Baby steps. Baby steps.

Yin hu sighed in contentment. These were moments when he could reaffirm his resolve. It may not be much but it meant progress towards his ultimate goal; living in luxury around buxom and beautiful women.

He shifted the large brimmed hat he wore and placed it in a more comfortable position. The sky was cloudless and the sun’s rays were relentless. But combined with a slight breeze, it was perfection personified.

Then to add onto everything were the softest and most gratifying clothes he ever wore. They were a long robe that felt more like clouds than actual fabric. Ostentatious and quite possibly reeked of too much wealth, but there was no way in hell would he return to using normal clothes.

They grated and scratched at his skin. His ultimate goal was to live in comfort and not suffer from normal wool and cotton clothes! Even silk felt weird on him.

That wasn’t mentioning how he could feel the sweat and grimy feeling disappear off his body. A light wind would rush though his robes and he would be as clean as can be. A unique fragrance that accentuated his clothes was also apparent.

Not overpowering, but perfectly complimenting his style.

Yin Hu sighed again.

“Hyah!” Hu Shui shouted at the top of her lungs. “Hyah!”

Baby steps, James. Baby steps!

He closed his eyes shut and tried to drown out Hu Shui’s attempts at sounding like a martial artist. Her kung fu shouts seemed to be timed at every moment he became comfortable with her rhythm. And never in a consistent tempo.

“Again.” Hu Xinyi instructed.

Hu Shui whined like a kid told to do their homework. “My arms hurt, Xinyi. I don’t want…”

There was a long pregnant pause. Yin Hu could already imagine Hu Xinyi giving Shui a death stare that brokered no debate. Always the strict taskmaster, he noticed. Never had she quartered dissent.

Yin Hu wondered if she had, if momentarily, been part of a military. It would make sense with how hard she pushed Shui with all the cultivation and practice fighting. They even had a battered and nearly useless dummy they used to work on their swordsmanship…using sticks.

He learned that Xinyi did not actually have a blade, rather carried around a sharpened wooden sword she had supposedly kept since they escaped the Hu family estate so long ago. It boggled his mind that she could cut so effortlessly with a tool not made to actually do that.

The thought of what she would be able to do with a real sword…

She would be a beast.

He even had the perfect blade for such a vicious girl. It was like they were a match made in heaven. The ‘WorldBane - Thin Eviscerating Grass Blade’ sounded something only a serious mega-villain would carry around. It wasn’t as strong as his spear, but that could be said about all weapons he had ever been rewarded with.

There were clear tiers and levels to weapons. His ‘DragonsWrath’ was the pinnacle with no other coming close even with their awe inspiring names and looks. Next were a stage below. He didn’t know what to call that level, but they all had the same feeling to them.

They had depth, as though souls inhibited their cold steel forms. Filled with purpose and power. He had played with many swords and spears in his time. They almost sang long tunes respective to them every time he swung them in the air.

Guess now was a better time than never. It would do good for her to get used to her new overpowered sword before she messes up and cuts her leg off without noticing.

That led to his next point. The system had integrated them, which meant he would always be connected to the swords. Their spirits were his to call upon, and he would allow others to wield them.

He could, if it ever came to it, deny her the very source of the sword's power. It might end up with the weapon being wrecked beyond repair, but that alternative was unacceptable. It was distasteful, but his survival was the most important thing.

“Xinyi.” He called without looking up from his lounging seat. He snapped his finger and a sword of cold steel appeared. A green tint marred its inscripted steel blade. A brown pummel completed the visage of deadliness.

Both Xinyi and Shui stopped their tasks and stared. Even in the sunlight, it was bright enough to cause a change in the courtyard.

Yin Hu felt a slight breeze, comfortable and nearly perfect, run through him. As though it was a lovers embrace.

Hu Shui could not tear her eyes off the spirit of the sword. A thin noble lady that stood as tall as her ancestor, even with his prodigious height. The spirit stood behind his lounged form, surveying the world around it.

“It has been ages, Master.” It whispered, fingers grazing his skin.

It spoke to her ancestor. But he did not respond.

This spirit was different. The coldness of its gaze sent chills down her spine. Unlike the dragons, who simply could not care about her and any person that was not worthy of their master, the lady spirit had the aura of relishing their final cries of suffering.

“Xinyi.” Her Ancestor called, waving her cousin forward.

Hu Shui looked at her pale guardian, friend, and most important, family. Hu Xinyi could not see the spirits as she did. She was oblivious to the might of what stood before her. That green aura was not the blades, but rather the sheer power of the spirit’s mere existence.

She had manifested and the world changed.

Green and lush grass began to grow at the edges of the courtyard. The dead ground below them, that had been stomped into hard packed dirt from all the martial practice, became fertile and ready to be planted with.

“Twenty seven thousand years. That was the last time you had called me out. Used me as you deemed fit. Swung me in the air as your mate.” It hugged him. Tears dripped down its face.

Xinyi kneeled before their ancestor. Even her closed inner eyes could understand that this blade was not simple. It was an honor few would ever claim to have wielded. Many spirits, wandering the forests she visited, had sworn by their greatest ancients. Beings so powerful, if summoned properly they would ravish this realm.

Hu Shui knew she stood before one.

Her ancestor sat up. Held the sword with both hands carefully.

“Xinyi. What I hold in my hand is a masterwork. A sword meant to bring the death of those far more powerful than your imagination could conceive…”

“Praise me more, Master!” The Spirit cooed.

He continued. “Its spirit could not be contained in a sheath, hence you must wield it with utmost care–” he snapped his finger and a green cloth appeared in his hand. “Wrap it with this, and never uncover its blade unless it is a situation of life and death. Do you understand?”

Xinyi nodded. She couldn’t even utter a word, choking up on her emotions.

The spirit held the cloth with a loving smile and took a deep smell of it. It sighed in contentment. With a gust of wind, it wrapped itself into the green cloth in a tight bundle with only the pommel visible.

“Little girl.” It said, Hu Shui knew it was speaking to her. “Make sure this bitch doesn’t latch her filthy claws on my master. She would only die a most painful death.” It giggled, the voice fading away.

Shui shivered at the cold piercing breeze that seemed to nip at her ears. A threat of unstoppable vengeance. But, even this monster dared not question her Ancestor. His word was law. His commands to never be questioned, just acted upon without hesitation.

It never once asked why it was being given to Xinyi, its gargantuan ego was nowhere to be seen.

She could trust that the spirit would never harm them or cause harm to Xinyi lest her ‘master’ would find her unloyal or unfit to serve. That would shatter its essence.

Hu Shui wondered if she would ever get one too. The thought of begging her ancestor seemed like a good option the longer she thought about it. Maybe she would get a spirit she could play with?

She had so few friends.

WalkingWreckingCrew