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The hours passed quickly, in meditation and conversation. After a day of mental labor, Linghui Mei was starting to feel her mind growing tired - though she was used to the long days, often having to seek out a soul to feast on well after midnight, once the humans fell asleep. Qian Shanyi talked to her about her life in the sect, and despite herself, she was drawn in by the tales of the young disciples, of simple work and learning.
When she opened her eyes after another meditation session, she found her master sitting a dozen paces away, staring intently at a water clock. Linghui Mei waited a moment, simply observing, but her curiosity won out in the end. "Master Qian?" she called out.
"Mhm?" Qian Shanyi responded idly, not looking away from the clock.
"Why are you staring at that clock?"
"I couldn't cultivate for two weeks. Healer's orders. Only two minutes left."
Linghui Mei processed this, thinking it over. She had to deal with plenty of sick people before, but perhaps cultivators healed differently?
"Will these two minutes... change anything?" she finally asked, deciding to risk making herself appear ignorant.
Qian Shanyi snorted. "No. I am just a stubborn bitch." She looked away from the clock and towards Linghui Mei, arching an eyebrow. "Did you need something?"
Linghui Mei motioned towards the kitchens. "I think it's time for the second dose of those mushrooms."
Qian Shanyi grinned at her roguishly, wiggling her eyebrows. "You want me to feed you again?"
Linghui Mei blushed. The
sheer humiliation of it. At least nobody else saw. "I want you to make
the dose," she ground out, baring her teeth at the other woman.
"Oh, of course, of course," Qian Shanyi laughed, and got up off the grass. Linghui Mei followed after.
The mushrooms took less than a minute to prepare. For all that there was twice the amount, they still tasted like nothing more than dust in the water.
"You seem a bit tired," Qian Shanyi noted while Linghui Mei swallowed the medicine, demonstrably putting the spoon on the table instead of hanging it back. Linghui Mei rubbed at her left eye with a fist, and nodded.
"Twenty minutes of observation, then you can go to bed," Qian Shanyi concluded, returning her nod. "Should be enough to make sure you won't die in your sleep." She walked back to the water clock, crouching in front of it, squinting at the level.
"I have never seen a cultivator cultivate," Linghui Mei said, watching her.
"Wondering how it looks like?"
"I…suppose, a little bit."
"Well, it's time." Qian Shanyi winked at Linghui Mei. "It usually looks like this!"
Qian Shanyi cackled, as her entire demeanor transformed on the spot, from a calm jokester to a witch of blood and slaughter. She leapt into the air, her sword exploding out of her sheath in a burst of spiritual energy, smelling of certain death. With a crack of thunder, her eyes flashed with an unearthly light. "Oh little Shizhe, you pathetic frog in a well, you have no idea what you are going to be dealing with!" Qian Shanyi continued, her voice high and dangerous. "This here cultivator swears this - I will not just beat you, I will
destroy you, grind you into dust! You will
become the ancient history you worship!"
Linghui Mei stepped back, fur on her tails bristling, ears flat against her head. Her mind fled into the back of her soul while her instincts
screamed at her to either
flee or
fight. There was a
cultivator right in front of her, and it was either
her or
them, she was going to -
Qian Shanyi turned back to Linghui Mei and laughed easily, voice back to what it was before. "Did I spook you this much?" She winked at the jiuweihu a second time, catching her own sword out of the air and sheathing it with a flourish, then raised her arms in a placating gesture. "Sorry about that. Moral obligation, you understand."
Linghui Mei swallowed, her heartbeat slowly coming back down, breathing evening out. She had to force her tails to relax, posture to straighten back up. Her claws were fully out, and she didn't even notice - she was getting sloppy. "It's fine," she finally said once she could trust her own voice not to crack.
"Is it?" Qian Shanyi hummed, approaching Linghui Mei. Her eyes seemed to pierce straight into her soul. "No, I think I should have warned you just now, before starting to wave swords around. You look white as death."
"It is
my fault for being scared of my own master. I apologize -"
"Why would it be your fault?" Qian Shanyi interrupted her. "I've almost killed you before. Even if I've apologized, it's entirely reasonable to be scared."
Linghui Mei glared at Qian Shanyi. Standing like this, she had to turn her chin up, and briefly thought about lengthening her own legs just to be petty, to be the taller one. "You embarrass me, make jokes, and now you try to be kind?" she snapped. She
knew she shouldn't speak this way to her master, but Qian Shanyi herself ordered her to speak her mind. "I thought you just wanted me to get over it? What happened?"
