Chapter 147 — Yuyuan Academy
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
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.