Eggs and Stones: I'll Always Stand with the Egg

"Is this your understanding of Root Stance!?"

"I've never heard of anyone practicing Root Stance like this!"

"Even if you'd broken off a few branches to make a crutch, I would've at least counted that as trying!"

"Crawling around on the ground like a maggot—how did you even come up with that!?"

Faced with his senior sister's furious, rosy-cheeked face, Wu Ming responded with nothing but composure.

"When I got up after my first fall, I braced myself with my hands, but they didn't slip. That's when I realized the slippery nature of this mountain path probably only affected our feet. Which meant our hands were an obvious loophole. If there's a loophole, there's no reason not to try it."

Zhu Ying snapped, "If you understood even a tiny bit of the 'stance' in Root Stance, you'd know that climbing with your hands doesn't count as a stance!"

Wu Ming explained, "Crawling was only an experiment. If it worked, I planned to try walking on my hands next. Then my hands would be my feet, so that could count as a kind of stance..."

"That's even more ridiculous! This is Immortal Path cultivation, not acrobatics!"

Wu Ming smiled. "You flatter me, Senior Sister. How could a mere routine exercise count as acrobatics?"

Real acrobatics took a far more dazzling imagination.

For instance, he had seriously considered breaking off branches, but not to use them as crutches. He could break off several thousand, or tens of thousands, and lay them directly across the path to make a nonslip boardwalk—as a professional deliveryman, building a road was instinctive.

He had also considered making grappling hooks and climbing along the mountainside.

Or, he could take full advantage of the smooth ground and slide all the way to the finish with a sliding tackle...

Yet compared to the acrobatics of those true heretical speedrun masters, none of these ideas amounted to much.

Acrobatics weren't as simple as ordinary people imagined!

But Wu Ming's humility only made Zhu Ying's composure crumble further.

"I'm not praising you!"

"Oh..."

Wu Ming shrugged and reluctantly set aside all his other ideas.

The system hadn't given him a reward anyway. Since he couldn't use clever methods, he might as well follow his senior sister's advice and practice this clumsy technique the clumsy way.

Having made up his mind, Wu Ming took another plain step forward, without any fancy tricks, and promptly slipped and fell.

Without waiting for Zhu Ying to remind him, Wu Ming silently got up, loosened his legs with a few simple movements, and stepped forward again.

Thud!

Then came the third time.

Thud!

The fourth, the fifth... Amid the constant thumps of his falls, Zhu Ying let out a soft sigh, a trace of nostalgia in her gaze.

Twenty years ago, when she had first joined the Gujian Sect, she'd been full of rebellion and resentment. This Rootless Path had been the place that finally knocked some sense into her... Her resolve and strictness hadn't been inborn. She'd forged them through hardship.

Five years later, Master had brought home a little junior sister for her. Newly entrusted with the role of senior sister, Zhu Ying had volunteered to guide the girl's cultivation. She hadn't expected that the little girl, blessed with an extraordinary bloodline and exceptional talent, would take just one fall to dissolve into tears and refuse to take another step.

Back then, coaxing Ling Xi into feeling better had nearly exhausted Zhu Ying. It had worn her out more than walking the mountain path back and forth ten times. Then, as if in the blink of an eye, the little one who could barely walk had become a graceful young woman who could tread the slippery path as if it were flat ground.

And herself... she hadn't become a graceful senior sister.

For some reason, a stray thought had crept into her mind. Zhu Ying quickly shook her head, dispelling the ill omen.

Graceful or not, she was now the senior sister of two juniors. She had to pull herself together. And right now, Wu Ming's cultivation needed her attention.

Just how many more times would this slick, quick-witted boy have to fall before he became a little steadier and more grounded?

Heh. Would he cry like Ling Xi once he'd fallen enough times?

Thud!

Another muffled impact... This one was clearly heavier than the last few. Zhu Ying's reverie broke, and she turned to look at Wu Ming.

She saw him slowly getting up from the ground. His lip was split and his cheek bruised, yet his expression showed no sign of pain. If anything, he looked even more excited.

After that, he limped slightly and reached for the rock face beside the Rootless Path—not to take a shortcut, but to climb higher... Once he'd climbed about two meters, Wu Ming leaped off and tried to land on one foot.

Thump!

What a heavy crash!

As expected, this near-suicidal stunt had brought the obvious result... Even though Wu Ming's body was light, the fall had left him barely able to stand. Yet he seemed to be enjoying himself, letting out a satisfied sigh.

A chill ran through Zhu Ying. She hurriedly sprang over to Wu Ming, helped him up, and reached for his head. "Are you all right?"

