Naked Sword Art

"Just when I thought I've seen it all, you find more ways to impress me," Yao Wu said.

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Xun Wei wasn't just talented, she was also an extremely knowledgeable girl in Yao Wu's eyes. It seemed everything she wanted to teach her she had already known. Despite being her master, there were only a few things besides the [ Illusory Body ] method that she could teach her so far.

As Xun Wei continued to search the area she suddenly felt something strange. It was cold and dark, it felt like someone's bloodlust in the form of qi. The feeling was subtle, but it gave Xun Wei a slight chill when she approached it.

Yao Wu noticed that Xun Wei was acting strange, so she called out to her.

"Xun Wei, did you find something else?" Yao Wu asked.

"Un, I can feel something else here, but I don't know what it is." Xun Wei replied thinking that her master could identify what it was, but Yao Wu couldn't feel a thing.

"It is impossible for anyone to detect or identify qi if they don't cultivate the same method as it. If you can feel something here then that means I was right in assuming that you've been cultivating a different cultivation method," Yao Wu replied with a raised eyebrow.

Xun Wei knew that much, but she was sure that the qi she was feeling now didn't belong to any of the methods she cultivated.

...

Xun Wei was careful not to reveal her Divine Sword method to Yao Wu, but since she never let Yao Wu watch her cultivate that made her suspect that Xun Wei was hiding something.

To Yao Wu, it just made Xun Wei seem that much more special. She wanted to respect her privacy, but couldn't help feeling curious from time to time.

The qi Xun Wei was sensing at the moment wasn't something she was familiar with. It wasn't the [ Divine Sword ] qi, [ Dual Cultivation ] qi, nor [ Illusory Body ] qi. It was much darker than any of that.

What Xun Wei didn't know was that since she dual cultivated with Xiao Fang, her body became sensitive to the [ Death Reaper ] qi as well. It didn't mean she could practice the same techniques, it just meant she could feel if someone near her was a Death Reaper cultivator or not.

...

"If you don't want to tell me, then I won't ask," Yao Wu said. "Either way, we now have our suspect."

"Master, since he's now an inner court disciple, wouldn't all his punishments be dropped?"

"Yes, but he's still far from innocent."

"But they attacked him first," Xun Wei complained.

"Oh? Didn't you say he lured them here? They might've attacked him first, but their deaths were already planned by him. Do you think an innocent person could kill so many people without any hesitation? He certainly killed others before. People like him need to be monitored."

"..."

Xun Wei paused as she tried to think of a way to argue in Xiao Fang's defense, but she couldn't think of a reason why Xiao Fang would lure the disciples here.

"It seems you really care about him," Yao Wu smirked as if she had finally discovered Xun Wei's secret.

"I... I might've ran into him a couple of times."

Xun Wei knew how Xiao Fang was, so she didn't want to put any unnecessary attention on him, but she also didn't want him to get into any trouble either.

"Alright, since he has close ties to you, I won't be punishing him, but we will have to put him on our watchlist. As you know, if he commits another crime his punishments will be more severe."

Xun Wei still wasn't happy about this, but she knew it was the lightest punishment they could give. Seeing that Xun Wei was still upset. Yao Wu decided to give her an alternative.

"How about this. If you can make 3 [ Illusory Clones ], I'll not only take him off the watchlist, but I'll also give you permission to go see him," Yao Wu said.

"Are you serious?" Xun Wei replied excitedly.

"Of course."

Yao Wu was impressed by how quickly Xun Wei was able to make her first [ Illusory Clone ], but she was even more impressed when Xun Wei was able to make a 2nd clone less than a week later. With the right motivation, she was confident she could make Xun Wei the most talented disciple the sect had ever seen.

Yao Wu was almost convinced that the Matriarch had made a mistake in giving up such a talented disciple. Little did she know, if Xun Wei never dual cultivated with Xiao Fang while he was learning the incomplete version of the [ Illusory Body ] method, she would've never been able to make those 2 illusory clones so quickly.

Changing her tone towards Yao Wu, Xun Wei spoke again.

"Master, please allow me to return. I would like to continue practicing the [ Illusory Clone ] technique as soon as possible."

