Changing Bodies

"Was he a close playmate of yours?"

"No."

"Did he owe you a favor?"

"No."

"Did you want to talk them out of it?"

"..."

Skinny Monkey did not continue denying it. Perhaps after having that dream, he had felt that this was not a road one could charge through. That was why pity had stirred in him, and he wanted to persuade those peers who suffered the same fate beside him.

Yet he did not know what to do or how to begin, so he came to Tu Shan Jun for help.

"Everyone in this world has their own choices. You may change their choice this time, but you may not be able to help them walk the whole road."

"They are neither your playmates nor close acquaintances, and they owe you no favor. Why trouble yourself over such matters?" Tu Shan Jun moved a steel needle through black-and-red thread, as though mending something. Listening to Skinny Monkey's words, he did not even raise his eyelids. His expression was calm and indifferent.

Skinny Monkey, standing rooted to the spot, stared in startled realization and retreated half a step.

His round eyes looked toward the tall figure reclining on one side and sewing.

He had originally believed Uncle Tiger was one of those heroic wanderers of the martial world, a sword immortal who came and went on high in storybooks. He was merely lying low in hardship, waiting for the winds and clouds to meet before soaring through the nine heavens—plucking stars and gathering the moon above, suppressing rivers and crushing seas below.

Though he looked somewhat fierce, he was quite kind in actual company, and he possessed a bold, heroic spirit that naturally inspired Skinny Monkey's admiration.

But looking again now—

What great sword immortal curled up in a