Qian Shanyi grimaced sadly. "Of course I like jokes, but not to the point of
trauma, you dummy," she whispered quietly, rubbing her face. "Scaring you like this isn't funny, it's cruel. I am sorry I did it. You'll get used to us cultivators eventually, but not like this, not right away."
Linghui Mei held her glare, but then broke off, feeling guilty again. Definitely her fault.
"Would a hug help?" Qian Shanyi said.
"...maybe."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
Linghui Mei closed her eyes, breathing out. "Yes, please."
Warm arms enveloped her, one patting her hair and ears. That sharp scent of spiritual energy, of a cultivator, vanished at once. Qian Shanyi must have done something, closed her pores. "There there, you are safe, nobody is going to hunt you anymore. It's going to be alright."
Despite herself, Linghui Mei couldn't help but tear up a bit. She sniffled into Qian Shanyi's shoulder, before forcing herself to pull back, putting some distance between them. It really wasn't appropriate, not with her master.
"Did it help?" Qian Shanyi asked, keeping one kind hand on her shoulder.
She nodded mutely, blushing a bit. "Thank you, master Qian," she said quietly.
She couldn't believe she just
did that, practically with a stranger, a
cultivator. So much for propriety. If her mother knew, she would have eaten her own heart.
Qian Shanyi sighed, with a bit of wariness in her eyes. "Look," she said, "I won't lie, this deference, making me feel like a real sect Elder, is certainly rubbing my ego in exactly the right way, but I don't think it's all that healthy for you. Can you just call me Shanyi? At least when I am not teaching you to cultivate?"
"...of course. Thank you, ma -
Shanyi. Thank you, Shanyi."
"Good," Qian Shanyi said, nodding decisively, and pulling her hand away. "Now, onto other things. Does your offer to help me prepare for the duel still stand?"
"Of course," Linghui Mei said, glad they weren't going to dwell on this embarrassing matter any further.
"Then again, if you were going to sleep soon..." Qian Shanyi frowned. "This would be tiring for you. Best we do it tomorrow."
Linghui Mei raised her chin high. "I am not so tired I can't help my master train."
"Hm. Alright." Qian Shanyi grinned, cackling creepily. "Here is what we are going to do…"
Linghui Mei swallowed nervously. She got a bad feeling. What did she just sign up for?
Qian Shanyi's sword sliced through the air, passing close enough to Linghui Mei that she yelped, dropping down to the ground. It zoomed in on a small plate of wood that she tossed away, piercing right through the middle.
Linghui Mei did not wait for the sword to return, but rolled, springing back on her feet, and sprinted in the opposite direction, tossing another plate of wood far ahead of herself. Qian Shanyi groaned in dismay at her own foolish mistake, making her sword come back around, but she was too slow - and by the time she caught up, two pieces of wood were laying on the grass, each twenty meters away from Linghui Mei.
Linghui Mei cheered, and Qian Shanyi rolled her eyes, slowing down her sword enough to gently bonk the jiuweihu on the head. After two hours, she got good enough at the game that Qian Shanyi actually had to plan ahead to win - but having to push herself did wonders for her control over the technique. As a nice bonus, Linghui Mei quickly acclimated to her flying sword, and stopped flinching at its sight. At least as long as it wasn't right in her face.
The entrance of the world fragment opened as they were halfway through their next match, and Qian Shanyi heard Wang Yonghao gasp in shock. She called her sword back, and turned around, to see Wang Yonghao clutching at his heart in a panic. Water was dripping down his long, leather cloak, like a little black cloud in their weatherless spherical world.
"Sweet mercy," Wang Yonghao called out from thirty meters up in the air. "I thought you two were fighting again."
"Master -
Shanyi asked me to help her train," Linghui Mei said, breathing heavily from the exertion, coming back to the center of the world fragment. She was the one who did all the running around, while Qian Shanyi mostly stayed in one place. Winning the game wasn't the point - it was to train her control over her flying sword, and so running would be a distraction.
<We were playing swordball,> Qian Shanyi signed to Wang Yonghao.
"I don't see any balls."
She shrugged. <Blocks of wood work well enough. How did your date go?>
She emphasized the
date, making the gesture wider and slower than it had to be.
