Chapter 144: Senior Brothers

They sat down. Bashing Ji Jiu asked about the Butcher's health, and Qin Mu replied, "Everything is fine. His lower body is missing, but his cultivation is very high, and he moves incredibly fast on his hands."

Bashing Ji Jiu was puzzled and asked, "Since we share the same master, why are you also learning medicine from the Jade-Faced Poison King? Is the Jade-Faced Poison King also your master?"

Qin Mu nodded, but did not tell him that he had other masters besides the Apothecary and the Butcher.

Bashing Ji Jiu was startled and then suddenly said, "I think I know where Master's lower body is! Back then, he swung his blade towards the sky, and his body fell from the air. It seems his lower body was taken by a disciple from a certain sect. Junior Brother, you've studied medicine with the Jade-Faced Poison King, and your medical skills are excellent. I want to ask you, if we find Master's lower body, can it be reattached?"

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment, then replied, "If it were freshly severed, yes. By stimulating the body's vitality and using medicines that promote muscle and essence regeneration, severed flesh can be reconnected, tendons reattached, and bones reshaped. However, so much time has passed, I'm afraid his lower body would have already died..."

Bashing Ji Jiu was disheartened but quickly rallied his spirits. "Then we must find Master's lower body!"

Qin Mu nodded and said, "Senior Brother, it would be best to first find out which sect took it, so we don't search the wrong one."

Bashing Ji Jiu stood up, but soon returned. He said, "Master's lower body was picked up over two hundred years ago. I don't know if it's still with that sect. I've already ordered someone to investigate, and once its whereabouts are discovered, we will retrieve it."

Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. If the Butcher's lower body could be found, regardless of whether it could be reattached, it would still be a good thing.

The Butcher only had his upper body left, and his overall strength was diminished. If his lower body had been taken by someone, it should still be preserved.

After all, his strength was immense.

As a master of combat techniques, it shouldn't be difficult to cultivate one's physical body to an imperishable state. Many enlightened monks in Buddhist sects can achieve an incorruptible body, which, after death, does not decay and is enshrined in temples as a physical Buddha.

However, the difficulty lies in the body remaining alive.

The physical Buddhas in temples are, in fact, dead. An immortal body is a higher state than an imperishable one: blood does not clot, the body remains soft, the heart beats, and nerves function. This is true physical immortality.

"Senior Brother Bashing, do you know Grandfather Butcher's given name?" Qin Mu suddenly remembered something and asked.

Bashing Ji Jiu shook his head. "I don't. I only know that people called him 'Heavenly Blade.' His common name is unknown. Master said he had an enemy who could harm people by knowing their name and using spells, so he rarely revealed his name to others."

Qin Mu was astonished. This sounded somewhat like the methods of the Grand Shamans of the Barbarian Kingdom. Had the Butcher offended a Grand Shaman from the Barbarian Kingdom in the past?

He calmed himself and continued practicing the three sword forms taught by the Imperial Preceptor of Eternal Peace. He had already mastered the Circling Sword Form and found it difficult to make further progress, so he now began practicing the other two sword forms.

Bashing Ji Jiu drank alcohol while watching him, intending to offer guidance on how to cultivate. However, after watching for a while, Bashing Ji Jiu did not utter a single word.

He had seen other scholars practice the Wandering Sword Form; some were clumsy, others nimble. But in Qin Mu's hands, the hundreds and thousands of sword qi of the Wandering Sword Form sometimes resembled swimming fish, sometimes startled swans, and sometimes wandering dragons. The sword qi had no fixed form, constantly changing.

Only Qin Mu in the entire Imperial College had such a solid foundation and such versatility!

Qin Mu had practiced the Wandering Sword Form countless times, striving to unleash his entire body's power in a single sword stroke.

His Wandering Sword Form grew increasingly powerful, making Bashing Ji Jiu forget to drink for a long time.

After practicing for thousands of times, Qin Mu turned to practice the Piercing Sword Form, similarly focusing on mastering the fundamentals, striving to concentrate all his strength into the sword and unleash all his potential.

