The Gu Family Training Ground was located beneath the rear garden and was about half the size of a soccer field.
Li Wei followed Gu Jinzhi all the way there, drawing sidelong glances from quite a few of the garden maintenance staff.
Especially because of Li Wei's looks, which had left quite a few people staring in a daze.
When they reached their destination, Gu Jinzhi's younger brother and sister, having somehow heard the news, came scampering over.
Only fourteen years old, Gu Jinyi had her hair tied into twin buns. Soft, adorable, and cute, she hugged Li Wei's arm.
The little bamboo shoots that had just begun to develop rubbed back and forth, making Li Wei's heart race and leaving her feeling as if she were sitting among the clouds.
"Sister-in-law, sister-in-law, you're so pretty! Your skin is so smooth! What skincare products do you use?"
"Sister-in-law, are you really going to spar with my brother? My brother's being awful! How could he hit you?"
"Don't be scared, Sister-in-law. If he dares hurt you, I'll tell Grandpa! Grandpa will definitely help you beat him up!"
On the other side, sixteen-year-old Gu Jinwen came over as well, looking as though Li Wei's beauty had completely dazzled him.
"Miss Jiang," he said with a grin. "Why don't you think it over and not marry my brother? Wait four years for me, then marry me instead, all right?"
"Ah! That hurts! Gu Jinyi, why did you hit me?"
"Ow! You're still hitting me? You think I won't hit back?"
"Don't hit my face~"
Watching the young boy clutch his head and flee everywhere as his little sister chased him, Li Wei couldn't help laughing. The pair were simply too entertaining.
She lightly bumped her elbow against Gu Jinzhi, who stood ramrod straight beside her as if he had entered meditation, and spoke with a trace of envy:
"Your younger brother and sister are so lively. Your family must be very noisy on a normal day, right?"
Gu Jinzhi looked at the two of them fooling around incessantly at the edge of the field. His brows drew together slightly, his lips pressed into a straight line, and he said in a deep voice, "Annoying."
"Who are you calling annoying?" Li Wei arched a brow and shot him a sidelong glance.
From the corner of his eye, Gu Jinzhi caught her movement. He swiftly estimated the distance between them and the speed of her attack, his Adam's apple bobbing once. Without changing expression, he clarified, "I was talking about the two of them."
Li Wei gave a satisfied snort and withdrew her hand. Then she pointed toward the center of the Training Ground. "Shall we start?"
Gu Jinzhi nodded. "Training weapons, or your own?"
Li Wei touched her belt, recalling the astonishing sharpness of the Cicada-Wing Flexible Sword. She was genuinely afraid she might fail to hold back, so she said, "Training weapons."
Gu Jinzhi fell silent for a moment, as though weighing the matter, but ultimately nodded.
He walked to the edge of the field and pressed a spot on an inconspicuous protrusion in the wall.
A hidden weapons rack slowly slid open, revealing an assortment of weapons inside, all a plain iron-gray.
"How long is your sword blade?" Gu Jinzhi asked.
Li Wei answered without thinking, "Seventy centimeters."
Upon hearing that, Gu Jinzhi drew a gray longsword of the same length from the rack. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it flying toward Li Wei, hilt first, the sword cutting through the air with a whistle.
Li Wei reached out and caught it easily. It felt slightly heavy in her hand.
She weighed it, then ran her fingertip along the blade. It felt cold to the touch.
Its weight and metallic texture were no different from those of a real sword, except that the rounded, blunt edge gleamed with a special matte sheen.
She grew somewhat curious about the material.
By then, Gu Jinzhi had already picked up a matching Ming-style saber and stood ten meters away from Li Wei.
"The blades of the training weapons are made from a special material," he said, his voice as cold as ever. "They look like metal, but they aren't."
"When they strike the skin, once the force exceeds the basic defensive strength of a First Order martial artist, the edge will instantly soften."
After saying that, his gaze fell on Li Wei. Seeing that she was still wearing that light-blue dress, he asked, "Miss Jiang, do you need to change into training clothes?"
Li Wei shook her head carelessly. "No need. I'm wearing safety shorts."
As she spoke, as if to prove that she wasn't lying, she kicked off the crystal sandals hindering her feet, revealing her lustrously white little feet, while casually lifting one corner of her skirt.
Gu Jinzhi's face instantly stiffened. Immediately afterward, a rush of heat shot straight to the top of his head, and his cheeks quickly flushed red.
Gu Jinyi reacted extremely quickly. With a cry of surprise, she covered Gu Jinwen's eyes as he tried to crane his neck and sneak a look.
However, before Gu Jinzhi had time to avert his gaze, he saw that beneath Li Wei's skirt was a pair of milky-white athletic shorts, the legs reaching to just above her knees...
Rather than safety shorts, they were more like a pair of women's knee-length shorts that could be worn outside without issue.
The expressions on the Gu siblings' faces became rather indescribable. Looking at Li Wei's completely unselfconscious appearance, the same thought surfaced in both their minds: Is this future wife—this sister-in-law—wired a little differently from everyone else?
"Ahem, ahem!"
Gu Jinzhi forcibly suppressed the strange feeling in his heart. After taking a deep breath, the flush on his face slowly faded, and his expression returned to indifference.
Holding the saber in his right hand and pointing it diagonally at the ground, he raised his left hand level with the palm facing upward and said expressionlessly, "Miss Jiang, please!"
Li Wei released her skirt and casually untied the blue-and-white ribbon around her waist. With practiced ease, she used it to tie her loose, long hair into a ponytail.
Her hair flew upward, revealing a smooth, full forehead and exquisite brows and eyes.
