Tales of Herding Gods

Both of them sat down and Chancellor Ba Shan asked about Butcher’s body. Qin Mu told him, “Everything’s fine. His lower body is missing; however, his cultivation is very high therefore his hands allow him to scamper around as though he was flying.”

Chancellor Ba Shan was bewildered and asked, “Since you and I have the same master, why did you still learn the art of healing from Jade Face Poison King? Is Jade Face Poison King your master as well?”

Qin Mu nodded his head, although he didn’t tell him he still had other masters aside from Apothecary and Butcher.

Chancellor Ba Shan stared into the air and suddenly said, “I know where the lower half of my master’s body is! Back then when he raised his knives at the heavens, his body had fallen from the sky and the lower half of his body seemed to have been grabbed away by a disciple of a certain sect. Junior brother, since you learned the art of healing from Jade Face Poison King, your medical expertise should be brilliant. I will like to ask you, if I find the lower half of our master’s body, can you reattach it?”

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment and said, “If it was severed recently, I can. As long as I excite the activity in the body and use medicine that regenerates flesh and vitality, I can reattach the severed flesh, reconnect the severed tendons and reconstruct the broken bones. However, after such a long time, I’m afraid the lower half of his body is already long dead…”

Chancellor Ba Shan was disappointed but he raised his spirits again, “Even so I’ll have to find the lower half of master’s body back!”

Qin Mu nodded his head and said, “It’s best for senior brother to scout out which sect snatched it so as to not find the wrong sect.”

Chancellor Ba Shan rose up and left. He came back sometime later and said, “Master’s body was picked up by someone over two hundred years ago. I’m not sure if his body is still at that sect. I have ordered my men to go investigate and when they find his body’s whereabouts, we’ll go get it back.”

Qin Mu let out a sigh. If the lower half of Butcher’s body could really be found, it would still be a good thing no matter if it could be reattached or not.

Butcher having only the upper half of his body didn’t have much power left. If his lower body was snatched by someone, it should still be preserved.

His power was extremely strong after all.

As a strong practitioner of the battle technique school, it wasn’t hard for him to cultivate to the condition where his corporeal body wouldn’t spoil. Many senior monks who had achieved the Dao in Buddhism could manage to make their corporeal bodies not spoil. After they were dead, their bodies wouldn’t rot or decompose and were placed in the temples as corporeal body Bodhisattvas for people to enshrine and worship.

However, it was hard to achieve corporeal body not dying.

Those corporeal body Bodhisattvas in the temple were actually already dead. Corporeal body not dying was a level higher than corporeal body not spoiling. Only when the blood didn’t coagulate, the body didn’t turn stiff, the heart continued to beat, and the nervous system remained functional, could it be considered corporeal body not dying.

“Senior Brother Ba Shan, do you know Grandpa Butcher’s real name?” Qin Mu was reminded of something and asked.

Chancellor Ba Shan shook his head, “I don’t know. I only know people referred to him as Heaven Knife. As for what his original birth name is, nobody has any idea. Master had said, he had an enemy that could use spells to inflict harm to others just by knowing their names, therefore he rarely revealed his name to others.”

Qin Mu was stunned, “This seems a little like the methods of the grand shamans of Barbarian Di Empire. Could it be that Butcher had offended a grand shaman of Barbarian Di Empire in the past?

He quietened his heart down and continued to cultivate the three forms of sword skills that Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor had imparted onto him. Among the three forms of sword skills taught by Imperial Preceptor, he had already succeeded in cultivating Spiral Sword Form and it was difficult for him to have any further improvement, thus he began to cultivate the other two forms of sword skills.

Chancellor Ba Shan drank his wine watching on the side. He had wanted to give him some pointers on how to cultivate but he didn’t say a word after observing for a moment.

He had also seen other scholars practicing Swim Sword Form. There were some that were clumsy and some that were nimble. But in Qin Mu’s hands, there were times where the few hundreds to thousands of sword qi of Swim Sword Form were like swimming fishes, there were times where they were like startled swans and there were also times they were like swimming dragons. His sword qi didn’t have a fixed form and was ever changing.

For one’s fundamentals to be so solid and able to have so many changes, the person could only be Qin Mu in the entire Imperial College!

Just this one move, Qin Mu had practiced countless times, trying his best to unleash all his power in one move.

