Work Optimization

Ever since he'd mastered the technique of "Pseudo-True Qi Projection"—a name Xu Qian had come up with himself—and successfully used it to slice a brick in half, everything in the Heavenly Prison had started looking much more agreeable to him. Even the ever-present Yin Sha Qi had become a "good friend" in his eyes, tirelessly providing him with cultivation.

There was nothing like a happy occasion to lift one's spirits. But Xu Qian's good mood didn't show on his face. Instead... he'd channeled all that energy into working harder than anyone else.

That was right. He'd found a whole new use for the Sword Intent Seed: everyday cleaning.

That day, he was once again assigned to clean a stretch of the main corridor. People were constantly coming and going along it, leaving footprints, stains, and even the occasional unidentifiable smear of blood. It was one of the hardest areas to clean, and the prison guards usually responsible for it just went through the motions, making sure it looked passable on the surface.

Xu Qian stood at the entrance to the corridor with a bucket and a mop, along with his increasingly trusty broken broom, a mysterious smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

First, he did as he usually did: splashed water around and gave the floor a rough once-over with the mop. Then he picked up the broken broom.

He sank his consciousness into his dantian and reached out to the Sword Intent Seed.

"Sweetie, time to work! Let's do a big clean today!"

With a subtle shift of thought, a faint yet pure and razor-sharp intent settled on the end of the broom. This time, he used a fraction of the force he'd used to cut the brick, taking care to make it as imperceptible as possible.

He started "sweeping."

His movements looked no different from ordinary sweeping: unhurried as ever, even a little lazy.

But the results were worlds apart!

The invisible blade of qi clinging to the broom's bristles was like the most precise nano-scale scraper. Wherever it passed, stubborn stains that were nearly impossible to remove by ordinary means, dried blood scabs, even years of grime embedded in the cracks between the stones, were silently stripped away and ground to dust!

He didn't need to scrub at all. He simply held the broom and swept across the floor with the easy grace of a master calligrapher wielding a brush.

In its wake, the stone floor gleamed like new! It even seemed to reflect the light of the torches! The stains, some faint and some deep, looked as though they'd never been there at all!

This was more than ten times faster than scrubbing with brute force, and the level of cleanliness wasn't even in the same league!

As Xu Qian "swept," he gloated to himself:

[Heh, just look at those results! It's like a pressure washer and scouring powder rolled into one! And it doesn't damage the floor! If I opened a cleaning company, wouldn't I crush the competition?]

[Using peerless Sword Intent to sweep the floor... I'm probably the first person in all of history to do this, right? Is this the ultimate example of using a butcher's cleaver to kill a chicken?]

He got so carried away that he started showing off. Guiding the faint Sword Qi, he swept graceful arcs across the floor, gathering the dust and grime into neat piles. He didn't even spare the cobwebs in the corners; with a light "flick," they vanished into nothing.

In less than a third of the usual time, the whole stretch of corridor was spotless and polished enough to reflect a person's face!

Xu Qian looked at his handiwork and nodded with satisfaction. He dispersed the Sword Qi, swept the gathered rubbish into a dustpan, and let his work speak for itself.

Over the next few days, every area Xu Qian was assigned to clean underwent a complete transformation. The floors were so clean they reflected people's faces, not a speck of dust or a single cobweb remained in the corners, and even the air seemed fresher somehow—a trick of the mind.

Naturally, people noticed the change.

First came his fellow guards. They looked at the gleaming floors in Xu Qian's area, then at their own areas, which were merely passably clean, and exchanged baffled glances.

"Xu Qian, you're really going overboard with the cleaning! You're about to polish the floor smooth as glass!" one old prison guard couldn't help saying.

Xu Qian scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. "It's nothing. It just bothers me when things look dirty, so I cleaned them up while I was at it."

The others weren't entirely convinced, but they couldn't find fault with his explanation. They could only chalk it up to the kid being a bit of a neat freak—or maybe just stubborn as a mule.

Then came the prisoners. They peered through the bars at the shining floor outside, looking dazed. Since when had the Heavenly Prison become so... refined?

Finally, Zhou Kang heard about it.

One day, during his usual inspection, Zhou Kang reached the area Xu Qian had just finished cleaning and abruptly stopped. Suspicious, he lowered his head to study the impossibly clean floor beneath his feet. He even lifted one foot to check the sole of his shoe, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

He crouched down and ran his hand over the stone. It felt cool and smooth to the touch, without the slightest trace of grease.

"This..." Zhou Kang looked up at Xu Qian, who was nearby "earnestly" wiping down the wall. He'd used a little Sword Qi on that too, and it was spotless. The look in Zhou Kang's eyes was complicated, to say the least.

He stood up, walked over to Xu Qian, and patted him on the shoulder. His voice was filled with an indescribable feeling.

"Xu Qian..."

"Captain Zhou?" Xu Qian stopped what he was doing and looked utterly "confused."

"You little..." Zhou Kang gestured at the gleaming floor and walls. He struggled for a long moment before finally managing a few words: "...you're truly a model of dedication to your work!"