Chương 36: Triple-Groaning

It took a little bit of effort to drag Liuxue away from the table when Baozhai's glaring eyes seemed to have lost their dread factor in the face of sweets. As such, Ren stashed them away securely in his spatial ring. Yet his heart ached at the sight of Liuxue lowering her head. This is the first time she is actively wanting something… has a sweet tooth, huh?

"You'll get one cookie as a prize whenever you can show great progress," he said at last, smiling faintly.

"And by great progress, you mean?" Liuxue asked, her deadfish eyes brimming with yearning.

"Cut your mistakes by ten, and a cookie is yours. But conversely, whenever the number of mistakes increases by ten, you can't get a cookie for that week, even if you make no mistakes. And the limit is one per week. Also, if you can endure two hours for today's training, I'll add one bonus cookie. Make it to the end? Two cookies. Easy, right?" A competitive spark flared to life in her face, expression steeling.

Under the confused gazes of Ruolan and Wenhai, Iceberg walked to the middle of the backyard and took her stance.

"Eh, better than nothing. That works for me," Ruolan muttered and took her place. Though her gaze was slipping toward Baozhai from time to time. Surprisingly, Wenhai didn't say anything, his gaze locked at Liuxue, and didn't wake up from his thoughts until Ren nudged him forward.

"Ah, sorry, I remembered something," he said, scratching his head. Then he put on a silly smile and bounced along to their side.

"Let's go, Senior Brother!" Needless to say, Ren didn't ask what was on the boy's mind. And since Puppy didn't mention anything, it was best to let him figure it out on his own. When they got ready, Ren stood before them with arms folded.

"Before we start, let me give you three brats a piece of advice," he said, the lighthearted tone he carried leaving its place to gravity.

"I won't 'guide' you like the last time. Instead, think of this as a battle." The trio remained silent.

"I mean, you should put your life on the line, never hesitate, and use everything you have," he paused, nodding at Baozhai before stepping forward.

"Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to finish it." Hearing him say this with a straight face, goosebumps shot up on the kids' arms. The backyard seemed still for a moment. Thankfully, their stance only became more resolute.

"Senior brother." Seeing him ready, Ruolan raised her hand.

"I wonder when we will start to learn and use combat techniques instead of only using brute force? Wouldn't that fasten our training?" Ren arched a brow. They hadn't even grasped the basics of combat, yet still wanted to learn advanced techniques? Young ones… really. He chuckled to himself, completely ignoring that he had pestered his boxing coach for days just to learn a few special tricks at that age. His soul brother? That brat nearly caused Master to go bald early…

"In our sect, there's a tradition," he said, rubbing his chin as he measured them, "you need to get your hands bloody before learning any combat techniques. Slay a beast without using any techniques, and you can prove yourselves. That way, you would learn not to lean on techniques too much and neglect your basics. So you need to wait for your first mission."

"I sent my brats for a mission just for this," Baozhai chimed in, her gaze amused.

"Seems like they will be one step ahead of you." Wenhai's face changed.

"What?! How can they go but we can't?" He was the most bored one among the trio since Ren didn't let them wander around for the whole month. Even though he must've known why, Puppy looked aggrieved. Ren threw a 'Proud of what you did' glance at Baozhai, and opened his mouth—"Does killing humans count?" Liuxue asked. Both Puppy and Witch turned to her, shooting suspicious glances. Though she ignored them, her gaze locked on Ren.

"If only after you learned your technique." She nodded without emotion and raised her daggers. This much talking was enough, so Ren didn't give them another chance to ask questions and moved like lightning. With this, the three hours worth of torture, in the name of training, began. For starters, they didn't mess up. On the contrary, they surprisingly put on a good show. Ruolan threw a few pouches that covered the backyard in mist while Wenhai gained her enough time by rushing forward and stalling.

His blue lightning-induced defense stood till Liuxue emerged through the mist to help him. Ren let them set the flow for the first ten minutes. Although he said he wasn't going to show mercy, that didn't mean he could completely crush them, too. After all, he should push them hard while giving them hope. They should believe they could remain standing until the last moment. So he acted systematically, focusing on one at a time and leaving deliberate openings that only teamwork could exploit.

Yet it didn't take long for him to notice the problem: Their teamwork was… shitty at best. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Actually, even that might be a praise. Things started to turn bad when the mist dissipated, and his moves got aggressive. In one instance, Ren couldn't help but let out a sigh when Wenhai lunged at him and directly got caught in Ruolan's poison breeze.

He gave a gentle kick to the chest— to save the poor kid and the hidden Liuxue behind him. They tumbled together out of the poison like dominoes, and Ruolan quickly applied the antidote. In another instance, he grabbed Liuxue's leg as she must've thought a flying kick from behind would be a good idea, and threw her to the Witch, who was running around and spraying some suspicious thing. And of course, they collided because Ruolan's focus was completely on her goal, not her surroundings.

She hadn't even noticed the puppy was frothing at the mouth, trying to stall Ren as much as possible, even though the poison had taken over his body... again. There was no need to mention how spectacularly he had failed. Sometimes, even Baozhai couldn't endure their stupidity and shouted directives. To be honest, without her help, they couldn't even reach the one-hour checkpoint without collapsing. But the first checkpoint was nothing but a warm-up for Ren, and he didn't hesitate to show them that.

