Teaching

"Your disciple offers you tea, Master."

Qiu Wuji sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed. She opened her eyes, torn between annoyance and amusement, to find Chu Ge standing before her, holding out a cup of tea like an eager lackey.

So we really were keeping our roles separate? I called you Father God, and you called me Master.

Were there any other ways to play this?

Qiu Wuji found it funny, but her face remained frosty. "When did I ever take in such a lazy disciple? Get lost."

Chu Ge smiled ingratiatingly. "You already taught me an introductory cultivation method, so that makes you my master. You were going to teach me some little spells, too..."

"I'm not teaching you. Why should I?" Qiu Wuji kept a stern face. "Go ask around the Cloudreach Sect. Do you think becoming my disciple is that easy?"

"Yes, yes, Master has high standards. You've never taken a single direct disciple, only given the people under you a few pointers. But everything has to start somewhere, right...?"

Qiu Wuji remained expressionless. "Where is your apprenticeship gift? Let me see your sincerity."

Chu Ge ventured cautiously, "Actually, your disciple has socks, too..."

"Drop dead!" Qiu Wuji's composure shattered completely. Unable to maintain her icy, cross-legged pose any longer, she rose to beat him up.

Instead of retreating, Chu Ge stepped forward and put the teacup straight into her hand. "Calm down, Master. A little tea is good for the body and mind."

"Pah." Qiu Wuji had only been joking with him anyway. Torn between irritation and amusement, she accepted the tea. "How could the tea in your world benefit the body and mind?"

"I never wrote a tea-roasting process into that world, so you haven't tried this before. Give it a taste, though this particular tea is pretty lousy."

Qiu Wuji took a small sip and nodded slightly. "It may contain some mundane impurities, but the processing method does have its merits."

Chu Ge simply watched her put on airs. Why didn't you mention mundane impurities when you were eating beef and potatoes? One sip of tea, and suddenly you were showing off. He did not call her out, only smiled. "Now that Master has accepted her disciple's tea, shouldn't she teach him a trick or two...?"

Qiu Wuji sipped her tea leisurely. "No."

Chu Ge: "?"

Qiu Wuji snorted. "By your own settings, invisibility is a relatively advanced technique. You can't learn it yet. As for seeing through things, that worthless technique serves no purpose beyond satisfying your sleazy desires."

Chu Ge grew anxious. "How is it useless? It's incredibly handy! You'd be guaranteed to win at cards. Huh..."

Qiu Wuji: "..."

Wasn't that an excellent way to make money? It didn't seem to require an ID card, either. Why hadn't you said so sooner?

Chu Ge backed away awkwardly. "Well, I don't usually play cards, so it never occurred to me... Besides, scamming ordinary people out of their money isn't good, and we don't have places like casinos around here..."

Qiu Wuji thought, No casinos at all? Not necessarily. Had you known about Underground Boxing before?

Still, she did not want to stir up more trouble anytime soon, so she let the subject drop. "Although there are specific methods that let you use shortcuts like these early, I don't think they're worth deliberately spending time to learn. Once your cultivation reaches a certain level, simply channeling power into your eyes will let you see through ordinary objects. It all depends on how precisely you control your magical power. What you really need to learn, I think, are techniques to keep yourself alive."

She paused, growing a little more serious. "Chu Ge, from what I've experienced here, this world is very safe and peaceful for ordinary people, but whirlpools still lurk where people cannot see them. You may have belonged to the former group before, but now you're capable of touching those whirlpools, and naturally, they'll draw you in. You can no longer judge things by your old experience. If I'm not here, you need the ability to protect yourself."

Chu Ge's playful mood vanished completely. He nodded solemnly. "Mm."

"So the first thing you should master is a movement technique." A faint smile appeared on Qiu Wuji's lips as she touched a slender finger to his forehead. "You know which one."

The cultivation method and its formulas appeared clearly in his mind. Immortals imparted their teachings in just such a plain, unadorned-and dull-fashion.

Of course Chu Ge knew what it was. He had written it as part of the heroine's standard kit, both to keep her alive and to show off her ethereal grace.

Qiu Wuji's signature movement technique, one of the Cloudreach Sect's supreme arts: Cloudwater Without a Trace.

When Qiu Wuji used it, her body merged with clouds and rosy mists, becoming as elusive as autumn waters, distant and hazy, impossible to locate. It truly made her enemies feel as though they faced a thousand miles of clear autumn stretching without end.

But it was not a technique with an especially high barrier to entry. Qiu Wuji had obtained this wondrous art back when she was weak and insignificant, improving it with every breakthrough in her cultivation. In other words, even low-level disciples could learn some of the basics. Chu Ge was not receiving special treatment, either. The basic movement technique was kept on the Scripture Pavilion's first floor, and so many disciples studied it that it had almost become one of the Cloudreach Sect's defining arts.

Hence, "You know which one."

