Zhuang Xun walked into the courtyard and looked around. It was swept very clean, and the layout had a bit of a scholarly family's flavor.
He waited for a while after the fat deacon left, then went down the mountain to the Outer Court dormitories, packed up his belongings, and brought them back to his new residence.
Not long after, the fat deacon returned, followed by four disciples who were carrying a large chest.
Inside were the congratulatory gifts sent by various parties, all of which the Principal had left for him.
The fat deacon asked for Bai Yujing's opinion and directed the disciples to move the chest into the main hall.
Once they left, Zhuang Xun immediately opened the lid. It was packed to the brim with gold, silver, and jewels, emitting a luster that was practically blinding.
He picked up the booklet recording the congratulatory gifts.
Among the gifts, there were thirty thousand taels of silver alone, along with various items of immense value. The most expensive one recorded was a soft sword.
Zhuang Xun leaned halfway into the chest, fished out the soft sword, and examined it in his hands.
The entire sword felt like leather to the touch. Both the hilt and the scabbard were white with silver embellishments, engraved with delicate patterns of birds.
Drawing it from the leather scabbard, the handguard was rounded, and the blade drooped. When he pinched both sides of the blade with two fingers, the blade bent inward without any sharpness at all. He gripped the hilt and shook it, and the blade actually wobbled like a tongue.
“...”
Zhuang Xun smiled inexplicably.
“Is this sword meant for whipping people? It really lives up to its name as a 'soft' sword.”
“French kiss, bleh bleh bleh...” He shook the sword with one hand while flipping through the gift registry with the other.
He learned that this sword was named Shiliu, forged from a rare and exotic iron called Shuning Gold.
This Shuning Gold was somewhat like the non-Newtonian fluids of his previous life—it responded to strength with strength. When struck with force, it became as hard as steel, but when patted gently, it became as soft as glutinous rice cake.
Shiliu, forged from Shuning Gold, inherited this trait. The harder one gripped the hilt, the harder and sharper it became.
“The harder you squeeze, the harder it gets.” Zhuang Xun's mind drifted to the gutter as he gripped the hilt tightly.
Clang—!
In the next instant, Shiliu, which had resembled an ear of rice just a second ago, suddenly stood erect, its blade flashing with a cold light.
With a casual wave, the air let out a whistling sound.
“Wow~” Zhuang Xun looked amazed. He danced the sword into a flurry of flowers, unable to put it down, the sharp wind he kicked up rustling the falling leaves.
He spun around suddenly, skewering several falling leaves with a single thrust.
“How delightful! It would be perfect if it started snowing now.” He ran two fingers along the blade, then swiftly sheathed the sword.
According to the registry, Shiliu could also be used as a belt, allowing one to draw it unexpectedly during combat.
Zhuang Xun searched for a bit and indeed found a hidden slot behind the hilt. He removed his original belt and replaced it with Shiliu.
“Receiving gifts is great. I should do it more often. With this much money, it's enough for me to create over a dozen clones with max Skeletal Structure and Comprehension.”
Zhuang Xun had already planned out the development path for his third clone: he would send them to be the disciple of the Courtyard Head of Posuo Courtyard.
The Courtyard Head of Posuo Courtyard was the second-strongest expert in the Wanxing Martial Academy. Before Bai Yujing's arrival, they had been universally recognized as the next Principal of the Wanxing Martial Academy.
Zhuang Xun believed that the other party was highly likely to be his biggest potential competitor.
Therefore, he had to plant one of his own in the enemy camp. That way, he would have a presence on both sides, and regardless of who won or lost, he would always be the winner.
If he won, he would become the Principal; if he lost, he could still remain the Chief, and then leisurely wait for his new master to pass down the position to him.
Hehe, having clones is truly awesome.
“Right now, what's limiting me from creating more clones is my realm.”
The Formless Phaseless Sublime Method required one to cultivate to the Sixth Rank realm to achieve three-way multitasking.
Without three-way multitasking, Zhuang Xun wouldn't be able to manage a new clone even if he could create one.
