The Villain's Counterattack

Chapter 308: It’s Impolite to Give Without Reciprocity

As the saying goes, it is impolite to give without reciprocating.

The huge profits brought by winter vegetables and distilled liquor made many people jealous. In addition, the improvements in industrial and agricultural machinery, planting, water conservancy, etc. brought by the Agricultural College and Mozi College did great things and gained such a good reputation that it had the taste of being the first to stand out, which attracted the dissatisfaction of other academies and their intention to suppress it.

In the past few years, the suppression of Murong Academy has been going on, but it has been minor and was even euphemistically called exchanges and discussions between the teachers of the academy. It was not widely circulated, but was just to let those private academies know that Murong Academy also has capable people in charge, so that they would not be too presumptuous.

Winning or losing is secondary. After all, Murong Academy is a latecomer and will not do anything excessive. However, interests are attractive to people. When Murong Academy began to achieve success in the imperial examinations, those people could no longer turn a blind eye and they invited their disciples to come and challenge with great fanfare.

However, they were very clever. They gathered together well-known students from several nearby academies. They did not need to be all-rounders, as long as they had one unique skill. They paraded through the streets and made a lot of noise, as if they were afraid that others would not know. They were determined to suppress the momentum that had just emerged from Murong Academy and to show off the prestige of their own academy.

They naturally knew that Murong Academy had capable people in charge, but they also knew that Murong Academy was huge in scale and that the quality of its students was mixed. Because it had been established for too short a time, it had not cultivated many core disciples, which led to this massive suppression campaign.

As they expected, this one time alone would allow many people to see that Murong Academy was not worthy of its reputation. In order to gain many disciple resources, they did not hesitate to travel around to boost their reputation, but they kept saying that the level of the teachers in the academy was important, but the evaluation of the academy's achievements still depended on the level of the disciples.

Since ancient times, there have been many talented individuals who possessed extraordinary abilities but lacked the ability to teach. They would secretly claim that Gusu Academy's annual teaching hours were insufficient, and even had two annual holidays, each lasting over a month, with an additional day off every ten days. They truly believed their academy was like the imperial court, or that their students were everywhere in the world. They resorted to such extravagance, only to waste their students' time, truly unworthy of being a teacher.

There are quite a few teachers in Murong College. After all, there are nine colleges in total, including upper, middle and lower colleges. It is a famous comprehensive college with clear divisions. Even they have to admire the meticulousness of the founder, Madam Murong. Although they have some complaints, it is worth learning from.

The resident teachers were only average, mostly unsuccessful scholars, with the occasional talented individual without any official title. However, the Eight Friends of Hangu were truly formidable. With the exception of one or two renowned scholars, no one could subdue them. If all eight aspects were considered, no one could control them.

Among them, the genius doctor Xue Muhua from the medical school was the one that no one wanted to offend. After all, who in this world is free from all kinds of illnesses and disasters? If one is really sick, a mild case can be cured by an ordinary doctor. But if the disease is serious, one may even have to rely on others for help. Not long ago, there was an old celebrity who was almost paralyzed, but was finally saved by his miraculous hands.

This action indeed brought huge benefits to Murong Academy, and the genius doctor Xue Muhua also learned a first-class unique skill from old lady Murong. Naturally, everyone was happy. However, the genius doctor Xue Muhua's talent in martial arts was really limited, and it was very difficult to even get started with the first-class unique skill. He needed to ask Murong for help and guidance, but this kind of guidance was not free and required effort.

After five years of getting along, the genius doctor Xue Muhua saw the strength of the Murong family. It was not just the martial arts inheritance, but also the profound martial arts foundation. A casual tip or two could save him three to five months or even one to two years. So when they asked for medical treatment, unless it was really a difficult disease, he would no longer ask for martial arts, but seek guidance.

However, several major academies around Gusu attacked together, and the teachers in the academies were helpless. The students also knew their own level, and it was extremely difficult to fight back. It was not that they did not have confidence in themselves, nor did they lack confidence in the teachers. It was just that they were young after all, and they had studied for too short a time. They were not the kind of geniuses who could remember everything they saw, so they lamented.

At this moment, Madam Murong came with her son, followed by three or five beautiful maids and seven or eight guards with martial arts skills. Murong Fu stunned the whole audience at his first appearance. Needless to say, he was handsome and elegant. He was also proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and even the Four Books and Five Classics, mechanical engineering, and medicine. He had explored all nine departments by himself.

