Chapter 118 — The Supreme Sovereign
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Clack, clack.
At Shen Mu's feet, two sword cases, already empty, dropped to the ground and rolled a couple of turns.
Behind him stood a crowd of scholars, every one of them stunned stiff with shock; even the boy attendant under Daoist Lingyun's tutelage had twisted his head around — his neck bent at a frightening angle — and stood gaping into the hall, mouth wide, sputtering, unable to get out a word. And behind this Chunyang Hall stood the Grand Academy Hall of the Grand Academy.
The Grand Academy Hall was many times larger than Chunyang Hall and the other great halls; before it ran a long flight of steps, nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and at the top of those steps, before the great hall, stood the Sage's Seat, where only the Grand Libationer of the Guozijian might sit. Yet at this moment the one seated upon the Sage's Seat was not the young Patriarch of the Nether Demon Sect, that Grand Libationer, but a middle-aged man in a yellow robe and a jade crown; the young Patriarch of the Nether Demon Sect sat below him, and beneath the Patriarch, all the way down the steps, stood several hundred civil and military ministers of the court, and one Guozijian after another. Below the steps, scholars who had come from every corner of the realm were in the midst of their trials.
Every scholar who could come to this place possessed divine powers; the trials here differed from those of scholars like Shen Mu, and those who reached this place had passed through layer upon layer of testing, a road of great hardship. When these scholars, after such bitter toil, arrived and saw the yellow-robed man upon the Sage's Seat and such a grand array, some of them fainted dead away from fright and were eliminated on the spot. The one upon the Sage's Seat was none other than the present Son of Heaven of Jingping, Emperor Yanfeng.
That Emperor Yanfeng should come in person to the Grand Academy was no surprise; he had descended upon this place many times to observe the realm's scholars at their studies and make them disciples of the Son of Heaven.
The Grand Academy, the grand academies, and the primary schools were the sharp instruments with which Emperor Yanfeng fought the deeply rooted sects; the Grand Academy above all was of paramount importance and could not be neglected. Below the steps, the many scholars were locked in fierce combat when suddenly, with a great boom, the rear door of Chunyang Hall, before the Grand Academy Hall, burst apart and a figure came flying backward, crashing into the battlefield!
Hard on that figure's heels came wooden sword after wooden sword, stabbing at the flying body with still greater speed. The sword wind howled; thud, thud, thud came the impacts without cease — seventy-one in a row — nailing the figure until it slammed against the steps and lay there sprawled on its back.
Beneath the Grand Academy Hall there was dead silence; the many scholars in the midst of their trials stared blankly, dumbstruck, at the man upon the steps.
Before the Grand Academy Hall there was dead silence as well; the several hundred civil and military ministers on the steps had been startled out of their wits. After a moment, Emperor Yanfeng laughed, unhurried: "Grand Libationer, it seems the trials of your primary-school scholars are more boisterous than those of the grand academy scholars — they have even sent one of my Guozijians flying.
My interest is quite aroused; I would like to see the primary-school scholars' trials. " The young Patriarch laughed: "If Your Majesty wishes to see, then let these scholars come forward and hold their trials here.
Lingyun, get up this instant — have you not disgraced yourself enough? " Daoist Lingyun, burning with shame, scrambled to his feet and begged Emperor Yanfeng's pardon.