She flourished her sword in a deliberately cool-looking arc, then curved her brows at Gu Jinzhi. "Mr. Gu, be careful."
Seeing this, Gu Jinwen and Gu Jinyi immediately retreated sensibly to the edge of the field. Their faces were woven with worry and excitement as they lowered their voices and whispered to each other.
Gu Jinyi: "Second Brother, do you think Sister-in-law can win?"
Gu Jinwen: "Being pretty doesn't count as strength..."
Gu Jinyi: "But Sister-in-law looks really confident!"
Gu Jinwen: "That's called a newborn calf not fearing the tiger!"
Gu Jinyi: "If the gap is this huge, why are they even sparring?"
Gu Jinwen: "We're a Martial Arts Noble Family. Shouldn't they establish the family hierarchy through a martial contest before marriage?"
Gu Jinyi: "..."
Before his voice had even faded, Li Wei moved!
In the blink of an eye, that light-blue figure closed in on Gu Jinzhi like a ghost.
The gray, unremarkable training sword in her hand let out a barely audible whistle. From an exceedingly tricky angle, it swept diagonally toward his neck!
Gu Jinzhi's pupils suddenly contracted. He had been prepared this time, but Li Wei's speed still exceeded his expectations.
He reacted almost instinctively. His eyes sharpened, his waist suddenly exerted force, and the longsaber whipped upward from below, precisely blocking the unexpected strike.
The crisp clash of metal rang through the empty Training Ground, making everyone's eardrums buzz faintly.
The instant the sound wave spread, Li Wei's figure blurred again.
She lightly tapped the ground with her toes, her body tracing an unbelievable arc, and she had already appeared behind Gu Jinzhi at an angle.
Her wrist turned, and another sword thrust toward the vital point at his back!
Her change of direction was simply too fast—so fast that Gu Jinzhi had no time to turn and block with his saber.
In the crisis, he gave a low shout. The blood qi within him surged and thundered instantly. Using both feet as an axis, he suddenly began spinning at high speed!
The longsaber in his hand whirled with him. Saber light merged into a single sheet, forming an impenetrable silver barrier that protected his entire body.
"Holy crap, are you cosplaying the Beastman Sword Saint?"
Startled by this sudden whirlwind saber technique, Li Wei let out a strange cry and sprang backward, avoiding the saber's range.
But the moment she landed, before she had fully steadied herself, Gu Jinzhi's spinning suddenly stopped.
With a low roar, the blood qi in his body exploded without reservation, its intensity far surpassing what it had been before.
A scorching, violent wave of energy spread outward from him. The air seemed to ignite and twist in an instant.
Li Wei felt as though she had suddenly been pushed in front of a massive steelmaking furnace, and even her skin began to sting from the heat.
The Gu Family's Great Sun Meditation Method? Holy crap, that's fierce!
Roaring blood-colored flames instantly enveloped the saber.
Gu Jinzhi drove off the ground with his feet, his entire body surging forward like a cannonball. He raised the longsaber high and chopped down at Li Wei's head!
Li Wei's almond-shaped eyes widened, her pupils shrinking sharply, and she tapped the ground with her toes.
The light-blue figure once again became an elusive afterimage, narrowly dodging the savage saber strike.
At the same time, the longsword in her hand moved as fast as a sudden rainstorm. The faint explosive pops produced by its tip tearing through the air merged into one continuous sound.
Damn it, I can't suppress the sword's sound! Looks like the Cold Pond Sinking Jade at Minor Accomplishment with zero progress still needs to be paired with the Cicada-Wing Flexible Sword to achieve a soundless effect.
Li Wei's thoughts raced, but the attacks in her hands grew fiercer and faster.
Gu Jinzhi's saber missed. His vision blurred, and a sky full of sword shadows descended upon him again.
Relying on his keen ability to locate his opponent by sound and his battle instincts, he barely managed to block several strikes with his saber.
But Li Wei was simply too fast, and her footwork was far too strange and unpredictable.
At times she was on the left, at times on the right, while the angles of her sword strikes were even more incomprehensible.
She forced him to start spinning his "electric fan" again.
The blazing saber light once more formed a rotating ring of fire, forcibly driving back Li Wei's offensive.
The scene left the Gu siblings watching from the edge of the field so stunned that their eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
Gu Jinwen rubbed his eyes hard, then grabbed his sister's arm in disbelief.
"Am I, am I seeing this right? The one being beaten down is my brother? My big brother, the one who won the national championship?! Jinyi, pinch me quickly. Am I dreaming?"
"Ow—!" Gu Jinwen cried out in pain. "Holy crap! You really pinched me?"
Gu Jinyi's face flushed bright red. "Sorry, I got too excited!"
Gu Jinwen wore a black-question-mark expression. "What are you excited about?"
Gu Jinyi's eyes shone as she stared fixedly at the agile, graceful blue figure in the field, moving as fast as a ghost.
"I've decided! Starting today! I'm not practicing the saber anymore! I'm going to learn the sword from Sister-in-law!"
As she spoke, the little girl thrust out her not-yet-fully-developed chest, spread her legs, held her left hand in a loose fist at her waist, and pointed her right hand like a sword. She suddenly stabbed forward, imitating the bearing of some great master while chanting:
"Your sword is sharp; mine has never been dull!"
After finishing her performance, she turned to the dumbfounded Gu Jinwen and asked excitedly:
"Second Brother, Second Brother, am I cool?"
Gu Jinwen's face went wooden, and the corner of his mouth twitched. He instinctively mocked her, "You shameless—ow, don't twist my ear! Let go! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"
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