Xue Wuhen / Big Sister

She smiled at the heartwarming scene.

Young people might find such uneventful daily life dull, but...

This was what a continuous miracle looked like.

P.S. By the way, I combined a few ideas and came up with a new book title: The Road to Greatness Starts from Zero. How does that sound?

Snow Without Trace

Daily life was just a little something on the side. Shuya was still completely absorbed in learning martial arts.

He barely even looked after Alien Baby Hikari-chan anymore. Inoue Hikoo would take care of him, anyway.

All he had to do was stay steady.

Early the next morning, he followed Li Shuhong to the Unfinished Building.

"Starting today, I'll teach you swordsmanship... Though I've never understood why we call it a sword when it's clearly a saber. Anyway, you get the idea."

Li Shuhong said, "Enough talk. I'll demonstrate once, so watch closely."

He knew Shuya would understand the basics after watching once, so he taught him quickly.

Li Shuhong used a wooden sword. When he finished, he tossed it to Shuya.

Come to think of it, swordsmanship and kendo were actually two different things.

Swordsmanship was a way of killing people, while kendo was a sport.

Japanese swordsmanship didn't emphasize thrusts and sweeping cuts like Great Hua swordsmanship. It focused on chopping and slashing.

After all, Japanese swordsmanship used a saber, not a sword.

Before learning the Northland New Snow Thousand-Fold Style, Shuya spent a full three days practicing basic swordsmanship.

He used a wooden sword for the first two days. On the third day, Li Shuhong brought him a real sword.

Shuya didn't ask where the sword had come from.

Given Li Shuhong's abilities, getting his hands on a sword was no big deal.

For the first two days, Li Shuhong hadn't let Shuya use a real sword, in case he injured himself before he'd gotten the hang of it.

But after two days of grueling practice, Shuya's swordsmanship had improved tremendously.

After all, he had a cheat ability.

On the third day, Shuya practiced with the real sword, repeating the basic techniques he'd learned over the first two days.

Basic swordsmanship was rather dull, but it was essential if he wanted to master the art.

On the fourth day, at Shuya's request, Li Shuhong taught him Iaijutsu.

The reason he was focusing on this was simple: it looked cool.

As I've said before, looking cool is a lifelong pursuit.

When Shuya followed Li Shuhong to the roof of the Unfinished Building on the fourth day, there were already all kinds of things laid out there.

A pile of rolled mats, bamboo, logs, iron rods...

There was even a wooden post so thick it would take several adults holding hands to circle it.

The last few materials clearly weren't meant for ordinary people to practice on.

Using rolled mats and bamboo to practice Iaijutsu made sense. The other materials were a different story.

He'd need to use qi.

Only by combining qi with his technique could he cut through those other things.

Shuya had no trouble cutting through the rolled mats and bamboo.

He could cut through wooden poles, too, but that required using qi.

After cutting through the wooden poles, Shuya had already gotten the hang of channeling qi into his blade.

When he cut through the iron rods, he was able to channel qi into the blade quickly and evenly.

Shuya cut through every iron rod. Li Shuhong inspected the cuts and found them perfectly smooth and even.

But when Li Shuhong told Shuya to cut through the enormous wooden post, he was at a loss.

This was ridiculous. The sword in his hand wasn't even as wide as the post. How was he supposed to cut through that thing?

Was he supposed to use it like an axe?

"Don't worry, I was just messing with you. You need to release your qi to cut through that thing."

Li Shuhong chuckled as he pushed the post away.

Shuya could only chuckle helplessly, too. You really are a mischievous old man. I spent over ten minutes measuring it up, only to waste my time.

After getting his fill of Iaijutsu, Shuya was finally ready to begin learning the Northland New Snow Thousand-Fold Style in earnest.

But before learning the sword techniques, he had to learn footwork.

Shuya had already learned the basic footwork that went with swordsmanship: walking steps, sliding steps, dodging steps, and pivoting steps.

Now he had to learn footwork that worked with qi... In other words, lightness skills.

"First, we'll start with the Northland New Snow Thousand-Fold Style's most basic lightness skill: Snow Without Trace."

