A Masochist

Xiao Hei landed on the ground, the tip of his tail pointing upward.

Chu Zeming: "..."

Throw him again.

Xiao Hei's tiny scarlet eyes immediately filled with terror.

Then he watched as his master, who had the peerlessly gorgeous face of a villainous kingpin, actually picked him up again and tossed him into the sky.

After a dizzying whirl, Xiao Hei landed on the ground once more.

It did not hurt, but it was terribly dizzying.

Stars swam before Xiao Hei's eyes. He shook his little head, barely keeping himself conscious, then lowered his head to see that the tip of his tail had risen again. Seeing Chu Zeming reach for him once more, Xiao Hei steadied himself and bent the tip of his tail southward!

Chu Zeming froze, checking carefully once more.

"...Mm, teach practical combat."

The next day.

Chu Zeming left the house brimming with confidence.

He had barely slept the previous night. After meditating and regulating his breathing to conserve his strength, he began preparing for today.

He had already rehearsed the grand and majestic scenes of practical combat in his mind no fewer than a hundred times: over a hundred people cultivating under his command, blades flashing and swords gleaming, immortal aura drifting through the air. Yet when he arrived at the main hall, Chu Zeming discovered that only a handful of junior brothers and sisters had come to attend his lesson—this was nothing like the turnout for Xuan Mo's classes. Did they look down on their eldest senior brother's strength?

Chu Zeming sat at the head of the hall, looking at the junior brothers and sisters below, feeling that he had lost a little face.

The black-haired young man in dark robes, beautiful and flamboyant, sat upright in the seat of honor without moving. The six disciples below could not help whispering among themselves.

"I knew we shouldn't have come to Eldest Senior Brother's class."

"Is he going to sit up there again and watch us coldly all day?"

"Who knows."

It was not that they did not want to come.

The original owner had attended every class, but he only answered questions and never explained anything. At first, a few junior brothers and sisters had asked questions, but after being looked at too many times with expressions that said, "Something this simple and you still need to ask me?" and "You really are such a little fool," they gradually stopped asking.

Then fewer and fewer people came when the original owner taught, leading to the current situation.

They could leave morning class whenever they wished.

Seeing that the six junior brothers were faintly showing signs of packing up and leaving the hall, Chu Zeming waved broadly and hurriedly said, "Come on, let's go to the training grounds. Today, Senior Brother won't be answering questions. I'll teach you practical combat. Your Senior Brother Xuan Mo has also been training with us recently."

Delight appeared on the six young disciples' faces.

Receiving the help of an eldest senior brother with exceptional talent and superb comprehension was something every young disciple who had hit a bottleneck in cultivation dreamed of. Moreover, so few people had come today, which meant Eldest Senior Brother would have more energy and time to devote to the six of them.

Following behind Chu Zeming with delight, their faces were written all over with excitement.

It was still early, but the training grounds already held quite a few diligent sect disciples.

Seeing Chu Zeming bring another six junior brothers over, they all revealed traces of sympathy in unspoken unison.

Those complicated looks, mixed with schadenfreude, were exceedingly strange. The six felt somewhat puzzled, but they did not ask. They merely obediently followed behind the dark-robed young man.

Chu Zeming glanced around but did not find Xuan Mo.

He could not help frowning.

—Lazy.

He had only gone one day without supervising Xuan Mo, and he had already vanished without a trace.

No longer searching for Xuan Mo, Chu Zeming turned his attention to these disciples.

They were not particularly afraid of him, nor did they look at him with any strange gay reactions. Their faces held only admiration—greatly satisfying Chu Zeming's vanity.

So what if there were few of them? What mattered was quality, not quantity. Even with only six, he could train them into iron-blooded hard men of the cultivation world.

Chu Zeming was in an excellent mood, and his teaching became increasingly strict.

When morning class ended, the six future steel-bodied warriors lay sprawled beneath the wooden posts like delicate flowers ravaged beyond endurance, panting heavily and drenched in sweat.

They finally understood why the senior brothers at the training grounds had looked at them that way this morning.

This method of cultivation was a little too much.

After just one day of training, someone had already begun to think of quitting.

Chu Zeming saw through their thoughts. Sheathing the Luminous Glaze Sword, he crouched down and warned them amiably, "You are not allowed to quit Senior Brother's training halfway through. Tomorrow, I'll count heads. If even one is missing, Senior Brother will personally come to your door and invite you."

There were already so few people. If they ran away after one session, what would that accomplish?

Chu Zeming had set himself a strict teaching goal: within half a month, these children had to advance by one minor realm. Rising to his feet, Chu Zeming smiled at them with benevolent friendliness, looking every bit like he had taken the duties of a morning-class senior brother onto his shoulders.

Hold the position, fulfill its duties.

Since he had taken over this body and its identity, he had to shoulder the responsibilities of an eldest senior brother.

Chu Zeming strolled leisurely away from the training grounds, inwardly feeling that he was a principled and responsible good young man of the twenty-first century.

Xuan Mo's residence was on Light Spirit Peak.

The scenery around it was pleasant, birds chirped sweetly, and spiritual energy was abundant. Its location was far better than Chu Zeming's residence.

Chu Zeming sat on a stone bench outside the residence. His long, pale, clearly jointed fingers lightly tapped the surface of the stone table. He had already sent a voice transmission and was now waiting for Xuan Mo to emerge from the residence.

He had come to see why Xuan Mo had not gone to the training grounds today.