Wang Yonghao frowned down on her in suspicion, slowly descending to the ground. "Why are you speaking sign?" he said, blatantly dodging the question.
<Hurt my throat training curse techniques with Mei.>
He gave her a sad look as if he expected as much. "
Already? You've only had, what, six hours of training?"
<Closer to four.>
Wang Yonghao turned to Linghui Mei, completely ignoring her. "Did she take any pills?"
Linghui Mei frowned. "She gave me the mushrooms. Then she took a small, green one, after she hurt her voice. I think that was it."
Qian Shanyi waved her hands around, until Wang Yonghao looked back at her. <It's for my throat.> She signed, gesturing at the very same. <Minor topical healing pill, barely anything.>
Wang Yonghao grunted, unconvinced, and still glared at her suspiciously.
<Shoo.> She waved him away. <Teach Mei sign later, she can't speak it. Can't stand having a one-sided discussion. Now answer my question.>
"What question?"
<The
date?>
"The
poetry reading was good," Wang Yonghao cut back.
She motioned for him to go on. Wang Yonghao sighed deeply. "I really liked it. Everyone read a bit, and then we discussed it... I couldn't really talk about much, but the sound, the cadence of it, was amazing, especially after the storm started. There is something to it, sitting inside, in front of a fire, while lighting flashes outside. I told them a couple of my… less extraordinary adventures in exchange, about the breathtaking sights you find on those ancient mountains, and they really got into it." He looked up wistfully. "Chu Lin said she might write a short poem about it."
Qian Shanyi nodded in agreement. <That does sound nice. Did you end up having sex?>
Wang Yonghao glared at her. She'd have laughed if her throat didn't already ache so much. "
No. It was just a nice evening! How do you manage to turn everything back to sex?"
Linghui Mei coughed next to her, looking awkwardly between the two. They really needed to teach her how to speak sign as soon as possible, or at least as soon as they had the time.
<Natural talent.> Qian Shanyi signed with a roll of her eyes. <I am truly glad you had fun and had a chance to relax. Nothing unusual, no tribulation from the sky?>
Wang Yonghao sighed again, his posture relaxing. "No. And yes, it was very relaxing." He paused, thinking it over. "Thank you for making me go."
Qian Shanyi snorted. <You can thank me once I get you a
proper date.> She glanced at Linghui Mei, who was yawning at her side, blinking sleep out of her eyes. Wang Yonghao did not look all that much fresher. <Let's all go to sleep. Mei insisted on staying up to help me train until you've returned, and we are all exhausted. Morning sun brings wisdom with it - lets talk then.>
Qian Shanyi was the first to wake up - after all, aside from the last four hours, she spent all of the last day doing nothing of substance - and quietly headed out of their hut. The door beams were heavy and awkward to maneuver as she set them down on the grass, but she managed, and she briefly wondered if the light might wake the others. Perhaps adding a curtain in front of the doorway would be good, once the sap stopped dripping quite as much.
What they
really needed was to buy some hinges and make a proper door - but not in this town. A traveling farmer would pass without notice, but a traveling
doorman was a bit of a hard sell. In a larger port town, where Linghui Mei could pretend to be a carpenter looking for ship supplies, it would be simplicity itself.
The first thing to do was to check on the rabbits. Yesterday, while she watched over Linghui Mei meditate, she let Yihao out to hop around, and he had not been molested by the rosevines even once. That probably meant they had managed to kill off all of the adult beasts, and so they decided it was about time to release half of their rabbits for the night, to see how they fared in the world fragment at large.
Killing the rosevines was not a permanent solution - they left seeds in the ground, reproducing, though only adults were brave enough to venture above ground. Here and there, saplings would spread their spindly tentacles out like strange flowers, absorbing the sunlight, quickly retracting them back into the earth as soon as anyone came close. They were so hard to see in the tall grass that Qian Shanyi didn't notice them at all before Linghui Mei's nose entered the picture.
In a few weeks, these young rosevines would once again grow enough to become a danger to the rabbits - but for now, they could let them out. By the time it became a problem again, they should have enough time to build a secure rabbit house.
Linghui Mei's nose was sharp enough to even smell out some of the seeds, where they were closer to the surface - hard, black triangles about half as long as a finger. They dug them out where they could find them, storing them in their drying cabinet where they could not germinate. If they ever got rid of the rosevines entirely, Qian Shanyi wanted to cultivate them deliberately, in an enclosure they could not escape from. Their leaves did make
excellent tea.
