Qin Yan immediately tucked his arms and legs into his body, bunching himself up. This would allow him to take a circular shape that would cause the least damage and assure he wouldn’t drop Starlight on Obsidian. The mountain slope was steep, but not vertical, so he just kept rolling. 

"...so the 'misfortune' debuff was real..."

And so a bunched up Qin Yan picked up velocity until his back finally hit a bush, then he slowed.

The ground turned hard and flat when he came to a stop, his eyes still tightly squeezed shut. He was more or less unharmed. If he were to gain too much external damage his body would poof into plant debris and his soul would go back into Starlight on Obsidian to recuperate.

There seemed to be some voices buzzing in his ear, but before he could orient himself he’d been dragged up by the collar. He stared into the face of a man whose features were peeling into a half-grimace. While one of the man’s hands held Qin Yan in the air, the other rested on a sword hilt and was bandaged from the palm downwards.

Qin Yan had landed in another peak’s courtyard. It was lower than Moonstone Peak, so it would have to be Dauntless Peak.  Around him were unknown faces, and they all had sweat on their brows and wooden swords in hand.

Someone asked, “What’s going on?”

“He has purple hair, so it should be Brother Song’s sword spirit that appeared recently.”

Qin Yan mustered his courage by now and interrupted. “Yes. My name is Qin Yan. Sorry, I fell down the mountain into your courtyard.”

“F-fell down the mountain…”

A few faces grew sympathetic, but this excluded the man holding up his collar.

That man said, “I am Master Sun Daiyu’s tenth disciple, Xia Feng. Are you aware that entering another peak and disrupting their martial practice without reason is impolite? Normally it would merit punishment.”

...Qin Yan couldn’t believe this sh*t. From tumbling down the mountain a number of twigs and pebbles were already decorating his hair. Did it look like he did it on purpose?

“I fell,” he replied dryly. “Let me down and I’ll go.”

“You’re clumsy for a sword spirit,” Xia Feng lifted his hand to touch Qin Yan’s sword. “So this is the legendary Starlight on Obsidian. Do you know why it’s called this? ...No matter how evil and savage the opponent the sword will cut through their demonic Qi. Any blood will be soaked up, leaving the blade clean.”

Qin Yan just furrowed his brow. Obviously he already knew that. He hated a stranger touching his sword. This was the renowned ‘side characters are bullied while protagonist is away’ plot. He was tired of tolerating this arbitrary nonsense, people that wouldn’t let him have a moment of peace when he already couldn’t sleep at night. He’d always kept his patience, thinking they would treat him at least a little respectfully. But he was a weak plant beast that looked like a child, so it was probably only Song Heqing who would take him seriously. 

His temper was flaring.

“So if I’m a little creature to everyone, then I can act like one.”

Clutching Xia Feng’s wrist, Qin Yan struggled for freedom until finally biting into his hand. He punctured the skin underneath the bandage and red dots stained the white cotton gauze.

Xia Feng flinched and threw Qin Yan’s body to the ground. Unfortunately, Starlight on Obsidian was still in his grasp.

“Huh? What happened?” exclaimed a disciple. The others appeared equally confused. 

Xia Feng flexed his bloodied hand and scowled at Qin Yan. “It seems that Brother Song neglected to teach you civility!”

Everyone else had gone near silent. Qin Yan felt their eyes judging him, but he just stood up and said,

“Return my sword.”

Xia Feng gave a sneer. “Your sword…? Can a feral spirit be trusted with a weapon? You’ve already attacked me.”

“This is too much…" A nearby female disciple had spoken up. "He’s just a child, and attacked you because you've frightened him. You should give the sword back.”

She had a scar down her cheek that made her appearance somewhat distorted. Qin Yan stared at her, feeling as though he'd seen her face before, then widened his eyes in realization. It was Huiliang Wen. 'He' really did look like a girl, and anyone who might see his adam’s apple would instead have their attention stolen by the realistically fabricated scar.

“How is this plant beast a child?” said another mockingly. “A spirit can look however they want. For all we know it could be a seventy year-old grandpa.”

Huiliang Wen frowned slightly. “I saw him other day, and Qin Yan is harmless. He even has trouble running.”

Huiliang Wen wasn't referring to when they first met at the hot spring. He was referring to the time Qin Yan watched Bai Lian’s duel, which in turn allowed Qin Yan to understand something else; The System gave him a special mission to make a fool out of himself, and the ‘girl’ who scooped him off the courtyard to save him at the time had been Huiliang Wen. Qin Yan didn’t look at his face because he’d been too humiliated, but their voices were the same.

