Are These Three Disciples Wasting Time at Shanyai Academy (山崖书院) in Sword of Coming 2 (剑来2)? One Critical Question Silences the Doubters.
In the animated series Sword of Coming 2, the journey of three young individuals—Li Baoping (李宝瓶), Lin Shouyi (林守一), and Li Huai (李槐)—reaches a pivotal moment upon their arrival at Shanyai Academy in the Sui (隋) Dynasty. This institution, led by Mao Xiaodong (茅小冬), a junior disciple of the revered Qi Jingchun (齐静春), is a place of rigorous scholarly pursuit. However, the trio’s initial days are far from welcoming. They find themselves isolated, their behaviors deemed unconventional by the academy’s vice principal. He scrutinizes them not as promising students but as misfits, openly favoring two other disciples, Xie Xie (谢谢) and Yu Lu (于禄), for their refined manners and scholarly potential.
Yet, this assessment, based solely on surface-level observations, overlooks a fundamental truth about the children’s destinies, a truth that a single, sharp retort from the academy’s master will soon lay bare.
Short-Sighted Judgments
The vice principal’s critique begins with Lin Shouyi. He acknowledges the boy’s natural talent but laments his constant truancy. Instead of attending class, Lin Shouyi disappears into the library. The problem, according to the vice principal, is not the act of reading itself but the material he chooses. He devours texts on Daoism exclusively, showing not a single shred of interest in Confucian classics. The vice principal worries this narrow focus, while not advocating for the sole supremacy of one philosophy, will create a shaky foundation for his studies, leading him down the wrong path in life.
When the conversation turns to Li Baoping, the vice principal’s frustration becomes palpable. His face reddens as he describes her habits. She spends her days doodling small figures in the margins of her books, her attention never truly on the lessons being taught. He is convinced her mind is wandering to places thousands of miles away. He points to a well-worn travelogue, its pages frayed from constant handling, as the prime suspect for her distraction. To him, her actions are a clear sign of a student who is not serious, a waste of the opportunity she has been given.
Li Huai presents a different kind of challenge, one that leaves the vice principal almost speechless. He notes with a sigh that Li Huai is, on the surface, a well-behaved child. He never skips class. However, his obedience masks a profound lack of comprehension. He completes his assignments, but the results are a jumbled mess. When he is present in the classroom, he spends the entire time dozing off, his head on his desk, a trail of drool as the only testament to his “attendance.” For the vice principal, these three are not the stuff of scholarly legend, and he is deeply skeptical of their potential.
A Mentor’s Unwavering Faith
Having laid out his case against Li Baoping, Lin Shouyi, and Li Huai, the vice principal expects validation. He has presented what he believes to be irrefutable evidence of their unsuitability for the rigorous academic life at Shanyai Academy. In his eyes, they are distractions, taking up space that could be filled by more deserving students like Xie Xie and Yu Lu, whose composure and apparent dedication to learning seem far more promising. He stands there, waiting for Mao Xiaodong to agree and to perhaps devise a plan to manage these seemingly hopeless cases.
The response he receives, however, is not what he anticipated. Mao Xiaodong, the academy’s master, listens patiently. Then, with a quiet but devastating precision, he poses a single question. He does not defend the children’s current actions, nor does he provide excuses for their behavior. Instead, he shifts the entire framework of the conversation. He looks at the vice principal and the other assembled teachers and asks, “Is it Qi Jingchun who possesses the greater knowledge, or is it all of you sitting here today?” The question hangs in the air, simple yet unanswerable.
In that moment, the vice principal’s criticisms, however factual they may seem, are rendered irrelevant. Mao Xiaodong’s words are a powerful reminder of the authority and foresight of his senior fellow disciple. Qi Jingchun, a figure of immense scholarly and spiritual stature, personally selected these children. To question their potential is, by extension, to question his profound judgment. The message is clear: their duty is not to sit in judgment of Qi Jingchun’s choices but to teach, to nurture, and to trust that the seeds he saw in these children will eventually bear fruit.
The Future They Couldn’t Foresee
The vice principal’s narrow perspective fails to account for the grand tapestry of fate that surrounds the three children. Lin Shouyi, the boy who supposedly lacked a proper academic foundation, will one day become the vice principal of Shanyai Academy himself. His early, obsessive deep-dive into Daoist texts was not a diversion but the forging of a unique intellectual path that would later prove invaluable, making him a pillar of support for Mao Xiaodong.
Li Baoping, the girl who filled her books with doodles and let her mind wander to distant landscapes, is destined for a legacy far greater than a conventional scholar. She will shatter precedent by becoming the very first female Master in the vast and prestigious realm of Haoran (浩然). Her free spirit and uncontainable curiosity, the very traits the vice principal dismissed, were precisely the qualities that Qi Jingchun recognized and cultivated. She was not a distracted student but a mind too expansive for the confines of a traditional classroom.
And Li Huai, the boy who couldn’t stay awake through a single lesson, carries a destiny that is perhaps the most staggering of all. Known to those who understand the deeper currents of the world as the “Heavenly Emperor Li,” he is a true child of fortune, a being around whom the very concept of fate and luck bends. His path was never meant to be forged through tedious homework and lectures. The vice principal, in his focus on the mundane, could not see the extraordinary potential sleeping behind those drowsy eyes. The three were not merely students; they were forces of nature placed under the academy’s temporary care, a fact that Mao Xiaodong, with one simple question, reminded everyone.
