LAVW – Chapter 58 Brother Qian Gets Punished to Stand

Shi Qian took two steps back. “Squeak Squeak.”

Brother Ye, you’re not seriously going to take it out on me, right?

“What are you talking about? It’s just a name.” Long Ye laughed and sheathed his sword. That was rare for a spirit sword—most didn’t come with a scabbard.

“Squeak.”

Ever think about changing the name?

Shi Qian helpfully suggested, “Squeak Squeak.”

Just like Dahei, you could switch it out. How about… Xiaohong? (Little Red)

Long Ye had no faith in Brother Qian’s naming skills, but he had his own thoughts on the matter.

“It doesn’t want to change names. And honestly, I don’t think it really matters. Forget it.”

Just because it’s called “Dragon Slayer” doesn’t mean it has to slay him.

Long Ye thought, If I hold Dragon Slayer, then no one else can use it against me. Looking at it that way, maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Shi Qian thought even further ahead.

If Long Ye uses the spirit sword to slash at the final boss someday, then the name Dragon Slayer would actually be fitting.

And weird as it was, it still wasn’t as absurd as his own brick. Shi Qian offered some comfort to Long Ye, and to himself. “Squeak Squeak.”

It’s fine. As long as you’re strong, the name doesn’t matter.

Even if one sword screams “I’m gonna slay myself” and the other is a salty fish that’s given up on life, at least both of them are powerful. They’ll do just fine. Other people might even envy them.

Sure enough, some of the new disciples glanced over occasionally, their eyes filled with envy at the fact they both had spirit swords. Among them was Qiao Mianmian, who’d once had a chance to enter the Sword Cavern but had come out empty-handed.

Qiao Mianmian wore the standard disciple robes today, but her pretty and sweet appearance made her stand out among her peers.

She stared at them for a while, then finally gathered her courage and walked toward her life-saving “benefactor.”

Seeing her approach from the crowd, Shi Qian looked at her. “Squeak?”

You looking for me?

Long Ye thought this was a pointless question. Who else would she be here for if not Brother Qian—him? Please.

But since he’d never seen this girl before, he wasn’t completely at ease. He stayed close by Shi Qian, casting a cautious gaze at Qiao Mianmian.

Qiao Mianmian got visibly nervous under Long Ye’s scrutiny, and only then did Long Ye realize—he’d forgotten to restrain his spiritual pressure. These new disciples were only at the Foundation Establishment stage and couldn’t withstand it for long. He reined it in immediately.

Qiao Mianmian cautiously said, “Greetings, senior. I came to see the senior spirit beast. It saved me at the stone mountain last time, and I wanted to thank it.”

“Squeak Squeak.”

Ah, I see.

Shi Qian confirmed her story with a friendly tone.

Long Ye nodded slightly. “I’ll go practice swordsmanship. You two talk.”

As soon as he left, Qiao Mianmian relaxed a lot and squatted down next to Shi Qian.

Shi Qian knew—this little sinful peach blossom of Long Ye’s had been nipped in the bud nice and early.

Amitabha.

Once again, he’d saved a budding flower of the cultivation world.

Qiao Mianmian took out a storage pouch. “Senior, this is a small token of my appreciation.”

Shi Qian lifted his paw to decline and shook his head. “Squeak Squeak.”

No need, that’s too kind.

It was his first time being called “senior,” and Shi Qian even took out some spirit melon seeds and offered them to Qiao Mianmian.

She accepted them with a smile in one hand. “Thank you, senior, you’re so kind.” With the other hand, she tried again to give him the storage pouch. “Senior, it’s just some specialties from my hometown—food, nothing else.”

Specialties?

That immediately piqued Shi Qian’s interest. Even though he’d been tricked by those two words many times before, he still held onto hope every time.

“Squeak Squeak.”

Then thank you!

Shi Qian accepted the storage pouch, feeling a little embarrassed.

So, he pointed toward the younger disciples who were practicing and studying sword techniques, offering to help out. He was very familiar with this particular sword style.