His potential was not limited to his sword techniques; he also utilized Cripple's movement techniques, Butcher's blade skills, Grandpa Ma's fist techniques, Blind's divine eye, Deaf's painting skills, and Mute's hammer techniques as methods to exert force.

After a long time, Qin Mu stopped, covered in sweat, and took out his Heavenly Fragrance handkerchief to wipe himself.

Bashing Ji Jiu suddenly asked, "Junior Brother, were you the one who drove away the Dao Son and the Buddha Son?"

Qin Mu regulated his breathing and, without hiding anything, replied, "The Dao Son lost to me by half a move. As for the Buddha Son, I didn't fight him."

Bashing Ji Jiu exhaled slowly and murmured, "When I saw your sword techniques, I guessed it was you. It's funny, but did you shout 'I've finally mastered 'Qi into Threads'!' during the Imperial Preceptor's sword lecture?"

Qin Mu's face flushed slightly.

Bashing Ji Jiu had a strange expression. "You only achieved 'Qi into Threads' at that time? How did you defeat Daoist Lingyun without mastering 'Qi into Threads'?"

Qin Mu thought for a moment and said, "I thrust my sword, and he was defeated."

Bashing Ji Jiu was speechless. "What do you mean, 'you thrust your sword, and he was defeated'?"

Qin Mu scratched his head. "How about this, Senior Brother, you use your Five-Luminaries realm cultivation to block my sword."

Bashing Ji Jiu sealed off his other divine treasures, his fighting spirit ablaze, and exclaimed, "I'm ready!"

Nearby, Fox Spirit and the Green Ox were drinking, their eyes hazy with intoxication, arguing about becoming sworn siblings. The little fox glanced at Qin Mu and Bashing Ji Jiu, giggling, "Big Ox, your master is going to have a bad time."

The Green Ox mumbled, "My master won't have a bad time—"

Qin Mu picked up a piece of firewood, used it as a sword, and thrust it forward. Bashing Ji Jiu raised his hand to block. With a booming sound, the gate of the Scholar's Residence where Qin Mu lived shattered into countless pieces, and a large section of the wall also collapsed!

The Green Ox stopped speaking immediately, his sentence unfinished.

Qin Mu withdrew his "sword" and hastily ran out. Bashing Ji Jiu, covered in dust and debris, stood up from the broken bricks and tiles, unsealed his other divine treasures, and chuckled, "I thought Daoist Lingyun had been bribed! No wonder. If it were me, I couldn't have blocked that either if caught off guard."

He was not injured; the piece of firewood Qin Mu thrust at his chest exploded into splinters from his vital qi, failing to wound him.

Many scholars from the Scholar's Residence rushed out. Seeing that Qin Mu's courtyard gate had been torn down, they secretly rejoiced: "That outcast Qin dared to write insulting words about our Eternal Peace scholars on his door. Now he's suffered, hasn't he? Bashing Ji Jiu personally came to demolish their gate; let's see where he puts his face now!"

Bashing Ji Jiu's gaze swept over them, and he waved his hand. "Disperse, all of you. There's nothing to see. I was just sparring with Scholar Qin."

"So, he really gave that Qin fellow a good beating," the scholars thought, understanding the situation, and looked at Qin Mu with schadenfreude.

To their surprise, Qin Mu remained clean and neat, while Bashing Ji Jiu was covered in dust. It didn't look like Qin Mu had been beaten; rather, Bashing Ji Jiu seemed quite disheveled.

Bashing Ji Jiu looked at the demolished gate and collapsed wall, rubbing his temples. "No wonder the Grand Ji Jiu said you almost tore down the entire Scholar's Residence. If you were to make a move here, it wouldn't take you long to dismantle the whole place. Your abilities are extremely high, but it seems there's an issue with your cultivation technique, a flaw in your left shoulder."

He did not deliberately lower his voice, and those scholars who had not yet left immediately heard him, their eyes lighting up.

"So his weakness is in his left shoulder!"

