Tome of Troubled Times

Luo Qi and Zhao Changhe were both filled with worry and could not sleep well. On the second day, the two of them immediately sprang out of bed at the same time when a laborer knocked on the door to deliver their cornbread. After they both composed themselves, they looked at each other. Zhao Changhe smiled and said, “Good morning.”

Luo Qi ignored him and looked down. Seeing himself wrapped tightly in his blanket, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Zhao Changhe could not be bothered concerning himself with Luo Qi and went to open the door, returning with the cornbread. He saw Luo Qi sitting on the bed, fixing up his hair.

That posture... If I wasn’t careful, I would’ve been smitten.

Zhao Changhe felt his heart skip a beat. He tilted his head and changed the topic of conversation. “Fucking hell. Another day without being able to brush my teeth. I’m really not used to any of this.”

Luo Qi replied lazily, “You were born in the countryside, yet you talk as if you’re from a wealthy family. You even know about brushing your teeth with willow branches!?”

Zhao Changhe chewed on his cornbread and cast Luo Qi a sidelong glance. “You know about it too? And about the willow branches? Weren’t you just a servant or whatever... Oh, sorry.”

“What’s there to apologize for? You think you can offend me with your words? I call you a country bumpkin, you call me a servant. That makes us even.” Luo Qi looked at Zhao Changhe disapprovingly. “Let’s go. You have your training to do, I have to struggle to make sure we have meat to eat.”

“Eh, about what you said yesterday...”

Luo Qi glanced back with a smile as he walked to the door. “You are too na?ve. I’m afraid it won’t be so easy to achieve what you want. However... I think you should focus on other things. Go with the flow and see where that takes you.”

That smile was spiteful, but Zhao Changhe was unaffected and nodded. “There will be a way.”

Thick-headed guys were like this. It made Luo Qi even more careful not to reveal anything feminine about himself. He took his cornbread and went to complete his tasks.

Regardless of what Luo Qi did with his femininity, Zhao Changhe did not intend to concern himself with it.

Who cares if he’s a guy or a girl. Thinking too much will only affect how fast I can cultivate.

Once Luo Qi left, Zhao Changhe made his way to the training grounds without telling anyone. He was supposed to cultivate the Vicious Blood Art in the morning and train with the saber in the afternoon. However, he was channeling the Vicious Blood Art as he practiced with the saber. This allowed him to make quick progress in the Vicious Blood Art. He did not know if any problems would arise because of this, so he decided it would be best to consult Instructor Sun.

“You think you’re improving too fast? Where are you in your cultivation right now? Channel the Vicious Blood Art and try to punch me,” said Instructor Sun, not the least bit concerned.

Zhao Changhe replied carefully, “With all my strength?”

“Of course with all your strength.” Instructor Sun rolled his eyes. “You think you can rattle me with your punches?”

Zhao Changhe agreed and entered into his horse stance with his fists by his waist.

Qi and blood from the Vicious Blood Art surged throughout his body. Zhao Changhe could feel his muscles fill with abundant energy both fiendish and ferocious.

With a shout, Zhao Changhe punched with all his might.

He did not know if he was seeing things, but the moment he threw his punch, he could only see red.

Instructor Sun raised a hand indifferently to block the attack. Zhao Changhe felt like an enormous, immeasurable force had rushed toward him and was sent flying backwards a few steps before he was able to stabilize himself. That powerful force disappeared and seemed to have beaten out the blood-red image in Zhao Changhe’s vision.

Zhao Changhe held some respect for Instructor Sun in his heart. He laughed apologetically and said, “That’s why you’re the instructor.”

Instructor Sun clasped his hands behind his back and said indifferently, “Your progress...is indeed very fast. There’s no special reason for this, though. In the first place, you have a pretty good understanding of martial arts. More crucially, however, is your physique. It’s simply too good, incomparably abundant with qi and blood. You’re overly suited to cultivating the Vicious Blood Art. It’s strange. Being from a peasant family, how were you able to get such nutrition? How did you develop your body?”

