From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 449 Personalized instruction yields excellent results

Before the morning mist had completely dissipated, I carried the neatly folded disciple files to the training ground.

The ceramic bottle of Qi-tonifying powder that Senior Brother Lin brought last night was still warm in my sleeve—he must have gone to the alchemy room before dawn to oversee its refining. The image of him wearing the bamboo hairpin at an angle came back to my mind. I hurriedly looked down and flipped through the files, my hair brushing against the two characters "Chu Qing".

The bluestone slabs of the training ground were darkened by the dew. Chu Qing was squatting under a peach tree, swatting ants. A wooden sword lay askew at her feet, and crooked peach blossoms were still carved on its scabbard.

As I approached, she suddenly jumped up, her wooden sword clanging against the stone steps: "Good morning, Instructor Xiao! I... I was observing the habits of spirit insects!"

"Did you observe carefully?" I picked up the wooden sword, my fingertips touching the new scratches she had carved on the blade. "Yesterday you used the Artifact Manipulation Technique to make the sword fly three feet high. If you can control it to circle the peach tree three times, I will allow you to go to the back mountain to catch spirit butterflies."

Her eyes lit up, then she immediately pursed her lips: "You lied to me again! Last time you said we could pick wild berries after practicing the Qi Induction Technique, but Zhou Qingyue picked half a basket, and I've only just gotten the hang of it!"

“I’m not lying to you this time.” I opened the file and pointed to the wooden sword mark next to her name. “Your perception of wind spirit energy is three times more acute than others. Using a wooden sword to practice the Art of Controlling Objects will save you 30% of your spiritual energy compared to using an iron sword.” I handed the wooden sword to her, the spine of the blade still warm from her palm. “Give it a try. I won’t rush you this time.”

She hesitantly took the sword, her fingertips rubbing against the hilt again and again.

Whispers came from a corner of the training ground. Wang Erniu scratched his head and muttered, "Will this method work? I practiced the horse stance that Fairy Zhou taught me the day before yesterday, and my spiritual energy was all rushing to my elbows." Zhou Qingyue clutched her Qi-guiding jade slip, looked over hesitantly, and the morning dew on her hair shimmered in her eyes.

Chu Qing suddenly stomped her foot: "I'm not trying! You just see me being naughty and deliberately give me a hard time!" The wooden sword slammed to the ground with a "thud," startling the sparrows on the peach tree into flapping their wings and flying away.

As I bent down to pick up the sword, I saw the white marks her shoe toes had left on the bluestone slab—the same brick she had rubbed against yesterday when she hid under the eaves wiping away tears.

“Chu Qing.” I pressed her shoulder, feeling her body tense through her coarse cloth clothes. “Last month, you secretly repaired your junior brother’s insect-eaten ‘Basic Object Manipulation Technique,’ copying it even more neatly than the teacher’s model.” She suddenly raised her head, her eyes red like cherries soaked in rain. “It’s not that you can’t learn it, it’s that you find practicing according to the rules boring.” I took out a ginkgo leaf from my sleeve. “Try using the Object Manipulation Technique to make the leaf spin. It’s lighter than a wooden sword, so it won’t hurt if you drop it.”

She stared at the ginkgo leaves, her Adam's apple bobbing.

At this moment, the vermilion door of the training ground creaked open, and the black Taoist robe of Hall Master Zhao fluttered in the wind, the iron plaque at his waist clanging with a crisp sound.

He glanced at the wooden sword scattered all over the ground, Wang Erniu huddled in the corner, and the ginkgo leaf in my hand, and his brows immediately furrowed into a deep frown: "Xiao Yao, is this the result of your seven days of teaching?"

My throat tightened, and I was about to bow when he strode to the center of the training ground, slammed the iron plaque on the stone table, making the teacups jump: "Yesterday, the Grand Elder asked about the assessment progress and said that only 30% of the outer disciples had passed the Qi Induction Technique!" He tapped the wooden sword at Chu Qing's feet with his knuckles, "And you, instead of teaching proper techniques, what are you doing playing with leaves and wooden swords?"

Chu Qing shrank behind me, her hand gripping my sleeve trembling.

