Chapter 60 Arrangements

Recently, Wang Jingyuan began organizing the storehouse. However, to everyone's confusion, Wang Jingyuan dismissed all the handymen, allowing only his fellow disciples inside to help, and the Mount Hua disciples cooperated without exception.

Although Wang Jingyuan was the most junior disciple apart from Lin Pingzhi, having entered the sect even later than the pre-adolescent Shu Qi, everyone was more than willing to listen to him. Firstly, through long periods of living together, everyone had clearly realized that Wang Jingyuan was by no means some privileged connection who had entered through the back door; sometimes, even Yue Buqun seemed to lower his stature a fraction when facing him.

Even Elder Uncle Feng, who had recently returned to Mount Hua and possessed a terrifyingly high seniority, treated him with polite courtesy. Everyone had even begun to suspect that Wang Jingyuan was using an alias and might well carry the imperial surname of Zhu rather than Wang.

Moreover, thanks to the strategic cooperation agreement between the Fuwei Security Bureau and the Mount Hua Sect—though the Mount Hua Sect had not yet started exerting its efforts—the sensible Lin Zhennan had already begun continuously sending a steady stream of dividends.

Consequently, many more handymen had been added to Mount Hua, and the current Mount Hua disciples no longer needed to do miscellaneous chores themselves. All their time and energy could be devoted to martial arts practice. After all, ever since Elder Uncle Feng arrived, everyone had to learn new sword techniques, nearly doubling their coursework.

Yet compared to the improvement in their quality of life, having twice the coursework was no big deal. As for why everyone thus felt grateful to Wang Jingyuan rather than to Lin Pingzhi, the young master of the Fuwei Security Bureau?

Have you ever seen anyone attribute the advancements of an Apple device to the research and development team? Everyone invariably assigns all the glory to Steve Jobs, even though he could not write a single line of code. People only ever remember the person standing at the front waving the flag and shouting.

Although the Mount Hua disciples still called him junior brother verbally, Wang Jingyuan had vaguely become everyone's senior martial brother. As for the original one? Ha, a scumbag locked up in the bitter dungeon every other day—what kind of senior martial brother was he?

Though called clearing out the storehouse, it was actually just clearing out the ancient books kept inside. Wang Jingyuan had the disciples flip through each book roughly, arrange them into categorized sections, and then let Wang Jingyuan inspect them.

While working, the disciples were somewhat bewildered, failing to understand why the books needed to be classified. Wang Jingyuan casually picked up a book and opened it to an illustration on one of the pages: "Can you tell what this is?"

Gao Genming leaned in to take a closer look: "This looks like a crossbow?"

"Precisely, this is a crossbow." Wang Jingyuan closed the book. "This book primarily teaches how to manufacture bows and crossbows, crossbow bolts, and how to maintain them. Just this single book alone—if word got out and someone reported it to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, my Mount Hua would know no peace."

The disciples of the Mount Hua Sect were all legally illiterate on average and did not know the severity of the situation, but hearing Wang Jingyuan describe it so gravely, most of them kept their mouths shut. They all raised their hands and swore oaths never to leak a single word of information regarding the books in the storehouse.

The Mount Hua Sect originated from Hao Datong, and naturally, it inherited a great deal from the Quanzhen Sect. It was anyone's guess what that Patriarch Hao had been thinking; during the division of the sect, instead of scrambling for more martial arts manuals, he insisted on taking Wang Chongyang's collection of books.

Wang Chongyang was a man of profound attainments across Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, so his collection contained many classics of the Three Teachings. But it must be noted that before becoming a Daoist priest, this Wang Chongyang was someone who engaged in the business of carving out rival regimes across rivers and mountains.

Naturally, his collection was not lacking in practical books on military strategy, weapons manufacturing and maintenance, troop training methods, and the like. Prior to this, Wang Jingyuan had learned the craft of crossbow-making purely by relying on that very book of archives.

Previously, Mount Hua was a mere nobody among the Five Great Sword Sects, utterly inconspicuous, which was why Wang Jingyuan had not paid these books any mind. But now that they had Feng Qingyang, a Mount Hua Sect equipped with high-end martial might would soon enter everyone's field of vision.

Any ticking time bomb that Wang Jingyuan could defuse, he would eliminate first; otherwise, it would forever remain a hidden hazard.