"Don't throw yourself without a plan to retreat," he shouted, his eyes flashing crimson just a fleeting instant. Wenhai froze midway to a heavy punch and got socked right in the jaw.

"And never close your eyes in a fight." Another blow crashed down on the clueless boy, slamming him to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Ren suddenly ducked as a sharp wind whizzed past over his head. His hand shot to grab the dagger-holding wrist and bam! With the precision of a master sharpshooter, Ruolan went down again with the human ball, the pouch she was holding exploding.

"Come on, kids," Ren smirked, wiping away the nonexistent sweat over his forehead. Lightning flickered. This time red. Wenhai spat blood and staggered to his feet, his jaw swollen, but the stubborn fool still forced himself to lean forward, both palms open toward him. As if it were a signal, Ruolan and Liuxue crawled back up, supporting each other. Sharing a glance, they lunged. For once, the three of them moved at the same time. Ren almost laughed. Finally acting like a proper team, huh?

The beating must've finally knocked some sense into you. He gave them a chance. His fist snapped out, but he moved slower. Slow enough for Wenhai to slap it aside and leap on him. Grabbing his waist desperately, the boy managed to hold him still— even if it was just for a moment. From behind Wenhai, a pouch flew to his face and blew up in the perfect moment, further slowing and even blinding Ren, though the poison broke down as soon as he inhaled. It tasted sour, like spoiled lemon. Is she trying to make me vomit?

His instincts tingled. Above? No. Three attacks came his way, two aimed at his shoulder and the last at his stomach. He thought about acting like a brute and taking them face-to-face, but decided otherwise. Let's see if it works. Phantom State. A thin layer of moonlight energy covered his body, just when the attacks arrived. He could imagine their elation as they almost managed to hit him. Almost, but not quite.

Ren's eyes recovered in time to see Liuxue's kick and two throwing knives passing through his body like he wasn't even there. He couldn't help the wide curve in his lips as he muttered, "Surprise." His clamp-like hand grabbed her neck. She still fought back despite her widened eyes, jabbing at him with her elbow. Yet Ren stepped back at the last minute, causing Wenhai's wild punch to miss and fly toward her elbow. The sudden force that was covered with lightning sent a literal shiver down.

Puppy's face twisted in despair.

"Idiots!" Fortunately, Ruolan caught up right at that time, diving down to grab Liuxue. The punch missed by a hair's breadth, and both girls tumbled onto the ground. Ren raised both hands when Ruolan glared at him. I even let you take her, why so angry? She spat on the ground without answering, crawling back to her feet with a flustered puppy's help. They had failed… once again. Still, this was working.

It'd been just a couple of days since Ren started their fighting training, and he had to admit they got great instincts even though they were messy. Eh, let them try more, and they'll get better. But standing till the last minute? That is out of question. He smirked. Actually, he never thought about giving them a chance to finish their extra time at once. That would be too easy and wouldn't force them to push themselves toward perfection. What they needed was a sense of desperation.

His soul brother had pushed Baozhai to the brink of crying with that way, and it was his turn to take over the mantle for his little disciples. He shot a glance at Baozhai. She shrugged and let out a weary sigh. And he did. … One hour and fifty-nine minutes. All they needed was one more minute for the second checkpoint. But a stubborn wall in the shape of Ren towered in front of them. No matter how much Liuxue struggled to rise just one more time, her hand could only scratch the ground in vain.

A thin line of blood flowed down to his chin as she bit her lip to remain awake. As for the other two… Puppy was lying strewn across the ground for the last ten minutes, fingers twitched from time to time, sparks flaring and fading as quickly as they appeared. Still, his body must've refused to listen and rise. And beside him lay Ruolan. She was sleeping soundly, her body covered in thousands of colors as though her body was chosen as a canvas for the art class.

"Phew, that was refreshing," Ren murmured, stretching his waist. He felt full of energy, and even stole a glance from Baozhai, considering if he should offer a spar. Nah, I chose life!

"You know you'll leave trauma in them, right?" Ren flinched as she appeared beside him. Scratching his head, he couldn't help but grumble, "Can't you stop doing this? I swear you're gonna give me a heart attack one day." Lips curling, Baozhai gave him an amused look.

"Well, well, look at how the tables have turned." She slapped his back with enough force to almost stumble him and went to help the kids. Ren smiled too. She was getting better at this teasing thing. And he had to admit it was fun. When was the last time I felt like this…? A stray question wandered into his mind. Years had gone by with him being alone. Of course, he liked being alone as well; it had a different feeling. A strange sense of peace, maybe? Or he might've got used to it too much.

You would forget the yearning for human touch after a while, after all. But looking at this way, being surrounded by people who obviously cared for you… wasn't so unpleasant, to be honest. That strange peace wasn't there— especially with the chaotic trio— but watching them groan and complain to Baozhai about how ruthless he was… he felt content. Strangely so, but still.

"Hey, you don't expect me to carry all three of them?" Baozhai's voice stirred him out of his thoughts. Shaking his head aside, Ren chuckled and stepped forward. This… this is good too.