‘I’m a sword! Ehehe!’

Even without a physical form, Tai Hua could tell that the sword was doing a half-assed impression of a loli. He said nothing in reply.

After an awkward silence, the sword finally spoke again.

‘What’s your guess?’

Tai Hua thought it over.

“Fu Xing, right? That’s my first guess.”

‘It’s too obvious, isn’t it?’

Tai Hua couldn’t refute that.

Fu Xing was said to have mysteriously disappeared shortly after the forging of the sword, and the causes were relatively unknown.

    After forcing the sword, Fu Xing found the sword to be filled with many disdainful voices after the forging. Apparently, he tried to communicate with the spirits that appeared to be trapped in the sword, the cause being the high concentration of vengeful ghosts in San mountain somehow attaching themselves to the ore.

Anyhow, it could be said that the sword was very, very cursed.

Although the sword was very powerful, it depended on dead human spirits, which made it nigh unusable in an era of peace. At least, legally. As such, the sword ended up just sitting in storage, being something of a collectors item: Dead Spirit Sword, Low Mileage! 

Despite this, Fu Xing still tried to use it, but after sitting in storage for so long, along with sitting near Fu Xing’s other very cursed, Not For Sale items, it was said a tragedy occurred. The details are muddy, because more people know him by name, and not in person, but everyone could agree it had to do with the sword, JingPo.

“What exactly happened for you to get trapped- or whatever it is?” Tai Hua inquired.

‘It’s a long story.’ 

The more Tai Hua thought about it, the funnier it got. Fu Xing had a reputation for being cocky and underhanded, so it was a sort of retribution for him to end in such a stupid way.

Still, even if Fu Xing was a kind of person everyone hates, he was extremely powerful. Tai Hua thought, it would be a good idea to learn from him, wouldn’t it? He’s quite knowledgable.

Just then, the disciple in the bed next to Tai Hua turned over to face him.

“Why aren’t you asleep yet? Go to sleep! Stop talking to yourself.” He loudly whispered, clearly pissed.

“Calm down, Cheng’En.” Tai Hua whispered back. 

“What a madman,” he grumbled sleepily. 

Tai Hua waited a bit for Cheng’En to fall asleep, before finally saying, “I have the whole night. Take your time, honourable daozhang.”

He said this, but was greeted with only a silence. Fu Xing probably doesn’t take well to sarcasm.