Shen Wanyun took a deep breath. He had sensed some stagnation in Qin Mu's cultivation technique but had never pinpointed the flaw. Now, Bashing Ji Jiu had finally enlightened him.

"Now, my position as Senior Disciple can be secured," he thought to himself.

"For this wall and door, have the servants come to repair them."

Bashing Ji Jiu spotted Shen Wanyun, called him over, and Shen Wanyun quickly bowed, saying, "Teacher!"

Bashing Ji Jiu smiled at Qin Mu. "Among the Imperial College scholars, there are few whom I truly admire, but Shen Wanyun was meticulously trained by me. Junior Brother, what do you think of him?"

Qin Mu nodded and praised, "No wonder Senior Brother Shen is so strong; it turns out he was trained by you, Senior Brother. Senior Brother Shen is the head senior disciple of the Scholar's Residence, and both his cultivation and strength have reached an extremely high level. He will certainly shine brightly once he reaches the Divine Arts Residence."

"Senior Brother, Junior Brother?" Shen Wanyun looked bewildered.

Bashing Ji Jiu chuckled. "Junior Brother, why are you calling him Senior Brother? Call him nephew-disciple. If you call him Senior Brother, wouldn't that mess up our hierarchy?"

Qin Mu hesitated slightly. Bashing Ji Jiu walked into the courtyard and continued, "I realized long ago that while relying solely on the Directorate of Education to instruct scholars can produce masters, it can also hinder talented individuals. The Directorate teaches too many people. For the same divine art, some can learn it after one viewing, while others need to study it ten or a hundred times. But the Directorate must treat everyone equally, so those who can learn it quickly must study it a hundred times alongside the slower learners. Only after the slower ones have mastered it can they learn other divine arts, which delays their cultivation progress."

Qin Mu and Shen Wanyun entered the courtyard. Bashing Ji Jiu tossed over a wine gourd and said, "I once discussed this with the Grand Ji Jiu, telling him that the Imperial College's teaching method is suitable for talents selected from a thousand, but not for those selected from a hundred thousand or a million. So the Grand Ji Jiu told me to try it myself. I found Shen Wanyun and personally taught him for a period. He truly proved himself, becoming the head senior disciple of the Scholar's Residence for several years. This shows that individual nurturing surpasses the Imperial College's general teaching. Shen Wanyun is precisely one of those talents selected from a hundred thousand or a million."

"I see."

Qin Mu frowned. "If that's the case, then what difference is there between the Imperial College and a sect?"

Bashing Ji Jiu sighed. "That's why both the Grand Ji Jiu and the Imperial Preceptor are troubled by this. The Grand Ji Jiu is about to resign, so the Imperial Preceptor is probably the most worried about this matter now. The Imperial Preceptor himself knows the flaws of the Imperial College, so he has personally taken on a few disciples and taught them diligently. However, the number of geniuses delayed by the Imperial College must not be small."

Qin Mu was stunned. What the Imperial Preceptor faced was whether to negate his own reforms, yet he couldn't deny them.

Elementary schools, universities, and the Imperial College, in terms of cultivating talent on a large scale, far surpassed sects. As long as the problem of nurturing true geniuses was solved, they could fully surpass sects in all aspects!

"How does the Emperor teach the Crown Prince? As a youth, the Crown Prince has Grand Guardians, Grand Tutors, and Grand Mentors; when he grows up, he has Imperial Guardians, Imperial Tutors, and Imperial Mentors. These guardians and mentors are all equivalent to sect leaders or grandmasters. Thus, a Crown Prince trained this way possesses immense power. I am now trying to personally guide a few scholars, teaching them cultivation techniques and divine arts according to their individual aptitudes."

Bashing Ji Jiu said, "The Grand Ji Jiu's intention is that once I discover the method, it can be widely implemented. The Grand Ji Jiu said that scholars with broad knowledge and diverse talents should be selected from the student body for special instruction by the Ji Jiu, separating them from scholars of average aptitude. Junior Brother, you will be the Imperial College's first Imperial College Doctor, Doctor Qin."