With the end of the martial arts tournament, the Five Mountains Alliance bared its fangs to the outside world once again. The calm jianghu was stirred into turmoil.
None of this had anything to do with Li Mu. Gifted disciples always received special treatment. Even when they had to fight for their sect, that could wait until their martial arts had reached mastery.
All the major sects were the same in this regard. It wasn't easy to cultivate a gifted disciple, and the sect's future couldn't be allowed to wither before its time.
Even when they were sent out for experience, it was only after they had hit a bottleneck. Someone like Li Mu, who didn't even know what a bottleneck was, could make his greatest contribution to the sect by obediently cultivating in seclusion—in effect, freeing up a protector elder.
With large numbers of people being sent to the front lines, the sect was short-handed. Even Li Mu, who was still in seclusion, had been given an extra duty: supervising the junior brothers and junior sisters as they practiced martial arts.
Gazing at the several hundred people arrayed below him, Li Mu felt his life had reached its "peak."
One teacher looking after several hundred students, divided into four different grades. Just thinking about it made him dizzy.
But the order had come directly from Sect Leader Ning Qingyu. The sect was short on people, so Li Mu had no choice but to accept.
The motive was clear: to use this opportunity to encourage interaction among the sect's disciples and, hopefully, put an end to the Sword-Qi feud among the younger generation.
Li Mu just couldn't understand why Ning Qingyu trusted him so much, entrusting him with such an important responsibility. Still, it seemed there wasn't a better choice.
Word was, several Qi Sect elders had strongly opposed the decision. It wasn't that they didn't care about the bigger picture; they simply didn't trust someone from the Sword Sect.
Li Mu didn't know what had happened behind the scenes. In any case, Ning Qingyu had eventually persuaded the Qi Sect elders. If the job had gone to a Qi Sect disciple, the Sword Sect elders might well have gone on strike right then and there.
With such a large group of junior brothers and junior sisters in tow, trouble was inevitable. Fights broke out almost every day, giving Li Mu a splitting headache.
With no other choice, he resorted to the oldest and roughest method: putting them down by force.
They were just unruly kids. If they wouldn't listen, give them a beating. If one wasn't enough, give them two. Violence might not solve every problem, but it could solve the people causing them.
After all, the sect's elders had gone out, and the senior brothers left behind weren't strong enough to boss Li Mu around. Even those who wanted to complain couldn't find anyone to complain to.
After countless brave souls paid the price with bruised and swollen faces, the Great Demon King Li finally got the situation under control.
Like students sorted into classes, disciples who had joined in different years were divided by Li Mu into four formations. That was how this spectacular scene had come about.
After sword practice came internal cultivation; after internal cultivation came sword practice again. Unless they were exhausted in both body and mind, they could forget about leaving the training ground.
It wasn't that nobody tried to slack off, but Li Mu saw through every little trick and caught them all without exception.
The stragglers standing apart from the four formations were the ones he'd caught. They now stood under everyone's curious stares.
"Now that you're standing here, don't forget who you are. From the moment you stepped through Mount Hua's gates, you had one foot in the jianghu.
"The jianghu is a fantastical place. There's courage and loyalty here, fame, wealth, and status—but also deceit, treachery, and blades flashing in the dark.
"To sum it up in one sentence: once you're in the jianghu, you have no say over your own fate.
"You may not understand that yet, but when you truly step into this world, you'll see that the jianghu is far more brutal than you can imagine.
"If you want to make a good life for yourself here, you have to fight for it and seize what you can. Every stitch of clothing on your backs and every meal you eat comes from the blood shed by the elders and senior brothers of our sect.
"One day, Mount Hua will be yours to protect. Without strong martial arts, you'll be the ones being slaughtered.
"Read fewer storybooks and novels when you have nothing to do. Put more effort into training. And especially, you junior sisters—stop reading romantic tales. Chivalrous hearts and tender affections are all lies. The only thing this jianghu has to offer is heaps of bleached bones.
"..."
Playing life coach left Li Mu feeling helpless, too. Force could only solve the problem for a while, and he didn't want to keep an eye on them every moment. So he had to find a way to get them to take the initiative.
"Threats, intimidation, inspirational pep talks"—Li Mu had thrown every kind of motivational tactic at them.
Luckily, these junior brothers and junior sisters had little experience of the world. Li Mu's silver tongue had scared them into behaving. Otherwise, he would have had a real headache.
"Senior Brother, you'll protect us, right?"
The childlike question nearly made Li Mu weep. Nepotism was a headache wherever you went, and the world of martial heroes was no exception.
By comparison, the world of martial heroes was actually not so bad. Since practicing martial arts required talent, countless well-connected hopefuls were screened out from the start.
Besides, many parents didn't want their children to follow in their footsteps and slog through a jianghu full of strife, so they never taught their descendants martial arts.
Of course, avoiding vendettas was another major reason. "Don't involve the family" was just a slogan. In practice, when dealing with enemies, everyone wished they could wipe out the whole family.
To keep their grudges from spilling over onto their children, many people in the jianghu concealed their descendants' identities, lest their families suffer for it.
That wasn't hard to do. In fact, most disciples of the major sects came from wealthy families and prominent households. But from the moment they entered a sect, the two sides severed their ties.
After all, blood was thicker than water. You couldn't just cut those ties at will. If the connection were truly severed, people wouldn't send their children to the sects in the first place.
In fact, this was also how powerful local clans survived. Wealth needed armed protection, and the lawless people of the jianghu wouldn't go easy on them if they had no backing.
Aside from a handful of great clans who could raise their own hired muscle, most prominent families and wealthy households chose to cooperate with sects.
This cooperation took many forms. Sending disciples was just one of them; they were also business partners.
The familiar storylines in novels—some wealthy gentleman's household falling into trouble, only for a great hero to appear and uphold justice—came from arrangements just like this.
Otherwise, why would anyone risk their life to help a stranger who had nothing to do with them?
Smiling Proud Wanderer had no chivalrous heroes to speak of. That wasn't a joke. This world was no longer a place where pure-hearted heroes could survive. The great heroes who made it had all learned to "bend with the wind."
In the original story, one of the main reasons Mount Hua Sect fell on hard times was that the Sword-Qi feud had turned vicious. It severed their ties with the powerful local clans, and the deaths among their disciples left a thorn in everyone's hearts.
"Ning Shimei, once you enter the jianghu, you'll have to learn to protect yourself. Your senior brother has things of his own to do. Every Mount Hua disciple has their own duties, and each of you must carry them out yourselves."
You could touch anything but a tiger's rear—and you couldn't hit the sect leader's daughter, either. Li Mu had at least that much social sense.
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