Before long, the residence's barrier vanished and the stone door opened. Xuan Mo, dressed in white robes and styled like a scholar, stepped out from within.

Chu Zeming raised a brow and looked toward the entrance of the cave residence. Just as he was about to ask a question, he suddenly saw that Xuan Mo's face was covered in blue and purple bruises. Worse still, he limped slightly as he walked.

Chu Zeming's expression instantly darkened.

"What happened?"

"I had a dispute with someone." Xuan Mo hesitated and stammered for a long time before Chu Zeming finally learned what had happened.

A month ago, a new small spiritual vein had suddenly emerged on Light Spirit Peak, making the spiritual energy across the entire peak more than three times denser. Xuan Mo's residence happened to be not far from the spiritual vein, so someone had set their sights on it.

Though the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect prohibited internal fighting, where there were people, there was the jianghu.

In places the law-enforcement disciples could not see, there would always be bullying of the weak.

The one bullying Xuan Mo was none other than the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect's second disciple, Ling Tian—the minor villain in the original book who had always been at odds with Chu Zeming.

The Ling Tian in the book had also been a genius, raised from childhood amid flowers and applause. But after entering the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect, he had fallen short of Chu Zeming in everything. Suppressed for so long, Ling Tian came to particularly hate Chu Zeming and wanted to disgust him no matter what he did.

During the days since Chu Zeming had transmigrated, Ling Tian had been in secluded cultivation, attempting to break through to the Half-Step Golden Core, so he had not caused trouble before Chu Zeming.

Who would have thought that the moment he emerged from seclusion, he would start stealing someone's residence?

Thinking of this, Chu Zeming's expression turned awful.

Xuan Mo followed behind Chu Zeming, somewhat afraid. "Eldest Senior Brother, how about we forget it? I'm not all that devoted to cultivation anyway. It does not matter if I give this residence to Second Senior Brother. I've already packed my things. If Second Senior Brother wants it, then let him have it."

Chu Zeming turned his head and said coldly, "If it does not matter, then give your residence to me. Your residence is mine now, and someone is trying to steal my residence. I'm very angry."

Xuan Mo froze.

"Huh?"

Chu Zeming snorted coldly, flicked his sleeve, and left.

When he arrived at Ling Tian's residence, Chu Zeming kicked the door open without a word.

The residence's restriction was forcibly shattered. The stone doors rumbled loudly, seemingly unable to withstand the external force as chunks of stone and dust began raining down.

"Get out here!" Chu Zeming's tone was extremely bad.

Before long, Ling Tian came out.

The young man in his twenties wore a jade crown and had a baby face. Seeing Chu Zeming come knocking, Ling Tian was rather surprised.

—Why had this dog suddenly come looking for him? Did he not usually look utterly disgusted whenever he saw him, unwilling even to acknowledge him?

"What do you want with m—" Before Ling Tian could finish, an iron fist smashed straight into his face.

Intense pain exploded from his eye socket. Ling Tian went completely numb. Clutching his eye, he was about to curse furiously when another fist landed on his left eye socket.

It hurt, hurt, hurt!

Fists and kicks fell upon him like raindrops. Ling Tian immediately flew into a rage and summoned his meteor hammer, swinging it into his hand. Just as he was about to strike back, Chu Zeming's devilish whisper reached his ear—"Are you sure you want to use spells? Then I won't be polite either..."

What did he mean, polite or not polite? He had shown no mercy when beating people with his fists either!

Ling Tian looked up furiously, only to meet a sinisterly smiling face and the Luminous Glaze Sword in Chu Zeming's hand, buzzing incessantly and itching for a fight. An utterly terrifying pressure radiated from the black-haired youth whose dark robes snapped in the wind.

Damn, he was serious?!

Ling Tian stood in the wind, utterly disheveled, for half a second.

"I'm sorry!!"

"Whose residence did you steal?"

"I'm sorry!!"

"Do you know who protects Xuan Mo?"

"I was wrong!"

The scene was far too violent. Xuan Mo did not dare look. He closed his eyes and hid to one side, listening to Ling Tian yelp and howl as he was beaten by his senior brother, his heart trembling along with every cry.

Ling Tian covered his battered, bruised face, feeling that the world had become utterly fantastical.

Why had that dog of a senior brother, who had always put on airs and disdained to lower himself to strike someone as lowly as him, suddenly changed his nature and started hitting people at the slightest disagreement?

And it hurt so much!

Only after beating Ling Tian until his injuries were about as bad as Xuan Mo's did Chu Zeming finally stop.

Glancing at Ling Tian on the ground, Chu Zeming said coldly, "Xuan Mo, it is fine if you do not like cultivation, but Senior Brother hopes you will have the strength to protect yourself—at the very least, so people cannot bully you as they please. Because in this world, fists are the only hard truth."

Xuan Mo stood there blankly. Suddenly, an indescribable feeling surged up within his heart.

He remained silent for a long time before slowly lowering his head. "Yes, Eldest Senior Brother."

Chu Zeming ignored Ling Tian and left with a sweep of his sleeve.

Xuan Mo lowered his head and followed after him.

On the ground.

Ling Tian held his beaten, bruised face and cursed Chu Zeming eighteen thousand times in his heart.

That dog who loved putting on airs and throwing his weight around had suddenly stopped acting like a dog. Without the slightest regard for sect fellowship, if he did not like something, he simply acted and started beating people.

Ling Tian raised his head resentfully, staring at the back of the black-haired youth in dark robes as he left, and cursed under his breath, "Fuck, why did he look so handsome while beating me..."