Chapter 18 - The sword’s name is Folding Bamboo
Chapter 18 - The sword’s name is Folding Bamboo
When he was about to leave, Lin Shu hesitated on the spot for three seconds, before he walked up again.
He still wanted to see that sword.
The entire treasure hall was a brilliant, glittering gold, and Huang Huali’s cabinet was full of different sorts of elixir, runes, spirit beasts and spirit medicine. In his last life, Lin Shu lived in a world that never had trained and cultivated and sacrificed for the sake of immortality, so he had never seen these things before. At most, he had read records of them in ancient books, and was very unfamiliar to all of them. Walking into the treasure hall’s glitter and gold, he even felt a bit lost.
But, there was one thing he wasn’t a stranger to.
Swords.
In his short life, it was the thing he was most familiar with.
His master said, for those who use the sword, their life would just be that sword. The sword in your hand is the only thing that will not deceive you, will not embarrass you, and will not abandon you. For someone who uses a sword, they must believe they were born for the sword, and believe that they would die for the sword. If not, their sword art would never be majestic.
Therefore, he also had to have a sword, just like a lascivious person looking for a female companion, and a passionate person looking to make friends.
Among the thousands of swords of all kinds, he glanced over and saw only that one.
The three-feet long sword had a narrower body than the ordinary sword. The blade was thin, slender and sharp, and the entire body was made of clear ice crystals, as if emitting slight waves of cold energy.
Under the sword was a jade plate engraved with the name and material.
This sword was called Folding Bamboo. It was made in the far north, forged in the deepest place in the Thousand Year Winter Pool.
Although he couldn’t hold it in his hands, he still felt, this was a very good sword.
As he watched, his thoughts were interrupted by someone.
— The people in this school seem to be very enthusiastic.
“Shidi, do you like this sword?” The man was tall and thin, with good facial features and wearing an azure robe that was exactly the style of the “Southern Sword Sect” that Yue Ruohe once referred to.
Lin Shu nodded his head.
“Shidi has good eyes!” The person said, “But this sword can’t be desired, it’s best if shidi goes to look at other swords.”
Can’t be desired?
Lin Shu’s heart froze a little, and he asked, “Why?”
“Shidi doesn’t know the origin of this sword?”
“I don’t know.”
“This sword was priced at 300,000 jade souls.”
300,000.
Ten thousand was already an astronomical sum to Lin Shu, and three hundred thousand was unimaginable.
&#k2014; Even if he spent ten years, getting first class in twenty courses each year, he would only obtain 200,000 jade souls.
“This sword material is hard to find in the world, and the sword casting technique is even more exquisite. But, even so, it is already enough to mark the price at 100,000 jade souls, which is already a high price among swords.”
Lin Shu quietly listened to him.
Only to see admiration appear on the man’s face: “It’s 200,000 jade souls more expensive because it was the sword that Emperor Ye had used in his youth over a thousand years ago.”
Lin Shu blinked.
Who was Emperor Ye?
Listening to this person’s tone, he must be an extremely powerful person. He could even let the academy drive up prices and raise the price of the sword from 100,000 to 300,000.
“Naturally, many people want it. Over these few years, Folding Bamboo has been stolen away many times, but without exception, it has always been returned.” The person sighed, “The price lowered and lowered again, until now, you can get it with just 10,000 jade souls.”
This man didn’t speak properly, talking for half a day until finally explaining why Lin Shu couldn’t desire it, and why it was always returned.
“It’s because this sword is too cold. Ordinary people cannot control it. If you use the sword carelessly, your Dao heart will be affected. It will be dominated by the sword, even cursing you to walk straight into fire.” The person said: “Hence, if we see any newcomer shidi or shimei thinking of choosing this sword, we must immediately stop them. If you take it and then find that it is not suitable and return it, you will only be refunded back half the amount of jade souls, and you would have lost quite a bit.”
Lin Shu said, “Thank you, Shixiong.”
This person just finished, but he was still uneasy. “Shidi must never think about this sword.”
Lin Shu vaguely said “En”, and under Shixiong’s fatherly gaze, could only pretend to go and look at other swords, before quietly slipping away.
He still kind of wanted it.
Even if he could only see and not touch, he still felt that this sword must be very suitable for his style of swordsmanship.
In any case, he had to save up 10,000 before talking.
Starting from today, going to the library and the Spirit Medicine Garden, if he earned eight jade souls a year, he would earn about 3,000 a year.
This 3,000 would be used to buy Void Control Cinnabars and Essential Heavens Generating Veins Drinks. The former was 100 per pill, and the latter was 200 per bottle.
So, in one, he could buy... ten sets each?
Lin Shu: “...”
You will always be poorer than your imagination.
Like this, he had to pay attention to whether the first floor had any commissions that were not too time-consuming and could be done by himself.
Commissions like the library and Spirit Medicine Garden could no longer be accepted. He still had to spend time on his studying, obtaining first class in ten of twenty courses, in order to be able to exchange for the Folding Bamboo sword.
And to get first class, to be honest, was very hard. Assuming one course had forty people, only four or five people of the forty students would get first class.
Lin Shu’s eyes turned black, and he hurriedly returned to his little bamboo house, taking out the jade charm, and planned to find Mr Meng to choose his courses.
The academy course selection method felt very modern. Lin Shu thought that if even ancient society could figure out something like this, the High Officer in the academy could be said to be an educating expert.