After Yonghao's trips around town yesterday, seeking rumors and buying groceries, they were left with eight rabbits - Yihao, Erhao, Sanhao, Sihao, Wuhao, Liuhao, Qihao and Bahao, though she didn't tell him how she named the rabbits yet. That was a revelation best saved for a perfect moment.
Qian Shanyi did her best to keep the tamer, calmer rabbits - those that stayed quiet while she handled them, did not kick or scream. Ideally, she wanted ones that could handle stress better. The constant sunlight of the world fragment, needing to be moved from place to place while they built them new houses, and potential attacks from the rosevines would be cruel to impose on a rabbit that was already anxious by nature. Better to turn them to meat right away.
Out of the eight, Yihao was the calmest by far. His favorite pastime - aside from eating grass - was sleeping, trying to curl up in someone's lap for safety and warmth, which often meant Linghui Mei. He was so distracting to her meditation that they had to put him back in his cage while she did it.
Erhao and Sanhao were a pair of solid black rabbits, and tended to stick together. Qian Shanyi thought they might have been siblings, though Linghui Mei said they were probably simply raised together. According to her, sometimes rabbits of the same sex would bond, though it wasn't too common. Sanhao was more inquisitive than her "sister", who usually followed behind, alert for danger.
Sihao was gray, just like her personality - perfectly average. She was neither too active nor too lazy, neither too hard to handle nor too easy. Qian Shanyi suspected she was hiding something, but for now, she had no evidence for a proper accusation.
Wuhao was the most colorful, with browns, blacks and whites mixed together like so much paint. She was very playful with the other rabbits - though seemed to get annoyed when Qian Shanyi picked her up too much, especially when she was busy with something.
Liuhao was the other male rabbit, kept because Qian Shanyi figured they should pick someone to balance out Yihao's warlike tendencies of prodigious sleep. He was orange, like cinnamon, and very energetic, running all over the place. At least, she hoped it was a sign of energy, and not anxiety.
Qihao was the smallest rabbit, black with white spots, and a stripe from the back of her head to the front. She was very timid, and spent much of her time grooming the others. Qian Shanyi decided to put her into the same cage as Yihao - they seemed to complement each other well - hoping that if she had something to do, she would find being stuck inside a bit more tolerable.
Bahao was another pure white rabbit, same as Yihao, which she thought was appropriate. She seemed to be the most freedom-loving of the bunch: she chewed halfway through her wooden cage before they noticed. She seemed to only try to escape while they weren't looking, pretending to be calm and reasonable otherwise - and so was the first to be left out into the world fragment at large. If she wanted to run around, she could do as she wished. Liuhao, Sihao and Wuhao came with her. Yihao, Qihao, Erhao and Sanhao stayed in cages - the first two because they could tolerate confinement better, while the other two because Qian Shanyi was worried that if a rosevine snatched one of the pair, the other would be inconsolable.
It took her a bit to find the four rabbits outside of their hut - as they were regular animals, not demon beasts, they held barely any spiritual energy, even less than the ordinary people. While she slept, the rabbits started a burrow right under their hut, but all four seemed to be still alive, hiding underground. The location of the burrow worried Qian Shanyi a little - their hut stood on top of six stone pillars, ones they did not bury into the ground, and might collapse if the rabbits dug under one of them. She used her rope controlling technique to reach into their burgeoning burrow with a length of silk and slowly map it out, and for now, it seemed to be safe - but she decided to keep an eye out, and move them to a proper rabbit coop as soon as possible.
Having made sure all the rabbits were safe, she took out the other two cages and released Yihao, Qihao, Erhao and Sanhao as well. If the rosevines ate nobody while they slept, there was no need to worry for now. The four rabbits bounced off, eager to explore their new domain.
And then, once she finished her rabbit-keeping duties and started making breakfast, Wang Yonghao and Linghui Mei had finally woken up.
"So what is the plan?" Wang Yonghao asked once they had all settled down to eat.
"It's just about midnight in the world outside, if my accounting is right," Qian Shanyi said, "the duel is at noon the day after. This gives us six and a half days to work with, accounting for the time acceleration - let's round it down to six. I would like to scout out the square of the duel the evening before, bury some traps, and that would take a couple hours on its own."
