Chapter 357: 357, [Tool Man, Follow Me]
“Why would it be like this?” Lu Xun was puzzled.

He could understand the full screen of “???”, but what ghost is this uninvestigable?

The master rarely turned his head to look at Lu Xun, asking, “What’s wrong?”

He didn’t know if he had noticed Lu Xun’s gaze, his eyes intertwined with Lu Xun for a moment.

Lu Xun cleared his throat, then pushed the dish of candied sweet potato in front of him to the master, a bit stiffly said, “Master, try the new dish that your disciple made today. If you wait a bit longer, the fourth sister will eat it all.”

Mao Nanbei: “Meow meow meow?”

The master didn’t say anything, quietly took a bite, and then nodded, “It tastes good.”

The little black cat lifted its paw, gently tugged at Lu Xun’s robe, then pointed at the candied sweet potato, implying that she wanted more.

Lu Xun could only serve her more, and then put it in her bowl.

The cultivation base of Mao Nanbei was recovering quite quickly. At this rate, she would be able to transform again in a few days.

Lu Xun still missed her little girl form a lot.

The reason was simple and there was no shame in admitting it, it was because she looked cute and adorable!

Well?

But once she transformed, the opportunities to pet the cat would be much less…

He was momentarily conflicted about this.

“No matter, I’ll just have to pet her a few more times these days.” he told himself.

And so, while eating, Lu Xun began to size up the little black cat’s tail.

According to Mao Nanbei, that part was not supposed to be touched.

…

…

The next day, Lu Xun got up early and took Lin Chan to the foot of Hidden Mountain to find Elder Gui and learn the second move—Sting.

Before Elder Gui demonstrated, he indeed asked Lu Xun and Lin Chan to show their practice outcomes of this period.

Lu Xun stood aside, holding the Sword Sheath, his body slightly leaning forward, knees bent.

He placed his right hand at the mouth of the Sword Sheath. Although he didn’t have a sword, there was Sword Qi inside the Sword Sheath!

He exercised the Sword Drawing Technique, a Sword Qi flew out of the Sword Sheath, and under his control, it traced a semicircular arc in the air, as if it tore the air apart, making a sound of breaking air.

Whether it was strong or not for the time being, at least when performed by him with “Charisma 10”, it was cool enough.

Lin Chan stood on the side watching, somewhat entranced for a moment.

After staring blankly for a few seconds, she realized that something was wrong with her focus, and added in her heart: “Master cultivates so fast!”

She could tell that Lu Xun’s Sword Drawing Technique was much more advanced than hers.

Seeing Little Chan’s admiring gaze, Lu Xun looked calm and composed, but in his heart, he felt that the experience points were well spent.

Elder Gui stood aside, slowly nodding his head, indicating satisfaction.

Next, it was Lin Chan’s turn.

She took out the Partridge Sky from her Storage Ring.

Looking at the very different Partridge Sky, Elder Gui was momentarily lost.

After Lin Chan had demonstrated her cultivation outcomes, Elder Gui was still staring at the Broken Sword in Lin Chan’s hand for a long time before recovering.

He laughed a little apologetically and nodded towards Lin Chan, affirming her before starting to instruct them about Sting.

As usual, he kept demonstrating over and over while Lu Xun and Lin Chan embodied his teachings.

When Elder Gui was at the 15th demonstration, a prompt popped up in front of Lu Xun, and he straight away chose “Learn”.

“This time seems faster than the last one, last time it was after the 20th round that the skill prompt appeared.” Lu Xun thought to himself.

He reckoned this was because his Sword Dao Aptitude had increased by 1 point, and the Sword Dao realm had reached the completion of the Sword Intent!

After Lin Chan and Lu Xun had both achieved entry level, Elder Gui put down his crutch, waved at them and signaled that they could leave.

After Lu Xun and Lin Chan bowed to him, they took out their paper cranes and flew towards the back mountain.

Elder Gui didn’t go into the house right away, instead, leaning on his crutch, he stood looking at their distant figures.

