Tai Hua lacks any sort of natural talent towards cultivation. As thankful as he is to have an opportunity to cultivate- one that is rarely presented to anyone- it was useless anyway! In the past 4 years, he has managed to break through exactly… two realms! His progress was so pathetic he often thought it would be better if he had stayed in the fields… maybe his natural talent lies in tending to rice paddies.

But ah, he would still give his best effort. As stated before, this was a rarely presented opportunity. Even if he became old and wrinkly, still stuck on a low realm of cultivation, at least he gave it his best effort!... Bullshit. No way in hell would he allow himself to be beaten by juniors! I am Tai Hua, and I will! Become! The! Strongest!

 

Sitting in a lotus position under the haitang tree near the entrance of the HeiMa sect, he tried to cultivate during what free time he had in the wee morning hours before classes and whatnot. 

However, the HeiMa sect is not a particularly large sect, and thus their base of operations was also quite small. It was near impossible for one to try and cultivate in a non-designated area without some intrusions. 

After only about 30 or so minutes of calm, concentrated cultivation, when the sun began to show itself, so did the other disciples. Seeing such a pitiful attempt at cultivation by Tai Hua, the disciples are filled with a sense of schadenfreude. Seeing as none of the elders of the sect have gone outside yet, they approach him.

“Hey, hey, Hua-shixiong! What are you doing?”  Dong NiuGe jeered.

Tai Hua opened one eye slightly to peer at him, and ignored him.

“Ah, cultivation, right? But, why would you wake up so early just for that? After all, there is plenty of time after classes to both cultivate and to practice what we’ve learned! Could it be that there isn’t enough time provided? Would you like me to speak to my uncle about that?” 

Tai Hua knew that NiuGe just wanted a reaction out of him, but despite his best attempts to ignore the jabbering voice, he just couldn’t! 

“Uncle this, uncle that, can you just shut up?” He stood up, annoyed. “Your uncle was only chosen as a sect elder because they needed to make the number 5! He doesn’t even compare to the other 4!” After saying that, he clapped his hand over his mouth. Yep, he’s dead.

Dong NiuGe’s eye twitched slightly at this, but he plastered a smile onto his face. This had been the plan. “Oho? Insulting a sect elder, you sure have the balls!” 

The other disciples had been grouped around the haitang tree, watching the scene unfold with interest. Upon hearing the jab at sect elder Dong ShuangZui, they started whispering amongst themselves. 

Tai Hua: Surely they are gonna report this to the higher ups? Ahaha, if only I weren’t so easily provoked… 

“I didn’t mean to say that, really. It was a slip of the tongue…” he stammered.

“What kind of ‘slip of the tongue’ is so detailed and disrespectful?” Dong NiuGe retorted. “Tai Hua is a worthless orphan talentless rice farmer… whoops! That was a ‘slip of the tongue’!” 

Tai Hua slowly got up from his sitting position under the tree. The disciples whispering amongst themselves got louder as he made this action.

“Are they gonna fight?”

“Seriously, again?”

“I’ve been keeping track since last month! The score is 4-0, NiuGe-shixiong to Hua-shixiong!” 

Both of them glared at the disciple who said this, shutting him up.

Dong NiuGe reached a hand out towards Tai Hua. “Let’s just put this all behind us and get along,” he said in a sickly sweet voice.

Tai Hua hesitated, and then slowly reached out to grab the hand.

Then he lunged. 

Grabbing the collar of Dong NiuGe’s shirt, he pushed the boy back. The disciples behind rushed to the side to not get crushed. 

Dong NiuGe hit the ground, cussing. 

“You bastard! I was just asking for a truce, damnit!” 

“Like hell I believe you!” Tai Hua jumped on top of Dong NiuGe and started pummeling his face. 

Bam, bam. Every hit was payback for a mocking comment, or a random fight started, or… the list goes on. 

 

Alas, it seems they made quite a ruckus. After only a few blows, a sect elder came over to separate the two. 

Said sect elder happened to be Dong ShuangZui.

“Why must you be so senselessly violent so early in the morning?” He addressed this question not to his nephew, but Tai Hua.

“Esteemed elder Dong ShuangZui, Dong NiuGe-shidi had interrupted my cultivation. I attacked him because he had decided to mock me.”

It didn’t matter what he said, since he was obviously the attacker in the situation, but he was hoping for a lesser sentence. Maybe.

Dong ShuangZui heaved a sigh, and stared at him. “Tai Hua, please follow me. And you,” he said to a nearby disciple, “could you bring Dong NiuGe to the infirmary?”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, and picked him up.

The crowd around the haitang tree dispersed. Tai Hua looked up at the sect elder, feeling not a single ounce of shame, but rather anger. Lots of it. 

Dong ShuangZui turned around and motioned for Tai Hua to follow along. He started to head towards the main building of the HeiMa sect. 

 

~~~

 

“It may be frustrating, but please try to control your temper more.” Dong ShuangZui said. 

Tai Hua stared at him. “And…?”

“I will give the same talk to my nephew, but he is even more hot-headed than you are.” He gave a small chuckle. “You two are constantly getting into fights. Us sect elders try to stay out of the conflicts between you disciples, but your petty fights have been getting so out of control and so notorious that even the sect leader is urging us to take action.”

Tai Hua kept glaring at the man, refusing to say a word.

Dong ShuangZui continued, “now, since it was my own nephew who had provoked you, I could punish you harshly. But ah, corporal punishment doesn’t seem to work, does it?”

Tai Hua’s glare weakened. ShuangZui was more understanding than the other sect elders, he almost felt bad for insulting him. 

“How about this- since the injuries on Dong NiuGe were not too severe, you are sentenced to only 2 months of tidying the exterior of the walls. Starting tomorrow, you will wake up 2 hours before the sun’s rising, and sweep and clean right outside of the walls. Does that sound good?”

“En.” Tai Hua replied slowly. Actually, he would have preferred to get beaten- those wounds only last for a week and he can get back to cultivating. Sweeping for 2 hours everyday for 2 months, his cultivation would fall behind by so much… as if he wasn’t already behind.

Dong ShuangZui smiled at him slightly. “I know what you’re thinking, you’ll lose time to cultivate, right?”

Tai Hua was shocked. The very comment that had driven him to attack NiuGe was being suggested to him by the exact guy. 

“I can convince the sect leader to give you a later curfew than the other disciples. Personally,” he folded his hands and rested his head on them, “I like your perseverance. Keep it up, little Hua.”

Oh, I cannot let him find out that I insulted him. 

“Go to classes now. Study hard. You are dismissed.”

 

