Honestly, the fact that people kept sneaking looks at his residence gave Gu Chengming something of a headache.
After all, he could sense them easily enough — but they only ever came to steal a glance, which left him no real grounds to chase them off.
Eventually he simply stopped caring. It didn't interfere with his sword practice either way.
What actually occupied him was something else entirely.
Ever since he'd managed to shape an Embryonic Sword Domain out of the Yin-Yang Creation Strategy, Gu Chengming had been itching to test its effect inside the Love Hundred Bones Resonance.
Several earlier attempts had already proven that conventional damage couldn't so much as scratch her defensive floor. Even "Hundred Emperor, aid me!" with every layer of the monkey show stacked on top had done nothing but push the phantom back a single step.
But a Sword Domain was different. A Sword Domain was an entirely new multiplier, independent of spiritual power, techniques, and blood-qi alike. If he could unleash that monkey show routine while a domain was open, the theoretical damage increase would be an exponential leap.
The problem was that the only domain he could barely hold open at present was a Harmonious Joy Sect Sword Domain — the Yin-Yang Creation Strategy at its core, fused with the "Entanglement" trait of the Huiyuan Sword Formula.
Fine. Beating a boss with that thing did feel uncomfortably like playing an eroge.
A sword cultivator of my caliber should not be bound by convention, Gu Chengming told himself, and closed his eyes to open the [Love Hundred Bones Resonance].
The instant the scene shifted, the familiar iron-grey sky and dark red wasteland filled his vision again.
Wind howled. Sand swirled across the sky.
At the center of the training grounds, that dashing figure in martial garb stood exactly as she always did.
Seeing Gu Chengming appear, the Hundred Bones Resonance phantom didn't so much as lift an eyelid. She managed a yawn of spectacular indifference.
By now both sides knew the routine by heart.
This time, though, Gu Chengming didn't rush to haul out his pile of bottles and jars and start layering buffs. He stayed where he was and slowly unfurled his Sword Domain.
Wherever that soft pink light spread across the dark red rock, the biting wind dropped away and the air thickened. The embryonic pink domain unfolded across the training grounds.
The phantom's reaction sent a jolt of excitement through him.
Her lazy posture visibly changed.
Her outspread arms went stiff for an instant. Her brows drew together, almost imperceptibly. Her body faltered for the space of a heartbeat, as though something had settled onto her shoulders and forced her to spend a thread of power resisting it.
As the domain spread, the "Entanglement" trait of the Huiyuan Sword Formula became countless threads of spiritual power, invisible to the eye, winding thick and close around the phantom's body. When he'd used the sword formation and the "Entanglement" sword intent before, the suppression had been so slight she could ignore it outright.
A domain was another matter. This raised a technique's trait to the level of a field — a rewriting of the rules across an entire stretch of space.
The phantom's movements slowed by a visible margin. At last she turned her gaze on Gu Chengming, and for the first time ever, something like curiosity flickered in those eyes.
He gave her no time to observe further.
His hand came up. Soul-Congealing Incense, lit.
Pale violet smoke poured into his nostrils. His Sea of Consciousness heaved, his spirit dragged forcibly together to its critical point.
The Jiaolong Reverse-Scale Pill went down his throat, and crimson savagery went charging through his meridians, blood-qi climbing to a dangerous peak.
The Ten Perfections Sword Formation opened to half completion, its keen resonance settling into his right fist. He crushed the Bone-Eroding Heart-Rotting Pot and virulent miasma seeped into his channels. The Golden-Body Sacred-Womb Pill and Dragon-Saliva Precious Broth barely held his heart-meridian together. The Avici Karmic-Fire Stone dropped into the formation, black flame crawling along the patterns, the power of the curse flooding into his fist.
The whole flowing monkey show sequence came off with practiced ease these days — and above all of it, that pink Sword Domain never stopped blanketing the training grounds.
"Hundred Emperor, aid me!"
The void tore. Thunder cracked in the wake of the sonic boom. The monstrous force gathered in his fist — carrying the domain's suppression, the formation's shearing, every violent enhancement, and the world-burning menace of karmic fire — slammed toward the phantom's chest.