Wu Ming was brimming with excitement. "That was insanely awesome!"

"..." Zhu Ying said nothing more. She pressed a Lesser Rejuvenation Formula to his forehead. "Close your eyes and meditate. Gather your thoughts and clear your mind..."

Wu Ming felt a coolness wash over his head as the pain throughout his body rapidly faded... He hurriedly protested, "You've misunderstood, Senior Sister. My mind's perfectly clear. The 97th digit after the decimal point of pi is 9; it's 41,230 steps from Xianyun Abode to Sect Leader Temple; Master has another Little Red Stick hidden in her hairpin; and Imperial Jade Nectar costs 180 a cup."

"..." Zhu Ying froze for a moment, then raised her hand and gathered a second Lesser Rejuvenation Formula at her fingertip.

"Wait, I really am fine!" Wu Ming raised his voice. "Our sect is so impoverished, Senior Sister. Don't waste your precious mana!"

The words "impoverished" and "waste" did seem to sway Zhu Ying. She hesitated. "It's only a minor spell, so it's not much of a waste... Are you really all right?"

Only after Wu Ming nodded emphatically did Zhu Ying relax. Then her expression turned stern again. "If you're fine, why are you acting crazy?! You don't think the more it hurts when you fall, the faster you'll learn, do you?! A clumsy technique doesn't mean you should deliberately do something stupid!"

Wu Ming replied, "Senior Sister, the best way to master a difficult skill is to make it even harder until the process of trial and error stops producing any useful experience. I'm clearly getting more practice out of jumping from a height, and for now, I can still afford to fall."

Zhu Ying stared at him in astonishment for a long time before saying, "That's what you think?"

Wu Ming replied, "If there's something wrong with that, please correct me, Senior Sister."

"You're quick-witted and always come up with strange ideas. I really don't know what to correct. It's just..." She hesitated, but still couldn't resist revealing a little of the technique's secret. "When practicing Root Stance, the worst thing you can do is think too much. The more you wrack your brain for clever tricks, the more counterproductive it gets."

Wu Ming broke into a smile. "That only proves I haven't really exhausted all the clever tricks yet."

"..." Zhu Ying silently studied him for a long while, then finally shook her head, her gaze growing cold. "Suit yourself."

She'd long known that making a clever person act stupid was harder than making a stupid person act clever. Wu Ming's response was exactly what she'd expected.

But the Rootless Path had never recognized cleverness.

Perhaps when Wu Ming was truly bloodied and battered, driven to the end of the road, he'd finally see the light.

But how long would it take before he reached the end of the road?

Practicing Root Stance was never something that could be mastered in a day. Even if Wu Ming had been able to put aside his little tricks from the start and keep his feet firmly on the ground, it would have taken him at least three days, perhaps even longer, to truly find his footing on the Rootless Path. Given his current attitude of refusing to turn back until he hit a wall, success seemed a long way off indeed.

Root Stance, a famously clumsy technique in Qiongzhou, was extremely difficult to learn. It was only a plain, unadorned step, but without hundreds or thousands of tumbles, it was impossible to master.

Twenty years ago, Zhu Ying had spent two whole days falling until she was covered in bruises before she finally managed to take her first step. Even Master Gu Bai had been impressed by her achievement.

Fifteen years ago, because Zheng Lingxi was too afraid of pain, she'd dawdled for a full five days before finally setting her first step down. At the time, Zhu Ying had been so exasperated she'd wanted to resort to physical punishment.

Now it was Wu Ming's turn. He needed Root Stance more than either of his senior sisters to strengthen his foundation, yet he was clearly ten times more restless than they had been...

With a trace of resignation, Zhu Ying decided to leave Wu Ming to his own devices for now. A moment later, she turned her back to him, clasped her hands behind her, and stepped onto the Rootless Path herself.

She couldn't let her own cultivation fall behind while guiding Wu Ming... She'd been stuck in the early stage of Foundation Establishment for many years. It was about time she returned to the basics and tempered herself anew.

The Rootless Path wasn't suited to group practice—when one person rooted their step, they could easily disrupt another. But considering how Wu Ming refused to be swayed, he probably wouldn't be able to interfere with her anytime soon.

So Zhu Ying walked along the slippery Rootless Path with light, graceful steps, like a dragonfly skimming the water. In the blink of an eye, she took dozens of steps, leaving Wu Ming far behind... Only when she reached an open space at a bend in the mountain path did she suddenly stop and let out a long breath.

"Seventy-six..." the woman murmured, shaking her head.

