STNS: Chapter 468 (Patreon)

Shuchang had always considered himself a good for nothing layabout older brother with no talent. His older siblings were all much more powerful than him, having mastered the phoenix cultivation arts much faster and gone much further with them. Meanwhile,  his younger sister was a once in a thousand year prodigy. She not only had more phoenix blood than anyone in their family, but she had mastered almost every technique within her current available power, and she was only getting stronger.

He didn’t begrudge his sister. If anything, he was proud of her for being so amazing, but he also wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t disappointed in himself for not being stronger. His father had designs on Huo Yulie. Shuchang only had a small inkling of what those designs were, but he knew they weren’t good. He had wanted to save his younger sister from whatever fate their father had in store, but he lacked the power to do so.

Then he met Wu Jian.

That meeting had been the starting point. Jian Wu probably though Shuchang had saved him on a whim, but the truth was that he had heard Jian Wu mumbling in his sleep. The name of a girl had slipped out of the young man’s mouth. That had been what prompted him to rescue Jian Wu even though there had been no clear benefit to himself at the time. However, it turned out rescuing that young man had been the right decision.

His life had turned around since meeting Jian Wu; the young man had helped him acquire power much more quickly than he could have possibly done on his own. Cultivators were almost always selfish and greedy. They never thought of giving to others if it would mean weakening themselves. Jian Wu was different in that regard. For all his cynical thoughts, he was very pure, with not an ounce of true selfishness in his body. If that had been the case, he would have certainly tried to make more concessions for himself.

More than a partner to help him achieve power, however, what Shuchang found in Jian Wu was a friend.

“Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!”

And that was exactly why he laughed in Jian Wu’s face as the young man stood before him with clenched fists. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to see the young man’s face. He still hadn’t removed that blasted mask, but he wanted to see the bright red face Jian Wu surely had as he stood there asking for help.

“I see. I see. So you’ve found yourself having trouble training disciples and have to me for advice. Hm hm hm. Well, I’m sure this young master could find it within himself to teach you. I am quite magnanimous, after all. If you kowtow three times and call me father, I would be willing to help you.”

Moments like this didn’t come often. Jian Wu sometimes seemed superhuman. He could accomplish things others couldn’t, and he almost never relied on people for help. The reason Shuchang followed Jian Wu this time was because it seemed like his friend might finally need his help with something. Sadly, their situation wasn’t as dangerous as he had expected. Indeed, the Undying Sun Sect might have been powerful, but he was certain they would easily win once they decided to act.

“If that’s how you’re going to be, then forget I asked for help. I’ll figure something out on my own.”

Uh-oh. Jian Wu was angry. It was hard to tell for anyone who didn’t know him. Most people relied on seeing looking at a person’s facial expressions to tell what someone was thinking, but Shuchang had learned to read his friend’s body language since his face was always hidden.

With a chuckle, he slung an arm around the younger man’s shoulder and said, “Come on now. Don’t be like that. I’ll help. Tell you what? How about you watch me train these disciples up? It might give you some ideas of your own.”

“… Fine.”

“Great! Come, come. Let us commence with the training.”

It was early morning and the disciples were already lined up and waiting for Shuchang when he arrived. They all glanced curiously at Jian Wu, whom they didn’t know well since he had been away for so long. He was something of an unknown entity now. Everyone else had been around for a long time, but Jian Wu had been tasked with traveling to the Southern Tang Dynasty, and that had put him behind everyone else. He didn’t even have a nickname.

The army had given him, Hou Jingshu, Zhou Lihua, and Youmei nicknames. He was The Immortal because of his powerful immortal flames. Hou Jingshu was Dragon Princess because of her ferocious fighting style. Zhou Lihua was The Queen of Alchemy for… obvious reasons. Youmei was just called the Adorable Glutton. She didn’t really do anything except eat and play around. Many people thought of her as the army’s mascot.

“All right, you lot! Time to begin your strengthening drills! Hop to it!”

“Yes, Shisho!”

Ah. I never get tired of being called Shisho.

Shuchang basked in the sensations of elation he felt at people calling him “master.” Such a lovely feeling. He felt powerful and respected.

His disciples began running around the training ring. He always had them start off with 100 laps around the training courtyard. Then he had them do 1,000 push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and several dozen other exercises. It took almost half the day. He didn’t let them rest either. Immediately after they finished their exercises, they would go right into practicing their martial arts form.

Shuchang had traveled a lot, so he knew many different martial arts forms, though he had not mastered any of them. He knew enough to teach these people the basics. Because he didn’t know more than the basics of each form, he had combined them to create something that these people could use. It was rough around the edges. He would admit that. However, it was better than the trash level martial arts they had been using before.

As he watched the disciples train, a thought occurred to him.