The power of his Swim Sword Form grew stronger and stronger, making Chancellor Ba Shan forget to drink his wine for quite a while.

Qin Mu practiced it thousands of times before switching to practice Drill Sword Form. He was similarly honing his fundamentals, trying his best to focus all his power in the sword to unleash its fullest potential.

His hidden capabilities were not only in the sword move. As usual, Cripple’s body motion, Butcher’s knife skills, Old Ma’s fist skills, Blind’s god eyes, Deaf’s painting skills, Mute’s hammer skills were all means for him to unleash his power.

After a long time, Qin Mu stopped and his body was covered in sweat. He took out his nature fragrance handkerchief to wipe his sweat.

Chancellor Ba Shan suddenly asked, “Junior brother, are you the one who has chased Daozi and Fozi away?”

Qin Mu adjusted his breath and didn’t hide it from him, “Daozi lost the fight by half a move. As for Fozi, I didn’t manage to fight him.”

Chancellor Ba Shan let out a murky breath and muttered, “When I saw your sword skills just now, I guessed it was you. It’s funny coming to think of it. Are you the one who shouted loudly that you had finally refined vital qi thread during Imperial Preceptor’s lecture?”

Qin Mu’s face turned slightly red.

Chancellor Ba Shan had a queer expression, “You only refined your qi into thread at that time? How had you managed to defeat Daoist Ling Yun before you refined your qi into thread?”

Qin Mu pondered over the question and replied, “I gave a stab and he was defeated.”

Chancellor Ba Shan was speechless, “What do you mean you gave a stab and he was defeated?”

Qin Mu scratched his head, “Senior brother, how about this, you use Five Elements Realm to block my sword.”

Chancellor Ba Shan sealed his other divine treasures and shouted with a raging desire for battle, “I’m ready!”

On the side, Hu Ling’er and the green bull were so drunk that their eyes were all blurry. They were making a racket wanting to become sworn brother and sister. The little fox shot a glance at Qin Mu and Chancellor Ba Shan and burst into laughter, “Brother Bull, it’s going to be tragic for your old master.”

The green bull uttered, “It wouldn’t be tragic for my old master—”

Qin Mu swept up a firewood and used it as a sword, stabbing it out. Chancellor Ba Shan raised his hand to block and a loud boom rumbled out. The door of this residence which Qin Mu was staying in shattered into countless of pieces and even a big chunk of the wall collapsed!

Before the green bull could even finish what he was saying, he shut his mouth at once.

Qin Mu took back his sword and anxiously ran over. Chancellor Ba Shan got up from the debris with a face full of dust. He unsealed his other divine treasures and chuckled, “I thought Daoist Ling Yun had been bribed! No wonder, if it was me, I also couldn’t have blocked it if I didn’t have my guard up.”

He wasn’t injured. The firewood which Qin Mu used to stab his chest was exploded into splinters from the vibration of his vital qi, thus it wasn’t able to hurt him.

Many scholars in Scholar’s Residence hurriedly ran out and when they saw the door to Qin Mu’s courtyard got torn down, they felt pleasure in their hearts, “That abandoned person with the surname Qin dared to write words that insult us Eternal Peace Empire’s scholars on his door, now he has gotten the worst of it, am I not right? Chancellor Ba Shan had personally come to tear down his door. Let’s see how completely he was humiliated!”

Chancellor Ba Shan swept his gaze over all the scholars and waved his hands, “Everyone disperse, disperse. There’s nothing interesting to see, I was just swapping pointers with Scholar Qin.”

“He has really given the one with the surname Qin a beating.” Everyone understood clearly as they looked at Qin Mu while rejoicing at his misfortune.

What puzzled them was Qin Mu’s body still looked fresh and on the contrary, there was a lot of dust on Chancellor Ba Shan’s body. It didn’t look like Qin Mu got beaten and on the contrary, Chancellor Ba Shan was the one who was in a sorry sight.

Chancellor Ba Shan looked at the door and the collapsed wall with a slight headache, “No wonder Grand Chancellor said you had almost torn down the entire Scholar’s Residence. If you were to fight in Scholar’s Residence, you wouldn’t need much time to tear down the entire Scholar’s Residence. You have extremely high abilities; however, it seems like there’s something wrong with your technique. There’s a weakness in your left shoulder.”