But Qiao Mianmian shook her head. “I didn’t come to learn swordsmanship—I really just wanted to thank you, senior. Now that you’ve accepted my gift, I’ll head back to training.”

With that, the little princess stood up. The silver bell at her waist jingled crisply.

Compared to the luxurious, ornate clothing she’d worn the first time they met, now Qiao Mianmian only wore simple hair ornaments and that silver bell. She had already blended in with the Sword Sect’s austere, minimalist style.

Shi Qian: Now that’s someone with principles.

“Squeak Squeak.”

Alright then, go on.

Shi Qian waved her off, sending Qiao Mianmian on her way.

As for himself—he hadn’t even finished his quarter-hour break yet. He had to finish it. Using class time to enforce a self-imposed rest schedule, Shi Qian felt that he was already being very “strict” with himself.

He plopped down on the black brick nearby, clutching the pouch Qiao Mianmian had given him.

Opening it up, he found that most of it was indeed food. And a lot of it matched his tastes—nuts, dried meats, spirit fruits, and small sweet-smelling candy pieces.

Shi Qian picked out a piece of candy and popped it into his mouth.

It tasted pretty good, so he tossed one over to Long Ye.

Seeing Wang Xingzhi with a serious expression, doing his best to maintain “authority,” Shi Qian decided not to toss him a candy and sabotage his vibe.

The black sword: Zheng—!

What about me?

“Squeak Squeak.”

This is mine.

That’s what he said, but he still gave the black sword a taste.

This guy just liked to “sample.” Whatever it ate would later get spat back out looking mostly the same, but all the spiritual energy and fragrance would be completely drained. Kind of like an offering to a god or ghost—only the essence was taken.

Unlike ores—those it actually consumed, as spirit swords could absorb their components.

Just as he fed the candy to the black sword, Long Ye glanced over and caught him red-handed again.

Now with a piece of candy stuck to his sword, Long Ye: …

Another one of those bizarre spirit beast antics.

He didn’t understand it, but thought it was kind of cute. Quietly, he put the candy away and went back to practicing his sword techniques.

Watching everyone working so hard, Shi Qian felt a tiny pang of guilt.

He asked the black sword, “Squeak Squeak.”

Dahei, am I being lazy?

“Zheng—!”

They’re just too hardworking.

Shi Qian completely agreed. He’d fallen into a pit full of grind-obsessed maniacs.

Terrifying.

Good thing he wasn’t human anymore.

After calmly finishing his full break, Shi Qian stood up and went for round two of practice.

When that was done, he climbed up a large tree nearby and came face to face with two baby birds.

The fledglings weren’t fully feathered yet—ugly little things, not particularly cute. Not sure what to feed them, Shi Qian just shoved a spirit stone into their nest.

From below, Long Ye’s voice called up, “Brother Qian, come down. It’s time for us to head to Hundred Lessons Peak.”

Shi Qian sighed, then leapt down from the tree and flopped onto Long Ye’s head.

“Squeak Squeak.”

Why are there so many classes to take?

Long Ye gave a quick word to Wang Xingzhi, then took off with Brother Qian riding on his head.

“In the beginning, you have to listen to everything to figure out what you’re actually interested in. If we weren’t in a big sect like the Sword Sect, we wouldn’t even have this chance. So make sure not to miss the first three classes.”

“If, after those three, you still don’t like any of it, then you don’t have to keep going.”

Long Ye spoke gently, explaining the reasoning.

He had never imagined before that he’d be able to join such a major sect. Now that he had, and entered so easily at that, he still remembered how rough things were in the past—reminding himself to treasure the opportunities he now had.

Shi Qian did a quick mental tally of today’s schedule: “Squeak Squeak—”

But five different peaks in one day? Isn’t that a bit much? What about those disciples still at the Foundation Establishment stage?

Long Ye chuckled, “They’re like you and Dahei—there are Core Formation stage disciples offering rides. One spirit stone per trip.”

“Squeak Squeak.” Shi Qian protested.

I’m way more diligent than Dahei.

After a few more lines of chatter, Long Ye zipped past a number of other disciples and arrived at Hundred Lessons Peak.

