Can a Scholar Be Called a Villain

Chapter 3: Lifelessness Law

Mu Rong Lin quickly arrived at the main palace, travelling undisturbed on a sedan chair. Royal children were considered adults at 18, and not allowed to continue living in the main palace, they were instead sent to a palace to call their own among the 108 palaces in the capital, aiding the emperor in overseeing the country.

Following to the memories in his mind, Mu Rong Lin had quickly found his way to the athenaeum within the inner main palace, which was also the athenaeum of the royal family. It was decorated modestly, surrounded by a bamboo forest on the outside. Bamboos signified the entrusted will and insignia of the Mu Rong clan, it marked the clan’s unyielding tenacity that would never dry up, even for tens of thousands of years, and the bamboo was also the national flag and symbol of Yan.

The guards of the athenaeum were both old men, usually hidden away in the shadows, only appearing to identify visitors that tried to enter the third floor. Both were experts of the Origin Realm, with divine senses that could envelop the entire athenaeum. Mu Rong Lin signalled for his followers to wait outside and entered alone. The moment he entered, the aura of an array swept past him, refreshing his mind.

“I’ve met with the two Gelao¹, this visitor is named Mu Rong Lin.” He stood three steps from the entrance and nodded his head as he spoke before surveying the building.

The books on the first floor mostly consisted of Yellow level cultivation methods, spiritual skills and scriptures, all of which were copied onto paper. Mu Rong Lin walked towards the area with cultivation techniques, scanning the books with his divine sense while discreetly instructing the system to absorb the records. Within just 15 minutes, tens of thousands of Yellow level cultivation methods had been combined with 《Lifelessness Law》, but due to their low quality, it did not improve his cultivation method.

Mu Rong Lin continued towards the second floor, and the books on the floor were no longer made of paper, but jade tablets the size of a thumb. By placing the jade tablets onto one’s forehead, they would be able to study its contents, and its small size made for easy storage, protection and durability.

However, Mu Rong Lin had long become an expert of the Origin Realm, and he could access the information within the jade tablets with his divine senses alone. After 7.5 minutes, Mu Rong Lin had absorbed every single Black level cultivation method within the second floor, finally pushing forwards the evolution of 《Lifelessness Law》.

On the third floor, two figures suddenly jumped out, it was the staid, black-clad old men with white hair.

“Does the third prince wish to enter the third floor? May I know if you have permission?” One of the old men guarding the building asked.

“No, but I recall being granted an opportunity to enter the third floor once that I have not used, isn’t that right?” Mu Rong Lin’s expression remained still as he spoke with his hands behind his back.

“That is correct, but Your Highness the third prince will only have this one opportunity, and you will have to leave after half an hour.”

“Understood.”

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“Please.” The two Gelao made way as they controlled the array to open the entrance to the third floor while a distant voice rang out, “Third prince, please refrain from damaging anything.”

Mu Rong Lin did not respond, and instead walked into the third floor.

The jade tablets within the third floor were less than a hundred times of the tablets on the floor beneath, due to the fact that every single one of the tablets here contained cultivation methods within the lower Earth levels to higher Sky levels, along with a few Earth level remnants of cultivation methods. However, due to the fact that cultivation methods of this kind contained large amounts of information, scanning a single tablet would take a least 5 minutes each, and it was only possible to read up to a dozen books within half an hour.

But Mu Rong Lin already had a plan.

On the first floor, despite the fact that the tens of thousands of Yellow-level cultivation methods were unable to increase the progress of his cultivation, there were a few books that were quite remarkable. This was also the reason why he dared to enter the third floor.

《Sky Earth Net》, 《Glimpse of Reflection 》, 《Fleeting Sword Art》.

In the process of combining with 《Lifelessness Law》, these three books had created a miracle, it was enough to finish reading the hundreds of books here.

And after half an hour, Mu Rong Lin walked out with a pale face.

Old man Bai quickly walked forwards, retrieving a higher Black level “Tonic pill” from his bag of holding and handed it to Mu Rong Lin. Swallowing the pill, Mu Rong Lin circulated his spiritual power to digest the pill and walked towards the sedan chair with a soft voice, “Let’s return.”

Old man Bai scanned the pairs of eyes hidden in the surrounding bamboo forest out of the corners of his sight, and as he followed behind the sedan chair, he spoke, “Your Highness, there are a few spies around.”

“Disregard them.” Mu Rong Lin’s voice rang out from within the sedan chair, “They are most likely sent by my brothers.”

