Even though no one would care, it should still be mentioned that, on one particularly unremarkable night, in some random forest that remained peaceful for whatever reason, there was a pitiful boy and an old man feeding him what was, quite possibly, excrement.
"Tfff... disgusting, damn it!"
Shen Zuo cursed as he spat on the ground, grabbing a handful of dirt and wiping it across his tongue.
"Bear with it a little, kid. The taste is awful because of how many ingredients overlap... most doses won't meet your expectations, so you'd better get used to the disgust quickly."
Shen Zuo was somewhat convinced by Zhou Ji's words, and tried to hold himself together as best he could. He turned his gaze back to the plate filled with a black, sticky, hideous looking gel.
"Damn it, at least try to make it look a little more decent, old man."
His resolve vanished the moment his eyes landed on the black filth in front of him again. The cycle of eating, then spitting or vomiting, then licking dirt, repeated itself more than once, and if the dose ran out, he had to make it again from scratch.
This was a clear and noticeable change, since the difficulty had multiplied several times over the past year, and Zhou Ji's training methods had grown steadily stranger. Shen Zuo's knowledge base of resources, doses, and various compositions, whether medicinal, poisonous, or specialized, had grown considerably, so Zhou Ji had to adjust the training somewhat. This was especially true now that Shen Zuo genuinely no longer lacked basic knowledge of resources and formulas; what he lacked was experience actually crafting the recipes. But Zhou Ji had noticed another problem: Shen Zuo wasn't consuming what he made, and had become extremely picky. So Zhou Ji added something else to the mix: tolerance for taste.
Of course, Shen Zuo had no idea this was the point, so he was thoroughly displeased, but he endured it anyway, picked up the gel, and put it in his mouth.
An astringent liquid spread quickly through his mouth, and Shen Zuo's tongue clenched instantly. At this stage, he would normally spit the food out if he couldn't bear to keep it in his mouth.
"Bear with it... digest it and swallow it, quickly."
Shen Zuo endured the taste and swallowed, and then it was his throat's turn, clenching and refusing to let the disgusting thing pass, his throat threatening to vomit up nearly everything.
"Don't focus on the taste. Fight your throat."
Finally, the liquid made its way down and settled in his stomach.
"Here."
Zhou Ji tossed a water flask to Shen Zuo, who emptied it completely.
"How was it?"
Zhou Ji asked with a smile.
"Shut up."
Shen Zuo shot back angrily.
"Are you two finished?"
Zhou Ji turned to see who had appeared behind him so suddenly, finding Bai Ren with a hand resting on his shoulder.
"When did you get here?"
Zhou Ji raised his left eyebrow, annoyed.
Bai Ren took a drag from his pipe and blew it out before continuing.
"As you know, I saw you two messing around, so I figured I'd join in a little. Mind if I do?"
Now it was Shen Zuo's turn to raise an eyebrow, confused.
"Why do I get the feeling you're trying to steal my week?"
"Come on, man, just this week. Besides, I think you two were finished with the crap eating or whatever, so I wasn't interrupting anything."
"Crap eating?..."
Shen Zuo grew angry at Bai Ren's provocative words.
"It's my turn after this. You think I'm an idiot?"
Zhou Ji raised his hand to silence Shen Zuo, mocking Bai Ren's nonsense.
"Alright, I'll owe you one. What do you say?"
Bai Ren pulled his hand off Zhou Ji's shoulder and tried to bargain.
"Good deal. Agreed."
Zhou Ji agreed, after a moment of thought.
"Great, then let me have him."
Bai Ren stepped toward Shen Zuo, who immediately jumped up from where he sat.
"Get away from me!"
"Come on, kid, we're just going to have some fun."
"Get away from me, you damn lunatic!"
"Come on, kid, it's not like I'm going to kill you or anything. Relax."
Compared to Zhou Ji, Bai Ren was far more extreme, the wildest and most unpredictable of the three old men. No one had expected him to actually bargain with Zhou Ji just to steal the rest of the week for himself.
"For him to be this terrified, what exactly have you been doing with him, man?"
Zhou Ji asked Bai Ren, suspicious.
"Take this."
Bai Ren ignored Zhou Ji behind him and tossed a wooden sword to Shen Zuo.
"I know you haven't trained with a sword or any weapon yet, but that's about to change... starting now."
"I don't think that'll actually help him. He needs more training with Phantoms than that, and there aren't many Phantoms that even take the shape of weapons in the first place."
Zhou Ji questioned Bai Ren's reasoning.
"I know that, but what about his enemies? Plenty of people out there carry Phantoms from the weapon path, so how is he supposed to deal with them using Phantoms from other paths? There's no way around it, he has to adapt."
Bai Ren answered Zhou Ji's question.
"If he doesn't carry a Phantom of the same type, how exactly do you expect him to adapt?"
Zhou Ji wasn't convinced, and kept pushing back.