And this time she didn't raise a casual hand the way she always had. The slowing effect that came with the "Entanglement" domain dragged her reaction a critical half-beat behind.
The fist landed.
BOOM—!!!
The heavy sound of impact rolled across the training grounds.
The phantom's body shuddered. She slid backward a full three steps before steadying herself.
Last time, every buff stacked had earned him one step. This time it was three.
As for Gu Chengming, he couldn't even stand. His legs had gone soft, his vision blurred.
Just as he swayed on the verge of collapse, the phantom stepped forward. She didn't casually finish him with a second punch and blast him out of the fight, as she'd always done before. She reached out and steadied him by the shoulder, perfectly naturally.
Then she bent slightly, bringing her face close to his. That dashing face — identical to the humanized form of the [Hundred Bones Resonance] — hung inches away, and she spoke in a clear, ringing voice:
"Indeed. In all the myriad heavens, you alone are fit to walk beside Us."
"Heavenly Emperor Gu — will you be Our consort, and rule these myriad heavens at Our side?"
Gu Chengming: …
[The Hundred Bones Resonance erupts in fury: Heavenly Emperor Gu is MINE!!!]
[You counterfeit! How dare you covet Heavenly Emperor Gu! I am the one and only Heavenly Emperor! Heavenly Emperor Gu rules the myriad heavens with ME! There's no share in it for you!]
Is that really the point here? Gu Chengming wondered.
The phantom seemed to ignore the raging of the Hundred Bones Resonance proper entirely. She turned her head toward where the voice came from with a look of lofty condescension, a trace of pity even reaching her eyes. The meaning was plain enough: you're too weak. He deserves someone stronger.
[The Hundred Bones Resonance is thoroughly enraged by that look — and cannot produce a single word of rebuttal.]
[If you can't even overpower the limit itself, what right do you have to claim you can protect Heavenly Emperor Gu?]
The phantom withdrew her gaze, looked back at Gu Chengming, and lifted a finger to tip his chin up — flippantly, exactly as she had last time. Those bold eyes were full of certain conquest.
Staring at the phantom hanging inches from his face, Gu Chengming had exactly one thought.
This has gotten out of hand. Time to pull out.
He severed the connection to the Love Laboratory with a thought. The dark red training grounds and the iron-grey sky collapsed in a blaze of blinding white and scattered into countless fragments.
Back in reality, Gu Chengming's eyes snapped open. He hauled in one ragged breath after another, his back soaked with cold sweat, the dull ache in his right arm still throbbing — though nothing worse than that.
[The Hundred Bones Resonance's voice comes out much smaller than usual: Heavenly Emperor Gu… can we still beat her?]
Gu Chengming held up three fingers, amused. "One step last time. Three this time. Next time it might be five, or ten. Once I take the Blood-Burning Realm-Breaking Pearl at the Grand Tournament, we'll run it again."
He looked at the panel hanging in the empty air, the one only he could see. "Sooner or later we'll knock her flat."
[The Hundred Bones Resonance shoots bolt upright, every trace of gloom gone: Well said! A mere counterfeit — she'll be under our heel before long!]
[And another thing! All that talk of consorts and marriage from that fake was outrageous! Heavenly Emperor Gu's consort could only ever be— no, wait, Heavenly Emperor Gu doesn't need to be anyone's consort! Heavenly Emperor Gu is a Heavenly Emperor himself!]
Gu Chengming noticed the sharp swerve halfway through that sentence, but couldn't be bothered to dig into it. He only smiled, helpless.
The attempt had ended in another loss, and yet he was in high spirits — because it had confirmed his guess.
First, the Sword Domain's suppression far exceeded expectations. A pink field in nothing but its embryonic state had produced obvious stumbling and delay in the phantom.
That proved the Sword Domain really was an extra multiplier standing apart from every other method, purely multiplicative with the monkey show's enhancement system.
Second, the "Entanglement" trait's armor-breaking effect under domain conditions was remarkable.
