64 Long Hua

It was nearly an hour since Xiao Tu had entered the Dimension to start his bonding with his weapon when Ye Xiu was in the residence's bathroom taking a dump. It was surprising for Ye Xiu when Xiao Tu suddenly appeared next to him as he was taking a dump, making him surprised but other than the small surprise on his face, he didn't make any other movements. He glared at Xiao Tu. "I can't believe you came out at this point of time. It hasn't even been an hour since you've gone in but you've already come out."

Xiao Tu was the most surprised one in the bathroom with his face showing disgust and a teasing smirk at the same time. "Ugh... couldn't you have waited till later to take a dump when you knew that I would be coming out of the Dimension soon? At least I get to see you doing one of the most private things you could possibly do." He poked Ye Xiu's cheek as he couldn't move from his position.

"Well, I would've finished by the time your time quota in the Dimension was spent. I'm nearly done anyway. Look away." He pushed Xiao Tu with as much strength as he could from his position so that he wouldn't continue looking at Ye Xiu which had been making him uncomfortable. As he finished cleaning himself up from his business, he stood up and pushed Xiao Tu out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him. "I'll be coming out in a few seconds. I still have to wash my hands."

Xiao Tu stood outside the door, looking to see if anybody was at home and spotted Shi Die looking at him from the stairs where he had been reading a book. "You already finished bonding with your weapon? I don't know how long it should take but I have to admit that it took a while in my opinion." He went back to his book and only glanced towards the bathroom door when he noticed Ye Xiu quietly enter the room.

Ye Xiu jumped onto Xiao Tu's back pulling him down to the floor as he moved his body so that he could comfortably sit on him. "What is it with you and Shang Yang and sitting on people?!?" Xiao Tu whined. He had been subjected to Shang Yang's and Ye Xiu's punishments mainly consisting of them paralysing him before sitting on top of him or withholding food from him.

It had annoyed him on end since they had developed quite a bit of their skills from practising them on him, though Ye Xiu didn't bother paralysing him just now so he tried his best to get up which made Ye Xiu fall off promptly. They both got up and Ye Xiu grinned smugly at him. "That's your punishment for coming at such an inconvenient time."

Xiao Tu rolled his eyes before taking out his weapon, not from his dimensional storage but from a place that only those that had bonded with their weapons or had knowledge of how bonds work would know about. "I see you managed to successfully bond with your weapon if I can only detect the slight usage of Qi to release it from your soul space instead of your dimensional storage." Ye Xiu spoke in a thoughtful manner as he asked Xiao Tu to repeat the releasing process again.

Xiao Tu showed his weapon to the others and Ye Xiu noticed that the appearance of the weapon had slightly changed after the bond with Xiao Tu. Ye Xiu knew that such a change was within the limits of a normal bonding so he let it go knowing that it wouldn't change much with the weapon. "What did you name your weapon?" He looked at Xiao Tu with a glare as he noticed that he hadn't told him the name of the weapon.

Xiao Tu scratched his head. "I couldn't come up with a name for the weapon for the better part of the bonding but when it came to the final stage, I managed to find a name that I thought was suitable for it." Ye Xiu raised an eyebrow, waiting for Xiao Tu to announce the name, hoping it wasn't ridiculous because he wouldn't want to be near the vicinity if he ever brought out his weapon and shouted the name of the weapon. "I named my weapon, Long Hua."

Ye Xiu was surprised at the name because it sounded reasonably well thought of but asked him for the reasoning on why he would name his weapon with that specific name. "Why would you name your weapon that? Does it have anything to do with dragons or flowers?" Ye Xiu questioned Xiao Tu because he had no idea what went on inside of his head sometimes.

Xiao Tu was sweating internally when Ye Xiu questioned him about his naming sense and the reasons behind the name because he had specifically named it Long Hua because of Ye Xiu. His personality was beautiful and he was just like a flower in appearance, in his eyes whilst his bloodline made him a fierce and strong person at the same time. It was closely linked with Ye Xiu and Xiao Tu didn't want to reveal that so he was trying to come up with a believable excuse.

"When I was crafting my weapon, I had an image of dragons as inspiration for the design of the weapon. I know that after I finished the forging, I noticed that it didn't have any markings, engravings or anything that would resemble a dragon but after I started to bond with the weapon, a dragon was slowly etched into the pole of the weapon."

He showed the dragon engraving that encompassed the entire length of the pole where the head of the dragon ended with it being the head of the spear where the pointy bits of the spear would come out from and he transformed it into the quarterstaff and it showed a different style of design on it. "I can see why you named it that since both of them have something to do with dragons. I like it." Ye Xiu smiled because he knew that his friend had finally done something he could truly be proud of.

