Chapter 139 — The Green Ox in the Vegetable Plot
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Danyang Zi and the Daoist Son Lin Xuan walked out of the capital one behind the other, unhurried, and came some hundred li beyond the outskirts, where the Tu River rolled on in flood and an old monk and a young monk were treading the waves downstream. Danyang Zi and Daoist Son Lin Xuan halted, stood on the riverbank, and bowed with hands clasped to the two monks: "Senior Brother.
" The two monks too hurriedly stopped upon the water and returned the salute palms together: "Senior Brother.
" The old monk's white brows drooped low.
"Has Senior Brother returned from the Academy?
Have three days passed?
" Danyang Zi shook his head: "Not yet three days. " The old monk's brow twitched; plainly he was far from calm within.
"The Academy has such capacity, that it can stand against a Daoist Son?
I mean to go with the Buddha's Son and take a look for myself; I wonder how it will fare. " Danyang Zi bowed and took his leave, the old monk bowed also, and each departed his own way.
Once Danyang Zi and Daoist Son Lin Xuan were gone, everyone in the Academy, from the Libationer down to the scholars, let out a long breath of relief; but who it was that had defeated Daoist Son Lin Xuan, no one could say clearly. Strange to tell, defeating Lin Xuan had been a very good thing, and yet that master had never leapt forth to proclaim that it was his own hand that beat him — most peculiar.
The crowd fell to guessing. Some said an imperial prince of the Princes' Garden had struck in secret and made Daoist Son Lin Xuan withdraw before the difficulty; but because of the open strife and veiled feuds among the princes, this prince feared to show his edge and so concealed the affair, lest he be plotted against by his brothers. Others said it was the Sword Fool Xiao Yin of the Divine Power Lodge; Xiao Yin was a sword fool, drunk on the way of the sword, single-minded, caring nothing for fame or profit.
Others again said that senior brothers who had once finished their studies at the Academy had hurried back on hearing of it, defeated Daoist Son Lin Xuan, and then rushed off again to the front.
Many of the scholars who had left the Academy had already become generals at the front, leading troops in battle. Still another guess held that a disciple of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had been ordered into the Academy, become a Grand Academician there, defeated Lin Xuan, and then withdrawn from the school.
Every kind of account there was.
In the Scholars' Lodge the scholars were in a mighty uproar, gathered in Shen Wanyun's courtyard, asking him all at once, "Eldest Senior Brother, everyone on the mountain is now guessing who beat the Daoist sect's Daoist Son — it isn't you, is it?
" Shen Wanyun yawned, forcing down his drowsiness: "Not me. I did mean to do my part for the Academy, but I trained too fiercely and fell asleep in the courtyard before I knew it.
If you lot hadn't kicked up a racket, I wouldn't have woken. Who defeated Daoist Son Lin Xuan, I don't know either. " The crowd half believed him and half did not.
Qu Ting laughed: "Could Eldest Senior Brother be minded to hide his body and his name?
" Shen Wanyun did not know whether to laugh or weep: "I went two days without sleep or rest, pondering the three sword forms the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping taught me; I overtaxed my brain and damaged my spirit, and cannot bring out eight tenths of my strength. How could it have been me? If I had beaten Daoist Son Lin Xuan, would I keep it from you?
" Suddenly the monk Yun Que's expression stirred.
"Could it be that cast-off? " Yue Qinghong's heart stirred as well; though she had lost face mightily when Shen Mu knocked her into the bronze pillar, she admired his skill greatly.