Chapter 9-I should've known better

As Liao Ping glanced from time to time at the ruins of a flourishing village. Xu Huo started throwing up since he's never seen a bloody scene like this. "Brother Ping, why aren't you throwing up?" "It's not that I won't throw up but that I am holding it in for similar situations that will probably appear in the future" "So can you say it in simpler terms?" "Pretty much, I wanna say that I am trying my best to hold it in but I saying that situations like this will appear more often" "I'm feeling a bit better after throwing up and I will try to become stronger for myself and-" "You shouldn't make a belief like that for yourself if you end up regretting it later on in your life" "Thank you for the reminder, brother Ping" "Your welcome" "oh yeah! what techniques do you specialize in, Brother Ping?" "I don't specialize in anything since I have been learning things about the world from books" "I-Is that so?" "Yep" "Then why did you want to hunt down the white venomous snake?" "I just wanted to see if I could defeat it somehow" "S-Somehow?" "That's crazy no that's straight-up stupid logic!" "Do you have any weaponry on you?" "No" "Sigh, come on brother Ping, let's go look for a weapon for you" "Why?" "Why? Why? It's because you can not take care of yourself and are essentially dead weight!" "I'll just use a sword then" "You're going to use a sword? YOu haven't even touched a weapon!" while Xu Huo was starting to mumble to himself about weapons, training, brother Ping's life, Liao Ping started searching for a suitable weapon that could be used.

After searching for a while he found a wooden sword that was intact and had some bloodstains on it. 'This will be the weapon, that will see the world of cultivation with me' mumbled Liao Ping. As he came back, Xu Huo couldn't help but notice the wooden sword in his hand. "You chose a wooden sword?" "Yep" "Why?" "It won't have any use staying in the ruins of this village so I thought of taking it" "Weird, it seems like you already had an answer before I asked" "I'm gonna use this but first I'm gonna read this" the book was called 'How to properly swing a sword and it listed some common stances and mistakes made when fighting, swinging, and sheathing the sword. Xu Huo had to rub his eyes when he saw a cultivator reading a book from a mortal author, "You're serious about taking this wooden sword into battle?" "yep," then Xu Huo took out his spear and started to practice so that he could confirm that he wasn't rusty with the spear. Liao Ping watched for a bit until he closed the book and started to do some simple thrusts and swings which progressively got better until he noticed Xu Huo watching with a gaping mouth at his performance. "I thought you said you've never picked up a weapon" "I never have" "Your performance says otherwise" "That's because I just started training" "I don't believe it!" "Then just watch" Xu Huo watched with a calm expression until he saw brother Ping's movements become smoother and fluid like water.

"That's crazy!" "I guess that this is crazy for others but there are probably others that are considered genius'" "That makes sense since it wouldn't be fair to have one person claim that they're the best" "Let's spar for a bit then get ready for training for the next few days" "But aren't we supposed to kill the white venomous snake?" "We can still do that after training" "all alright" then they started warming up for the friendly spar. After losing twice in a row out of 3 spars, Xu Huo was convinced that Brother Ping used to be an amateur at using the sword since he would make some mistakes like swinging it too quickly when they got close or when he had struck out with his spear and he tried blocking it. "That was a great spar" "It sure was Brother Ping" "Now I'm gonna cook some eggs for dinner and then we'll cultivate a bit more until the sun rises" Xu Huo starts training his spear techniques whilst Liao Ping started cooking some eggs for dinner.

After having some dinner and cultivating for the whole night, Liao Ping reached Level 8 of the Foundation Realm while Xu Huo reached Level 7 of the Foundation Realm. After making sure that their traces of sparring, cooking, and footprints were gone they put their things into their storage treasures then started heading down the path that stopped before the mountain and headed inside to start looking for the white venomous snake. After a day or two, they found the white venomous snake shedding its skin. They started preparing for the upcoming battle and after they were done, they started heading in different directions since their plan was simple, Liao Ping would try out his method first, if it didn't work but provoked the snake then they would start fighting the snake until they could take its gall bladder. "Brother Ping, I really hope that your method works" "I think it will work" then Xu Huo separated from Liao Ping as they initiated the plan.

Xu Huo had just gotten to the back of the snake's den when he heard, "Come out and fight me! Big Snake! Come out and fight me-" and then a really loud noise. "this fellow, I should've known better" mumbled Xu Huo as he started running toward the noise. As he reached the previously noisy area, he saw Brother Ping facing off with the snake and he was a little bruised. Xu Huo immediately started fighting to help out as Liao Ping started fighting the snake and honing his sword skill. As the battle with the snake progressed, it realized that it would have to either escape or kill both of its aggressors. Xu Huo was able to get its gallbladder as it escaped and moved at its highest speed through the forest.