Tales of Herding Gods

Chapter 147: Yuyuan Empire’s Imperial Studies

Translator: Ninetales Editor: Fish_Creek

Chancellor Ba Shan walked out of Scholar’s Residence and came to Royalty’s Park beside.

There was quite a number of princes, princesses, and nobles with good and bad ones mingled together. Yet, they all had complicated factions.

Imperial princes and imperial princesses were the children of the emperor while the princes and princesses were the children of kings. Other than the princes and princesses fighting for the positions of the kings, there was also the strife for power between the imperial princes and imperial princesses, which really gave one a headache.

This was what Chancellor Ba Shan was most irritated about yet he had no choice. Otherwise, he would offend the imperial family, which would definitely cause trouble for him.

“Why not ask the second prince’s opinion.”

He made the decision and went to inquire from the second prince. Ling Yushu was surprised and delighted. Ba Shan was a directorate of Imperial College and his position in Imperial College was just second to Grand Chancellor. His ability was deep and unmeasurable which would not lose to any of the first-ranking high officials of the imperial court or any school master, cult master and sect master of any big sects. He was one of the top existence in the world today.

If I could get his teachings, it would naturally be a good thing!

“Second prince seems be mistaken.”

Chancellor Ba Shan saw the glee on his face and instantly knew he had misunderstood, “I only teach scholars that are of Six Directions Realm and below. I don’t know too much about Royalty’s Park, so I would like the second prince to recommend two scholars.”

Ling Yushu’s expression turned sad.

The amount of resources the crown prince received was much more than the other imperial princes. As an imperial prince like him, because he wasn’t the crown prince, the amount of grooming he received after he was born was way lesser than the crown prince.

Even though imperial princes and imperial princesses could enter Imperial College to cultivate without taking the examinations, the crown prince had no less than six cult master level teachers to impart their knowledge to him. Furthermore, the emperor would personally teach him from time to time. Even the directorates would go forth to teach him.

The crown prince was not only taught all kinds of top-notch ultimate arts, he was also taught the way of being an emperor so as to have the ability to control all the civil and military officers. He even had to befriend the chancellors of the imperial court to form his own little imperial court.

For the other imperial princes and imperial princesses, even if they wanted to aspire to the throne, they didn’t have this kind of ability to compete.

Chancellor Ba Shan’s ability was equivalent to the ability of a cult master level existence, so even though it couldn’t be compared to what the crown prince was receiving, it was still much better to be able to receive his teachings.

It was just that Chancellor Ba Shan was only teaching scholars of Spirit Embryo Realm and Five Element Realm so there was naturally no place for him.

Ling Yushu suppressed the disappointment in his heart and smiled, “My seventh sister’s comprehension and aptitude are all top-notch and even Imperial Preceptor said she had extraordinary aptitude when he met her. Her aptitude even surpasses mine although she’s a little playful. With Chancellor Ba Shan’s strictness, you can help me toughen her up and change her personality a bit.”

Chancellor Ba Shan was astonished, “Seventh princess? She is really a little playful, which held back the advancement in her cultivation. Those directorates didn’t make things difficult for her in regards to her status of the imperial princess but she will suffer a lot if she is with me.”

Ling Yushu’s gaze flickered and he thought to himself, “Seventh sister, you’re too close with that abandoned person and I can’t guarantee you won’t do something that would dishonor the reputation of our imperial family. This time you’ll be going out of the mountain, you’ll be able to leave far away from that Qin Mu and when you see more young talents, you’ll be able to forget that abandoned person… Brother is doing this for your own good so as not to let you go down the wrong path.”

“Second prince, do you have anyone else in your mind?” Chancellor Ba Shan asked again.

Ling Yushu thought a while and said, “Ling Minyue, Prince Mingyue.”

“The son of King Taishan, Ling Minyue?”

Chancellor Ba Shan smiled, “He shows great promise as well. I’ve heard you and Prince Minyue are on bad terms so why do you recommend him?”

Ling Yushu smiled, “I’m on bad terms with Minyue only because King Taishan supports my elder brother. However, Minyue’s aptitude and comprehension are indeed top-notch among the others in Royalty’s Park.

