On-Demand Sparring, Free Next Time

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Here's a similar upcoming story listed in my author profile, "After Flirting with the Snowfield Envoy Who Had Been a Widower for Three Hundred Years." The two stories have similar worldbuilding, and some characters will also appear in this one. The blurb is below.

Blurb:

As a sword cultivator who had left his sect alone to undergo tribulations and gain experience, Qi Shuoyang wore the finest gold-woven brocade his master had prepared for him on the first day he left.

"Disciple, do your best on this journey. Whether our sect can claim the first ascension in a hundred years depends on you."

Now that the spiritual veins were depleted, cultivators of all stripes found their cultivation stalled. For nearly a hundred years, no cultivator from any sect, big or small, had ascended.

Qi Shuoyang looked at his master, martial uncle, sect leader, and all the disciples gathered there. Expressionless, he gave a resolute nod.

As a sword cultivator, he wielded his sword for the world. Yet his martial uncle had divined that he was destined to face a fierce tribulation of love, and that without overcoming it, he would have little hope of ascending.

The divination was made the night before, and by the next morning, he had been hurriedly packed off and sent to stand at the foot of the mountain.

He had to overcome the tribulation of love. He had to become the first person in nearly a hundred years to ascend. He had to bring honor to his sect!

With a wooden expression, Qi Shuoyang marched off from the sect, full of determination, carrying two thousand spirit coins pooled together by the sect and a light bundle.

Three months later, Qi Shuoyang opened his jade slip and registered as a professional mercenary on Didi Brawlers.

One hundred percent of jobs accepted, one hundred percent transparency. Whatever the client paid was exactly what you earned.

Qi Shuoyang looked at the eight hundred spirit coins in the chat window and decisively pressed "Accept Job."

"My immortal herb!" his client raged, pointing in one direction. "That damn alchemy cultivator refined my herb into a pile of ash and ran off!"

"He didn't even pay me back!" The client couldn't accept it.

Having just finished a course on professional ethics, Qi Shuoyang could relate. He nodded at once. "I'll go beat him up."

When Qi Shuoyang caught up, he discovered the alchemy cultivator was a sickly man who loved to spout nonsense.

"Cough, cough... How can you act like a thug?" the sickly man complained, pointing to a tear in the sleeve of his fine clothes.

"..." Qi Shuoyang looked at the torn-off sleeve in his hand, then at the sickly man who seemed ready to collapse at any moment, and wondered if he'd imagined what he had just seen.

Otherwise, how had this frail, coughing man managed to rip by hand a piece of cloth that Qi Shuoyang himself couldn't tear?

"Enough, I don't care whether you're acting like a thug or not." The client cut in, pointing at the alchemy cultivator. "You ruined my immortal herb. How are you going to pay me back?"

"Oh, I'll refine one for you for free next time."

"You turned the one I paid for into ash. How could a free one be any good?"

Their verbal sparring was about to erupt when the client got fed up and immediately ordered Qi Shuoyang, "Hey, you! Beat him up!"

Qi Shuoyang raised his sword and leaped forward...

Only to be immobilized on the spot.

Gu Zhenshu leisurely lowered his hand, took a good look at the sword cultivator, and smiled faintly.

"Your sword energy is so strong, fellow cultivator. What if you hurt me?"

Then he leaped away with a flash of lightness and fled.

The client watched his brazen retreat, unable to catch him, then turned on Qi Shuoyang. "What's wrong with you? Believe me, I'll file a complaint!"

"..." Qi Shuoyang's major acupoints were sealed, leaving him frozen in place, but he found he could still speak. He thought for a few seconds, then offered a solution.

"Next time, I'll do the Didi Brawlers job for you free."

A little scene:

Later, when the sickly man openly pinned Qi Shuoyang to the bed and kept him from moving, he leisurely and lazily brought up old grievances.

"If I remember right, you were going to cut me with your sword back then."

Qi Shuoyang's ears turned red. He looked away, afraid to meet the man's eyes. He didn't dare use any strength either, worried he'd send the sickly man flying, so he only pressed lightly against his shoulder. "...No, I didn't. Get up first."

At that, the sickly man pressed down even harder and gave a couple of deliberately weak coughs. "No. It's too cold. You're warm."

Reader's guide:

1. A cold-faced, innocent, wooden-headed sword cultivator shou x a scheming older sickly beauty alchemist gong.

2. This isn't a serious drama. The plot is relatively lighthearted and ridiculous.

3. The gong is in poor health and sickly. He won't recover by the end, but his condition can be managed and won't kill him. He's still sickly, though. Let sickly beauty gongs rise up!

4. The cultivation progression in this story is: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, Ascension Tribulation. Those who pass the tribulation ascend to godhood; those who fail disintegrate their bodies and become wandering immortals.

5. Low-martial cultivation fantasy. The protagonists won't reach the Ascension Tribulation stage, but they will still have very long lifespans.

6. The shou is much stronger than the gong in combat.

Upcoming story blurb:

As a sword cultivator on the path of heartlessness, Wenren Xuan longed to be just like most of his heartless predecessors.

Tie his hair in a high ponytail, stick a blade of grass between his lips, take up his sword, and then go find a partner!

The success rate for finding a partner on the path of heartlessness goes without saying.

He eagerly embarked on the path, only to...

Ascend by accident.

After ascending, Wenren Xuan became a newly recruited probationary immortal in the celestial realm. He was told that he had to complete three probationary tasks to become a permanent immortal.

With the mindset that he might as well make the best of it, and that he could find a partner anywhere, perhaps even one of higher quality in the celestial realm, Wenren Xuan happily accepted his first task as a probationary immortal:

Subdue the water demon.

One wave later, Wenren Xuan was knocked flat.

Looking at the water demon who thoroughly outclassed him, Wenren Xuan gazed at the heavens in despair. "...Is this even reasonable?! Can't someone do something?"

The water demon grinned. "I didn't expect the celestial realm to be so worried I'd get bored that they'd send me a little immortal as a toy."

Just as Wenren Xuan was seriously wondering which kind of gravestone would be most resistant to erosion...

A blizzard swept across the sky.

A gigantic white beast strode through the air, its wings blotting out the sun. On its back sat an immortal dressed in white as snow, with features as lovely as a painting. The cold around him instantly froze everything within ten miles.

He merely lifted a finger and pointed.

The water demon that had kept Wenren Xuan fighting for three hours instantly became an ice sculpture, its expression frozen forever.

Wenren Xuan stared blankly at that peerless face. His brain short-circuited, and he blurted out, "...Damn, what a beauty."

A fellow immortal who had just gotten back up collapsed with a smack, going back to playing dead. He wailed inwardly: This is bad, this is bad! That kid really isn't afraid of dying! He actually dares to flirt with this ruthless character, who even froze an ancient war god into an ice sculpture!

The entire celestial realm knew that Ling Yun Jue's heart had been frozen ever since the day his partner fell.

Wenren Xuan knew nothing about this. He only thought that the beauty in front of him was powerful and gorgeous, the perfect partner of his dreams. With stars in his eyes, he asked sincerely, "Immortal Venerable, do you need a leg-hanging accessory?"

And what he didn't know was...

The partner for whom Ling Yun Jue had kept vigil on the cold mountain for a hundred years...

Was actually him.

Though this story is called "After Flirting with the Snowfield Envoy Who Had Been a Widower for Three Hundred Years," it doesn't literally mean that our widowed beauty gong has been a widower for three hundred years. The three in "three hundred years" is a general figure, used to mean a long time. In truth, our widower has been alone for a very, very long time...

Theme: Stand on your own two feet