The young Patriarch gave a cold snort, raised a finger, and began to tally up his offenses. "You've been at the Grand Academy how many days, and you've already turned it upside down! The scholars of the Scholars' Lodge—you've nearly beaten them all. The houses of the Scholars' Lodge—you've nearly torn them all down! Planting heads in walls, planting people in the ground—do you think I don't know? You knocked down Lingyun of the Directorate in front of the Emperor, and now you've drugged and felled Libationer Bashan's mount! You felled the Hall of Imperial Physicians, and never mind that—you've felled nearly everyone in my Grand Academy! What do you mean to do next? Fell everyone in the capital?"

Shen Mu thought about it, scratched his head, and said, "How big an elixir furnace would it take to refine that much Bewildering Incense... What I mean is, the Bewildering Incense that felled these scholars and Libationers was definitely not refined by me!"

The young Patriarch was speechless with rage. "Then tell me, why did you drug Libationer Bashan's mount?"

Libationer Bashan came over and asked curiously, "Yes, why did you drug my ox?"

Shen Mu blinked and said, "I was playing with it. I meant to... steal some vegetables from the garden. I've been eating too richly these days, so I wanted a change of taste."

Libationer Bashan said suspiciously, "You felled my ox—so why didn't you go steal vegetables, and instead carry it off at a run? Was it the vegetables in my garden you had your eye on, or is my ox your dish?"

"That..."

Shen Mu looked down at the little fox standing in the corner with him; the little fox could find no excuse either.

Bashan was furious. "You can't answer? Then say—how should you be punished? Grand Libationer, he'd barely come up the mountain before he dared to eat my ox, and laid poison besides, nearly doing in every scholar in the Grand Academy. This boy cannot be kept..."

The young Patriarch coughed and said in a low voice, "Bashan, he is the Poison King's disciple..."

Libationer Bashan was startled. "The Poison King? Which Poison King?"

The young Patriarch said quietly, "Which Poison King could it be? The Jade-Faced Poison King, of course. The Divine Physician of Flower Lane who cured the Empress Dowager's illness—that's him. He's peerless at healing and saving lives, and at laying poison he's no worse than Fu Yuanqing of the Imperial Preceptor's residence in Jingping."

Libationer Bashan shuddered, hastily put some distance between himself and Shen Mu, and said with a chuckle, "Since my ox is unharmed, I'll let the matter drop. Grand Libationer, you deal with it."

The young Patriarch's head ached. There was nothing about Shen Mu that was not good—except that he stirred up trouble.

The village headman and the others had raised Shen Mu excellently, and the Patriarch was well pleased; but stirring up the Grand Academy was one thing—if he got to the Dark Demon Cult and stirred them up, that would be truly terrible.

Suddenly the young Patriarch smiled, kind-eyed and benevolent. "I'll be resigning my post in two months, and I can't afford any more blunders. For these two months, could you keep out of trouble?"

Shen Mu nodded, then argued, "The Bewildering Incense that felled the Grand Academy really wasn't refined by me!"

The young Patriarch said with a smile, "And who was it that passed the Bewildering Incense formula out?"

Shen Mu lowered his head.

The young Patriarch summoned Libationer Bashan. "Bashan, come here."

Libationer Bashan stepped forward, and the young Patriarch said with a smile, "For these two months, keep a close eye on him. Once I retire in two months, you can relax."

"Grand Libationer means..." Libationer Bashan leaned close, raised his hand, and made a downward chopping motion, his face questioning.

The young Patriarch looked at him with a half-smile. "You're overthinking. He's a divine physician—he cured even the Empress Dowager's illness, and with a single dose of numbing drug he felled the whole mountain. If you kill him, I'll kill you."

"So it was him!"

Libationer Bashan understood all at once. "I'd long heard a divine physician had come to the capital—I never thought it was this boy. I've no objection to watching him, only that I'm wild by nature and not used to staying on the mountain..."

The young Patriarch said with a smile, "Wherever you go, take him with you."

Libationer Bashan assented.

The young Patriarch let out a breath of stale air. "Don't just stand there—carry these felled scholars and Libationers out and let them get some air."

Shen Mu and Libationer Bashan hurried into the Hall of Imperial Physicians and carried the people inside out.

Most of the Grand Academy's scholars had been felled, and no few men of the Directorate as well. When the Bewildering Incense's potency passed, all of them woke one after another, though their heads were still somewhat muzzy, and for a while they could not fully recover.

The several old imperial physicians of the Hall of Imperial Physicians apologized to everyone, deeply ashamed, yet their admiration for Shen Mu had grown a little more.

Only now did they understand why Shen Mu had made them keep their distance when he gathered up the medicine: the Bewildering Incense's potency was too strong, and Shen Mu, fearing it would leak out, had sent them far away.

And it was for this very reason that they had not seen how Shen Mu gathered the medicine, and so this great disaster had come about.

It was fortunate it was only a numbing drug; had it been a poison that killed on a single breath, then most of Jingping's future elite would have died at one stroke.

Just then, someone suddenly cried out in alarm, "Buddha-Heart, the Buddha's Son, and Great Monk Jingming have left!"