Seventy-six consecutive steps on the Rootless Path—that was her current limit. Every step beyond that was as difficult as it had been twenty years ago when she first arrived here. And she wasn't ready to take the next step yet...

Of course, seventy-six steps was already an outstanding result. Many cultivators who had formed a Golden Core and become True Persons couldn't even make it thirty or forty steps along the Rootless Path. Zhu Ying had only been cultivating for twenty years, yet she could take seventy-six consecutive steps. Even at the Vajra Sect, Qiongzhou's leading body-cultivation sect, that would be considered a respectable achievement.

But "respectable" was nowhere near enough for Zhu Ying.

With a master like Gu Bai, she ought to be doing better... As the eldest senior sister of the Gujian Sect, she had to do better!

At the thought, Zhu Ying drew a light breath and calmed her mind. Then, naturally, she stepped forward. As her foot came down lightly, her blood and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth faintly resonated. The mountain breeze stirred, and the plants swayed, as if everything around her were cheering her on and helping her set that step down.

Tap!

Her short boot landed firmly on the mountain path, making the gravel tremble and the earth sink slightly... Yet the next moment, an invisible repelling force swept through. Zhu Ying's foot slipped, and she fell forward despite herself.

But before she could lose her balance and hit the ground, Zhu Ying braced herself with one hand and forced her body upright. Then she formed a spell, summoned a wisp of breeze beneath her feet, and let it lift her gently into the air.

Her posture was graceful and carefree, without the slightest trace of disarray. Even so, she hadn't managed to set down her seventy-seventh step.

Zhu Ying exhaled the stale air and suppressed the irritation in her heart. Riding the breeze, she drifted back to the start of the mountain path. Then, amid the steady thuds of Wu Ming's falls, she calmed her mind again and started walking.

One, two, three, four... seventy-five, seventy-six.

This time, Zhu Ying still stopped at seventy-six steps. She still couldn't set down her seventy-seventh.

The third time, Zhu Ying stopped at seventy-five steps. Her result had actually slipped a little.

The fourth time, Zhu Ying unexpectedly slipped on her seventieth step.

The fifth time, Zhu Ying managed another seventy-six consecutive steps, but her supporting foot slipped just as she tried to take the next.

The sixth time, the seventh time...

Before she knew it, dawn had passed and noon had arrived. Even Zhu Ying, resolute as she was, felt an intense fatigue... Cultivating on the Rootless Path took far more out of a person than it seemed. An ordinary cultivator who didn't train their body diligently would have their blood racing and their muscles and bones go soft after just one trip.

Zhu Ying had long been accustomed to tempering herself, and her foundation was exceptionally solid. Even so, she could hardly hide her exhaustion, and she began to grow restless. That made Wu Ming, who was happily playing at acrobatics beside her, stand out all the more.

By now, he'd given up on his plan to jump down from a height, and had moved on to the clearly more difficult stunt of landing from a front flip—in other words, he was falling in a thoroughly undignified manner. Fortunately, after a whole morning of falling, he'd grown much better at landing. He rolled with the impact and got back up smoothly, without even sustaining much more than a few scrapes.

Afterward, Wu Ming flashed his senior sister a grin and focused on his next attempt. This time, he was doing a backflip...

Zhu Ying's brows knit slightly, and her irritation grew.

A whole morning had passed, and he was still "exhausting every clever trick," without the slightest intention of keeping his feet on the ground. The Rootless Path might have been the nemesis of cleverness, but Wu Ming's behavior was getting a little too "unclever."

The cleverer someone was, the more likely they were to cling to their "cleverness." But the more they thought they were being clever, the harder it was to achieve anything. Zhu Ying had already offered him this advice, but Wu Ming clearly hadn't taken it to heart.

When it came to "thinking he was clever," this fellow was even more stubborn than Zhu Ying had expected.

So naturally, he'd suffer even more than she'd expected.

Irritated, Zhu Ying turned away and stopped paying attention to Wu Ming. She began walking up the path again... Yet a question in her heart grew clearer and clearer.

Had choosing Root Stance for Wu Ming really been the right decision?

Master had approved of her judgment, and Wu Ming had already proven he wasn't the kind of lazy, shallow, slick boy who refused to endure hardship, but...

But what if he really wouldn't turn back even after crashing into a wall? What if, no matter how many times he fell, he refused to let go of his obsession? What if... Hm?

An absurd idea suddenly came to Zhu Ying's mind.

What if a clever person insisted on trying again and again along an impossible path, remaining spirited and undaunted whether he succeeded or failed...

Knowing it was wrong yet refusing to change, defying heaven and walking alone—wasn't that exactly what Root Stance demanded!?