We could have already beaten the Undying Sun Sect if we wanted.

He’d thought about this often. The Undying Sun Sect was not that powerful in the grand scheme of things. Shuchang and Hou Jingshu were stronger than their strongest members. They could have easily demolished them if they wanted. The reason they weren’t was simple.

Mei Xilan wanted the people to win back their freedom.

He understood her goals. By enabling the people to reclaim their freedom themselves, Mei Xilan was ensuring that her rule, once reinstated, was seen as legitimate and supported by the populace. A victory handed to them by external power might not earn the same level of respect or loyalty, especially since none of them planned to remain in the Sui Kingdom after the Undying Sun Sect was ousted. If they gave the kingdom to her and then left, her rule would become unstable since she had not won anything under her own power.

Of course, she didn’t intend on sidelining them either. Mei Xilan was smart. She would use them in conjunction with her own army to ensure they were successful.

Still, I kinda wish we could just leave already.

“I see. You’re strengthening them first and teaching them martial arts forms.” Jian Wu was tapping his face mask thoughtfully. Shuchang could tell the young man was grimacing. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of doing that. It’s the most basic of the basics. This is how we trained when we were children.”

Shuchang nodded. “That’s a pretty understandable mindset though. You didn’t think to train them this way because they’re already cultivators. Most cultivators neglect to train their bodies in favor of training their chi and learning new techniques, but that’s impossible to do when you don’t even have techniques that you can teach them. Nobody can learn my cultivation method unless they’ve ingested the Vermillion Bird’s blood. Because I can’t teach them my method of techniques, I thought about what I can do to make them stronger.”

“And training them the same way you’d train someone in the Body Forging Realm was the answer,” Jian Wu nodded several times. “I get it. I think that’s a good way to train people. Honestly, with the amount of time we have to train them, trying to teach them new techniques wouldn’t help anyway.”

Shuchang nodded. “It takes the average cultivator at least a year to master a single technique. We don’t have that kind of time. However, it only takes a few months to train a cultivator’s body. They can grow stronger much faster than someone at the Body Forging Realm because they have chi. It’s an interesting bit that I learned recently. Anyway, this is my training method. You can use this however you want.”

“I will. Thanks.”

Shuchang grinned. “Of course. What are friends for?”

Several days passed after Shuchang gave Jian Wu advice. Out of curiosity, Shuchang decided to see what kind of training his friend had begun.

When he arrived at his friend’s designated training courtyard, it was to find Jian Wu, standing on a platform and shouting obscenities down at his men.

“What do you think you’re doing?! Pick up the pace! If laziness were a cultivation method, you’d be an immortal by now! Start showing some real effort, or I’ll have you sweeping the courtyard until you’re old and gray!”

“Your stance is shakier than a bamboo hut in a typhoon! Strengthen your foundation or the next gust of wind might carry you off to the Da Continent!”

The insults Jian Wu spewed were creative, if nothing else.

Down below the platform, the men under Jian Wu were raggedly doing all of the exercises he had forced upon them. Shuchang had thought his friend would make them do normal exercises. Push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups. Things like that. What his friend was making them do instead was the most insane and physically demanding exercises Shuchang had ever seen in his life.

One of the exercises that Jian Wu had his disciples doing was push-ups… of a sort. Disciples had a massive boulder placed on their backs and spikes underneath them as they did them, however. If one of them fell, they’d impale themselves. Another exercise he had them doing was called goblet squats. Disciples held a kettle bell to their chest, braced their feet, and lowered into a squat while keeping their chest up. It looked like a good exercise… until Shuchang discovered the kettle bell was more than three times a normal human’s body weight. No wonder the disciples looked so red in the face as they did them.

If that was all, he might have just played it off as a slightly excessive trainer, but Jian Wu also had his disciples swim across a lake with weights strapped around their torso. The weights were, again, more than two or three times their body weight. Most of the disciples nearly drowned the first day of training, though Jian Wu did save them. However, he also punished them with laps after word.

While Jian Wu’s methods were highly questionable and Shuchang was tempted to call them inhumane, the results soon showcased themselves. His disciples quickly gained strength that far surpassed Shuchang’s own. The only disciples who could compete with JIan Wu’s were Hou Jingshu’s… and that was because Hou Jingshu saw what her hubby was doing and decided to copy his methods to keep up. Even Shuchang debated following after them when he saw the results, but he decided not to when his disciples began crying after he told them. It seemed Jian Wu’s and Hou Jingshu’s disciples were often seen on their days off complaining about the harsh training methods and how it almost killed them. Fortunately, no deaths had ocurred.

In either event, the two soon earned themselves new nicknames.

The Demonic Husband and Wife Duo. Shuchang was certain that a legend had been born, but whether it was for good or ill would remain up for debate.