26 Family: Love em or hate em, sometimes you gotta beat em...

"Good Morning, Zhen Xing,", Zhen Liu said through gritted teeth.

"Good morning cri-I mean Zhen Liu," Zhen Xing greeted in a smug tone. Flanking his cousins' side were pair of branch disciples that snickered at his "slip of the tongue."

"Well that explains why the past guy wanted to clobber him so much. I've only shared a sentence with him and now I want to clobber him."

From what Zhen Liu could remember, he had about six cousins in the same generation as him who were also considered to be "young masters and mistresses". Among them, three of them treated him like trash, two of them were neutral and only one was nice to him. Zhen Xing was a part of the trio that bullied him.

Combined that with his arrogant personality, a punchable weasel-like face and gaudy fashion sense, Zhen Xing was just an unpleasant person to be around...to Zhen Liu at least. There were probably people who liked and were friends with this guy, but Zhen Liu was certain he wasn't one of them.

Born as the second son to the Fifth Elder Zhen Jin, Zhen Xing was technically the Third Young Master of the Zhen Clan despite being born the same year as Zhen Liu.

While from an outside perspective this sounded as if Zhen Xing had seniority over Zhen Liu, the reality was that all the young heirs, sans the first two, were functionally equal in status and power. But to reiterate, this didn't stop Zhen Xing from being a little shithead, especially towards Zhen Liu.

"So dear cousin, how're you liking the family training grounds?," Zhen Xing asked in a condescending tone, "Is it everything you hoped for?"

As a general rule within the clan, only those who were at the Aether Acolyte level could make use of the training grounds. This was to ensure that Aether Novices wouldn't get hurt if any arts went astray during practice and so they wouldn't get bullied by the Acolytes.

'No way he's this cliche of an antagonist... right?,' Zhen Liu thought while formulating an answer.

"The training grounds are good, even better than when I used to watch from a distance."

"Oh that's just wonderful to hear! And I hope you manage to perfect your newly acquired powers to the fullest! It's just..."

'There it is.'

"You do realize you're using the Third Young Master's personal equipment, right?," one of the larger of the two branch disciples cut in.

"Aye, he uses these dummies every morning and every evening," the smaller of the two added, "And it looks like there might be some damages."

'Seriously? You're going with that? Might as well say that this whole training ground is your property,' Zhen Liu inwardly grimaced. Jin Fang on the other hand decided to be a bit more vocal about her displeasure.

"That's bullshit! The training grounds and it's equipment is for the whole clan to use. You don't even use these training dummies."

"Silence wench, the young masters are talking."

"Jin Fang, it's cool," Zhen Liu assured her, "I got this."

Zhen Xing walked up to Zhen Liu, getting into his personal space as a means to intimidate him.

"Well, dear cousin, you wouldn't mind compensating me for using my equipment and possibly damaging it, right?"

"Hmmm. I'd say yes, but I'm pretty sure you're about to throw out a number that will be as high as your subordinate's face is ugly," Zhen Liu replied. The two branch disciples began to look at each other at this comment and silently point figures.

"Oh, how clever of you!," Zhen Xing said with a sarcastic smile, "But no, I just want that handsome little jade bracelet you have on you."

[Milord, just say the word and I'll pound this little creep's head in,] Nepherage suddenly commented, [I can make it as slow and as painful as you want it to be.]

Zhen Liu could see the greed in his cousin's eyes and was just about to tell him off and go train in the wilderness or something, until a rather devious thought came to mind.

"Hmmm, interesting offer...," Zhen Liu said while scratching the back of his head, "but you know that my little friend here requires a very specific formula to run properly?"

"Oh I don't mind, I just think it would look much better on me than you," Zhen Xing replied with a smirk, "besides, if you give me the bracelet, I promise me and my friends will leave you alone and let you use my equipment for as long as you want."

'Gotta love them veiled threats.'

"Tempting, but how about this? You and me have a little competition," Zhen Liu said with a smile.

"Oh? A competition?"

"You and me. Three moves in the ring. If you win, I'll give you my jade bracelet and I'll never set foot in here again." As he said this, Zhen Liu proceeded to walk over to the center of the fighting area.

From what he could remember of Zhen Xing's personality, he hated it when others he thought as inferior acted superior around him, but wouldn't get into any conflicts unless there was a clear benefit for him to do so. Zhen Liu promising Nepherage's bracelet was the benefit, now he needed a stick to provoke him.

"Tempting...and if you were to win?," Zhen Xing asked with a raised brow. Zhen Liu could see that the smile one Zhen Xing's face was a tad more strained than before.

"You leave me and Jin Fang alone whenever we train here. Simple as that," Zhen Liu replied with an easy tone and simple hand gestures. He could see that Zhen Xing was getting bothered by his confidence. Now he just needed to poke him a little more.

"Tsk, why would I bother to do that? When I could just-"

"Well you could refuse," Zhen Liu interjected, " But then I wouldn't help but think that you're just a coward who couldn't handle me by themselves."

"...what did you just call me?"

"Did I stutter?," Zhen Liu said with a goading smile, "let me say it again, are you too much of a coward to face me?"

"...three moves?"

Zhen Liu smile went from goading to devious.

"Three "