Honestly, Chu Ge did not particularly want this movement technique... All those clouds and waters inevitably made it feel a little effeminate. Not that it actually was; the Cloudreach Sect's male disciples still rode the wind with effortless grace after learning it. Whether someone seemed effeminate depended entirely on their personal bearing. In any case, Chu Ge had not let his male lead learn this. Instead, he had given him a chance encounter through which he obtained a bold, powerful movement technique.

Yet now that it was his own turn, he still had to learn this one. Boo-hoo...

Still, there was no denying that it was one of the very best movement techniques he had written, with clear progression from low to high levels. Nothing could have suited him better.

"For now, I'll only give you the basics. You couldn't learn the advanced parts even if I gave them to you, and it would only waste mental energy." Qiu Wuji withdrew her finger and pondered briefly. "Although your mind is... quite..."

"Hm?" Chu Ge asked curiously. "What, am I extraordinarily gifted?"

"A little, but isn't that only natural?" Qiu Wuji said calmly. "Your mental sea of consciousness is indeed stronger than an ordinary person's, but you must possess a special ability. That's to be expected... Though I'd originally thought our Father God's sea of consciousness ought to be as vast as an unfathomable ocean. In reality, it's just a filthy little ditch."

Chu Ge: "..."

Qiu Wuji left something unsaid: even a ditch was already terrifying. An ordinary person's would not even amount to a little saucer for hot pot dipping sauce.

Your Mental Power really was strange. Usually, it didn't show itself at all, leaving you no different from an ordinary person... Unfortunately, their systems differed, and she did not know how to classify such things. She also worried that this soul fragment of hers lacked sufficiently precise control over spiritual perception, and that reckless probing might harm Chu Ge. She could only make a shallow exploration before withdrawing.

After pondering for a moment, she said, "Normally, a Qi Refining cultivator couldn't train their Divine Soul, but your situation is different. It's somewhat similar to my current state, so you should be able to nurture your soul ahead of time. I'll teach you the Soul Tempering Art. It includes a Spirit-Concentrating, Soul-Fixing Method. You can nurture and temper your soul regularly, and if you encounter a technique that tries to influence your mind or soul, you can anchor your soul and hold firm against it... Miss Gu's Mind Reading, for example, would no longer work on you."

Chu Ge was delighted. "That's useful! I think a lot of their abilities work along those lines."

"Oh?" Qiu Wuji gave him a sidelong glance. "How many abilities have you seen? Why do you think that?"

"Uh, I read it in books... There are all kinds of special abilities. They can't all be for fighting, right?"

"I believe the exact opposite. Abilities such as immense strength or a light body are more common-so common, in fact, that people don't even consider them special abilities, merely good physical gifts. Next comes simple manipulation of the five elements, such as controlling electricity. That must be far more widespread than something like playing with shadows. I once searched for information about your superpowers, and all it gave me was Thunderbolt Beibei..."

Chu Ge went blank.

Fine, you had facts and reasoning on your side. Happy now?

"So there's no need to imagine your abilities are terribly mysterious, but you shouldn't take them lightly, either. After all, even I can't do that shadow trick. It really is interesting." Qiu Wuji smiled. "All right. Finally, I'll teach you the most basic..."

Chu Ge: "Huh?"

"...techniques for fighting people."

"I need those, too?"

Qiu Wuji gave him a scornful look. "Moon Shadow honed herself in life-or-death arena matches. Even without using any special power, if she fought you with nothing but physical skills, she'd take your head off in a single move. How many people like Moon Shadow are there in this world? Wherever there's combat, there are fighting techniques. Don't think special abilities have nothing to do with them."

Chu Ge: "..."

Qiu Wuji suddenly smiled again. "Fortunately, our sect primarily practices the sword. In other words, combat skills are our true profession. Everything else is just a sideline... Lord Father God, was this all part of your plan?"

Chu Ge said sincerely, "Father God never planned a thing... But you, Master, have thought of everything."

Qiu Wuji remained expressionless.

Chu Ge asked tentatively, "So how do I learn to fight? Hands-on instruction?"

Qiu Wuji answered calmly, "I've given it some thought. Honing combat skills takes years of effort, as well as plenty of actual fighting. You need to write books to make money, so that doesn't suit you. We should take a different approach..."

"That's true, too... Any good ideas?"

"How about this? I'll teach you the Golden Bell Shield. As long as you can take a beating, that's enough-it'll make things easier when I beat you up later, too."

A transitional chapter. Thanks to Moxie Ya for the 10,000 tip; I Really Can't Think of a Good Name, GUANGWEI, Anderweier, and Lone Shadow in Shallow Water for the 5,000 tips; Qing Ximing for the 2,000 tip; Don't Pull Any Lame Stunts and Even Changing a Name Is This Much Trouble for the 1,500 tips; and The People's Veteran Cadre, Dream Locust Soul, and Azure Lotus Born of Clouds for the 1,000 tips...

(End of chapter)

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