuan halted, stood on the riverbank, and bowed with hands clasped to the two monks: "Senior Brother.

" The two monks too hurriedly stopped upon the water and returned the salute palms together: "Senior Brother.

" The old monk's white brows drooped low.

"Has Senior Brother returned from the Academy?

Have three days passed?

" Danyang Zi shook his head: "Not yet three days. " The old monk's brow twitched; plainly he was far from calm within.

"The Academy has such capacity, that it can stand against a Daoist Son?

I mean to go with the Buddha's Son and take a look for myself; I wonder how it will fare. " Danyang Zi bowed and took his leave, the old monk bowed also, and each departed his own way.

Once Danyang Zi and Daoist Son Lin Xuan were gone, everyone in the Academy, from the Libationer down to the scholars, let out a long breath of relief; but who it was that had defeated Daoist Son Lin Xuan, no one could say clearly. Strange to tell, defeating Lin Xuan had been a very good thing, and yet that master had never leapt forth to proclaim that it was his own hand that beat him — most peculiar.

The crowd fell to guessing. Some said an imperial prince of the Princes' Garden had struck in secret and made Daoist Son Lin Xuan withdraw before the difficulty; but because of the open strife and veiled feuds among the princes, this prince feared to show his edge and so concealed the affair, lest he be plotted against by his brothers. Others said it was the Sword Fool Xiao Yin of the Divine Power Lodge; Xiao Yin was a sword fool, drunk on the way of the sword, single-minded, caring nothing for fame or profit.

Others again said that senior brothers who had once finished their studies at the Academy had hurried back on hearing of it, defeated Daoist Son Lin Xuan, and then rushed off again to the front.

Many of the scholars who had left the Academy had already become generals at the front, leading troops in battle. Still another guess held that a disciple of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had been ordered into the Academy, become a Grand Academician there, defeated Lin Xuan, and then withdrawn from the school.

Every kind of account there was.

In the Scholars' Lodge the scholars were in a mighty uproar, gathered in Shen Wanyun's courtyard, asking him all at once, "Eldest Senior Brother, everyone on the mountain is now guessing who beat the Daoist sect's Daoist Son — it isn't you, is it?

" Shen Wanyun yawned, forcing down his drowsiness: "Not me. I did mean to do my part for the Academy, but I trained too fiercely and fell asleep in the courtyard before I knew it.

If you lot hadn't kicked up a racket, I wouldn't have woken. Who defeated Daoist Son Lin Xuan, I don't know either. " The crowd half believed him and half did not.

Qu Ting laughed: "Could Eldest Senior Brother be minded to hide his body and his name?

" Shen Wanyun did not know whether to laugh or weep: "I went two days without sleep or rest, pondering the three sword forms the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping taught me; I overtaxed my brain and damaged my spirit, and cannot bring out eight tenths of my strength. How could it have been me? If I had beaten Daoist Son Lin Xuan, would I keep it from you?

" Suddenly the monk Yun Que's expression stirred.

"Could it be that cast-off? " Yue Qinghong's heart stirred as well; though she had lost face mightily when Shen Mu knocked her into the bronze pillar, she admired his skill greatly.

"That cast-off carries rare arts in him; whether in combat skill or in spellcraft or swordplay, he is far from weak. Could it be him? " Shen Wanyun hesitated, then shook his head: "To speak frankly, it was seeing him go without sleep, training bitterly, that spurred me on; so I cultivated in anguish, hoping to defeat Daoist Son Lin Xuan.

He trained no less long than I did, and by now he is probably still snoring away, and must likewise have missed the contest with Daoist Son Lin Xuan. " A scholar said in anger: "That fellow led even our Eldest Senior Brother astray!

When the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping was transmitting the dharma, he was shouting and hollering that he had refined a vital-qi thread — he had only just refined it; how could he possibly defeat the Daoist sect's Daoist Son? " The scholars all nodded, laughing: "He made a thorough fool of himself before the whole Academy at the Academy Hall; that pleased us no end — we even felt better in the very places he had struck us!

" Just then a great clamor rose suddenly from below the mountain, and someone cried out: "A white-browed monk has come to the mountain, with a little monk beside him, and he has sat down in front of the mountain gate! " The scholars looked at one another.

Shen Wanyun's eyes flickered, and he said in a low, grave voice: "The Daoist sect's master has just gone, and now the monks of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery have come! Of these two monks, I fear the small one is the Monastery's Buddha's Son! Since I never got to cross swords with Daoist Son Lin Xuan, then I must certainly have a meeting with the Buddha's Son of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery!

Junior brothers and sisters, I need half a day's rest to gather my strength.

" The scholars took their leave one after another.

Shen Wanyun lay down without undressing and was soon sound asleep. When the next day came and Shen Wanyun woke, full of vigor, he washed and combed himself, filled his belly, and at once went down the mountain; only there did he learn that this Buddha's Son of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery had defeated many masters of the Academy.

This Buddha's Son was of the Tathagata Mahayana, his body warded by the vajra, deeply practiced in the Buddhist Battle-Victory Dharma; when he roused his spells his body swelled several times its size and his strength was boundless; Buddha-light flowed over him, now becoming a great bell, now a pagoda to press down upon his foes; he raised a golden almsbowl in his hand and gathered men into it, and turned his hand over and a Mount Sumeru came crushing down. Shen Wanyun went up to face him and fought more than a dozen rounds, breaking the Buddha's Son's vajra ward with the Piercing Sword Form and wounding this Buddha-Heart, the Buddha's Son; but Buddha-Heart's strength was after all overbearing, and he beat Shen Wanyun until he fell back in defeat. Many scholars of the Divine Power Lodge and the Princes' Garden could not help but regard him with new eyes.

Most scholars of the Scholars' Lodge were of the Five Luminaries stage, of low cultivation, and that Shen Wanyun could trade blows with the Buddha's Son of the Great Thunderpeal Monastery a dozen times before losing was a record that would place him among the first-rate masters of either the Divine Power Lodge or the Princes' Garden, fit for the top ten. At once princes and princesses of the Princes' Garden came forward with evident intent to court him; Shen Wanyun neither agreed nor declined, lest he offend too many, thinking to himself: "It seems my record is not bad, or no one would come courting.

I wonder how my junior brother Shen fared against this monk? How many moves did he last under the Buddha's Son? " "That green ox the young master spoke of, I have seen it several times.

" In the Academy, Xue Hu'er led Shen Mu toward the back mountain, saying, "There is a vegetable garden on the back mountain. A few days ago I was roaming the hills, hoping to find some lingzhi or immortal blossoms, and I passed that way and saw a few spirit herbs in the garden; then I ran into this ox, and it bellowed at me several times. Seeing it guarding those spirit herbs made me quite cross, and I have long wanted to get them and eat them.