Now, Huiliang Wen was defending him. 

The system’s ‘special mission’ made him appear more harmless and naïve…which was benefiting him.

In the meantime, various conversation had broken out about Qin Yan until Xia Feng raised a hand to quiet them. He glanced to Huiliang Wen who’d spoken up.

“Since my shimei¹Younger disciple sister. Xia Feng clearly thinks 'he's' a 'she' requested it, I can let him off. That is, as long as Brother Song’s sword spirit can kneel and apologize for disrupting our martial practice and harming me.”

Xia Feng proceeded to dangle the sword at a height far too high for Qin Yan to reach, his thin eyes crinkling smugly.

Qin Yan clenched his hands and took a breath to calm himself. He was not going to apologize.

Huiliang Wen was about to speak up again, but there was a slight whoosh, and two pairs of boots landed in front of Qin Yan. The surrounding crowd cupped²Just a form of greeting/respecttheir hands hastily.

Xia Feng lowered Starlight on Obsidian to his side. “What brings the esteemed senior-disciples to our Dauntless Peak?”

Bai Lian was glaring, and it seemed everyone besides Xia Feng took a step back.

“Did I hear right?" she frowned ferociously. "It sounded as though brother Xia had a bone to pick with my shidi³Usually Bai Lian has used 'little Qin', but in this case she is being more serious and calling Qin Yan as her younger disciple brother?”

Cui Luoyang stood behind her, one knee lazily crooked and spinning a silver knife in his fingers. 

“Brother Xia must be trying to offend our Moonstone Peak.” 

Qin Yan was dusting off his robe and thinking that he wanted his sword back.

No matter what, Xia Feng was only a recently accepted disciple of Lord Sun, while Bai Lian and Cui Luoyang were inner disciples of Su Zemin, he had no say here. Offending another peak wasn’t something done over trifles, either.

Xia Feng scowled and gave an excuse as flaky as a vanilla biscuit.

“I certainly have no intention to offend Moonstone Peak. It was just that Junior Qin interrupted our practice and even lashed out at me, so I found this behavior problematic…”

Bai Lian crossed her arms and spoke ruthlessly.

“I know your face! Isn’t it that my junior-brother Song defeated you in a dual a few weeks ago⁴This was the random opponent SH fought in ch. 'buying clothes'!!? You’re just giving him a hard time!”

Xia Feng said, “That’s not the case, he-”

“If you want to fight, then I can oblige you! I’m going to submit an official challenge.” 

Xia Feng gave her a look of loathing as his hand tightened its hold over Qin Yan’s sword. Of course he didn’t want to dual her and get his legs broken. Nevertheless, when his intentions were so openly exposed he couldn’t form a reply. 

The courtyard was still, no one making a peep.

Qin Yan stared at Bai Lian and Cui Luoyang. He walked around their figures and in front of Xia Feng, then held out his arms.

“Return my sword already!”

Xia Feng was practically gnashing his teeth. “You dare—”

“Give it a rest,” Bai Lian said, “Lord Sun hates underhandedness like this the most.”

Cui Luoyang suddenly turned into a traitor, staring at Bai Lian with a devious expression. “Huh? How do you know that? You sound very close with Lord Sun to claim these things.”

Bai Lian went beet red. “I, I, what I know is none of your concern.”

“Could it be that every week your visit Lord Sun, something else happens besides you being thrown out of her mansion? Whoa, and to think I believed you must be on the verge of being banned from Dauntless Peak…”

Bai Lian firmed her brow but her facial color was still betraying her. “Shut it!”

“…” Xia Feng knew the whole situation was a lost cause. He finally relinquished the sword to Qin Yan, and with an 'I’ll excuse myself!' flicked his sleeves and stormed away.

Qin Yan hugged his sword to his chest, heart thumping wildly. He stared at the back of Xia Feng with more than a bit of ire until he noticed a weed growing in the crack of a stone…an opportunity is an opportunity, someone said somewhere. Qin Yan stirred his Qi and twitched his fingers.

The weed in the crack came alive. It stretched out and half-wrapped around Xia Feng’s ankle, and he nearly tripped. Everyone saw him stumbling inelegantly, but couldn’t see the small weed that moved. A couple people suppressed a laugh.

“Hey,” said a random disciple, “Junior Qin, we didn’t mean to offend you!”