Afterwards, Murong Fu gathered the heads of the nine departments and set up a meeting place outside the gate of Murong Academy. Every day they talked and composed poems, or wrote calligraphy works, thus heating up the atmosphere on his side before the arrival of the several major academies.

Several major academies were quite concerned about this challenge. They knew early on that the Murong family had a young master who was the future head of the family for five generations. This person spent at least three months every year studying at Murong Academy, but he was running around between the nine colleges and departments. Usually he watched and listened more than anything else and rarely showed himself.

This time, Murong Fu himself overthrew the nine departments of his own academy, but the news was kept strictly confidential and not leaked. Students from other academies were unaware of the details. He also intended to cultivate the confidence and ability of the heads of the departments of his academy, so he created opportunities for them everywhere and only gave them occasional guidance and instruction.

Even so, these leaders' abilities had improved slightly and surpassed their normal performance, shocking the Confucian scholars closely watching the academy. In just five years, had they achieved such accomplishments? Each of the disciples he had chosen had studied under him for at least a dozen or twenty years. If this continued, the entire Gusu City and even the surrounding areas would be under the threat of Gusu Academy, leaving them with little chance.

Fortunately, we reacted in time and were able to suppress them temporarily.

But will things really develop as they hope?

Students from several major academies came together with their friends, and they saw an exquisite pavilion with the words "Welcome Pavilion" written on it. Next to it was a stone tablet, which clearly recorded the construction process of this pavilion. It was obvious that it was built brick by brick by this group of students, and the flowers, plants and trees next to it were also transplanted and arranged by them.

For a moment, many students from the academy felt that they had been given a great show of power, but they also had a high opinion of themselves, "Everything is inferior, only reading is superior, craftsmen and civil engineering are menial jobs not worth relying on." Just as a student finished speaking, a tall student from Murong Academy stood up, waved his left hand and unfolded a pair of large characters, which read: Among the various schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucianism and Mohism were both famous schools. Why is that?

He waved his right hand again and wrote: Confucius preached and had three thousand disciples, teaching everyone. How about people today?

"Li Cheng from the Mozi Academy of Murong College, majoring in Mohist doctrines of universal love and non-aggression, investigation of things to acquire knowledge, and minoring in the Four Books and Five Classics, is here, fellow students!" After saying that, he ordered someone to bring two calligraphy copies and sit at a desk not far away. There were three or five cushions underneath, and the meaning was very clear.

Just as they were looking at each other, a slender young woman with a veil on her face came over, bowed to the man, and went to another desk nearby with a maid holding a zither. After placing the zither, burning incense and washing hands, she started to play a song on the spot.

These two heavy blows made many of the attacking disciples dizzy and dazed. Murong Fu appeared and set up three desks in a row. On one desk was a chessboard, and on the other two were pens and ink. Then he took a pen in each hand and wrote with both hands. In a short while, he left behind a copy of calligraphy and a scroll of painting. The level of his skills was so high that even their teachers might not be able to match him.

What was even more outrageous was that the calligraphy copy was actually half a couplet. The upper line read: Smoke along the eaves, smoke in the eyes of swallows, but the lower line was blank, the meaning was self-evident.

Finally, he was seen sitting at one end of the desk with a smile on his face, grabbing a handful of chess pieces and placing them on the chessboard. Many students were eager to make a move, but no one dared to step forward. The calligraphy and painting really made them lack the confidence to defeat him.

Since he dared to ask three questions in a row, he must have some confidence. If his chess skills were as good as his calligraphy and painting skills, no one among them would be able to beat him.

This move of turning passivity into initiative, coupled with the fact that Murong Fu had strengthened their respective areas of expertise over the past few days and even provided them with hands-on training, was not something that a group of young students who had studied for more than ten or twenty years could crack. The nine chiefs and Murong Fu set up a battle formation, but they dealt the attacking students a ten-game losing streak.

No, it should be said that they had lost twelve games in a row! Murong Fu alone had caused them three consecutive defeats, especially the chess student, who was so discouraged that he never touched black or white pieces again.

The calligraphy practice copybook and the portrait were framed and hung in the welcoming pavilion, with only an additional couplet: "Fog covers my house and nothing in the fog exists." However, the signature was Gusu Murong Yanziwu.

Everyone suddenly realized that this talented man who had won three games in a row was the young master of Gusu College and the young master of the Gusu Murong family, Murong Fu. This time he personally took action because it was time for him to travel around the world.

Moreover, he was very polite to the visitors and said that he would visit them in person later for a friendly exchange, which made the students feel embarrassed.