Academy Daily Life

Others would react with anger and resentment, so how could such a matter be casually brought up? Furthermore, it concerned this supreme figure of the martial arts world. To unearth old grievances would be tantamount to courting death. Zhang Ling simply recounted everything factually: when the two of them experienced epiphanies, how far they had progressed in their swordsmanship, when they had entered the pinnacle first-rank realm, and how they had departed for a martial arts assembly a few months prior without yet returning. Once the questioning concluded, the master of the Sword Tomb impatiently chased Zhang Ling away, much like discarding a millstone the moment the grinding is done—killing the donkey the moment it leaves the mill. Though Zhang Ling was a junior who had failed to extract any useful information and had instead been taken advantage of by his senior, he dared not express his anger nor utter a single complaint, having no choice but to obey this erratic master's beck and call.

At Chengdao Academy,
the disciples mostly had their own affairs to attend to, and it was a common occurrence for them to remain away from the mountain for days or even months. What remained unchanging was Li Dami toiling away in the mountain terraced fields, Yang Shanshu guarding the mountain as he had done day in and day out for a decade, and Hong Siyan forging new artifacts in the blazing furnace. This was not due to any deep attachment to the academy, but rather in pursuit of their own martial paths; perhaps one day, all of them would eventually leave the mountain.

Returning to the academy, Zhang Ling walked along the winding mountain paths. Ren Ping-sheng, having finished his official duties at the Censorate, had made a rare trip back to the academy. The two men, neither of whom practiced martial arts, sat by the stream playing a game of chess, though their refined mood was utterly ruined by Ren Ping-sheng holding a manual of chess moves. Yet, no matter how shamelessly Ren Ping-sheng cheated, it ultimately just resulted in a different way of losing. Wu Zhi was nowhere to be seen in the library. Ever since the conversation between the two individuals in the Ming Hall, Wu Zhi had constantly traveled back and forth between the branch offices of the Ming Hall, attempting to analyze the disaster of years past from the remaining fragments of information. As for the figure at the entrance of the thirteenth floor, he still had not descended from the upper level; even his water and food were delivered by junior disciples of the courtyard. Zhang Ling had spoken with him about the past on several occasions, but the man never breathed a single word. Upon leaving the library, Zhang Ling learned from Hong Siyan that Song Qingtian had taken Li Jingqiu on a journey, and along the way, he spotted Chen Ke'er sitting atop a mountain cliff accompanied by a white bear, with the legendary figure residing in the cave directly behind her.

After leaving, Zhang Ling was relieved to find Mo Li in the courtyard. Stationed in his courtyard was a humanoid puppet covered in an interlocking weave of wood and iron. Mo Li was sprawled beside it, painting seal characters onto the armor, occasionally removing a piece to carve concealed grooves or concealing hidden weapons at the joints. Ever since entering the academy, he had been studying mechanism arts under Mo Yu. The surviving ingenious craft techniques of the Mo family were merely methods for constructing mechanical puppets, though Zhang Ling felt the name was too discordant with the mortal world and simply called them Mo-armor—a term that eventually became widely used in the pugilistic world, while within the Mo family they were still referred to by the dual names of talisman-armor and mechanical-armor. On the other hand, what Mo Yu happened to be proficient in were the techniques for operating the Mo-armor, known as the "Inverted-Joint Sly Tendril Connection," which enabled the wearer of the Mo-armor to execute nimble movements and direct their internal qi as smoothly as moving their own fingers. Those who mastered it could achieve a state where human and armor became one, wielding it with effortless skill. After learning the techniques taught by Mo Yu, Mo Li had continuously modified the Mo-armor day after day; by now, its appearance had undergone a visible transformation compared to its initial state. Whenever he gained a new insight, he would unreservedly transmit it back to the Mo family, though this meager contribution of his still did little to alter the predicament of the Mo family.

When Zhang Ling later explained the situation to him, Mo Li was instantly flooded with a sense of relief and collapsed heavily onto the ground, taking a long time to recover. Sitting on the ground with a radiant smile, Mo Li softly said to Zhang Ling, "Thank you."

True to form, Zhang Ling refused to suffer any loss and retorted bluntly, "What's the use of just thanking me? Remember to craft a set of Mo-armor for me as well."

