Chapter 413
A Song of Jade (IV)
As the kids frolicked about the courtyard, Long Tao stared at the leaves of the nearby tree. Occasionally, he'd blow from his lips, and a gust of air as sharp as a blade would fire forth, cutting one of them. They'd all then begin their descent to the ground, slowly gliding.
Gravity.
That's what his Master called it.
Long Tao had never considered why things fell back down when tossed up; it was just... a natural order of things. A way of Dao. Something that just was--almost like life and death.
And yet, now that he was made aware of it, it almost seemed moronic that he had never considered it before--just as there was some force necessary to propel things up, it stood to reason that there was something bringing them back down.
There were still some questions that he had.
For starters, why did some things fall slower over the others? He'd tested it early, tossing up a rock and a leaf at the same time, and the rock fell back down to the ground much quicker.
Then, there was also the difference between leaves themselves--some fell quicker, some fell slower, some rocked back and forth while some fell straight down. Another thing he noticed was that, if he tossed things further up, they'd come back down quicker and quicker the closer they were to the ground.
Now that he understood it wasn't 'just' a Dao concept but an actual, physical thing, Long Tao had unlocked a whole new lane to explore in terms of using martial arts to manipulate it. Even Master's Art of Surviving could be applied somewhat to the force.
... just how deep did the man's knowledge of the world run?
He sighed, picking up a leaf yet again and letting it go from his fingers--try as he may, he could simply not 'see' this force his Master talked about. He couldn't even discern it, not like Qi, at least.
This had never happened before in his life--even if he couldn't 'see' a type of energy, he was always able to discern it on some level.
"Senior Brother, what are you doing? You've been spacing out this whole time." Dai Xiu walked up to him and dragged him out of his thoughts.
"Just comprehending something Master said," he replied with an answer he knew would satisfy her. Not that it was a lie, anyway.
"Ooh!" she exclaimed. "It must be something extremely complicated if even you are thinking so deeply about it! When you understand it, teach it to me, Senior Brother!"
"Will do," he replied indifferently. Would there come a time when he would understand it? Possibly. But he'd have to bug his Master for a long while to teach him even more.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Just as he was about to get up and do precisely that, he paused, frowning; he felt some... unflattering eyes on him, as well as the other kids.
He glanced back and saw an old man approaching them. He looked to be in his sixties, his hair sleeked back, his beard well-groomed, with a pair of slanted, black eyes inspecting them all as though he were looking through items in the store.
The sigil on the man's robes was vaguely familiar, which meant that it likely belonged to one of the 'holy' lands, though which one exactly... Long Tao couldn't bother remembering.
After all, to him, these were all just children playacting at being immortals. Why would he ever bother, indeed?
However, his Master's aversion to conflict weighed on his mind; it'd be easy to just kill the man for eyeing something that did not belong to him, but since his Master would likely throw a fit and refuse to teach him more about gravity, he couldn't do that.
"Hello, little ones," he announced his presence as the kids turned toward him, curiosity smeared across their faces. The only one whose expression immediately stiffened was the newcomer, Yun...something. "Are you here alone?"
Before anyone else could get a word in, Dai Xiu replied, "We are here with Master!"
"Oh? Which Sect do you belong to?"
"We don't belong to any sect," she continued while the others gathered behind her.
"Oh?" Long Tao could see the man's eyes light up as his lips turned open into a smile. "That's no good. Talented kids like you need to be in a Sect, so that you are properly raised."
"Master is raising us properly!" Her voice attained a touch of annoyance, which seemed to somewhat irritate the man.
"It can't be that he does," he said. "If you don't know something as basic as respecting your Elders. Allow me to teach it to you, since your Master never did."
The man's eyes veered toward Long Tao and stopped; the latter pushed forth just a touch of his soul, and the old man's attempt to pressure them with his realm collapsed. Instead, he began to shake and tremble, his knees giving out as he fell down on them, his face contorting into one of terror.
"You should leave," Long Tao said. "And you, if you attack him, I'll tell Master."
"!!!" Dai Xiu glanced over at him, an aggrieved look on her face as she pulled back her hands.
The old man crawled up from his knees and started running, tripping and rolling on the ground a few times as the kids chuckled. Long Tao, on the other hand, sighed; this was merely a temporary measure. He'd be back, as beneath the fear, there was venom--petty, deeply rooted venom.
What was the reason that worthless vermin had pride? Pride, Long Tao believed, was reserved for those who were capable of torching the sky or, at the very least, touching it. He was nowhere near becoming capable of either of those things.
And yet, there was pride deeply rooted in his bones, as though someone had carved it in there.
Because of that pride, he would not forget today--though, in Long Tao's defense, had he not done it, the kids would have tried to kill him. They would have failed, as the man wasn't that weak, but that would have been far worse than just instilling some terror in him for a moment.
He mulled over it for a moment and decided to hurry over to Master to ask all the questions he had to ask before all of this blew up in their faces.
"Y-you, don't you know who that is?!!" the newcomer finally voiced herself, prompting everyone to look at her.
"Some old, stinky guy who dared to insult Master?" Dai Xiu replied.
"That was an Elder of the Immortal Sword Sect, one of the major Holy Lands! W-what have you done?!!"
"... oh!" Dai Xiu exclaimed. "One of those sects we met back in the grove?"
"Yes," Wan Lan nodded. "It seems everyone has started converging here."
"Really?" Xi Zhao voiced out. "He seemed kind of... weak to be an Elder of a major sect."
"Maybe he's one of those sons of fathers who got an Elder position that way?" Dai Xiu suggested.
"Ah, probably."
"He was quite ugly," that was Light's insightful comment.
"And quite short!" That was Xing Feng's insightful comment.
Each subsequent one caused the newcomer's expression to darken further and further, all until her head hung low, with her mind likely considering all the way she had to just run as far away from them as physically possible, as quickly as possible.
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