The entire Imperial Academy was thrown into an uproar. A scholar from the National University muttered, "Could it be the student who defeated the Dao Son has struck again?"
Qin Mu's heart also trembled slightly. The old monk Jingming had come with the Buddha Heart, just like Danyangzi of the Daoist sect. Blocking the gate for three days, he sought to dampen the Imperial Academy's prestige and sway the hearts of the people in the State of Yankang.
Now, before three days were up, Jingming had left with the Buddha Heart Buddha Son. There was only one possibility—the Buddha Heart Buddha Son had been defeated!
"Just now, I was clearly at the back mountain doping the green bull. There's no way I could have run to the mountain gate to defeat the Buddha Heart Buddha Son..."
Qin Mu was bewildered. If he wasn't the one who defeated the Buddha Heart Buddha Son, then who was?
He recalled what the Ancestor had said when he met him at the thatched cottage. At the time, the Ancestor's words had implied that there was someone else at the Imperial Academy, besides Qin Mu, who was capable of defeating the Buddha Heart.
If Qin Mu hadn't acted, the Ancestor would have let that person make their move.
And the student who defeated the Buddha Heart Buddha Son was just as low-key as Qin Mu. After defeating Dao Son Lin Xuan, Qin Mu hadn't mentioned it to anyone. This person had actually taken advantage of the fact that the Imperial Academy's students and sacrificial wine had been knocked out by the Bewildering Incense, going down the mountain alone to defeat the Buddha Heart.
At that time, besides the Buddha Heart and the old monk Jingming, only the Dragon Qilin was at the mountain gate.
Although the Dragon Qilin could speak, it was tight-lipped, not spilling a single bean. Don't even think about getting information out of it. Unless you could get the Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine's mount, that green bull, for it to eat, then it might reveal who that person was.
But now, doping that green bull would be difficult.
"There's someone at the Imperial Academy who can keep pace with me. That's a good thing."
Qin Mu smiled faintly and stopped trying to find out who had acted. He returned to the Student Residence with Hu Ling'er. Many people there already knew that the Imperial physicians had obtained the prescription from him, which had knocked out almost every student in the Academy. Seeing him, they were somewhat fearful.
Suddenly, a timid voice rang out, saying softly, "Senior Brother Qin, was it you who defeated that Buddha Heart Buddha Son?"
Qin Mu looked toward the voice and saw that the speaker was the quiet girl who had become an Imperial scholar with him, Si Yunxiang. This girl was always shy. Qin Mu had teased her a few times, making her blush and become flustered.
Qin Mu shook his head. "Of course not me. When that person defeated the Buddha Heart Buddha Son, I was being lectured by the Grand Sacrificial Wine. Little Xiang, did you see the person who defeated the Buddha Son?"
Si Yunxiang shook her head. "I was just knocked out by a scent. I don't know what happened. I'm still a bit dizzy. I saw that you, Senior Brother, looked radiant and weren't poisoned, so I thought you had driven away the Buddha Heart Buddha Son."
Qin Mu's eyes flickered, and he smiled. "It really wasn't me. I'm also very curious about who defeated the Buddha Son."
Si Yunxiang noticed people looking their way and quickly returned to her courtyard, closing the door behind her.
Qin Mu took the opportunity to glance into her courtyard, but before he could see what was inside, the girl's door had already closed. He had to return to his own quarters.
"This Si Yunxiang is highly suspicious."
He composed himself and whispered, "She wasn't affected by the Bewildering Incense at all. Someone affected by it doesn't look like that. The Bewildering Incense is a narcotic; even after waking, one would feel unwell for two or three hours. She showed no discomfort just now."
Hu Ling'er said, "Young Master, among those knocked out in front of the Imperial Physician Hall, Si Yunxiang was not among them."
Qin Mu's heart stirred.
