Come On! A Chu Will Teach You How to Dance Awkwardly

Yibao popped out of the phone and casually complained, "This is seriously absurd. Just making a piece of clothing earns Merit? Isn't that Merit coming way too easily?"

Little Moon Spirit thought so too, but she was more sensible than Yibao and merely smiled without saying anything.

Wu Chu thought for a moment and said, "Maybe it's the first piece of clothing in this world that wasn't formed from magical power! For the countless living beings in this world, that surely counts as a contribution, right?"

Little Moon Spirit felt that Wu Chu made a lot of sense again and nodded her little head repeatedly.

But Yibao refuted him. "Then why didn't the clothes you were already wearing receive any Merit? How do you explain that?"

Yibao did have a point, and Wu Chu couldn't figure it out either. The only explanation he could think of was that the materials of those clothes were too low-grade to withstand the blessing of Merit Power. This ramie was different—it was all Innate Object. As for Yibao's phone, although it was made of ordinary materials as well, it was far sturdier than those clothes.

In Wu Chu's view, turning ramie into clothing hadn't changed the nature of the cloth, but its purpose had changed dramatically. If primitive humans already existed in this era, then making clothing would definitely count as a great merit. Wasn't Leizu's invention of sericulture and silk reeling a great merit as well?

But thinking of that made Wu Chu feel somewhat apologetic toward those ancestors who had made such immense contributions to later generations of humanity.

Still, he really hadn't done it on purpose this time.

Who could've expected that making clothes would earn Merit? After all, the clothes he had been wearing hadn't received any, had they? Well, perhaps they had already received it, but it hadn't blessed the clothing and had all gone to Wu Chu himself instead.

After silently offering an apology, Wu Chu looked at the tattered shoes on his feet and said to Little Moon Spirit, "Now we're still short of a pair of shoes. Little Moon Spirit, I'll have to trouble you again!"

With the previous heavenly descent of Merit as motivation, Little Moon Spirit didn't find it troublesome at all. Her face filled with excitement as she said, "Alright! No problem!"

"Then I'll teach you how to make a pair of thousand-layer soles from ramie cloth!"

He didn't need to watch any videos for this, because when he was young, he'd seen plenty of elderly people making thousand-layer soles. With Little Moon Spirit's nimble hands, this definitely wouldn't be difficult.

The only issue was finding some natural adhesive to stick the layers of ramie cloth together. But that was easy enough—tree resin, fish glue, or tortoiseshell glue would all work.

For convenience's sake, Wu Chu decided to use tree resin. He didn't know which of those natural adhesives was best, so he'd simply use whichever was most convenient.

Sure enough, when a pair of grayish-white ramie cloth shoes with thousand-layer soles was completed in Little Moon Spirit's hands, another beam of Merit Golden Light descended from the heavens.

As the designated tool wielder, Little Moon Spirit's adorable pitch-black eyes turned into crescent moons after receiving that Merit. She even bared her little Tooth Blossom in delight.

After putting on the newly made ramie shoes and checking their fit, Wu Chu struck a few poses before saying, "Looks like I still need insoles and socks. The soles are a little rough and rub against my feet."

Once the socks and insoles were done, Wu Chu wore his new clothes and shoes and bounced around a little, testing how it felt to wear these Merit Spiritual Treasures. He felt refreshed and light all over, as though he had already reached the pinnacle of life. Even his walk seemed to carry the wind.

"Whoo... Take a cup of water from the heavens, reflecting the bright moon over the mortal world, gazing and gazing... Love and hate repeat a thousand times, drifting through the dust of the world..."

Yibao appropriately played some music for him. As he listened, his wind-swept stride gradually turned into an utterly unrestrained dance, and he began to sway.

Yibao danced to the music on his shoulder as well, not falling off despite Wu Chu's twisting body.

Wu Chu stomped out Stephen Chow's carefree, debt-free dance steps with convincing flair. His expressionless yet obviously smug look made Little Moon Spirit cover her little mouth and giggle. Yibao, on the other hand, moved with far more seductive steps and posture.

Wu Chu twisted his shoulders, swayed his head, and stepped forward and back before extending a hand toward Little Moon Spirit. "Little Moon Spirit, come on! A Chu will teach you how to dance awkwardly!"

Little Moon Spirit waved her little hands and showed her little Tooth Blossom. "I-I don't know how!"

"It's fine. Just follow me and dance however you like. As long as you keep the rhythm, that's enough. It's called freestyle dancing—just do whatever comes naturally. First, nod your head to the beat..."

Under Wu Chu's enthusiastic invitation, Little Moon Spirit joined in as well.

Seeing her in that cook's outfit, bobbing her little head to the rhythm, twisting her delicate shoulders, and stepping in little boots with that smug, unrestrained gait, Wu Chu found her so adorable that he almost couldn't take it. He wanted nothing more than to scoop her up and kiss her a couple of times.

The two danced for quite a while before stopping. To them, moving around for such a short time wasn't enough to even make them breathe harder, much less sweat.

Wu Chu smiled. "Well? Wasn't that fun?"

Little Moon Spirit nodded her little head, then said worriedly, "It was fun, but I'm worried it'll be like those little games we played before. What if we become distracted by amusement and neglect our goals?"

"How could that happen? We're not professional dancers. Besides, this world doesn't have much concept of time, and there's no need to rush cultivation. Over such a long life, if we don't find some fun to entertain ourselves, wouldn't life be terribly boring?"

"..."

Little Moon Spirit fell silent. She only felt that Wu Chu made a lot of sense and didn't know how to refute him.

After thinking for a moment, she looked up and asked, "Didn't A Chu say earlier that we should make paper? How do we make paper? Let's make some! Maybe we'll get Merit from that too!"

Wu Chu laughed heartily. "We definitely will!"

Hearing that, Yibao eagerly chimed in, "I can help too!"

Wu Chu couldn't help laughing at the sight. This girl had her eyes fixed on Merit now.

With the clear steps Yibao provided and Little Moon Spirit, a little fairy with the cultivation of a Celestial Immortal, even though this little Celestial Immortal didn't look particularly impressive, many things were far more convenient than they would've been for an "ordinary person" like Wu Chu.

For instance, when it came to chopping up the raw materials, Wu Chu didn't need to worry about cutting them finely enough. With Little Moon Spirit around, they could make them as fine as they wanted.

As a result, after a series of steps such as spreading and drying, soaking, washing, ash grinding, steaming, fine grinding, and pulping, the Xuan paper they made after more than ten days of effort was far more delicate than Wu Chu had imagined.

And just as Wu Chu had said, once the grayish-white Xuan paper took shape, Merit Golden Light truly descended from the heavens. The beneficiaries were Wu Chu, Yueling, Yibao, and the first completed sheet of Xuan paper. That sheet immediately became a mid-grade Merit Spiritual Treasure, with sixteen Merit Golden Runes crisscrossing its surface and making it look incomparably magnificent.

Wu Chu had no idea what use this Merit Spiritual Treasure had, so he could only place it in the study like the Wolf-Hair Brush, using it as an object to guard the room.

Little Moon Spirit, who had gained quite a bit of Merit by following Wu Chu, was very happy. She even looked at Wu Chu expectantly, hoping he could come up with more ideas so they could earn some more Merit.

Yibao was the same. She said to Wu Chu, "Rites, music, archery, charioteering, and writing—these are all things related to the inheritance of civilization. Even writing and brushes can earn so much Merit, so there are plenty of things we can work with here! Master, how about..."

"Try being a person!" Wu Chu said helplessly. "Are you really not going to leave even half a path for future generations?"

"..."