"Traps?" Linghui Mei said slowly, as she popped another small rabbit bone into her mouth. It crunched deliciously as she chewed through it. Linghui Mei said she liked a bit of a bite to her food, and so Qian Shanyi decided to experiment with her preference for texture, bone hardness and size. She had a big plate of different bones in front of her - ordinary and heavenly rabbit, horse and rooster. More of a snack, since without meat, it held no calories. "I thought this was about honor."
"It's a tricky subject," Qian Shanyi nodded, gesturing with her spoon. They ran out of heavenly rabbit the day before, and the heavenly horse meat felt a bit hard to work with, so she made soup for her and Wang Yonghao. "Ultimately, it's all about the perception of others. If I buried a crystal bomb in the middle of the field and blew his legs off as soon as the duel started, others would think me a coward for it. But a small trap, one that builds on a victory already achieved - I do not think they would."
"Unless he'd find it before the duel," Wang Yonghao pointed out, "both duelists get a chance to inspect the field."
"Arrogant bastard like him?" Qian Shanyi shook her head. "He wouldn't bother to check."
Linghui Mei pursed her lips, shaking her head slightly. "More cultivator nonsense. I suppose I shouldn't have expected much else. Forget that I asked."
Qian Shanyi frowned at her, with a bit of a glare. "That is the wrong attitude entirely," she said sharply, "I understand that you despise cultivators, and I don't expect you to like our traditions. But to dismiss them as merely nonsense is not only stupid, it is dangerous, for someone in your position."
Linghui Mei seemed taken aback. She quickly swallowed her food, before hurriedly speaking again. "Ah, master Qian, I apologize for causing offense -"
"My offense is irrelevant," Qian Shanyi cut her off. "You said you wanted to be my disciple, and I will not have my disciple make such obvious blunders.
Understanding your enemies is always key. I do not call Jian Shizhe an arrogant bastard to dismiss him, I call him this because it is an accurate judgment. Now think of what confuses you and ask the right question."
Wang Yonghao looked between the two of them with some amusement. Linghui Mei bristled at first, but breathed out, closing her eyes to think. She put her plate of bones aside.
"I still don't understand it," Linghui Mei said after a moment. "I trust your judgment, master Qian, but a trap is… It's trickery, sabotage. To fight with one another is bad enough, but to stab someone in the back… If a fellow jiuweihu did that to one of us, none of the others would
ever trust them. Yet you expect other cultivators to still think you are honorable after you use a trap?"
Qian Shanyi nodded. "Good. Much better, in fact. It is a common enough confusion, you are not alone in this." She paused, considering how to best explain it. Linghui Mei listened to her attentively, chewing on another bone.
"Honor is not the same as trust," she said finally, "Honor is the trust given to someone's word, backed up by their courage. I trust you to keep our secrets, even though you swore no oaths. I trust you to act in your and our best interests, even if something unexpected comes up. But I would not trust a fellow cultivator with the same, no matter how honorable, unless they actively swore on their honor to do so, and even then, only in as far as such an oath extended. If no words are spoken, honor matters not. This is the first key difference."
Linghui Mei nodded slightly. There was a small frown on her face, processing the information. At least she was thinking now.
Qian Shanyi smiled, continuing. "The second difference between trust and honor is that not all words are the same. Cultivators keep many secrets that ordinary people do not and
cannot, and our traditions reflect this. When a cultivator is asked about their cultivation - techniques, recipes, places of power, and so on - in many contexts, they are
expected to lie. How could they not? These secrets go beyond a single person, they are the building blocks of entire
sects. Even silence is not enough, for
when a cultivator chooses to stay silent would be telling in and of itself."
"And if the empire asks?" Wang Yonghao said sarcastically.
"If the empire asks, it is no longer a question of honor," Qian Shanyi replied calmly. An important thing to clarify, to be sure. "it is a question of the empire slaughtering you if they catch you on an important lie. There are not that many cases where they
would ask, in either case."
The relationship of the empire and honor was a complex one. The empire had no strong official stance on duels, even if they still recorded them in a cultivator almanac for reasons of practicality. At best, they ensured that nobody could be
forced to duel, for all the good that it did - avoiding the duel, even by seeking the protection of the empire, was as good as throwing away your honor. Few cultivators would ever choose to deal with you again, and the only path left would be to join one of the many imperial ministries.
"So you are saying that a trap is honorable because you didn't swear to
not use traps?" Linghui Mei asked, raising one eyebrow to mirror Qian Shanyi's usual manner.