"He can use any other Phantom to imitate certain traits. Take the Rock Growth Phantom, for example. Instead of encasing your body in it, you could shape it into a crude sword instead, and if you develop it further, it'll only get better."
A new voice came from behind Bai Ren and Zhou Ji, explaining the reasoning to the latter.
"Exactly. Now come on, kid, follow my movements."
...
A few weeks after Bai Ren decided to teach Shen Zuo swordsmanship, the old man was already deflecting his attacks with ease, pushing him back again and again without ever losing his balance.
The training was simple: Shen Zuo would attack Bai Ren for five minutes, then defend against him for one. This was meant to train both his offense and defense, and serve as a way to apply what he'd learned.
In the background, Ling Li and Zhou Ji were watching the scene unfold.
"It's not like you to just stand there and watch. Why'd you come today?"
Zhou Ji was normally the one responsible for healing Shen Zuo whenever Bai Ren got a little too into the training, so he was always present to keep an eye on things. Ling Li, though, had no clear reason to be there.
"You'll find out soon enough."
Ling Li didn't even lift his eyes off Shen Zuo.
Shen Zuo failed to notice Bai Ren's horizontal strike coming, and it caught him hard on the side, this time cutting a little deeper than usual, making him stagger from the pain.
"Alright, I think we're done here."
Had Bai Ren not been holding himself back, had he been careless even for a moment, that strike would have killed him.
"Hey, in a real fight, that wouldn't just be a scratch... focus a little."
Bai Ren said in a stern tone.
Shen Zuo answered by raising his middle finger at him, spitting the words out with venom:
"Take this, you damn... AAAAAH!"
But he never finished the sentence. In the next instant, the sword moved like a flash of lightning, slicing his raised finger clean off in one smooth motion, sending it flying through the air as Shen Zuo screamed in pain.
Bai Ren looked over at Zhou Ji.
"He started it."
Zhou Ji nodded in understanding as he walked toward them.
"Another piece of advice: don't provoke the wrong person, because next time it won't be your finger that gets cut off."
Shen Zuo froze in place, breathing hard, blood dripping from his severed finger.
A heavy silence settled over the scene for a moment, before it was broken by Ling Li's voice from behind, cold and utterly without pity:
"I think your pain tolerance is a bit disappointing. Maybe I should start raising the bar."
He stepped closer to Shen Zuo, lowered himself to his level, and continued in a low voice:
"Speaking of fingers, breaking them one by one actually sounds like a decent idea too... we'll try it soon, just the two of us."
Shen Zuo's body shook involuntarily at Ling Li's words, and for a moment, he even forgot the pain of his severed finger.
Meanwhile, Zhou Ji had already taken hold of Shen Zuo's left hand, a green glow lighting up both his own hand and Shen Zuo's, as the severed middle finger slowly began to regrow.
"Healing this pathetic wretch every single time is honestly exhausting. Can't you two be a little more merciful and just kill him outright?"
Shen Zuo looked at Zhou Ji, disappointed. He hadn't expected him to tack that onto the end of his sentence.
Shortly after, the severed finger finished regrowing, and even the gash on Shen Zuo's side, along with his other wounds, had fully healed.
"Alright, alright... this time I'll cook you something actually delicious, a nice change from the excrement I was feeding you earlier... you've earned a reward for giving Bai Ren exactly what he deserved."
Zhou Ji laughed, then added enthusiastically:
"What did you say?"
Bai Ren's sharp voice cut toward Zhou Ji, and his laughter vanished instantly as he turned to look at Bai Ren seriously.
"Bai Ren's finished with training, you're finished healing Shen Zuo, and his training for the day is over. No point wasting any more time here."
Before Zhou Ji could respond and let things escalate further, Ling Li raised both hands and placed them on the two men's shoulders, glancing back and forth between them.
Fortunately, Bai Ren and Zhou Ji went their separate ways, leaving only Ling Li and Shen Zuo behind.
"What was that about?"
Shen Zuo held his finger and asked Ling Li.
"Right, this is the first time you've seen that. Anyway, don't worry about it too much. Disagreements happen between us all the time, but actual fights are rare... though when they do happen..."
Ling Li explained, gazing off toward the horizon.
Then he spoke again, his voice carrying a faint echo, clearly trying to change the subject:
"Anyway, I liked the sound of Zhou Ji's announcement. What are you cooking?"
Zhou Ji smiled and said:
"I've got a fat sheep I've been raising specifically for grilling."
Then he continued eagerly:
"Hmmm, and I made a new spice blend too, might work well for the grill."
Bai Ren cut in, mocking:
"No thanks, who knows what those spices are even made of? I'll stick to black pepper, better safe than sorry later~."
Ling Li said, waving his hand:
"He's got a point. Just handle the grilling, and let's actually eat something decent this time."
Zhou Ji raised his eyebrows, pretending to give in:
"Fine, fine... anyway, I'll try these new spices out on Shen Zuo instead!"
Shen Zuo had been standing there excitedly at first, but the moment he heard that sentence, his expression changed completely, and he began cursing under his breath.