Wen Zhihao didn’t want to get up from his comfy and warm blanket nest. Was there a method to use qi to circulate sound away?

Knock knock knock!

Wen Zhihao sighed. “Wait!”

“HURRY UP!”

Wen Zhihao stuffed all the blankets into his spatial storage (this was called planning!) and opened the door to see the angry cultivator Zhang Wu.

Zhang Wu exploded. His qi similarly exploded out. “Where have you been?!! You have missed out on all your practices and all your classes! You used to be one of the hardest working disciples. At this rate, you may as well leave!”

Wen Zhihao inhaled, exhaled. “Breath, Zhang-shixiong. I was in secluded cultivation.” That was the excuse he prepared earlier.

Zhang Wu snorted and huffed and glared. Unfortunately, when he checked Wen Zhihao’s cultivation, he could see that it had raised....in fact, he had reached Foundation Building¹ already! How did he pass through peak Qi-Refining so quickly? And there wasn’t any disturbance around the dormitory building that would have marked the tribulation²

_{1. Recall that the main levels are: Qi-Refining < Foundiation Building < Golden Core ..., each with sublevels Early-stage < Middle-stage < Late-stage < Peak}

_{2. In particular, disturbances in qi. For the higher advancements, this is can be accompanied by lightning from Qi-Refining to Foundation Building.}

“You weren’t cultivating here.”

“Hm, of course not. Too noisy. I cultivated in a secluded place outside the inner walls.”

Zhang Wu huffed in annoyance. So it turned out this wayward disciple had been working. “I’ll accept that. But now you need to come down to morning practice.”

Wen Zhihao sighed. “I rather not.”

“!!!!! Don’t you want to be the best sword cultivator?”

“No.”

“Why not?!”

Wen Zhihao smiled. “How can I ever be better than you, Zhang-shixiong?”

“That...you…! You have to try!”

“Even you aren’t the best, correct?” Wen Zhihao continued mildly. “Is it worth it? Why do you want to be the best? Are you projecting?”

Zhang Wu’s brows became darker and darker. “I don’t care! Come along!”

“Okay,” Wen Zhihao agreed, too lazy to argue further. The feeling of arguing was very unpleasant.

He followed Zhang Wu out to the practice field and steadily ignored everyone as he took an empty space in the rows of disciples.

The other disciples shuffled a little away from him as Wen Zhihao’s movements changed. Instead of the standard movements, there were embellishments, sudden slashes and stabs. And yet, the qi around Wen Zhihao remained stable, as though he was perfectly calm and in control.

Is this an advanced set? one disciple thought sourly.

Is this part of Wen-shixiong’s new cultivation technique? Sun Fuyu wondered.

He’s definitely up to something, Wu Qingqing thought. She narrowed her eyes and worked harder on her own practice, because she was not going to lose to the loser Wen Zhihao.

Swish, stab, fwoosh, slash… When one hand became tired, Wen Zhihao switched the sword to his other hand to see how that felt. Then he held the sword with two hands. He wondered if he could do some anime sword tricks...

In short, he was messing around.

---

Wen Zhihao: *swish, slash stab!* I hope I look cool (ง˙o˙)ว

Sun Fuyu: Very cool!

Zhang Wu: ....... ARGGGGG!!