"Not quite," Qian Shanyi said, "There is one final key point. Honor depends on courage, but courage lives in the eyes of those around you, how they see and interpret your actions. It is said that honor is not goodwill, but in truth, the two live side by side, and Jian Shizhe has none of the latter left. None would question his courage - but if
I do something in the gray zone, catch him out in a trap after already demonstrating mine,
he would be blamed for his own failure to avoid it. Perception is all that matters, and perception has long been against him." She gestured to Linghui Mei. "Do you understand now? Not accept it as what you want to practice - but merely understand the reasoning."
"I do," Linghui Mei said, nodding. "Thank you, master Qian."
"This is all well and good," Wang Yonghao said, "but can we get back to the topic at hand? What is your plan for these six days, for preparing for the duel? Are you going to risk qi deviation again?"
"I don't think it would help," Qian Shanyi said, shaking her head. "A duel is not like a tribulation. I know what Jian Shizhe is bringing to the table, and I am lacking in skill more than strength to match him. Nor do I want to risk qi deviation any time the Heavens put us in a bind - it would be a dangerous habit to form."
"What then? Going to unlock your seventh dantian?"
"No, actually," Qian Shanyi said, shaking her head again. "I won't be purifying any impurities. With the high quality spiritual energy of your world fragment, my body is already starting to lag behind the refinement of my meridians. I am on the cusp of the high refinement stage, but my body needs to catch up - I have some medicinal baths prepared to help, but there is no need to worsen this problem. Nor do I want someone to notice the obvious change in the flow of spiritual energy around my body after only a couple days have passed in the outside world. Mostly, I was hoping you would help me train with the sword."
"Flying sword?"
"No, regular sword. My skill is adequate for demon beasts, but to stand my ground against little Shizhe -" She frowned, Wang Yonghao's words finally catching up with her. "How could you even help me with my flying sword skill? Do you know a flying sword technique? I've never seen you use one."
"Of course I know a flying sword technique," Wang Yonghao grumbled, "It's just too distinctive, so I avoid it."
"Could you show me?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Wang Yonghao sighed, set his own bowl of soup aside, and stood up from the grass, walking a good ten meters away from them. He casually pulled out his sword, and started pouring spiritual energy into it - and kept pouring, well past what Qian Shanyi thought
must have been sufficient, past the point where air began to shimmer around the blade. If she didn't trust him to know what he was doing, she would have started to worry he was going to blow his own arm off.
Linghui Mei leaned forwards a bit, curious, her spiritual tails angled in Wang Yonghao's direction to observe him better, physical tails hugging her legs. She did seem to have a certain innate curiosity about watching cultivators, as long as she wasn't threatened by them.
With an explosion of fire, the technique completed, and the sword surged forward, sheathed in flame, enormous burning wings keeping it aloft. For a brief moment, it looked just like the drawings of Zhuque birds she had seen in the books.
The fiery sword flew faster than her own flying sword technique - faster than
any refinement stage technique she had ever seen - slamming into the edge of the world fragment in the blink of an eye, and then exploded again, fire surging outward in a sphere of scorching death easily ten meters wide. The quiet of the world fragment was broken by a deafening keen, not unlike that of a bird of prey snatching up its dinner, before the air rushed back into the void left by the conflagration. Wang Yonghao's sword fell out of the sky, the technique expended.
"Like I said," Wang Yonghao said, making a gesture with one hand. The sword vanished from all the way across the world fragment, appearing back in his hand, and he sheathed it at his side. "It's too distinctive."
Qian Shanyi whistled in appreciation, and then looked down at where Linghui Mei was clutching at her arm so tightly it hurt, even through the spiritual shield. Her face was bone white, eyes wide as saucers. Qian Shanyi patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.
"What you said about lying is all fine and good," Wang Yonghao continued, coming back around. "But the thing is, if some cultivators want to know your techniques, they'd just beat them out of you. 'Finger-counting cryptanalysis' is what one of my so-called 'teachers' called it, the pretentious fuck. You break one finger every time someone refuses to draw a spiritual energy recirculation diagram."
"It is one of the things a sect is supposed to protect its disciples from," Qian Shanyi said dryly. "Be that as it may, I'd appreciate your advice on flying swords too. I imagine with your experience, you'd have more to say than some of my elders."
