"Brother Xiaoshou!"
As soon as he opened the door, Su Qianqian leaned forward, grabbing her sleeves, and sweetly called out to him. She didn't look anything like someone who'd just fought someone.
"Hey, nice of you to come visit your Brother Xiaoshou, eh?" Xu Xiaoshou was also happy to see the little girl before him, yet he nonetheless mercilessly quipped, "And there I was thinking that you'd completely forgotten about me after joining the Inner Yard."
"No way!" Su Qianqian was flustered and immediately added, "I've been following what you've been doing all the time. I went to see you at the contest, and I was there when you became champion!"
"Sure, sure…"
Xu Xiaoshou took a look at that little girl, who only managed to reach the height of his chest despite being on tip-toe. He couldn't help but pat her head. It felt just like he'd remembered.
The little girl frowned, seemingly displeased that her hairdo was now messed up.
"You're still that short…"
"What!?"
"Uh, umm, I mean, yeah… are you here to celebrate the fact that I've become champion?" Xu Xiaoshou immediately changed the subject.
"Hmph!" Su Qianqian pouted. "I was, but I no longer am."
An awkward grin appeared on Xu Xiaoshou's face, and he inwardly chastised himself for having blurted out his inner thoughts just like that.
That girl was no longer his lackey after all, and at the moment she was his guest, so he saw fit to at least act like a proper host.
He waved and said, "Come on in, then."
Yet, when he turned around, the unsightliness of his place almost blinded him. All the craters on the ground were still around.
He was exasperated. How would he be able to play the host in a place like this?
His main house was gone. There was only a bench in his guest room, and he wasn't about to have the two of them sit on the bed chatting away.
"Well… that seems like a feasible idea nonetheless!" he thought.
"But then again, when you chat, you get thirsty, no? Yet this dump's reservoir contents are all completely evaporated. Am I gonna have us drink from the pond, which is practically the fishs' bathwater?"
"What's wrong?"
Su Qianqian noted Xu Xiaoshou's courtesy, yet he remained stuck in the doorway, not going inside, causing her to halt as well.
"Well, Qianqian, I just thought that since it's been a while since we last met, there's no point staying cooped in my place. I was just thinking of going outside, so care to join me?"
He didn't even wait for her to reply. He went on to lock the door and pushed her outside.
"Oh, sure!" Su Qianqian was completely fine with it. She bit the tip of her finger and yelled in excitement, "How about Goose Lake, then? It's been a while since I've been there."
Xu Xiaoshou almost tripped over and fell flat on the ground.
"Goose Lake huh…" he thought.
"Goose Lake again!
"My gosh, that dump is the place of nightmares!"
He'd just escaped certain death the night before, and that memory was still fresh in his mind, making him reluctant to refresh the memory.
But, having been pushed to the front, Su Qianqian was naturally oblivious to Xu Xiaoshou's expression, and she simply kept yapping. "I remember how you took me there to practice [Sword Techniques]…
"Oh, right! You kept telling me that I still needed to work on the first move of the [White Cloud Sword Techniques], yet when I asked my master about it, he said that I was already doing fine. You have to teach me the second move this time!"
Su Qianqian didn't even need to turn around, as she was already able to stare at Xu Xiaoshou with her huge eyes and that persistent look on her face just by looking up.
The corners of his mouth twitched. He would very much like to teach her if possible.
"But with that talent of yours, you managed to learn the first move in less than two hours after I taught you, while that was the only move I managed to master despite working at it for three years. How the h*ll am I gonna teach you more?" he thought.
He sighed, and, looking like he knew what he was doing, said, "Well, forget about the [White Cloud Sword Techniques]. Outdated stuff anyway… How about I teach you something of higher levels?"
Su Qianqian's eyes immediately lit up. "Higher-level stuff?"
"Hehe." Xu Xiaoshou looked confident. "[Sword Soaring Technique]."
Su Qianqian's lips parted somewhat, and her expression seemed to say "I know this one." She flipped away and shot that massive sword on her back to the sky, moving fluidly like a dragon swimming in the sky.
