Getting Beaten Up
Xue Bai spent the next few hours happily going through a training regiment that Li Rou customized for him.
And since both Xue Feng and Li Rou were cultivating right now, and the maids didn't dare to disturb him, Xue Bai was left undisturbed.
Happy about that, Xue Bai dove into his training and would only take a break every hour or so to catch his breath and drink some water.
There was a nearby pond which Xue Bai drank from.
It wasn't normal water but water without a small amount of Spiritual Qi in it. This not only made it pure enough to drink casually, but it also was great at recovering stamina and energy.
Plus, from how cold and refreshing it was, Xue Bai couldn't help but drink more than he needed.
However, no matter how much energy the water restored, Xue Bai eventually became too tired and decided to stop for the day.
Life was in a peaceful era now, and there was no need to overexert his body or kill himself training.
Even though he was much stronger than most Earthlings, he still wasn't invincible, so after a half day's worth of practice, Xue Bai decided to stop for the day. So after fetching his arrows and bow, he left the training field and went to take a bath.
He was extremely sweaty, and because of that, his clothes stuck to his body too well. Staying in it was uncomfortable.
After a quick albeit tiring walk, Xue Bai was once again in his courtyard. But this time around, Xiao'er wasn't inside.
Though he wondered where the ditz was, Xue Bai didn't look for her. So following a bath that he had drawn himself, Xue Bai went to sleep.
The day was done, and he was excited for tomorrow and couldn't wait to sleep.
After more than a year in this new world, he would finally use a sword!
—
Next Morning
Usually, Xue Bai would wake up around sunrise, and in the Baishen Plane, that was around 6 am.
However, Xue Bai was too excited, and because of this, he struggled to sleep during the night, only being able to actually fall asleep at almost 12.
This resulted in the situation he was in now.
"So you're finally here, huh? Did you enjoy making me wait two and a half hours?"
Xue Feng sternly berated as he looked at his son.
"Father, I only woke up a few hours too late. Do you really need to be so mean?" Xue Bai wryly spoke as he hung from a tree.
Xue Feng snorted.
"I told you to be here at 8 am sharp, and yet you stupidly came a whole 4 hours late. If I didn't punish you, how would you learn?" Xue Feng felt no shame for what he did.
"Father, I am strung up on a tree." Xue Bau couldn't understand what he had done to deserve this.
'I was only a few hours late. Was it so bad?'
"And?" Xue Feng didn't care.
Xue Bai was speechless.
"You'll stay there for another hour. I'll be back then." And with a wave of his sleeves, Xue Feng left his son literally hanging.
The hour of punishment passed by slowly, but thankfully Xue Feng was a stickler for time, and he returned the second it finished.
"Do you regret your actions?" Xue Feng coldly spoke to his son.
Xue Bai nodded as much as he could despite being upside down.
'As long as I can get off this damn tree, then I can lie as much as I want!' Xue Bai could feel his eyes bulging at this point.
Hanging any longer would be more painful than annoying.
Xue Feng could see through his son's thoughts, but wasting any more time would be inefficient. So with a wave of his hand, Xue Feng conjured an icicle that sliced the binds that strung Xue Bai in the tree.
"I can see that you haven't learned your lesson, but we have no time, so that's enough of that." Xue Bai snorted.
"Today will be simple. We are going to find out which sword suits you best. Choose wisely, son. It will follow you for the rest of your life." Xue Fend said as he pointed to the sword rack only a few feet away.
However, the person he was talking to wasn't in the right mind.
Xue Bai wasn't able to catch himself, and he fell onto his neck. Now while holding his neck in pain, Xue Bai was also wildly gasping for air as he tried to catch his breath at the same time.
"Could you not have caught me!" Xue Ba was livid.
But once he realized how loud he got, he held his mouth, hoping his shout would somehow be removed from the past. Sadly this didn't work.
Xue Feng heard it.
Thankfully, the man didn't do anything other than a cold glare that gave the Young Duke shivers.
"Choose a sword. I'll be waiting in the field."
Xue Bai nodded once more and finally looked at the sword rack.
Looking at all the different types of swords, Xue Bai was at a loss for a moment. There were so many options to choose from, and he was overwhelmed.