Chancellor Ba Shan nodded his head, “Second prince is virtuous. In that case, I’ll let second prince inform them about this good news and let them come to Scholar’s Residence to find me.”

Ling Yushu was delighted. He knew that Chancellor Ba Shan had given him this chance to rope in Prince Minyue and immediately left.

Ling Yuxiu and Prince Minyue came to Scholar’s Residence and other than them, there were also Qin Yu, Chen Wanyun, Yun Que, Wei Yong and some other scholars.

Chancellor Ba Shan said, “I have discussed with Grand Chancellor to test out imperial academicians on top of scholars and all of you will be chosen as provisional imperial academicians. From today onwards, all of you will only go Pavilion of Art Saint, Hall of Azure Yang, Floor of Military Secrets, Hall of Array Element, Pavilion of Heavenly Music to listen to lectures, learn painting, calligraphy, frame of mind, the art of war, the art of formations, and temperament. You’ll learn others from me and I’ll teach you in line with your abilities, which is different from the other scholars. After a few years, it would depend on your ability to see if you can become an imperial academician. That’s right…”

He looked around and smiled, “All of you also have a big brother or perhaps you should call him senior uncle. He is the first imperial academician of our Imperial College and I have already discussed it with Grand Chancellor. I have reported it up to the emperor and the emperor’s appointment would soon come down.”

Everyone looked at each other in dismay. The first imperial academician? Who exactly was it?

Yue Qinghong and Monk Yun Que immediately looked at Chen Wanyun and saw that he had a mixed expression.

Chancellor Ba Shan said, “This time I will first bring seventh princess out for training for a few days, as for the other people, you’ll have to wait until the next time. Imperial princess, you can go over to Floor of Heavenly Records to choose a few ancients scrolls on techniques and divine arts. The others will stay.”

Everyone was surprised and elated.

Floor of Heavenly Records. The secretary checked his book tablet and told Qin Mu, “You can’t spoil any book when going in to browse them. If the books inside are damaged, you’ll be imprisoned. With your book tablet, you can only browse the books on the first level. Don’t go up to the second level otherwise, the secretary on the second floor would seize and punish you.”

Qin Mu said, “I’ll follow Chancellor Ba Shan out for cultivation and learn through outside experience, therefore, I would like to borrow a few ancient scrolls out.

That secretary was astonished and replied, “So I see. Chancellor Ba Shan has privilege, therefore, his disciples can borrow five ancient scrolls out. You may go in to choose the ancient scrolls and record them over here with me.”

Qin Mu walked into the floor and saw dozens of rooms on the floor. Each room was extremely vast and there was tablet pasted on the door of every room. The ancient scrolls in these rooms should be classified according to their prefectures. All the techniques, skills, and divine arts from the sects of this county would be kept in the room that represented it.

Qin Mu walked into the room which hung Lizhou’s tablet. He only saw a dozen of bookshelves and ancient scrolls were placed on the bookshelves. There were also different names of the sects written on the tablets which were hung on the bookshelves. Other than sects, there were also names of aristocratic families.

There weren’t many people in the room. There were only two to three scholars sitting on the floor and holding up their scrolls to read. There were also a few smaller doors at the side and Qin Mu walked forward. Two of the doors were locked from the inside and there was still one door unlocked.

He pushed open the door and was slightly stunned. Behind this door was a space with an area of seven ares. It was much bigger than the room they were in but there was nothing inside.

“Could it be a place for scholars to practice their techniques, skills, and divine arts?”

Qin Mu came to the front of a bookshelf and picked out a scroll while lowering his head to have a look. He was astonished, “There are actually so many sects in Lizhou Prefecture.”

On the scroll was written Red Clouds Technique of Lizhou’s Red Clouds Sect. There were also a few scrolls beside it which were Red Clouds Sword Skills, Red Clouds Four Formations, Secrets of Red Clouds Pills, et cetera.

Qin Mu roughly skimmed through it and there were indeed unique points in Red Clouds Sect’s techniques. Once one cultivated this technique, their vital qi would turn into red clouds and whenever they made a move, the entire sky would be filled with red clouds. Meanwhile, they would be able to hide flying swords among the red clouds and the enemies would usually get hit as their visions were clouded by the red clouds.

