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I noticed a massive tree with thick low foliage and aimed for it. With absolute elegance, I slid under the low branches the snake couldn’t pass through, jumped to my feet, twisted my upper body to avoid a spray of venom, then I kept running.

Unfortunately, it quickly rounded the tree and attacked.

The python sent its tail, whipping forward to catch my side. I dodged as well as I could in my current body but it still caught me. My talisman, though good, wasn’t as effective as I had hoped. I sustained several stinging scratches from this one attack. Still, I would rather take a small injury than have my chest caved in, any day.

This attack also sent me flying into a clearing. There I saw Unyielding just rounding a massive tree. His face hardened as he took in my situation and his hands started creating seals. Soon a flame burst from the tip of his fingers and distracted the beast that was just about to chomp on my head.

Then Justice arrived carrying his sword. He didn’t hesitate to jump between me and the snake.

Finally, Jujube, carrying a zither, ran into the clearing. Even though she looked serious, she seemed far too perky and put together.

I darted past them until I reached the treeline where I turned to watch.

Jujube set her delicate fingers against the strings and thrashed. Her vicious-sounding song stopped the snake in its slithery tracks. It hissed and flapped, sending a blast of air toward the fairy. Her music’s soul striking effectiveness dissipated until Justice came along and cut a slice into the wing membrane.

It roared from pain and pulled its wings back into its body as if they’d never existed. Then it glared in hatred at the sword cultivator.

Even though I felt bad that Justice was taking the brunt of the snake's anger, I also rejoiced that I had finally stopped being solely targeted by that damn one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple python monster... And I realized that saying it all together like that made it sound like a nickname for a really gross—.

I turned sideways to avoid a tail attack.

Right. This wasn’t the right place or time to zone out.

Since I didn’t want to distract my mostly useful seniors — or become the snake’s target again — I headed back to where I’d left my other team members. It took several minutes but I found Glittering Iron keeping watch.

Once I stood next to him, I sighed with relief. I used my divine sense to see Fairy Third running over with Little Spring. They would arrive shortly

Feeling safer, but not entirely safe, I contemplated how we (mostly they) fucked up so bad.

The first thing was the plan. Personally, I preferred to deal with spirit beasts by holding them down with my overwhelmingly powerful cultivation while I plundered any natural treasures I needed, then releasing them with a bit of compensation. But that wasn't always possible. And with my issues, dealing with spirit beasts was exceedingly difficult. I really didn't have that much experience with them. That said, it wasn't as if I’d never heard from or witnessed other cultivators handle them.

In a case like this where the beast was injured or was missing a limb, it was possible to attempt to make a trade: medicine for the plant they were guarding. This didn't always work. Quite often, one side or both would betray each other. Or they wouldn't make the trade at all due to not trusting the other side and that would end up leading to the inevitable fight. This world seriously had fucked up people in it (and spirit beasts counted as people once they hit the level of human intelligence).

Of course, this method only worked if the cultivator had the appropriate medicine. In this instance, the spirit beast was missing a body part it had to re-grow, requiring a more complicated pill. One that I needed a higher realm to create — even relying on Little Spring as a battery. But it was possible that one of the others, with their background, had one on them. I just hadn’t considered it.

But even if they did, I had believed that skipping over the possible betrayal was appropriate. I mean, why bother risking a fight that put us at a disadvantage when we could steal to save the Sect Leader’s life?

Of course, that didn’t turn out how we’d hoped. And if Unyielding had kept this option in mind, he might have been able to calm the snake and attempt it. Still, it was such a long shot, that I didn’t blame him for not thinking of it. Not when the man he considered as his father was dying.

Which lead to the second fuck up. The sleeping powder Jujube used. I knew that Jujube wasn’t an amazing alchemist. But I thought that, at most, it wouldn’t work. To think that it actually helped the snake to wake up. I really overestimated her abilities... Or she was trying to get her boyfriend injured out of spite for the fight they’d had. Then again, maybe she was trying to murder him. But these were all mere speculation. And I wasn’t about to publicly point my finger at someone without solid evidence. Especially not one of Bloodsword’s harem members.

