The Fang Gang were sitting in a fancy asian style welcoming room. Fang Hu was actually impressed, the mats and low-style table were really nice. The art on the walls were tasteful and the tea was hot. None of the buildings Hu had been in before had this kind of zen. In hindsight, it was odd that none of the buildings he had been in before had been traditional Chinese fashion. For a cultivation style world, there certainly were less Chinese influence than one might expect. The fact that they all might be speaking English and that even affluent places were decorated in western style pointed to this world being influenced by the western world a bit much. He wondered if all these isekai'd people were like him, westerners, but interested in the xianxia trope.

All the mystery in the system wanted to investigate it, but basic necessity stopped him. The fact that the system listed this world as a 'cultivation' world both excited, and frightened him. If there was enough distinction between cultivation and the other worlds that it isn't just "Has Qi? Y/N" then there's obviously powers that be that can rival cultivation in its entirely. It also means that 'the system', whatever it really is, can't be reached by cultivation alone. Which means that however much Fang Hu wants to experiment with the system to start opening portals to new worlds, he couldn't, lest he risk opening a rift to a 'eldritch abomination' world and having his mind and soul torn asunder.

That was why Fang Hu didn't harbor any intent to pursue other worlds in the long term. Short term, it was a much simpler problem. The entire world was filled with system users, and his old one presumably was as well, he most likely couldn't do anything about it in a timely manner, if at all. Where does that leave Fang Hu? If he was on his own, then he'd be fine acting as a hermit until he made his 'unbelievable discovery', whatever that may be. However, Fang Hu wasn't alone, was he? If he wanted a happy life for his disciples and himself, then he'd need to gain power, and a lot of it. This world was a pigsty morally. You probably couldn't safely maintain a wholesome relationship of any kind without the ability to backhand a continent out of existence. If he needs to obtain that kind of power, he needs to focus on the present.

Speaking of focusing on the present-

"-ello? Pangea to Fang Hu?"

Song Guanyu was speaking. He and his family had been sitting on the other end of the table. His mother had granted them any information they might have on Little Yi's bloodline, due to the discourteousy her son had showed in the match. Fang Hu was grateful, but, if he was being honest, that woman scared him. He didn't know how, but she knew he had struck her son without any real reasoning. Sometimes his power was a curse. He could do without knowing how Song Xuefeng would have gutted him if things hadn't turned out the way they did. He was really lucky that Guanyu let him off the hook due to his vow. Even so, he was lucky the match ended with Guanyu disqualifying himself. If it had turned out differently, win or lose, Fang Hu was fairly sure he Xuefeng wouldn't have let him off the hook herself.

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After a bit of time, Guanyu's family left. His mother went to consult the archives, and his brother to eat dinner. The 'natural blue'™ man himself had a few things to say to Fang Hu. His disciples were still with him, but Guanyu didn't care, what he had to say didn't really concern them anyway.

*Huh? Yes?*

"Pardon?"

"Yes, well. This is a bit awkward. I just wanted to apologize for drawing my weapon in our spar. I know that the spar went farther than intended. It's my fault for not going to get a proper judge for the match. After dinner, I want you to come talk to me about exchanging techniques. You did say that's what you came here for right?"

Guanyu didn't allow Hu to get a word in edgewise. The only thing he could do was wait for him to finish his speech.

"Do you know you're amazing? I know my martial art is focused on defense, but you're able to defend on par with me while attacking better than I can. I'm a whole two bottlenecks ahead of you, not to mention a whole realm. I won't take you using your amulet or having two different cultivation bases as an excuse, you have talent man. I was able to train in my dao just by fighting against you, that's how solid your dao pillars are."

At last, Fang Hu spoke up. He couldn't take the praise, not when he felt so strongly about a matter.

*There were like five things stopping you from winning, my man. I only bullshitted my way to victory.*

"No no, there were many handicaps in the fight. You are a weapon cultivator, and I am a fist cultivator, and you had been training all day. In the beginning, you weren't performing to your best, you were trying not to kill me, while I had no such reservations. Moreover, the small nature of the ring limited what you could do with that invisibility ability of yours. I even only won because you were disqualified."

As strongly as Fang Hu felt about the matter, Guanyu felt stronger, and he wouldn't hear any of it.

"Bull man, bull. Your understanding of your daos, your brilliant martial art technique, and the way you saw through my cloaking technique, even if you're physically weaker than me, you were one step ahead of me in that fight."

Before Fang Hu was able to argue his case, Guanyu held up his hand.

"Enough, let's simply believe what we want to believe. It would get tiring to argue amongst ourselves. It's dinner time now, why don't I take the three of you to the dinner table, you've got to be hungry after that fight, right?"

Fang Hu considered it, he didn't have any reason to turn them down. Besides, apparently their rice is excellent.