After the Young Ancestor's lecture, he had asked Qin Mu to stay and help look after the students and scholars. Qin Mu and the little fox had both been helping. The little fox had been wandering around, intending to loot "spoils of war," but he had stopped her.
At that time, Hu Ling'er had seen the faces of all those knocked out. If she said Si Yunxiang wasn't there, then she wasn't.
"She was indeed lying."
Qin Mu blinked. "She had no reason to specifically come out of her quarters just to lie to me. If that's the case, she actually wanted to show off. What she told me was about defeating the Buddha Son, so what she wanted to show off was also that. The one who defeated the Buddha Son is her."
Qin Mu suddenly thought, why was the Young Ancestor so certain that someone at the Imperial Academy could defeat the Buddha Son?
Could it be that he already knew Si Yunxiang had this ability?
Why did the Young Ancestor know so much about Si Yunxiang, a girl who had only recently become an Imperial scholar?
One had to know that even for Qin Mu, the Young Sect Master, the Young Ancestor had needed to test him several times before affirming his strength and ability.
This meant that the Young Ancestor knew Si Yunxiang extremely well, even better than he knew Qin Mu.
And this girl's surname was Si, combined with her little habit of wanting to show off...
"Grandma really knows how to play!"
Qin Mu said huffily, "I won't expose her for now. Let's see what she's really up to."
Just as he was about to close his door, the voice of the Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine suddenly came through. "Niu Niu, bring my luggage over."
"Yes, Master."
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine pushed the door open and walked in, followed by a stout green bull carrying a large bundle on its back. This green bull hadn't fully transformed; it walked like a human but still had the form of a bull. It was the very green bull that Qin Mu had knocked out.
"Which room am I staying in?" the Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine asked Qin Mu.
Qin Mu was stunned. The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine, however, was very familiar. He laughed. "Then the west room it is. Wow, so much money! Scholar Qin, you're quite rich! Niu Niu, we're rich. Quick, grab a handful and go down the mountain to buy wine!"
"Is there wine to drink?"
Hu Ling'er cheered, hopping over with three jumps and landing on the bull's head. She sat there and laughed. "I'll go with you!"
The green bull took her outside. "You drink too? Do you know drinking games?"
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine put down his luggage, tidied up the room, and made the bed. He glanced at Qin Mu, who was still outside, and smiled. "The Grand Sacrificial Wine told me to stick close to you, so naturally I have to live with you to prevent you from causing trouble everywhere. Did you write the characters at the door?"
Qin Mu nodded.
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine slapped his hands together and praised, "It's written beautifully! Your calligraphy has a lot of flavor, much better than those fellows in the Painting Sage Pavilion. I don't even understand what our Imperial Academy's Painting Sage Pavilion is for—they have the nerve to take the court's salary! By the way, do you snore?"
Qin Mu shook his head.
"I snore."
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine continued, "Many scholars at our Imperial Academy also snore, especially that old nun Yiqiu. Her snoring shakes the heavens. Tsk tsk, it could stun a bull ten miles away. Fortunately, this old nun doesn't sleep often; she just meditates. If she did sleep, you students wouldn't get any sleep..."
Qin Mu felt somewhat agitated. This Overbeing Mountain Sacrificial Wine seemed to talk quite a bit, even more than Wei Yong.
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine talked for half an hour, and Qin Mu basically learned the temperament, style, and background of the various scholars in the Sword, Fist, Law, Three Suns, Imperial Physician, and Painting Sage Halls. Even the secrets of the secretary in the Celestial Record Tower were exposed by the Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine—illegitimate children, the old nun meeting lovers, and other things, real or imagined. This sacrificial wine laid it all out.
The green bull and Hu Ling'er returned from the city, quite tipsy. The bull and the fox had gotten a bit high and were calling each other brother and sister, as close as if they had come from the same womb. The green bull completely forgot that it was this very fox and the boy who had drugged it earlier.
