"Your mastery of the School of Mind can already be called that of a grandmaster. Even this old man feels inferior by comparison. Perhaps you really do have a way!" Lord Chu Nangong looked at Yanyan with a beaming smile.
"The Confucian School is the Confucian School, the Yan Family is the Yan Family, and you are yourself. Without a major faction supporting you from behind, it is very difficult to walk the ancient Confucian path of becoming a sage and entering saint hood. So, have you ever considered joining the Yin-Yang School?" Lord Chu Nangong continued to smile as he tried to win Yanyan over.
"You flatter me, senior. Not interested, pass, thanks for the invite!" Yanyan hit them with a triple refusal.
Join the Yin-Yang School? He had never even entertained the thought. Especially since he owed the Yan Family far too much; if he defected to the Yin-Yang School, the Confucian School would tear him to shreds with criticism! The Confucian School, which was supposed to be his backing, could directly turn into his sworn enemy!
By then, let alone the Confucian School, no one in the entire world would look upon a person who didn't know how to repay gratitude, which would be equivalent to directly blocking off his own future! Only a fool would consider cutting off all his own paths.
Could the Yin-Yang School, mighty as it was, even compare to the Confucian School?
Lord Chu Nangong was not angered by the refusal. He still looked at Yanyan with a beaming smile and continued, "Then how about this: if you solve the problem of the Lesser Master of Fate for my Yin-Yang School, the Yin-Yang School will owe you a favor. In the future, no matter where you open a hall to lecture, the Yin-Yang School will support you with all its might. How does that sound?"
Yanyan frowned as he looked at Lord Chu Nangong. He had assumed the Lesser Master of Fate's condition was deliberately engineered by the Yin-Yang School, but judging by Lord Chu Nangong's attitude now, that did not seem to be the case.
"Not doing it, and can't do it!" Yanyan refused once again.
Ordinary social anxiety disorder was difficult enough to cure, let alone an extreme case like the Lesser Master of Fate.
As a disciple of the Confucian School, where could he open a lecture hall and not receive the support of the Confucian School?
The Yin-Yang School's promise was dispensable and had little impact.
"Will you not reconsider?" Lord Chu Nangong's gaze darkened as he asked with a hint of threat.
The pressure made Yanyan unable to even lift his steps. He only felt as if a giant mountain were pressing down on his shoulders, trying to crush him.
"I will not consider it!" Yanyan took a deep breath, straightened his back, and relying on his formidable physical strength, pushed against the pressure Lord Chu Nangong had imposed upon him. He slowly lifted his foot, leaving half-deep footprints in the ground.
Lord Chu Nangong said nothing, just watching as Yanyan stepped out of his pressure range, leaving a footprint behind.
"Thank you, Senior Nangong, for your guidance!" Once he had stepped out of the pressure range imposed by Lord Chu Nangong, Yanyan felt a great sense of relief, turned around, and bowed.
"What a pity indeed!" Lord Chu Nangong smilingly withdrew his aura as if nothing had happened, yet he let out a lingering sigh—after all, it was truly a pity!
"Such ungrateful insolence!" Dongjun frowned, itching to step forward and teach Yanyan a lesson, but Lord Chu Nangong waved a hand to stop her, watching with a smile as Yanyan departed.
"External martial arts are easy to learn but hard to master, generally divided into three levels: skin-refinement, bone-forgework, and viscera-tempering. Ordinary people find it difficult even to achieve skin-refinement, yet this kid has already reached the pinnacle of skin-refinement, just a hair's breadth away from bone-forgework. This old man merely gave him a push, allowing him to break through from the skin-refinement stage to the bone-forgework realm!" Lord Chu Nangong explained why Yanyan had turned back to express his thanks.
And that was precisely why it was all the more regrettable that such a talent could not be put to use by the Yin-Yang School!
"How old is he, and how could he possibly reach the bone-forgework realm?" Dongjun frowned.
Although external martial arts were dismissed as the domain of brute fighters, no one dared call them a minor path. Mastery of the skin-refinement realm meant ordinary blades and swords could hardly harm one, while the bone-forgework realm made one difficult to deal with even for ordinary top-tier experts.