No, no, no. How could that be possible? If even this kind of juggling could help someone master Root Stance, wouldn't all the hardships she'd endured over the past decade and more become a joke?

Reason forced her to think that way, but her reason was beginning to waver, like her utterly exhausted body.

The next moment, Zhu Ying suddenly felt the ground go soft and slippery beneath her foot. Her body tipped over.

After spending half the day on the Rootless Path, her blood and energy had finally run dry, leaving her unable to continue. And with her mind in a daze, she couldn't exert her strength properly. This time, she hadn't even completed her first step.

Seeing that she was about to fall awkwardly right in front of Wu Ming, Zhu Ying stiffened her delicate face. At the very edge of exhaustion, she forced out a trace of mana and summoned a breeze beneath her feet, trying to correct her posture.

But just then, a faint tremor suddenly rippled through the mountain path, rising from beneath her feet and making her whole body tingle.

"...?"

It took Zhu Ying a moment to realize where the tremor had come from.

There was only one thing that could make the Rootless Path tremble like that.

Someone had rooted their step on the path. And if two people stepped down at the same time, the Rootless Path would resonate.

The Rootless Path was, by nature, a path meant to be walked alone. It wasn't suited to people cultivating in sync. Though its resonance wasn't strong, it could easily disrupt one's balance, especially by scattering mana.

Just then, the faint tremor, as slight as an insect alighting on her skin, casually yet precisely scattered the breeze beneath Zhu Ying's boot.

The next moment, the wind dispersed in a rush. Wild currents pushed the already exhausted Zhu Ying backward like a fallen leaf!

At the starting point of the mountain path, Wu Ming was leaping down from the air, one foot braced on the ground, his body stretched like a swan and his face beaming with excitement.

"Axel Jump, landed clean!"

The smile on his face was shrouded in shadow the next instant. Wu Ming looked up and saw a petite young woman hurtling down toward him, her face filled with shame and despair!

The violent impact made the boy's vision go black, and he lost consciousness for a brief moment.

It was a long while before Wu Ming felt his awareness slowly return and his vision gradually clear.

Just now, it seemed a young woman had fallen from the sky and crashed into his arms, soft and warm. No, judging by the lingering sensation—especially the pain around the bridge of his nose—it felt more like hard and warm...

As he was thinking, he saw the woman who'd descended from the sky crouched a short distance away, curled up and clutching her chest tightly. Her little face was full of bewilderment, as if she couldn't believe what had just happened... or what she'd crashed into.

The next moment, she saw Wu Ming wake up. Her unfocused pupils slowly came into focus, and her face flushed red. Yet despite her embarrassment, she managed to ask, "Wu Ming, are you all right?"

Wu Ming said, "I'm fine, I'm fine. You're so light, Senior Sister. How could I be hurt?"

"No, don't go around telling people they're light!" Zhu Ying was mortified by his words. She sprang to her feet, standing tall and proud, refusing to back down.

"You've misunderstood, Senior Sister. I wasn't mocking your development... Of course, if it had been Second Senior Sister, I probably really would have been hurt."

"I think you're about to be hurt!" Zhu Ying was on the verge of losing her temper, but the next moment she cried out, "Your nose is bleeding?!"

Wu Ming froze, then touched it with his hand. Sure enough, it was covered in blood... He wasn't surprised. Though his senior sister was petite and light, she'd fallen with tremendous force, and there'd been no cushioning at all when they collided. His nose against a sheer cliff—it had been like an egg hitting a rock... The fact that he'd only gotten a nosebleed was already lucky.

But then again, if it had been Second Senior Sister, he probably wouldn't have gotten a nosebleed... At worst, he'd have suffered a concussion.

As he was thinking, Zhu Ying's embarrassment vanished. She stepped forward and began checking Wu Ming's injuries without asking. Once she'd confirmed that he wasn't seriously hurt, she flicked out a Lesser Rejuvenation Formula, then put on a stern face and stepped back a few paces. "Hmph. That should do it..."

Wu Ming asked, "What about you, Senior Sister... are you all right?"

"What could be wrong with me?" Zhu Ying shook her head in irritation. "That was just an accident. You... don't overthink it, and don't read anything into it!"

"Don't worry, I've already forgotten everything!" Wu Ming rubbed his nose. "We're as innocent as ever, fellow disciples!"

"Don't make it sound so suspicious!"

Fortunately, before his senior sister's anger could flare up again, Wu Ming awkwardly but promptly changed the subject.

"By the way, Senior Sister, I just mastered Root Stance!"

"...You!?"