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine hurriedly took the wine jug, gulped down a few mouthfuls, and his mind became a bit fuzzy. "I came back from outside a few days ago and think I saw my master. You wouldn't expect that, right? Although I'm a sacrificial wine, I didn't come from the Imperial Academy. I'm from the martial arts lineage and have a master. I was invited by the State Preceptor to teach martial arts to the students. I thought he was dead, but he's still alive."
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine took a sip of wine and said in a daze, "His legs were gone, but he ran incredibly fast. I chased him with all my might but couldn't catch up. Then I met a blind man who beat me up and asked why I was following him. Totally unreasonable. He even wanted to have a poetry duel with me. I couldn't beat him, and then my master disappeared..."
Qin Mu was slightly startled. A martial arts powerhouse without legs, and a blind man who loved poetry duels?
"It sounds like Grandpa Butcher and Grandpa Blind One. When did they leave the Great Ruins?"
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine was drunk and babbling. Qin Mu hesitated; asking rashly would likely be inappropriate.
"Green Bull, did you get a good look at that blind man?" Qin Mu asked the green bull beside him.
The green bull looked at Qin Mu, somewhat timidly. It clearly remembered being knocked out by him.
Qin Mu smiled. "You still hold a grudge? You beat me up, but I only knocked you out. I didn't hit you, so what grudge could you hold? Have you ever met such a magnanimous person like me?"
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine burped, his expression strange. This boy from the Great Ruins clearly had some misunderstanding about what it meant to be a good person. "Scholar Qin, it's only because you knocked him out and were going to eat him that he was wary. That's normal."
"He was going to eat me?"
The green bull cried out in alarm. "Master, you never told me that! You only said he knocked me out, not that he was going to eat me!"
Hu Ling'er stood on the bull's horn, holding a wine jar, and said crisply, "Big Niu, haven't you heard that you don't know someone until you've fought?"
The green bull retorted angrily, "I've heard of 'you don't know someone until you've fought,' but I've never heard of 'you don't know someone until you've been eaten'!"
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine's expression grew even stranger. This fox spirit from the Great Ruins clearly also had some misunderstanding about the phrase "you don't know someone until you've fought."
"Who raised this boy? He's a bit too much of a rascal."
Qin Mu didn't know his thoughts. The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine, the little fox, and the green bull were all drinking. Qin Mu didn't like drinking, so he could only cultivate nearby.
The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine's pupils constricted sharply as he stared intently at the blade technique Qin Mu was executing.
After Qin Mu finished demonstrating the "Butcher's Blade Technique," the Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine suddenly threw aside the wine gourd, opened his robe, drew his blade, and danced with it in the yard. His voice carried a sense of vicissitude: "Gold-inlaid blade in white jade frame, night pierces the window with radiance. A man of fifty with no achievement, draws his blade and stands alone, surveying the eight wildernesses!"①
Standing alone and surveying the eight wildernesses—this was the sixth move of the Butcher's Blade Technique!
His blade collided with Qin Mu's, sparks flying in a flurry.
As their blade techniques clashed, the Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine laughed heartily. "Forty or fifty years, the wind and rain like dusk never seen again. The flying clouds pass before my eyes, a line of sky, vertical and horizontal, vast and boundless!"
Qin Mu executed "A Line of Sky, Vertical and Horizontal, Vast and Boundless," his blade clashing with the other's. He chanted long, "No boasting, heroes after tribulation are the people's wish. The sea and sky all around, a journey of smoke along the way!"②
The two sheathed their blades and stood back-to-back, each inserting both blades behind their backs.
"Junior Brother!" The Overbearing Mountain Sacrificial Wine turned to greet him with a bow.
Qin Mu bowed his waist. "Senior Brother."
Note ①: A poem by Lu You of the Song Dynasty, "The Gold-inlaid Blade Ballad." Note ②: A contemporary * * poem, "Orchid of the Garden with Diminished Characters, Remembering the Past in Changsha."