After a while, he lowered his head, his cloudy eyes filled with complex emotions and deep longing.

Then, he sighed lightly and slowly walked into the cabin.

…

…

On the way back, Lu Xun sat beside Lin Chan and said, “Little Chan, I’m going to leave the mountain in a few days. Practice hard while I’m gone. Once I return, I’ll assess your progress.”

At his words, Lin Chan immediately stopped looking down. Instead, she looked up at Lu Xun, then traced into his palm, “Could Master bring me along?”

“Eh? Have you become like your Fourth Senior Sister and Ji Li now?” Lu Xun asked with a laugh.

Both of them had a bad habit of clinging to him.

Lin Chan’s little ears turned red again, and she lowered her head, refusing to look at her master.

Lu Xun wanted to tease her, but he didn’t dare to touch her ears because they would get redder and hotter with each touch.

A true steam maiden indeed.

As he controlled the paper crane, he said,

“I have some matters to take care of, and it’s not convenient to bring you along. However, I’ve always been impartial. So it’s not that I won’t bring you, I’m just not bringing anyone.”

What a weak consolation…

No matter what, he hadn’t planned to bring them along on his trip this time.

However, he hadn’t planned to go alone either.

Lu Xun planned to bring along his sword-serving children.

They were his own sword-serving children, yet they had never properly served him since he took them in.

That certainly couldn’t do!

Especially since his trip this time was with a specific purpose. If he were to go alone, it would be too tiring and risky.

Having a few helpers around would make things much easier.

Characteristics of the sand sculpture players that cultivators on the Heavenly Dust Continent didn’t possess were, in Lu Xun’s view, perfect for these players to act as helpers.

However, he was still unsure of whether to use his identity as a member of the Purple Palace or the White Emperor to command them.

Each had their own benefits.

If he used his real identity, they would be more obedient, work harder, and be more eager to interact with him.

If things went smoothly, he could get some good publicity on the forum, and maybe even increase his reputation value when they returned to the sect.

But if things didn’t go well, then the benefits of using his White Emperor identity would become apparent.

He could just sell them out!

Doing such a thing as “Demon Sect’s Young Elder”, “Natural Sword Embryo”, “World Protagonist” would certainly not be fitting.

But it wouldn’t matter for the White Emperor. Though it would lose him some cool points, it was just one of Lu Xun’s alt identities.

If this identity went downhill, he could just create another one.

After all, the players wouldn’t genuinely die, so selling them out wouldn’t pressure him.

He could just compensate them with some experience points afterward, and Lu Xun wouldn’t even feel a twinge of guilt.

Of course, knowing the nature of those sand sculpture players, they might end up hoping to get sold for the experience points they could gain…

“White Emperor-chan! Sell me out! Please!”

“Idiots, go away! Daddy White Emperor, pick me! If you have to sell someone out, pick me!”

“Oh, my dear White Emperor, let me die for you!”

Lu Xun gave it some careful thought. There didn’t seem to be any normal people among his sword-serving children. So the situation might actually become rather interesting.

Just as he was debating which identity to use to recruit players, the paper crane had flown back to the back mountain.

After putting away the paper crane, he stopped thinking about this matter.

Because even if he were to leave the mountain, he still had some time, and there were some things he needed to prepare.

Over the next few days, he planned to obediently stay in the back mountain and take full advantage of Mao Nanbei’s inability to shape-shift. Time for a good brushing session!

The joy of brushing a cat once was nothing compared to the elation of brushing one all the time!

It was addictive!

At this moment, Mao Nanbei was lounging on a large rattan chair sunbathing with her eyes slightly squinted, occasionally licking her paws.

That tail, which she’d sworn no one could touch, swung gently, indicating her contentment.

What a lovely tail, fluffy and soft, it must feel great to touch.

Don’t you want to touch it?

…

(ps: Third update, although I wrote into the middle of the night, I kept my promise and preserved my integrity, which is hanging by a thread.)