Before, no matter how he struck, it had felt like hitting through a membrane. This time the fist had connected with actual flesh. That meant the domain's sustained effect could gradually dismantle the phantom's body-shielding qi. The extent was limited for now — but as long as the domain lasted long enough and the technique's trait ran dense enough, that layer of defense could in theory be stripped away completely.
He had to admit it, though: the Hundred Emperor's physical body was absurdly tough.
If "Hundred Emperor, aid me" hadn't spared its user from recoil, Gu Chengming suspected the backlash from a punch like that would have burst his own body apart.
"So the Hundred Emperor's limit is even more ridiculous than a Dharma-Station Wonder…"
He muttered it to himself.
[The Hundred Bones Resonance puffs out its chest: Naturally! As if this Heavenly Emperor could be measured against something as mundane as a Dharma-Station!]
Sure. Whatever makes you happy.
The days slipped past in cultivation and sparring.
Ever since Su Qingmeng grasped her own Embryonic Sword Domain during that one exchange, the frequency of her visits hadn't dropped at all. If anything, they'd become more regular.
Nine mornings out of ten, Gu Chengming opened his courtyard gate to find a figure in plain white already standing there, perfectly straight.
Sword in hand. Face calm. Eyes bright.
"Fellow Daoist Gu. Good morning. Sword practice?"
The line had become Su Qingmeng's fixed daily opener. Sometimes Gu Chengming wondered whether he ought to plant a signboard outside his gate reading "Business hours: hour of Mao to hour of You."
Still, complaints aside, he didn't actually mind the sparring.
He had to admit that on certain levels Su Qingmeng's understanding of the sword ran deeper than his own. His edge lay in raw numbers and in his grasp of a single technique; but when it came to pure insight into swordplay itself, Su Qingmeng was the genuine prodigy.
So these weeks of practice had rewarded him just as richly.
Crossing blades with a pure sword-Dao genius forced him back into the plainest, most fundamental exchange of sword techniques — and blow by blow, his own swordplay was being honed without his noticing.
Gu Chengming's favorability toward Su Qingmeng UP!
Of course, if he had to name one thing that gave him a mild headache, it would be the… excessively natural little-tagalong state Su Qingmeng fell into outside of sparring hours.
But that same change, seen through the eyes of the Daoning Gate, was nowhere near so trivial a matter.
The Daoning Gate, main hall.
Elder Jingxuan sat upright on her cushion. On the low table before her stood a cup of spirit tea long gone cold. Across from her sat two of the Daoning Gate's other senior female elders, both wearing the same expression of complete helplessness.
"Senior Sister Jingxuan, you're going to have to do something about this." The first to speak was a lean-faced elder, rubbing her aching temples. "The girls have been getting more shameless by the day."
"Shameless how?" Elder Jingxuan asked, though she knew perfectly well.
The lean elder sighed. "Starting last month, every evening a batch of disciples runs off to the rear mountain of the Huiyuan Gate. At first it was three or five of them sneaking over for a look. I assumed it was ordinary youthful curiosity and turned a blind eye."
"And now?"
"And now it's thirty or fifty."
Elder Jingxuan's eye twitched.
"The girls have drawn up a duty roster among themselves. Who goes on which day, which route they take, which slope gives the clearest view — all of it worked out down to the last detail."
"They've nearly stripped the rear slope bare of spirit herbs. At this point I doubt they can even invent new excuses."
The other, slightly older elder finally broke in.
"Several disciples who used to cultivate with real discipline have fallen off badly. Distracted during meditation, drifting off constantly during sword practice."
"Enough. Both of you, stop."
Elder Jingxuan drew a long breath and turned her gaze past the hall doors, out to the snow-covered peaks beyond.
Never mind the disciples. Their own Dao-Child was the bigger headache now.
Calling Su Qingmeng's current state "taking the other side's part" would be putting it far too gently.
She'd all but adopted that little rear-mountain courtyard of the Huiyuan Gate as her own home. Out every morning, back every evening, punctual as clockwork, rain or shine — more diligent than she'd ever been about morning lessons. She always came back with fresh injuries. And every single time, she came back grinning like a fool.