"I was never going to win that fight, was I?" Linghui Mei whispered at her side, watching Wang Yonghao with terrified eyes. "And I thought
you were scary."
"No, Mei," Qian Shanyi said with a slight sigh, patting Linghui Mei's head. "No, you really were not."
Once they cleaned up after their breakfast, Qian Shanyi and Wang Yonghao picked an empty stretch of the world fragment, while Linghui Mei went back to work on their farm. With how loud they were going to be, she definitely wasn't going to have any peace and quiet to meditate.
"So what do you want to start with?" Wang Yonghao asked, twirling a long sword above his head. It was not the same shape as Jian Shizhe's - only sharp on one side, and slightly curved besides - but it was about the same length and weight, which was more important.
"Wrap this around your foot first," Qian Shanyi said, offering him a long length of rope. "Jian Shizhe's foot is a new prosthetic - there is no way he properly adjusted to it after only three days. It will be stiff, and he'd favor his other foot."
Wang Yonghao nodded, and she helped him secure it with a short stick. It took them a couple tries to get a good balance - not so stiff that he couldn't move his foot at all, but stiff enough it wasn't comfortable - and she gave him a minute to hop around, adjusting to his new footing.
"I think we should start with the curse techniques," she said once he was ready. "I don't want to push myself so hard I won't be able to speak again, but any time my throat is not recovering from training is wasted time. Try sprinting towards me, and I'll get you to stop."
Wang Yonghao nodded, grinned, and gestured with his enormous sword. He didn't actually sprint, instead beginning to leisurely walk towards her - but she supposed he still had to get used to his foot. It is not like the speed mattered that much.
"
Stop," she spoke, the curse technique tearing out of her throat of its own accord. It rushed towards Wang Yonghao, the slightest shimmer in the air -
- and was sliced apart by his sword, dissipating harmlessly.
Qian Shanyi glared at him.
Wang Yonghao blinked in confusion, stopping. "Was I not supposed to do that?"
"It's fine," she grumbled. "But yes, please let it hit you. I should have warned you - I still haven't got a handle on the way curse techniques can affect others. When I tried it with Mei, two thirds of the time it did nothing at all. We can work on threading it into a fight once I am actually sure I can form the technique right. But seeing as how I can't afford to
kill little Shizhe, I would need to find a way to get him to stop moving in other ways."
"Alright," Wang Yonghao grinned, spinning his sword above his head again. For someone who insisted he hated almost anything to do with cultivation, he seemed to derive almost as much enjoyment from it as she did - at least, when the Heavens weren't pressuring him. "Let's see if this here humble cultivator can show you some pointers, fellow cultivator Shanyi!"
"You are a thousand years too young to show
me pointers, little Wang," she said, playing up her tone and raising her nose disdainfully. Just like in the theater plays. "But if you would
kowtow a dozen times, then perhaps I would forgive this insult!"
Three dozen kilometers away, amid the rain and thunder, one lonely cultivator wrestled with a demon beast.
"
Pounce," Jian Shizhe roared, pulling on the long, steel chains, and the glass shambler under his feet lurched forward, glass shattering beneath its long, spindly legs, the sound of it blending in with the roar of the stream below. The rain buffeted his body, threatening to throw him off and down to his death, but his feet were planted well. He
trained for this.
After that night, he knew
exactly what he had to do. This was the
last time anyone would dare disrespect him. He didn't
need any hunts. He didn't
need those worthless disciples who knew nothing but drinking and fucking. He was
Jian Shizhe, son of
Jian Zhexuan. This was
his legacy, there was no doubt about that.
He walked off into the glass wastes, searching for his prey, and he found it. An
enormous glass shambler, easily five stories tall, larger than
any he had heard of before, larger than the one he hunted with Wang Yonghao, husband of that worthless scum.
He never thought he would be this lucky.
A flash of lightning lit up the wastes, the crack of thunder deafening him for a brief moment. His eyes glowed with the certainty he never felt before, his grin that of a fanatic on the path to salvation. He hadn't slept since then, sustaining himself on pills and medicines, but he felt better than ever before.
Their sect's manual called for the shamblers to be trapped, trained over long months, but there was a faster path - one none except him could follow. Even a single mistake would make the beast break out of its chains, shake off the befuddlement of the talismans, and he would lose control - but he knew he would not make any.
He was going to
squash that arrogant little bug, that fly that
dared to insult his name, and when he did,
none would dare to doubt his power.
