Chapter 92

  Art of Survival (III)

  I continued staring at the vast nothing for a long while after, wondering if perhaps I fell asleep and dreamed up the entire thing. You know, like that time in high school where I dreamed of getting up early, finishing all my homework, and getting an A on some math test, only to wake up an hour late for school, having done jack.

  I honestly don't even know what the most amazing reward of the bunch is. More purification progress in one moment than I'd accrued over the last six months of suffering? A major leap in talent that now shot me up to the realms of, like, Inner Disciples at least?

  Immortal Qi, where the only chance of me actually ever using it is becoming an Immortal, so it's sort of like a chicken and egg situation.

  And, best yet, I actually broke through. And felt it. It sort of feels like finally seeing some fruits of your labor after doing cardio for months. At the start, when you run for more than 5 minutes, your thighs, calves, and lungs all catch on fire, racing to see which can make you pass out first. But after a while, they... settle down, as it were.

  That's how I feel at the moment--I can actually do the full circulation of Qi in the average time, and it doesn't feel like Qi is made of tiny razor blades ripping my meridians apart.

  I, dare say, am average.

  Well, not exactly yet; outside the few arts that I've made (only one of which can be used in combat, really), I (Lu Qi) have no functioning knowledge of martial arts. I may as well just take a bat and swing it at someone's knees, as that'd be more effective.

  Plus, there's the 'Mythological' tier. It's my first time hearing it, as I haven't even encountered it with any of my monsters. Not that I think they don't have it (Long Tao and Hua most definitely do), but it just goes to show how barren my knowledge of most everything actually is.

  Haah.

  I just want to curl up in a ball for a bit and daydream, daydream that every day is like this--just randomly triggering rewards left, right, and center, speeding through the cultivation realm like a bolt.

  And yet, amidst the jubilance (which there is plenty of, yes), some worry arose. The art's description noted that it's unprecedented. Meaning that, at least on the surface level, Long Tao was right--that something like this doesn't exist. However, if I now pull it out just like that, after, what? A couple of days? Yeah. Won't that basically signal to everyone I can do anything? Which I can't!

  I really can't!

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  Besides, something isn't adding up if you're asking me--an art that hasn't been made in the history of the world, within any of the '7 Layers of Heavens' (whatever that is), something so monumental that it is considered a 'staggering point in the history of Martial Arts'... why does it cost so few points? I mean, yeah, for me 910 points is massive--my entire fortune, in fact--but in the grand scheme of things, 910 points is literally nothing.

  Like, I can scroll through any random option and find ones that cost tens of thousands of points to implement. You're telling me that something so cheap has never been made before by anyone? Nobody, not once in the history of everything, thought to themselves, 'Hmm, what if I made an art that deformed bones and altered physical appearance because that would allow me to do whatever the hell I want and get away with it?'.

  No.

  I don't buy it.

  I don't buy it even for a second.

  There's more to this story, though I have a feeling I won't really learn much, if anything, about it.

  ... thus, the question is, do I even share it? I mean, I sort of have to, no? But... ugh! This is frustrating. Annoying. Belly-aching, even!

  I temporarily put it all out of my head and left the room, descending. It just so happened that I came upon a rather rare sight--everyone was gathered on the outside, watching Xi Zhao and Dai Xiu spar.

  Long Tao was sitting, his back pressed against the wall, appearing mildly invested. Hua seemed strangely, uh, proud? I think?

  And Light seemed keen on taking in the entire thing.

  I joined them silently, staying at the back, and watched the two kids proceed to try and kill each other (but not really).

  Every swing of Xi Zhao's sword was aimed at the vital points--head, throat, heart, stomach, you name it. And Dai Xiu was even more insane--rather than ducking backwards and weaving against the swings, she went into them, consistently closing the distance between the two and causing no small amount of headache to the boy.

  Most of the time I see them, I see kids. A twelve-year-old girl addled with insecurities and a fourteen-year-old boy addled with worries.

  They look the part, too.

  But then there are times when the age ceased to exist. Like the time in the town. Or even now.

  They were both smiling, even as the crescendo of the battle started drawing blood and bruises, and even as Dai Xiu's punch cracked at least a couple of Xi Zhao's ribs, or when he finally managed to stab her squarely in the shoulder.

  The 'spar' lasted for about five minutes before they stopped.

  Dai Xiu won, having knocked the boy's sword away and pinned him to the ground.

  "Ah, Master!" The two stumbled toward me when they noticed me and bowed.

  "... you two are making a lot of progress." The words were hollow, as, quite frankly, I didn't know whether they were true. I mean, I assume they are making progress, but whether it's 'a lot' or 'a little' or 'more than a lot', yeah. I've got no clue.

  "Thank you, Master! We will try even harder!" Yeah. Please don't do that.

  "Hm. Go get yourself treated." Hua and Light ended up escorting them inside. There were pills and herbs aplenty to fix their state in the matter of a day, yet I'm hard of thought as to how a pair of barely teenage kids can endure so many wounds with big freakin' smiles on their faces.

  I remember scraping my knee when I fell off my bike when I was not much older than Dai Xiu. I didn't cry, sure, 'cause my dad would have lost it, but I certainly wasn't smiling. More than that, I couldn't walk properly for two or three weeks after, and all the boys made fun of me, calling me 'Limpling'. I wonder what these two would have done in my stead? Probably killed someone and got themselves locked up in a juvie or a jail.

  "Why hasn't anyone ever made an art to change appearances?" I blurted out as Long Tao got up to leave, prompting him to pause and look back.

  "You misunderstood," he smiled faintly as he left behind the parting words. "I never said they were never made. Just that they don't exist."