But it was alright that he didn’t get a response. He had to rise early the next day anyway, there’s no time for complicated backstories told by the world’s most unreliable narrator.

~~~

The sun wasn’t even up yet, and the crickets were still incessantly chirping. Everyone is asleep. What kind of person would wake up at such an unreasonable hour after barely getting any sleep?

Tai Hua dragged himself out of bed, inwardly crying about his sentence. Dragging himself off his bed, he swore to hunt and eat every rabbit alive for making his job so much harder. Speaking of which, he never really uncovered the secret behind why there were rabbits on this part of the mountain. Maybe he could ask Fu Xing about it. 

Lifting up the straw mat, he groggily whispered, “rise and shine.”

‘I’ve been awake this whole time. Dang, you people really snore.’

He grabbed the sword-disguised-as-random-mass-of-fabric and a broom from the storage shed and got to work, diligently sweeping the dust, droppings, leaves, and stone from the area just where the wall meets the ground to about a foot away.. That bastard ShuangZui never specified how clean it had to be, right?

 It was mundane as hell. 

Not just that, it was also dark and cold. And if that cricket kept chirping so incessantly loudly, Tai Hua would seriously break the broom over his knee.

“Hey, Fu Xing. Tell me about the Mu Qi breathing or whatever you called it.”

‘Oh, you actually want to learn it now? Why don’t you give me a reason why I should teach you, hm?’

This guy really had the nerve- right after he was begging so much last night as well!

Tai Hua put down the broom, and slowly walked over the the cliffside edge. Kicking a pebble down for dramatic effect, he said, “I mean, you have a point. Cultivating with such immoral techniques is beyond me. As for you… I don’t really have a use for you or JingPo anyway. Walking a righteous path is more my thing.”

He flashed a toothy grin. He didn’t know if Fu Xing could actually see in his current state, but still.

‘Alright, alright. Chill. Don’t actually drop me.’

Tai Hua moved away from the cliffside edge.

‘And just because my methods aren’t considered “righteous” doesn’t mean they’re bad!’

Look whose entire weirdo cultivation techniques and tools backfired on them! But Tai Hua was sure that even if he did use such techniques, he wouldn’t fall that hard. After all, he already had a prime “bad example” right in front of him.

“Hit me with it, then!”

There were several methods of cultivation, all with two goals- strengthening the body beyond a typical human’s, and eventually reaching immortality. 

At a lower level, it was more important to strengthen the body and make sure you don’t somehow screw up at a higher level- case in point, Tai Hua. His foundation was so weak that Fu Xing was grumbling, insisting on just destroying and rebuilding his spiritual core in hopes that it would be more solid.

Tai Hua refused. That was beyond dangerous, and Fu Xing didn’t even have a human form. If anything happened, Tai Hua was beyond dead.

So to compensate the weak foundation, Fu Xing told Tai Hua to just absorb as much energy as possible using the Mu Qi breathing technique. 

Fu Xing, ‘It’s like working out, but with your spirit core. Just try not to explode or something.’

Tai Hua. “Wonderful, I wasn't planning to.”

Just like that, Tai Hua went from diligently sweeping to sitting in a lotus pose near the haitang tree, concentrating on taking in the qi energy that it constantly expelled.

Feeling the energy flow to his meridians was refreshing. For a boy who followed traditional cultivation methods that involved drawing on energy from nonliving sources- such as the atmosphere or the earth, it really did feel like he was getting stronger much faster.

It was no wonder Fu Xing managed to get so powerful. Although his greed for higher power ended up hurting him in the end- hey, Tai Hua wasn't like him! So it's ok!

Tai Hua couldn't tell how much time had passed, but it was certainly a lot. It wasn't until the roosters finally crowed that he opened his eyes to the sun spilling over the horizon.

Stretching out his neck, he got up. He had cultivated for about an hour? It felt like he made the same amount of progress in that hour as he would usually make in three months. 

He looked around a bit, and saw Dong NiuGe conversing with his uncle.

He had a black eye and was looking worse for the wear. He definitely healed a bit thanks to the advanced medicine practices of the HeiMa sect, but the signs of struggle from yesterday were still there.

Good, Tai Hua thought. Although he should probably leave his spot before the Dong duo spotted him.

Unfortunately, his legs gave way when he tried to run out and he knocked into the haitang tree at full force, alerting the two.

Dong NiuGe immediately took the opportunity to laugh at him, the sounds reaching Tai Hua even from such a distance.

Rushing over, he still laughed until he was wheezing a bit, at this point clearly forcing the laughter for the sake of humiliation.

“How pathetic! Was sweeping so tiring that you can hardly stand?”

His anger slightly leaked through his voice.

“It's expected of someone who has such a weak foundation he can't even get to higher levels without twice the work!”

Tai Hua put on a show.

“NiuGe-shidi, please catch your breath first. Don't exhaust yourself!” 

More thinly veiled sarcasm.

To his surprise, Dong NiuGe really did catch his breath before speaking more.

“Tai Hua-shige, how about-”

He was interrupted by his uncle.

With a hint of a smile, Dong ShuangZui spoke. “What if, rather than fighting with the pen, you fight with the sword? After all, this sect teaches martial arts and cultivation, not poetry and writing.”

“I think it's a good idea,” said Dong NiuGe. The skill difference was too great, and he would certainly win in an officiated duel.

Tai Hua, to no one’s surprise, also agreed. 

‘Hey hey, you shouldn't get too cocky! That kid is leagues above you.’

Tai Hua cast a side glance at JingPo on the ground.

“I'm counting on you.” He hoped Fu Xing would give him some advice during the fight.

‘You’re not gonna melt me if you lose or anything, right?’

Dong ShuangZui assumed that statement was for him, and he mned in reply. 

“I will watch over this to make sure no one gets seriously injured, and declare a winner. However,” he noted, “Dong NiuGe can be considered handicapped in this fight due to his injuries. Keep that in mind.”

With a dramatic sweep, he motioned for the two to head towards an open field.