Li Shuhong wasted a heap of flour by pouring it onto the ground, then casually walked back and forth over it.

When he was done, Shuya looked down and saw not a single footprint in the flour.

"Next is Snowfall."

Li Shuhong leaped high into the air, then drifted slowly back down, like a single snowflake floating lazily from the sky.

"And then there's Flying Snow."

Li Shuhong touched down lightly on the tips of his toes. Shuya's vision blurred, and he felt a shadow flash past him, bringing with it a cool breeze.

Li Shuhong had already circled around behind Shuya.

"First, get these three techniques down. Then I'll teach you the sword techniques. Once you can transform your qi's properties, there'll be advanced techniques, too."

"No problem."

Shuya nodded.

Li Shuhong began teaching Shuya how to circulate his qi and had him walk over the flour. Once he could do it without leaving a trace, he could move on to the other two techniques.

Snow Without Trace was the foundation of Snowfall and Flying Snow.

That day's lesson ended with Draw-Blade Slashes and lightness-skill practice.

Shuya had more or less mastered all three lightness skills.

After Shuya learned the lightness skills, Li Shuhong didn't take him home. He left him to make his own way back.

Lightness skills weren't like swordsmanship; he could practice them while walking. So Shuya used them to hurry home.

Snow Without Trace was a lightness skill that relied on using qi to make the body lighter. That naturally increased his speed and stamina, while also making his movements more agile and free.

Shuya used Snow Without Trace without drawing attention, and nobody noticed anything strange along the way.

At a glance, Snow Without Trace didn't look unusual. But on closer inspection, although Shuya's steps seemed normal, he was moving very quickly.

By the time he walked home, Shuya had only worked up a little sweat. But it was from the sun, not from tiring himself out.

His qi consumption wasn't too bad, either. After walking for about half an hour, he'd used less than a tenth of the qi the size of his fist.

His qi was very pure, so it lasted.

When Shuya got back to the apartment building, he didn't take the elevator. He used the Flying Snow footwork to bound up the stairs, reaching the top even faster than the elevator.

Martial arts were just too awesome.

Of course, the best part was having a cheat ability. Who knew how long it would've taken to see results otherwise?

He hummed as he went home and ate his beloved boxed lunch, then headed out to the gym.

The gym was really useful. Shuya set the treadmill to its highest speed and practiced his lightness skills on it.

The trainer passing by looked at him like he was some kind of god.

Mai glanced at Shuya. "Are you planning to become a reporter?"

Shuya gave a couple of grunts, refusing to fall for the trap. He wasn't about to end up on the hit list.

Mai jogged slowly and said, "By the way, Shuya. What do you want for your birthday?"

"Huh? Whose birthday?"

Shuya asked, puzzled.

"Yours. Isn't your birthday July tenth? It's the day after tomorrow."

"I'm shocked. I'd completely forgotten, and you remembered."

Mai-chan replied matter-of-factly, "Isn't that normal? Of course I remember my friends' birthdays."

"..."

You only remember because you don't have many friends... Shuya didn't say it out loud. He just thought it to himself.

"Hmm, let me think. What would be good...?"

Shuya rubbed his smooth chin and pondered for a while.

"I really can't think of anything. There's nothing I particularly want."

Shuya couldn't be bothered to think, so he smiled and said, "I'll like anything you give me."

"Ugh."

Mai sighed. "Hey, hey, Shuya."

"What is it, Mai, Mai?"

"Could you stop saying things that people might misunderstand?"

"How could anyone misunderstand that? Is this what they call seeing gay where there's none?"

Shuya quipped.

"You'd better have some self-awareness and stop saying things like that to girls. This is your big sister Mai's advice to you. It concerns your safety in the future."

"I'll worry about the future when it gets here."

"What do you mean?"

Mai couldn't understand Shuya because he'd said it in Great Hua Language.

"Nothing. I was just saying you're really cute today, too."

"Of course I am."

Mai paused, then said, "Well, I'll just buy you something, then."

"Okay."

They didn't speak again after that and quietly worked out.

Big Sis

"Shuya, your birthday's coming up, isn't it?"

When Shuya went to learn music, Senior Sister Seisen asked him the same thing.