Everything about Gongsun Xiaotao brought her an excellent sensory experience—whether it was the passionate and upright villagers, the somewhat strange but inexplicably adorable Pei, or Master Water, who said no with her mouth but ultimately agreed anyway.
That was exactly why she didn’t want any of this destroyed by the Huangtian Sect. Just imagining such a scene made her so terrified she couldn’t even think.
“We’re here.”
Actually, the Medical Hall was very close to the Blacksmith Shop, and the village was tiny, so they could have reached their destination long ago.
But Jiang Ke’er had explicitly told Pei that she would absolutely not allow him to arrive early and wake her up, which was why they had to walk slowly and drag out the time.
“Let me tell you, Shifu is super lazy!” Pei Zheng leaned close to Gongsun Xiaotao’s ear and whispered, “One time I came early and climbed over the wall, and I caught Shifu napping in the broad daylight… Shifu loves sleeping in! She sleeps all the time when there’s no business!”
“If you keep talking like that, Shifu might punish you.” Gongsun Xiaotao chuckled softly.
“It’d be great if Shifu punished me!” Pei’s eyes sparkled.
“Shifu’s punishments are always about teaching me to comprehend the Dao. I really don’t know where Shifu gets all those novel ideas, since I’ve never seen her actually thinking about them…”
Even though he said he didn’t admire that Shifu at all, Pei kept chattering away to Gongsun Xiaotao about interesting stories from his training.
This made Gongsun Xiaotao even more curious about Master Water.
She looked up and first saw the conspicuous Name Plaque hanging above the shop—[The Ordinary Blacksmith Shop of Interest].
“So it really is called that. It really is… quite… ordinary…”
Then she saw the plaque on the courtyard gate—[Blue Lotus Sword Sect].
That name was at least a bit more normal, and even somewhat pleasant to hear. However, this name also showed how isolated and narrow-minded the village was.
To call itself a Sword Sect when it couldn’t even match an ordinary martial arts school—if word got out, people would definitely laugh at it.
But Gongsun Xiaotao didn’t laugh. Instead, she grew even more worried.
She had to convince these villagers to flee this place.
“Come in.” Jiang Ke’er yawned as she opened the courtyard gate and let Pei and Gongsun Xiaotao inside.
“Pei, go continue using your sword tip to help the ants move house. I’ll have a talk with her.” Jiang Ke’er said.
“Shifu, the ants have been forced to move house eight times this week already. The Ant Queen is so scared she’s having a difficult labor.”
“Then go help her deliver.”
“Oh…”
Pei obediently crouched down by the ant nest.
Gongsun Xiaotao stared blankly at Jiang Ke’er and Pei, feeling like she and them were living in completely different dimensions, making it hard to understand.
“Alright, let’s first talk about the tuition.” Jiang Ke’er pulled out a piece of paper. “No matter how long you plan to study, tuition is one Magic Crystal per month.”
“Okay.” Gongsun Xiaotao had no objections and directly pulled out a Magic Crystal to hand to Jiang Ke’er.
Even though this was a considerable sum for her, she was willing to spend it all to save the villagers here.
“Hey, Shifu, you never collected tuition from me either, did you?” Pei suddenly interjected.
Pei wished he could slap himself ten times over for running his mouth.
“Then I’ll collect it now. Pay up.” Jiang Ke’er shot Pei a glare.
He naturally couldn’t produce the money, so he could only pretend he hadn’t heard and lower his head, focusing intently on helping the Ant Queen with her delivery. He’d pay back the money once he had some in the future.
“Do you have any foundation in Swordsmanship?”
Gongsun Xiaotao shook her head. “I grew up in the temple at the foot of the Huangtian Sect’s mountain. I only learned some ritual dances and never touched a sword… They all say swords can only be used by nobles and officials.”
Jiang Ke’er pulled out a lighter, narrower sword and placed it in front of Gongsun Xiaotao.
“Hold it and swing it a few times. Let me see.”