"Mn, good. You go first. I'll assist you once I finish up here."

...

After Xun Wei left, a mysterious figure emerged from the shadows. If Xiao Fang was here he would've recognized her as the head of the inner court disciplinary department, Yao Yin.

"Aunty Wu. Was that her?" Yao Yin asked.

"Mn. Remarkable isn't she. She could already detect qi at such a young age. Whoever her master is, he must be a powerful character."

Yao Yin was also under the impression that Xun Wei was a special girl, because she was convinced that Xun Wei had detected her while she was hiding in the shadows. The only other person that could do that was Xiao Fang.

Yao Yin looked at the scene as she began to think about Xiao Fang. The clues made it obvious that it was him. She thought he was just a weak dual cultivator, but it seems he wasn't nearly as weak, nor as innocent as she assumed him to be.

"Aunty Wu, shall I get the inner court disciplinary department disciples to study this case for experience?"

"No, don't tell the others about this. Don't bother putting him on the watchlist either." Yao Wu replied.

"But didn't you say he needed to be monitored?"

"Of course, but not by the inner court disciples. Since the Matriarch is interested in him, it becomes my responsibility to keep track of him."

Although what she was saying was mostly true, the truth was she didn't want the inner court disciplinary department to fall into his hands like the girls did in the outer court. Yao Wu's responsibility was always on the Inner and Core court disciples, so now that Xiao Fang was an inner court disciple, she no longer needed to go out of her way to look for him. He was in her playing field now so it was impossible for him to hide from her.

"Why would the Matriarch be interested in him?" Yao Yin asked.

Realizing that she said too much, Yao Wu replied,

"Who knows. Speaking about the Matriarch, I still need to make preparations for her return. I'll leave this mess to you and head out first. Later."

"Ah, Aunty Wu. Wait I-"

In the next moment Yao Wu disappeared from Yao Yin's sight.

Yao Yin sighed.

She was supposed to meet Xiao Fang at his house soon, but Yao Wu had kept her working for much longer than she expected.

'I wonder why the Matriarch is even interested in him. Could she know that he's a Dual Cultivator? No, that can't be. If she knew that then it would be an extremely serious matter. No one besides the Chaos Sect would be crazy enough to harbor a taboo cultivator,' she thought.

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[[ Inner Court ]]

Although Yao Wu said that she needed to prepare for the Matriarch's arrival, the truth was, she wanted to make a quick stop at Xiao Fang's new house first.

She never understood why the Matriarch was so interested in him, but considering everything that happened around this elusive figure, she couldn't hold back from wanting to meet him.

She knew her disciple, Xun Wei, had a close relationship with him, she knew he was the first man that had ever reached the Phoenix class, and she also knew that he was a first-year that somehow fought and killed 20 Refinement realm disciples all at once. No matter how she thought about it, Xiao Fang was certainly not an ordinary disciple.

Standing outside of Xiao Fang's house, she knocked on his door, but no one answered.

'Is he not home? I wonder if he already found another girl's house to sleep in.'

She finally got impatient then took out a master key. To her surprise, it wasn't even locked. She invited herself in then began to look around.

'It seems he hasn't even touched the place yet.'

At the center of the house was a room with an open roof. She could see the moonlight shining down, illuminating the grass and the lush flora around her.

After going through the whole house, she found it pretty anticlimactic. From all the amazing things she heard about him, she expected there to be something interesting here.

'What am I thinking? How can I invade his privacy like this,' she shook her head when she realized what she was doing was wrong.

She was walking towards his front door when she suddenly heard someone coming. Deciding whether to escape through the roofless garden room or to hide, she chose the latter.

'I can definitely hear a man's voice, that must be him. I wonder which girl he's going to be sleeping with this time,' she thought.

During the brief period of time that she was looking for him in the outer court, she heard a lot about how good he was in bed. Although Yao Wu wasn't too interested in such things, she had to admit that she was a bit curious.

'It looks like I came early for the show. I just hope it's going to be as good as they say it is,' she smirked.

Yao Wu was now hiding and waiting to spectate him in action.

Finally, the doors began to open...

***

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