Having sorted the books into categories, Wang Jingyuan learned the forbidden books one by one himself, then placed them in a chest and buried them somewhere. Although forbidden, it was precisely because they were so effective that they were forbidden.

As for the portion consisting of the Four Books and Five Classics, Wang Jingyuan packed them up and sent them over to Yue Buqun. Now that they had Feng Qingyang as their supreme combat strength, Yue Buqun's utility ought to be changed.

Nowadays, Wang Jingyuan's very first task upon waking up every day was to torment the old geezer. Yue Buqun's mind was overly active, and his speed in cultivating the Purple Qi Divine Skill had never been able to pick up; yet precisely because his mind was active, it made him perfect for writing policy essays and composing literary pieces.

Wang Jingyuan had invited several scholars up the mountain, and right now, all of them were being utilized by Yue Buqun. Whatever innate talent or cleverness one possessed could not be changed, but the effects of the sea-of-questions tactic were solid and real.

Under the coercion of Wang Jingyuan backed by Feng Qingyang's might, Yue Buqun had no choice but to tackle problems every day. Several scholars took turns presenting questions daily—three policy essays a day, and he was not allowed to sleep until they were finished.

Even if Yue Buqun fell asleep these past few days, his dreams consisted of endlessly parsing themes, developing topics, and writing introductions. Though the process was agonizing, his progress was nonetheless remarkable.

As for Feng Qingyang, Wang Jingyuan did not let him off either. For a long time, the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect had been far too slack; apart from Linghu Chong, not a single one of them could actually fight. Therefore, in the days ahead, in addition to learning new sword techniques, the Mount Hua disciples were also required to spar with Feng Qingyang.

You could slaughter ten thousand wandering nobles, and a younger brother would still be a younger brother. But if you passed the Valkyrie's rigorous special training, you would not be far from becoming the Elden Lord. People progressed the fastest only under the extreme pressure exerted by masters.

Time slipped away swiftly amidst busyness. Apart from the second disciple, Lao Denuo, accidentally slipping and falling off a cliff on the mountain and dying despite all rescue efforts, nothing major had happened on Mount Hua.

After the incident, Wang Jingyuan, acting as the rescuer, stated that the fellow had suffered injuries far too severe and still lacked a heartbeat even after applying heart-piercing... chest compressions; all the disciples wept rivers of tears.

After all, this second senior brother had ascended the mountain long ago, and many junior brothers had been practically raised by his own hands. The second senior brother was diligent in character and possessed a fine temper, so the disciples were all very fond of him.

Fortunately, Mount Hua was no longer short on money, and the second senior brother's departure was conducted with great pomp. Wang Jingyuan had even specially ordered a great many paper effigies and paper houses from down the mountain to be brought up and burned before the second senior brother's mourning hall.

As for why these paper houses looked somewhat like prisons and the paper effigies somewhat like jailers, Wang Jingyuan remarked that he had no idea either; perhaps the craft of the paper-effigy maker was rather crude.

A few more days passed, and someone came looking for Wang Jingyuan. Wang Jingyuan felt somewhat puzzled; apart from everyone up and down Mount Hua, he figured his other acquaintances probably did not wish to see him at all.

How could someone actually come knocking on his door?

When Wang Jingyuan walked into the reception hall, he spotted six bizarre-looking oddballs eating fruit inside. At a single glance, Wang Jingyuan knew precisely what kind of people had arrived.

Turning his head toward Lu Hou'er, he asked in a low voice, "Did they say they came looking for me?"

"Indeed, the moment they entered the mountain gate, they claimed they were looking for you. I figured they were your friends, junior brother, so I brought them over."

"The moment they said they were looking for me, you brought these six bizarrely behaving oddballs up here? Without even verifying it?"

Lu Dayou looked at Wang Jingyuan with some difficulty. Up and down Mount Hua, your behavior is the most bizarre of all, junior brother. If these six fellows hadn't looked so strange, I truly wouldn't have so naturally assumed they were your friends.

Naturally, Lu Dayou would not voice these words aloud.

Seeing that the people were already here, Wang Jingyuan told Lu Dayou to leave first and fetch Feng Qingyang, while he himself stepped forward and offered a greeting: "Aren't these the Six Immortals of Peach Valley? What brings you all the way to my Mount Hua?"