He did not let Zhao Changhe see his hand slightly shaking behind his back.

Instructor Sun had been too careless to casually block the attack with a single hand. He did not expect Zhao Changhe to strike with such ferocity... What the hell, this is ridiculous!

Zhao Changhe thought to himself, If we talk nutrition, then I don’t think even the cult leader can eat as well as a regular worker in the modern world. Not to mention, I’m a real gym rat, so how could a random dude my age compare to me? Come to think of it, I’ve yet to even be forced to use the Back Eye. Maybe this body of mine is the biggest cheat I have?

“Of course, there is another reason. You haven’t lost your virginity; you still retain your original yang and have abundant male essence, overflowing even... This is what people call being young and vigorous.” Not even Instructor Sun knew if he was praising or mocking Zhao Changhe. He sized him up for a while and could not hold back from adding, “You’re already nineteen, right? How sad.”

“Fuck.” Zhao Changhe straightened his neck and asked, “Wouldn’t I have lost some of that original yang from rubbing one out?”

“You’re technically correct according to the principles of cultivation, but it’s negligible unless you do it too often...fuck, why am I telling you this?!”

Zhao Changhe: “...”

Instructor Sun was expressionless. “From what I can see today, you’re about to reach the first level of the Vicious Blood Art. Train well this month and attempt to break through. Once you’ve passed the first level, you will have also broken through to the first layer of the Profound Gate.”

“Reaching the first layer of the Profound Gate in a month?” Zhao Changhe found it unbelievable. He thought of Luo Qi, who had started cultivating as a child and felt proud for reaching the first layer of the Profound Gate at sixteen or seventeen. I wonder if he’ll vomit blood after hearing about this.

“This is what a demonic art can accomplish. You’ll know the price to pay in the future. Anyway, those who use demonic arts advance at a far greater rate than others. You are exceptional, but not unique,” Instructor Sun said indifferently. “Right, your cultivation is progressing much faster than your saber art. You need to catch up. The three moves I taught you yesterday, the Vertical Chop, Horizontal Slash, and Returning Slash—how many times have you practiced them?”

Zhao Changhe answered truthfully, “I intended to practice each move a thousand times, but I lost count in the end. The number of repetitions shouldn’t be that far off, though.”

He actually practiced them a thousand times each? Instructor Sun’s eyes nearly popped out of the sockets, and he did his best to calmly point at a wooden pole. “You see that blade mark in the middle? Hit that. Let me see.”

Zhao Changhe took out his saber.

Swoosh!

The saber flashed as it struck toward the blade mark Instructor Sun had pointed out. The attack did not strictly line up with the mark; there was still a small discrepancy. Instructor Sun heaved a huge sigh and muttered, “Reasonable.”

Zhao Changhe said, “It’s not all that great, but it should get better with more training today.”

You want to be humble? Do you think that by ‘reasonable’ I meant your technique was alright? What I meant was that your talent for the saber is reasonably average, not ridiculous like the Vicious Blood Art. If not, your aptitude would be a bit too ridiculous.

Instructor Sun’s expression relaxed considerably. “To be honest, if we were to speak of talent, you’re not that special. You’re only slightly better than average. After all, this move is the simplest of them all. Any random idiot could learn it after chopping firewood for a few days. How could a true genius still make inaccurate attacks after practicing a move a thousand times? However, what’s different about you is that you know your attacks aren’t accurate. You can practice a single move a thousand times. Most people can’t do that.”

Zhao Changhe: “Eh...”

“If you can keep practicing every single move a thousand times when you actually start learning the Vicious Blood Saber Art, what you can achieve will exceed your expectations,” Instructor Sun said unhurriedly. “Of course, when regular people pick up advanced saber arts and break through to the first layer of the Profound Gate, they’re usually placed in a leadership role. After that, they’re able to enjoy lots of wine and meat and plenty of women. Those that are able to continue working hard are few and far between. I don’t know how you’ll fare.”