He didn’t purposely lower his voice and it was instantly heard by the scholars who had yet left, lighting all their eyes up.

“So his weakness is on his left shoulder!”

Chen Wanyun took in a deep breath. He had noticed that there were some astringent parts in Qin Mu’s technique but he was always unable to find the location of Qin Mu’s weakness. Now it was finally made aware by Chancellor Ba Shan.

“Now my position of the big brother can be saved.” He thought to himself.

“Get the odd-job men over to fix this wall and door.”

Chancellor Ba Shan saw Chen Wanyun and called him over. Chen Wanyun immediately bowed, “Teacher!”

Chancellor Ba Shan smiled at Qin Mu, “There are not many scholars that I admire in Imperial College. Chen Wanyun is one of them, who is diligently taught by me. Junior brother, how do you see him?”

Qin Mu nodded his head and praised, “No wonder Senior Brother Chen has such powerful abilities, so it turns out to be senior brother’s teachings. Senior Brother Chen is the big brother of Scholar’s Residence. No matter whether his cultivation or his abilities, they have both reached extremely high standards. When he gets to Divine Arts Residence, he will definitely shine.”

“Senior brother, junior brother?” Chen Wanyun was slightly at a loss.

Chancellor Ba Shan chuckled, “Junior brother, why are you calling him senior brother? Call him disciple nephew. If you call him senior brother, isn’t that going to mess up our seniority?”

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment. Chancellor Ba Shan walked into the courtyard and continued, “I have long noticed that by purely relying on directorates to teach scholars, it’s easy to have many experts, however, it was also equally easy to hold up talents. There are too many people that the directorates have to teach. For one same move, some people can learn by seeing it once while some have to learn tens and hundreds of times. However, the directorates have to treat all of them equally. Those that could learn it by seeing it once will have to learn it a hundred times with those dumb ones. When the dumb ones finally master it, only then can they move on to learn other divine arts. This way, their advancements in cultivation are held up.”

Qin Mu and Chen Wanyun walked into the courtyard and Chancellor Ba Shan threw a wine gourd over, “I mentioned this to Grand Chancellor once and told him that Imperial College was suitable for teaching the talents one in a thousand people and not the talents that were one in a hundred thousand and one in a million, thus Grand Chancellor allowed me to try. As a result, I had found Chen Wanyun and personally taught him for a period of time. He had worked hard as expected and became the big brother of Scholar’s Residence for these few years. This shows that grooming a single person surpassed the teachings of Imperial College. Chen Wanyun is the kind of talent that’s one in a million.”

“So I see.”

Qin Mu frowned and said, “If that’s the case, what’s the difference between Imperial College and sects?”

Chancellor Ba Shan sighed, “Therefore, Grand Chancellor and Imperial Preceptor are brooding over this matter. Grand Chancellor is going to retire so Imperial Preceptor is actually the one that’s most anxious about this matter. Imperial Preceptor knows that Imperial College has its own disadvantages so he had also taken a few disciples and taught them diligently. It’s just that the number of talents that are held back by Imperial College shouldn’t be a small number.”

Qin Mu was stumped for words. What Imperial Preceptor had to face was whether or not to negate his reform. But negating the reform proposed by himself was definitely not an option for him.

Primary schools, colleges, and Imperial College had far surpassed the sects in the aspects of grooming talents. As long as they solved the difficult problem of grooming geniuses, they would surpass the sects in all aspects!

“How does the emperor teach the crown prince? When the crown prince was young, he had his junior protector, junior preceptor, junior tutor. When he grows up, he has his grand protector, grand preceptor, and grand tutor. These junior protector and grand protector are all existence of sect master and cult master level. Therefore, the crown prince who is groomed by this method has extremely strong abilities. I’m now trying to take on a few scholars and teach them techniques, skills and divine arts in line with their abilities.”

Chancellor Ba Shan continued, “What the Grand Chancellor desire is when I find the knack of it, I can be able to spread it. Grand Chancellor told us to choose scholars that were erudite and multi-talented from the scholars and they were to be personally taught by the chancellors, separating them from the scholars who had an ordinary aptitude. Junior brother, you are the first imperial academician of our Imperial College, Academician Qin.”