n

n

nAs the elders who came with grandpa Long were taking elder Zhong for interrogation, grandpa Long himself come to me and patted my shoulder.

n

"Little Huang, you almost gave me a heart attack when I received the mental alarm for the Mirror of Reckoning.

" He told me while dusting off my robes.

nWell, I say dusting off, he just used his Qi to shot away anything which has a very low weight. So yeah, I got 'cleaned' if you want to put it that way…

nJust when I wanted to complain, grandpa Long continued his monologue.

n

"Nonetheless, you handled a family matter very well and found a plot that was going to be a pain in the backside in the future…

" he nodded to himself.

n

"Wel—

" I tried to answer, with a heavy emphasis on trying.

n

"Oh! And also you advanced in your body cultivation, and recently at that too!

" he talked non-stop.

n

"Don't tell me that you got through your bottleneck in the battle? HAHAHA! As expected of my grandson! HAHAHA!

" grandpa Long laughed wholeheartedly.

nWhile he was happy, I tried my best to don't let my shoulder be dislocated.

n'Who the ** pats a person like this? Even when he is patting me I can feel that my body cultivation is getting minuscule improvements…' I grunted inside my head.

n

"Grandpa Long, you have many things to do, do not waste your precious time on me. I too will be on my way…

" I was trying to be sneaky and walk away.

nWell, to no one's surprise, a hand on my shoulder stopped me from moving an inch.

n

"How can it be so? Of course, I have time for my one and only grandchild!

" he told me while grinning.

n'Dude, can't you at least try to play the role of loving grandpa?' I shook my head.

n

"Grandpa, it was a long day and I have to report to sister Jia about a mission that I had to do, I would be grateful if I could have a rest without my body sore and aching.

" I honestly and deadpan told him.

nI know that if I had a training session with him I would end up having bruises all over so it was a no-no for me…

nGrandpa looked at me for a moment and with a 'tsk' he answered me.

n

"*tsk* don't think you can run away from the training, you can have the rest of the day for yourself little one…

" he shrugged and went to beat the ** out of elder Zhong, I presume.

n

"Sure, sure…

" I told him dismissively.

nJust as I was about to turn and go to the Matriarch I remembered someth— I mean someone.

nTurning to Lai Xinyue I smiled a little.

n

"Junior sister as you can see, the Li Heng is out of stock so you can't fight him…

" I told her while looking at the unconscious Li Heng.

nHe lost his consciousness when he saw my core disciple robes.

n

"But what about my spar Senior Brother Li?

" Lai Xinyue answered with a tiny bit of emotion that I could see in her expression.

n'Well, at least she cares about swords or something…' I thought.

n

"When an opponent is unavailable, you will win the fight automatically.

" I told her straightforwardly.

nThis fight is what I was looking for from the beginning to get her interest hooked so there is no loss for me…

n

"I see. So can we spar now?

" she asked me after nodding.

n

"We can but I have something to do so we have to finish it quickly this time…

" I told her.

nTelling her 'this time' was to give her a hint that there might be more sparring sessions.

nWhat? I'm giving her the sparring that she wants and In return, in the least favorable situation I have a good relationship with someone talented in the sect and this could be helpful for me in the future to get the patriarch position.

n

"Yes.

" She nodded with stars in her eyes.

n'She only has swords in her eyes. —wait that didn't sound right.' I shook my head, At least I didn't say it out loud.

nShe followed me to a sparring ground in the outer court.

nWhy not inner court or core court?

nWell, I'm not going to bring an outer court disciple to the core zone for a spar, when doing so is clearly against the rules.

nNobody would stop me, but doing this would affect my image in the sect and shows me as an arbitrary person.

nI told you face is overrated but it doesn't mean that it is not a variable in your worth in the eyes of others.

nEven on earth, the flow of opinions would show the correct way to many people and they would choose whichever had more believers.

nSo I would rather fight in a more basic setting, without bending the rules and **...

nGetting to the sparring grounds on the outer court, we stood in front of the entrance in line.

nYes, I repeat. I was in a **ing line. Can you believe it?

nOkay, I take back my words about the importance of following the rules and the importance of face.

nAs I was having a mental fight between cutting the line or standing here, an outer elder comes to me.

n

"Chief disciple Li, welcome to sparring grounds. Allow me to assist you.

" He cupped his fists and talked passionately.

n

"Thank you, elder. This junior sister asked me to spar with her and because she is an outer disciple, here we are.

" I told him while spreading my arms.

nThe elder took a quick glance at Lai Xinyue and come up with some conclusions.

n

"Chief disciple Li, I think it would be better for you to use our best training ground so that the training ground can withstand your moves.

" He suggested to me.

nThis elder is a good one! This way I can legally cut the lines…

n

"Than I thank the elder.

" I cupped my fists with new vigor.

nHe nodded at me and that at Lai Xinyue.

n

"Please follow me.

" He told us.

nFollowing right after him, we went to the training ground in the center of the sparring grounds. This is probably for the sect to conduct competitions or assessments.

n

"Thank you, elder.

" Looking to my side, I thanked the elder again. He was a young elder and he was witty enough to try and make connections with me with a simple move.

nAs we got to the stage, many disciples gathered and eagerly watched the stage to gain personal benefits in watching these fights. There were also some who were trying to see if this junior sister has some skills or is close to me only because of her beauty.

nEither way, we got to the center of the stage and I took two swords out of my storage ring.

n

"Junior sister, these are soft swords, have you heard about them?

" I asked Lai Xinyue while handing her one of the swords.

n

"I have not, senior brother.

" She shook her head.

n

"Okay, so let me tell you.

" I could see the others listening with a focus to learn something new.

nWell, this is nothing to be stingy about so I used Qi to increase the volume of my voice so that everyone can easily hear me.

n

"Soft swords are a kind of training sword that is a little expensive… Well maybe a little more than a little expensive but that is not the point.

"

n

"These swords are soft as you can guess, meaning you can train without worry about injuries and try your all in training. Well, you get bruises but that's it.

"

n

"The main benefit is that you have is the counter on these swords that will record the number of hits on the opponent. This way you can use it as a metric to see how much you have improved in attacking by checking the number on your sword and in defense with checking the number on the opponent's sword.

" I continued.

n

"When fighting this way you would purely focus on technique and don't mind the flashy moves and powerful but not so insightful moves…

"

n

"Anyway, I think this is enough about the sword. Let us get to the spar…

" I swung my sword to get a hang of the weight of it.

n

"Yes, thank you, senior brother.

" Lai Xinyue cupped her fist.

n

"

"Thank you, senior brother!

"

" the others thanked me too.

n