As for viscera-tempering, there were very few external martial artists in the entire jianghu who had reached that level!
Internal martial arts experts looked down on external martial artists precisely because they possessed various methods to shatter the internal organs of external martial artists and thereby kill them.
Yet once one condensed and tempered their internal organs to the point where they were as invulnerable as metal and stone, external martial artists would become the most troublesome existence among the experts of the jianghu.
Lord Wu'an Bai Qi of the State of Qin was just such an external martial arts expert.
And to kill an external martial arts expert of the viscera-tempering level, one would have to deploy at least seven or eight internal martial arts experts of the same tier just to pull it off.
"Therefore, the importance the Confucian School and the Yan Family place on him exceeds everyone's expectations!" Lord Chu Nangong said with a smile.
Without the massive resources of the Confucian School and the Yan Family poured into him, an external discipline like body-tempering would make reaching this realm at such a young age utterly impossible!
"Poverty for scholars, wealth for martial artists"—sometimes that was no false saying.
"I just wonder if this kid has met that old fellow!" Lord Chu Nangong gazed toward the east, frowning and whispering to himself.
If that old fellow in Lanling were to learn of this kid's existence and talent, he would probably step in personally to take him as a disciple, or perhaps even as his closing disciple!
In today's world, masters of literature were rare. After Chunyu Kun, Master Xun was hailed as the sole master of literature—a status the Hundred Schools of Thought refused to accept.
Yet they had to admit that Master Xun's learning surpassed theirs, leaving them no choice but to compete with Master Xun in secret, never daring to contest him face-to-face.
Among the current Hundred Schools, there was only one master of literature: the former Libationer of the Jixia Academy and current Magistrate of Lanling in the Chu State, Master Xun. As for a master of martial arts, that was probably that old immortal of the Taoist School's Heavenly Clan, though the Mohist School's Six-Fingered Black Knight might become the next sword master.
This only showed how difficult it was to become a grandmaster, and those who could be honored with the title of "Master" were all the more scarce!
As for Lord Chu Nangong himself, he was merely called Lord of Chu. While a "Lord" might sound more noble than a "Master," Master Xun's title of "Master" was universally acknowledged across the world, whereas his own title of "Lord" was only recognized by the Chu State—not in the same league at all.
For instance, the Mohist School did not recognize his title as Lord of Chu; they simply called him "Nan," not even granting him the title of Master Nan.
After expending considerable effort, Yanyan finally caught up with the Wu Family Caravan and continued along with them toward Juyang, the capital of Chu.
The only difference was that the Mohist School had still left behind quite a few disciples and experts to accompany the Wu Family Caravan toward the Chu capital along the way.
For instance, a yellow-robed youth with hair spiked straight up.
"My name is Jing Ke. I can't believe you weren't carried off by those three beauties of the Yin-Yang School!" The unrestrained Mohist youth acted like an old friend, pulling Yanyan close and shoving a wine flask right up to his mouth to invite him for a drink.
"Has no one ever told you that people who lack personal boundaries are extremely annoying?" Yanyan frowned, pushing away the wine flask—which still bore Jing Ke's saliva—with a look of disgust.
"..." Jing Ke gave an awkward laugh and rubbed the back of his head.
"I've already helped you organize your books. Don't worry, no one touched them, and I didn't open them to look either!" Seeing Yanyan go over to check his book chest, Jing Ke followed along.
"Thank you!" Yanyan carefully inspected the bamboo slips, finding not a single scroll missing and none of them unsealed, whereupon he turned and bowed to Jing Ke in gratitude.
From this small detail, it was evident that Jing Ke was not as carefree as he appeared on the surface; in fact, he was very meticulous and knew how to maintain proper boundaries.
In anyone else's shoes, curiosity about what kind of books he was carrying would likely have proven irresistible.
After all, books in this era were far too precious, and anyone with even a shred of learning would find it hard to suppress their thirst for knowledge.