Confucian Institution, Immortal Taoist Institution, Shu Academy, and even the back mountain of people who failed the Shangling selection trial; there were many Buddhist temples offering different meditation courses. Disciples were free to choose their courses without any restrictions.
Although it was stipulated that it was compulsory to take twenty courses, the final grade of those courses had nothing to do with whether the disciples could continue to stay in the academy.
It was up to Mr Meng’s complete jurisdiction to decide if disciples were qualified to continue their studies.
Mr Meng would test the disciples in June every year, and judge whether they have improved according to the individual talents, character and martial arts of each disciple.
If Mr Meng judged him to be unqualified for two consecutive years, he would be expelled from the academy.
In the Shangling test, he used a sword — that is, after one year, his swordsmanship had to be one level higher than now in order to pass Mr Meng’s examination.
— How to practice?
Lin Shu’s heart was a little unsettled. After being uneasy for a while, he didn’t think of any solution, so he just had to enter his dreamscape.
Mr Meng turned around in the small pavilion on the top of the mountain. “Fellow cultivator, you have arrived. Are you here to pick your courses?”
Lin Shu nodded. “Yes.”
Mr Meng sat down on the stone bench in the pavilion: “Fellow cultivator, please sit down.”
Lin Shu sat down quietly and found that a book with a blue cover had suddenly appeared on the table. It was called “Shangling Immortal Master Name List”.
After flipping through, it had all the names of the academy’s Daoist spiritual masters and teachers. After each name, the course taught by the Immortal Master was listed.
Things like “Flying Flower Sword Skill” or “Microsteps over Rippling Waves”, and other martial arts methods that required the use of true vitality and spiritual strength, as well as “100 days to Build A Foundation” and “1000 Ways of Alchemy” that guided the way to break through levels — he couldn’t go to any of them.
— Even if he had passed smoothly to Mahayana in his last life, and all styles of swordsmanship were already familiar, his light footwork was not bad, he still couldn’t go, because now his body was no better than before. In one year, no, even ten years may not be enough for him to cultivate even a trace of spiritual power.
Lin Shu thought it was a terrifying possibility that he would only be able to take theoretical courses.
Such as “Misty Daoists Explain <Southern Chinese Classics>”, or “Mr Xiuzhao Elaborates On the History of Nanxia” and the like.
Other examples would be Shu Institution’s “Introduction to Dan Techniques”, “Introduction to Body Techniques”, “Numerous Crape Myrtle Art”, “Initiation of Formation” and other things.
There were also Du Ruo Zhenren’s “Elixir Identification”, and “Introduction to Medicine”, as well as Bi Lin’s “Spiritual Beast Identification” and “How to Rear a Spiritual Beast”.
Thinking of his cylinder of unknown material, he decided to choose another book called “Appreciation of Mysterious Stones”.
Lin Shu could already envision his future.
In order to get first class, he would spend day and night memorising home remedies, memorising Confucian classics and history books, drawing arrays, and even learning how to tell fortunes.
He chose a class that seemed feasible for him.
Mr Meng watched him choose twenty courses before retrieving the book, and laughed: “Fellow cultivator, why don’t you choose Master Kunshan or Master Fengling’s class?
Master Kunshan and Master Fengling’s classes were on sword cultivation.
Lin Shu didn’t dare to talk about his physical limitations, afraid that he would be immediately expelled from the academy.
He could only say: “My master does not allow me to do so.”
— Many thanks to Yue Ruohe’s long winded argument that day. Firstly, secondly and thirdly, for letting him know that there were still some biased views even amongst immortals, and some schools would forbid their disciples from learning certain martial arts.
Mr Meng nodded his head: “It appears your master has very strict guidelines. Fellow cultivator has a good heart, both respectful of your master and follows the rules.”
Lin Shu heard this and thought that his master would even wail piteously over him going to school. In fact, because his master had to succumb to the rules of modern society and had to send Lin Shu to school or be deprived of custody, his master wrote a long, depressed, unintelligible poem. With a heart the size of a needle’s tip, if there were other schools in his past life, his master would definitely forbid him from learning their martial arts. Saying it like this, he wasn’t lying to Mr Meng.
The main point was that Mr Meng was so kind and warm, but the him without a single redeeming feature could even spin a story of being full of virtue to deceive Mr Meng... It really made him feel a little embarrassed.
But to have already shown his sword skills in the Shangling entrance examination, and now refuse to tell the truth, he was afraid of dismounting the tiger now.
He could only ask: “Mr Meng, it’s inconvenient for me to practice in reality. Can I practice my sword skills in the dreamscape?”
“Of course you can.” Mr Meng smiled widely. “That sour man in Shangling, creating mountains and bamboos for the sake of posing as a culture lover, I have already said that this prevents his disciples from practicing martial arts, but he refuses to listen. Now, it’s embarrassing for you to realise the sword qi can hurt the bamboo forest, but not a single one of his ten disciples will find me because of this problem. Fellow cultivator, you really are kind hearted, a thousand times better than the hateful little phoenix that ruined several acres of the bamboo forest.”
Lin Shu’s eyes were blank, and he pretended that everything Mr Meng had said was completely right.
—-
The author has something to say: Folding Bamboo (laughs)
Lin Shu and Mr Meng’s Daily Life:
Mr Meng: *praise*
Lin Shu: That’s not me.
Mr Meng: *praise*
Lin Shu: I didn’t.
Mr Meng: *praise*
Lin Shu: Everything you say is right.