Mo Li laughed helplessly and replied, "Fine, fine. The day my mastery of these two mechanism arts reaches the pinnacle, I will definitely forge the best set for you, guaranteed to leave you completely comfortable without the slightest awkwardness."

Zhang Ling chuckled and mocked, "Dare to feed me empty promises? Believe it or not, I'll make you crawl back to the Mo family in tears."

With a righteous expression, Mo Li declared, "I'm speaking the truth! Trust me, within five years, the finest Mo-armor of the Mo family will undoubtedly be delivered into your hands."

Zhang Ling adopted a solemn tone as well, saying, "Then I will accompany you when you return to the Mo family. If you still fail to master the God-Governing Core by then, with me acting as a mediator, I suppose we can still negotiate. At least I wouldn't have spent such a massive favor only to let you die to atone for your crimes—that would be a terrible loss for me."

Mo Li said with absolute confidence, "Actually, I touched that thing once before. It looks just like a sphere, but I can sense that a universe is contained within it. As long as I thoroughly master these two mechanism arts, I have over a seventy percent certainty of opening it."

Nodding, Zhang Ling said, "It's good that you have confidence. There is one thing I'm rather worried about, and that is the Ministry of Works demanding the Mo family to send people over for guidance. There's a chance the imperial court officials might resort to both threats and enticements to force those people to disgorge all their extra mechanism arts. If those things are deployed on the battlefield, it might spell yet another catastrophe of bloodshed and devastation."

Calmly, Mo Li replied, "Rest assured, the old fellows are extremely shrewd and will not send disciples who hold the core mechanism arts. Besides, you overestimate the mechanism arts of the Mo family. Weapons capable of inflicting massive destruction are either terribly time-consuming and labor-intensive to build, or prohibitively expensive. As far as I know, not a single such weapon is suitable for deployment on the battlefield."

Zhang Ling asked, "By the way, where on earth has Song Linjie run off to? Doesn't he usually practice his saber on the mountain?"

A bitter expression crossed Mo Li's face as he pulled up his sleeves to reveal patches of bruised skin, complaining, "Who knows what happened to that kid? He suddenly went mad and started picking fights with everyone everywhere. I was just beaten up by him this morning. Only that blockhead Yang Shanshu managed to fight him to a standstill. If the other martial experts weren't currently away from the academy, they'd probably have suffered the same fate. Just a few hours ago, he went off to Xie Family Village outside the city to challenge someone to a duel. I advise you to hide in the city for the next few days to avoid getting dragged into this disaster."

...

The following day,
Xie Family Village,
Under the blazing, scorching sun of midday, a modest open-air tavern that was usually deathly quiet suddenly found itself packed to capacity. Passersby stopped in their tracks to take seats at the tavern, and owing to the intense heat, the endless requests for wine and water kept the young proprietor rushed off his feet and utterly delighted. Unsure of what auspicious day it happened to be, he inquired and learned that two young-generation martial experts were going to duel right here. The tavern keeper muttered to himself about how formidable two young fellows could possibly be, but he was nonetheless overjoyed; after all, he could seize this opportunity to turn a neat profit, and he fervently hoped such occasions would happen much more frequently in the future. Once he had saved up enough silver, he would be able to propose to Little Hua from the neighboring village.

Now, this young proprietor was rather short in stature and possessed a remarkably cunning and sly visage. In ordinary times, customers stopping by to rest would be wary of his appearance, and not a single person dared to run a tab. Naturally, the number of travelers stopping to rest here was pitifully small as well. Even though his wine and water were of high quality and reasonably priced, people would rather push through their exhaustion and travel a bit further to reach the inn down the road. Moreover, his prospective mother-in-law held a certain disdain for him; every time he brought gifts when visiting, she would simply tell him to drop the items and leave, occasionally failing even to catch a glimpse of Little Hua. Once, he had mustered the courage to propose marriage, but the mother-in-law rejected him on the spot. He had then attempted to use the gifts he had previously brought as leverage, which finally left the mother-in-law speechless, though she still made an exorbitant demand, claiming it would take fifty taels of fine silver to marry her daughter. When he tried to haggle, the mother-in-law used righteousness as a pretext to declare that if he failed to deliver the betrothal gift within two years, he could forget about reclaiming any of the gifts he had presented in the past. Thus, he had no choice but to rack his brains for any possible way to accumulate wealth.