Zhou Qingyue suddenly stepped forward, her voice soft yet clear: "Hall Master Zhao, the day before yesterday I used the Spirit Dividing Technique taught by Instructor Xiao to draw in Qi, and it was almost half an hour faster than before." She lifted her sleeve, and the spiritual veins on her wrist glowed with a pale blue light. "Look, this is a newly condensed Qi cluster."

Master Zhao glanced at him and snorted, "Can Zhou Qingyue support the entire outer sect?" As he turned around, his black Daoist robe swept across Wang Erniu's knees. "Last month you said you could turn trash into a sword, but now you can't even sharpen a knife properly!" He pulled out a piece of parchment from his robes. "I'll come back in three days. If the pass rate isn't 50%—" His gaze was like ice, "You're no longer an instructor."

The wind suddenly picked up in the training ground, making the file pages rustle. The words "Assessment in three months" stung my eyes.

Long after Master Zhao's footsteps faded outside the door, Chu Qing finally spoke, her voice trembling, "Instructor Xiao, I... I'll try the ginkgo leaf again." She picked up the leaf, her fingertips trembling slightly. "If I can spin around five times, could you... could you bring my junior brother a piece of candy for me?"

I crouched down to her eye level and wiped away her tears: "It's enough if you can spin around three times." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a green shadow flash by under the corridor. Senior Brother Lin was standing under the peach tree, holding a wicker box, his bamboo hairpin gleaming warmly in the morning mist.

He gave me a "good luck" gesture, then turned and headed towards the alchemy room, the ceramic bottles in the rattan box making a soft, clinking sound.

“Zhou Qingyue.” I picked up the jade slip she had dropped on the ground. “You take Wang Erniu and the others to practice the Spirit Division Technique, and I will teach Chu Qing how to manipulate objects.” Zhou Qingyue nodded vigorously. The morning dew on her hair fell into her collar, but she seemed not to notice. She immediately pulled Wang Erniu to the other side of the training ground.

Chu Qing's ginkgo leaf rose tremblingly, swirling around and around... On the third swirling, the leaf suddenly tilted to one side, and she stomped her feet in distress, causing the red string on her braid to sway.

I stared at her flushed face when I suddenly heard Elder Li's voice from afar: "Hall Master Zhao, please wait! I gave this Qi-replenishing powder to Lin boy..." "That's the rule of the academy," Hall Master Zhao's voice interrupted him. "Senior Brother Li, please don't make things difficult for me."

The wind swirled ginkgo leaves, which fell at my feet. I bent down to pick them up; the leaves still held Chu Qing's warmth.

The assessment three days later felt like a stone pressing on my chest. But as I watched the figures gradually becoming more lively on the training ground—Zhou Qingyue adjusting Wang Erniu's stance, Chu Qing clutching Ye Zi and biting her lip to try again, and even my usually silent junior sister coming over to watch—I suddenly gripped the file in my hand tightly.

Perhaps Master Zhao is right; my method of sharpening the sword is too slow.

But these crooked efforts should eventually yield some results.

I opened the file and added a line of small print next to "Chu Qing": "Today, use a ginkgo leaf to make two circles; tomorrow, try it with a wooden sword."

Before the ink was even dry, a familiar medicinal fragrance wafted from the direction of the alchemy room—it was Senior Brother Lin's Qi-replenishing powder that had been prepared.

As the aroma of medicine from the alchemy room wafted over, carrying Elder Li's sigh, I was tucking a ginkgo leaf into Chu Qing's braid.

The pale yellow hue, glistening with morning dew, made the tear stains at the corners of her eyes appear fainter.

“Little Xiao.” Elder Li’s blue robe swept across the files at my feet. He clutched a brocade box in his hand, its lid open, revealing neatly stacked Qi-replenishing powders. “Hall Master Zhao said…outer sect instructors are not allowed to use inner sect resources without permission.” His withered fingers traced the cinnabar patterns on the ceramic bottle. “These are the last ten bottles I can obtain, for those children with weak spiritual energy.”

When I took the brocade box, I touched the thin calluses on his palms—the result of years of grinding with a pestle.

Last month, he secretly slipped me half a bag of spirit rice, saying it was from his own garden on the back mountain. Now, even this small amount of pill powder is being restricted by the rules. "Please don't make things difficult for me," I said, stuffing the brocade box into Chu Qing's arms. "Chu Qing, give some to Wang Erniu and the others, half a grain each, and use them sparingly."