Zhao Changhe also could not be certain of how he would fare in the future. In any case, he was extremely committed right now. All his attention was practically placed on training. It wasn’t just that he wanted to become strong and return to the real world; he also found real pleasure in cultivation and training in martial arts.

It was just like the video games he played in the past. When dying repeatedly to a boss, how could Zhao Changhe just give up like that? Even the server admins told him off for not being willing to walk away. Zhao Changhe’s current situation was similar. Fucking hell. I can’t accurately strike that blade mark? I won’t accept this. I’ll continue striking this “boss” until I figure out how to defeat it.

It was the same for the Vicious Blood Art. Zhao Changhe found real enjoyment in the process of gaining more and more strength, and he secretly enjoyed the reverence he received from the people around him.

At the training grounds, Zhao Changhe’s voice grew louder and grander. Soon, it melded together with the voices of the others present.

That scholarly air he had before had faded away without him knowing it; it was replaced with the temperament of a bandit.

After a mere few days...

Zhao Changhe showed off more and more of the reasons he had been labeled a natural-born bandit.

Plap!

Dusk had arrived. Zhao Changhe, who had been training for the entire day, put away his saber and gave one of the bandits behind him a heavy pat on the shoulder. “Someday, when we can leave the stronghold, I’ll treat all of you to a drink!”

The bandit laughed apologetically. “Nah, boss, I think we are the ones who gotta give you a drink. Even just the fact that you killed that pig Luo Zhenwu is enough to deserve a toast.”

“Huh? You were there that day?”

“Of course we weren’t there, but we heard about it from the other disciples who participated in the raid. Boss Zhao, you’re already pretty famous in the jianghu.”

“What? How can that be? It was just some dog from the Luo family. Who in the jianghu would possibly care?”

The bandit had a strange look on his face as he said, “They say that, ten years ago, the emperor went on an inspection tour throughout the country. One of his destinations was the Luo family. The Luo Village Lord, being the bootlicker that he was, wanted to kiss the emperor’s ass, and he sent his wife to tend to the emperor...”

Zhao Changhe was dumbstruck. He ruminated on the bandit’s words for a moment. “You don’t mean to say...”

The bandit clapped his hands together. “Yes. It’s possible that Luo Zhenwu is the emperor’s offspring! That’s why the Imperial Clan took special care of them! The Luo family had a lot of hidden masters affiliated with the imperial court. If it wasn’t for Venerable Vermillion Bird, how could we have succeeded... Just think about it, boss, can any old family hide masters affiliated with the imperial court?”

Zhao Changhe tried to restrain himself, and only said one word, “Fuck!”

Strange. The way the Luo Village Lord spoke to his son was not anything like how someone would treat a prince. Wasn’t it exactly like how a father would speak to his child? Did the bandit get it wrong... Or did those two just get used to that dynamic?

The bandit said, “In the past, when people spread rumors about the relationship between the Luo family and the Imperial Clan, no one spoke in detail about what this relationship exactly was... It’s not that they didn’t know. They didn’t dare to! Now, we’re all a part of the same holy faith. What we oppose is this rotten imperial court. Why should we cover up the identity of this dog of a prince you killed?”

Zhao Changhe sighed. He thought that the whole thing was confidential and he could only ask about it after joining the cult as a formal disciple. He did not expect to hear about all this right now.

In a way, it made sense. Before Luo Zhenwu died, the whole thing had been kept under wraps. But now that he was dead, it was only right that the Blood God Cult wanted to spread what they did.

So what I did...it appears to be quite impressive...

“All I did was kill the emperor’s bastard. How long can my reputation really spread for? No one will be speaking about it in a few days.” Zhao Changhe shrugged and turned away, thinking of ending the conversation right there.

However, the bandit’s eyes widened. “Only a bastard? No, boss, you really don’t get it. The actual crown prince is dead and the emperor has no other sons.”

Zhao Changhe froze in his tracks.

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