Miracle

"Brother Li, don't be so reckless next time. You nearly scared me to death just now."

At Li Garden, Bai Wangyu looked at the boy before him and said with a wry smile.

Even now, the cold sweat on his back had yet to dry.

Over these past few days, he had spent more time on tenterhooks following Brother Li around than he had in the preceding half of his life.

"Relax."

Li Ziye patted Little Red Riding Hood on the shoulder and grinned. "The Head of the Confucians is the teacher of all under heaven. Why would he hold anything against a junior like me? Besides, the fact that he had you stay by my side means I'm still of value to the Imperial Academy. How could he slap me dead so easily?"

He had been a little impatient, but he was no fool.

He would never do anything that courted death.

"..."

Bai Wangyu was speechless. He admitted that the Head of the Confucians probably would not get angry over such a trifling matter, but Brother Li's actions had simply been far too shocking.

Who in this world dared to be so disrespectful toward the Head of the Confucians?

Even the dazzlingly talented master of the Divine Oracle Hall in the Western Regions had to observe the proper courtesies when meeting him.

"Old Bai, you're far too hung up on etiquette. Strip away his identity as the head of the Imperial Academy, and the Head of the Confucians is just an ordinary old man, not some raging flood or savage beast. Do you really need to be so afraid? Besides, you're the eldest senior brother of the Confucian School. It's not as though he's going to eat you," Li Ziye said, looking exasperated at his failure to show some mettle.

"Cough! Cough!"

At those words, Bai Wangyu nearly choked. His face flushed as he covered his mouth and coughed violently.

"Old Bai, what's wrong? Are your injuries acting up again?"

Seeing this, Li Ziye stepped forward and asked with concern.

"Nothing."

Bai Wangyu drew a deep breath. "Brother Li, I'm begging you. Stop talking. I'm genuinely afraid that one day you'll infuriate me so badly I'll choke and die here in Li Garden."

Li Ziye gave him a disdainful look. "Old Bai, I despise you!"

"Go ahead. I was going to give you some pointers on the third form of the Flying Immortal Formula, but now it seems there's no need," Bai Wangyu said mildly, then headed toward the west wing.

Li Ziye froze, then came to his senses and called out urgently, "Old Bai-no, Brother Bai! I was wrong! You're the person I admire most!"

Li Ziye chased him to the west wing and immediately noticed the changes there.

Red threads crisscrossed the courtyard, with little bells tied to them-twenty-seven in all, matching the number of steps in the Flying Immortal Formula's third form.

Clearly, this red-thread formation had been set up specifically for the third form of the Flying Immortal Formula.

At the sight, Li Ziye was instantly moved to tears.

Old Bai must have set this up especially for him. It seemed Old Bai had put a great deal of thought into helping him these past few days.

He swore he would never bully Little Red Riding Hood again.

"There are twenty-seven bells on this red-thread formation, each corresponding to one of the twenty-seven steps in the Flying Immortal Formula's third form. Practice by following the positions of the bells. Every time a bell rings, it means you've taken a step correctly. Also, these threads are specially made and very tough. They can help you correct your position as you practice."

Bai Wangyu explained with earnest patience. He had gone several days without sleep to prepare all this. He had tested every step himself; the positions were correct, without any problems.

"Old Bai, you're so good to me. Give me a hug."

Deeply moved, Li Ziye stepped forward and spread his arms.

"Get lost!"

Bai Wangyu could not help swearing again. These past days had all but worn away the patience and self-restraint of the Confucian School's eldest senior brother.

Li Ziye shamelessly lowered his arms as though nothing had happened, then walked to the first bell and began practicing.

"Ding!"

Li Ziye darted forward, and the instant he touched the first bell, it rang.

Then came the second, and the third.

After days of practice, Li Ziye could already take ten steps. Beyond ten, however, not only did his consumption of True Essence increase sharply, but controlling his body also grew increasingly difficult.

Sure enough, after the tenth bell rang, Li Ziye's body once again flew off against his will, slipping out of control.

"Use the red threads to find the correct position again!" Bai Wangyu immediately called out in a low voice.

Amid the crisscrossing threads, Li Ziye heard Little Red Riding Hood's reminder, planted a foot in midair, and turned back, using the threads to return to his original position.

"Ding!"

At last, another bell rang. Li Ziye took his eleventh step, breaking past his own limit.

"Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Finish all twenty-seven steps first, and let your body remember these positions!"

Outside the red-thread formation, Bai Wangyu spoke up to remind him again.

"All right!"

Within the threads, Li Ziye answered and darted forward again, moving faster and faster-and flying off course more and more often.

Each time, however, he used the red threads to pull himself back to the correct position.

And so, over and over, after countless attempts, Li Ziye finally staggered through all twenty-seven steps, his body scored with dozens upon dozens of cuts from the threads.

"Ding!"

As the final bell rang, Li Ziye dropped straight onto his backside, then lay down, panting so hard and so exhausted that he did not want to move a single finger.

"I'm dead tired!"

Those mere twenty-seven steps had completely drained all the True Qi within Li Ziye's Divine Repository. Without the red threads' help, he could not even have finished them.

"How was it?"

Bai Wangyu walked over and said earnestly, "When you can complete these twenty-seven steps without relying on outside help, you'll truly have succeeded."

