Black Robe Sword Technique

The next day

Though both mother and son had taken a crushing blow to their intelligence, life had to go on. So early that morning, Mama Hu went to the market to buy groceries as usual.

There was no helping it. Even a thousand-year-old fox Demon had to eat, and the old lady absolutely hated premade Spirit Cuisine. Based on what his fox mother had learned from watching short videos, the stuff might have something to do with the demonic path.

As for Hu Mang, after his mother had force-fed him like a duck, he had unsurprisingly stuffed himself again.

This time, though, he had no intention of doing "Heavenly Gate Is Calling" at home again. He decided to practice his swordsmanship by the nearby Phoenix River.

As the martial arts saying went, a month for the staff, a year for the saber, a lifetime for the spear, and a treasured sword tucked away at one's side.

Hu Mang was just the opposite.

He didn't practice with a staff, didn't carry a sword, and rarely played with a saber. Instead, he was damn good with the spear, which was more technically demanding.

The problem was that he only had a peachwood sword at home, so he could only pick up the thing he hadn't played with in years.

"Dad, I'm heading out to play with my sword."

Hu Mang poked his head in and called out to "Dad," who was sitting at the head of the bed, basking in the sun.

"How nice! Get some exercise and relax. It'd be even better if you could record a video and bring it back for me to see!"

"Sure thing."

Hu Mang put on the "black cloth shoes" he had at home and headed straight out in a single layer of clothing.

He left "Dad" basking motionlessly in the sun.

Dawn had just broken. The rising sun gave off a faint light, its warm glow spreading gently.

A breeze drifted along the riverbank, and the water flowed softly, rippling with flecks of gold.

Beside the bridge, Hu Mang idly swung his low-level peachwood sword Law Artifact and loosened up his limbs, his gaze wandering over a group of retired old cultivators who were dancing, exercising, and even practicing swordsmanship like him.

Peachwood was said to ward off evil, but according to his mother's personal experience, a peachwood sword of this low-grade Law Artifact level probably didn't ward off foxes.

Of course, it might.

Otherwise, there was no explaining why mother and son had both lost their wits.

Maybe it didn't ward off evil, but intelligence.

The weather was already getting a little hot in May, but the early morning was still somewhat cool. The morning sunlight rolled over him, and together with the low-grade Spiritual Qi around him, warmed Hu Mang from head to toe.

So he abandoned his plan to practice swordsmanship and slumped onto a stone bench by the bridge to bask in the sun, his eyelids growing heavy.

A text notification snapped him awake.

[Your account has received a transfer/remittance of 200,000 Spirit Coins]

There was more than one message-

[Heavenly Gate Divine Dragon Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Heavenly Gate Spirit Network Group] Dear [Fellow Daoist Hu Mang]: Regarding the [Spirit Power Station No. 7-Spiritual Qi pipeline support system collapse] incident, following negotiation/adjudication, the total compensation payable by our company is [200,000] Spirit Coins, paid by bank transfer to your designated account. Please confirm receipt. For a detailed breakdown of the compensation, please refer to the agreement. If you have any questions, please contact the Golden Core cultivator in charge, Zhao Tiezhu, at *******. We once again offer our deepest apologies and will undertake rigorous corrective measures to prevent such incidents.

"They compensate you even when you're posted overseas? Tsk, not bad..."

Hu Mang glanced at it with narrowed eyes, quickly switched off his phone, and went back to dozing.

But soon, a call from a number saved as "Master Zhao" lit up his phone again.

"Hello... Brother Zhao? I'm back in the country... Right, I've received it. I'm fine, I can walk and jump like normal, I just can't circulate Qi... Mm-hmm, I got the compensation. I've got to thank you for that, brother, or with the way things are for me... Ah, listen to you... Go to the hospital? Of course I'm going to the hospital. If I've got money and don't get treated, what am I going to do, save it for my coffin?... Right, right. When are you coming back, Brother Zhao? I'll buy you a drink. You can come back once the second phase of the project is done, right?... When we've got time, we brothers can go steal Spiritual Qi together again... Haha, can't do that in Heavenly Gate, huh..."

A long time passed before Hu Mang hung up.

Though someone "posted overseas" like him could receive compensation for a workplace injury,

he had sneaked into a place in Java equivalent to one of Heavenly Gate's "natural blessed land reserves" while on vacation, and had just happened to run into the miracle of a "volcanic eruption." So procedurally speaking, there would have been no problem with denying him compensation.

But as the saying went, they were all workers, so why make things difficult for one another?

At least Brother Zhao, who liked stealing Spiritual Qi and drinking spirit wine, wasn't that kind of person.

The call had chased away most of his drowsiness. Hu Mang had just been about to coax the sleep bugs back when another call rang out.

"Hello... Fellow Daoist Xu? Which Fellow Daoist Xu?... Oh, you're that brother from the Demon-Suppressing Guard. What can I do for you, brother?... Nothing? That bull Demon wants to thank me? Oh, right, not a bull Demon, a programmer... There's no need for that, is there? I didn't help much, and I even kicked him twice... Speaking of which, that counted as self-defense, right?... All right, all right, give him my number, then."

Hu Mang sighed, shifted in his seat, and stretched his neck. He gave up on coaxing the bugs back entirely, and even felt inexplicably energized.

Soon, another call came in from an unfamiliar number.

A voice rang out, sounding slightly nervous, as if its owner wasn't much good at communicating.

"H-hello, are you Fellow Daoist Hu Mang?"

"Mm, you are-" Hu Mang sat cross-legged and tried to recall the name on the work badge he'd seen yesterday. Wang, Wang what again? Wang Jingze?