Gongsun Xiaotao’s face showed hesitation.
Her body was frail. Even lifting a sword was a struggle, so she probably wasn’t suited for learning Swordsmanship. When she swung it, it would definitely be crooked and ugly.
“Just swing it casually.” Jiang Ke’er encouraged.
Gongsun Xiaotao gritted her teeth. To avoid being driven away by Jiang Ke’er, she had no choice but to give it her best effort.
She didn’t know Swordsmanship, so she could only grip the sword and dance the ritual dance she had learned.
She could imagine how she looked right now—swinging her arms all soft and limp, with no strength at all, the kind of flashy, empty movements that professional Sword Cultivators despised the most.
But in Jiang Ke’er’s eyes, although the movements were flashy, they weren’t unpleasant to watch.
Moreover, she saw the shadow of another young girl in Gongsun Xiaotao.
The High Priestess of the Underworld Province Remnant Clan—Ming Ling.
Ritual dances balanced hardness with softness, beautiful yet carrying the intent to kill. They were essentially a type of war dance suited for women to cultivate.
It was just that no one had ever combined this kind of war dance with Swordsmanship.
Besides, her weak strength could be compensated with True Qi. Gongsun Xiaotao was only at the Yiyuan Realm. Once her cultivation level rose, her lethality would naturally increase as well.
“Swordsmanship, ritual dance… sword dance…”
Jiang Ke’er suddenly felt like she had grasped something.
To improve her insight, computational power, and speed would allow her to enhance her strength.
The advantage was that she didn’t need to cultivate any particular Sword Technique—she had always believed this was the pinnacle of efficiency, and adding anything more would just be gilding the lily.
Her own Swordsmanship had always been fast and simple, using cleverness to break ten thousand jun of force. The advantage of this was that she didn’t need to practice any particular Sword Technique—she only needed to perfect each individual movement.
Therefore, she had never considered combat methods like the sword dance, and she disdained such flashy things.
She had thought her Sword Dao had already reached its end, where great simplicity was the ultimate peak… but at this moment, she suddenly realized that perhaps that wasn’t the case.
Simple movements were indeed the limit of instantaneous offense and defense, but if these simple movements could be chained together into a war dance, that would be like stacking an additional war dance effect on top!
And war dances had many effects—some could communicate with Heaven and Earth to empower oneself, while others could accumulate power to cause enormous destruction, or even summon the strength of ancient Deities.
Although that would require terrifyingly immense computational power and micro-management, if it could be achieved, it would surely elevate her strength to another level!
Holy crap, I’m practically a Genius… wait!
Jiang Ke’er suddenly froze, looking at Qiao Xiaoxian who was meditating with her eyes closed under the eaves.
She suddenly recalled how Qiao Xiaoxian had fought against Xu Chen back then.
Wasn’t that a set of war dances?
Using the simplest techniques with explosive computational power, then linking them into sets of war dances, and the dances granted her the ability to grow stronger as the battle continued—she had beaten down the Immortal Xu Chen with nothing but the Seven Luminaries Realm.
If Xu Chen hadn’t gone all out and flipped the table at the end, Qiao Xiaoxian’s plan would have been completely shattered.
She had always thought she could surpass Qiao Xiaoxian only in technique, yet the other had already reached a Domain that she couldn’t comprehend.
Waaaah, just how many realms ahead of her was this woman, and she still…
A true Hexagonal Warrior, living up to the name.
It seemed she needed to research the war dance.
The true ultimate move she had been dreaming of might finally have hope of being realized.
“Shifu?” Gongsun Xiaotao called out to Jiang Ke’er with anxious uncertainty.
Ever since Jiang Ke’er had watched her ritual dance, she had become like this. Gongsun Xiaotao had no idea whether Jiang Ke’er’s assessment of her was good or bad, and she was terrified of being kicked out.
“Xiaotao, thank you. I’ve decided to take you on as my Apprentice.”
“I can learn? You’re not sending me away?” Gongsun Xiaotao said in surprise.