Chapter 147 — Yuyuan Academy

Inside were a dozen or so bookshelves, each holding volume upon volume of scripture, and the shelves too bore plaques inscribed with the names of different sects. Besides the sects, there were also the names of great families. There were few people in this room — only two or three scholars sitting on the floor, poring over their books.

Beside them were several small doors. Shen Mu stepped up to them; two were locked from within, and one stood open.

He pushed the door open and glanced in, and was slightly startled: behind the door was a space about a mu in size, somewhat larger than the room they were in, and utterly empty.

"Are these for scholars to practice their arts and divine powers? " Shen Mu went to the shelves, drew out a volume and looked down at it, astonished: "Lizhou Prefecture has so many sects as well?

" On the volume were written the words "Danxia Art of the Danxia Sect of Lizhou"; beside it were several other volumes — the Danxia Swordplay, the Danxia Four Gates Formation, the Essentials of the Danxia Elixir Formula, and so on. Shen Mu flipped through them roughly.

The Danxia Sect's arts did have their own merits: once the art was mastered, vital essence turned into danxia radiance, and a single strike would fill the sky with glowing clouds, with flying swords hidden within the radiance; with their sight blinded by the glow, enemies would often be struck down. "The Danxia Art is not bad, but it hardly deserves to be called miraculous. " He set down the Danxia Art, took up the Danxia Swordplay, glanced through it and put it back.

The Danxia Swordplay and the Danxia Art were one system — only one who cultivated the Danxia Art could cultivate the Danxia Swordplay.

He looked at the Danxia Four Gates Formation; that too required first cultivating the Danxia Art and the Danxia Swordplay before the Danxia Four Gates Formation could be mastered. He also skimmed the Essentials of the Danxia Elixir Formula, which was chiefly concerned with methods of elixir refinement. Some of the elixir recipes were worth studying, but some, in Shen Mu's view, clearly had problems — their toxicity had not been fully neutralized. He returned the Danxia Sect's scriptures to the shelf, then took down another thick set of volumes.

"The scriptures of the royal house of the Kingdom of Yuyuan? " Shen Mu was surprised. He leafed back and forth through them several times and thought, "Are not the shelves here supposed to hold the scriptures of Lizhou's sects?

Where has this Kingdom of Yuyuan sprung from?

Wait — what is the relation between this Kingdom of Yuyuan and Yuyuan Chuyu?

Could it be that Lizhou was not always the territory of the Kingdom of Jingping, but was once a country called Yuyuan? " Shen Mu's heart stirred. Yuyuan Chuyu was the Junior Governor of Lizhou; she took Yuyuan as her surname, and said she had an elder brother named Yuyuan Chuyun who held office in the capital. Could the brother and sister be of the former royal house of Yuyuan?

Yuyuan Chuyu's post was not low; young as she was, she held high office — she must have had no small background. "Lizhou lies in the south-central part of the Kingdom of Jingping. It seems, then, that Jingping has swallowed no small number of kingdoms.

" Shen Mu leafed through the national learning of the Kingdom of Yuyuan.

The royal house's scriptures of Yuyuan were incomplete, but far better than the Danxia Sect's.

The national learning of Yuyuan was called the Chengdu Zaitian Profound Art, forming almost a complete system, and its swordplay was called the Setting Sun Swordplay. Shen Mu read it through roughly and decided to choose this set of scriptures. In swordplay he had cultivated only the first stance of the Sword Diagram, Sword Strides Over Mountains and Rivers.

That stance consumed an enormous amount; in ordinary times, meeting an enemy, a single use of it would leave his vital essence seven or eight parts drained, and if more enemies came after, things would surely go badly.

So he needed a superior swordplay. The Setting Sun Swordplay of the Kingdom of Yuyuan was a superior swordplay, and it suited his taste well. "The Archivist said I may choose five volumes of scripture.

I may as well look for others.

" Shen Mu made a rough survey of the other shelves, but found nothing to his liking; the arts of the other sects were mostly inferior to the Chengdu Zaitian Profound Art of Yuyuan.

Searching room by room, he did come upon a good many superior arts, which secretly made him wonder: if the first floor of the Tower of Heavenly Records already held so many classics, what must the classics on the second and third floors be like?

"Hm, no — some of the scriptures the sects offered up must have been abridged; they would never have offered their true secret arts. " The more scriptures Shen Mu browsed, the more suspicious he grew: many of the scriptures here must surely have been abridged, with certain secret arts left out; a rough reading was enough to make him feel this plainly.

The Nine Bends Linked River Swordplay, for instance, had nine stances in all. When he used the ninth, he felt his momentum and the swordplay's power reach their peak — and then there was nothing. The fearsome power had been brewed up in vain, with no tenth stance to unleash it.

Plainly the Nine Bends Sword Sect had not offered the complete swordplay, but had kept a trick in reserve. There were many similar cases.

Clearly these powers were not willing to hand their secret arts over to the Kingdom of Jingping; they must all have held something back. — Alliance Leader Sanshengyuan Xiaodao's birthday is today. A year is one flowering season of a life; one year added, a year of fragrance.

Happy birthday.