Baiyunzi left, leaving Li Haimo alone in the library hall. The place was usually deserted—hardly anyone came here. As for stealing techniques? Forget it. In this era, cultivation methods were passed down orally, not like those wuxia novels from later times where you'd stumble off a cliff and find a secret martial arts manual to become invincible.
Yeah, dream on. Even if you found something, you'd first need to figure out which kingdom's script it was written in. Then, you'd need to know how to read it. And if you could read it, it'd likely be incomplete. Who in their right mind would lug around hundreds of bamboo slips on the brink of death? And if someone was powerful enough to kill them, you think they wouldn't notice a pile of scrolls?
Staring at the endless rows of bamboo slips, Li Haimo could only think one thing: I don't recognize a single character.
"Senior Brother, help!" he called out. His only hope was to beg his senior brothers to teach him to read first. Otherwise, this was just too much. And to make matters worse, the texts weren't even all in the same kingdom's script.
"Do you know why the Daoist Scripture is so hard to master?" Xiaoyaozi asked.
Li Haimo shook his head. If I knew, I'd have mastered it already.
"It's simple," Xiaoyaozi said. "Nobody can read the characters. Over the ages, scripts have evolved constantly. A word might mean one thing in ancient times and something else entirely now. Some characters carry multiple meanings, but the scribes only knew one, so they used it to replace the others. Got it?"
Li Haimo's head spun. "Senior Brother, are you testing my language comprehension or what? Multiple meanings?"
"Take weights, for example," Xiaoyaozi continued. "In Qin, one jin is sixteen liang, but in Zhao, it's twelve liang. And the liang itself varies in weight between kingdoms. Understand?"
"What's that got to do with the Daoist Scripture?" Li Haimo shot back.
"It means the Daoist Scripture we have now might not be the same as the original. It could be wrong. That's why everyone in our Daoist school who's ever achieved anything with it—whether a great or small success—ends up going mad. Got it?" Xiaoyaozi said, thinking, This kid's too slow. No wonder he was the leftover.
"They all went mad?" Li Haimo asked, skeptical.
He thought it over. It did seem true. Laozi rode a green ox out of Hangu Pass, transforming into three distinct beings—wasn't that just splitting into three personalities? Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly, unable to tell if he was man or insect. Liezi rode the wind and became the poster child for impossible feats, like filling the sea. And Jiang Ziya, with his Yellow Stone Heavenly Book, sealed gods until he forgot himself—shouldn't the credit go to the one who started it all? They were all nuts. Even later scholars of the Book of Changes seemed to have a knack for eccentricity.
"Exactly," Xiaoyaozi sighed. "Otherwise, why would our Daoist school have split into the Shu Mountain sect, the Yin-Yang school, and the Celestial and Human sects? Add in those who wandered off to the Three Overseas Mountains and the ancestral Kunlun Mountains—countless powerhouses have come from our school. But which one of them was normal? Take the Celestial Sect's Bei Mingzi. He studied Zhuangzi's Free-and-Easy Wandering and now holes up in Taiyi Mountain's forbidden grounds, claiming he's a giant fish called a Kun, destined to become a Peng and soar nine thousand miles. He's forgotten he's human. Then there's the Yin-Yang school's Eastern Sovereign Taiyi, obsessed with the Supreme Oblivion of Emotion, stripping away humanity to become one with the Heavenly Dao, treating all things as mere straw dogs." He shook his head, lamenting their fates, frustrated by their folly.
Li Haimo broke out in a cold sweat. When you put it like that, it seems like studying the Daoist Scripture never ends well. Should I even bother?
"Should I switch to another technique?" he asked tentatively.
Xiaoyaozi gave him a withering look, crouched down, and patted his head. "Wuchenzi, do you have some kind of misconception about yourself?"
Li Haimo blinked, confused. Misconception? About what?
"Can you even read the Daoist Scripture?" Xiaoyaozi asked.
Li Haimo shook his head.
"Do you think you're on par with Laozi, Zhuangzi, or Liezi?" he pressed.
Li Haimo shook his head again. Those guys were freaks of nature, practically cheating at life. In thousands of years of history, there aren't many like them. I'm just a keyboard warrior who'd get roasted by trolls online—how could I compare?
"Then what are you worrying about? Wait until you can actually read it before you start panicking," Xiaoyaozi said, smacking him on the head. Trying to run before you can crawl? The Human Sect won't miss you if you fail. If you can't master the Daoist Scripture, you'll never surpass Xiaomeng with any other technique. Might as well stick with it—maybe you'll pull off a miracle and overtake her.
"But I can't read it!" Li Haimo protested.
"Then keep studying. Start with what you can read and set aside what you can't," Xiaoyaozi Master replied.
Li Haimo finally understood why those who studied the Daoist Scripture were either fools or madmen. Martial arts are supposed to be step-by-step, but this? Just learn what you can and skip the rest? What is this, a math test where you do the easy questions first and guess on the rest? At least give me a study aid or something—'point where you don't understand, and it explains!' Or heck, even a lighter to burn the parts I can't figure out!
"Though the Daoist school is split into Celestial and Human sects, you're not limited to asking about the Daoist Scripture here. For questions about it, you can consult the Yin-Yang school's Duke Chunan, the Confucian Xunzi, the Shu Mountain grand elder, or Guigu's Guiguzi. They'd be happy to help—after all, they're not far from being fools or madmen themselves," Xiaoyaozi said.
"You sure I can find them? And that they won't kill me?" Li Haimo thought.
"I guarantee they won't kill you. They could end you with a puff of breath—why bother getting their hands dirty? It'd be beneath them," Xiaoyaozi said, as if reading his mind.
"How do you know what I'm thinking?" Li Haimo gasped.
"The Yin-Yang school has a technique called Yin-Yang Mind Reading. You think our Daoist school doesn't have something similar? It's called the Art of Unity with Heaven and Man—listening to the heart of all things," the Free-and-Easy Master said smugly.
Li Haimo fell silent. This Qin Shi Ming Yue world is nothing like what I expected. Mom, it's too dangerous here—I want to go back to being a keyboard warrior!
"Just stay on the mountain and study properly. Don't even think about switching techniques. If you haven't learned anything in ten years, I'll kick you out of the sect myself—save you from getting beaten to death by Xiaomeng," Xiaoyaozi said.
"Wait, you're the sect leader! The Heaven-Man contest is your job—why's it got anything to do with me?" Li Haimo blurted out.
"Do I not care about my reputation? Even if I could win, I'd be an old man in my seventies or eighties fighting a little girl. Win, and it's no glory. Lose, and I'm humiliated. What would you do in my shoes?" the Free-and-Easy Master countered.
"Easy—find some same-generation disciple to take the fall!" Li Haimo answered instantly.
"Exactly! That's my plan. And guess what? In the entire Daoist school, the only one of Xiaomeng's generation and age is you. When you lose, I'll say you disgraced the sect, kick you out, and then step in myself. No one can accuse me of bullying a kid. Even if I can't win then, I won't have to fight—I'll just say, 'Sure, you were expelled, but you were once our Human Sect's leader. We'll admit defeat, but we're not convinced.' See? No matter what, the Human Sect comes out looking good," Xiaoyaozi said with a sly grin.
"…" Li Haimo was speechless, utterly defeated. So that's how you play the 'disciple-on-behalf-of-master' game. He'd thought it was about looks at first, then about sticking it to Chi Songzi. But this guy was operating on the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth layers of strategy. No wonder he's the Human Sect leader—master of schemes.
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