"Haa!" An instructor performed a fancy move.
"HAA!" The disciples tired to copy.
"HuuWu!" He held the spear firmly and thrust it like a dragon, or so I'm told.
"HUUWU!" And the disciples followed.
We, along with other two instructors of Gang family, were in their training grounds. By 'we', I mean me and Ling'er (I'll get back to her later).
There were 11 days remaining for the fair to officially start. I had done a bunch of jobs and somehow landed at Gang family. This particular job was paying me 44 golds. Meaning, I immediately agreed upon hearing.
At the Gang family, the morning training was going well.
Hands clasped behind his back, an old instructor was overseeing the training of youngsters. Named Lang, he was at rank 6, just one rank higher than me.
Indeed, I had advanced. I was a rank five practitioner now. After twenty days of bitter cultivaton, I finally had some degree of strength. However, my whole reserves of resources and money were exhausted. I went back to being dirt poor, save for the somewhat okay clothes I wore.
For now, I had no hopes of advancing anytime soon unless I got some special resources. From rank 5 onwards, any step forward would take more than a month (for me, for others it may very well be a year). The reason for this was the unused potential my divine body had. Every participant had this initial advantage but it was limited to meridian opening stage only.
"This generation of youngsters are full of vigor," commented Instructor Lang.
"Hmm." Just a few metres ahead of me, a younger rank 7 instructor Wei stood straight. Clad in bright yellow robes, he was the symbol of encouragement to the younger generation of Gang family.
"Instructor Ra'an is keeping them for so long. When will the two young masters leave?" Lang asked.
"Can you blame him? The two boys are already 11 yet they pay no attention to cultivation," replied Wei.
A short talk followed after that. The two instructors started debating on the matter of when a practitioner should start training one's body.
The training ground of Gang family was about a 1,000 sq. ft in area. Two storey houses and tall autumn trees surrounded the training ground. There were about a 100 disciples in Gang family. Most of them were just starting their cultivation journey.
My- I mean, our job was to 'accompany and assist' the young masters as they'd visit the temple of Noru. Basically, we were just hired bodyguards or even caretakers for these brats.
I was fine with it, as long as they didn't run off to somewhere. What I found strange was the fact that Gang family actually hired us.
For an established family of this town, they should have multiple trusted cultivators to act as bodyguards in their own family. Why would they even hire outsiders?
I didn't have to question them about it as the family head (some old man at viscera purifying stage 5th rank) told us that we were 'fake'. Our real job was to 'act' as their bodyguards while the actual guards would closely follow behind us, hidden.
This led to more questions in my mind but the old man didn't specify why that was the case. All eyes had been staring at us with wariness, so I knew better than to ask.
Ultimately, I concluded that the Gang family had an unknown enemy that was targeting their younger generation.
"Finally, they're finished with that jumping and shouting," Shu Lingling, my teammate for this job, said with a dismissive expression.
With hands folded below her modest chest, she was leaning casually on a tree bark while giving indifferent glances to the young practitioners. I came to know her while doing the first white mission I'd taken more than a fortnight ago. This was the third time we were doing a mission together, yet I barely knew anything about her other than her name.
Today, she was wearing a beige coloured robe instead of the simple white one. She was also at the fifth rank like me, but she acted like a ninth rank hotshot.
21 and moderately beautiful, some young men actually liked her cold temperament.
"Ling'er," I called.
Shinggg!!
"Call me that and I'll chop your head off." Her naked sword came straight for my neck.
Fortunately, I was quick enough to parry it with my own. Scary...
Cold beauties were supposed to ignore people, not go after their lives. I corrected myself; she was not cold, she was fiery and dangerous.
"Put that away, Lingling. Do you want to start trouble at Gang family?" I narrowed my eyes. I could feel Gang Wei's eyes on us.
However, she paid my words no heed and kept pressing. Despite having such a slim body, her strength was thrice that of a grown man.
'Looks like I have to show her what I can do,' I sighed.
Suddenly, a peculiar wind started blowing. Considering how much energy I had to put to my mouth, I adjusted my stance just a little and spoke,
"Miss Ling, will you kindly put your sword away? You see, I haven't eaten anything since yesterday, I feel like I might faint. Uhm- It's getting uncomfortable."
This was true, I was hungry and tired from training. She just couldn't bully a weak man like me.
"Hmph. Keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you." She withdrew her weapon and went back to leaning on the tree.
'See that, people don't do anything if you just butter them up a little...' The effect of one word "miss" was greater than any physical counterattack I might've made.
Sure, in the eyes of others, I might seem like a weak man, unable to even beat a woman at the same rank. But, what do they even know?
'Ignorant fools, who know nothing of Dao and Heavenly secrets!'
All those "never giving up", "moving forward even at the face of death" and "enduring pain and suffering," ideals were just CRAPS of the foolish mortals, made by the foolish mortals, for the foolish mortals.
"Ahem, fellow cultivators. It's time." The old man- I mean Instructor Lang came to us and spoke.
He was having a hard time trying not to mention the short 'exchange of moves' me and Ling'er had.
"Young masters Jin and Qin will be with you now. We will quickly move from the second house," he pointed at a pink coloured building, "and head towards the water temple."
Noru was the Goddess of Water. Legends said when she'd ascended, it had rained for the first time in Shang desert. That was hundreds of years ago.
"Today, we WILL find out the identity of those revenant attackers," Lang continued.
Meanwhile, instructor Wei was bringing the two small boys... uhh, brats with him. Honestly, they weren't ready to be called as 'boys' yet.
"Do these mysterious attackers only attack the young masters?" Ling'er asked. Her gaze was slightly less dismissive this time.
"I don't think they've attacked anyone other than Jin and Qin. What do you think, Instructor Wei? Will these attackers appear if the young masters aren't present?" Lang asked, giving the matter another thought. He placed his hands on the two brats' heads as soon as they came here.
"It is... highly unlikely." Gang Wei's voice was naturally deep. Just like me, he also frowned a little whenever he talked about something important.
"Its not like we didn't investigate on this matter. It appears no disciple, actually no member of the family was targeted in the past few weeks. They only want to hurt the the two young masters." His sharp eyebrows furrowed.
"The fair is coming close... I'm worried that it might be another family." Gang Lang looked at the two brats. He really seemed to care about them.