Borrowing a sword

Chapter 60 Deception
"The handwriting is exactly the same?" The handsome young man was greatly surprised.

He had assumed that the text on the third page was left by some senior, but he never expected that it was written by his senior brother.

Based on his blind worship of Chu Huaixu, he became increasingly convinced that this was an unparalleled divine skill!
—Would my senior brother lie to me?
Xu Ziqing has her own set of logical reasoning:

"Senior brother is clearly not an ordinary disciple."

“Even the Sixth Elder would come to the bamboo house to have a private talk with him.”

"How could his cultivation technique not have been supervised by a master?"

The handsome young man realized that there is no reward without effort.

The higher the difficulty, the more impressive it is.

"How can one easily master such a skill?" Xu Ziqing felt that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

—To master this skill, one must first endure pain!

"This is the price I have to pay! But it's nothing compared to the blood feud." The handsome young man clenched his fist tightly.

Keep practicing! Keep practicing! Keep practicing!
Just practice cooking more!

Xu Ziqing, as if possessed, began to circulate his energy again and again, as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth swept towards him, constantly tempering and refining his physical body.

Later on, he wasn't asleep; instead, the pain and exhaustion piled up, and suddenly everything went black.

As dawn breaks and the sun rises in the east, the first light of day appears.

Chu Huaixu got up early.

Back on Earth, he often worked late into the night because of his job.

He lived a life with his days and nights reversed, and often suffered from sleep deprivation because he had to obey his bosses' schedules.

Fortunately, he's always been an optimistic person, and he always comforts himself by saying, "I've made up for the lifespan I lost by staying up late all the time. Staying up late adds to my youth and reduces my old age, it's fucking worth it!"

After transmigrating, he started going to bed early and waking up early.

As a result, Han Shuangjiang had already prepared a delicious breakfast, but Xu Ziqing had not yet gotten up.

Chu Huaixu knocked on the door with a displeased expression: "Get up!"

The handsome young man suddenly woke up, realizing he was late.

He opened the door and heard Chu Huaixu say, "It's only the first day you're not doing menial tasks, and you're already sleeping in?"

"Senior brother, I was wrong." Xu Ziqing lowered his head in shame, his attitude sincere, and he did not try to argue.

Chu Huaixu looked him up and down, then glanced at his neatly folded bed, and began to make some guesses.

He didn't say much, just told him to wash up and come out for dinner.

At the dinner table, Chu Huaixu said to Han Shuangjiang, "I had another breakthrough yesterday."

—Hey big ice block, you love rolling around, don't you? I'll roll you to death.

Han Shuangjiang took a sip of hot porridge, raised her eyes, and calmly said, "I have also successfully grasped one of the secrets."

—Thank goodness I figured it out, otherwise I would have fallen behind that dead fox again.

Xu Ziqing listened to the conversation between her senior brothers and sisters. Judging from their tone, it was as if the matter of enlightenment was nothing more than a casual chat at the dinner table.

He began to bury his head in his porridge, lowering it further and further as he came to realize the gap between people.

Chu Huaixu turned to look at him and said irritably, "What are you doing? Why are you bowing your head so low? Are you going to wash your face with porridge?"

Upon hearing this, the handsome young man immediately sat up straighter.

"You must have practiced your skills very late last night?" Chu Huaixu asked.

"Yes." Xu Ziqing dared not lie to him.

"You held back the whole time and didn't scream?" He was somewhat surprised.

"I was afraid of disturbing my senior brother's rest." The young man was honest, not trying to curry favor.

"Did he faint from the pain in the end?" Chu Huaixu guessed, he knew the "Sword Refining Technique" too well.

Upon hearing this, Xu Ziqing nodded somewhat embarrassedly, feeling utterly ashamed.

"It's alright, this is normal," Chu Huaixu said.

Han Shuangjiang sat to the side, and even she, who was usually aloof, hummed in response, which could be considered as encouragement to her junior brother.

She remembered clearly the heart-wrenching screams coming from the bamboo house next door on her first night as a Taoist. Didn't that dead fox also faint from the pain?
But the cold-faced girl didn't expose his past or say anything more.

She thought to herself, "Why would he teach this wicked technique to Junior Brother Xu?"

She always felt that this wicked fox seemed to have a dark heart.

However, after that romantic encounter in the water during the third level of the secret realm, she witnessed firsthand the power of the "Sword Refining Technique".

Therefore, it makes sense.

After the three of them finished breakfast together, the former handyman was still responsible for clearing away the dishes.

After finishing all the chores, he returned to his room and continued his cultivation, enduring the pain.

