Blown Sky-High

When Ye Zhiqiu returned to the martial academy that evening, she traced the matter to its source and found Hu Lai and Hu Kan.

According to her investigation, every rumor about Chu Xisheng in the academy had originated with these two brothers.

She summoned them to her office, then folded her arms and eyed them with a hostile expression.

"Tell me! Who told you to spread all that nonsense?"

Sweat covered Hu Kan's pale, plump face, and his drooping eyebrows sagged limply like worms. Deeply apprehensive, he asked, "Instructor, what exactly do you mean by 'nonsense'?"

"I mean Chu Xisheng!" Ye Zhiqiu tapped the table with her finger and raised her voice. "Who told you to spread rumors about him?"

Hu Kan and Hu Lai immediately exchanged a glance, their expressions turning peculiar.

Hu Lai, who sported a drooping mustache, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Please hear us out, Instructor. If you mean the recent rumors about Junior Brother Chu in the academy, Junior Brother Chu specifically asked us to help spread his name around the academy."

The brothers had even accepted twenty taels of demon silver from Chu Xisheng.

But he would not dare mention the money even if they beat him to death.

"Junior Brother Chu? Chu Xisheng himself?"

Ye Zhiqiu was startled.

She had suspected these two of harboring ill intentions, acting on someone's orders to praise Chu Xisheng to his ruin, which was why she had wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Yet her investigation had led straight back to Chu Xisheng.

Ye Zhiqiu's eyes widened. It all felt utterly absurd and inconceivable. "Chu Xisheng told you to spread his fame and say he was the Number One Inner Disciple?"

Had a dog chewed up that fellow's brain?

"Not that part." The older brother, Hu Kan, shook his head, his drooping eyebrows returning to their normal shape. "We followed the outline Junior Brother Chu gave us. After a bitter fight, Junior Brother Chu killed over thirty men, including three of the Hengmen Eighteen Riders, and his saber technique really has reached Ninth-Rank Upper. I asked around. It's all true."

Seeing the doubt in Ye Zhiqiu's gaze, he cleared his throat again. "It's true! At most, we imitated those storytellers and added a little invention on top of the facts. That's how street rumors and gossip work. People only listen if you exaggerate a little and make it sensational. It really was just this tiny bit-"

Hu Kan even held out his thumb and little finger, leaving a sliver of space between them.

His younger brother, Hu Lai, awkwardly stroked his mustache. "But the more people passed it around, the wilder and more exaggerated it got. Somehow, that boast got blown clear into the sky."

Ye Zhiqiu snorted and withdrew her cold, piercing gaze.

Then her brows knitted tightly. What on earth was Chu Xisheng up to?

While Ye Zhiqiu was thinking about Chu Xisheng, he was practicing martial arts in his dreams.

On that white jade plaza shrouded in thin mist, Chu Xisheng practiced the Wind-Chasing Blade with unwavering persistence.

Over and over, as though he knew neither fatigue nor boredom.

His saber technique alone was already vastly different from ten days earlier.

With the help of Virtual Training in his dreams, Chu Xisheng had now practiced all eighteen forms of the Wind-Chasing Blade.

As he practiced his saber, he also incorporated Light-Cloud Movement into its forms.

This was a lightness and leaping technique that applied true essence to the feet, greatly improving a martial cultivator's speed, stride, and jumping ability.

Combining Light-Cloud Movement with the Wind-Chasing Blade brought enormous changes to the saber technique.

These included longer strides, faster bursts of speed, and greater room to maneuver.

Had Chu Xisheng relied entirely on his own comprehension, he might not have grasped the essentials of these two martial arts even in two or three months.

But he had a First-Rank grandmaster beside him.

Since their finances were currently comfortable, Chu Yunyun was temporarily staying idle at home.

She specifically used this free time to break down the Wind-Chasing Blade and Light-Cloud Movement and explain them to Chu Xisheng.

She had practically pressed herself against him and guided his hands to teach him this lightness and leaping technique.

But Chu Xisheng had only practiced it for a short time. His Light-Cloud Movement was still unpolished and could not yet be used in combat.

Time passed unnoticed, and four double-hours seemed to slip by in a blink.

When Chu Xisheng woke early that morning and endured the bout of pain, he looked at the system panel before him.

