Chapter 1005 — The Noble Spirit of Heroes, Awe-Inspiring Through All Ages
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
Guardian of Xuantai Heaven is the second of the Four Assistants, the Junior Assistant Gao Baixun. " Shen Mu thanked him, and left with Shu Jun, not troubling to seek out Qingming Heaven's academy for study. Shu Jun looked back. The old man was still burning paper — but no longer weeping over how miserably Shen Ye had died. Instead he sat by the fire wearing a smile, his face roasted red by the flames.
"This Junior Guardian of Kaihuang's seems to be wishing you would beat Kaihuang. " Shu Jun said, puzzled: "The old devil really is biting the hand that feeds him — and enjoying it, too. Sheng Ying, now I know why you insisted on walking everywhere. Turns out Kaihuang has so many masters under him to feed you moves.
" Shen Mu smiled.
"An old steed in the stable still aspires to gallop a thousand li; a brave man in his twilight years still burns with ambition.
Kaihuang has led his army of gods and demons into hiding in the Worry-Free Land, but not everyone there is willing. Men of aspiration do not truly hope that I will defeat Kaihuang; they only want to borrow my hand to spur him on, to stir the ambition of this one-time leader. " He said softly: "In truth, they also hope to stir their own ambition.
When the divine dragon that once commanded the winds and clouds curls its body in a tiny muddy pool and lifts its head to the sky, what it remembers is the way it coiled and rolled among mist and cloud — not wallowing in the mire. " "I think you're talking about me. " Shu Jun laughed aloud.
"I am that divine dragon you speak of!
" Shen Mu laughed heartily, and the two of them climbed into Xuantai Heaven.
Ahead the woods were broad and dense, and someone within was teaching, his voice loud and ringing: "Universal love is called benevolence; to act rightly is called righteousness; to proceed from this is called the Way. How is this to be understood? " "Universal love is benevolence; to practice benevolence, to realize benevolence, is righteousness; to walk on along the road of benevolence and righteousness, practicing it without cease, is the Way.
This saying means investigating things to extend knowledge — knowing, and then acting upon it. " "To know and to act, the union of knowledge and action, is to attain the Way. To know and not to act — that is Kaihuang!
" . .
. Shen Mu and Shu Jun walked forward, and there they saw a schoolmaster in a tall cap, a scroll in one hand and a teaching ruler in the other, declaiming the classics with passion.
His students were a crowd of monkeys, dressed in clothes: some squatting on the ground scratching their ears and cheeks, some perched in the trees picking lice from one another, bounding and leaping, never still for a moment. When the monkeys saw Shen Mu and Shu Jun approach, they hastily tore off their caps and robes and scattered in all directions, flinging their clothing and headgear all over the ground. The schoolmaster was furious.
"Decorum!
Where has your decorum gone? You wretches, you run at the first sight of an enemy! Feh! " His eyes bulging with rage, he charged at Shen Mu, his teaching ruler whirling as he performed a sword art of exquisite subtlety.
At the ruler's first motion came a stroke of the Xuantai Heaven-Quelling Sword, bearing straight down upon Shen Mu!
"Others fear you — I, Gao Baixun, do not! " Shu Jun moved to block him, but Shen Mu held him back.
The schoolmaster Gao Baixun whirled his ruler, performed the Xuantai Heaven-Quelling Sword once through, then turned and fled, crying: "The enemy is formidable — it is not that I will not fight, I am copying Kaihuang and running away!
" With that he fled clattering on his wooden clogs into the woods. Shu Jun was dumbfounded.
Gao Baixun poked his head out again and shouted: "I am no match for you two, so I certainly will not tell you that the Grand Tutor Zhou Jingmeng waits for you in Yuanming Heaven, to avenge me!