Whether it was because of overwhelming hatred in his heart, or because he was a person with great willpower, the handsome young man was indeed ruthless to himself.

He forced himself to practice once, and then he was in so much pain that he curled up on the meditation cushion. After his body adapted, he continued to practice, and so on.

Today, Xu Ziqing once again realized her own mediocrity.

"Senior Brother and Senior Sister Han can open up one acupoint in a day."

"Judging from this situation, it might take ten days to two weeks?" "Perhaps even longer."

For a pseudo-spiritual embryo that must rely on body-refining methods to stimulate the absorption of the Opening-Aperture Pill's effects, long-term cultivation is indeed a torment.

The morning passed quickly. After finishing lunch, Xu Ziqing washed the dishes and went back to her room to continue practicing.

As he continued practicing, he became overwhelmed and suddenly his vision went black. He heard a ringing in his ears, followed by a spinning sensation, and then he lost consciousness again.

The handsome young man lay unconscious on the ground, his face deathly pale, his body still twitching slightly without his consent.

When he finally woke up, more than an hour had passed.

Xu Ziqing supported herself and got up from the ground, sitting cross-legged on the futon again.

Tears streamed down my face and wouldn't stop.

He was still just a young boy after all. Although he had diligently studied martial arts since childhood, he had never suffered such torment.

This isn't practicing martial arts; it's clearly being tortured.

And you know what? Because he's so delicate-looking, there's a strong sense of heartbreak in his crying.

After crying for a long time, the boy wiped away his tears, sniffed, calmed himself down, and began to practice his internal energy again.

But his acupoints remained blocked, showing no change whatsoever.

That feeling is the most despairing.

Xu Ziqing was so frustrated that her eyes were still a little red.

He suddenly remembered the brocade pouch his senior brother had given him and what his senior brother had said.

—"When you feel like you're not making any progress, open the second one."

The handsome young man's left hand trembled slightly as he took out a second brocade pouch from his pocket, hoping that his senior brother's message could help him.

The first piece of advice says, "If you're bad at cooking, practice more."

As his junior, he obediently did as he was told and practiced day and night.

After opening the second brocade pouch, Xu Ziqing's hands trembled even more violently as she read the words on it.

It says:

"Just kidding, you'll still be bad even with lots of practice!"

Xu Ziqing gradually began to tremble all over and even felt a little cold.

A chill ran down his spine!
After all, he was still a teenager. No matter how much he admired Chu Huaixu, seeing this message would still make him angry, especially after all the effort he had put in.

He is a person, a person with emotions!

But deep down, he was actually proud.

Isn't that how most people in the world are when they're young? They all think they're extraordinary when they're young.

—Know that in my youth I had lofty ambitions and vowed to be the best among men!
Moreover, when Xu Ziqing was at home, he was a martial arts genius, so how could he not be proud?

My father once said that I am the most talented swordsmanship prodigy in the history of the Xu family!

A sense of defiance was completely ignited.

He suddenly felt an endless fighting spirit again!

"I may not be a cultivation genius, but I can't be a good-for-nothing! I can't disgrace the Xu family!" The handsome young man clenched his fist tightly, his nails digging into his flesh.

Xu Ziqing continued her cultivation.

Even after circulating his internal energy for two cycles, he was still forcibly persisting.

Just as he was about to continue his cultivation, there was a series of knocks on the door.

Chu Huaixu, seemingly devoid of humanity, stood outside, waiting for him to open the door.

After the door opened, Xu Ziqing still respectfully greeted him, "Senior Brother."

He gave me the opportunity to cultivate myself. No matter how much he plays with me, I will respect him for the rest of my life and cherish this kindness.

The tall Chu Huaixu looked past the short man and his gaze fell on the table, where he saw that Chu Huaixu had already opened the second brocade pouch.

Xu Ziqing also noticed his gaze. Even though it was this senior brother acting like a jerk, he felt inexplicably embarrassed at this moment.

"I thought you wouldn't open the second brocade pouch until at least tomorrow," Chu Huaixu said indifferently.

But those words sound somewhat sarcastic.

It's like saying: You can't handle it so quickly?

The handsome young man lowered his head, gritted his teeth, and felt humiliated; his face turned red.

But what the other party said turned out to be true.

"Oh dear, your face is red, and your eyes are red too." Chu Huaixu even laughed.

"Don't give me that." Chu Huaixu said coldly, but tossed something over to him: "Catch it."

Xu Ziqing almost dropped it and looked down at her palm.

It was a fragment of a jade tablet, a fragment of the Pill King's token.

"Let's go, I'll take you somewhere," Chu Huaixu said.

(P.S.: Second update, please vote for me at the end of the month.)
(End of this chapter)