3. The Fallen Star of Wendian (3)
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All Xu Jian knew was that he had done a great job with his destruction.

He had to be patient with his harassers. To be perfectly honest, if he could, he would also beat the original goods senseless. Allowing people to vent their grievances onto him was an act of great kindness. So when a disciple tossed a bucket of water over his head, soaking him, he didn't react.

Xu Jian saluted, did his best to identify who he was speaking to, and realized, with a frown, “I ejaculated in your soup because you left it unattended. I thought it would be funny.”

[100 POINT]

The disciple punched him in the stomach.

Xu Jian had never been struck this hard, in both lives, and the shock only amplified the pain. He dropped to the ground gagging.

“Even though you got out of being punished, you're still like this, huh?” The disciple spit.

“This lowly one was punished severely,” Xu Jian said politely. He bowed his head to exaggerate his deference. He was impressed it took this long for someone to hit him, and had long since prepared for it to happen.

“If you were really punished severely, they would have given you at least a single lash. You call this punishment? You were spoiled from the start.”

Xu Jian raised his eyes. Despite the tremble, his gaze was clear and direct. He didn't want to cause trouble, but the man in front of him had a large mole on the left-hand size of his chin, big enough that it had been commented on in the novel. His lips parted, and he spoke a little sharper.

“I don't remember many things. Many truths I have to tell as generically as possible because I forgot who was involved. But I remember you. I remember that you tormented Lai Mingliao worse than I did. It was because you tormented him I felt that if I acted, there definitely would be no problem. If I received 100 lashes, then you should receive 50, yes?”

[100 POINT]

The disciple struck him across the face.

The sect leader seemed to materialize out of nowhere, before Xu Jian even hit the ground. His expression was stormy, and Mole Disciple shrunk at the sight of him. The sect leader scooped the disciple up in a flurry of robes, leaving Xu Jian lying there, reeling over his newly bruised jaw. The water lapped comfortingly by his head. Today, he thought, was not a day for hard work.

He slid off the edge of the walkway into the river, and began his awkward trip back to his shack through the weight of his clothes. It was an annoyance to tread water like this, but it was more of an annoyance to constantly look over his shoulder to see if anyone was coming. Most people didn’t notice him sliding along the stone platforms of the bank, and he could always duck underneath the bamboo piers where no one could get at him.

He pulled himself up on the walkway in front of his home with a grunt and tried squeezing his sleeves out before pausing.

The sect leader was waiting for him. Xu Jian blinked up curiously.

“Xu Jian,” he whispered in a voice that was soft, intimate, and filled with grief. Xu Jian continued to blink. If he wanted to play the father figure, they should have been living together, and Xu Jian should have been chastised properly for every mistake. He wasn't even a good mentor figure. It's why he was next to die after Xu Jian.

A minute passed without conversation, and Xu Jian's patience with the man evaporated. He simply bowed his head and saluted. When the sect leader lingered, he slipped back into his house.

Things seemed to be getting worse. Luckily, there was a subplot waiting to pick him up.

 

 


 

 

The stillness of the Celestial Mirror river was the result of some natural spiritual energy flow; something related to the way energy gets intense in mountaintops? Xu Jian wasn’t a fan of worldbuilding and couldn't be certain. The point was that it was good for cultivators.

In just trousers, Xu Jian waded out into the middle of the river. He had roughly written out what he remembered already, and didn’t need to risk a trip into the woods. Satisfied in his location, he drifted onto his back, and tried meditating.

He could feel the current of the energy infused in the river just like Path of Wind let him feel the current of the air, and his existing cultivation talent let him feel the current through his meridians. They were all the same principle.

He had been diligently experimenting with this for the past few days. Because he had no familiarity with cultivation, he needed this much reinforcement to learn anything. If he didn’t live on the river and didn’t have Path of Wind to help…

‘You’ve really spoiled me with this one, System,’ he commended.

The System didn’t answer; it wasn’t prone to chitchat.

He let his own energy mingle with the river. In the novel, this was how Lai Mingliao cultivated, as none of the Wendian elders would help him catch up with the others. It didn’t help with combat, but it was how he escaped the river rapids despite his injuries.

But the original goods wasn’t lagging with building up his spiritual core, and Xu Jian had his own power. His specs were, as usual, higher than the protagonist.

He controlled his breathing, and soon the air mixed with the current. He felt one with the stillness. Then, careful not to disturb the flow, he tilted himself forward.

His body sank into the chilly waters. His focus shifted to the flow of air above, and then back down again to his breathing.

His head was underwater, but the air slid through the water to pass into his lungs.

His first real usage of Path of Wind! Breathing underwater!

It was simple to learn because of how placid the surface was. Because the wind couldn't disturb the water, everything felt cleanly divided. It was simple to understand the difference between air flow and water flow.

This way, he could sink all the way to the bottom of the river with a full air supply, like a diver!

He wouldn’t, though. It was much too cold.

He began his usual exercises of swimming around and doing flips in the water, generally enjoying himself. It was the only recreation he's had since he arrived, if he didn't include thievery.

He had occasionally thought about it, but actually being attacked reminded him he had been enduring a lot since he arrived. It hadn't registered because none of the incidents struck him as very distressing. Xu Jian had no idea how to identify high stress and low stress, so being in a situation this bad was dangerous for his health.

Xu Jian was confident enough in his rudimentary skills that just leaving was now on the table. However, leaving on his own was unsafe for a person who used to be Xu Jinyue, Public Menace. He'd need to rely on a dashing rescue by the perfect subplot. If it didn't work...well, the attempt would kill him, so it was fine.

He popped back up to the surface and raised his hand, pulling at the flow of energy. Then he slapped the water. The ripples of his body's spiritual energy clashed with the pressure of the wind, creating an impressive white spray.

He did it a few more times, making it reach farther with each impact. He didn't know how to unleash the flashy energy attacks from the novel, so this was his only way of doing something conspicuous.

On the farthest-reaching impact, a dark figure shot up from the water into the night sky, then slipped in the water so smoothly it didn't even leave a ripple.

Xu Jian stared for a moment, then continued.

Because he was carefully keeping track of the river's flow, he could sense the progress of the figure through the water. Sensing energy was an unusual feeling, even if it came to this body naturally. He could feel how each impact made the figure stop, and how it continued after the water settled.

It was studying what he was doing.

Xu Jian raised his hand to strike the water again, and there, right in front of his face, was a pair of pitch black eyes in a mottled grey face.

He froze. The head, submerged to the nose, drew closer. It seemed to slide through the water like it wasn't there, but Xu Jian could feel what this person was doing; like a water strider, they were clinging to the flow of spiritual energy and using it to move instead of swimming. Because the water was still, their position in the water was rigid.

Their long, silky black hair trailed after them as they neared. Xu Jian kicked urgently in the water to expose more of his upper body to open air - which was annoying to do while wearing loose trousers - and gave the ghoulish figure a polite salute.

An equally mottled hand snapped out and grabbed him by the hair.

“Ow,” he said.

They lifted the hair up to the light from the distant pier. Then they lowered it, waiting.

Xu Jian looked from the hand to its owner, also waiting.

They relinquished his hair and tread backwards, still inspecting him. Xu Jian remained patient, eyes wide and understanding.

Finally, the figure slipped back under the surface of the water, and Xu Jian could sense it slip through the current deep down on the riverbed.

Well, that's that. Subplot secured. He’d be gone by the end of the week!

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