"Move yer ass, Brik!"

Startled, Brik jumped to shoulder his packs. It was his job to move most of the 'eavy stuff around. Brik was built like, well, a brick, and almost had the mind of one as well. He and his 'friends' target lone traders traveling the Verdant Plains. Or they had, until the 'bad smelling' man and his group came along and killed his friends. That was about normal for Brik, it happened from time to time, though never to him, he was too strong for that, and too smart. People who are strong enough to kill him always call him things like 'valuable' and 'a windfall'. Most often they call him 'gullible', which is really good! Every time he ever asked, he would be told that it means great things. It's never the same thing, but always great things! It must mean a lot.

"Come on, Brik! If we're late Master will kill us!"

*Master will kill ya, not me. I'm to smart for that.*

Brik thought that, but was smart enough to not say it. He'd learned that lesson the hard way. He tried hard to keep anything resembling 'disrespect' from passing between his lips, a few of his old masters had almost killed him for it.

"Yes... I'll keep moving."

"You'd better ya lug."

Brik was marching along with the rest of smelly man's group. Brik was more than a little scared of the smelly man, he had killed his old master in one-on-one combat. Old master was very strong, seeing as old master had beat older master in one-on-one combat and older master used to thrash him repeatedly in combat drills. Saying all that, bad smelling master had to be super strong. That was why Brik had no problem with marching day and night to meet up with a bunch of other 'smelly' cultivators.

That was what Brik wanted his master to believe anyway, really Brik's feet hurt, and he was sleepy, but he had seen what new master does to people who complain. Brik was used to people dying, what he wasn't used to is whatever that was. For once, it wasn't simply Brik who didn't get it. Nobody sane would get used to that.

Brik really hope that whatever this 'blood moon' thing everyone kept talking about would be worth it.

///

Fang Hu was bored. His life had entered a grind. This grind had been more rewarding than any game Fang Hu had played in his last life, but Fang Hu still hated grinding. Beating that giant turtle was never worth it anyways. Fang Hu wanted to skip all this lengthy cultivation nonsense with all his heart. Once it was over, he could finally goof off for all eternity. Alas, it was as a great warrior once said, "First immortality, then the bitches." Truly, words of wisdom.

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While he had made great strides in his understanding of the solar dao, it wouldn't help him much until he manages to make a new amulet. Useless it may be for himself, our hero was glad to take a step in solving his Jiahao problem. The increased comprehension alone might be enough to give Jiahao the kick he needs to get into the immortal realm. Even if it's not, progress begets progress, as it will grant much needed time to get a new solution off the ground.

Since Fang Hu cared about Jiahao, he decided to teach the old man more about his dao as soon as possible. This turned out to be the straw for the camel's back. The added workload was just too much. Fang Hu had to dumb down his knowledge in his notes, then leave detailed instructions to get Jiahao up to speed with what he knew. He also had to tutor the old man personally, or else the old man's dao compression risked being incomplete. This when combined with his daily sparing, research, cultivation, and regular tutoring, was almost enough to run Fang Hu ragged.

Our hero would love to go off on an epic adventure while battling against the heavens. But he would also love to live, so he refrained from doing so. Even so, he needed to find a way to blow off steam in his free time. Otherwise, Fang Hu's days would be 60% stress and 30% boredom, and the scholar couldn't have that.

What does a scholar who needs to unwind after a hard day of academic activities need to do? Study, of course! It may sound odd, but without the stakes, Fang Hu legitimately enjoyed studying. Just lazily absorbing information was almost similar to consuming the infinite void of media that was present in Hu's old world.

This was where our MC ran into another wall. These people were all scholars. Scholars, as he was himself, were loath to give information away for free. When our hero complained to his blue haired friend, he suggested allowing himself to teach Fang Hu a thing or two, as long as he tried harder in the bouts. This annoyed Fang Hu to no end, but he ultimately accepted. So it was that our hero started learning about spells. The duo could be seen sparring with one another in the various arenas of the Song clan, the young master spouting knowledge at an outsider made for an odd sight whenever they were spotted.

In his solitary cultivation, Fang Hu smiled. It may be grindy, but our hero enjoys his time here.