“With my supreme talent, it shouldn't take too long. A few months should be enough.” Zhuang Xun immediately began cultivating, striving to break through to the Sixth Rank in the shortest time possible.
...
Since Bai Yujing left the Seventh Courtyard, the place had become much quieter.
Outer Court disciples no longer gathered outside the lecture hall to watch.
Several disciples in the courtyard also frequently took leave, and the previous perfect attendance was no more.
The prime example was Chen Jinzhu. After the master-apprentice ceremony, she was basically nowhere to be seen, only appearing occasionally before vanishing again the next day.
On this day, Zhuang Xun was controlling Yan Pingsheng and walking down the road when he noticed that most of the female disciples around him had bare faces, dressed simply, wore no extra jewelry, and even had their hair tied up simply with a wooden hairpin.
He felt it was strange but didn't pay it too much mind.
It wasn't until he was chatting with his roommates in the dormitory at noon that he accidentally learned the truth.
“Hey, did you guys know?” An Dafu said with a mysterious look on his face. “Senior Brother Bai actually likes girls who dress simply and have pure personalities.”
“Whoa, no wonder,” Zhang Tie said, enlightened. “I was wondering why all the women I saw today weren't wearing any makeup or dressing up.”
Zhuang Xun: “?”
“Who is assuming my type?!”
Zhuang Xun considered himself a dedicated person—dedicated to liking good-looking people. Since when did he only like those who dressed simply and had pure personalities?
Actually, as long as they were good-looking... he liked them too.
He subtly pried for information from An Dafu, only then learning how this ridiculous rumor had come about.
It turned out that because he had rejected all the maidservants a week ago, someone had secretly summarized the commonalities among those maidservants and finally concluded that they were disliked by Senior Brother Bai because they dressed too flamboyantly.
What the hell? How does that prove my type is simple and pure? Zhuang Xun didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Well, at least they didn't spread rumors that he liked men.
He had rejected the maidservants simply because he found it troublesome and feared danger.
As for beauty?
Hmph, he was already past the age of sexual repression.
Well, actually, he wasn't.
It was just that the specter of sexual repression was being suppressed by the specter of survival, so it hadn't resurfaced yet.
...
Time flowed like water, and in the blink of an eye, nearly half a month had passed since the master-apprentice ceremony.
During this period, with the support of ample funds, Yan Pingsheng also lived a wealthy life of eating one meal of precious meat a day. His strength grew rapidly, and less than half a month after his last breakthrough to five stones of strength, he broke through to six stones of strength.
But at the same time, a very tragic thing happened—Yan Pingsheng's weight exceeded two hundred pounds.
Precious meat contained a vast amount of energy and also had the effect of promoting the growth of flesh and blood.
If the intensity of cultivation was insufficient, the flesh promoted by the precious meat would all turn into fat, and the energy would accumulate as adipose tissue.
Therefore, when a martial artist of insufficient realm risked eating high-aged precious meat, they wouldn't get a breakthrough overnight, but would only end up becoming fat overnight.
Zhuang Xun had never dared to let his two clones eat precious meat that was too old, precisely because he was afraid they would get fat.
Yet he didn't expect that Yan Pingsheng would gain weight even by eating just one meal of one-year precious meat a day.
Although the Character Creation Panel could convert flesh and blood into points, his strength would also decrease accordingly.
If he converted all the fat on Yan Pingsheng's body into points, his strength would probably drop back down to five stones.
After all, half of Yan Pingsheng's current strength of six stones was supported by his weight.
Zhuang Xun thought about it for a long time that night and finally decided not to lose weight.
Anyway, Yan Pingsheng had looked average when he was thin. On the contrary, after gaining weight and bulking up, he looked even more heroic and martial.
Yan Pingsheng wasn't simply fat. He cultivated every day, so he had a significant amount of muscle. Coupled with the excess nutrition over the past half month, his height had shot up by another half-head. Now, he looked tall and burly, by no means a fat pig, but more like a fierce general on the battlefield.
Rate on N.U.