“Even though Red Clouds Technique isn’t bad, it still couldn’t be considered miraculous.

He put down Red Clouds Technique and took a few looks at Red Clouds Sword Skills before putting it back. Red Clouds Sword Skill was a set of system with Red Clouds Technique. Only those who had cultivated Red Clouds Technique could cultivate Red Clouds Sword Skill. He then took a look at Red Clouds Four Formations and this formation skill also required one to cultivate Red Clouds Technique and Red Clouds Sword Skills to be able to cultivate Red Clouds Four Formations.

Secret of Red Clouds Pills was also roughly skimmed through by him and it was mainly about the art of pill refinement. There were still some prescriptions that were worth referencing, however, there were also some prescriptions that obviously had problems as their toxicities weren’t completely resolved,

He put the scrolls of Red Clouds Sect back onto the bookshelf and took out another set of thick scrolls.

“The ancient scrolls of Yuyuan Empire’s imperial family?”

Qin Mu was astonished and read it over and over again while thinking to himself, “Aren’t the ancient scrolls of Lizhou’s sects on these bookshelves? Where did this Yuyuan Empire pop out from? That’s right, what’s the relation between Yuyuan Empire and Yuyuan Chuyu? Could it be that Lizhou wasn’t Eternal Peace Empire’s territory before and belonged to an empire called Yuyuan?”

Qin Mu’s heart moved slightly. Yuyuan Chuyu was the young magistrate of Lizhou and Yuyuan was her surname. She said she also had a brother called Yuyuan Chuyun who was an official in the capital city. Could they siblings be the past royalties of Yuyuan Empire?

Yuyuan Chuyu’s official position wasn’t low and having such a high status at such a young age, she should have powerful backing.

“Lizhou is situated in the south-central region of Eternal Peace Empire. So it seems that the amount of countries Eternal Peace Empire has annexed isn’t small.

Qin Mu flipped through Yuyuan Empire’s imperial studies, and even though the ancient scrolls of Yuyuan Empire’s Royalty weren’t complete, they were much better than Red Clouds Sect’s. Yuyuan Empire’s imperial study was called Chengdu Zaitian Mystery Technique which was almost an entire system. Its sword skill was called Sunset Sword Skill.

Qin Mu skimmed through it and decided to choose this set of ancient scrolls.

For sword skills, he had only cultivated the first form of Sword Picture which was Sword Treading Mountains And Rivers. However, the qi consumption of Sword Treading Mountains And Rivers was too huge and if he met enemies during normal times and used this sword skill, one move would deplete almost all of Qin Mu’s vital qi. If there were more enemies, it would be bad for him.

Therefore he needed a first-class sword skill.

Sunset Sword Skill of Yuyuan Empire was a first-class sword skill which appealed to him.

“Just now that secretary said I could choose five ancient scrolls, I should probably go and find more.”

Qin Mu roughly checked the other bookshelves and didn’t find anything he fancied. None of the techniques of other sects was as good as Yuyuan Empire’s Chengdu Zaitian Profound Technique.

He searched the rooms one by one and found some first-class techniques which made him secretly curious. If there were already so many ancient scrolls collected on the first level of Floor of Heavenly Records, how powerful would the ancient scrolls kept on the second level and third level be?

“Eh, something’s not right. Some of the ancient scrolls the sects offered up had probably been cut out and they didn’t offer their true ultimate arts.”

The more Qin Mu browsed these ancient scrolls, the more doubts arose in his heart. Many of the ancient scrolls here had been cut out and some ultimate arts were not included. He took a rough look through them and could clearly felt this.

For example, Nine Songs Connecting River Sword Skill had nine moves in total but when he executed the ninth move, he felt his own vigor and the power of the sword skill reaching the peak which was then followed by nothing. An astonishing power was brewed out yet there was no tenth move to unleash this power.

This showed that Nine Songs Sword Sect did not offer the complete sword skill and had concealed something of their skills.

There were many similar cases. It was obvious that these powers were not willing to hand over their ultimate arts to Eternal Peace Empire and should have all retained some stuff to themselves.