She ran very fast, clutching the brocade box, the ginkgo leaves on her braids trembling like tiny fans.

Elder Li watched her retreating figure, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Back when I was working in the miscellaneous servants' hall, it was only after the old instructor secretly slipped me a Qi-Nourishing Pill that my spiritual meridians opened." He turned to leave, then turned back to add, "The assessment is in three days. If I really do poorly... I'll go and beg the Grand Elder for leniency."

“No need.” I gripped the file tightly, the corner of the paper digging painfully into my palm. “Every day of grace gives them another day to be labeled as useless.”

As Elder Li's sigh was swept away by the wind, a muffled "bang" suddenly came from the other side of the training ground.

I turned my head and saw Zhou Qingyue kneeling on the ground, her left wrist swollen like a steamed bun. Wang Erniu stood there holding her jade slip, and there was still a deep sword mark on the stone block.

“I…I wanted to help him correct his Qi-guiding hand gestures.” Zhou Qingyue bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. “His spiritual energy was too chaotic, so I used my spiritual veins to guide it, but…” She raised her right hand, the spiritual veins on her wrist turning bluish-black. “Maybe I was too hasty.”

Several disciples who had been watching the commotion began to whisper among themselves. "Zhou Fairy just loves to show off. Does she think she's so great just because she's trained so well? Of course she is. Last time she stole Senior Sister Zhang's quota of spiritual herbs. Now she's getting her comeuppance, isn't she?" Senior Sister Zhang, with her pigtails, crossed her arms and sneered, her fingernails tapping crisply on her sword sheath.

Zhou Qingyue's shoulders trembled like bamboo leaves in the wind.

I crouched down and grasped her swollen wrist, gasping as I probed it with my spiritual energy—her spiritual meridians were filled with turbulent, chaotic energy, like muddied well water. "Who taught you to forcefully channel energy through your spiritual meridians?" my voice trembled. "This will ruin your foundation!"

“I…I saw you transferring spiritual energy to Chu Qing the other day…” She suddenly lowered her head, the wooden hairpin on her head tilting behind her ear, “They say I’m the most promising outer disciple, but if I don’t help, what will happen to those who can’t even grasp the basics of the Qi Induction Technique?”

My throat suddenly felt tight.

The day before yesterday, when I was transferring spiritual energy to Chu Qing, she was watching intently from under the peach tree, and the morning dew from her hair fell to the ground.

It turns out she remembered my method, but she didn't know that her spiritual veins weren't stable enough to be used as a "qi-guiding stone".

"Everyone disperse." I stood up, my voice colder than ever before. "Those who want to watch the show, go to the entrance of the martial arts arena. Hall Master Zhao's black Taoist robe hasn't gone far yet. Go and tell him whose quota Zhou Qingyue stole." Senior Sister Zhang's face turned pale instantly. She grabbed her companion and hurriedly ran away, her skirt swaying over a stone bench.

“I’ll carry you to the alchemy room.” I bent down to pick her up, but she suddenly grabbed my sleeve: “Instructor Xiao, can…can we go see Wang Erniu first?”

He just suffered a backlash of spiritual energy; his chest must be hurting.

Wang Erniu was squatting under the peach tree, his hands covering his chest, the sweat on his forehead soaking through his coarse cloth clothes into a dark circle.

As soon as I approached, he sniffed and looked up: "Is Fairy Zhou alright?"

"It's all my fault for being so stupid; my spiritual energy always wanders off." His trouser legs were covered in mud, from when he fell. "I'm not practicing anymore; I'm just a useless piece of trash anyway."

"Useless?" I crouched down, my fingertip touching his chest. "The day before yesterday you could draw spiritual energy to your elbow, yesterday to your shoulder, and today to your chest—is that something a useless person could do?" I pulled the "Basic Qi Guiding Technique" from his pocket; the edges of the pages were curled and rough. "You copied two more pages of annotations than the teacher's model. Is that something a useless person could do?"

He froze, beads of sweat glistening on his eyelashes. "But Fairy Zhou did it all for me..."

