He breathed a thorough sigh of relief. Though the Five Luminaries realm circulation diagram still had one flaw, it was at least good enough for cultivation, and he would no longer be courting qi deviation at every turn.

"There is still some time before the Grand Academy's term begins. I should make a trip back to the Rain-Listening Pavilion and bring Xue Hu'er here. And I promised that I would keep treating the people of Flower Lane."

Shen Mu left his dwelling and headed out, and at once saw a crowd of scholars coming his way.

The quarter in which he lodged was set apart from the divine-power practitioners; it was the dwelling place of scholars at the Spirit Fetus and Five Luminaries realms. All scholars of the Grand Academy below the Six Harmonies realm lived here. With the academy's term opening, many scholars of earlier classes had returned from distant parts. They had entered years before Shen Mu, and their cultivation was deep, but so long as they had not broken through to the Six Harmonies realm, they lodged here still.

Each year the Grand Academy allotted ten places to scholars of the primary schools. For such a scholar to break through to the Six Harmonies realm within three to five years was very hard to achieve, and so the number of primary-school scholars in the Grand Academy was not small.

As these scholars passed Shen Mu, one of them looked him over and said, "Junior brother, I hear a castoff from the Wasteland has come into the academy. Do you know where he lodges?"

Shen Mu started. "What business has senior brother with that castoff?"

The scholar said, "A castoff is a base commoner fit only for slavery. Who would have thought the Emperor would let a castoff become a scholar of our Grand Academy — it debases us all. When we heard of it, we burned with indignation, and we mean to make him withdraw before the difficulty, and not remain in the Grand Academy. If he stays, what face have we left?"

Shen Mu's eyes flickered. "So that is it. I have seen that castoff before; he lodges nearby. Shall I lead you there?"

The dozen or so scholars were delighted, bowing and smiling. "We are obliged to you, junior brother!"

"You are too kind, senior brothers."

"I too come of a great name, of a powerful clan," Shen Mu said, "and yet I study alongside a castoff — I am so ashamed I could wish to dig a hole and crawl into it. By the way, my surname is Shen."

"The surname Shen?"

The scholars were all astonished, and one of them said courteously, "So you are a brother of the Shen family. The Shens of the capital are indeed a great and illustrious house; to study beside a castoff truly shames your door. The Shen family has produced many fine generals, a whole household of loyalty and righteousness. Though I entered the academy two years before you, I would not presume to call myself your senior brother; let us address each other as brothers."

Another scholar laughed. "My father works a mine at Tiger-Tread Mountain. Every year he has several hundred castoffs shipped in, bought from the frontier passes; several hundred die each year, and he has no choice but to keep buying. Heh — who would have thought I would end up studying in the same academy as a castoff? If my father knew, he would fly into a fury and say I keep company with slaves."

A young woman said, "I heard of this matter too. The Emperor seized the occasion to rap the officials' knuckles, and letting a castoff into the Grand Academy carries as well the intent of swallowing the Wasteland. If he acknowledges the castoffs as subjects of Jingping, does he not thereby acknowledge that the Wasteland too is Jingping's soil? Only the Emperor did not think it through: by putting a castoff into the Grand Academy, he overlooked the feelings of scholars such as us."

Shen Mu walked with the scholars to the far end of the Scholars' Lodge, chatting all the way. Near the end there was only one courtyard, quiet and secluded. "Senior brothers," Shen Mu said with a smile, "this is where the castoff lodges. Wait here a moment."

He went up and knocked. After a moment the courtyard gate opened, and from behind it poked a round face. Seeing Shen Mu, it started slightly, then smiled. "Brother Shen..."

Shen Mu pushed the gate open and went in; the others filed in after him and jostled that plump-bodied scholar into the middle of the courtyard.

Shen Mu shut the courtyard gate and shot the bolt, his face as still as water. "By the way, senior brothers — does the Grand Academy permit killing?"

The scholars were all taken aback. One of them laughed despite himself. "Brother Shen, we only mean to teach this castoff a lesson and drive him out of the Grand Academy. What need is there to kill? If we killed him, we would all be expelled from the Grand Academy. A beating will do!"

Shen Mu was somewhat displeased, and said sullenly, "So many rules in the capital. You cannot even kill at will. In our Wasteland, kill a dozen people and no one asks a question..."