The sword rack was large, just about 4 meters wide, and carried dozens of swords.
And on the rack, there was every sword variant Xue Bai could think of. Greatswords the size of doors, thin shortswords crossed together that were made for dual wielding, and even unorthodox types of swords like rapiers, scimitars, and one even looked like a straighten-out machete.
There was every single type of sword that Xue Bai could possibly think of, and even ones he couldn't, but though there were a lot of options Xue Bai still eventually chose the standard Jian.
Though it was extremely simple, sometimes simple was best. From its thin and flexible nature to the sharp double-sided blade, a Jian sword was the most common type for a reason.
"So you choose the same as me, huh? Why didn't you grab one of the cooler-looking ones?" Xue Feng on the side asked.
He had seen Xue Bai's curious eyes and thought that the boy would choose something different, so once he saw Xue Bai choose a Jian sword Xue Feng was rather surprised.
"You're right in the fact that they do look cool, but I know they are just as hard to learn, so I'd rather choose the basic sword. The skills developed by a Jian sword are universal, so even if I have talent with another, I can switch and still be at an elevated level. But if I choose an unorthodox one and end up having no talent with it, I'll have wasted years of time." Xue Bai answered calmly.
Though Xue Bai gave the most reasonable and intelligent answer to Xue Feng, there was actually another reason he chose the Jian sword.
It had called to him.
For some reason, when he looked at the Jian sword, it was like the sword was calling him. Not because the sword on the rack itself was a treasure but rather the sword type itself.
At first, Xue Bai thought that he was hallucinating, but the feeling only appeared when he looked at the Jian sword.
The second he looked away, even for a second, it vanished like it was never there.
His second thought was that maybe he had encountered the hidden Immortal treasure in a random spot and that the specific Jian sword on the rack was one of them. But Xue Bai crossed that possibility out quickly.
The same feeling appeared when he looked at another Jian sword.
Xue Bai had no remote clue what this feeling was or why it was only happening once he looked at the Jian swords, but he also realized that he wouldn't be able to know.
There was already a huge shroud of mystery around his entire existence. So having another weird phenomenon around him wasn't odd, and it certainly would make him lose any sleep.
So he decided to play into the feeling and grabbed the sword.
And thankfully, the feeling disappeared once he grabbed the Jian sword.
'Maybe this is what destiny is? I need to figure this crap out.' Xue Bai thought to himself.
Xue Feng had no idea about his son's emotions or thoughts, and he instead was just satisfied with the answer his son gave him.
So with a broad smile, Xue Feng stood up with a smile.
"Well, get ready. Training starts today!"
That day, Xue Feng taught his son about the basics of swordsmanship.
From a simple slash to the parry and everything in between, Xue Feng made sure to drill everything he could into Xue Bai, and as he did last year with archery, Xue Bai absorbed all the knowledge he was taught like a sponge.
In fact, originally, Xue Feng planned on taking around a week to teach all the basics, but thanks to Xue Bai's high comprehension ability, that time was shortened almost entirely and only took a day.
Of course, even after finding this out, Xue Feng didn't stop teaching Xue Bai about the basics of swordsmanship and still brought it up even days after the first lesson.
Going back to the basics was never bad, especially since Xue Bai was so new.
Even seasoned Sword Cultivators like Xue Feng didn't dare say that their fundamentals were perfect, let alone a greenhorn like Xue Bai, who only studied them for a day.
And along the way, Xue Feng would also make sure his son never got too arrogant and would constantly spar with the boy. However, the name spar was only in writing.
Xue Feng was much better at using a sword than Xue Bai. And no matter how talented the boy was, Xue Feng had 70 years of experience under his belt. So whenever the two fought, Xue Bai would never leave unscathed.
Xue Bai was angry at this, but his father was merciless. Actually, Xue Feng preferred it when Xue Bai was angry and welcomed the emotion with open arms.
In his words, 'Anger spurs on strength. Use it well, Bai'er. You might be able to hit me.'
Of course, this was said while Xue Feng laughed his heart out, making Xue Bai even angrier.
And these series of beatdowns would bring us to the current time when Xue Bai had enough of his own training and decided to find Huo Long and see how he was handling his time at the dukedom.
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