“So you’re all basically childhood friends?” Wu Xiaotian asked as he stare towards Wang Sheng and Huo Chen, a pretty young lady hiding behind each of them, both as if afraid of him.
“Well, if you think about it, yes, we’re pretty much like childhood friends” Wang Sheng answered as he scratched his head, clearly still awkward at the situation. After all, despite their brief meetings, these two girls test their brother’s patience time and time again whenever they encounter each other.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Wu Xiaotian was also quite uncomfortable with the flow of the events. He would be a hypocrite if he refuses to admit that these two girls don’t annoy, him, particularly Leng Yue, however, he decided to be the bigger man for the sake of his brothers, only speaking few words of assurance to the two ladies.
“We might have a not so pleasant first encounter, but given the two of you are my brothers’ ‘friends’ as well, let’s just forget what happened previously” he said as he amiably smiles, easing the vigilance of the two ladies a bit.
“Y-you’re right, we’re sorry for our previous behavior brother…” Bing Xue, glad that he doesn’t pay too much attention to what happened replied, but her words were interrupted as she wasn’t sure what to call him.
Understanding the struggles of the lady, Wu Xiaotian just looks at her as he introduces himself, “Su Tian”.
“Right, Brother Su Tian” Bing Xue smiles, relieved with the reply, she’s a lady that reads the situation too much, and she thought that giving his name confirms her hope of him not giving too much thoughts to the previous events, as courtesies such as introducing oneself is completely optional, something that cultivators usually won’t bother to do especially to people they disdain.
If Wu Xiaotian can read minds, he would definitely laugh at this overthinking girl’s farfetched deduction, however, he couldn’t so he just continues to work on the conversations, dragging his two brothers to ease up the atmosphere further.
“I’m also really sorry about what I said previously, Brother Su” Leng Yue said as she finally found her chance to apologize, relief rushing in her as she saw him smiling and nodding towards her, as if she got rid of a terrifying threat looming behind her.
“Well, since we got all of that out of the way, I guess we should probably introduce ourselves properly before going further” Huo Chen suggested which everyone agreed, after all, the two ladies just met with Wu Xiaotian, and even for his two new sworn brothers, he only knows as much as their name and nature, and while it is true that he doesn’t really care much about someone’s origin if they’re going to be friends, he couldn’t help but get curious because of the interesting backstory of this pair of childhood sweethearts.
“Old Tian, you already know the name of the two of us so let me just boast about my background” Huo Chen started speaking as he raised his head and points his nose towards the skies, his pride clear in his voice, “I am the son of the Everburning Sect’s current sect master, a thing that a lot of people seems to be dissatisfied particularly when I was young. Back then, some other disciples thought of me as someone who only rely on my father to boss around my peers, so I completely fucked them up with my axe until they ran back to their elders”
“And yet you still call yourself a coward” Wang Sheng sneered as he remembers this ferocious looking guy always claiming the title of the more cowardly one between the two of them as if it’s a thing to be proud of.
Hearing this, Huo Chen started clicking his tongue as he waves his index finger left and right before saying, “That’s where you’re wrong Old Wang, I am a coward, but I’m no pushover”.
“Yeah yeah, whatever you say” dismissed Wang Sheng as he followed after, telling Wu Xiaotian about himself in a humble tone, “Well, my origins is not as great as Ah Chen, my master is a leader of some ragtag group, they usually go and take money from people who want them to clean-up some places, but they chose only those that they think are really dirty”.
“So they’re basically assassins?” Wu Xiaotian unhesitatingly asked as if there’s nothing to be bothered about, surprising Wang Sheng due to him figuring out the true nature of his backers despite him speaking in a roundabout way, as well as due to the fact that he seems completely unbothered by it.
“Well… that’s right, the name of my master’s group is Shadow Blade Organization, apparently, we’re quite influential in the continent” Wang Sheng clarified before looking towards Leng Yue, urging the lady to follow after him.
“Leng Yue,” the lady said, pausing for a while as if to figure out what to say about herself before continuing, “We come from the Astral Ice Sect, a pretty well-known force composed of mostly women, in terms of power and influence, I guess it doesn’t fall short in comparison with the Everburning Sect and the Shadow Blade Organization”
“We?” Wu Xiaotian asked curiously as he looks towards the last person who have yet to introduce herself.
“Well, me and Leng Yue hails from the same sect” Bing Xue said, holding the other lady’s arms before adding, “She hides so much though, we’re quite the influential figure in our sect, we’re the disciple of one of the grand elders there, the sect master before our current one, we’re basically the same generation disciple as the current sect master”
Seeing them having such backgrounds, Wu Xiaotian’s thoughts were quite complicated. These powers, despite his lack of experience outside were forces that were either already told to him by his mother and grandmother, or he already comes across with in book or records.
The Everburning Sect, one quite infamous for its disciple’s fiery temper because of their cultivation methods and techniques, most of them for utilizing and manipulating the power of fire in and out of their bodies. Those drawbacks were quite insignificant though in comparison to their might that exceeds normal cultivators of their realm.
This advantage remains the same with the other two powers, with only their nature being different, the Shadow Blade Organization being masters of concealed weapons as well as nimble movement techniques, and the Astral Ice Sect being masters of the ice element, manifesting weapons made of ice, as well as using their qi to restrain and disable their opponents.
Each one of the three forces are standing at the peak of this world, with numerous Ascension Realm experts standing as their pillars. Wu Xiaotian smiled wryly as he realizes that the Extreme Martial Sect is also such a force, and he could only wonder in his mind just how different their interactions will be if he was also a legitimate member of the sect, standing in the same level as these four.
He quickly gets these thoughts out of his mind though, thinking that there can’t be any better situation than how he is currently.
‘I’d never have that kind of relation with mom if Wu Xiaolong doesn’t treat her that way’ he thought to himself as he recalls all of the great people he met, his grandmother, the cousins in the Thousand Roads City, the mysterious Granny Mo, and even these two sworn brothers that he met due to Ling Feng’s introduction of him.
“Su Tian, currently an independent cultivator, well, I can probably count as half a member of Ling Feng’s shop in the Thousand Roads City” Wu Xiaotian smiles as he introduced himself, completely thankful and satisfied as he realizes how this new life goes and how it’s going, now certain that abandoning the idea of being a disciple of the Extreme Martial Sect is one of the greatest thing he had done.