That way led to face slapping insanity.

Before I could keep analyzing all the fuck ups, Little Spring returned... He and Fairy Third had probably tried to chase after me.

His eyes appeared red and watery. The kid ran up to me and practically tackled me with a hug. I smoothed his dark hair down.

“Hey. I’m fine.” I then proceeded to use the cleaning technique on us both because I was filthy and he wasn’t much better.

Glittering Iron snorted. “You’re crying? Just over this?”

I glared at him. What the fuck did this guy know, huh? “He’s a kid.”

“You’re a kid. You’re even injured with scratches all over. You’re not burying your head in someone’s shoulder.”

Nope. I was done. I wasn’t even going to deal with this unsympathetic shit.

Little Spring lifted his head. He was, in fact, not tearing up. He glared at Glittering Iron Omniscience. “Someone who doesn’t know what it’s like to lose an important person should remain quiet.”

He took a step forward. “What did you say, brat?”

Fairy Third Peach Sapling yelled, “They did it! They killed the python. Junior Sect Leader is injured!”

Fuck?! Really?

Taking this chance to escape, I grabbed Little Spring’s hand and ran over. The clearing that had been fairly pristine, looked trashed. Its new scorch marks, gouges, and pools of venom sketched how intense the fight had become. Since I couldn't see the body of the massive snake, I assumed someone planned to make use of it and threw it into a space ring.

That was something I approved of. Death in the original author’s vicious Xianxia world was a fairly regular occurrence. If I had to live in this damn world then the very least I could do was not let any spirit beast’s death I was part of go to waste. Cultivators who killed merely for the beast’s crystal core drove me crazy.

Fairy Jujube and Unyielding held hands as she broke up a blood coagulation pill and dusted it onto the small scratch on his arm.

Did Fairy Third say he was injured to break up the tension or was that not the only injury he sustained?

I stepped up to him and pressed two fingers to his arm while saying, “Pardon me, Junior Sect Leader.”

I examined his wounds with my divine sense. As I suspected, he was worse off than just a damn scratch. Internal injuries. A bruised meridian near his heart. Even some minor internal bleeding.

I glared at Fairy Blissful Jujube who peered at me with confusion. Yep. She never had been that good at medicine. She could play a mean song though. Really soul-damaging.

I took out a bottle of repair dan. This particular variety wasn’t one of my best ones, but he didn’t need my best one. It was, however, better than what was on the market from someone in my realm.

I poured one into his palm and glared up at him. “Take this and cycle your energy.”

“I have my own. You should save it for yourself.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I rolled my eyes, poured another one into my own palm, and took it, then briefly cycled my cultivation technique where I stood. “Not poisoned,” I said then stormed off to go check that poor beat-up sword cultivator.

Fairy Blissful Jujube giggled at me as I left. Hey. How was that funny? Whatever.

“Just take it. She’s so cute,” I heard her say.

Damn straight!

But I didn’t want to hear that from her. After that stunt with the snake... Well, she was an incompetent alchemist, or in the worst-case scenario, an attempted murderer. And I wasn’t sure which one was worse.

I paused. Actually, considering that they killed people while wanting to help, an incompetent alchemist was worse.

Once I could get the Junior Sect Leader alone where he could hide his reaction, I’d warn him to be more careful. And to definitely never trust Jujube’s alchemy skills again.

When I found the sword cultivator he was already sitting in the lotus position and about to cultivate. He stared at me with cold eyes.

I ignored him. “Pardon me, senior.”

I pressed two fingers to his arm and checked his condition. As I suspected. While he had a tough body, he’d sustained a lot of internal injuries. Some of them had even come from his training. And the pill he took to heal those injuries had too many impurities for it to be effective.

Sometimes, it made me so angry that very few cultivators bothered to learn much about pills aside from alchemists.

I wondered if the original author did that on purpose to make Bloodsword look cooler. Sucked for everybody else though.