Where had this fool come from? Was this still their peerless, ice-cold Dao-Child of the Daoning Gate?
Elder Jingxuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
But think it through carefully, and she couldn't lay any of it at Gu Chengming's door.
What had the man actually done wrong? Nothing. He practiced his own sword in his own courtyard and hadn't set half a foot outside his gate.
It was the Daoning Gate's own disciples climbing over mountains to spy on him. It was the Daoning Gate's own Dao-Child showing up on schedule every day to get beaten. Where exactly was there an argument to be made?
"Never mind."
Elder Jingxuan reached her decision at last. "I'll speak with Su Qingmeng myself and see whether her Dao Heart has been affected. If her sword-heart is intact, then sparring with Gu Chengming is ultimately good for her cultivation, and we needn't interfere too much."
"As for those girls — tell them that from tomorrow, the dusk mountain patrol is theirs to roster among themselves. Since they're so fond of the rear mountain, they can take on the patrolling and the herb-gathering together. It'll save them cobbling up clumsy excuses and embarrassing us all over the mountain."
The two elders exchanged a glance and, in the end, could only accept with wry smiles.
When the news reached Sect Head Shen Qianqiu, the master of the Wenjian Sect was in his study, savoring tea.
"Elder Jingxuan of the Daoning Gate has sent over a card. She'd like to discuss a matter concerning their female disciples with the Sect Head."
The disciple delivering the message put it delicately, but Shen Qianqiu was far too seasoned to miss the point. One sentence was enough for him to guess most of it.
He held his teacup and fell briefly into thought.
The business of the Daoning Gate's disciples flocking to the Huiyuan Gate's rear mountain had reached his ears some time ago.
As sect head, very little stirred within the sect that he didn't already know about.
But Gu Chengming was practicing his own sect's sword in his own courtyard. Where was the fault in that?
Nor had the Daoning Gate's disciples broken a single sect rule. They strolled the rear mountain gathering herbs and happened to pass through Huiyuan Gate territory, where they happened to watch a fellow Senior Brother practice his sword. Where was the fault in that?
Shen Qianqiu set down his cup and waved the messenger off.
"Reply to Elder Jingxuan. Tell her this seat is aware of the matter and will handle it appropriately."
Better to fall back on what he did best: smoothing things over and settling nothing.
…
Meanwhile, the man at the center of it all remained blissfully unaware.
He had a more pressing problem child to attend to, after all.
Ever since that loss, the Hundred Emperor had taken to studying grand Hundred-Emperor-speak sentence constructions.
Things like: "Counterfeit! Next time I'll have her on her knees begging!" And: "No — I must grow stronger than her! Only then can I protect Heavenly Emperor Gu from being coveted by creatures like that!"
And also things like: "When the sun rises, leave yesterday behind."
Gu Chengming couldn't be bothered to argue over whether "protect" was the appropriate verb here. He just made a couple of vague noises of agreement by way of comfort.
The other techniques nearby reacted in their own ways.
[The Huiyuan Sword Formula sits with its chin propped in one hand, blissfully replaying the memory of cuddling up close with Chengming a few days ago, and isn't listening to a word the Hundred Bones Resonance says.]
[The Clear-Heart Formula says with a giggle: Looks like the Hundred Bones Resonance is a far harder route to conquer than anyone imagined.]
[The Yin-Yang Creation Strategy looks thoroughly pleased with itself: Say what you like, that Sword Domain was unfolded using my trait. The Hundred Bones Resonance phantom got suppressed, and when you trace it back, that was all thanks to me.]
[The Hundred Bones Resonance grows even angrier at this.]
An autumn wind swept across the rear mountain of the Huiyuan Gate, carrying a withered leaf off a plum branch.
On the distant slope, several white-robed figures crouched behind the brush, heads pressed together, eyes fixed unblinking on the blue-robed back of the man meditating in the little courtyard below.
"Senior Brother looks so handsome today."
"Senior Brother looks handsome every day."
"Shh — keep your voices down."
Autumn deepened, and the day of the Grand Tournament drew steadily nearer.
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