Character: Chu Xisheng

Reputation: Ninth-Rank Upper (illusory)

Martial arts: Wind-Chasing Saber Technique (second level), Light-Cloud Movement (not yet initiated)

Martial intent: Yazi remnant intent (first level)

Cultivation art: Origin-Nourishing Art (second level / Ninth-Rank Lower)

Martial Dao Points: 32

Talents: Eagle Eye, Wind-Chasing, Lightning-Pursuing Hands (first tier), Pure Yang Thunder Body (first tier)

Status: Six Yin Soul-Returning Incantation

Lifespan: 29 days

Chu Xisheng looked at his martial arts field, then at his Martial Dao Points, which had risen to 32, and gave a soft sigh.

His experiment had succeeded. Hu Kan and Hu Lai's publicity had been quite effective.

Three days earlier, his Martial Dao Points had risen from 23 to 32.

But Chu Xisheng had also failed. Once his Martial Dao Points reached 32, they stubbornly refused to rise any further.

Although his name had now spread far and wide, and those exaggerated rumors were circulating ever more widely, even beyond the academy, his Martial Dao Points had not increased at all.

Chu Xisheng reckoned the rumors were simply too exaggerated. People only listened to them as jokes and curious tales; deep down, they did not believe them.

His reputation had also remained at Ninth-Rank Upper (illusory), without budging.

Chu Xisheng still did not understand how reputation increased.

Looking back on his experiences these past days, whether his reputation rose seemed to have little to do with how many people believed in his strength.

The key seemed to lie in recognition from experts. Only when enough powerful martial cultivators acknowledged him could his reputation rise.

But whether his reputation increased did not really matter. What mattered was Martial Dao Points.

The current situation was that, before he had gained enough Martial Dao Points, the backlash from those exaggerated rumors had already begun to show.

Chu Xisheng had long sensed the strange atmosphere among the many fellow disciples around him.

Those Two-Leaf and Three-Leaf senior inner disciples were already stirring, eager to test what he was made of.

Chu Xisheng felt a little regretful. He seemed to have dug himself a huge pit.

Chu Xisheng sighed and withdrew the illusory screen to the corner of his vision.

When he walked out of his room to wash up, Chu Yunyun could not help giving him a cold sidelong look. "Why are you sighing again? You practice martial arts. Show some spirit."

"I'm worried. The tree longs for stillness, but the wind won't cease."

Chu Xisheng glanced at a willow swaying in the wind ahead, then asked expectantly, "Yunyun, do you have any way to improve my strength quickly, within a day or two?"

Chu Yunyun immediately shook her head. "Martial training is a gradual path. To reach the pinnacle, you must undergo a thousand hammerings and a hundred temperings, building a firm foundation. Even those evil cultivators and demonic practitioners can't get there in a single leap.

"You're already progressing very quickly. Once you master Light-Cloud Movement, it will be enough to take your strength up another level. What more do you want?"

She was actually quite surprised. Over the past ten-odd days, Chu Xisheng seemed to have suddenly gained enlightenment.

Whatever she taught Chu Xisheng, he could always perform it without the slightest error the next day.

And every move and form was extremely practiced, as though he had already drilled it countless times.

Yet this fellow could clearly only practice his saber for one hour each day.

"But I still think it's too slow." Sighing again, Chu Xisheng picked up a willow twig to brush his teeth. "The tree that towers above the forest is sure to be battered by the wind."

Chu Yunyun burst out laughing. "You brought all this on yourself. It's fine. A beating will sort you out."

In her eyes, Chu Xisheng was simply reaping what he had sown.

The fellow had clearly let things go to his head. He had even sought out Hu Kan and Hu Lai himself and paid them to spread his fame.

To Chu Yunyun, this was no great matter. Sparring and exchanging techniques between fellow disciples were commonplace.

Martial cultivators honed and improved their martial skills through precisely such exchanges and comparisons.

If Chu Xisheng lost a match, he would merely be knocked back into his original form.

It would be just the thing to make Chu Xisheng see himself clearly and keep his feet firmly on the ground.

Chu Xisheng continued to look miserable. He could not say that everything he had done was for the sake of gaining Martial Dao Points.

He had not expected this cow to fly into the sky, either-

Just then, both of them heard a deafening bell ring outside.

At first, they paid it no mind, assuming it was the academy's bell urging the disciples to morning practice. But after the great bell rang three times in succession, they could not help exchanging a look.

This was not the morning practice bell, but the bell summoning every disciple and instructor in the academy.