~~~

 

He was not approached for the rest of the day. Knowing the news had definitely spread to the disciples that weren’t there, he was probably feared as an unhinged person who would beat others at the drop of a hat. Oh well. He’d rather be hated as a scary person than be the butt of everyone’s jokes. 

Actually, he should have snapped sooner. The bullying would have ceased so quickly.

It wasn’t until around noon mealtime that a girl finally approached him. 

“Tai Hua-shixiong, was it?” She asked. 

Tai Hua glared at her through the corner of his eye. Was she suicidal?

“Ehehe, I’m the disciple who delivered Dong NiuGe’s battered body to the infirmary. The name’s An QuanZe.” She picked up her chopsticks as she continued speaking, with no regard to the intense murdery glare, “you got him pretty good. I could count a black eye and a few bruises on his arms.”

She smiled. “It was good to see you finally sticking up for yourself, actually.”

“Do you see me as weak?” He asked under his breath.

“Hm?” 

“It’s just a single black eye and a few bruises. Every other disciple can inflict that much damage and much more.”

She quickly waved her hands. “Nonono, really. That was super cool. You pummeled him hard!”

Tai Hua raised his head and looked at her full on. She looked back, smiling.

An QuanZe was by no means a jade, but her all-natural appearance was still very beautiful, albeit a different brand of beauty. One that comforts the eyeballs.

“You can call me a fan. There’s nothing I love more than seeing people get what they deserve.” 

Tai Hua could feel his face heating up a bit. 

“I see.” He smiled slightly back. “Once I get stronger, I’ll definitely beat up all those who pick on the weak.” 

 

In a good mood, he decided to use the rest of his noon break to take a look at the exterior of the walls. 

As soon as he took a peek out there, his spirits dropped rapidly. It was like a chicken coop that hadn’t been cleaned for years. Leaves, dust, moss, and ferns all cluttered the area where the walls met the floor. And strangely enough, rabbit droppings. There were a lot of them. 

Tai Hua tried to think back to when he first joined the sect. Was it really this bad back then? 

When he first came, it actually looked quite beautiful. Everything was in order, and the grandiose columns of the gate got plenty of “oohs” and “ahhs” from people. However, it was also around the time he came that the former sect’s elders resigned and the current ones stepped up… 

Patrolling the exterior, he found that the rabbit droppings became even more plentiful. What the hell! Is there a farm nearby? We’re on the side of a mountain, what sane person would have a farm on the side of a mountain?!

After about 30 more steps, he finally spotted a rabbit. 

“Hey!” He yelled. The rabbit startled and ran. 

He chased after it, determined to find the origins. If it was a person, then yell at them. If it was a nest, then destroy it!

 

After a chase that lasted around 20 minutes, with Tai Hua almost losing sight of the rabbit several times, he finally arrived at an entrance to an underground cavern. The rabbit had run in, but he hesitated. 

“A cave…?” He dug in his pockets for a light talisman, and grabbed one. Lighting it up so that it was a small ball of light, he ran into the cave. 

The more he walked, the narrower it became. He became tempted to just head back, but at this point, why would he? He’s already walked at least a half kilometer. 

Finally, the walls widened. He arrived in a grand cavern. 

Fishing out another light talisman, he looked around for the rabbit, but it was long gone. 

However, the contents of the cavern shocked him to his core. 

There were tools of cultivation thrown about the cave.

In the center was a stone carved to be shaped like a training dummy. It was crosshatched with intersecting sword marks. Each gash was deep, nearly impossibly deep. 

To the right of the dummy, there were horsetail whisks, sabres, scimitars, and swords thrown all over. To the left, there were incense burners, sticks of incense, and a pile of cultivation manuals and papers.

Not just that, but after recovering from his shock, Tai Hua could feel the energy in the cavern.

There was so much, it felt like he was suffocating. 

A cave of a cultivator…? Why…

He quickly ran around the cavern, looking for an exit, but the only exit around was the tunnel that he had entered from. 

He went to check out the pile of weapons. There were a lot, but upon closer inspection, it seemed that just about every single one was chipped, dull, or worn out in some way. Most incredible, though, was the sheer quality of every single one. Even if dulled or chipped, each weapon could cut through a person as though they were melted butter.

Feeling his heart slowly start to race in excitement, he picked a sword up. This one had a silver glow, and had a name printed on the hilt.

JingPo.

The name was familiar, but he was too excited to take note. Running up to the statue, he swung.

As expected, he made a minimal, barely noticeable scratch. However, he noted, the blade was light and swift. It made a whoosh sound when swung, and it almost sounded like it was speaking to him!

‘Kid…’ 

Dang! This really was cool!

‘Hey, kid…’

The voice felt a bit too real.

‘Kid, do you hear me? Hey…’

Oh. It wasn’t the cave echoing the sound of the sword being swung, the sword really was speaking to him!