"Old Bai, you're a real genius. I'm so jealous."

Li Ziye lay on the ground, speaking between gasps. Why were other people's children all so outstanding, while he was like a landlord's idiot son, good for nothing and number one at causing trouble?

"I'm two years older than you and have read more books, so my understanding of martial arts is a little deeper. Actually, Brother Li, you're smarter than I am." Worried that the boy before him might lose confidence in martial arts, Bai Wangyu offered some reassurance.

"I think so too."

Li Ziye agreed without a shred of modesty. He did think he was quite clever.

"..."

Bai Wangyu felt his reassurance had been entirely unnecessary.

Right now, he really wanted to plant his foot on the brat's face and see whether his skin was thicker than the sole of his shoe.

"I've decided to cultivate hard, then punch Huo Liner and kick Yan Xiaoyu, become invincible under heaven, and make my name resound throughout the Nine Provinces."

On the ground, Li Ziye imagined some future scene, the smile on his face growing increasingly twisted.

Bai Wangyu looked at the boy as though he were an idiot. He truly suspected that martial arts practice had damaged the brat's brain.

"Crunch!"

Li Ziye took several hundred-year-old ginseng roots from inside his robe and began gnawing on them like radishes. With his mouth full, he said, "Old Bai, does the Imperial Academy have any miraculous pills or medicines that restore True Qi quickly? Sell me some. I can't stomach chewing this stuff all the time."

Beside him, the corners of Bai Wangyu's mouth twitched involuntarily at the sight. He had truly witnessed the Li Family's extravagant wealth now: precious medicinal herbs were being gnawed on like radishes, as though they cost nothing.

Before long, after eating several old ginseng roots, Li Ziye had recovered most of his True Qi. He sprang to his feet with a kip-up, ready to continue practicing.

"The Flying Immortal Formula is incomparably profound. If you can master its third form while still in the First Realm, you'll be the first person in a thousand years apart from the first Sword God to do so."

Bai Wangyu spoke solemnly. "If you want to catch up to Huo Liner within three years, you'll have to keep creating miracles. You must take this first step."

"I understand."

At those words, Li Ziye's gaze grew serious as well. He nodded in reply, then pushed off and darted forward once more.

"Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!"

Bells rang one after another. Among the crisscrossing red threads, Li Ziye kept leaping and shifting, his speed increasing along with the number of wounds on his body.

The red threads were tough enough for Li Ziye to push off them, but because he was moving so fast, every time he flew off course, a thread cut another wound into him, with blood faintly showing.

In this world, apart from a very few geniuses, everyone had to put in a hundred parts of effort to reap fifty parts of results.

Li Ziye's talent had absolutely nothing to do with genius. In Li Qingzhi's words, he was trash. So unless he worked as though his life depended on it, how could he catch up to peerless prodigies like Huo Liner and Yan Xiaoyu?

Outside the threads, Bai Wangyu watched the boy ahead sweating like rain, saying nothing.

He wondered whether, if he were in Li Ziye's place, with all eight meridians blocked and unable to practice martial arts, he could fight so relentlessly for the martial path-even knowing he would batter his head bloody, still giving everything to try so that he would have no regrets.

He probably could not. Not because he feared hardship, but because he lacked the courage to stake everything on one throw.

"Snap!"

After who knew how long practicing and how many attempts, a red thread in the formation finally reached its limit and snapped. Li Ziye's body immediately flew out of control and slammed straight into the west wing's wall.

Then his body slid down like a paper cutout and smacked onto the ground.

Bai Wangyu silently went over and replaced the broken thread with a new one.

At the foot of the wall, Li Ziye took out another precious medicinal herb and began gnawing on it, his mouth full of dregs and his face contorting from the bitterness.

He really could not stomach it!

The sun sank in the west, and the moon shone bright among sparse stars. In the west wing, Li Ziye continued practicing, while Little Red Riding Hood remained beside him, occasionally offering pointers and correcting the martial arts novice's various bizarre mistakes.

Only when the bright moon hung directly overhead did Li Ziye finally become too exhausted even to crawl, lying on the ground without being able to move.

And so, as though dragging a pig, Bai Wangyu hauled Li Ziye onto the stone steps outside his room.

"Old Bai, I think I can do it."

Lying on the stone steps, Li Ziye looked at the sky full of stars and grinned.

Though his progress was still slow, he could clearly see hope.

He truly had to thank Little Red Riding Hood.

He felt Little Red Riding Hood was an angel-the kind with wings that fluttered.

Even if fate had shut a door on him and welded a window closed, with help from Little Red Riding Hood, his fairy master, Zhang Lata, and the others, he could still force his way through by digging a tunnel.

With such lovely friends and family, heaven had treated him quite well after all.

Amid these thoughts, Li Ziye fell into an utterly exhausted sleep, a faint, contented smile on his face.

Beside him, Bai Wangyu sat quietly, without a word.

To be honest, before this, he had never thought Brother Li could actually succeed.

After all, cultivating the Flying Immortal Formula was simply too difficult. Over the past thousand years, so many favored children of heaven had been forced to abandon it and practice other martial arts instead.

But after today, perhaps he believed a little.

Brother Li was someone who could create miracles!

He very much looked forward to the day when the first Sword God's swordsmanship would reappear in the world.

A sword came from the west, an immortal flew from beyond the heavens!