Shi Die decided to insert himself into the ongoing conversation. "Are you going to test out your weapon or not? It would be stupid of you not to be familiar with your weapon simply because you forgot to use it in a battle." Shi Die was prompting Xiao Tu into a fight with him because he was slightly bored of sitting around the residence and he had been unable to find a match in the Arena grounds which meant his desire for a battle hadn't been sated yet.

Xiao Tu looked at Shi Die's eager facial expression and reluctantly agreed to the proposal that he was making because he knew that if Shi Die didn't get his daily fix of fighting, he would be extremely irritable for days to come. It had developed after he had started to master his transformation. His transformation had prompted a habit of Shi Die picking fights with others when he hadn't gotten his daily fix. Once he did get his daily fix, he acted as normal and was just as harmless as a butterfly unless you picked a fight with him.

With a satisfied expression on his face, Shi Die dragged Xiao Tu out to the training ground through the back door. The residence was apparently a benefit for being some of the highest rankers in the Academy so they got a lot more benefits compared to those who had low or no rank.

Shi Die took off his shirt to reveal his toned body, he didn't want to get his shirt dirty because he was going to wear the same one when he left the residence later on today. He gestured for Xiao Tu to begin the battle at any time, with Ye Xiu watching over the match as a referee. Shang Yang came out of the house hearing doors slamming and opening, she was intrigued to see Xiao Tu's weapon and whistled in appreciation of the design of his weapon.

Xiao Tu didn't hesitate to turn his weapon into its spear form and thrusting it towards Shi Die when he started to run at him, Shi Die's marks started to appear on his body as the battle began. Shi Die managed to easily dodge the thrust with his superior speed and got into punching distance. Punching Xiao Tu multiple times before he could pull back his spear, he did a singular roundhouse kick to Xiao Tu's side so that he couldn't attack or block.

Xiao Tu was ready for the fast attacks simply because he had seen Shi Die attempt the same things on himself and others multiple times. The only time Xiao Tu was really worried about fighting Shi Die was when he started to fight purely based on his instincts. Shi Die's fighting style was erratic and made predictions hard. He held his ground by using a combination of metal Qi and the reinforcement technique that they had learnt from San Guo.

What they had learnt with the reinforcement technique was that it didn't necessarily have to be used on a solid object but could also be used to strengthen the properties of a type of Qi and grant it defensive properties as well.

With that, Xiao Tu managed to stand his ground and turned his weapon into a quarterstaff. Being something made of pure metal, the amount of damage that it would cause on a body was substantial and that was certainly the case for the agile Shi Die. Though his body was strong, Xiao Tu's body physique had also enhanced his body and muscular strength to insane levels though not to the extent of Ye Xiu's bloodline benefits.

Shi Die was winded by the attack and was sent flying in mid-air for a couple of metres. Xiao Tu poured in fire Qi into his weapon and utilised an attack that he had been waiting forever to test out in a combat situation. The fire Qi travelled through the weapon and when he started to spin it, flames could be seen spewing out of the weapon. Xiao Tu's body was able to withstand the heat after long hours spent being close to the forge and his body physique granting him fire resistance as well.

'Flame Tiger Staff Arts: Flaming Tornado,' Xiao Tu called out his techniques name in his head and a vortex of flames could be seen approaching Shi Die as he was still in mid-air. Xiao Tu continued to spin his staff before stopping after a few seconds of having the technique activated. His weapon had enhanced the effects of his flame attack and had astounded him with the results as he could see that he had used less Qi for a better result.

Shi Die, stuck in mid-air was able to utilise his agility to his advantage, finishing his first stage of transformation, his speed was increased as he spun in the air multiple times before touching the ground and disappearing. The vortex barely missed him as he managed to disappear before they reached him. Shi Die reappeared behind Xiao Tu and using wind and metal Qi together, the technique that was released from his claws caused Xiao Tu to be scratched on the back severely.

The technique was able to shred Xiao Tu's defence easily as he continued to dance around the training ground with his speed, reappearing close to Xiao Tu at random moments to attack him with his claws, teeth or feet. Xiao Tu waited for Shi Die to keep on attacking him in this manner because he knew that every time that Xiao Tu used his Qi combination together with his technique, it consumed a huge amount of Qi since he hadn't mastered it properly.

Xiao Tu did his best to defend with his quarterstaff when a loud shout could be heard outside of their residence. "Ye Xiu! Are you in there?" Xiao Tu ignored the shout and continued the fight with Shi Die as Ye Xiu and Shang Yang walked back into the residence to get to the front door to see who would be calling for him.

He opened the door to see Hua Fei.