"Fellow Daoist Wang, right? Officer Xu told me you wanted to thank me in person. There's no need. When you see injustice on the road, you draw your blade and help... And most importantly, if I hadn't stepped in, you'd have planted a hoof in my face."

"No, no, no, I have to thank you. I couldn't control my body at the time, but I was still conscious. If it hadn't been for you, I might really have seriously injured someone, and then I'd have been in huge trouble."

"It wasn't that serious. The Demon-Suppressing Guard got there pretty fast, and besides..." Hu Mang scratched his chin and asked curiously:

"Didn't you get that 'beast-of-burden disease' from working overtime? If you really had injured someone, would your sect have reimbursed you for the compensation?"

"..." There was a moment of silence on the other end. "That... I don't know."

Hu Mang didn't think there was anything worth repaying him for. After all, if he hadn't held himself back at the time, the other man might have ended up injuring someone, but he himself would certainly have ended up killing someone.

This was a peaceful age of cultivation. Though he wouldn't dare claim everyone was equal regardless of cultivation, for a "Qi Refining Realm disciple" like him, that was definitely 100 percent true.

So there was nothing to speak of.

But the other man seemed to have a one-track mind and insisted on thanking him in person. Hu Mang was getting a little fed up with his persistence, and he was indeed curious about what kind of path "online immortal cultivation" like his followed, so he agreed.

They arranged to meet that afternoon at a local teahouse. Hu Mang checked the date and realized no wonder the man was free today: it was a holiday.

After several calls in a row, he was thoroughly unable to sleep.

So Hu Mang could only keep moving his gaze around, rousing himself from his daze. By now, the sun was high in the sky, and its rays were making his skin a little warm.

"Young man, practice more when you've got nothing else to do. A cultivator as young as you should get more exercise. Don't spend every day either sitting or sprawling around. What if you end up with something wrong with you?"

A retired old cultivator who had been practicing swordsmanship for who knew how many rounds joked.

"You're right."

"When I was your age, I opened up spirit mountains, fought Demon Beasts, and altered Spirit Veins. I did everything. I wasn't like you lot nowadays, doing nothing but cultivate."

"Look!"

With a casual gesture from the old cultivator, his peachwood sword traced seven or eight sword flowers in midair and circled him nine times. Wherever it passed, the grass didn't bend and the flowers weren't disturbed. It was a display of skillful Sword Control Technique, and at a glance, he clearly had genuine combat experience.

"Young man, catch!"

The old cultivator guided the sword with a hand seal, sending the peachwood sword flying toward Hu Mang, neither fast nor slow. Hu Mang caught it by the hilt.

The next moment, he unleashed a sequence of the Black Robe Sword Technique, inherited from the Jiangzuo Xie Clan's Black Robe Concealed Jade Scripture.

The peachwood sword came alive.

The sword light was no longer sharp and oppressive. Instead, it spread naturally, like ink dissolving in a clear pool.

In every move and every stance, there was no killing intent, only an inexhaustible air of composure and antiquity. At times it was like a lone crane crossing the clouds, solitary and lofty; at others, like a weary traveler shaking out his robes, casting forth a thousand shifting forms from his languor.

The sword's momentum flowed in seamless circles, faintly sketching the moonlight over Jiangnan's Black Robe Lane and the bamboo shadows in the Xie Household's courtyard.

Even the old cultivator was stunned.

Hu Mang simply wasn't good at fighting to the death with the sword.

But in this peaceful age of immortal cultivation, when even a Golden Core cultivator could be scared into fleeing for his life at the sight of a Foundation Establishment Demon, his swordsmanship was definitely half a dimensional strike.

As an aside, Hu Mang's own experience had proven that some ancient cultivation methods, such as the Xie Household cultivation method his mother had passed down to him, and the poetically named Cloud Billows Pure Mystery Instruction and River and Mountain Inheriting Truth Chapter, were not as useful as the Universal Qi Refining Instruction taught during the nine years of compulsory cultivation education.

Though the name "Heavenly Gate General Qi Refining Instruction" sounded very low-class,

it was dozens of times more efficient than the ancient methods.

With that kind of efficiency, who needed shared flying swords?

But when it came to military strategy, training troops, and close-quarters combat with Law Artifacts, the ancients-at least the Xie Household-were absolute professionals.

There was no helping it. Those were the skills their great Aristocratic Clan relied on to make a living.

As for his mother's old flame, her ex-boyfriend Xie Xianyu, he was a historical celebrity whose name could be found online.

Xie Xianyu, courtesy name Linyuan, art name Layman Yuan, was one of the seventy-two sages of the Martial Temple. His accomplishments included being one of the key figures in the northern expedition to the Central Plains and the restoration of the Liang Dynasty.

Demon Subjugation Bureau

"Little Xu, back from your assignment?"

"Yeah. I just got back after settling a few fights between students from the academy."

"Oh, right, I found that cultivator's information you asked me for. Want to take a look?"

"A little slow, aren't you? I asked you yesterday, and you're only giving it to me today."

"Yeah, it was a little troublesome."

"Troublesome? How? Is it confidential?"

"No, nothing like that. It's just that after looking around, I had to get his personal information from overseas in the end."

"Overseas?" Little Xu asked as he flipped through the documents.

"Yeah, and there was also disability compensation from the Cultivator Welfare Bureau."

"Compensation... disability?"

The Demon-Suppressing Guard surnamed Xu froze as he leafed through the documents.

With the skills to subdue a Foundation Establishment Demon in just a few moves, what part of him was disabled?!

"So there's nothing wrong with his identity?"

"Yeah. If you had to say there was a slight problem, it'd actually be his mother."