Chapter 620: Eight or Nine Out of Ten

Xue Hua stared at him, unsure how much he believed, but asked: "If Japan finds out your identity and makes a fuss, this will become a matter between two nations."

Xue Shao said calmly: "They won't find out. Even if someone steps forward to accuse me of being a Ming imperial censor, I won't admit it. Kill me, and I'm still just a failed scholar from the Ming."

Xue Hua frowned, displeased: "What's this talk of dying? Do you know how precious your life is? I've only ever seen three people with your kind of sacred cultivation body, and you're ready to die over something so trivial?"

Xue Shao raised an eyebrow, curious: "Of those three, who else besides me?"

Xue Hua: "... Isn't your focus misplaced?"

Xue Shao smiled and asked: "Is one of them Pan Yun?"

Xue Hua fell silent.

Xue Shao nodded slightly: "Then it must be her. Though I don't cultivate, from your words I can tell her level of attainment is extremely hard to reach—and she not only reached it, but is also the youngest of them all, proving her extraordinary talent."

Xue Hua tried to change the subject: "You've read a lot, but your martial arts are mediocre. Would you like to learn some spells from me for self-defense?"

Xue Shao: "The third person must be from the Zhang family of the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion—otherwise, how could the Zhangs command all Daoist sects?"

Topic shift failed.

Xue Hua: "... Must we really talk about this?"

Xue Shao smiled faintly: "After all, most people on this ship are Daoist Priests. We know little of Japan, so we mustn't deceive our own kind. To know yourself and understand your enemy is to win a hundred battles."

Xue Hua fell silent, waiting to hear what he would say next.

Xue Shao paced softly: "I remember when my great-uncle came back to visit me as a child, he only sighed that I didn't cultivate, without regret. After all, our Xue family is a farming-and-studying household—reading for the imperial exams and entering officialdom is the proper path. Around the age of nine, not during any festival or holiday, my great-uncle suddenly returned home to see me and used every means to coax me into cultivation."

Honestly, Xue Shao had truly been tempted.

Who, as a child, doesn't dream of soaring through the sky like an eagle, of traversing space like an immortal, moving instantly from one place to another, of burrowing through the earth to travel far and wide, and riding above all things?

Xue Taixu showed him these things at age nine—it was a deadly temptation, and even now, he still yearned for them.

Xue Shao truly wanted to leave with Xue Taixu and cultivate.

"Then why didn't you leave with your grandfather?"

Xue Shao smiled: "It was my Second Uncle. He asked me three questions—I couldn't answer them, so I decided to wait until I fully understood those three questions before deciding whether to cultivate."

Later, the more he read, the more he learned, the more indifferent Xue Shao became toward cultivation.

No—he was indifferent to Xue Taixu's way of cultivation. He too pursued the Dao, just in a different way.

"Though I didn't go with my great-uncle, and he revealed not a single word, I believe something must have happened to the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion back then." Xue Shao suddenly brought the topic back—Xue Hua, who had just relaxed, was startled.

Xue Shao smiled at Xue Hua and nodded: "So it's true—the Zhang family's prodigy had an accident, didn't he?"

Xue Hua:... He hated prodigies.

Xue Shao: "The Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion's True Person visits the imperial palace every year for a period, and every one or two years presides over the Heaven Sacrifice Ceremony. The common folk often sing his praises—but isn't he quite old by now? Yet no one ever speaks of the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion's young master. Is he too dull-witted to be promoted and awe the realm? Or did something happen to him, causing his talent to fade?"

Xue Hua:... He hated clever prodigies.

Few in the Imperial Academy knew about Zhang Liuzhen. Junior disciples and classmates only knew that the senior brother had been injured, his health poor, and now he closed himself off each year to recover.

Only the upper echelons of the Daoist world could catch faint hints; the middle and lower tiers knew almost nothing, let alone those beyond that circle—fewer still knew anything.

He could guarantee: in officialdom, unless your family had held a fourth-rank or higher post in the capital for three generations, you'd hear not a whisper.

After all, the conflict back then had been deliberately confined within a closed circle—even the imperial court tacitly accepted their handling of it.

Had Xue Taixu not been his grandfather, and had his grandfather not deliberately sought to bring the Xue family's prodigy into the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion to assist, he never would have known any of this.

Even so, he knew little.

He only knew that back then, disciples of the Imperial Academy and the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion had clashed over succession and reform, suffering heavy casualties. More detailed events—even if he asked, his grandfather refused to speak of them.

Xue Shao had been watching his expression closely; after a moment's thought, he murmured: "So this is tied to the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion's internal succession. The Zhang family's prodigy wouldn't be injured or have his talent suppressed in their power struggles, would he?"

Xue Hua opened his mouth, then struggled to speak: "Please, don't think about it anymore."

He turned and walked away, deciding he wouldn't listen to him anymore. If these words reached the Imperial Academy, he'd lose half his life.

Pan Yun, who had been hiding around the corner, listening intently, was annoyed. She poked her head out—and immediately locked eyes with Xue Shao, who had turned to look.

Both blinked. Seeing Xue Hua about to leave, Pan Yun quickly motioned to Xue Shao with her chin, urgently urging him on.

Xue Shao sighed, called out to Xue Hua: "Now that my great-uncle no longer pushes me to cultivate, have they set their sights on Pan Yun?"

Xue Hua looked bewildered: "Set their sights on her for what?"

Xue Shao stared at him for a moment, then shook his head: "Nothing. Go on."

Xue Hua: "... You don't think the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion has some dark, heretical method of using Pan Yun to cure the senior brother, do you?"

Xue Shao looked at him in silence, then after a pause said: "I thought the Zhang Zhang Tian Shi's Mansion practiced the Art of Vertical and Horizontal Alliances—absorbing new prodigies to strengthen their influence. So now there's a heretical technique of curing one prodigy with another?"

Xue Hua stiffened and immediately said: "You're not wrong—I overthought it. Forget what I just said."

Xue Shao couldn't help smiling: "Is Pan Yun very close to your senior brother?"

Xue Hua opened his mouth, but couldn't speak for a long while.

They were very close—so close that every disciple in the Academy knew it.

Xue Shao let Xue Hua leave.

Xue Hua hurried off, deciding he would never again be alone with him before disembarking.

As soon as Xue Hua left, Pan Yun stepped out from the corner, shaking her head with a tsk-tsk: "Xue Hua used to live in the same courtyard as me—he seemed quiet and composed, spoke very little. Who knew he was so transparent? Just a few sentences, and he'd uncovered the entire secret of Long Hushan Academy."

Xue Shao: "It's not his fault. He revealed little—I merely pieced together my deductions from my great-uncle's past words and the rumors I've heard over the years."

"What rumors have you heard over the years?"

Xue Shao smiled and shook his head: "None. That's precisely why I deduced it—no news is itself a piece of news."

(End of Chapter)