Martial Cultivator

Afterward, the teacher and his two students were to return to the Northern Frontier Great Wall.

Xie Nandu called over a deputy general and had them withdraw the troops and depart first, while she herself followed her teacher and Senior Brother, returning south together.

After the cavalry galloped away, Liu Banbi sheathed his sword and began to slowly regulate the sword qi within his body, nurturing his acupoints. Although he was only half a step away from the end of Nepenthe, he still could not be careless. After all, this had once been the highest point of sword dao in the world many years ago.

Although the Sword Sect’s Sect Master had, by his own strength, raised this realm by another level, becoming a great sword immortal was still not an easy matter.

The Academy Dean glanced at this student of his, narrowed his eyes, and in the end a rare trace of approval flashed in them.

In his life, he had seventy two students. Some had died young, some had been intelligent in their early years but later became mediocre. None of that was a big issue. In any case, there had been quite a few outstanding disciples.

Counting carefully, they could not be counted on one hand.

That Confucian Primordial Saint, the number one scholar among all scholars under heaven, had three thousand disciples in his lifetime, yet in the end only seventy two of them were outstanding.

Among my seventy two students, there are more than seven who are outstanding, right?

By that calculation, I am still better than the Primordial Saint at teaching disciples. Thinking of this, the Academy Dean nodded slowly. In this regard, even the Primordial Saint would be left eating dust behind me.

Seeing that his teacher seemed to be in a good mood, Liu Banbi then spoke teasingly, “After all that fighting, it ended up benefiting that Zhou fellow.”

Back when Zhou Gouqi was down and out, Liu Banbi had gone to Tianqing County to see him. In front of Zhou Gouqi, this sword immortal had been polite, calling him “Senior Brother” again and again. But behind his back, Liu Banbi had no intention of going easy on this Senior Brother of his.

The Academy Dean thought for a moment and said with a smile, “For him, after walking such a long and winding road, things turned around in the end, and his learning is no small matter. Besides, among you people, aside from Wei Xu, who really put their heart into this matter? In the future, when your teacher dies here in the Northern Frontier, that fellow will naturally become the Academy Dean.”

While speaking, the Academy Dean was actually looking at Xie Nandu. In truth, when he accepted this last disciple, he had intended for her to become the next Academy Dean. Who would have thought that this youngest disciple of his might once have had such thoughts, but only for the sake of making her northern expedition smoother. Now that she was already in the Northern Frontier and clearly aiming for the position of Great General, it was even more impossible for her, as a woman, to become the Academy Dean.

Xie Nandu smiled and said, “Senior Brother Zhou would be very suitable as Academy Dean.”

The Dean immediately became annoyed and scolded, “What suitable? That fellow in his early years most liked to twist the saints’ classics. I beat him plenty for it. Now it’s great, he’s become a saint, and I’m no longer at the academy. If he goes on randomly interpreting the saints’ classics, who would still dare say anything?”

Liu Banbi chuckled. The thing he admired most about Senior Brother Zhou was that although he also felt many parts of the sages’ teachings were wrong, he would not directly refute them. Instead, he deliberately twisted the meanings of those sages just to irritate their teacher.

This was something Liu Banbi truly did not dare to do.

In those earlier years, before he had made up his mind to practice the sword, when facing his teacher, Liu Banbi had always gone along with whatever his teacher said.

But Liu Banbi, who had just let out a chuckle, was quickly struck once by the Academy Dean. Liu Banbi covered his head, looking aggrieved. The Academy Dean let out a cold laugh. I may be reluctant to hit Xie girl, but would I be reluctant to hit you?

Liu Banbi silently sighed, only lamenting that he was not born a girl and could not receive a bit more of his teacher’s care.

“You’re about to become a great sword immortal, so remember to protect your little junior sister well and don’t let her be bullied.”

A voice sounded in Liu Banbi’s mind. The Academy Dean glanced at him, his meaning profound. “In the past years, people of the world called martial artists crude and treated them as mud-legged peasants, but when have those martial artists ever held us in high regard? These days I’ve come to the Northern Frontier, I’ve truly seen it clearly. For Great Liang, it is possible to do without us scholars who cling to the saints’ classics, but it is impossible to do without those martial artists who defend the nation. Now your Junior Sister represents us scholars and is doing something for us and for the world. You must protect her well.”

Liu Banbi said somewhat aggrieved, “Teacher, I am also a scholar, and I came to the Northern Frontier early on. Doesn’t that count as me doing something for scholars?”

The Academy Dean glanced at him and raised his hand.

Only then did Liu Banbi hurriedly say through voice transmission, “Alright, alright, sir is right. This disciple will protect Little Junior Sister well.”

The Academy Dean then nodded in satisfaction and changed the topic, asking, “Xie girl, if the demon race launches a full assault on the pass, what are the chances of victory?”

Xie Nandu thought for a moment and gave a very steady answer, “If we rely on the Northern Frontier Great Wall to defend, there is probably only a forty percent chance of victory. If we abandon the wall and fight in the desolate north, the chances are hard to say.”

The Academy Dean became interested and asked curiously, “What do you mean by hard to say?”

Xie Nandu said, “Fighting outside the city depends more on the use of troops. Both sides’ commanders would have to deploy their forces across thirty thousand miles in the desolate north and fight across various battlefields. In terms of combat strength, the demon race naturally has the advantage, but this also creates more possibilities compared to defending the wall. The reason it’s hard to say is that afterward it depends on whether we can firmly seize the opportunities when they appear. If we win several major battles, the balance of victory will tilt, but if we fail to seize those opportunities and are instead defeated several times by the demon race, then the chance of victory will drop to zero.”

Xie Nandu thought for a moment, then concluded, “No matter what, at the beginning of this great war, we should still rely on the Great Wall for defense. It’s like gambling, if your capital isn’t thick enough, you don’t dare to place heavy bets lightly. Once you lose, the countless citizens of Great Liang behind you will all suffer along with it.”

Regarding matters of the battlefield, the Academy Dean, as a scholar, understood some things, but he was destined not to understand as thoroughly as Xie Nandu. This was not only because Xie Nandu had read many military texts, but also because in this world, there are always some people who are exceptionally skilled in certain areas, whether cultivation, studying, or leading armies into battle.

But it seemed that the woman before him was skilled in all of them.

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