“She’s willing.” I wiped the mud off his face. “Just like Chu Qing is willing to help her junior brother copy books, just like Senior Brother Lin is willing to go to the alchemy room before dawn to guard the Qi-replenishing powder.” I pointed to the other end of the training ground—Chu Qing was standing on tiptoe demonstrating how to spin a ginkgo leaf for her junior sister. A leaf drifted to her nose, and she smiled, revealing her little tiger teeth. “We’re not fairies or geniuses, we just…want to straighten out the crooked path.”

Wang Erniu suddenly wiped his face and picked up the jade slip from the ground: "Then I'll try again."

Before going to the alchemy room, Fairy Zhou said that the Spirit Division Technique should be coordinated with breathing... I remember that. "He crossed his legs, sweat still dripping from his forehead, but he gritted his teeth and kept his back straight."

As Zhou Qingyue lay on my back, she whispered, "Instructor Xiao, the quota that Senior Sister Zhang mentioned earlier... I gave it up voluntarily."

Her mother was ill and needed medicinal herbs to make medicine. Her breath brushed against the back of my neck, carrying a faint medicinal scent. "I didn't steal it, really."

“I believe you.” I quickened my pace toward the alchemy room. Senior Brother Lin was peeking out from inside, his bamboo hairpin gleaming warmly in the sunlight. “I’ll have Senior Brother Lin apply the medicine to you later; his pulse-regenerating ointment is the most effective.”

"Then...can I still come to teach them tomorrow?" Her hand gently tugged at my collar, like a leaf afraid of being blown away by the wind.

“Yes.” I looked towards the training ground—Chu Qing’s ginkgo leaf was spinning steadily for the third time, a pale blue dot was emerging from Wang Erniu’s spiritual vein, and even my usually silent junior sister was making hand gestures.

The morning mist had dissipated sometime earlier, and sunlight filtered through the peach trees, casting long shadows on them. "Once your hand is healed, we...we'll teach them something even more difficult."

When the door to the alchemy room creaked open, Senior Brother Lin came over holding a bowl of medicine. His bamboo hairpin was stained with cinnabar, as red as a small flame.

Just as Zhou Qingyue applied the ointment to her wrist, Chu Qing's scream rang out from the training ground: "Instructor Xiao!"

I spun around five times!

Five laps!

I turned my head and saw her jumping high in the air, holding a ginkgo leaf, the red string on her braid flying up like a flower blooming in the wind.

Wang Erniu joined in the commotion, the junior sister clapped her hands and laughed, and even the previously indifferent senior sister Zhang came over to take a look—she was holding half a Qi-boosting pill in her hand, which Chu Qingfen had given her.

Sunlight streamed into the file, and I turned to the page for "Chu Qing." Next to what I wrote yesterday, "Tomorrow, I'll try the wooden sword," a line of small print had appeared: "Five circles of ginkgo leaves, ten circles of the wooden sword."

The ink was still wet, carrying a hint of morning dew.

The assessment three days later still weighed on my mind, but as I looked at the figures moving around the training ground, I suddenly remembered that night when I first arrived, squatting in the servants' quarters.

At that time, I looked at the starry sky and wondered, how can a loser become a sword?

Now I understand—perhaps the problem isn't the material itself, but rather that it needs more patient polishing.

When Chu Qing ran over, a newly picked ginkgo leaf was tucked into the tip of her wooden sword. "Instructor Xiao, I can fly with a leaf on my sword!" Her eyes shone like gleaming gems. "Tomorrow...tomorrow, will you teach me the advanced techniques of the Art of Manipulating Objects?"

I took the wooden sword, my fingertips touching the peach blossoms she had carved, still warm from her body.

From afar came the sound of Senior Brother Lin calling Zhou Qingyue to drink her medicine, and Wang Erniu's incantation for guiding qi mixed with Junior Sister's laughter.

The wind carries the scent of peach blossoms, the fragrance of herbs, and other aromas I can't name, scents that feel like hope.

“Okay.” I looked into her bright eyes and folded a corner of the page with “Chu Qing” in the file. “But tomorrow… we’ll be learning more than just the Art of Controlling Objects.”

The wind lifted the pages of the file, and the words "Assessment in three months" shone brightly in the sunlight.

I bent down to tidy up Chu's braided hair. Ginkgo leaves swayed in her hair, as if saying: Look, they are all growing.