"Like this?" she turned around and asked.
Xu Xiaoshou was completely dumbfounded.
"Okay, your [Sword Soaring Technique] is wayyyy better than mine," he thought. "What's there to even teach, then?"
Yet, he was unable to just throw away his big brother façade, so he just nodded and said, "Doing fine.
"But that's not what I'm about to teach you. What I'm about to teach you is the legendary 'Riding Sword Flight.'"
Su Qianqian looked like she'd just realized something, and her expression seemed to say "I know this one too." Then she leapt and lightly landed on her sword.
Her white attire billowed as she zipped about riding her massive sword, looking like some female sword fairy.
Xu Xiaoshou was completely dumbfounded again.
"So, I was the one who was holding her back, then?" he thought.
"That girl learned nothing but a single move of the [White Cloud Sword Techniques] after following me around for a month. How come, after not seeing her for a little more than a year, it seems like she's learned everything?"
"Very well. Nice progress." He kept himself calm and then said, "But what I'm about to teach you is nothing so simple as that."
"Oh?" Su Qianqian hopped down from her sword. This was simple?
She remembered having worked at it for almost half a day to pick it up.
"So, what is it, then?"
Xu Xiaoshou wore a mysterious smirk and blurted every single word out slowly: "[Reverse Sword Subduing]!"
"[Reverse Sword Subduing]?" Su Qianqian couldn't help but wonder what that was. She noted that it sounded awesome and that it wasn't something even her master had brought up before.
"Well, I bet you don't know this one, no?" Xu Xiaoshou looked pleased with himself.
"Yeah."
"You wanna learn it? I don't just teach anyone, you know…"
"I wanna learn this!"
"Alright. Greet me first, then."
"Brother Xiaoshou!"
Xu Xiaoshou nodded satisfactorily, and his expression seemed to suggest that he'd found himself a good student. "To learn '[Reverse Sword Subduing],' we shall first learn the '[Reverse Sword Style].'"
"Huh? What is '[Reverse Sword Style]?'"
"Hehe, here's the tricky thing about it."
"This is the [Supreme Technique] that your Brother Xiaoshou here personally created after witnessing the '[Fleeting White Clouds]' at work. With this technique, I carved my way through the contest, reigning supreme over all, to finally become the champion of the contest!"
"You personally created this?" Su Qianqian's eyes flew open, her curiosity piqued. It was apparent that she was aware of his emphasis on the move.
He… created his own [Spiritual Technique]?
That was something only the likes of masters could pull off!
"Not that much of a big deal, actually." Xu Xiaoshou nodded humbly. "I see that you can't wait. Let's get to it, then."
The two of them, one tall and one short, drew their own swords at the front of the compound and started to work at it.
"Well then, come here. We'll first turn our swords around…"
"Umm, why do we have to do that?"
"Of course it's because… well umm, I'm not gonna answer something so simple. Put your brains to work for a little bit and think about it."
"Why? Can't you sense the sword's sentience without turning it around?"
"Nope, you have to turn the sword around. That's the essence of the move."
…
"Alright, I give up. Throw the sword out now and summon it back after you've thrown it extremely far… d*mn, how can you control the direction of its return?"
"No! You have to aim it at yourself!"
"Don't ask. It's just the essence of how it works."
…
Moments later, Xu Xiaoshou looked up at the sky, feeling exasperated. He wondered if this was what the difference between talent and mediocrity looked like.
It'd taken him one whole night back then to finally figure something like this out, yet it'd only taken the little girl a little while to figure it out.
See…
The girl was already having her sword fly in the reverse direction up in the sky…
Su Qianqian was having fun up there. The move had indeed opened up her mind quite a bit, yet it didn't take long for her to start feeling a little dizzy.
"Brother Xiaoshou, why am I feeling dizzy up here?"
Xu Xiaoshou took a deep breath and suppressed his frustration and the feeling like his heart was in pieces. Then he answered casually, "That's something to train your will.
"If you can't even get over sword-sickness, how are you gonna fight someone in the sky in the future?"