Chapter 724 — The Innovator's Charisma
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Di Yiyue looked at Shen Mu again, and still could find no trace of bitterness in him—only this open, hearty youth laughing uproariously with a few scholars. "He truly is a boy of extraordinary charisma.
" Di Yiyue nodded.
"Not so very handsome, but utterly magnetic. In truth, we need not go to meet Emperor's Teacher Jingping at all. This disciple of the Grand Heavenly Master alone is enough to make me willing to help Jingping through this tribulation.
" "Emperor's Teacher Jingping possesses another kind of charisma.
" The Woodcutter Sage smiled. "Once you meet him, you will understand whence that other charisma comes. In truth, encountering Emperor's Teacher Jingping and Shen Mu suddenly brought back to mind those towering years when the Kaihuang Era first emerged into prominence. Kaihuang and I and those like-minded souls met one another amidst the dead silence of the ruins of the Shanghuang. By then the civilization of the Shanghuang had been utterly extinguished, and every one of us was a survivor clawing for life amid the rubble. " He sank into recollection, his bearing serene, and said with a smile, "Who could have imagined that we, still struggling in misery, never knowing where the next meal would come from, would build a glorious Kaihuang Era? When I see Emperor's Teacher Jingping, Shen Mu, and their friends, I cannot help but think of my former self and those old comrades.
" Di Yiyue fell silent. After a moment she shook her head. "There is no need to speak of the past. Then let us go and meet him. " "Shen'er, let us be on our way!
" the First Ancestor called out in a loud voice. Shen Mu answered, ran over, and said with a smile, "I would like to stop first at the Tiansheng Academy in Bazhou.
There are some matters here I need to hand over to Old Mother Zhu.
" The Woodcutter said, "The Tiansheng Academy first, then. " They arrived at the Tiansheng Academy, and the scene there differed from that of the Yongjiang Academy.
The Yongjiang Academy was experimenting with the art of creation to cultivate medicinal herbs, supplying a steady stream of medicines and minerals to every corner of the Jingping Nation.
The scholarly atmosphere of the Tiansheng Academy, however, was even more intense. Even before drawing near, one could see all manner of strange and outlandish yuan soldiers flying through the sky and running along the ground. Now and then one that was flying aloft would abruptly plunge earthward trailing thick smoke, smashing a great crater into the ground, from which bedraggled scholars would then crawl out.
Occasionally a yuan soldier running along the ground would suddenly explode, and the scholar controlling it from within would be blown skyward, flailing arms and legs. There were also scholars gathered together testing formations and modifying all kinds of formations, which was likewise exceedingly dangerous, for the formations would at the slightest provocation spiral out of control. Some formations were sword formations, sword-light shooting wildly in every direction; others imitated the forms of gods and demons, and when they lost control, divine yuan or demonic yuan would transform into god-forms or demon-forms and relentlessly hunt down the formation's controller. And there was a group of pill masters and apprentices stationed not far off, who, once an incident had subsided, would hurriedly carry the injured away for treatment. "I told you—the arts of calculation!
The arts of calculation! " An old Daoist priest, frantic with rage, bellowed at the scholars who had failed their experiments and were being carried off on stretchers.
"The arts of calculation must be calculated with precision! You never listen!
And if you do not listen, the only ones who suffer will be you! " "Today we shall construct a god-and-demon summoning formation. According to the Shen lineage's runes of conservation of spiritual energy, we can summon a demon monster from the Dark Capital.