This mountain was known for its many teaching elders. Naturally, there was a wide variety of classes offered.

Once inside the hall, Shi Qian squinted his eyes, resting a bit. Soon, the surrounding noise faded away. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the Grand Elder, Chang Youcai, stepping onto the stone platform to give his lecture.

“Silence. Today’s topic: A General Overview of the Four Great Mental Disciplines.”

“The path of cultivation hinges most critically on one’s state of mind. Only with a righteous heart can you walk this path for a long time…”

Shi Qian’s eyes widened a little.

He liked this free-flowing teaching style—no small talk, just jumping straight into the core material.

However, liking it didn’t change the fact that the following passages—“The Pure Heart Discipline,” “The Supreme Equanimity Sutra” and so on, all delivered in their full, classical glory—completely scrambled his brain.

Once again, he felt very thankful he wasn’t human. Spirit beast cultivation techniques were way more straightforward—no brain-melting archaic texts involved.

This class was scheduled to last a full hour. Shi Qian held out for half an hour, then it was like ten Lords of Sleep surrounded him—he dozed off in success.

Just before he knocked out, Shi Qian cleverly slid off Long Ye’s head onto his shoulder.

Though Long Ye had a feeling the Grand Elder definitely noticed.

Still, Chang Youcai didn’t make a fuss. It was just a spirit beast—how could anyone expect it to behave like a human?

Many of the dizzy-eyed disciples didn’t know it yet, but they had already been quietly removed from the “human roster.”

Shi Qian fell into a dream. In it, countless large black bricks came crashing down, burying him beneath them.

Then, in the dream, he crawled out from under the pile, grabbed a brick by its handle, and wandered the cultivation world—knocking out countless faceless people with a single swing, striking fear into all directions…

Brick + Space = Invincible. As the saying goes:

No matter how high you climb, one brick can bring it all down.

Maybe the dream was just too good—Shi Qian’s little paws smacked down a couple of times with real force.

Long Ye, who was still sitting in class, clutched his chest where he’d been suddenly smacked.

Unable to hold back, he reached up and gave Brother Qian’s head a few gentle pushes.

Shi Qian jolted awake. “Squeak Squeak——”

Take my brick!

Long Ye was a little too slow to cover his mouth.

Chang Youcai: “…Out. Punishment: Stand outside.”

Thus, the spirit beast attending his first ever academic lecture was promptly kicked out of class.

Shi Qian stood outside the main hall, facing the blue sky and white clouds. He let out a long sigh.

“Squeak Squeak.”

You Fang, I truly respect you as a man.

He hadn’t meant to fall asleep. It was just that the material made him so dizzy. He had zero interest and couldn’t keep up at all. Back in the day, he could even sit through all kinds of philosophy classes without blinking.

But being made to stand outside came with a surprise—Shi Qian suddenly caught a familiar scent in the air.

He looked over at a few young outer sect disciples walking in his direction, eyes locking onto one of them. “Meow meow?”

The now-grown Xu Miao, tall and upright, looked back at him, his face lighting up with pure joy.

“Brother Qian? You can talk now?”

Shi Qian: “Squeak Squeak.”

I appreciate your high opinion of me, but no.

Then he obediently looked down and began writing with spiritual energy.

After the Little Ancestral Master incident, Shi Qian had burned “write first, panic later” into his soul. The more urgent things felt, the more he had to remember it.

Although, that last time was kind of a lucky accident—it even helped patch things up between Long Ye and the Little Ancestral Master.

Xu Miao’s friends were also pretty excited. Seeing the sect’s first ever spirit beast disciple—and one that could write—they were all clearly amazed.

But Xu Miao was just like he’d always been, speaking in his own distinct style. After a few sentences, he asked, “Brother Qian, why are you out here? Aren’t they holding class inside?”

At least he had the sense to lower his voice so it wouldn’t disturb the others.

But little brother, could you not think just a little harder?

Shi Qian sighed and wrote down the crushing words: “Slept in class. Now standing as punishment.”

Soon, the entire inner and outer sect would probably know he fell asleep during a lecture.