“Yes.” Old man Bai nodded, but couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked, “However, why did your highness choose to enter the athenaeum today and waste that opportunity?”

“There is a flaw in the cultivation……inform those guys to come in the night.” Mu Rong Lin spoke ambiguously, but the old man’s expression changed greatly, becoming extremely pale.

Reluctant to say any more, he followed at the side quietly.

Mu Rong Lin wasn’t afraid of this conversation leaking either, since there were only the two of them here.

That was right, the four strong men carrying the sedan chair were not human, but puppets crafted from life humans.

Within the sedan chair, Mu Rong Lin smiled as he looked at the system window.

“《Lifelessness Law》: Higher Earth level, Creation of higher Earth level skills……”

“Not bad, this Lifelessness Law is really quite interesting, by instilling the cultivations and experience from cultivation methods, I can steal all kinds of cultivation methods for myself, heh. However, it’s too slow, I didn’t expect a third prince like myself to not even have a proper higher Earth level cultivation method, the old emperor that old man and those women around him are too detestable……favouritism, nepotism! One day, I’ll take back everything!” Mu Rong Lin’s expression became vicious, this was the grudge of the previous owner of this body, and it had passed onto him, carving hatred and dissent into his bones.

The current emperor favoured the sixth princess and bequeathed most of the resources to her. While the first prince had the backing of most of the officials in the royal court, the second prince had the backing of the Mu Rong clan, the fourth prince had a wealthy merchant maternal family, the fifth and seventh princes had the support of the army, and even the adolescent eighth prince had the backing of a sect.

Only he did not have any support.

His paternal clan, the Mu Rong clan did not favour him, and only due to the fact his mother, concubine Xue’s clan was not a vessel of the Mu Rong clan, as well as his royal lineage, he was able to obtain some resources. However, as they had their own disciples, they became increasingly arrogant through the years and decreased his allocated resources to the point where it couldn’t even rival a Soul Oblation realm cultivator’s.

He had to fight for his own cultivation resources.

How hateful, how hateful, how hateful!

Mu Rong Lin had two sources of resentment that were left by the body’s previous owner, it was to seize the throne and to exact revenge on the Snow clan.

In the night, Mu Rong Lin sat in his room as Chen Yong reported to him from the side.

“After buying large amounts of medicinal ingredients, he still has a lot of silver? And his childhood sweetheart, is the daughter of a stableman? Hah, isn’t this the template of a protagonist!” Mu Rong Lin laughed after hearing Chen Yong’s report on Zhou Fan.

Zhou Fan was the protagonist he had found today.

And he was also the first protagonist he had found since coming to this world.

Also, he was a protagonist within his palace, who had grudges against quite a few of the guards under Mu Rong Lin.

It seemed that he either had a pill-making old man following him, or he had an artifact capable of making pills at any time.

That made him easier to deal with.

To Mu Rong Lin, the most troublesome kinds of protagonists were the ones that would bring their seniors after losing, and he much rather preferred weeding.

“What’s the origin of that stableman?” Mu Rong Lin asked further.

“None, the five generations of his ancestors were all stablemen, but he only had one daughter in his life, his lineage will regretfully end.”

“Good, scrub his daughter clean and send her to my room.” Mu Rong Lin spoke with a smile, and as the light of the lanterns swayed in his room, Chen Yong felt as though he had seen the devil.

But, this was just the usual behaviour third prince.

“Yes.” Chen Yong cupped his hands and walked out of the study.

Mu Rong Lin clapped his hands together, causing the light within the lanterns to flicker before it continued to sway.

But within this quiet study, two figures appeared in an instant.

They wore blood-red robes, and had pale faces and terrifying eyes, emanating an unstable Origin realm strength from their bodies.

“We’ve met with master.” The two of them spoke with horse voices, bowing respectfully as they did.

“Call me the cult leader.”

“We’ve met with cult leader.” The two bowed yet again, standing at the side with lowered heads.

The tall, skinny man among the two took out a white porcelain bottle from his bag of holding, presenting it to Mu Rong Lin, “Master, this is three Ten Thousand Human Blood pills, our efforts of the past three months.”

Mu Rong Lin glanced at the white porcelain bottle and knocked his hand onto the table, shaking his head, he spoke, “Too slow. Do not continue capturing people for these pills.”

1. Gelao, (阁老), an official post in ancient Chinese governments