The best option to heal Justice would be to give him spiritual spring water and a better healing pill, but since I didn’t feel right giving away Little Spring’s water I decided to go with option two, which was to hand him a Five Grass Meridian Cleansing Dan and a Soothing Organ Repair Dan.

“Take these. This place is dangerous and we need you in top condition.”

He eyed my hand skeptically.

“I’m not an idiot who would harm my own team members.”

Cautiously, he took the pills from me and swallowed them. I nodded. Now that I looked at this cold guy, he was really just a kid as well. Maybe 16 or 17. Pretty impressive for his age.

Something cool and refreshing ran over my body removing all the dust and dirt that had accumulated on me since the last time I cast the cleaning technique. I peered at Little Spring who smiled up at me.

I grinned and patted his head. “Good job!”

That was when I noticed Fairy Third hovering off to the side, looking like she wanted to go over to Jujube and check her for injuries. I walked toward her. This seemed like a good time to get to know her a little better and see if she really did have obsessive thoughts.

I could try to reassure her that Fairy Blissful was a fucking ghost in a fight. Nobody could touch her. Which was one reason I hadn’t bothered to check her for injuries. Another was that she was the one who put me in fucking danger in the first place.

Plus, she obviously didn’t have a scratch on her. Even her clothes appeared utterly perfect despite running through the forest and dodging attacks. But, the original harem members did all have frighteningly high visual specs.

I walked over to Fairy Third and smiled like a kid. “Beautiful Senior Third Peach Sapling! Isn’t Senior Blissful Jujube so kind? Is she your friend?”

Ugh. I wanted to slap myself but I held it in. Information. I needed information.

Fairy Third’s face turned bright red. “Uh. Y-yes. She is my friend.”

Before I could keep asking, the Junior Sect Leader used a sound transmission to gather us in front of him. He held the massive pot that Jujube had placed the flower in and grinned.

“It’s been a long day and we have another long run to reach the next location. Since this part of the forest is not safe at night, I decided that we’ll run towards the next location for another two hours then find a spot to set up camp.” He patted the pot. Most everyone glanced at it with uninterested eyes. I thought I saw a flash of desperation from Glittering Iron, but that was likely due to his worry over his uncle. He may be a dick to us, but the sect leader never said anything harsh towards him so he couldn’t be all bad.

“I’d also like to thank everyone for helping us collect the Orchid. When we get back to the sect, I’ll make sure you all get the credit you deserve.”

He then moved the pot into his storage ring.

“Alright. Let’s go!”

***

We’d set up camp near a rocky cliff wall (I had secretly gone to each of Fairy Third’s flags and adjusted them to the correct position) but there was still a bit of light left. Fairy Third and Fairy Jujube were off talking together. Fairy Third kept stealing glances at Jujube and it was pretty obvious that she liked her in that way, but Jujube was oblivious.

That said, I didn’t see the signs of obsession that Glittering Iron Omniscience mentioned to his uncle.

It was possible that I just couldn’t recognize it or that she deeply hid it. Or, it was possible that he was just an asshole and confused incompetence for maliciousness. Not that there was much of a difference in the outcome. I decided that I couldn’t trust the original report he gave to the Sect Leader. Not in its entirety at any rate. The guy was a pretentious bird-brained fuck head. Who knew what he embellished?

Just thinking about this upset me.

I needed to cool my anger and Little Spring needed to practice so I dragged him over to Justice who was slowly practicing the sect’s basic sword stances, then moving onto the Foundation Establishment level ones. Finally, he poorly practiced just the movements for the Golden Core basics. It may have been poorly done but the fact that he learned them in Foundation Establishment was impressive.

::Are you sure I have to practice with him?::

::Are you scared?::

::He’s not as good as you are.::

::Hehehe. You’re just scared.::

::Am not.::

::Just shut up and practice.::

I took out my hairpin and changed it into its sword form.

Little Spring brought out the blade I purchased for him while in Golden Aspect City. We stood side by side and waited for Justice to start the Qi Formation stances. Then, in sync with him, we started to move. Of course, since this was just practice, we held back on producing sword Qi, but the positions felt good, and while we weren’t pure sword cultivators like him, they did benefit our cultivation of sword Qi.