Now several others also said the same. “Yeah, yeah. It’s just that elder brother Xia likes to be in control of things, so if we spoke up then he’d make things difficult for us later…”

But Qin Yan didn’t pay any of them attention. He didn’t like how they changed tune so fast, and now he had to worry that the cannonfodder-ish Xia Feng would get revenge later. Qin Yan frowned, everyone’s eyes following him as he paced away without a word.

Eggplant mood: Embittered.

“Little Qin, wait up!” Bai Lian came up behind him, “You didn't get hurt, did you?”

Qin Yan only furrowed his brow further and walked towards the stairs with every intention to climb back up to the garden by himself. These two helped him out of trouble, but so what? They were also the direct cause of the trouble.

“Hey~ ” she cooed with insistence, “Let me check and see that you’re okay?”

“No thank you.” Qin Yan was cold. He continued, “From now on, it’s okay if neither of you come to check on me every day. I’m staying in the garden until Song Heqing gets back.”

Bai Lian audibly sucked in her breath. “But…but I’ve not done your hair in all the ways I planned yet.”

“No thank you.”

“You’re angry?” Bai Lian deflated. “Sorry about that Xia Feng, not many at Dauntless Peak are so petty. But it’s also the way of things. I mean, you’ll always end up meeting a distasteful person somewhere. What matters is forcing them to regret being alive!”

Qin Yan began to go up the stairway, and now Cui Luoyang gave a half sigh and stepped in front of him.

“It’s me who planted the caterpillars, I found them down the mountain yesterday and couldn’t resist. If a little joke offended you so badly, then just go and tell on me to Song Heqing later.”

Cui Luoyang got elbowed hard by Bai Lian.

Qin Yan faltered, then said, “I’ve tolerated it until now, but I am I not a pet. Your behaviors prevent me from properly cultivating in the garden. I won’t make any progress like this, and I think it’s reasonable that I ask you to stop.”

And so, Qin Yan had calmly scolded the two of them. They were both momentarily stunned.

“You have a point," said Cui Luoyang. 

Bai Lian snapped, “Shouldn’t you at least apologize?!”

"Words like 'sorry' are too flimsy." Cui Luoyang removed a white-green stone out of a pouch on his belt, similar to the one Bai Lian had given Qin Yan in the past. "To make peace, nothing’s better than a simple exchange. Really, I didn't think you'd react so horribly to a few worms, and I planned to give you this afterwards. It's worth a lot of money...”

Bai Lian was about to punch him. "You don't need to boast!"

Qin Yan was still frowning, but he really wanted to eat that stone. He'd run out of wood essence stones over a week ago.

Cui Luoyang sort of brought it closer to Qin Yan's mouth like he was feeding a koi fish, and without really thinking Qin Yan snatched it out of his fingers and ate it. His cheeks reddened with bliss at the flavor.

"Mnnnn..."

Qin Yan felt a little revitalized and gave it some thought. Was this vacuous feeling he had hunger? Always getting tired, always being annoyed. But it wasn’t like hunger he felt when he was alive or itchy like when he was a demon. It was like seeing an empty box or storage container, one would feel that something should be put inside it. That was what he currently felt like, an empty cardboard box.

Those familiar words suddenly blared...

__

SPECIAL MISSION—Beg for food from Moonstone Peak disciples—

__

__

"..." Qin Yan was actually tempted. Isn't this the perfect time to do so? He didn't know if there would be another time that these two ruthless people would feel a smidgen of guilt for him. In the end, the 'special missions' were helping him...

Bai Lian and Cui Luoyang were somewhat concerned at his sudden silence. 

"So...want to go back to the garden now?" Bai Lian asked. 

Qin Yan stared up at them with big eyes, using his innate power of cute eggplant-harmlessness to the best of his ability.

With as much innocence as he could muster, he said, “…I’m hungry.”

Amarathia

Oh, did I mention this was the training arc? ...it didn't seem like a training arc, you say? I mean when has Qin Yan ever powered up besides eating? Eggplant must regain his power! (ahahaha not like it was more of a subtle mental shift of QY becoming more confident in himself). Next chapter Friday. 

Extra: Life advice on 'How to deal with enemies'.

Song Heqing: Patiently plan for the right moment to bring their life to ruin.

Bai Lian: Smash their skull in the moment you see them.

Cui Luoyang: Be clever, kill them and still make it look like you're the victim.

Qin Yan: These viewpoints are all similar?? You guys are scary...