Beautifully, we all finished the basic Qi Condensation stances. Since I had yet to teach Little Spring the Foundation Establishment set yet, he practiced some of the other techniques I’d taught him.

I continued, following along through the Foundation Establishment set. It was about time I started getting ready for that, which required practice to get this young body used to the movements.

Somewhere in there, Justice had stopped and watched me. Since I had instructed cultivators before, this didn’t bother me. When I reached the end I noticed that his eyes that used to be cold, glittered.

Wait, fuck. I was supposed to keep a low profile right?

“Impressive!” He seemed to vibrate with potential energy. ”Your stances were almost perfect.”

That was because I hadn’t practiced them in this new body yet, or they’d be perfect. Still, I bowed to him. “Thank you, senior.” I bit my lip, pretending to contemplate something. “Senior, would you care to exchange notes... with my brother? He’s only ever sparred with me and needs practice.”

He looked like he’d rather fight against me, but he still nodded.

Justice suppressed his cultivation to the 8th layer of Qi Condensation.

But there was something I suddenly remembered... Back in my original world, coaches would record training sessions and performances to show their charges their mistakes. This helped them improve significantly. Since I was the one always fighting with Little Spring I hadn’t really thought of doing that, but this might be a good chance. Unfortunately, I didn’t have one of the expensive devices used to record images and sound... But I did have jade on me...

While jade slips weren’t exactly recording tools, a cultivator with divine sense could record information onto one and share it with others. And technically someone at the peak of Qi Condensation could learn to use their divine sense, though it was rare.

Usually, Jade slips were used for things like manuals or text and simple image documents. But in my past-past life, we had computers, so to me, video and audio were just mere pieces of information and easily transcribed into the jade. I took out a good carving knife and the jade that helped me win the bet against Fairy Effervescent Sea Pearl. It was a shame to use it like this but it wasn’t a bad use for it either. I could even make it record multiple times.

Within a minute, while the two eyed each other up, I carved out a high-quality jade slip with the appropriate sealing glyphs and formations carved onto it. If my old spiritual tool teacher had seen me do this, they’d likely faint from shock at my speed.

Just after I completed the tool, they both bowed and began attacking.

I shoved the jade into my hair for convenience and concentrated on turning the images I saw into pictures recorded onto the jade.

Justice went straight for the kill, using a technique that distracted an opponent and reached behind them to attack their skull. It was a really vicious move to start with.

I approved.

Little Spring did not disappoint as he managed to see it coming, just barely, and raised his sword to stop Justice from hitting his head. He then kicked out at his opponent’s open side. But the sword cultivator wasn’t an amateur. He dodged easily and brought his sword back in only to lash out in a feint.

And look at this kid. Only a few months ago and he was a complete novice. Now he was viciously attacking a far superior opponent like his life depended on it, yet also remaining cool-headed. No wonder he was the universe’s favorite.

Little Spring made a stab toward Justice’s weak spot, just like I’d taught him. It seemed like he’d had a breakthrough in his contemplation of sword Qi since a little leaked out. Unfortunately, it was aimed at Justice’s heart.

Sensing danger, the sword cultivator released his suppressed cultivation and attacked Little Spring’s sword a little too hard. It sent the kid flying toward Glittering Iron Omniscience who stood with his divining tortoiseshell close to the rocky cliff. If Little Spring kept going then he would land right on top of him.

I would have tried to stop him myself except I was certain Glittering Iron would catch him before he landed... Except, the asshole stepped out of the way. He didn't even slow him down.

In fact, the kid seemed to speed up when he neared the cliff wall.

I stopped concentrating on my recording.

A fury like I hadn’t felt since I landed back in this time period nearly overwhelmed me...

I expected to see Little Spring crash hard against the rocks and started to mentally prepare a list of what I’d need to heal his injuries.

Instead, he vanished into the cliffside. It rippled like water, then hardened.

My little brother was nowhere to be found, even after scanning the stone with divine sense.

He was fucking gone!